Cao Ying left, this guy came very suddenly, and he walked very simply, without dragging mud and water, and without playing any tricks, Zhu Yuanzhang's scout has been following him for several miles, seeing that he doesn't even have the intention of turning back, it can be seen that this person has no bad intentions. When Xu Renjie arrived with 7,000 recruits, Cao Ying had already walked a few miles away.

"This guy is not bad! Sister Xue Hongqi, you might as well consider him. Zhu Yuanzhang casually said a joke.

Xue Hongqi had the word "no" written all over his face, and said with a casual smile: "This kind of oily and slippery guy is not suitable for me!" ”

"You're just too demanding, that's why you're an old girl!" Xu Renjie deserved to be a big mouth, he didn't even ask about the cause and effect, he preemptively said nonsense, and answered the conversation regardless of the head and tail, which made Xue Hongqi look at him angrily.

"Don't talk about these things that you don't have, let's take a look at the town behind it!" The crowd turned their heads and looked at the town that had been waiting for it.

This town is called the town of Lu, west of the Yellow River and Dali far away, Nantong Puzhou, overlooking the whole town is a huge gourd shape, the land is fertile, the transportation is convenient, the resources are also very rich, so it can develop into a large town with a population of thousands. Since the 36th Battalion was in the west of the Troubled Mountain*, the villagers of the nearby small villages abandoned their villages and moved to this town, built the town wall, and built the Township Warrior Regiment to protect themselves, and most of the men in the town, both young and old, bravely took up arms to defend their homes, and finally formed the current scale.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the guards on the town wall, and saw that the old one was sixty-seven years old, and the younger one was only in his early teens, holding a huge block with great strength, and the one with little strength was also holding an oil can, and there were many strong women in the back who were also holding weapons, full of momentum and the momentum of death with thieves.

These people were also forced to be anxious, and since the thieves rebelled, the officers and soldiers retreated to the city of Puzhou to protect themselves, and abandoned all the villages and towns outside the city to be plundered by the thieves. Since the officers and soldiers are counting on it, they can only count on themselves, and if they do not stand up and fight bravely, they can only perish at the hands of thieves. In fact, there were many towns and villages like this kind of self-reliance that survived in troubled times in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the provinces where the rebel army was surging.

Zhu Yuanzhang called a group of loud soldiers to the outside of the town, and shouted in unison: "We are the righteous army under the command of Zhu Ba in Baishui, and Brother Zhu wants me to pass on the message to you, all the big families in the town who are doing business and have more fertile land will raise a total of 5,000 taels of silver to send out of the town according to their financial resources...... As long as you take out the money, let's turn around and leave immediately, otherwise the army will pass everywhere, and the chickens and dogs will not be left! ”

When the squires and people in the town heard this, their hearts were immediately relieved, they were not afraid that thieves would come to rob money, they were afraid that thieves would come to kill people! Since it is to ask for money and not to die, it is much better than to ask for money and set fire, it seems that this Baishui Zhuba's methods are a little different from other thieves.

The men, women, and children in the town add up to only a few thousand, of course, they don't want to fight hard with thieves who have more soldiers than their total population, and a few rich families and squires got together, and in less than half a day, they got five thousand taels and moved to the city: "King, what you said is countable?" ”

"Baishui Zhuba said that one is one, and two is two! You throw the money out, and we'll leave immediately. ”

The silver was thrown out of the town, and Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to carry the silver back, counted it at random, and waved his hand: "The whole army is up and marching south." ”

"All the troops are up!"

The shouts of the captain and the ten captains sounded in Zhu Yuanzhang's army, and the army slowly moved and advanced towards Puzhou City in the south.

Although the squires in the town threw out the silver, they still didn't dare to believe that the thieves would retreat, but they didn't expect that as soon as the money was thrown out of the city, the thieves immediately retreated.

"This Baishui Zhuba is a thief who keeps his word!"

"Where is this white water Zhu Ba sacred?"

"Haven't heard of it...... It doesn't look like one of the thirty-six battalions! ”

"Well, the thirty-sixth battalion is all murder and arson, I heard that there is a person named Cao Ying, not to mention murder and arson, and he also specially robbed the squire and the young lady of the rich merchant to be his daughter-in-law, fortunately it is not the thirty-sixth battalion that came to our town this time, otherwise we are all finished."

"Hurry up, write a letter, and report the matter of this Baishui Zhuba to Lord Zhizhou......"

"Report to him that there is a fart, and he will not send troops to protect us!"

"It's better to report than not to report, alas, go write a letter......

Zhu Yuanzhang led the army to the south for several miles, and in the evening, a scout squad of officers and soldiers appeared in the right front of the army, three fast horses, swept past from a distance, and then two of them continued to circle in the distance to monitor Zhu Yuanzhang's army, and the other horse galloped south, apparently rushing back to report the news.

The scouts of the officers and soldiers have appeared, and it seems that they are less than ten miles away from Puzhou City!

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang soon received a scout report from his army: "Ten miles to the south, Puzhou City...... We have already reached out several times with the scouts of the officers and soldiers. ”

The scout nets began to infiltrate each other, that is, they were very close together. Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the whole army to stop advancing.

Xue Hongqi glanced at the scouts, and the corners of his mouth twitched: "These officers and soldiers have very good equestrian skills, and if I take people to chase them, I may not be able to catch up." ”

"Of course, if you don't have good riding skills, how can you be a scout?" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "Don't think about chasing that thing, the agility of the scouts is far beyond that of ordinary soldiers, and it is difficult to catch up with them, so order the whole army to camp on the spot...... Build a sturdy camp and be prepared to fight for a long time! ”

There are also two kinds of camping, marching camps and positional camps, marching camps are just a tent set up, and a few teams of soldiers patrolling the periphery are counted. The camp was different, trees had to be cut and piled, simple wooden walls had to be made, the camp had to be divided into areas, one camp for every 100 people, a wide distance had to be maintained between the camps, and each camp had to have thatched houses for reading. There should also be a water source next to it...... Once this kind of very complicated camp starts, it will definitely not be able to hide the eyes of the scouts, and the two scouts who are monitoring Zhu Yuanzhang's army from a distance see that the thief army is actually cutting down trees, digging ditches and preparing the land, and arranging the camp...... The two scouts were startled at the same time: "The thief is going to ...... Is it to be stationed here for a long time? ”

"No, what's the purpose of staying here? It's only ten miles away from Puzhou City, is it going to ...... Besiege? ”

In addition to attacking the city, the two scouts couldn't think of any other reason to set up this kind of camp here, others only felt a sweat on their backs, Puzhou City is a state city, there are three thousand defenders in the city, the city wall is as high as two zhang, and there are several Furang machine guns at the head of the city, how can anyone dare to attack?

"It's not good, the thieves actually want to attack the city...... Come back and report ......"

The two scouts were really scared, anyway, the thieves had already set up camp, and they couldn't care about spying on Zhu Yuanzhang anymore, so the two of them galloped towards Puzhou City together, running from evening until dark, before they got into the city, and then galloped all the way into the Zhizhou Yamen.

Soon, there was a frying in the Zhizhou Yamen, and the thieves were going to attack the city? This is really a big joke in the world, this is a state city, not a county seat! Which thief ate the bear's heart and leopard's gall? Don't you want to die?

The name of Puzhou Zhizhou is Ge Wen, the official position is from Wupin, the world has seen a lot, once served as a magistrate in several counties, transferred back and forth, and became Zhizhou after many promotions. As soon as the 36th Battalion came to Shanxi, he immediately ordered all the guards in Puzhou to retreat into the state capital, and those small villages and towns outside didn't care, as long as he could keep the state city, the food guy on his neck would not be able to fall! Whether it is a thief or the emperor, they can't kill his head.

In fact, his measures were very effective, and the 36th Battalion made a fuss in the suburbs of Puzhou, as easily as a walk in his own back garden, but no one dared to come down to Puzhou City to make trouble, because the city was tall and there were many defenders, and no rebel army came to trouble the city when it was full.

As long as he lasts in this city for another year, it will be a three-year transfer time, and when the time comes, he will be transferred to the land south of the Yangtze River, where the affairs here will no longer have anything to do with him, and leave it to the next governor to have a headache!

But what I didn't expect was that the person who ate the bear's heart and leopard gall finally appeared!

At this time, it was getting late, Ge Wen was not wearing an official robe, but wearing a Taoist robe, which was the "civilian clothes" that the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty loved to wear when they were resting at home. How many people are there? Who is the leader? ”

"Report to your lordship...... The number of people is about between seven thousand and eight thousand...... There were two hundred cavalry, and the rest were infantry...... The rogues held two very exaggerated flags, which read 'Baishui Zhuba' and 'Yulin Xue Red Flag'. ”

It turned out that after Zhu Yuanzhang left the town, in order to expand his momentum and play a sufficient role in confusing the enemy, he made two giant flags, wrote his and Xue Hongqi's names on them, and planned to carry the big flag to show off, but these scouts became the first people to see Zhu Yuanzhang show off.

After hearing this, Ge Wen's face changed slightly, and he scolded: "Fuck your mother! Zhu Ba and Xue Hongqi are obviously rogues in Shaanxi, not long ago, the official saw these two guys in the Tang Bao (military intelligence of the imperial court) in Shaanxi, and now they actually ran to the west of Shanxi, and the first stop is the jurisdiction of the official? ”

The scout saw the official and cursed angrily, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to say a word.

Ge Wen was angry and had no place to scold, so he looked up to the sky and scolded: "Puzhou City is a freight terminal in the east, west, north and south, can't it? Anyone has to come here to pour a circle, everyone dares to step on it, and everyone comes together to mix it up? You can't let this official stop for a while, as long as it takes a year, when this official is transferred, don't care what you thieves want to do! ”

(To be continued)