After two delays, it was not until the third that Ding Yuan personally led a thousand foot soldiers to join with Xiao Mage's 1,000 Shenwei battalions, and the army only needed to pass through Huguan, Shangdang County, and Jiguan from Jinyang, and crossed the Yellow River from Mengjin Gudu to Luoyang, Kyoto.

A group of more than 2,000 people set off from Jinyang, because Brother Xiao Ma had dozens of carriages and baggage, and there were two months of clan beauties and Du Xiuniang accompanying him, so the marching speed was not fast, and if everything went well, it would take at least seven days to cross the Yellow River and reach Luoyang Yanjing.

In order to prevent being harassed by bandits on the road, Ding Yuan also deliberately took Zhang Liao to accompany the army, and Qin Yi happened to be two entourages.

However, it is said that there is a martial artist under Ding Yuan's command named Zhang Yang, the word Uncle Zhizhi, and a native of Yunzhong in Bingzhou, who is quite martial and has a friendship with Lu Bu. After Zhang Yang learned that Ding Yuan had promised Du Xiuniang to Ma Chao, he immediately rushed to Baibo Valley in person and informed Lu Bu of the matter.

Lu Bu, who was stationed in Baibo Valley, was furious when he heard this, and said angrily: "Okay, you Ding Yuan puppet, a certain family has been fighting with you for more than ten years, and has made countless contributions, and now I say that I have insulted me so much for a yellow-mouthed child, I swear to kill him!" "After that, I will lead troops to Shangdang County to intercept Ding Yuan and Ma Chao and snatch Du Xiuniang.

Zhang Yang hurriedly stopped Lu Bu and persuaded: "This matter must not be done, Feng Xian will listen to me." ”

Lu Bu said sharply: "Shi can not be killed, Ding Yuan is so light on me, this time I will not give up with him, that Ma Mengqi is just a yellow-mouthed child, although he has a prestige, he is not afraid, why not?" ”

Zhang Yang shook his head and said: "Ding Yuan is the state assassin of a state, and he is very popular with the people in the state, not to mention that he is still my top boss, and it is really a big rebellion to cut down without any excuse, and Ding Yuan is still the father-in-law of Brother Feng, how can he tear his face with him for a woman?" ”

Lu Budao: "It's because he is unkind first, no wonder I am unjust!" ”

Zhang Yang said: "Feng Xian's words are different, it is difficult to send troops at this moment, not to mention, once it fails, it will become a thief that everyone shouts and beats, and his reputation will be in flowing water." Besides, the generals and soldiers under the command of Brother Feng Xian may not rebel with us, first of all, Gao Shun will never agree. ”

Lu Bu gritted his teeth and said: "Is this kind of shame and shame over, let me swallow this evil breath!" ”

"Of course I can't count it like this, I have a plan to kill people with a knife, if it can be done, not only can I get rid of Ding Yuan, but also let Feng Xian take the entire state in his hands, and then Du Xiuniang and Ma Mengqi can escape from your palm?"

Lu Bu was overjoyed and said hurriedly: "Uncle Zhi, hurry up!" ”

Zhang Yang said unhurriedly: "That Xiliang Ma Mengqi and the Xiongnu Xu Bugu and his party have a lot of baggage, these two people are one to be exempted from crime, the other is to be promoted, and they will inevitably pay bribes after arriving in Luoyang, and Shangdang County and Hanoi County, where they must pass through this trip, are all areas where black mountain thieves are rampant, why don't I release the news and use the black thieves who rob houses to get rid of these two people?" ”

Ignoring Lu Bu, who was uncertain on his face, he continued: "If this matter is successful, we can send troops to exterminate this group of black mountain thieves in one fell swoop, and use the looted things to go to Luoyang to bribe and ask for merit; If it doesn't happen to us, it will not be damaged at all, as long as this incident does not happen, as for Du Xiuniang is just a woman with outstanding appearance, why should Brother Feng destroy his future for a woman? ”

Hearing this, Lu Bu said stupidly: "Okay, this matter is done, but I don't know if Zhang Yan, the leader of the Black Mountain Thieves, is active in the Shangdang area at this time, if it is just an ordinary rabble, I am afraid it will be difficult to succeed!" ”

Zhang Yang said: "Brother Feng Xian, rest assured, the soldiers and horses brought by the two together are only more than 2,000 people, and the Black Mountain thieves are known as millions of people, if they can't even deal with just 2,000 people, then they don't deserve to be jealous of the imperial court." ”

Lu Bu hesitated for a while, and finally nodded, and immediately selected more than 100 soldiers to put on the clothes of ordinary mountain people and rush to Shangdang with Zhang Yang, Hanoi and other mountainous areas to spread the news.

said that after Zhang Yang left, Lu Bu was still unhappy, because no matter whether this matter succeeded or failed, Du Xiuniang would be humiliated. If Ding Yuan is defeated, the consequences of Du Xiuniang falling into the hands of the Black Mountain thieves can be imagined; If it doesn't work, he will go with Ma Chao, and it will be difficult to meet him Lu Bu.

Brother Xiao Ma didn't know that Lu Bu had already started a crazy revenge action, marching during the day, rushing to the nearest county and camping at night, and finally passed through most of the state and approached Shangdang County in three days.

On the way, Brother Pony chatted with Ding Yuan, and at the same time learned about the local customs, and his mood was very heavy. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, there were also rebels such as black mountain bandits, who were originally people who could not afford to eat, and often gathered to attack the county and rob the local people with crowd tactics.

Whenever the imperial court sent troops to suppress it, these people ran into the valley in the Taihang Mountains to take refuge, and as soon as the army retreated, they came out again to continue to do evil, which really gave the imperial court a headache. In the past five or six years, the land of Bingzhou has been full of holes, the farmland is barren, the villages are deserted, and the population loss is extremely serious. It's not an exaggeration.

This day, the group finally passed through Huguan and walked into Shangdang County, Shangdang County is close to the Taihang Mountains, and the territory is full of rugged mountain roads, but as long as they pass through Shangdang County, they will enter Hanoi County in the Sili area, and Luoyang is in front of them.

Xiao Ma Ge learned from Ding Yuan that this area was an area where the activities of the Black Mountain bandits were extremely rampant, and they even repeatedly attacked the county capital, and no one could govern it. At the moment, he didn't dare to be careless, and ordered the whole army to be on alert, and almost all of the soldiers of the 1,000 Shenwei Battalion were marksmen, and under the leadership of Meng Da, they were responsible for the perimeter guard with strong bows and arrows.

In the evening, the two armies set up a simple camp at a valley mouth and camped in place. Although this was the first time that the army had camped in the wild, Zhang Liao and Meng Da were in charge of the vigilance, and Xiao Ma was not too worried.

I didn't know that as soon as I entered the third watch in the middle of the night, a gong sounded, "Enemy attack!" "Enemy attack!" The shouts of killing were loud. The sleeping little horse got up and picked up the halberd and rushed out of the big tent, only to see that the torches had already been lit around, and by the light of the fire, countless figures could be seen flickering around, and it was obvious that the enemy had not yet approached and was discovered by the soldiers patrolling the camp.

Ding Yuan also walked out of his big tent in rags, and after only one glance, he frowned and said, "It's the rabble of the Black Mountain Thieves!" Although there are many people, there is nothing to be afraid of, Wenyuan is enough to deal with it! ”

Brother Pony couldn't cry or laugh when he looked closely, and said that you should be a robber and be professional, okay! I saw that there were nearly 10,000 people in the black pressure around them, most of them were strong men, wearing various costumes made of linen, and the weapons in their hands were even more varied, most of them were shovels, forks, hoes and other farm tools, and even some people were holding wooden sticks into battle, only a very few people were equipped with formal weapons such as swords, guns, swords, halberds, etc., and there were almost no people wearing armor.

Not only that, but not far from the periphery of these people, there were many old and weak women and children shouting and cheering, and the momentum was extremely huge.

Zhang Liao and Meng Da led the troops to surround the camp, shouting and killing one after another. Tens of thousands of Montenegrin thieves were unable to break through the temporary defense line composed of 2,000 men after several charges, and the casualties were extremely heavy, with rivers of blood flowing and terrible howls.

I have to say that Meng Da and Zhang Liao cooperate very tacitly, and they are both sword and shield soldiers (that is, infantry soldiers with a knife in one hand and a shield in the other) are the most skilled and well-equipped elite soldiers under Ding Yuan. Needless to say, Brother Xiaoma's Shenwei battalion is a thousand cavalry, everyone has a war horse and a strong bow, and in addition to this, they are also equipped with a four-foot-long horse chopping knife, but this horse chopping knife is rarely used.

At the moment, there are 1,000 Bingzhou troops holding shields to resist the attack of the thieves, and the 1,000 Shenwei battalions behind are riding war horses, shooting condescendingly on the spot, and they can charge as long as the Bingzhou army can't support it, and use the advantage of the war horses to repel this group of black mountain thieves.

But the result was very unexpected, only about one stick of incense was killed, and suddenly someone in the thief army shouted: "The idea is too hard, and the wind is tight!" ”

A group of nearly 10,000 people hurried to take advantage of the night, and hurried away while the night, and in a short time the corpses that had been thrown down to the ground receded like a tide, and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Brother Xiao Ma was confused at that time, and muttered: "This is also called a thief? This is also called robbers? The imperial court can't even calm down these rabble? ”

Ding Yuan shook his head and said: "The virtuous nephew doesn't know, the really powerful Black Mountain thieves are in the hands of Zhang Yan, Yang Feng, Yu Poison, Bai Huan, Zheng Gu, and Tao Sheng, these six people occupy the entire Taihang Mountain Range, and the total number of troops in their hands is 300,000. And just now these rabble are just poor people who can't afford to eat, and they come out to plunder because they are forced to make a living and are forced to be helpless, in the final analysis, it is all caused by the incompetence of the old man, and he can't bear to kill them! ”

Ma Chao nodded secretly, knowing that what Ding Yuan said was true, because according to later historical records, after the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, several peasant uprisings did break out in the Taihang Mountains and Hedong and Hexi, among which the most influential were the Black Mountain Army and the White Wave Army, which were also known as the Black Mountain Thieves and the White Wave Thieves.

Among them, the white wave thieves are the remnants of the Yellow Turban, and the main leaders are the Yellow Turban Qu Shuai Guo Tai, Yang Feng, Li Le, Han Xian, Hu Cai and others. According to the historical development trajectory, the Bai Bo Army will start tomorrow in February, first attacking Taiyuan County, and then moving to the Hedong area after failing to succeed, and its strength will increase to more than 100,000 people instead of decreasing.

Since then, the Bai Bo Army has been active in the Hedong area to rob the government and rob the big families, and no one has been able to govern it for several years, which has caused huge trouble to Dong Zhuo, who entered Beijing to disrupt the government. Dong Zhuo burned Luoyang and moved the capital to Chang'an, partly because he was afraid that the Baibo army would cross the Yellow River and cut off his retreat to Guanzhong.

Later, Guo Tai died in battle, Yang Feng took refuge in Li Dao, and Li Le, Han Xian, Hu Cai and others continued to stay in Hedong to fight against Li Dao. It was not until 196 that the three of them took refuge in Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty who escaped from Chang'an under the persuasion of Yang Feng, and the Baibo army was completely destroyed.

The history of the Montenegrin Army is a few years earlier than that of the White Wave Army, as early as the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Zhang Yan and others took advantage of the situation to gather a rebel army, and then joined with the rest of the Yellow Turban Zhang Niujiao. After Zhang Niujiao's death, Zhang Yan was promoted as the big leader, and the activity area of the Montenegrin Army was mainly in the valleys of the Taihang Mountains in Zhongshan, Changshan, Zhaojun, Shangdang, Hanoi and other places. Because its base camp Montenegro is located at the southern end of the Taihang Mountains, it is called the Montenegrin Army.

The Montenegrin Army, like the Yellow Turban Army, was born in poverty, and when the uprising failed, they became bandits who robbed homes and houses and openly opposed the Han court, which caused widespread harm.