"This monk, count yourself lucky, you met Lao Tzu and me, otherwise, hehe-" Zhou Ping smiled secretly in his belly, but his face pretended to be worried, and asked: "Dare to ask the Zen master, what is the big disaster you are talking about?" ”

"It's a straight woman!" Zhishan said in a deep voice: "A newly emerging tribe in Liaodong, counting from the beginning of their raising troops against Liao, only four or five years of hard work, but repeated victories, already have the land of Liaodong, with more than 100,000 troops, and the Liao army is terrified of it. Its leader is also a first-class hero, if he is allowed to destroy the Liao State and replace it, I am afraid that my Northern Song Dynasty will have no peace! ”

"Stop, stop!"

At this moment, there was a terrible shout from the front of the group. Zhou Ping hurriedly stopped, only to see that the flag representing the inspection of Xue Liangchen at the front had stopped, could it be that there was something in front of him? But there's nothing?

After a few minutes, the flag began to move again, much faster. Zhou Ping could see a cavalryman galloping quickly northeast, splashing smoke and dust on the dry official road.

"The thief should have learned the news and planned to flee, and the sentinel has sent back the news!" Zhishan said in a low voice, and he tightened the ribbon on his leather armor hard, looking like he was ready to fight.

"Hmm!" Zhou Ping nodded, his throat was a little dry, although it was not the first time he had gone into battle, but it was the first time that he had fought face-to-face with a weapon in his hand. Zhishan glanced at him and said with a smile: "Don't worry, just do it as you normally practice!" ”

"Hmm!" Zhou Ping lowered his head a little ashamedly, I don't know why, the tension just now has disappeared a lot.

Qiligang, Qujia Village. The thieves were heading northeast, and their ranks were much larger than yesterday, with more than a dozen carts in their ranks, and a lot of grain piled up on them, and a few young women tied to the back of the carts, all of which were their trophies. However, the faces of the thieves did not have the smug attitude of a successful robbery, on the contrary, the faces of most of them were full of nervousness and panic, and it was clear that they knew what kind of danger they were in.

"Quick, quick!" Yang Wu rode on a snatched mule, shouting loudly, most of the thieves rode the snatched mule horses, and some of them also rode donkeys, and there were many of these animals in Anyang. However, this did not make the thieves move much faster, for the simple reason that they had too much baggage, these carts were used to carry crops and fertilizer from the village and nearby fields, and were not suitable for long-distance transportation, and the sound of the grinding of axles and wheels and the cries of the captive women were mixed together, as if a file was constantly ravaging Yang Wu's patience.

"The pursuers are coming, the pursuers are coming!" There was a sudden exclamation in the team of thieves, like a gust of wind blowing through the dense reeds by the river, Yang Wu looked back, only to see that on the hillock more than a hundred steps behind the side of the team, several riding shadows appeared, looking towards his side, obviously these enemy scouts who had killed five of their own people before. He gritted his teeth and shouted, "Everyone, leave the cart and the woman, a large group of pursuers is coming, we have to speed up!" ”

"Huh?" A grumbling of discontent erupted among the thieves, for it was a difficult choice for these thieves to leave behind their hard-earned goods and women before they saw their enemies, let alone after a few days of gnawing chestnuts and wild fruits.

"No, this is our ration!"

"Yes, I lost all the food and cloth before I saw the enemy's figure, what kind of thing is this!"

"It's just a few horse archers, we can be more than them, they have horses, we also have horses, I'm afraid of his ball!"

Facing the opposition of the thieves, Yang Wu's brows furrowed, his mind was much more sober than these subordinates, if he followed his intentions, he should have found these spies and immediately left the looted belongings, crossed the Qiligang and fled by mountain road. It was too late to leave behind the belongings and the women and flee, and his men on mules and horses would never escape the pursuit of those good riders.

"We have horses, but horses are not the same as horses. None of the five brothers have returned, and the lackeys of these officials must have good riders and archers, and who among you will shoot arrows and dance knives right away? ”

Faced with Yang Wu's questioning, the thieves calmed down. They all knew that it was one thing not to fall off on horseback, and it was another thing to drive a war horse to gallop across the ditch, cross the ditch and cross the wall, and bend the bow and dance stick. Not to mention that the gap between a war horse and an ordinary colt is simply greater than that of a donkey and a mule. If those few are really good at riding and shooting, then there is really nothing you can do with them - the reason is very simple, although the number of enemies is small, they have an absolute advantage in mobile surnames and attack ranges, and the initiative of whether to fight or not and where to fight is in the hands of the enemy.

Seeing that his subordinates no longer retorted, Yang Wu shouted loudly: "Everyone take some dry food to eat on the road, and hurry up on the road, otherwise a large number of archers will not be able to leave when they come!" ”

Hearing this, the thieves rushed up and rushed towards the cart, but they didn't want to get more copper, gold and silver than dry food, and soon someone was fighting for it, Yang Wu had to step forward to adjust, and at this moment, there was a sudden terrible scream, followed by a sharp exclamation of a woman.

"Stop, what are you doing?" Yang Wu pushed away the crowd and walked towards the screams, only to see the corpse of a young woman lying on the ground, and a young thief with a bloody knife standing on the side, it was Zhang Sheng, he glanced at Yang Wu with a sneer, and replied: "These women can't be taken away anyway, it's better to kill them!" ”

"You-" Yang Wu was furious when he heard this, but he immediately saw the thieves behind Zhang Sheng who pressed the handle of the knife, forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, and said in a deep voice: "I'm just asking for money, what's the benefit of killing more, just let them go home, and accumulate a little bit of yin virtue!" ”

"Yinde?" Zhang Sheng suddenly laughed: "Yang Wu, what do you think we are?" If you want to be virtuous, you will lose your sword and gun and go to the temple to be a monk to eat fasting and recite Buddha, what kind of robber should you be? As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed a woman by the hair, and as soon as he pulled it up, he was about to raise his knife and slash her.

"Stop!" Yang Wu snorted, the spear in his hand sank, and the tip of the spear was already aimed at Zhang Sheng's throat: "Let go of that woman, otherwise I will recognize you, and the gun in my hand may not recognize you!" ”

"You-" Zhang Sheng's movements immediately froze, the black and heavy tips of the spear met only five or six feet away from his throat, and his mouth couldn't help but have a trace of bitterness, Zhang Sheng looked at the comrades on both sides with the corner of his eye, but no one stepped forward. Zhang Sheng had to swallow his saliva carefully, and said with a smile: "If you don't kill, you won't kill, they are all their own brothers, why bother!" As he spoke, he let go of the woman's bun.

Yang Wu snorted coldly and looked at the thieves around him, most of them were standing around scattered, looking like they didn't care about themselves, he couldn't help but sigh secretly, he was different from these locals, not a local in Xiangzhou. When Zhang Chao was alive, if he hadn't been a good martial artist, he wouldn't have been able to be the second leader, and now there was a problem, and he didn't even have a few capable subordinates around him. Thinking of this, he turned back to Yang Shun'er, who was watching from the side, and said, "Shun'er, you loosen the ropes on these women's bodies and let them go home!" ”

Yang Shun'er answered, stepped forward and cut the ropes of the remaining women, and the women fled one after another, only the woman who had just escaped the disaster of killing her head just now walked in front of Yang Wu and kowtowed to him before getting up and leaving.

"Is the dry food ready?" Yang Wu's gaze swept over the group of thieves, and said in a deep voice: "This time is different from Ping, if you are greedy for money, then there is only one way to die. Whoever dares to disobey is like this tree! As he spoke, Yang Wu took a shot and stuck it on a poplar tree with the thickness of an arm on the side, and then twisted it hard, and the poplar tree was suddenly broken into two.

The thieves were much quicker to follow, but after half a cup of tea, the thieves abandoned the surplus grain and cloth, and drove the cattle to the northeast. Xue Liangyu, who was not far away, was in a hurry, and shouted: "Oops, the thieves are about to escape, why hasn't the second brother come yet!" ”

At this moment, a banner rose on the ridge of about half a mile road, which was Xue Liangchen's recognition of the flag, Liu Sheng saw it clearly with sharp eyes, and said with a smile: "Speaking of Cao Ying, Cao Ying will arrive, the fourth brother and I will go to drag the thief, and the others will go to meet your second brother!" ”

"Great!" Xue Liangyu jumped on his green-maned horse and said with a smile: "Let's see which one you or I have won more!" ”

"Good!"

"Those two horsemen are catching up!" One of the thieves shouted as he pointed to the shadow behind him.

"Don't pay attention to him, I'll hurry up!" Yang Wu's brows were tightly locked, although he had not yet seen the shadow of the pursuer, a bad omen had risen in his heart. Soon, his premonition became a reality, and after half a ring, a flag appeared on the ridge of the mountain not far away, six or seven meters higher than the official road, followed by a row of long sharp blades, and the pursuers appeared.

"Second brother!" Xue Liangyu jumped off the war horse, stood beside Xue Liangchen, and said loudly: "I'll help you kill the thief!" ”

"No need!" Xue Liangchen said without looking back: "You and the cavalry go to the back of the ridge, the people and the horses take a breath, and when they hear the sound of gold, they will rush out and rush to the back of the thief and take down the thief's head!" ”

Xue Liangyu heard that his brother had left the opportunity to take down the thief head to himself, and said with great joy: "Okay, I will definitely screw off the head of the thief head and give it to the second brother to kick as a ball!" With that, he pulled his mount and retreated behind the ridge.

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