Hutou Pass is seventy miles in the northeast of the county, the situation is the most dangerous, two mountains and thousands of miles, a stream rushes, the west is connected with Modou, Dacheng, Loess, Muling, Yinshan five passes, even the wall is ninety miles, it is the right arm of Macheng.

According to the Dabie Mountain, 200 miles to Guangshan County, Henan Province in the north, and Luzhou Mansion and Anqing Mansion in the south are in the east. This place is at the intersection of Henan, Chu and Anhui provinces.

From the words of the post guard, Liu Jun finally knew what happened in Hutou Pass. Speaking of which, it is still related to the rebellion of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, the two tributaries of Kou. At the beginning of May, Zhang Xianzhong rebelled in Gucheng, and Luo Rucai and other thieves in Junzhou responded by attacking Junzhou.

After the two bandits converged, Zhang Xianzhong sent people to various places to contact the thieves and soldiers in various places, among which he specially sent henchmen to the east of Dabie Mountain, that is, the area of Huoshan and Yingshan, the capital of Luzhou in the south.

In this mountainous area, there is a very famous team of thieves entrenched in this area, that is, the most famous among the thieves, the five battalions of Ge and Zuo.

The five battalions of Ge and Zuo refer to the five tribes of the thieves, who are composed of five battalions of Lao Hui Ma Shouying, Ge Li Yan He Yilong, Zuo Jin Wang He Jin, Reincarnated King Liu Xiyao, and Troubled King Lin Chengcheng, so they are also called back to the left five battalions.

The leaders of these five battalions are all veteran figures among the thieves, among which Lao Hui Ma Shouying was a border soldier in his early years, and later became a rout deserter, Chongzhen led the people to rebel in the first year, at first he was subordinate to Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, and wandered in the eastern part of Gansu, with tens of thousands. By the fourth year of Chongzhen, he entered Shanxi and was incorporated into the 36th battalion of Wang Ziyong, becoming an important leader second only to Wang Ziyong and Gao Yingxiang.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, he led his troops to participate in the Xingyang Conference, and became one of the thirteen leaders at this time. Later, he joined forces with He Yilong, nicknamed "Ge Li Eye", as well as He Jin, Liu Xiyao, and Lin Yangyang, also known as the "Five Battalions of Huige".

After Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chongzhen, was captured and killed by Sun Chuanting in the ninth year of Chongzhen, the five battalions led by Lao Huihui were the strongest, especially when Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, the new generation of heavyweights of the Liukou, were defeated and the entire thief rebellion was at a low ebb, the five battalions still maintained a strong strength, and even Zhang Xianzhong had twice defected to Lao Huihui and belonged to his subordinates.

The Fifth Battalion established a base in the Yinghuo Mountains of Dabie Shandong and became a very influential branch at this time. Fengyang and Nanjing, the central capitals of the Ming Dynasty, have always threatened.

When Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and a large number of other big men were defeated and recruited by the imperial court, the fifth battalion of the left was still strong, and the officers and soldiers had no choice.

Generally speaking, after Gao Yingxiang was captured and killed, the peasant armies operating in the Central Plains went through a process of separation and merger, and finally formed the Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai groups near Yunyuan and Xiangyang in Hubei, and the other part was the two major bandit groups of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo operating in the border areas of Nanzhili, Henan, and Hubei provinces.

As for Li Zicheng, who became famous later, at this time, both in strength and prestige, he was far inferior to Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, Lao Huihui, He Yilong and other predecessors.

Therefore, when Zhang Xianzhong returned to Gucheng, he immediately joined up with Luo Rucai, who was in the vicinity of Gucheng, in the area of Junzhou, and then sent a letter of contact to the 5th Battalion of Gezuo in the east of Dabie Mountain, inviting them to go west to join the division.

Zhang Xianzhong and others all understood that after the trough of 11 years, the strength of the peasant armies in various places had dropped greatly, and although they had to raise troops again at this time, their strength was too weak, and if they did not unite, it would be difficult to resist the imminent encirclement and suppression of the official army.

After receiving a handwritten letter from Zhang Xianzhong's envoy, Lao Huihui decided to respond. However, he did not immediately abandon the Yinghuo base he ran and lead his troops to Xiangyang, but first sent a few small troops on the periphery and began to cross the Dabie Mountains and open the way to the Qihuang line west of the Dabie Mountain.

The Hutou Pass Inspection Division was guarding the important pass on Dabie Mountain, and when a force from Lao Hui approached, Zhao Patrol thought it was just a small group of thieves, limited to duty, he led the archers of the Inspection Division to pursue, but they didn't know that what they found at the beginning was just a scout striker, and after they chased over, what was waiting for them was already a large number of thieves.

Zhao Patrol led his troops to fight and retreat, but they were finally surrounded. However, before surrounding him, he still managed to send one of his subordinates out to report the news.

"Inspector Zhao said that a few days ago, the nine-headed bird Liu team leader who broke the bandits is now in Taiping Township, and he instructed him to come to find Team Liu immediately after breaking through the siege, so that you can come to the rescue."

That Inspector Zhao was very sober-minded, and after being surrounded by hundreds of bandits, he knew that he would not last long. Therefore, he asked his subordinates to go to Zhangjia Village, which is not far away, to find Liu Jun after breaking through the siege, so that this bandit cadre who has been in the limelight recently will be relieved of the siege in the future.

"Please Captain Liu must come to the rescue, and I will go to the county seat to report for help." The postman said. The archers sent by Inspector Zhao to break through were seriously injured when they broke through, and insisted on going to the Taiping Post Station to bring the news and ask them to help move the rescuers.

Liu Jun's recruitment in Taiping Township has also been in the limelight in the past few days, and it is known everywhere that the post guard finally found Liu Jun successfully.

But Liu Jun couldn't help frowning when he heard the news, "The Nine-headed Bird Bandit did become famous in a battle, but now here, there are only fifteen Nine-headed Bird members, and the remaining one hundred and twenty are just recruits, and they haven't even completed the queue training, they can't understand the orders, they can't understand the flag, and they haven't even issued weapons and armor." Could it be that he, Liu Jun, took this group of recruits to the rescue

"How many thieves is Inspector Zhao surrounded by?"

"At least three hundred!" The postman himself did not know the details, so he could only relay the words of the archer.

"How many people are there in Zhao Patrol?"

"Inspector Zhao brought twenty archers."

When Liu Jun heard this, he couldn't help but pat his forehead, more than 20 people were surrounded by 300 people, and they really couldn't last long. He knew that the so-called patrol archers were actually ordinary people. Archers, like shop soldiers and post soldiers, were a kind of service in the early days, and later after a whip method, there was a labor and food silver, but it was still a kind of almost compulsory service, and the selected archers were all young people who were self-cultivated farmers with at least dozens of acres of land at home.

But in essence, these people are just like those joint defense members in later generations, they are all amateurs, and the militia level is far inferior to Liu Jun's rural bravery.

But fortunately, the thieves are not elite, and they often win by numbers, and if Zhao Patrol insists on it, maybe he can hold on more.

However, the time to hold on must be limited, and when the helpers came to the rescue from the county seat seventy miles away, it was estimated that the daylilies were cold. However, Liu Jun and the others are now in Taiping Township, less than twenty miles away from the place where Zhao was inspected.

went to the rescue, but there were too few of them, so these fifteen horsemen went forward, would they deliver meat to the door? But if they don't go, then Zhao Patrol will definitely die, is it possible to see death and not save them?

To save or not to save, this is really a very serious question.

Liu Jun pondered.

Winter Gouzi couldn't help but say, "Captain, Inspector Zhao is a good person, you must save him." ”

Liu Jun was a little surprised, and after listening to Dong Gouzi's explanation, he realized that although Inspector Zhao was only a minor official of the ninth grade, because his inspection yamen was in Hutou Pass, Taiping Township, and he was still in charge of Taipingyi, in fact, he was the number one in the entire Taiping Township. This Zhao Inspector is not bad, suppressing bandits to protect the territory and the people, and even if the people have disputes or something, he can also uphold justice, in the eyes of the people of Taiping Township, Zhao Inspector is a blue lord.

Looking at Dong Gouzi's expectant face, Liu Jun knew that the other recruits were also looking forward to it. At this time, if he doesn't save him when he sees death, I'm afraid that these soldiers will not be easy to bring in the future.

"Prepare, let's go to the rescue of Zhao Inspection." Liu Jun finally made up his mind.

Dong Gouzi and other soldiers of Taiping Township were excited, Zhao Inspector has been in Hutou Pass for many years, and it is rare to be willing to speak for these poor people in Taiping Township. The people in the mountains are simple and grateful. If Liu Jun refuses to send troops today, I am afraid that these recruits will not be able to identify with this new boss from now on.

Saving people is like fighting fire, soldiers are fast, and there is no way to make too many preparations at this time.

Although Liu Jun's fifteen people were on vacation, they were all riding horses and carrying their own weapons, and they could set off at any time. But the 120 recruits, although they were recruits, they had to bring them even to make some noise in order to support some scenes, but they didn't have weapons.

"I have a hunting bow."

"I'll take the axe of the wood."

"I have a red tassel gun at home."

"I can take nail palladium."

Liu Jun felt a little headache, "It's useless to mess around, so let's chop some bamboo, cut it into a bamboo gun, get some planks, nail a few simple wooden shields, and then bring all the woodcutters and axes in the village." ”

These people are all new soldiers, and if they carry a mess of all kinds of farm tools, they are of little use. Since it's a new recruit, it's better to be simpler and play some role as an array. Liu Jun's last idea was to get a long bamboo gun for everyone, and the edge of the village was a bamboo forest, so it was very simple to get some bamboo guns.

One hundred and twenty people have a long bamboo spear, if it can be arranged into a bamboo gun array, it is estimated that it will be of some use to deal with a group of thieves.

It's not enough to have a bamboo gun, but also get some wooden shields to use as bows and arrows to defend against thieves in the front row. Then equip these recruits with some hatchets and axes for melee combat blades, and let the hunters bring their own bows, which can also be used as long-range support firepower.

In less than half an hour, bamboo spears and wooden shields were ready, and the recruits were also equipped with firewood knives, axes, and sickles.

Liu Jun swept in front of the team, and the team was full of spears, but it also looked a little good.

"Winter Dog, bring that red cloth and make a few flags." Liu Jun shouted.

The red cloth was brought, and more than a dozen flags were simply cut, Liu Jun took a pen and wrote the names of the nine-headed bird, Liu, Zhang, Cai and other characters on it, and then found a long bamboo pole, even if the flag was completed.

The flag was raised, and the procession looked even more like. Liu Jun nodded, now it can only be like this.

"Let's go!"

Liu Jun rode his horse in front and galloped lightly, and the 120 villagers behind him held long bamboo spears, and followed closely with axes, firewood knives, and sickles hanging behind their buttocks.

The first time they marched to the battlefield, these recruits were not much afraid, but more excited.

"If I kill a thief for twenty taels of silver, I must kill him four or five and earn back a hundred taels of silver." The tall and tall Ergou held a red flag and said secretly in his heart.

In the eyes of the second dog, killing a thief seems to be no different from killing a hare, if you want to say the difference, that is, the head of the thief is more valuable.