"I see!" The county lieutenant nodded and said with a smile: "How can I be shot so easily by the head of the thief, it turns out that there is just an ordinary bandit who was shot by you by luck, and the others can't tell the difference between reality and reality at night, so they are frightened and flee, so it makes sense!" "It turns out that this county lieutenant wants to take the lead, but if the thief leader has been killed by Yue Fei with an arrow, then even if he captures all the bandits, the credit will be very limited, and it is better to insist that the person who was shot to death is just an ordinary bandit.

"This, this-" Hearing Zhu Zhi say this, Yue Fei didn't know how to justify it for a while, the bandits were not an army, they didn't have banners and armor, so they couldn't identify the leader through these, and he didn't take a raw mouth to identify the corpse last night, this was completely a headless account. He was not a man who gave his tongue with his tongue, and he was only dumb for a while.

"The little brother can shoot thieves at night, and his skills must be very good, I don't know how powerful the bow is in Pingyu?" The county lieutenant looked at Yue Fei's thick hands and feet and broad chest and back, the more he looked at it, the more he liked it, no matter what, he could shoot a thief with an arrow dozens of steps away at night, and the other party looked like a teenager of sixteen or seventeen, if the time came, it was an amazing character! ”

"The villain can shoot a bow of up to three hundred catties, and the bow commonly used in Pingyu is one and a half stones."

"What?" The county lieutenant almost couldn't believe his ears, he looked Yue Fei in front of him up and down, and said with a smile: "Haha, this is not a joke. Well, go out and greet the archers from all the villages, and when there is news, you will set off immediately! ”

The promise of the county lieutenant "to eat as much as you want, to have wine and meat, and to pay 50 yuan per person when you arrive" was very effective, and at the end of the day (about 2 o'clock in the afternoon), there were more than 300 people in the courtyard in front of the yamen of the county lieutenant's department, all of whom were archers from the townships attached to Guo in Anyang County to catch thieves, and those who ate, drank, and received bounties were crowded together, and a few brought horses and mules, and the blacksmith Zhang sent some weapons to be repaired, and there were also more than 20 spears, more than 30 knives, and four or five iron helmets. Coupled with the original more than ten bows and four or five pots of feather arrows in the treasury, it looks like a full horse, which is a bit of a look.

Everyone in the courtyard was eating lively, and suddenly there was a sound of hooves outside, and then a sweaty man rushed in, shouting loudly while running: "Taiwei, Taiwei (the name of the low-level military attache in the Northern Song Dynasty), the thief has found it, found it!" ”

The county lieutenant, who was eating meat and drinking wine with a few henchmen in the hall, heard the great joy, jumped up to greet him, and asked urgently: "Where are the thieves, and how many people are there?" ”

"On the side of Gaoping Village, about thirty miles away from here, walk along the Qianjin Canal. I heard from the people who escaped from the village that there were fifty or sixty people, four or five horses, a lot of ox carts and mules, and forty or fifty people carrying the looted property for them. The man said this, his eyes were full of anticipation.

Zhu Zhi didn't speak, he was a native of Anyang, and he was naturally very familiar with the local geography. Gaoping Village in the mouth of the man is located about 20 miles west of Anyang City, Tang Xianhengzhong, Xiangzhou Thorn Shi Li Jing made a weir in this place, led Anyang water to the east to irrigate the fields, into Guangrunpi. During the Northern Song Dynasty to He, Han Qi sentenced Xiangzhou to dredge this canal again and renamed it Qianjin Canal. Its water goes north around the city of Anyang and flows into the city for irrigation. The road along this golden channel is flat, you don't have to worry about getting lost, and you don't need to carry grain and baggage, and it is only two or three hours to travel lightly.

"Captain, let's send troops!" The man couldn't bear the surname, and urged: "There are more than 300 of us, and if you count almost five people to beat one of them, you can win no matter how you fight." If you are delaying the meeting, you will have to wait until tomorrow, but I am afraid that there will be changes again! At this, he lowered his voice and leaned over and whispered, "The ruts on the road are quite deep, and according to what the villain has seen, the thieves must have looted a lot of goods!" ”

The words of his subordinates finally moved Zhu Zhi, why did the Han family come so angry in the morning to take down that gang of thieves? Is it really just for revenge? Everyone knows that the Han family in Anyang is one of the best families in Xiangzhou, and the rent valley recovered in Anyang every year alone is no less than tens of thousands of stones. If you chase after the general, you can just take the credit, just this windfall can make you resign and return to your hometown immediately!

Thinking of this, a flame immediately rose in Zhu Zhi's chest, and the flirtatious person was uncomfortably tight. He walked quickly to the front of the hall and shouted: "Don't eat, everyone, pack up your belongings, with the news of the thief, let's set off immediately!" ”

Many people in the courtyard had just eaten, and when they heard Zhu Zhi say that they were about to set off, they complained in unison, saying that they had not eaten enough; also said that he had just arrived, and the centaurs were still very tired, and they needed to rest for an hour. The county lieutenant also knew that he didn't need to be strong at this time, so he waved his arm and laughed loudly: "You people who have no eyesight, the wine and meat will not grow legs and run away by yourself, and it is not too late to kill the thief and come back to eat." A certain family here first set a reward, as long as you go to fight the thief, each person will be rewarded with 500 yuan, and the reward for killing the thief will be 500 yuan, and if it is the head of the thief, the reward will be 100 yuan. After coming back, kill ten more sheep and ten jars of good wine, so that everyone can have a good time! ”

Hearing such a heavy reward from the county lieutenant, everyone in the courtyard couldn't help cheering in unison, and the complaint just now had long since disappeared. Everyone gathered their weapons and prepared to set off.

"Captain, the villain has something to say!"

Zhu Zhi saw that the person who spoke was a stout man of thirty-six or seventeen, although he had just passed the wheat harvest season, he was wearing a bare sheepskin jacket, his hair was messy on his head and he was tied in a bun with a thin branch, his nose was high and his eyes were deep, and his eyes were a little brown if he looked closely. He carried a bone in his hand, a belt and a leather bag around his waist, and a pair of earless bast shoes on his feet, and behind him stood three men who looked and dressed seven or eight points like him, pulling an inferior horse with no mane. Seeing the person who spoke, Zhu Zhi couldn't help frowning, it turned out that the person who spoke was surnamed Liu Mingsheng, his family was big, and everyone else called him Liu Da Buname, and this person's father's surname was Liu Mingjia was a customer in Guojia Village (in the Song Dynasty, households without fields under their names were called customers). That Liu Jia's family was poor and couldn't afford to marry a daughter-in-law, so when he was in his thirties, he went to the north, brought a Khitan woman back, and gave birth to five sons, all of whom were brave and ruthless masters. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, he was rampant in the township, relying on fiber pulling and fighting, selling tea and livestock to make a living, and he was also a headache for Zhu Zhi, but he didn't expect him to come today.

"It turned out to be Liu Da from Guo Village!" Zhu Zhi squeezed out a smile on his face, arched his hand and said, "With a good man like you, those thieves will definitely not be able to get out." What's the matter, what advice do you have? ”

Liu Sheng waved his hand, and responded in a rough voice, "I can't say anything about advice, it's just that when I got the news today, I happened to be eating wine with Second Brother Xue, and he said that he would go back first and tell his father to come again, so I couldn't wait and came first." Taiwei Zhu, if you want to talk about the ability to manage the army and fight, no one in our Anyang County is as good as Xue Zhangren, why don't you wait for two hours, wait until the people of the Xue family come, and then make a claim! ”

"Not bad!"

"Liu Da is right!"

As soon as Liu Sheng's words fell, he immediately aroused a chorus of approval from the crowd, and it was obvious that the "Xue Zhangren" in his mouth was quite prestigious in the eyes of everyone. Zhu Zhi's face flashed with a green anger, and he was secretly angry in his heart, it turned out that Xue Zhangren was a famous strong sect in Anyang, this Xue family was not a local surname, but migrated from Hedong during the Yizu period, and it was a small surname in Anyang, and more than 100 families in this village had the same surname as his family. But under the leadership of this Xue Zhangren, the unity is incomparable, but it is so overwhelming that the local surnames in the nearby villages can't raise their heads. There are a lot of prohibited transactions such as selling illicit tea, livestock, and illicit salt, and such people will naturally not please Zhu Zhi. But this is not the time to attack, Zhu Zhi suppressed the anger in his heart, and said in a deep voice: "Liu Da, what you said is funny, I don't know when the Xue family will come, don't we take the thief if he doesn't come?" Forty or fifty thieves, we have more than 300 people, how to fight and win, those thieves are not everyone's? ”

"Master Zhu, you can't say that, it's not a battle for water in the township, hundreds of croppers with hoes and poles rush up, whichever side has more people wins. Without orders, without moderation, no matter how many people there are, it is useless! To say something disrespectful, his head fell off, even if it was Master Zhu, he couldn't pick it up! ”

Zhu Zhi's words aroused everyone's doubts, and when Zhu Zhi saw this, he couldn't help but feel secretly annoyed, but this is not the time to be an official. He gritted his teeth, pulled Yue Fei on the side, and shouted loudly: "Rank, the thief Zhang Chao was shot by Yue Fei's little brother in the Han Mansion last night, at this time there is no head among the thieves, just a group of rabble, didn't you run away when you saw us?" It's too late, and if it drags on until dark, who knows where those thieves will go? The heavy copper coin cloth is already there, it's up to you to go or not! At this point, he shouted to the crowd, "The good man will go with me to get the thief, and when he comes back, he will kill the sheep, start drinking, eat and drink, and bring home a bonus!" At this time, he was in a hurry to take everyone to get the thief, and he didn't care about revealing the news that Zhang Chao was dead.

Hearing that the famous thief Zhang Chao had died, everyone was overjoyed, and then remembered the rich reward and the stolen goods in the hands of the thief, and the archers shouted one after another: "Take the thief with the captain!" "A few people with the surname are in a hurry, and they have jumped on the horses and mules that have come with them, and are ready to set off. Zhu Zhi was still a little sober, and shouted loudly: "Don't worry, everyone, thieves can't go, everyone brings rice balls to make dry food on the road!" ”

Everyone hurriedly wrapped the rice balls with lotus leaves and rushed out. A man beside Liu Sheng probed his brain and asked, "Big brother, shall we follow?" ”

Liu Sheng scratched his head, gritted his teeth and said, "Go too, why did everyone go and leak us!" Speaking of this, he grabbed the brother who was about to leave, and said in a low voice: "Let's not rush to the front, if we see that the situation is wrong, we will retreat, look at this chaotic appearance, it may be over!" ”

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