When Zhu Yuanzhang's army came out from the west side of Huanglong Mountain, it was already the beginning of February.

In previous years, this February is the time when spring is beginning to appear, the land is full of vitality and prosperity, but Luochuan seems lifeless and barren.

The soldiers' expressions were a little heavy, and Ma Xiaotian couldn't help but sigh: "The world outside this mountain ...... How can it be like this? I think everyone should move into Huanglong Mountain, because there is still a small amount of water in the mountain. ”

"Not everyone is as capable as Zhu Bugs, and they have already arranged how to spend their lives in the mountains." Wang Er spread his hands and said: "For most people, running into the vast mountains is self-defeating, and it is better to wander around the city that lacks water. ”

"Hmm!" Everyone nodded.

Xu Renjie, who is known as "Generalissimo", was already wearing a masked scarf at this time, and two holes were dug in the black scarf, revealing a pair of excited eyes: "Brother Zhu, where are we going to find Wang Zuohang and Miao Mei now?" ”

"Ask someone!" Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Eight thousand rogues are running around, it is not difficult to find them, just find a few local residents and ask." ”

Wang Er answered, and planned to take a team out to ask for directions. Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly pulled him down: "Don't worry! ”

"Huh?"

"Wait!" Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice: "When we came to Luochuan, it was completely different from the situation in Huanglong Mountain or Baishui, and we all cheered up and acted in strict accordance with the marching method I ordered." The scout gave me ten miles ahead...... The wings were also spread out, and the left and right wings were within five miles of me. ”

In the past, Zhu Yuanzhang's army marched in Huanglong Mountain or Baishui, and it had never been so strict, but this time it suddenly made such a request, and Wang Er was suddenly a little puzzled: "Brother Zhu, why should you be so cautious this time?" ”

"Because this is a strange place for the vast majority of soldiers...... Everyone lacks a basic understanding of Luochuan * County, and they can't walk and walk, so they get into the enemy's ambush circle without knowing it......" Zhu Yuanzhang said very seriously: "We can't be ambushed so easily when we are in Baishui, because we are too familiar with Baishui, and even if we walk with our eyes closed, we know where the enemy army may appear." ”

"And we have a good mass base in Baishui, and when the villagers see us coming, they either take refuge in us or retreat into the house, and they are not very afraid of us...... But here, the situation is completely different, every villager and squire we meet is our enemy...... They won't believe that we are a rebel army, they will only think of us as robbers and bandits. ”

As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang said this, Wang Er suddenly understood. Luochuan is a strange world for them, and they are also a strange team for the villagers of Luochuan, and no one can easily trust anyone.

The army stopped and released the scouts first.

Throughout the ages, every army has had scouts, and they are all selected excellent soldiers. Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang will not forget to train a group of scouts for his army, but they have been active in Baishui before, and everyone in that place is so familiar that they can really leave with their eyes closed, and scouts are of little use. Now, as soon as they arrived in a strange place, the role of scouts suddenly became prominent.

This group of scouts was personally selected by Zhu Yuanzhang to ensure that each of them has the following characteristics: First, they have an ordinary appearance and cannot be found if they are thrown into the sea of people, which is helpful for reconnaissance operations. The second is to be proficient in combat skills, and when they encounter enemy scouts, they can take advantage. The third is to know how to ride a horse...... This one is really difficult for Zhu Yuanzhang, although there are 4,000 people in the cottage, but there are not a few people who can ride horses, so they have to make up for it, even counting those who can ride donkeys, and only 40 people can be made up.

No way, how can the poor have the money to buy horses? There is no grassland in Baishui, and horses are not raised and sold for money, and horseback riding, a more stylish activity, does not belong to the poor people of Baishui.

These forty scouts were trained by Zhu Yuanzhang for more than a year, and they conducted various trainings, such as archery, fighting, and camouflage...... It's a pity that limited to the conditions, there has been no progress in riding, and there are no horses in the cottage at all! This is something that can be done helplessly.

More than forty scouts were quickly dispersed, and they went out on foot, so the army stayed in place for a long time, and it was not until these scouts traveled several miles that Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the army to slowly pull up and follow behind.

Xu Renjie couldn't help but shush: "Brother Zhu...... The scout doesn't have horses, it's too disgusting, I'll donate a few horses to the cottage. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head, looked at him deeply, shook his head and said, "Don't donate...... Be careful that the government follows the brand on the horse's body and finds you out, and when the time comes, your Xu family will be beheaded for the crime of rebellion, and I don't care about you. ”

It turns out that the horses of this era are all branded, especially the kind of good horses that can be used as war horses, and each one has a mark, if Xu Renjie spends money to buy a batch of horses, the horse will be donated to the cottage in a blink of an eye, isn't it a test of the intelligence of the imperial court? Obviously, there are more smart people in the court than **.

"But it's too uncomfortable to have no horses...... This is the army! Generals like you and I must have a horse to show their might. Xu Renjie said dissatisfied.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "I will definitely want this kind of thing in the future, but I can't rely on your rice shop to buy it, it is meaningless to be a drop in the bucket like that, but it will bring some trouble to myself, I have my own plans, and I will know it for a long time." ”

Not long after the army had moved forward, the scouts came back with the news that there was a village ahead, and they had actually captured a few villagers in the village.

This is the advantage of the scout team's operation, if the army drove directly over, the villagers saw the army coming from a distance, and they would have run away long ago, do you want to arrest one and ask questions? If you can't catch up, you may not be able to catch up!

But the scouts were different, they were in groups of several people, scattered and dispersed, and when they entered the village, the villagers thought that they were traveling somewhere, and they didn't think of escaping at all, so they grabbed them without much effort.

Seeing that the scouts brought over a few villagers, Xu Renjie was about to go up fiercely to interrogate, but Zhu Yuanzhang blocked him and motioned to the soldiers wearing mandarin duck jackets in the middle of the old first team and the second team to come out, this is the mandarin duck battle jacket that was snatched from Yang Hong last time, but it was dyed purple, which was slightly different from the red color of the imperial court. But most ordinary people don't know that the mandarin duck jacket of the imperial court is only red, not purple.

Therefore, as soon as this group of people stood up, the villagers were stunned and immediately regarded the army in front of them as officers and soldiers.

Zhu Yuanzhang coughed lightly and said in a deep voice: "This official is Yang Hong, a thousand households in Xi'an Mansion, and he has brought troops here to level the Kou, you don't need to be afraid, do you know where the Liukou King is now?" ”

When he asked, Xu Renjie, Ma Xiaotian, Wang Er and others next to him were all stunned, and then they were stunned. Zhu Bugle is disguised as an officer and soldier, so it is convenient to inquire about the news, this Luochuan villagers are not as good as Baishui, if they know that the army in front of them is a bandit army, they will definitely not cooperate obediently, even if they provide information, it is possible that what they say is false. However, it would be much more convenient to disguise themselves as officers and soldiers to ask questions, and even if the villagers did not like officers and soldiers, they did not dare to deliberately give false information to officers and soldiers.

When the villagers heard that there was a thousand households in front of them, they were immediately in awe, the villagers had less knowledge, and they didn't know that the regular army was going to play the flag, and the thousand households would wear armor and hang a waist card on their waists. Zhu Ba didn't have any of these things, he only had a righteous spirit, upright, majestic, and natural questions, full of ten percent of the official flavor, so that the few villagers in front of him did not have the slightest suspicion.

"Senho-sama...... It's a coincidence that you've arrived, the army of rogues hanging on the left of the king passed by us yesterday and headed west......"

"Oh? To the west? Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head to look to the west.

"Senho-sama...... We heard that the general sent by the imperial court to suppress the bandits this time is named Du Wenhuan, a chief military officer, why are you here too? A mouthy villager couldn't help but ask.

"Presumptuous! How can the court tell you all the arrangements? Zhu Yuanzhang snorted angrily, and the villager's neck shrank in fright: "What do you answer when I ask you, don't say anything irrelevant to me." ”

"Compliance...... "The villager was terrified......

"Let me ask you, how many people are there in Wang Zuo's army now? What's going on? Zhu Yuanzhang asked casually.

"How many...... We won't count, anyway, it's all over the mountains, at least 100,000! A villager casually said nonsense, and the number "100,000" made Zhu Yuanzhang, Wang Er, Ma Xiaotian, and Xu Renjie laugh.

The villager continued, "There is a little bit of a change...... We heard from a Laipi in the next village that he heard a few escaped rogues chatting in the ditch, and those rogues said that Wang Zuojiao was going to beg for surrender to General Du...... Now Wang Zuohang's army is approaching General Du's army. ”

"Huh? All the king's subordinates on the left are going to surrender? Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

"No, there are those who don't want to descend." One of the villagers laughed and said, "I know that there is a group of men and horses who are unwilling to surrender, so they have separated from the army of rogues and headed northeast......

"Northeast?" Zhu Yuanzhang knew in his heart that this small group of people must be a few brothers led by Miao Mei. What he wants to fight for is precisely this group of people.

"You answered well...... Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Xu Renjie and snorted: "You give these villagers some silver, I will reward them." ”

The corners of Xu Renjie's mouth flattened: Zhu Baba didn't ask Wang Er to reward money, nor did he ask Ma Xiaotian to reward money, but he chose me...... This is bullying my family.

He fished it out of his sleeve, and really fished out a silver ingot, about one or two weights, and threw it to those villagers casually, and put on the momentum of the master of Mi Xing in his mouth, and hummed: "If you are rewarded, take it back and share it yourself." ”

"Officers and soldiers don't rob, but they actually give out silver rewards?" Several villagers were stunned, quickly kowtowed, turned around and ran away. One of the villagers shouted as he ran: "Master Qianhu, you are the best official I have ever met, I will tell you one more thing...... Yesterday, there was a township warrior army to the northeast to chase over, led by a Xiucai, named Li Panlong, he did not dare to pursue Wang Zuohang's brigade, but dared to chase the small group of people who left the team, he said that he wanted to exterminate the rogues who left the team...... If you want to fight for it, you have to hurry......"