Watching his team take shape day by day, Liu Jun's heart was indescribably happy.

In the evening of that day, Li Chunjiang came back and hurried back to the Queen's City with his team of family members. The last time Liu Jun saw Li Chunjiang was three days ago, and as soon as Li Chunjiang saw Liu Jun, he said with a heavy face, "Jiye, gather people, and prepare to go." ”

"Go? Where to? ”

"Last night, Lin Jiazhai was slaughtered."

"Lin Jiasai? Linjiazhai near Zhongguanyi? Liu Jun exclaimed.

Li Chunjiang nodded, "None of the women and children in the village were spared, and more than 100 people died, and they died miserably. ”

"Who did it?" Liu Jun couldn't help but be angry at this time, thieves often rob, but after the robbery, they had to slaughter the village, this kind of inhumane means was indignant to heaven and man.

"It's the gang of thieves who have been committing crimes in the neighborhood lately. They have been very careful before, and they have always been unable to catch their traces, which they have acted so ruthlessly, slaughtering more than 100 people in a village, after all, they have left clues, I have found their whereabouts, and now they are staring at Qiangu, I will come back to gather people. Jiye, can our team go? ”

"Of course there is no problem."

"Okay, gather the team immediately, and let's set off overnight tonight." Li Chunjiang's eyes were blood-red, and he couldn't forget it after seeing that tragic scene in Lin Jiazhai. He even felt that it was all his fault, and if he had found this gang of thieves and destroyed them earlier, there would be no disaster today.

In the event of such a tragic incident, although it should have been investigated by the officers and soldiers of the Macheng County Ya and Huangzhou Prefecture and the Huangzhou Guard, even if the township regiment was dispatched, it should be a large township regiment like Mei Zhihuan's Baoshengbao Township Regiment. But Li Chunjiang thinks that Lin Jiazhai is near the Queen City, and as the brave horse team stationed in this part of the Queen City, he has the responsibility to protect the villagers. After the tragedy of Lin Jiazhai, he had the responsibility to exterminate the thieves as soon as possible.

In the last days of the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters and man-made disasters continued, the imperial court increased salaries in various ways, and the local government imposed various levies and levies, and most of the people did not have their own land, and usually relied on tenants for the landlords and powerful to make a living. The increase in the number of officials in the imperial court was indispensable, but the landlords continued to increase the tenant rent, and their lives became more and more difficult day by day.

As the thieves wandered around, this also made the people who couldn't live for countless days rise up one after another to join the thieves, they killed officials and rebelled, and also joined the ranks of thieves. There are also some people who simply go into the mountains and fall into the grass and occupy the mountains as kings.

Although these people were forced to become thieves or fall into the grass, after they became thieves and bandits, they did not become revolutionaries, nor did they think of leading the poor people to turn over and seek the welfare of the people. The vast majority of people who were originally oppressed could not survive and became thieves, and they quickly turned into real thieves, burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil.

The longer they mingle among the thieves, the more ruthless they become.

But generally speaking, even these thieves will have some nostalgia for the countryside, and even if they loot, they will not do the slaughter of the village in the original township.

The gang of thieves they are facing is already a group of animals that have exterminated humanity.

"Who the hell are those thieves?" Liu Jun asked in a deep voice. Only by knowing the other can we survive a hundred battles. Since the other party is a group of vicious people, they need to be more and more cautious in addition to anger. You can't send troops out indiscriminately with anger, that's a taboo for soldiers.

Li Chunjiang has also gained some results from his investigation over the past few days. Because when these thieves slaughtered Lin Jiazhai arrogantly and inhumanely, he finally followed the clues to find out the severity of this group of thieves.

It turned out that this group of thieves was a local, and they were the post guards of the Zhongguan Station, and they were the original post guards. Zhongguan Station is twenty miles southwest of the Queen City, where a post station has been established in the Tang Dynasty, and it is an important post station on the main road from Huguang Huangzhou to Guangzhou, Henan. Originally, there were a lot of post guards in the post station, but soon after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, the imperial court abolished the post guards and cut the funds.

Most of the post guards of the Nakakan Station have also been abolished.

The life of the post man was very hard, there was not much money and food, but the work was tiring, and in the end he didn't even have such a hard job. Many of the post soldiers who originally relied on this salary to support their families were cornered, but there was a famous predecessor in the Shaanxi post pawn world, Li Zicheng, who was also a post pawn, joined the thief rebellion and became a general, and later became the king of the king.

Li Zicheng set an example, so that the unemployed and although not unemployed, but the treatment has been reduced a lot, the post guards finally decided to follow Li Zicheng and rebel against the thieves.

These people went to vote for Li Zicheng, but unfortunately not long after following Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng was defeated by the official army, and in the end only more than ten horsemen fled into Shangluo Mountain, and most of the thieves under his subordinates were scattered. Some of the thieves survived and eventually fled back to their hometowns with some defeated soldiers.

Then they started to be thieves and strongmen all over Huangzhou, robbing everywhere, and they were more careful at first, but gradually they became bolder. One of the leaders of the thieves was originally a post guard of Zhongguanyi, who once fell in love with a girl in Lin Jiazhai and asked someone to say goodbye, but was ridiculed by the woman's father because of his poor family.

And just yesterday, the brother of the girl who had rejected him had taken a wife. After the thief knew the news, he suddenly led a group of thieves to Linjiazhai in the middle of the night, surrounded the village, killed the family who refused his proposal at the beginning, and raped and killed the girl who rushed back to attend his brother's wedding.

"Now the thieves are settled in Xing'an Temple."

Liu Jun clenched his fists, angry at the inhumanity of this gang of thieves.

"Tell me, how many of them are there?"

"The gang of thieves who slaughtered Lin's village last night was personally led by the bandit leader Ma Gui, and there were about fifty people."

Hearing that there were only more than fifty people, Liu Jun felt a little more relaxed, and then asked, "What equipment do they have?" ”

"Everyone has horses, no firearms, but there are many bows and arrows, and the rest are spears and swords, and they are outlaws."

"Xing'an Temple is just a temporary place for them to stay, do you know where their bandit nest is?"

"I don't know this yet, but I guess it should be in Longhua Mountain."

Liu Jun decided to support Li Chunjiang to suppress the thieves, and Xiang Yong trained for more than a month, and it was time for them to go to the real army to test it. Especially when these thieves committed such a big crime, the surrounding people were angry and panicked, and at this time they attacked, which could not only train the troops, but also establish the reputation of their nine-headed bird cavalry in one fell swoop, and exterminate this gang of thieves, and the surrounding people would also be grateful to them.

After this gang of thieves slaughtered Lin Jiazhai last night, they did not immediately return to their lair. They were very arrogant, or perhaps they had robbed a lot of belongings and had trouble walking for a while. Quite cunningly, he ran to a temple not far from Linjiazhai, Xing'an Temple, and occupied a foothold. It is estimated that I also want to wait for this rumor to pass a little bit, and then calmly return to the nest.

Generally speaking, when the government finds out about the tragedy in Linjiazhai, it will definitely send troops to search for and suppress the thieves. They couldn't go far with a lot of looted property for a while, and they were reluctant to take away their property, so they simply hid not far from Linjiazhai at this time, and the rest was the so-called dark under the lamp. The officers and men only thought about pursuing, but it was difficult for them to think that this gang of thieves would have the audacity to hide near the crime site.

This is also due to the fact that Li Chunjiang has been tracking down this group of thieves during this time, but they don't know their whereabouts, and they have been completely leaked.

"Xing'an Temple is just a small temple, there was originally only one monk in the temple, and the incense is not strong in normal times. Thieves occupy this place, and the gods do not know it. Li Chunjiang took out a hand-drawn map, but it was a map of the Xing'an Temple occupied by the thieves.

From the map, Xing'an Temple is very small, the temple is like a small dwelling, surrounded by an earthen wall outside, a main hall inside, two side rooms, and that's it.

"If we can sneak close to the temple and occupy the walls, then we can be condescending and shut down and beat the dogs. If our actions are discovered by thieves, then this wall will become a big obstacle. Liu Jun looked at the map and said.

After all, thieves have bows and arrows, and they defend against the walls and shoot with bows, so they may not be able to take advantage. Moreover, these thieves also have horses, and once they are alarmed, it will be difficult for them to intercept them when the time comes.

"If you want me to say, just sneak in, block the door, and throw torches in and burn the house." Li Chunjiang said hatefully.

Liu Jun pondered for a while and said, "Why don't we bring the tiger squat cannon, six tiger squat cannons are enough to compensate these thieves." What's more, we still have so many firearms, and we are completely superior in numbers. ”

"Besides, I have an idea, aren't there eight monks in our team, and then we will quietly go up the mountain, if the thieves don't find out. Then send a monk to knock on the door first, and say that it is a pending order. As long as we can open the temple door, we will rush in, and the shotguns, bows and arrows will be fired. ”

"Good idea, this is done, now let's gather all the people and set off, maybe this group of thieves will run away if it's too late." Li Chunjiang was in a hurry.

Liu Jun finally asked him, "Didn't you really tell Mei Gong or the county government about this matter first?" If the situation is handed over to them, I believe that with the numerical superiority of the officers and soldiers or the Meigong Township Regiment, this gang of thieves can be easily exterminated. ”

Li Chunjiang shook his head, the meat was already in his mouth, how could he give it to others. He spent so much energy and so much money to build this horse team, not just to do something. Now that the opportunity is in front of us, there is no reason to send it away.

Liu Jun understood Li Chunjiang's intentions and nodded immediately. "Well, I'm going to gather my brethren and set out tonight, and we're going to hang all these animals at the gates of the Queen City before dawn."

Li Chunjiang slapped Liu Jun on the shoulder, "Good brother! ”

(Brothers, while reading the book, please vote for your recommendation by the way!) ）