Chapter Ninety-Nine: Who is Zuo Min?

February 27, 1917.

The cold wind of the winter night passed coldly from the head of Zaozhuang City, and there seemed to be no trace of the regular army on the tall city head, only a few regiments with torches and listless patrols.

The gates of Zaozhuang have been tightly closed. This is a practice in China since ancient times, and now except for Shanghai, which has no city walls at all, most of the Chinese towns still follow this practice, especially in these counties around Yimeng Mountain, and no one knows when the bandits in the mountains will come down the mountain.

"The big shopkeeper, Zaozhuang City is as usual!"

Around a town only a dozen miles away from Zaozhuang City, there were already bandits from Yimeng Mountain, and the mountains and fields on both sides of the road were full of bandits in groups of three or five, who were feasting on the food looted from the town while waiting for the order to attack!

And the only thing that the high-level of this gang of bandits are worried about now is that something suddenly happened to Zaozhuang City! After all, Zhou Zicai only has 2,000 militia groups in his hands, and Chang Ruiqing has 6 or 7,000 regular troops! Although the camp is full of recruits, it is not something that a rabble of militias can deal with.

However, the result seems to be quite reassuring, the spies sent by Mao Sizhong have already connected with Zhou Zicai's people, and the city of Zaozhuang is as usual. Only the Changrui Youth Brigade seemed to have caught a female bandit the day before yesterday, and she was tortured without asking what the result was, so she was detained in the brigade headquarters and did not suffer any more abuse. There is also news that Chang Ruiqing's wife fell in love with the beauty of the female bandit and wanted to take her as a concubine......

Hearing that her daughter was fine, Mama Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, smiled and said to the other two bandits: "The big shopkeeper, the third shopkeeper, my daughter really didn't embarrass the calf, right?" ”

Liu Heiqi smiled and hugged Mao Sizhong: "Big shopkeeper, let's prepare to attack Zaozhuang City, this head will be taken by the younger brother!" ”

Mao Sizhong looked at Liu Heiqi with an eager look on his face, and just smiled slightly. Knowing that the other party wanted to cuddle the grass and beat the rabbit, he washed it inside and outside Zaozhuang City. He stretched out his hand and pressed Liu Heiqi's shoulder and said: "Third brother, this time we have made an appointment with Zhou Zi, the target is only the gold that Changrui Youth Hostel takes care of, and the inside and outside of Zaozhuang City can't be too much, so that Zhou Zicai's face can be passable." And you must be careful, we and Zhou Zicai agreed to raise the fire as a number, and three bonfires were lit on the east city wall, if you don't see it, you must not act recklessly. ”

"Little brother understands, the big shopkeeper will look at it!" Liu Heiqi patted his chest hard, but his eyes were slitted with laughter, as if he had seen the golden ingots flying into his pocket.

……

"General Chang! You have a lot of adults, just spare me this time! ”

There was a cry of extreme pain, a man in his forties, skinny, gray-faced, who had been hollowed out by opium at a glance, had already prostrated in front of Chang Ruiqing. He is Zhou Zicai, the leader of the Zaozhuang militia, according to Zhao Xianger's introduction, this Zhou Zicai was originally the head of the Dadao Club in Zaozhuang, and he also had kung fu when he was young. However, after developing in the past two years, he became addicted to smoking, and his body and bones naturally did not become good, so Tang Jiu moved the punishment slightly, and he cried and shouted that he would do everything! also took the initiative to help deal with the bandits who came down from the calf, it seems that this opium is really untouchable!

Chang Ruiqing glanced at him disdainfully, and smiled coldly: "Rao is impossible!" But what kind of punishment depends on your watch! The government's policy is to be lenient in confession and strict in resistance! Speaking of this, he couldn't help but glance at Miss Zhao who was standing beside him dressed as a man and dressed as a little messenger. Isn't this a typical example of resisting strictness? all resisted and became the brigade commander's wife......

"I confess, I confess......" Zhou Zicai kowtowed like pounding garlic, looking really soft.

Chang Ruiqing nodded and asked sharply, "Zhou Zicai, what position do you have in the Red Brigade?" What is the true identity of Zuo Min, the leader of the Red Brigade! It's not really recruited! ”

"Huh?" Zhou Zicai was stunned, and as soon as he looked up, he saw Tang Jiu gearing up there, and he suddenly understood everything in his heart! The other party is going to take credit for himself! This trick was commonplace in the yamen of the former Qing Dynasty......

"The small, the small one is just the platoon commander of the Red Brigade, the youngest officer, and I haven't seen the big leader Zuo." Zhou Zi knew that he couldn't touch a stone with an egg, otherwise he would be beaten again! So I started to make it up according to the other party's wishes.

"Platoon commander? I see your bearing, how can you be a regimental leader, right? Chang Ruiqing said coldly: "That Zuo Min must also be the name of the giant in Yimeng Mountain, is it surnamed Mao?" ”

"The general is really wise and martial...... There is no way to hide the small one, and the small, small one is the commander of the Red Brigade! The real name of the left and left leaders is Mao ...... Mao Sizhong! Zhou Zicai said in his heart: "This time it is more auspicious and less, either he was punished by Duan Qirui's Central Ming Zhengcanon, or he was killed by the Changda brigade commander in front of him!" Even if it's Mao Sizhong, I'm afraid he won't let himself go, right? ”

"Well, Zhou Zicai, remember what you say now! When you meet the people who have seen Shixu and Zhang Wensheng and Zhang Huaizhi, don't want to deny it! Saying that, Chang Ruiqing snorted coldly, and said: "You have violated the law by enforcing the law, colluding with bandits, and attempting to sack Zaozhuang City, which is already a capital crime!" But the crime is not as good as the family, your pair of children and the three wives and concubines are innocent, and the brigade commander has already let people take care of them! ”

"General, general, you, you spare your life......" Hearing that he could not escape death after all, Zhou Zicai immediately collapsed to the ground, shouting for mercy in his mouth.

Chang Ruiqing naturally ignored him, but turned his head and asked Xu Zuyi, a senior staff officer beside him: "How far is the bandit's brigade?" ”

"Less than ten miles!" Xu Zuyi reported loudly that the staff officers of the brigade headquarters would send him the latest battle reports every five minutes, so he was clear about the situation at the front.

"Ten miles of land, at most many hours will be there!" Chang Ruiqing stood up and ordered left and right: "Take care of this surnamed Zhou, and when I deal with the bandits, I will come back and clean him up!" Then he said to Tang Jiu: "Bring the guard platoon to protect Lord Shixu and Mr. Ye and them, and tell them that there is a red brigade in the city, and this group of red bandits may attack the city, so let them not go out." ”

"Brigade Commander, I'd better keep your driver!"

Chang Ruiqing smiled, and said as he strode out: "I don't need you to protect it, and I won't really fight tonight...... That is, shouting about the city, if they really dare to attack the city, will we be afraid of a bunch of bandits when we form a brigade? After speaking, he glanced at Zhao Xiang'er who was standing aside.

Zhao Xiang'er was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly followed. In this battle tonight, with her man on one side and her mother on the other, she doesn't want to really kill! And Chang Ruiqing is waiting for a battle here, and the militia in the city has also been disarmed and guarded, and the regiments patrolling the city at this time are all soldiers of the mixed brigade pretending.

When Chang Ruiqing led people up the city wall of Zaozhuang, he could already see the sporadic fires on the field five or six miles away, which were the torches used by the bandit brigade for lighting. These torches did not continue to advance towards Zaozhuang City, but stopped far away, as if they were watching something?

"Yaoru, are they waiting for a code? Shall we light a bonfire and lure them over? Bai Chongxi, who had been supervising the battle in the city for a long time, saw Chang Ruiqing coming, and immediately proposed to build a city.

Chang Ruiqing's expression didn't move, he just watched from afar, and only after a while did he shake his head slightly: "No need, what are you doing to lure them over?" Didn't they come to take the 'ransom'? It's right not to fight, just confront each other until dawn, and then they will naturally evacuate. ”

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