In the blink of an eye, it was already the first day of June, and it was only one day away from the agreed time with the Zheng family. Two days ago, Liu Mao led the six hundred horse guards under Liu Zeqing's most brave and skilled warriors to sneak into the area of the ancient city in Laizhou again and quietly hidden.

Liu Zeqing quietly returned to Shandong in mid-May. The Huguang War first saw the light of day, Yang Sichang ordered all the armies to march together, Zuo Liangyu and Zheng Chongzhen defeated the Liukou in Taiping County, and suppressed Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and Lao Huihui to the area of Guizhou in Jingzhou Prefecture. Yang Sichang urgently ordered Shao Jiechun, the governor of Sichuan, to intercept and close the passage for Zhang Xianzhong and others to retreat to Sichuan. In this way, a situation of closing the door and beating the dog can be formed.

But Liu Zeqing couldn't sit still. Half a year ago, his henchman Cai Liansheng instigated the four guards of Dengzhou to create a mutiny, intending to put Zhu Ping'an in the air, but he was bitten back and lost his life. Since then, Dengzhou's sea trade has been out of business, and Liu Zeqing suddenly felt that the finances were stretched, and the military households could ignore it, but the relationship between the thousands of families under his command and the Jingshi needed silver to support. Otherwise, where does this wealth come from?

So, after the battle situation was stable, Liu Zeqing met Yang Sichang in person and explained the reason. But he didn't expect Yang Sichang to support him greatly, which also surprised Liu Zeqing, and after thinking about it carefully, he knew that Zhu Ping'an was the person of Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Yang Sichang was incompatible. Yang Sichang's move was also worried that Shandong would fall into the control of Zhou Yanru.

Then there was Liu Zeqing's "accidental injury", and the supervisor Xingyuan also received a "report" from the displaced people in Shandong. In this "emergency", Yang Sichang did not inform the imperial court, and agreed to Liu Zeqing to return to Shandong to "recuperate" and "quell the chaos". Of course, this is also to hide people's eyes, and not too many people in the army know about it.

Liu Zeqing also handed over the command of the 6,000 Shandong soldiers he brought out to his lieutenant general, while he secretly returned to Shandong with 1,000 Jiading.

From then on, Liu Mao, under the instruction of Liu Zeqing, led six hundred of the most elite guards to ambush the convoy of Dengzhou merchants.

Laizhou and Dengzhou are closely linked, and the rise of Dengzhou has brought Laizhou officials at all levels to share a lot of benefits from it. Liu Zeqing was afraid that there would be some collusion between Laizhou and Dengzhou, so he ordered Liu Maozhuan to attack Qingzhou and the west of Laizhou to snipe the merchant convoy. After a few times in a row, the gains were quite rich. The guards were originally Liu Zeqing's family members, and they only knew that they were loyal to Liu Zeqing, and they didn't care about right or wrong at all, and they were even more ruthless.

After negotiating with the Zheng family, Liu Zeqing began to quietly mobilize the soldiers and horses of Shandong, and the main force was the soldiers and horses of Dongchang Mansion, Jinan Mansion, and Qingzhou Mansion. These three places are all Liu Zeqing's subordinates serving as commanders, and they are handy in mobilization. The soldiers and horses in Yanzhou and Qingzhou were involved too much, and Liu Zeqing did not mobilize in order to prevent the grass from startling the snake.

As expected, Yanzhou Liang Hezhong really had a problem, and he could get seriously ill by drinking. The prefect Deng Fanxi strictly ordered all places to guard the passes, and made it clear that Liu Zeqing's army would not be allowed to pass through Yanzhou. Later, it was someone from the Lu Wangfu who pointed out a secret business route, which solved the urgent need. However, Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, opened his mouth widely, pointing out half of the share of the trade area. Liu Zeqing couldn't help but sneer secretly, these conditions, when the time comes, let him Zhu Yihai go and discuss with the Zheng family. Now, Liu Zeqing just wants to set foot in Dengzhou!

The army totaled 30,000 people, and Dengzhou was only a small place, although many homeless people had gathered in the past year. But Liu Zeqing didn't pay attention to it, what kind of battle can a group of mud-legged people fight, no matter how many people there are, they are just the ears of the deaf - ornaments. Dengzhou is only 20,000 horses at best, and besides, Zhu Ping'an has only been in office for less than a year, so what kind of elite soldiers can he train. What's more, he still has to face the onslaught of the Zheng family's water division, flanking from both sides, no matter if he is the reincarnation of Yue Wumu, he will not be able to escape this kind of nirvana.

The army marched secretly in two routes, led by Liu Zeqing himself, and walked the line of Qingcheng, Le'an, Changyi, and Yexian, and went straight to Huang County in Dengzhou. The other way was led by Liu Zeqing's cousin Liu Zetao, who belonged to the strange soldiers, and that was to take the business road of Yanzhou. Killed from the mountains of Mengyin, running through the entire Qingzhou, entering the Da Songwei and Jinghaiwei of Dengzhou.

Liu Mao's 600 horse team acted as the vanguard of the army, and another important task was to attack Laiyang, fire and burn Dengzhou, the largest granary, and create chaos in Zhu Ping'an's army.

With such a seamless plan, on the face of it, there is little chance of failure. Liu Zeqing was also very satisfied.

Liu Mao led people to lurk in the mountains and forests east of the ancient city, and for two whole days, he finally waited for the moment to enter the army. Tonight, they will go out and take advantage of the night to attack Laiyang and burn down the entire Laiyang City. The spies sent out also reported that Laiyang was deep inland, and there were not many garrisons, only five hundred defenders. Liu Zeqing's order was to sneak into the city and burn the official warehouse, but Liu Mao's guards had tasted the benefits of looting these days, and when they heard that there were not many defenders in Laiyang, they suddenly had other ideas, planning to burn Laiyang at night in order to loot on a large scale.

Waiting is always the hardest, especially when there is a beautiful difference in front of you, which makes everyone feel like a hundred claws scratching their hearts. In order not to be discovered, these many lootings, Liu Mao and others brought their own dry food, never showed up in front of people, Denglai was all over Zhu Ping'an's horses, it is always right to be careful. But this time it was a bit of a miscalculation, the weather was hot, and a lot of the food brought out was difficult to eat, and then there was no water source near the ancient city, and the two streams that had been explored were actually cut off. This is not a small trouble.

Seeing that the people under his command were full of complaints, thinking that it was noon now, and it was only a few hours before departure, Liu Mao selected a few capable soldiers to go to the nearby market to buy some food, and by the way, find a water source. I also told you to be careful not to be discovered.

The men were quick with their hands and feet, and after an hour they came back, bringing with them a lot of flatbread, dried meat, and the like, and dozens of jugs filled with sweet spring water.

After eating and drinking, everyone seized the time to rest, but when they thought of the upcoming trip to Laiyang, they were all excited and did not have a trace of sleep.

In the afternoon, when the weather finally cooled down, Liu Mao let the sentry out, lying under the tree and just feeling a little dazed, but was woken up by a henchman.

"Big brother, big brother, a fat sheep has come to the door!"

The henchman spoke incoherently with excitement, and next to him were the faces of his subordinates who could not hide their excitement.

"What's the matter?" Liu Mao asked angrily.

"There is a team of businessmen on the forest path, it seems that they are rushing to the direction of Laiyang, all of them are large boxes of goods, and there are a lot of good horses!"

Liu Mao heard the words and lay back again, "Don't cause trouble, there are still big things to do at night!" ”

The henchman was suddenly impatient, "Big brother, we can rob this trip and pretend to be a businessman and sneak into Laiyang City!" Besides, so many goods have slipped away in vain, this, this ......! ”

All the subordinates also nodded.

Liu Mao also muttered, pretending to be a businessman to sneak into Laiyang City, but it is a very safe way, looking at the appearance of everyone eager to try, Liu Mao couldn't help licking his lips, these two months of looting, he has also gained a lot of benefits, there is just such a team of businessmen passing by in front of him, and it is really a pity to miss it in vain.

When the department got up, beckoned the soldiers to come quietly to the vicinity of the forest path, and at this time, the group of merchants had slowly come from the west. The henchman is right, this group of businessmen is indeed a fat sheep, or the kind that can no longer be fat. More than 20 carts, more than 100 guards, wheels on the dirt road in the forest crushed deep marks, it seems that the car is quite rich!

Liu Mao swallowed his saliva and waved his hand quietly, and all the soldiers suddenly became energetic, leaving more than ten people to guard the horses, and the remaining hundreds of people were under the command of several leaders' gestures, and they were ambushed on both sides of the road in a short time.

With Liu Mao's whistle, hundreds of people suddenly came out from both sides of the road, rushing to the prey in their eyes, lest they fall behind others.

The guards of the convoy were stunned for a moment, turned around and ran, without a trace of mud and water, and ran in all directions.

Although Liu Mao shouted "no one will be left", the actual situation was that hundreds of people under his command were running directly to the carriage, and the guards of the convoy were scattered and fled, and there was no manpower to chase after them in a hurry.

Helpless, Liu Mao had to jump into a carriage first, and loudly commanded some of his subordinates to chase after him, but at this time it was a mess, and most of his subordinates ignored his orders, just jumped into the carriage with one mind, and couldn't wait to turn over the cabinets.

The boxes on the carriage were opened, but suddenly some soldiers exclaimed, Liu Mao saw at a glance the fire-burning things coiled in the box, swishing and blazing, and the bottom of the box was paved with a few swarthy and round things.

"It's not good, it's a firearm, it looks like a 10,000-strong enemy in the army!" This thought flashed through Liu Mao's mind for a moment, after all, he was a veteran in the army, and Liu Mao knew that as long as he cut or extinguished these fuses, he could ensure that this thing would not explode.

"...... with pee!" But as soon as Liu Mao shouted two words, he was squeezed out of the carriage by his panicked subordinates and fell heavily to the ground.

As soon as he got up, there was a roar behind him, followed by a series of explosions, and the successive waves of air lifted Liu Mao into the sky, and then fell heavily to the ground.

Liu Mao's ears were buzzing, and he suddenly found that his body was like a puddle of mud and did not obey the call, his eyes were fine, and he watched as most of the hundreds of people under his command turned into scattered flesh and blood, and some of them were full of flames, screaming in pain and running wildly.

Then, Liu Mao, who was lying on the ground, felt the earth tremble that was getting closer and closer, "It's a cavalry!" ”

The miserable howls continued to sound, coming from all directions, and the sound of feather arrows breaking through the air came and went, and in less than a cup of tea, the surroundings gradually returned to calm, and only the whirring of war horses could be heard in their ears.

A person suddenly knelt down in front of Liu Mao, followed by noisy footsteps, and several steel knives were put on his neck, Liu Mao recognized that it was his henchman, he was intact, but his face was terrified. Not long after, more than a dozen Ming soldiers wearing light armor appeared in Liu Mao's sight.

"Is this your leader?" A big bearded man asked.

The henchman almost cried, looked at Liu Mao helplessly, and nodded.

"When will Liu Zeqing send troops? Which route to take? The bearded man asked.

"Can't tell!" Liu Mao shouted with all his strength.

The bearded man suddenly laughed, "It seems to be a man!" But today your life is going to be lost here, a broken leg, it looks like the bones in your back are broken into several pieces, it won't last long, tell me the truth, I will send you a good time, they are all men in the army, there is no need to beat around the bush! ”

"You, you're the Dengzhou Army?" Liu Mao felt that his body was starting to get cold, and he knew very well that the beard was telling the truth, and his time was really running out.

"Lao Tzu is the chief general of the cavalry battalion of the new army in Dengzhou, grandma, in order to find you, Lao Tzu has been wandering around in this barren mountains and mountains for half a month, and the day before yesterday I found some traces of you, but I couldn't find anyone. If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't hold back and sent someone out to buy food, it would not be easy to find you! ”

The beard patted his chest, "Lao Tzu Zhang Dagou, now called Zhang Dingbian, remember Lao Tzu's name, what grudge is there in the next life, reincarnate and then come to Lao Tzu!" ”

After speaking, his wrist flicked, and a large knife that flashed with cold light was swung, and blood flashed. R1152