After the review, Liu Jun returned to the barracks temporarily assigned to them in the fort, and after rinsing the well water by the well like the villagers of the nine-headed bird, he returned to bed and fell asleep.

After a night of marching, fighting, and marching, I was very excited and didn't feel tired before, but after washing and relaxing, the whole person immediately felt exhausted, and fell asleep in a moment.

Two hours later, he was woken up.

"When?"

"It's almost noon." Jia Ding replied, "Don't worry, the team hasn't set off yet, Lu County's order has rushed over, and there are several officials, and the above has issued an order, and it will not be able to leave until tomorrow." I originally wanted you to sleep more, but Mei Gong sent someone to call you over. ”

Liu Jun rubbed his somewhat sore eyes, put on his clothes and went to the council hall in the center of the fort.

Approaching the conference hall, Liu Jun found that there were many horses tied outside, and there were many carriages and sedan chairs parked, and there were many men in different clothes standing next to them.

Looking at these people, Liu Jun secretly guessed that it was estimated that there were really many big people coming.

Originally, the soldiers were fast, and it was the most important thing to immediately send troops to the thieves' dens, but the time dragged on for a long time, and there were many dreams at night, so that the thieves were prepared to detect and even escape. But he also knows that many things have been brought to the official face, and he can't be as fast as he wants.

"Jiye, you're here, go, Mei Cheng is waiting for us." Li Chunjiang was already waiting for him at the door, and when he saw him coming, he said with a smile.

"Look at this formation, who's coming?"

Li Chunjiang glanced at the carriages and horses, and said softly, "It's really not small, the matter of the Lin family's village is not small, and now even the governor's yamen knows about it, I heard that the governor has slapped the table and solved the case within a time limit." You know, recently, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others have fallen back in the Junzhou area, and people everywhere are panicking. At this time, there was such a tragedy, and the top was very angry. ”

"No, Lu Zhixian is here, and Huangzhou Wei also sent a thousand households to come in person, and Bingbeidao also came in person. As soon as Zhao Bingxian came, he announced that he would take over the matter of taking over the suppression of bandits, and now he was mobilizing the guards of the Huangzhou Guard, as well as the three squads of the nearby township regiments and Xiangyong and Yamen, and it seemed that he was ready to make a big move. Li Chunjiang's words are full of this ridicule.

**There are only a few hundred thieves in the thief's den, and there are only more than 100 young thieves left. To deal with them, there is no need for such a big motivation to fight, and the Baoshengbao Township Regiment will be dispatched directly to ensure success.

However, Zhao Bingxian has the power in his hands, and everyone can only abide by it.

The military preparation road is a kind of sub-patrol road, which is under the inspection department of the three divisions of each province. At first, there was no such official position and organization, but after the beginning of the middle and early Ming Dynasty, it began to set up sub-guards and sub-patrol roads in important areas of the country under the three divisions and the state capitals.

The military garrison is specially responsible for military affairs and food and wages, and also manages justice, patrolling and prohibiting illicit tea, water conservancy, military cantonment, etc., and can directly participate in battles. Therefore, the military preparation road can actually be regarded as the commander of the local military district, especially for the regional military aspect of the jurisdiction is very great.

There are two military roads in the Huguang area, the official name of the military preparation road in the jurisdiction of Macheng is the Xiajiang Defense Road, stationed in Qizhou, in charge of the Han River and down to Qihuang De'an and other places, the entire eastern Hubei is under the jurisdiction of the Xiajiang Defense Road, and Zhao Bingxian's official position is the Xiajiang Defense Road Military Preparation Affair.

To put it bluntly, these Daotai stationed in various places are actually equivalent to small governors, but the jurisdiction is not as large as the governor, but the jurisdiction over the prefectures and counties under their jurisdiction is very strong.

Zhao Bingxian came in person, so he naturally became the commander-in-chief of this crackdown on bandits.

After Liu Jun entered the conference hall, he recognized Zhao Bingxian at a glance. In the hall, there was only this official robe wearing a cyan robe, and there was a white pheasant on the robe. Liu Jun knows. The official robes of the officials of the Ming Dynasty from five to seven grades were all cyan, and only the civil officials of the fifth grade used white pheasants.

Zhao Bingxian is a civil official with five grades. Like governors, governors, and soldiers, they have no rank in themselves, and the rank of the officials who hold these positions must be according to their own duties. For example, most of the military preparations are appointed by the deputy envoy of the inspection department and the deputy envoy of the inspection department, and the deputy envoy of the inspection and envoy department is the fourth grade, and the deputy envoy is the fifth grade.

Now that Zhao Bingxian's patch is a white pheasant of the fifth grade, then his duty is to follow the affairs of the Inspectorate.

Although it is only five products, the eight counties of Qihuang and Huang are all under his jurisdiction.

Liu Jun was looking at Zhao Bingxian, but Zhao Bingxian was also looking at Liu Jun and Li Chunjiang, who had just come in.

"These two young talents must be the captain and deputy of the nine-headed bird horse team that just wiped out a group of murderous thieves in the first battle." Zhao Bingxian looks like he is in his early forties, with a cyan official robe, a black gauze hat on his head, and five locks of long beard, which is a little thin but very elegant.

He looked at Liu Jun and the others with admiration, "Li Chunjiang and Li Gongji, Shangke Huguangxiang tried to solve the Yuan, a genius who has been known from all over the world since he was a child." Liu Jun Liu Jiye, a student member of Huangzhou Weiwu, with courage and wisdom, excellent martial arts and specially recruited into martial arts, both of them are just twenty years old this year, amazing, it is really a talented person from the country, the official really can't imagine that the two such young talents, it only took more than a month to recruit and train the nine-headed bird and horse team, and then they were able to exterminate more than 50 thieves in a battle. ”

Liu Jun and Li Chunjiang stepped forward to salute, and then said, "This is all commanded by Lu Zhixian and Mei Gong." ”

Zhao Cheng just smiled, although he was a civil official, he still knew very well about the habit of praising people in the officialdom. When he came, he had already sent someone to carefully inquire about the bandit this time, as well as Li Chunjiang and Liu Jun who came into his sight. Therefore, he knew very well that the battle of Xing'an Temple this time was a victory won by these two or two young men themselves.

It's just that he didn't break it either.

"Give two young heroes a reward of one hundred taels of silver each!" Zhao Cheng was very happy that he had such a capable young man under his command, and it was rare to give him two hundred taels of silver as a reward.

Liu Jun saw that Zhao Cheng only rewarded the two of them, but did not reward the team members, and knew in his heart that this Zhao Bingxian wanted to entrap them, so he only nodded and thanked him.

Zhao Cheng turned his head to Mei Zhihuan and said, "Mei Gong, I didn't expect that there was such a talented young man under your command, but he still hid it and didn't recommend it to the imperial court, which is a bit unkind." ”

Although Mei Zhihuan is in the township, after all, he was also born in Jinshi, he is still a Jishi, and he has served two governors, so he still has the posture of a senior in front of Zhao Cheng, waved his hand and smiled, "There are many outstanding people in Eastern Hubei who are so promising. ”

The two laughed together.

"Then Mei Gong has to give me a good introduction." Zhao Cheng said with a smile.

"The old man is also trying to introduce a few young and handsome people to Zhao Bingxian."

Mei Zhihuan began to introduce the people in the hall to Zhao Cheng one by one, and among the people in the hall, there were several officers in the township regiment, among which the battalion officer was Hu Gongguo, who was famous for his merits, and several captains with the fame of Xiucai, Xiucai Lu Yuansun, Lu Yuanrang brothers and Xiucai Zhou Muying, these four people are all locals of Macheng.

In addition, there are Huanggang Xiucai Wang Guangshu, Yang Jishan, Yi Daosan, Yi Mingfu, Ma Shiying, Wang Zhijing, Dai Jin, Fan Weizhang, Huang An's Cheng Jishan, Wu Zaiyu, Jiang Zhongqing, Wu Guoyu, Geng Yingqu, Zhou Congxian, Qin Zihui, He Binran, Zhang Xiangfei and so on.

These people come from eight counties in the two provinces of eastern Hubei Province, both such as Lu Yuansun who are directly subordinate to the Baoshengbao Township Regiment, and some are supernumerary township regiment leaders, but these people all have the same identity, either they are people or show talents, or they are prison students, martial artists, and they are all children of big families in various places, all of them are local wealthy squires, and their township regiments are mainly based on their own families.

Zhao Cheng personally rushed to command the suppression of bandits, and Mei Zhihuan immediately sent people to invite these gentry who were leading the armed forces of the squires.

Looking at these people, Liu Jun was really a little staggered, this was only a small part of the people who came, and there were many people who didn't come for a while. Originally, he thought that Mei Zhihuan's township courage had thousands of people, which was really awesome, but now he realized that it was just the tip of the iceberg. There are many gentry in eastern Hubei region, and the squire armament is also amazing, they have long had a loose alliance, and the squire armament in the eight counties of Qihuang Prefecture is really to be counted, and it may have exceeded 10,000 people.

However, it is not surprising to think about it, the guards of the Ming Dynasty have long been eroded, especially in inland areas like Huguang, which are even more erosive and lax. As early as many years ago, the Xunyang area exploded into a rebellion of displaced people, and the mountainous area of Xunshan once gathered millions of displaced people, and finally after the imperial court put down the rebellion, it was not even allowed to set up a new government there, and sent a governor.

However, over the years, large and small rebellions have continued, thieves have also swarmed, and the squires cannot rely on the army of the imperial court, and can only rely on themselves to protect their property, land and personal safety. Up to now, all major families have their own family teams, and the slightly larger families have even established township groups, with small ones of dozens and hundreds of large ones.

And the imperial court is completely acquiesced and even supportive of these situations.

The squires paid for their own food, recruited family members, purchased ordnance, equipped village warriors, and protected the territory and people, which also reduced a lot of burdens for local officials.

Zhao Cheng was full of enthusiasm for the squires in the hall, and later, he also began to introduce the people on his side.

The first one is a big fat man, who looks like a butcher, but has a five-grade official rank, and is a thousand households of Huangzhou Wei, named Zhu Pet, who was ordered to take 200 people to follow Zhao Cheng to suppress the bandits. However, of his 200 people, only 50 of them can fight, and the rest of the 150 are just his tenants, and they can't even line up a decent queue.

Although he is a fifth-grade military attaché, the military attache is far inferior to a civilian official, not to mention that he is still a military attache of the guard, so in front of Zhao Cheng, a military commander who was born as a serious jinshi, he behaved like a guard leader.

Even Zhu Pet was very humble when facing Liu Jun and other leaders of the township. Although he is a serious officer, and there are only a group of township leaders who have no rank and no rank, but they all have meritorious fame such as showing off their talents, and they are still the gentry of the big clans in various townships, Zhu Pet does not dare to be rude and offend.

The rest of the people are the leaders of Zhang Cheng's family, in addition to several officials, plus several petty officials in Huangzhou Mansion.

Zhu Pet greeted people with a smile on his face, but few people here were really willing to take care of him seriously, and the officers of the Ming Dynasty's guard were really as annoying as Tuo shit in the eyes of those squires.

But Liu Jun responded to him very enthusiastically.

"Liu Jun has seen Master Zhu."

When Zhu Pet saw Liu Jun's good attitude, he couldn't help but feel a little flattered, but one person was willing to look at him squarely.

"It's really terrifying, Team Liu is a member of our Huangzhou Weiwu Academy, and we are still a family."

Liu Jun smiled, "Yes, when I see Zhu Qianhu, I feel like I have seen my own family." Without Huang Zhouwei's cultivation, I Liu Jun would not have what I am today. ”

This made Zhu Pet very useful, "You are so good, it is a pity to stay in the township, look back, I will make a statement to the commander, recommend you to enter our Huangzhou Wei position, as long as you are willing, brother, I dare to promise you, come to my thousand households, I will protect a hundred households." ”

Liu Jun didn't believe in his guarantee at all, although the hundred households were small, but he also managed more than 100 people, how could he say that he would allow a thousand households, not to mention, the guard, that kind of erosive place, he didn't want to go.

"Thank you Lord Zhu for your kindness, it's just that Prince Chunjiang pulled me to help him manage the Nine-Headed Bird and Horse Team, I can't just leave."

"Yes, too." As soon as Zhu Fatzi heard Li Chunjiang's name, he hurriedly dispelled the idea of poaching people, this is Li Chunjiang, and he can't afford to mess with the Li family.

At this time, Zhao Cheng saw that the two sides knew each other, and said with a smile, "Okay, now that everyone has arrived, let's also discuss how to attack the thief's den and destroy the thief in one fell swoop." Gongji and Jiye, two heroes, why don't you talk about your views first? ”

"There are adults and seniors here, the two of us are just juniors, how dare we get a big axe in front of Luban, or ask the adults to arrange the deployment, we nine-headed birds follow the order."

In front of so many people, Liu Jun didn't want to be in the limelight anymore, after all, Mu Xiu would be destroyed by Lin Feng. With the victory in the previous battle, the nine-headed bird has already played its own prestige. In the next battle, they just need to fight soy sauce in the back. Anyway, with so many soldiers and horses, no matter how the command is deployed, there will be no problems in this battle.

Tomorrow's troop dispatch, the nine-headed bird will treat him as a long-distance training and marching exercise. No matter how they fight, the Hydra is just going to be a cheerleader.

By the way, you can also earn a sum of silver and food.