The reader must be surprised that the officers and soldiers could be so slow to react. The Mengshan Army has occupied Zhengjiazhuang and other three villages for nearly three months, and the officers and troops stationed in Yizhou, Caozhou and other places have been indifferent.

To put it simply, the officers and soldiers were not as imagined, and when they heard the news of the bandits, they sent troops in the starry night. Subjectively speaking, officers and soldiers generally do not have the enthusiasm to take the initiative to attack. Objectively speaking, the officers and troops of Yizhou, Yanzhou, and Caozhou also encountered trouble themselves, that is, the Boxer Movement that had spread. In particular, the Caozhou area has become the hardest hit area. There were repeated incidents of burning churches and attacking and killing foreigners, each of which caused a diplomatic reaction, which made Yuan Shikai, the governor of Shandong, very angry, and strictly ordered the garrisons in various places to disband the boxers to protect the church and the foreigners.

Cao Kun and Li Chun, the commander of Caozhou, did not dare to slack off, and divided their troops in all directions, focusing on protecting the church, and deployed troops, especially Caozhou, where the situation was the most serious, Cao Kun could not kill the Yihequan, but also to ensure that there would be no vicious accidents, so he thought of a stupid way to disperse his troops and stationed troops in villages and towns where there were churches.

In Cao Kun's view, the Boxers were a group of peasants who hated foreigners, and they did not raise the banner of rebellion, let alone attack the government and the official army, so of course they could not be suppressed by force. Cao Kun himself has no good impression of foreigners, and the slogan of killing foreigners and returning peace shouted by Yihequan is a little kind, and his explanation to his subordinates is that it is necessary to separate the boxers from the foreigners. Be sure not to have an accident that kills a foreigner.

Due to the blockage of the news, Cao Kun had no idea that the remnants of Mengshan, who had brought him shame in the Dao, had actually descended the mountain and occupied a large area centered on Zhengjiazhuang.

Until Zheng Jing fled to Caozhou.

Zheng Jing did not go to Yizhou, where his eldest son was, but ran to Caozhou under the escort of more than a dozen family members and found his second son Zheng Du, who was running an errand under Cao Kun.

Hearing that Zhengjiazhuang was attacked and occupied by Xiangma, and that the aunt and little sister had fallen into the hands of thieves, and their lives and deaths were unknown, Zheng Du was taken aback, and his first feeling was that the strongman holding the calf had gone down the mountain again. He knew the strength of Zhengjiazhuang, and the small Xiangma didn't dare to fight Zhengjiazhuang's idea at all.

The details provided by Zheng Jing negate Zheng Du's conjecture - that group of strongmen are all wearing military uniforms, and they are by no means people and horses holding calves, nine times out of ten, they are the Mengshan bandits mentioned in your letter!

The old lady saw it with his own eyes, of course, it won't be fake. Zheng Du suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. In his heart, the Mengshan thief is much more dangerous than holding a calf.

The reason why the Mengshan thieves are so attached to is because of Liang Huada and others released by Long Qian.

Liang Huada and others were released by Long Qian and returned to Caozhou. reported the cause and effect to Cao Kun, and did not hide that half of the people had surrendered to the thief. This result made Cao Kun angry to death. He didn't dare to report the truth to Jinan, so he hid it. Cao Kun, who was quite generous, did not blame Liang Huada too much, and said on the spot that he would send troops to Mengshan again to avenge this.

That's what I said, but it's not easy to do. Not to mention that Caozhou is separated from Mengshan by Yanzhou, a distance of several hundred miles. Cao Kun also needs a reason to send troops to Mengshan, but he has played an official document to Yuan Shikai that the Mengshan thieves have been exterminated, and that manuscript is still written by Zheng Du. Now Mengshan is still entrenched in bandits, is it the remnants of Mengshan or the people and horses of other cottages that have wandered past? These explanations must be flawed. Cao Kun, who has followed Lord Yuan for a long time, knows that in terms of thoughtfulness, the three of you are not worth one of others, so don't be sloppy in front of the shrewd Lord Yuan. Besides, in the previous war, Cao Kun's troops suffered a lot of damage, and although they were greatly expanded, their combat effectiveness was definitely not as good as before, and the troops' actions were no better than those of the ringing horse bandits, and the troops had to pay for the promotion of troops, and those who died in battle had to be burned and buried, and there were more places to spend money, not only the problem of loss of ordnance. Therefore, Liang Huada's report made Cao Kun angry, but he still suppressed it, the banditry situation in Luzhong and Southwest Lu is serious, and the Caozhou area is facing trouble with the boxers, and the troops must not be sent out in a hurry. Therefore, Cao Kun gave Long Qian the opportunity to train calmly.

Of course, Cao Kun can also adopt another responsible attitude, that is, to ask friendly forces to cooperate, such as Li Chun, who was guarding Yizhou, to cooperate in sending troops. But deception of the truth is the common practice in officialdom, so how could Cao Kun take the risk of his future being blocked?

However, Liang Huada's report to him still aroused his great attention, and as far as Liang Huada's reaction was concerned, this bandit led by Long Qian was a little unusual, or very unusual. How can there be a ringing horse for the minions to learn literacy and culture? Cao Kun thought that when he freed his hands, he would completely eliminate this Xiangma that had caused him a lot of trouble, and at the same time, he would also meet this bandit leader named Long Qian. According to Liang Huada, this is a very capable and intelligent guy.

Now, the situation is different again. Zheng Du ran to cry that the Mengshan thieves actually came out of the mountain and broke Zhengjiazhuang in one fell swoop! Look at the map, this Zhuangzi, which is surrounded by mountains, belongs to Yizhou, and not to mention whether he can send troops, even if he sends troops, he should also report to Li Chun, right? Therefore, Cao Kun comforted Zheng Du and made his position clear: he must communicate with Li Chun and Master Li, otherwise he must not act beyond the boundary.

has been in officialdom for a long time, Zheng Du certainly knows the reason why Cao Kun did this. He can pretend to be confused, but he can't: Wan Guan's family wealth, two aunts and little sister are all caught in the hands of thieves, and he knows what happened to Lu Dao when he thinks about it with his toes. If this revenge is not avenged, the descendants of the Zheng family will never think about returning to Zhengjiazhuang, which is the burial place of the ancestors, not to mention ruining the old father, and even the future of himself and his brother is over.

Zheng Du found countless reasons to ask Cao Kun to send troops, but Cao Kun just didn't agree. The actual situation did not allow him to send troops, not only the matter of crossing the line, but more importantly, the matter of the Boxer, which Cao Kun had to handle well.

Zheng Jing urged here, but Cao Kun was cold again. Zheng Du was furious and decided to go to Yizhou, unite with his eldest brother Zheng Cheng, and find a way to get Yizhou to send troops.

He took leave with Cao Kun and prepared to take his father to Yizhou. But at this time, Zheng Jing fell ill again. It's probably a rush to attack the heart. Zheng Du had no choice but to repair a letter to his brother and inform him of what happened in his hometown. On the other hand, a famous doctor was invited to recuperate for his father.

Zheng Cheng, the eldest son of Zheng Cheng, who was a garrison in Yizhou, was taken aback when he received the letter, and he was more anxious than his younger brother. Put down the letter and run to find his friend Li Xiaolin. Li Xiaolin is the staff of Li Chun, the guard of Yizhou, and his identity is just like his brother Zheng Du. Zheng Cheng cried and told this friend who was very talkative about the resurgence of the Mengshan thief Kou Zhengjiazhuang, and asked Li Xiaolin to inform Lord Li Chun of the news. Ask the town guard to send troops to Zhengjiazhuang as soon as possible to avenge his father.

The intersection between Li Xiaolin and Zheng Cheng originated from a chance dinner. At that time, Li Chun had just arrived in Yizhou with two battalions of new troops, and the local military and political leaders took over Li Chun, so Zheng Cheng met Li Xiaolin. Although Zheng Cheng is a five-grade military attaché, he is not enough to directly tie up with Li Chun, a confidant of Yuan Shikai who was born in Tianjin Wubei Academy, and Zheng Cheng, who is good at tying up officialdom, has set his sights on Li Xiaolin. It has long been rumored that the imperial court has plans to abolish the green battalion, but in fact the green battalion is being abolished, and most of it has become a patrol battalion of a public security nature. Zheng Cheng is planning for his future, and it is a good thing to rely on the new army as soon as possible.

Zheng Cheng is a person from all over the world, and he is a rich second generation, with silver in his pocket, Zheng Cheng, who is ambitious in his career, believes that the imperial court now attaches great importance to Yuan Shikai's new army, so he consciously approached Li Xiaolin, his own job is related to the new army, so he often invites Li Xiaolin to drink and listen to the drama and visit the kiln.

Li Xiaolin comforted Zheng Cheng, "Don't worry, I'll tell Master Li." Lord Li was already planning to attack the calf, isn't Guizhuang not far from the calf? Just turn a corner and get things done. ”

Zheng Cheng was overjoyed, "If I have revenge, I am willing to take out five thousand taels of silver to work for the army!" ”

"What kind of army is Lao? There's no place to spend the silver, isn't it? Li Xiaolin pecked at the tooth flower and squinted at Zheng Cheng.

"Brother helps the younger brother with this, the younger brother is very grateful," Zheng Cheng said and took out a silver ticket from his sleeve and stuffed it into Li Xiaolin's hand, "It's Lord Li, the younger brother has already prepared a generous gift." I hope my brother will have a lot of good words. ”

Li Xiaolin peeked at him, and saw that what he gave himself was a thousand taels of silver tickets from Beijing Hengxing Qianzhuang, which passed through several northern provinces, and he was immediately overjoyed, "I mean, the official army is in charge of suppressing bandits, since it is the elder brother who is in trouble, how can I do nothing?" Your trouble is my trouble, let's go, let's go see Master Li Chun, you tell him in person. But you know what to say, right? ”

"I want my brother to teach me."

"The generals of the new army are eager to fight for merit, and Master Li has the intention of sending troops, but he must not exaggerate his banditry. Although there are hundreds of village soldiers in Guizhuang, they must all be rabble, where can they compare to the fierceness of the ringing horse? In addition, you say that those thieves are the fish that slipped through the net in Cao Kun's hands? ”

"You can't be wrong. She brother is delicate, and he will never be so sure if he is not sure. ”

"That's it. In this way, you come with me, and let's see if Master Li is free. ”

Zheng Cheng understood what Li Xiaolin meant, Li Chun just wanted Cao Kun to look good, if Li Chun killed the gangsters in Cao Kun's hands, it would be a slap in the face to Cao Kun.