One day after the autumn harvest, Wu Shigong received a message from the official sent by Yu Zilian, the county commander, in the fortress of Qianhusuo: Let Wu Shigong go to the county government to discuss matters.

After knowing that Yu Zilian became the county magistrate, Wu Shigong and Yu Zilian were as if they didn't exist in front of each other, and they didn't get along with each other. No one wants to add a block to their hearts.

And this time, Yu Zilian took the initiative to send someone to find Wu Shigong, and sent the officials in the county government, not the small servants around Yu Zilian, so there must be official matters to discuss. Wu Shigong didn't dare to slack off, so he hurriedly put on his official robes, took the guards, and followed this official to the county office.

But as soon as they met, Yu Zilian didn't have any nonsense with Wu Shigong at all, he threw Wu Shigong a copy of the official document and said: "Wu Qianhu will follow the requirements of the official document and do things well." Then he turned and went into the inner hall and departed.

Wu Shigong opened the official document and saw that this official document was an official document jointly issued by the Yamen of the Governor of Henan Province and the Yamen of Guide Prefecture to the local guards and garrisons. The content of the official document roughly means: In view of the fact that after the rebellion of the Holy Spirit Society, many of the scattered rebels have fallen into the grass, resulting in rampant banditry, so all guard posts and garrisons are required to carry out joint actions to suppress bandits in their own defense areas this winter.

After reading the content of this official document, Wu Shigong scolded in his heart: A large part of his current income is the escort fee for escorting the caravan. If all the bandits are wiped out, there will be no one to hire them to escort the caravan. I finally balanced my income and expenditure, but I didn't expect such a demon moth to come out now.

However, bandits are rampant, and the government orders to exterminate them, which is also a very reasonable and normal order, and it is impossible to disobey it yourself. Therefore, Wu Shigong still decided to go back and discuss with some people to see if there was any good way to disobey the yin.

After returning to the fortress of Qianhusuo, Wu Shigong gathered all his main leaders and asked everyone to work together to find a good solution.

Zhang Xuebin first said: "Owner, in fact, you don't have to worry too much about this matter. Although the official document said that it was a joint crackdown on bandits, the students thought that it was still the same as in the past, when everyone swept the snow in front of the door. The proprietor is just to exterminate the bandits in the county. However, there were not many bandits in the county on the two routes where the owner escorted the caravan, and those bandits were all in the defense areas of other military attachés. For so many years, their military attachés have not eliminated these bandits, and this eradication will definitely have no effect. ”

Listening to Zhang Xuebin's words, Wu Shigong nodded and relieved himself a little. What Zhang Xuebin said is indeed true. In view of Wu Shigong's prestige, in the vicinity of the fortress of Qianhusuo, there are actually no bandits who dare to settle down and rob. The bandits in this county are basically in some areas on the edge of this county.

Then Deng Qifan came up with another idea: "My lord, the student has an idea here. Since the adults want to suppress the bandits, then go to the bandits with great fanfare. As long as the adults release the news of the bandits, those bandits also have feet, and they will definitely be busy running away. When the time comes, the adults will just go out and hang around, which can be regarded as coping with errands. And after those bandits came back, it wasn't business as usual. This is also the self-respect of raising Kou! ”

Wu Shigong nodded again and again when he heard this, Deng Qifan's idea was even better. It's really a short one, and two long! That's it. So, Wu Shigong immediately asked Zhang Xuebin to write two official documents, and sent people to submit them to Yu Zilian, the county commander, and Zhao Ming, the commander of Dewei, respectively.

In the official document, Wu Shigong wrote in detail that he would carry out the county's anti-bandit operation a month later, that is, on November 6. Moreover, Wu Shigong also explained in detail his marching route and the suppression of bandits in official documents. In addition, Wu Shigong also sent people to the county seat to post posters all over the county, announcing that he was going to suppress bandits.

Wu Shigong didn't believe it: Those bandits don't have any eyeliner in the government and the county seat? They're sure they'll get the news of their own bandits. Some bandits with great powers can even get their own marching routes and actions from the government.

By that time, these bandits could survive as long as they avoided their own army. And Wu Shigong also carried out an armed march, which can be regarded as the execution of the order of the superior yamen to suppress bandits.

But Wu Shigong never expected that the notices he posted in the county town would bring Wu Shigong a lot of trouble. Because these proclamations were written in accordance with the public format of the Ming Dynasty's proclamations on bandits, the general content of this proclamation is:

First of all, of course, he reprimanded some of the evil deeds of the bandits in a high-sounding manner, and then let these bandits lose their way and accept the court's recruitment, and the court did not investigate their previous crimes. Otherwise, the imperial court will send a large army to give these bandits a thunderous blow.

Originally, the official article on the notice, Wu Shigong and these people felt that there should not be any problems. But unexpectedly, it was precisely this bulletin that gave a great shock to the bandits who knew the content of the notice and caused a huge repercussion.

This starts with the composition of the bandits in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, bandits were generally divided into three types: one was a semi-bandit who was a farmer in normal times and a bandit in his spare time. Most of these bandits are actually supported by local tyrants and gentry, and they are not real bandits. Of course, it is not easy to find these bandits from the common people.

The second type is horse banditry. Horse bandits are also roving bandits, and they usually have horses in order to maintain their mobility. However, in Henan, the hinterland of the Central Plains, the horse bandits did not have a fixed foothold to rest, nor did they have any fixed points to sell stolen goods. In addition, Henan, the hinterland of the Central Plains, is full of cities and large armies. Therefore, in Henan, the number of horse bandits is relatively small, and they are relatively miserable.

The third type is to build a stockade on a remote mountain. The bandits were basically made up of refugees who had fled and refugees who had escaped from the imperial court taxes and forced labor. Therefore, in these villages, there are often families of those mountain bandits.

In addition to a part of the income of the mountain bandits, a large part of their income is actually obtained by cultivating land and growing grain in the mountains.

It can be seen from this that aside from the first type of semi-bandits, the life of the latter two bandits is actually not easy.

In addition, in this year of great drought, the grain planted by the mountain bandits is basically not harvested. So for these bandits, how to survive this winter has become a difficult problem.

And now Wu Shigong's proclamation has pointed out a path for these bandits. These bandits are also very well informed. The bravery of Wu Shigong's army, these bandits also know, let them directly resist Wu Shigong's army, these bandits will definitely not dare.

However, these bandits also inquired that Wu Shigong was really good to the captured rebels, and took them all into house slaves, and let these house slaves be fed and clothed. And although Wu Shigong, a thousand households, is fierce and vicious, judging from the rumors, this thousand households are also very reasonable and credible.

Now that Wu Shigong has proposed Zhao'an to these bandits, why don't Weishenme give it a try? No matter how bad it is, it's better than starving to death this winter. There are also some bandit leaders with flexible brains, thinking that after they defect to Wu Shigong, with their own ability, they may be able to earn an official and a half position, and they will also be able to glorify their ancestors!

So a few days after Wu Shigong's notice was posted, a team of horse bandits with more than a dozen people came to Wu Shigong's Qianhusuo fortress to surrender. At this time, Wu Shigong was quite happy to see that there were horse bandits coming to surrender. They were all recruited on the spot, and put into the horse corps, and fifty percent of their salaries were paid.

In addition, Wu Shigong also promised these dozen horse bandits: As long as these horse bandits pass the examination in a few months, they will enjoy all the treatment of soldiers.

Wu Shigong's move inadvertently played the role of a thousand golden bones, and immediately caused a huge sensation in the local bandit community.

Then there were more and more bandit envoys who came to Wu Shigong to contact Zhao'an. At first, Wu Shigong accepted it all, but gradually, Wu Shigong realized that something was wrong. In just a few days, Wu Shigong found that the bandits and their families in Zhao'an exceeded 1,000 people.

Raising more than 1,000 people is also a big expense for Wu Shigong! So Wu Shigong began to raise the standard: it was stipulated that the bandits who accepted Zhao'an must carry a horse, and Wu Shigong also accepted the four family members of the bandits with horses as domestic slaves.

This led to a rapid increase in the incidence of horse robberies in the vicinity, and the price of horses in several nearby mule and horse markets skyrocketed. The bandits who surrendered here to the fortress of Senhusho are still endless.

At this time, Wu Shigong was surprised to find that he had not yet sent troops, and all the bandits in his county area were about to be recruited by himself. This can't be done, Wu Shigong still has to raise some bandits to ensure that he can collect the escort fee for the caravan.

So Wu Shigong braked urgently. He registered all the bandits who would later accept Zhao'an, and promised them that in the next few years, he would gradually arrange for them to accept Zhao'an.

In addition, Wu Shigong also gave them some food according to the population of these bandits' cottages to ensure that the people in the cottages would not starve to death. This farce of suppressing bandits, Wu Shigong just sat at home and easily completed it.

In the process of recruiting security, Wu Shigong recruited more than 400 bandits with horses (these bandits with horses did not necessarily ride horses), and accepted more than 1,800 bandit family members as his domestic slaves. Among these family members, there are also five or six hundred young people. And Wu Shigong also relieved the bandits who had not yet been recruited more than 1,800 stone of grain.

In addition, almost all the bandits in Wu Shigong's county raised their sincerity to Wu Shigong. It can be said that Wu Shigong used his own food to complete his own anti-bandit operation. Of course, for Wu Shigong, providing for so many more people will definitely increase his own expenses. Now Wu Shigong has a deficit on his books again.

After all this, Wu Shigong finally breathed a sigh of relief. But before Wu Shigong could take a breath, the bandits in the neighboring counties also came to surrender to Wu Shigong after getting the news of Wu Shigong's recruitment.