Ma Fengyi waved the whip vigorously, constantly whipping the war horse under his crotch, his face was full of enthusiasm and excitement, and he was still warning the generals who charged together: "Don't pay attention to the secret posts of the chaotic army, it matters where Wang Ziyong and the others are, and they must not be allowed to escape into the valley ahead." ”

"Yes, General!"

"Driving ......"

Everyone understands that although the combat effectiveness of these bandits is not strong, their life-saving skills are first-class, once they get into the deep mountains and old forests, they are like loaches in the mud, slippery, and difficult to catch again!

Therefore, it is very important to capture the thief and capture the king first! What's more, as long as you rush into the army of bandits, even if you don't catch the bandit leader, as long as you can stop that cart of gold, silver, jewelry, and grain, it will be a great victory, and the trip will be guaranteed.

Therefore, at this moment, everyone was galloping wildly, constantly spurring the war horses, as the valley became clearer and clearer, and the distance was getting closer and closer, he became more and more excited, and the blood in his body was burning and galloping.

"It's not good, run away, the officers and soldiers are coming!"

Finally, the bandits' "military families" and a wagon escorting the "goods" appeared in Ma Fengyi's sight, and the bandits' ranks instantly became in turmoil, constantly running and rushing towards the valley.

Screams erupted, carriages overturned without warning, and gold, silver and jewels scattered all over the place, shining under the reflection of the scorching sun, also stimulating the nerves of the officers and cavalry.

Especially seeing that the carriage followed the flow of people to the valley and continued to enter the valley, Ma Fengyi could no longer maintain her composure, became more and more crazy and excited, and shouted: "Don't pay attention to the property on the ground, intercept the bandits first!" ”

No one objected, and they galloped forward in unison, and everyone knew that the chariots that were about to enter the valley were the point, and that the possessions were far more valuable than the gold, silver, and jewels on the ground.

At this moment, the officers and soldiers in black armor were like a torrent of steel, surging towards the valley at a rapid speed, chasing and killing the bandits without any scruples, as if they had eaten the other party, and decided that the other party would not produce any moths, as usual, seeing the officers and soldiers was like a mouse seeing a cat, and there would never be any conspiracy.

At the same time, Li Zicheng led a team of men and horses, standing on a commanding height in the valley, his body was all covered by lush grass and trees, quietly watching all this, like an outsider, watching a lively scene.

"This Ma Fengyi is really bold enough, seeing Gao Jie and Li Shuangxi and their disguised family members of the army, it is like taking medicine, and they are chasing and killing together without any scruples, without worrying that there will be an ambush in the valley, it is really a straw bag."

Li Zicheng held the binoculars in his hand, looking at the situation at the entrance of the valley, while muttering to himself, Gu Junen on the side responded seriously: "Boss, there is nothing strange about this, I think these officers and soldiers have long had a fixed thinking, as long as the rebel army formed by the people, from the leader to the peddlers and pawns, they are all reckless, how can they know what kind of war strategy?" ”

Li Zicheng put down the binoculars, glanced back at Gu Junen, showed a thoughtful look, nodded his head slightly, and replied as if he had an understanding: "That's right, in the past, the reason why the rebel armies from all walks of life won a big victory, and they were able to capture the city, luck occupied a great advantage, almost all of them relied on the advantage of numbers, and rushed forward in a swarm, how can there be any strategy?" ”

"Yes, Boss." Gu Junen echoed a sentence, and further said: "Like Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan, the people have long been boiling with grievances, and the people are unwilling to suffer. ”

Thundered!

A landslide and tsunami-like rumbling sound suddenly sounded, interrupting the conversation between the two!

I saw that on both sides of the entrance to the valley, there were boulders rolling down from the valley, or smashing into the official cavalry that entered the valley, or blocking the entrance to the valley.

"Not good, there is an ambush!"

Ma Fengyi's heart and liver were trembling, and her face had already turned to ashes, constantly calming the panicked war horse, avoiding the rocks falling from above, and stabilizing the situation as much as possible.

However, the situation has long been out of control, and it has become chaotic, dusty, and blood is splattered, so that no one can see the situation in the vicinity clearly, and they are simply avoiding and fleeing by feeling.

"It's over... It's over..."

These are the last four words that Ma Fengyi left in the world, and she was instantly hit on the head by a stone, fell off the horse, and her body was constantly crushed or hit by the war horse.

Gu Junen, who was standing on the hillside, watched all this dumbly, he didn't expect things to go so smoothly, the ambush soldiers on both sides of the valley had not yet moved, but those officers and cavalry had been wiped out, and they were killed and injured by stones.

As the minutes passed, the picture of the battlefield began to become clear.

Looking at the chaotic scene, seeing the bloody scene, there were constantly smashed brains of officials and soldiers, and blood flowed everywhere, Gu Junen was a spirit, cold sweat broke out on his back, he seemed to think of something, and suddenly said worriedly: "Boss, is the action a little early?" According to the plan, it was not to let the cavalry of the official army come in and deal with it with ambushes, so as to capture the war horses. Now that it's like this, those war horses will definitely not be able to be used, and those leaders who want war horses will not say anything? ”

"It's okay..."

Li Zicheng replied disappreciatively, as if he was talking to himself, as if he was explaining, and continued: "If you really fight with a knife and a real gun, you don't know how many people will be sacrificed? If the leaders wanted a war horse, they would take it themselves, and exchange the lives of their soldiers for it, but they would not dare to say anything. ”

"What's more, those people have two hearts, can they pass with us, go and join the high leaders, and say that it is not necessarily, why should I fulfill them?"

Hearing the last sentence, a flash of realization flashed in Gu Junen's mind, Li Zicheng did it on purpose, but he didn't continue to think about it, and then seemed to think of another thing, and reminded him: "Boss, there are more than 1,000 infantry in the official army outside the valley, do you want Li Mu and them to return to the army to clean it up, and solve it all, it will definitely be able to give Deng Xi a heavy blow." ”

"No need." Li Zicheng shook his head, replied lightly, did not explain anything, turned around and walked down the mountain.

At this time, Tian Jianxiu walked up, stood beside Gu Junen, and said in a low voice: "Gu Junshi, you should know that the boss has been thinking about removing the two major burdens of the army, and now he finally has no one of them, just seize this opportunity and remove the other, how could the boss miss such a good opportunity and forget about the big burden of the army in order to eliminate more than a thousand officers and soldiers?" ”

After this reminder, some information immediately appeared in Gu Junen's mind, the two major burdens of the army, one is the huge number of family members of the army, and the other is the gold, silver, jewelry, grain and grass captured by the various rebel armies.

However, Gu Junen still didn't figure out the key crux of it, didn't understand what Tian Jianxiu meant, frowned slightly, and asked in a deep voice: "Captain Tian, what do you mean....?" ”

"Master Gu, why don't you understand? The reason why the boss let go of these thousand imperial infantry was to pass on the news here to Deng Xi, Zuo Liangyu and others, so that they were furious and frantically chased and killed us. ”

Tian Jianxiu paused, glanced at Gu Junen meaningfully, and continued vaguely: "In this way, in the face of the crazy pursuit of the officials and soldiers, even if those leaders are willing or not, they have to discard the cart of gold, silver and jewelry, and have to follow lightly and march quickly. ”

In an instant, a bright color flashed in Gu Junen's eyes, and he suddenly said uncertainly: "Captain Tian, what do you mean, the boss is borrowing a knife......

"Thou shalt not speak, thou shalt not speak." Tian Jianxiu immediately interrupted Gu Junen's words, then raised his eyes and reminded in a low voice: "Gu Junshi, you and I can understand in our hearts, if you say it, it is easy to make contradictions and make those leaders dissatisfied, this is not what the boss wants to see." ”

"Yes, yes, how did I forget about this stubble."

Gu Junen instantly understood, and while responding, he showed self-blame on his face, swallowed back the words that followed, and changed his words vividly.

In the middle of the night, in Anyang City, Zhangde Mansion, in the post station, in Xuan Mo's room, under the dim light, the candlelight flickered, Xuan Mo's brows were wrinkled or spread, and he was dealing with the lines of various places, as well as some urgent military situations, and his expression was a little tired.

Knock knock...

With a crisp knock on the door, but no one entered, Xuan Mo subconsciously stopped correcting the text, held the brush in his right hand, looked up, and asked with a little impatience: "It's so late, who?" What's the matter? ”

"Lord Qiyu, General Deng asked to see him, saying that there was an urgent military report." A dark figure in the shape of a soldier stood outside the door, responding respectfully.

"It's so late, what emergency military situation can there be?"

Xuan Mo muttered to himself, but he didn't dare to delay, and hurriedly said in a loud voice: "Hurry up and invite General Deng to come in!" ”

Not long after, Deng Xi hurriedly walked into the room, his armor clanged, his face was full of anxiety, as soon as he saw Xuan Mo, he didn't wait for the other party to speak, he couldn't help but say in a deep voice: "My lord, it's not good, the troops of Ma Fengyi, the local official of Sichuan Shizhu, were ambushed by bandits, and almost all the troops were wiped out. ”

"What? What's going on? When did it happen? Xuan Mo exclaimed, asked three times in a row, and at the same time stood up stubbornly, his face full of disbelief.

Seeing Xuan Mo like this, Deng Xi secretly shouted luckily, but fortunately there was no delay, as soon as he got the news of Ma Fengyi's death, he immediately rushed to Zhangde Mansion to report the matter.

After these thoughts flashed in his heart, Deng Xi hurriedly gathered his mind, calmed down his emotions, and groaned slightly, and then roughly told Ma Fengyi what happened to him.

Gradually, with Deng Xi's narration, Xuan Mo began to calm down, revealing a solemn expression, as soon as Deng Xi finished speaking, he pretended to be calm and said: "In this way, the responsibility for this matter lies with General Ma, who acted too recklessly and underestimated the enemy, so he was ambushed by the bandits, and General Deng does not have to blame himself." ”

Hearing Xuan Mo say this, Deng Xi's heart really relaxed, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but he still reminded cautiously and cautiously: "My lord, judging from the stories of the surviving soldiers, under Wang Ziyong's men, there are not only fierce generals like Li Zicheng, but also other masters, who are proficient in military books and war strategies, and are good at conspiracies and weirdness. Otherwise, General Ma would not have been killed. ”

"General Deng, you reminded you well, it seems that we have despised these thieves, and they have begun to change, and they are no longer like in the past, where they only know how to act recklessly and act rashly."

Xuan Mo's words paused, his expression became more and more solemn, and the next words became a little lower.

"Moreover, these bandits not only replenish their military resources extremely quickly, they are good at deceiving the people and bewitching the people, but they also began to absorb those people of insight and people who read, so that their combat effectiveness began to improve and began to slowly regain their disadvantage."

A hint of surprise flashed on Deng Xi's face, he didn't expect the civil official in front of him to be so insightful and insightful, and he even saw the key crux of the problem, and then he also expressed his similar opinion.

"Yes, my lord, after the battles of the past few years, these bandits have become more and more experienced in combat, and they know more about giving full play to their own advantages, confronting the imperial court, playing hide and seek with us, running around, and it is a head-on confrontation with the official army."

"Now it seems that these bandits are still in the climate, and they know how to deal with the officers and soldiers. If we add that we are in the same stream with some literati and artists, if we want to encircle and suppress again, it will not be as smooth and easy as before. Especially in recent days, these bandits have seen that the momentum is not right, they either drill into the mountains or hide in the old forest, we can't do anything about them. ”

As soon as he said this, Deng Xi felt that his brain hurt, and he thought that the bandits were becoming more and more slippery, like loaches.

At this moment, don't look at Xuan Mo's calm face, his heart is also messy, it's annoying, and there is nothing he can do about those bandits.

For a while, neither of them spoke, just maintained their respective postures, standing and sitting, both frowning.

After a while, Xuan Mo's frowning brows stretched for a moment, and he groaned slightly, and then said in a deep voice: "Hmm... Now that they have found traces of the king's own use, they know where they are fleeing. In this way, General Deng, you should prepare and act together with Zuo Liangyu and Cao Wenzhao to capture them in one fell swoop. Even if you can't catch the living, you can still die. In any case, General Ma died, not only to avenge him, but also to give an explanation to the imperial court. ”

Hearing this, Deng Xi's face suddenly turned happy, and he couldn't help asking, "My lord, is General Cao coming soon?" ”

"Well, yes, in the next two days, I will set off from Tianjingguan in Shanxi, enter Huaiqing Mansion, and encircle and suppress the bandits with you."

However, Xuan Mo was not as happy as Deng Xi, and his tone was full of helplessness.

Seeing Xuan Mo like this, Deng Xi seemed to think of something, his expression was constricted, and he said persuasively: "My lord, why are you so worried? The reason why Lord Xu did that must have his own hardships, so he doesn't have to mind. ”

To Deng Xi's surprise, Xuan Mo shook his head slightly, his face was complicated, and he responded with little interest: "General Deng, you misunderstood, this official does not have an opinion on Lord Xu. Whoever holds the post of governor of Shanxi, I can understand that eight out of ten will do the same in the face of such a situation. ”

"If you change to this official, you must also make the same measures as Lord Xu, not only to exterminate the bandits in Runcheng and drive them to other places, but also to take back the Tianjing Pass, completely cutting off the thieves from Huaiqing Mansion from entering Shanxi."

"That's... My lord, why are you worried? Deng Xi was stunned for a moment, and blurted out a question in confusion.