On the official road leading to Chengyi Mansion.

An army of 5,000 men was advancing.

All the cities along the way saw this undisguised army, but to the surprise of these city chiefs, they did not receive the news that there was a royal army to cross the border!

Soon, someone recognized that this was the Pingwu army who had gone to Huangshan Mansion before, and they wondered how the Pingwu army came here, and at the same time reported the news to all of them.

Soon, Heyue Mansion received the news that the Pingwu army was heading east, and Zhao Ansheng sneered indifferently after learning about it:

"Keep an eye on them, I want to see what they want to do, there is no will to cut them first and then play, if they have any out-of-line behavior, immediately pretend to be them and give them a good drink!"

Chengyi Mansion also received the news quickly, and Zhao Cheng, the prefect of Chengyi Mansion, who was the party concerned, only thought about it, and immediately understood that the other party was afraid that he was coming for the incident on his side.

Hurriedly called the head catcher Huang Hu, who he had sent to deal with the salted fish.

"Huang Hu, have you dealt with the thing you asked you to deal with a few days ago?"

Fuzun suddenly asked about this matter, and Huang Hu, who had a ghost in his heart, suddenly burst out in his heart, but he still kept his composure on his face and replied calmly: "Back to Fuzun, everything has been taken care of!" ”

Zhao Cheng immediately relieved himself when he heard this, and then asked with some curiosity: "How did you deal with it?" ”

In this regard, Huang Hu and others had already prepared, and unified their caliber, only to hear Huang Hu reply:

"We found a bottomless cliff and poured dozens of truckloads of salted fish into it, and there seemed to be many wolves at the bottom of the cliff, and it was estimated that those salted fish had become the mouths of those wolves at this time!"

Zhao Cheng frowned when he heard this, and asked, "Why don't you fall into the river?" You have to fall under a cliff. ”

Huang Hu shook his head and explained: "My lord, the dead fish will float back when they fall into the river, so many salted fish, and then the entire river will be there, and I am afraid that everyone will know about it." ”

Zhao Che, who did not divide the grains, suddenly nodded when he heard this, and said: "Very good, since this is the case, then the mansion will rest assured, wait for you to go to the account room to get a hundred taels and divide it with those people below, and tell them not to talk nonsense if they shouldn't say it, do you understand!" ”

Huang Hu's heart sank, and he immediately knew that this was probably the hush money, so he hurriedly nodded: "Fuzun, don't worry, the brothers will never have more than half a mouth!" ”

"That'll do."

With a wave of his hand, Huang Hu stepped back, and after thinking about it carefully, there should be no flaws on his side, and Zhao Cheng completely relaxed.

Over there, the 5,000-ping Japanese army led by Cao Yi and Zuo Hui had arrived less than thirty miles away from Chengyifu City.

The prospect of the horse ahead came in a hurry.

"Report! Exploring ahead, half a month ago, a group of new bandits fell in the pheasant mountain next to the official road twenty miles ahead!

It has been proven that it should be our goal this time! ”

Cao Yi rode on his war horse, looked at his subordinates who ran back to report the news, and asked, "Is there a witness?" ”

"Yes!"

The subordinate replied, and as soon as he beckoned, two scouts came up with a thin man dressed as a merchant.

As soon as he came up, the thin businessman immediately flattered Cao Yi and said, "Villain Zhou Fu, I've seen this general!" ”

Cao Yi lowered his head slightly, looked down at him and asked, "Is it the one you told the general's Tanma that there was a newly fallen grass bandit in front of him?" ”

The thin merchant hurriedly nodded: "General Hui, that's exactly what the villain said!" ”

"Tell me everything you know."

"Yes, General!"

The skinny merchant answered, and began to speak.

"That day, the little one went to the next house with a convoy of goods as usual, and those of us who run all the year round are also very familiar with the green forests along the way, and everything that should be done is also done, and generally speaking, there will be no danger.

But that day, our convoy had just passed by Pheasant Mountain, and suddenly a group of bandits were killed from the mountain......"

In his story, Cao Yi learned that there were no cottages in this pheasant mountain, and now this bandit is new in half a month at most.

Because the last time this merchant made a delivery was half a month ago, he didn't meet this bandit this time.

And one thing that makes this bandit different from other bandits is that they have no rules at all!

The so-called rules are the unspoken rules agreed between the green forest and the merchants in the Great Song Dynasty, that is, as long as the merchants are willing to pay silver and pay protection money regularly, then the green forest who abides by the rules must not harm his life, otherwise he will be laughed at by the green forest colleagues.

Because most of the things that are done in this way are one-shot deals, and they can't last long.

Not only do you only eat once, but you also cut off other people's trades.

It is a market-destroying behavior that is resisted by the entire green forest.

Of course, there are still some people who don't follow this form, and this kind of person is generally called a wild bandit without rules.

It is a kind of bandit that businessmen are most afraid of encountering, once they encounter it, they don't even have a way to live, they want money, they want people, they kill people for the sake of killing.

Usually encountered such unruly bandits, but whenever their news came out, most of the local merchants would tacitly raise a sum of money and kill them.

Even if there is more money out, everyone is willing, and if such wild bandits are not removed, no one can do business with peace of mind.

This thin merchant escaped with great difficulty, and after returning to Fucheng, he immediately summoned the merchants of the whole city to pool money to deal with this wild bandit, according to his previous practice and also wanting to take revenge.

But what he didn't expect was that the big guys who hated the wild bandits in the factory were all shirked when they heard that it was the wild bandits of Pheasant Mountain that they wanted to get rid of, and they were unwilling to get involved.

How could he be willing, he lost a convoy of goods, and dozens of guys, not to mention the goods, he lost hundreds of taels of silver just for the settlement fees of these dozens of guys.

He simply hated this bandit in Pheasant Mountain.

But no matter who he looked for, he was unwilling to come forward to solve this wild bandit together, and in the end he got a piece of news, this wild bandit has something to do with Fu Zun, and it only appeared after Fu Zun came to take office.

Although there is no connection on the surface, everyone is not stupid, there is no disaster or difficulty, and a wild bandit suddenly appeared, and there must be someone behind it.

The bandits supported by the big families in the city have long been on everyone's table, and everyone knows it in their hearts.

Now this one suddenly appeared, there is no doubt that it must be under the hands of the new Mansion Venerable.

In the absence of a conflict of interest, they did not want to offend this lord.

Now the businessman was suddenly desperate, and there was no hope of revenge?

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard the news that the Ping Wa army was rushing to this side.

As people in the shopping mall, they are even more clear about the news that the goods of Feiyun Commercial Bank were robbed near here some time ago.

After only a little turn of his mind, he realized that the opportunity had come, and hurriedly came to this official road to guard, in order to wait for Cao Yi and the others, and sure enough, he finally let him wait today!

"So, what do you know about this bandit?"

Cao Yi asked.

The skinny merchant immediately replied:

"I've been gathering information since I wanted revenge.

Through the observation during this time, I found that they will go down the mountain every three days to collect supplies, general, you also know that we do business, the most important thing is to have eyesight and calculation ability, as far as the materials they transport up each time, if you look at the consumption of three days, the number of people on the other side of the mountain is at least more than 300 people, less than 500 people.

And according to my observations, most of their staple food is flour, and there is a lot of spirits!

Judging by these materials, most of the people in the cottage should be people close to the northwest place, and I also noticed when they robbed the convoy that although these people were bandits, they moved in and out in an orderly manner, not like ordinary bandits, and they went straight to the key points of the people.

I've only seen this happen to one kind of person! ”

Cao Yi narrowed his eyes, and then said, "What person?" ”

The thin merchant glanced at Cao Yi and the others, and finally affirmed categorically: "The soldiers in the army!" ”

Cao Yi's eyes slowly returned to normal, and he asked meaningfully:

"How?"

The thin merchant said: "We merchants traveled from south to north, and when we started a few years ago, we transported grain to Hedong for salt in exchange for salt issued by the imperial court.

On the border of Hedong, I have seen people who are similar to them, those border soldiers all move in an orderly manner, their eyes are fierce, they are on the border all the year round, they like to use wine to numb themselves, except for food, where is the best place to sell wine, almost everyone who is a soldier is a drunkard.

And most of them are Hedong and the Chinese soldiers are all eating pasta, so I guess that this bandit is estimated that they are all deserters who fled back from the border of Hedong, and for deserters, the imperial court is very strict in all parts of the court, and once caught, they will be executed on the spot!

This also explains why they are the power in the hands of the Zhao Governor's Mansion, in the entire Chengyi, only the Zhao Governor's Mansion has the ability to let them enter the Chengyi Mansion without knowing it, and no one has stopped them. ”

Cao Yi fell into thought after hearing this, but the thin merchant was a little worried at this time: "General, isn't it because you may be someone under Governor Zhao's mansion that you don't dare to deal with them?" ”

Cao Yi raised his head when he heard this, and said with a slight smile: "You don't have to worry about this, we don't care about what Zhao Governor is of you, I'm just thinking about a problem."

Since the other party is from the army, I am afraid that it will not be so easy for us to attack the cottage that occupies the defensive advantage from below, how to minimize casualties. ”

As soon as he heard this, the thin merchant's eyes lit up and said, "This little one can help!"

Some of the people who sent him supplies were bought by me, otherwise I wouldn't have known so much news, and when the time comes, let him put something in those drinks and rice noodles, and the generals will be able to go up easily! ”

Cao Yi was overjoyed when he heard this: "Can you do it?" ”

The skinny merchant nodded affirmatively: "Yes!" ”

Cao Yi suddenly showed a smile, and it was naturally excellent to be able to solve the problem with minimal casualties.

"That's it, when was the last time they collected supplies?"

"Tomorrow!"

Then prepare first, let's not lean over first, wait for news from your side, it's just ten miles away, and it's fleeting. ”

"The little one understands, but the little one has a request!"

The skinny businessman put forward his request compared to Cao Yi, not only was he not disgusted, but he also smiled, and suddenly a person who helped him unconditionally appeared, which is always easy to make people suspicious, if there is no request, there will be a problem.

Now that they have a request, they can explain it.

"But it doesn't matter, as long as it's not too much, we can solve it, and we can promise you."

The thin merchant was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, general, it's definitely not a problem that makes you embarrassed, it's just a trivial matter for you." ”

Then he stated his conditions:

"When the caravan was robbed, the small one was almost slashed alive by the leader of the other party, if it wasn't for a few guys blocking it, I'm afraid the small one wouldn't survive.

The small one's request is very simple, and when the time comes, the small one wants to slash the other party's bandit leader in order to avenge the sword! ”

As soon as he heard that it was this request, Cao Yi immediately laughed and agreed: "Hahahaha, I thought it was something, it turned out to be just this request."

OK! No problem! When the time comes, Ben will let a few brothers control him, and you can cut a few knives if you want! ”

When the thin merchant heard this, he was immediately overjoyed: "The little one thanked the general!" Thank you, General! ”

……

The plan was set, and the merchant quickly went back and prepared to go.

However, as the saying goes, you can't have the heart to harm others, and you can't do without the heart of guarding against people.

Cao Yi still made a color, and immediately someone quietly followed behind the businessman, and everyone who arrived for the first time had to be a little wary.

The army marched forward more than ten miles, and then encamped in its place.

Immediately, Cao Yi also immediately sent a scout horse to the direction of Pheasant Mountain.

Although the merchant had already given the general information, the specific information was more reliable than he had found out.

Besides, you must also know the terrain, otherwise what if there is an accident at that time?

In this way, everything began to be prepared, but the bald boss and others in the pheasant village were still drinking and eating meat, unaware that danger was quietly coming.

In Chengyi City, the movements of Cao Yi and others have always been Zhao Chengqun's concern, although he does not know the specific situation.

However, he was still very clear about the general movement of the Pingwei army.

Soon he received the news that the Pingwei army was stationed more than twenty miles away from Chengyi City, which made him a little puzzled.

But they didn't know the reason, but they also passed the news to the pheasant village, so that they could be more vigilant.

Night soon came.

Everything gradually fell into silence, waiting for change to happen......

……

(End of chapter)