Seeing a cart of heads pushing out from the street, Zhao Yan and Su Shi in the restaurant stood up in shock, and even Zhao Yan thought it was Liao people who came here. However, when he saw that the car was followed by Song people, and the people on both sides of the street were not panic, but instead pointed at the heads with excitement and discussed. Finally, Zhao Yan even saw Zhang Zai riding on a horse in an official uniform, which made him feel completely relieved.

"Oh, the county master has wiped out the iron-headed thieves. It seems that our Jiaohe County is finally going to be peaceful!" At this moment, the young man who served the food just now came to the window and looked out, and immediately praised loudly, his face full of excitement.

"Shopkeeper, what is an iron-headed thief?" Before Zhao Yan could ask, he saw the customer on another table on the second floor and asked. He looked at his outfit, and he should have been a merchant from other places. And now there is no one on the second floor. Everyone stood up and squeezed to the window to watch the fun outside.

"Hehe, I don't know that our Jiaohe County is close to the Liao Kingdom. In addition to the Caogu Valley in the late autumn of each year, there are also several thieves in the county. These thieves often attack villages when the official army and the township heroes are unprepared. In the past, the villages were slaughtered every year. The caravans passing by us were also worried. Once these thieves were encountered, the goods were taken away at the worst, and the lives were lost. Fortunately, after the county master came, he organized the township heroes to wipe out most of the thieves in a row, leaving only a group of the largest iron-headed thieves. However, today's literary world saw that the iron-headed thieves were finally wiped out. Our life would be much better in the future." The young man explained excitedly.

"Why are you called the Tie-headed thief? And how do you know that the head of the car on the store is the Tie-headed thief?" Su Shi also asked curiously, and at the same time he admired Zhang Zai even more. When he was in Tokyo, he knew that Zhang Zai was not only proficient in Confucianism, but also had a lot of research on military tactics. When he was young, he even organized militia groups to regain the land occupied by Xixia. Later, he was persuaded by Fan Xianggong, so he abandoned martial arts and went to the literature. But he didn't expect that after so many years, Zhang Zai became more proficient in military tactics. He used the township bravery in the county to wipe out several thieves. This is a great political achievement.

Hearing Su Shi's question, the friend bowed to him and replied, "Customer, please take a closer look at the head of the car. The big bald bandit name on the top is Tietou. It is said that Tietou was a Khitan noble before. No one knew his real name. Because he offended the nobles in the Khitan, he ran to us to be a thief and relied on several Khitan subordinates to win over a group of people, including Khitans and Han people. He did everything in the Jiaohe County area. There were hundreds of people who died in his hands. His death finally avenged those who died in his hands."

When Zhao Yan and Su Shi heard this, they turned their heads and looked out the window. Sure enough, they found a head on the top of the heads in the car. Although they were dead, they still looked very ferocious and there was no hair on their heads. If it weren't for the guy's pointing it out, Zhao Yan and Su Shi wouldn't know that he was actually a Khitan.

I saw Zhang Zai and his team pushing their heads around the city. This was also a practice after the bandit suppression. On the one hand, they could show off the military achievements of the government to the people, and on the other hand, they could also warn those who were ill-hearted and let them weigh them before doing bad things so as not to go astray.

After the car of people passed by the restaurant, Zhao Yan and Su Shi immediately got out of the restaurant and went to the county government to wait for Zhang Zai. As a result, they waited for nearly an hour. Zhang Zai came back with the people. He was shocked when he saw them. Then he immediately apologized and said, "I thought you would have a few days off for the prince and brother Zizhan, but I didn't expect you to come today. It's really rude!"

"Haha, if we don't come today, we will not have the chance to see Brother Zihou's feat of carrying a head in a car. When I met Brother Zizhan and I just met, the people around us praised Brother Zihou's behavior, which was really pleasing to the people!" Zhao Yan said with a smile at this time. He was also very surprised by the military talent shown by Zhang Zai. After all, in his heart, Zhang Zai has always been the image of a middle-aged scholar, but he did not expect that the other party would be both civil and military, and such talents are rare.

"The prince praised it. Protecting the land and safeguarding the people is the responsibility of our officials, and Zhang is just a duty of Ke Zhong!" Zhang Zai smiled, still having the calm expression on his face. It was his demeanor before that left a deep impression on Zhao Yan.

"Haha, brother Zihou, don't be humble. The prince and I have been waiting for you for a long time. Why don't we find a place to chat. In addition, I am very interested in how you wiped out the thieves in Jiaohe County. It is best to prepare a few wines and dishes, and let's talk while eating!" Su Shi was influenced by his father Su Xun, and was also very interested in martial arts. Now he is eager to know the process of Zhang Zai's elimination of the thieves. If he returns to the capital in the future, he will also become famous for Zhang Zai.

Zhang Zai also laughed at Su Shi's words, and asked him and Zhao Yan to enter the inner house, and then ordered his wife to prepare wine and food, and then the three of them talked about it while eating. In fact, it was Zhang Zai who said that, because Zhao Yan was like Su Shi, and wanted to know Zhang Zai's experience of suppressing bandits, so Zhang Zai did not refuse this, and immediately told him about his experience after taking office.

When Zhang Zai took office, Jiaohe County was not what Zhao Yan and the others saw now. Although the county town was still this county town, because bandits in Jiaohe County were rampant, not only did the people of Jiaohe worry all day long, but also caused merchants who would rather detour the surrounding counties than pass through Jiaohe County.

It is also in this case that Zhang Zai’s first priority after taking office was to suppress bandits. As long as the thieves were destroyed, it would attract caravans to pass by. As long as there were caravans, there would be taxes in the county, and it could also drive the business of merchants in the county, which could be said to be a win-win situation.

However, if you want to suppress the bandits, Zhang Zai faced a big problem, that is, there was no soldiers in his hands. Although there was a Hebei army of more than a thousand people stationed in Jiaohe County, this army was mainly used to defend the county town when the Liao Kingdom headed south to capture Caogu. Moreover, there was no order from the superior, so Zhang Zai had no right to mobilize this army.

Zhang Zai had also asked the superiors several times at the beginning, hoping to gain leadership of the Hebei Army in the county, but the superiors ignored his request at all. In this case, Zhang Zai had to think of it and finally focused on the local heroes.

Jiaohe County faces the danger of the Liao army going south to capture Caogu every year. Bidders are rampant in various places, so in order to protect themselves, the people here will build villages and the men in the villages should also train, which is the so-called village bravery. When encountering Liao army or bandits, these village bravery will defend themselves. As long as they persist for a period of time, they can wait for the rescue of the officers and soldiers, thereby reducing the losses in the village.

However, the township heroes were loose and were usually only under the command of the leaders of various villages. Zhang Zai tried his best to convince these people, and finally organized the township heroes. Then Zhang Zai personally trained these township heroes and destroyed one of the thieves in one fell swoop in the twelfth lunar month last year. This made his reputation in Jiaohe County greatly increase, and all villages were convinced by him, the magistrate.

It was precisely because of those rural heroes that Zhang Zai spent several months causing the thieves in Jiaohe County to die or escape. The Iron-headed thieves who were killed by him today are the last thieves in the county. They are usually undecided. Zhang Zai encircled several times before, but they were all escaped by the other party. This time he set up a clever trap, and even Zhao Yan and the others were used by Zhang Zai.

Yesterday, when Zhang Zai went to Yingzhou to welcome Zhao Yan and the others, he deliberately leaked the news, making the thieves mistakenly think that he would stay in Yingzhou City for one night. As a result, the Tietou thief, who had not opened for several months, could no longer bear it. Finally, he raided a village outside the city last night. After receiving the news, Zhang Zai, who had returned to Jiaohe overnight, immediately took the village to encircle and suppress it. As a result, the Tietou thief did not break through the village, but was wiped out by Zhang Zai in one fell swoop.

"Okay! Brother Zihou is sophisticated in military use. Zhuge Kongming during the Three Kingdoms was just like this!" When Su Shi heard this, he smiled and praised. Zhao Yan also nodded repeatedly when he heard this. He felt that Zhang Zai was indeed extraordinary. It was not easy to destroy the thieves in the territory with just a group of poor combat power.

Zhang Zai did not show any smug expression when he praised Su Shi. Instead, he smiled bitterly and shook his head and said, "Brother Zizhan, you don't have to praise me. This time, the villages are willing to work hard, and the villages are willing to die. Only then can the thieves be wiped out. For this reason, more than 70 village warriors were killed in battle and more than 200 were injured. Although the generals cannot be too concerned about casualties, every time I think of these casualties, I feel heartbroken!"

When he said this, Zhang Zai paused for a moment and then said: "Although these rural brave men wiped out the thieves in the territory, the biggest disaster in Jiaohe County was that the Liao army went south to attack Caogu at the end of autumn every year. Those Liao troops were much more powerful than thieves. At that time, I would not dare to let the rural brave men fight head-on with the Liao army. I am afraid that they could only move the people to the city like the previous officials, and then use the city walls of the county town to resist with the defenders. But in this way, the people outside the city may suffer huge losses. As their parents, they can only watch them robbed by the enemy. It is really unbearable!"
Chapter completed!