More than ten days have passed since that day of training.
During these days, Zhang Chong led everyone to practice formations, flags, and golden drums under Yang Mao's training.
Although they are not familiar with each other yet, at least they are new to me.
At the same time, Zhang Chong also took advantage of this period of time to master various martial arts.
Especially the combination of the newly inherited "Horse Skills, Penetration" and "Riding Skills, Mastery" has produced a huge fighting effect.
In this battle, Zhang Chong and the others captured five more horses from Xuejiabi.
Zhang Chong gathered them together and formed a squad of assault cavalry, which followed him around.
The team members are Tian Jun and his fellow villagers who have just returned.
More than ten days ago, Tian Jun returned to the settlement with Duman's grain distribution team.
After not returning for many years, the settlement is even more dilapidated than before.
The settlement of a hundred people in my memory now only consists of about forty people, young and old.
He learned from his mother that last winter, the family was short of millet, and his mother asked his father to go to Xuejiabi to find him and ask him for some millet to survive the winter.
But my father refused to go and said:
"It's not easy even if it's great. Don't cause trouble to him."
Then he stayed up for a while, until the little boy was almost starving, and then his father walked through the snow to look for him at Xuejiabibi.
Only then did Tian Jun remember.
Last winter, his father came to see him, but before he could say a few words, he was called away by his wife.
The lady ordered him to add a handful of firewood to the fire pit in the wall. The young man was playing in the snow outside, but the lady drove him back.
The wife asked someone to heat the room to prevent the child from getting sick. After that, he stopped caring about his father and took care of himself.
But who knew that my younger brother would be gone just like that.
Tian Jun blamed himself a little, he wanted to blame his wife.
But since General Shi broke down the wall of the dock, the lady set fire to the house and hanged herself amidst the fireworks.
He couldn't blame a dead man.
Then you have to say, blame Xiao Langjun. But Xiao Langjun also ran away, and now I don’t know where he went.
Besides, what does a doll know?
Tian Jun was just bored, listening to Eminem talking about everything at home.
He said some familiar people died and left the child behind. Seeing how pitiful the father was, he picked him up and raised him together.
He also heard from his mother that Xue was benevolent and righteous, and he also tried his best to bring back so much millet.
Hearing this, Tian Jun's eyes were already filled with tears.
But Eminem didn't see it and kept talking to himself:
"Why hasn't your father come back yet? A group of people suddenly broke into the settlement and broke many things.
Finally, I asked your father to lead the way, saying that I was going to Xuejiabi to borrow food, but I don’t know what’s going on now.”
Hearing this, Tian Jun could no longer hold back. He knelt on the ground, hugged Eminem, and burst into tears:
"Emma, daddy is dead. I'm sorry for daddy, I couldn't save him."
Tian Jun then told Eminem exactly what happened.
His mother-in-law’s pupils were dilated and she listened dully.
After a while, he sighed:
"This is fate. Are you hungry? Eminem will cook you some millet."
After saying that, he scooped out a scoop of millet from the rations he received today, thought about it, scooped out half a scoop more, and then went to work.
At this time, the few children who had been hiding aside swarmed around Eminem, eagerly watching Eminem cook.
They haven't smelled millet for a long time.
After Tian Jun finished attending to his father's funeral, he took his two younger brothers back to Xuejiabi.
He wanted to take them to the army.
He still remembered what Eminem said the night before departure:
"Dayong, you have been outside for a long time and are more knowledgeable than Amu.
If you say that General Shi is trying to save his life for us poor people, then I will believe you.
Although your father died because of this incident, I have never seen a team that distributes food to the poor.
This time, I don’t know how many people can survive because of this.
But Eminem still feels aggrieved, why is it that everyone is alive and only your father and younger brother are dead?
Hey, Eminem doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Anyway, you have to take good care of yourself outside and don’t feel wronged.”
Tian Jun knew the answer. His younger brother died because of himself, and his father died because of his arrogance.
Therefore, Tian Jun not only wants to atone for his sins, but also wants to take revenge.
He firmly believes that following General Shi, all this can be achieved.
When Tian Jun rushed back, he happened to meet Zhang Chong preparing a surprise cavalry team.
Tian Jun immediately volunteered and said that several of Xue's previous cavalrymen were friendly to him, and they all came from poor families.
During this grain distribution, their family members were very grateful to us and wanted to participate.
Zhang Chong immediately called these people. Under the systematic detection, these people all said "riding skills, mastered".
So, after a little heart-to-heart talk, these people became members of Zhang Chong's sudden cavalry.
Moreover, this also inspired Zhang Chong's idea that he could rely on this golden finger to select a group of high-quality soldiers.
Therefore, he quickly went to the Pukou camp and took a look at the population.
After confirming that there was no hostility, three more elite soldiers with "Huanshou Dao, Master" and two "Euphorbis Technique, Master" were absorbed.
He assigned these five people to Hei Fu and Zhang Dan to enhance their fighting skills.
In this way, Zhang Chong worked hard to absorb the battle captures, and his strength was growing rapidly.
And just when Zhang Chong was about to take everyone out for exercise, his father, Zhang Bingnan, walked over with a solemn expression.
He brought bad news:
"When Daman went to the north to distribute grain, he was robbed and his people and cars were seized. The other party sent back a brother and asked us to use the money to redeem him."
"What? Did you find out which group of people did it?"
"The brothers who came back said that the leader was a man named Xi Shen, who led a group of evil young men to Luocao. They are also a local pest."
"Xi Shen? How much ransom does he want?"
"One person has one thousand yuan, and the leader has ten thousand yuan, so the total is thirty thousand yuan."
Zhang Chong thought for a while and realized that the money was actually not much. The copper coins they seized were enough for this amount.
Zhang Chong first asked Zhang Dan to take his talisman and go to the warehouse to get 30,000 yuan to load the truck.
Then he summoned Chen Huan's archers, Ding Sheng's swordsmen, his own troops and the newly formed assault cavalry, and rushed to the location of the bandits with the ransom in hand.
At this time, it was on the edge of a hill ten miles north of Xuejiabibi.
Xi Shen led a group of evil boys and talked to Du Man:
"So, Mr. Du, are you saying that this General Shi is going to lead the poor to survive?
This is strange. I have grown up and seen so many people, but I have never heard of anyone really worrying about the poor.
I don't see many people who pretend to be worried. In the end, they are still hypocritical.
I see, Mr. Du, this General Shi you are talking about is the same guy."
The one who spoke was Xi Shen.
This man was in his mid-twenties, tall and handsome, and wore an exaggerated ermine robe.
This person has a strange appearance. He has a bunch of white garlic hair on his forehead, which is typical of young whiteheads.
And what about Duman?
At this time, together with the brothers from the baggage team and the Xue family disciples who had surrendered, a total of twenty-one people were tied up in the grass.
When Duman heard Xi Shen's words, he wanted to refute.
But Xi Shen waved his hand and said:
"Mr. Du, you don't have to refute.
I don't care at all whether your grass-headed general truly cares about the poor.
Because I am not a poor person.
Do you think that by doing this business, I am a man without hakama?
I can tell you clearly that my ancestor was a prince, and he also sold blood for Liu Bang, a man from the Han family.
Our ancestors suffered numerous losses during the southern and northern wars, and finally settled down to a small settlement of 400 households.
Just like this, after two generations, he was deprived of his title for a minor crime and was punished to carry firewood for the ancestral temple for three years.
How humiliating is this?
It's not because my ancestor was General Peng Yue, and Liu Bang was jealous of Peng Yue and did evil to my family.
However, this is all old history.
I say this to tell you that I don’t care whether you are a rebel or an official, I only care about business, handing out money and teaching others.
No matter what you say, you are asking for help for the people, but you don't want to lose two coppers.
I don’t believe in truth, I only believe in money.
You should pray more now to ensure that you are not wrong about the person. That person will really pay you to ransom you.
Otherwise, hehe.
Do you know about the case of former Taiwei Qiao Xuan’s son a few days ago?”
Duman shook his head in confusion.
"Bah, I thought you were a knowledgeable person, but who would have thought that you are still a rustic?
Let me tell you directly, that case was done by my men. We kidnapped the Taiwei's son just to get money.
I never thought that the old lieutenant was a fool and wanted to see his son die.
It is said that as long as a hostage is encountered, the robber and the hostage will be killed together, and no ransom will be paid, so that the hostage will be eliminated.
How do you think such a person became a lieutenant?
If killing alone was effective, the world would have been peaceful a long time ago.
You threaten someone with death when he can't live anymore? What kind of brain is this?
Moreover, you, Qiao Xuan, are cruel, how can others be so cruel? Why don't you still pay money to redeem people?
So I see that these Yanyan gentlemen are just followers of Yongqiu."
After saying that, he spat a few more words with disdain on his face.
It provoked all the evil young men to cheer.
"So, just pray that your brother is not cruel. Just pay the money and you can go back early.
You don’t have to worry about men taking money and not letting people go. Men still have this kind of morality. After all, thieves also have their moral principles."
Then he ordered the evil boy to give Duman and the others some more water.
If you don’t care about food, you will definitely have enough water.
Duman tried his best to stand up and said solemnly to Xi Shen:
"Hero, I see that you are also a member of my generation, and you have resentment against the world in your heart, so why not join us.
My brother is a warrior who can be defeated by thousands of people. He has a deep love for me. He has money.
But I'm just worried that my brother will get angry and insist on going to the knife with you. Then it will end up destroying your life. So why bother?"
"Destroy my life? Take care of your own life first."
After Xi Shen finished speaking, he kicked Duman back into the grass.
At this moment, there was a burst of smoke and dust from the south.
The evil boys were guarding the hills and could see far away. At a glance, they saw in the distance a banner with the word "Chong" written on it, and fifteen or sixteen flags of various sizes flying.
Xi Shen drew out his sword, and the evil youths also raised their swords across their bows, and followed them down the slope, pushing the hostages.
At this time, the people and horses on the opposite side also stopped, and six people from the formation came between the two groups pushing the cart.
An evil young man looked at this posture and stepped forward to ask Xi Shen:
"Kui, let me go up and take a look first?"
Xi Shen nodded. They were all used to hijacking hostages, and the people below were also familiar with it.
Just when he was about to give some instructions to his younger brother, someone behind him exclaimed:
"What kind of monster is this? Be careful."
Xi Shen hurriedly raised his head and saw a knight in a red cap, wearing two crotch armors, holding a vermilion horse spear in his right hand and a wooden shield in his left hand, coming at lightning speed.
The evil boy behind quickly fired his bow, but the first few arrows were either bounced off the armor or caught by the knight with his shield.
When he was about to shoot the second round, the knight had already rushed in front of him.
What a good Xi Shen, although he was frightened but not afraid, he rolled to the ground and hid on the right side.
Unexpectedly, the knight threw down his shield, bent down slightly, grabbed Xi Shen's belt, and then lifted him horizontally on the horse's back.
Xi Shen still struggled, but the knight knocked him out with one punch and made him unable to move.
Xi Shen was captured
Seeing that their leader had been captured, the other evil boys hurriedly came up to snatch him away, but were knocked over by the red-banded knight with his spear.
When they got up, they were surrounded by enemies coming from behind.