Ninety miles northeast of Luzhou, there is a small county under the jurisdiction of Luzhou called Shen County. The official road meanders from Luzhou to the northeast through Shen County, Juchao, Dingyuan, and then passes through Chuzhou to the southeast, passing through the Jiangning border and leading directly to Yangzhou Prefecture.
If you look down from the sky, this official road looks like a curved back, passing through three states and several counties. It does not go in a straight line.
In fact, this is a helpless move. There is the Huaihe River waterway in the north and the Yangtze River waterway in the south. Several counties between the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers have suffered greatly in terms of transportation. Therefore, since ancient times, the construction of official roads has also taken these factors into consideration, and is not based on straight lines.
Instead, we tried to connect several counties together to facilitate the transportation of materials and troops.
In the small town of Liangyuan, twenty miles west of Shenxian County, the grain truck team led by Long Zhen arrived just before dark.
The original plan was to travel 20 miles eastward and enter the county town to settle down, but it backfired. The snow on the road was trampled into mud, causing more than 20 vehicles behind to get stuck. The animals tried their best but could not pull out. In the end, they had no choice
, had to unload the animals in front, hitch the vehicle that was stuck in the mud, count the cattle and pull them together, and finally pull out all the vehicles.
As a result, a lot of time was wasted, and finally we had to settle in the small town of Liangyuan.
It is said to be a small town, but in fact it is just a few dozen sparse families living on both sides of the official road. Every double day of the month, people from nearby will spontaneously come to the market. The time is only a few hours in the morning, and the rest of the time.
, it is deserted here, a remote place where birds do not lay eggs.
Long Zhen cursed and ordered his men to gather all the ox carts on the road in the center of the dry market town. He gave orders to light fires and boil water. After a day of sleepiness, everyone was eager to have a good sleep.
Zhao Dutou and Wei Dutou found the security chief. With the coordination of the security chief, four or five rooms were vacated for the soldiers to rest at night, while the driver drivers could only huddle up in the temporary tents.
He fell asleep with the animals in his arms.
Everyone was extremely tired, and God was kind. There was no wind. Under the heat of dozens of bonfires, everyone's bodies gradually warmed up. They ate dry food with hot water and fed and watered the animals.
, everyone breathed into sleep.
Long Zhen drank a few glasses of wine at the home of the nodding and bowed security chief, and felt a little sleepy. Before going to bed, he had not forgotten to ask Zhao Dutou to arrange a night vigil. Of course, Zhao Dutou did not dare to neglect and arranged four teams.
, one rotation every hour, patrolling back and forth at the beginning and end of the team.
Night. Silent.
The long grass on the wilderness outside the town was moving without wind, and the shadows of people in the dead grass half a man's height were mixed with the sound of weapons touching each other.
Someone shouted and cursed in a low voice: "No one is allowed to make a sound. Hold the scabbard in your hands. If anyone makes a sound again, his head will be moved immediately."
After the order was conveyed, the noise suddenly disappeared without a trace, and hundreds of people reached the entrance of the town like ghosts.
Shen Yaozu straightened up in the grass, squinted at the dozens of burning fires, and asked Qiu Dabao beside him in a low voice: "Can you see how many people there are?"
Qiu Dabao licked his lips and said, "I can't tell clearly, but I don't care, this deal is done."
Shen Yaozu nodded and said: "There are about ten people patrolling and keeping vigil at night. After they patrol to the east end, we will rush in. Even if there are many of them, at night, even if they have horses, they are blind and they are no match for us."
Qiu Dabao turned around and gave the order softly: "Listen to my order and charge in together. Only kill the officers and soldiers, not the cart drivers and animals. We can still use them."
Everyone got the order, their knives were slowly unsheathed, their bows and arrows were strung, and their eyes were fixed on the place where the grain carts gathered, waiting for the master's order.
The patrolling horse army wandered around the west end of the town for a while, curled up and cursed a few times, then turned and walked east. When they were almost at the end of the grain team, they suddenly felt something was wrong, the ground shook slightly, and at the same time behind them
There was a slight rumble. They turned their heads to take a closer look. Suddenly, they were stunned. They saw hundreds of people running towards them with their swords raised high. What was even more terrifying was that they all bared their teeth but did not make a cry. If it weren't for the rumble of footsteps, the horses would
The soldiers thought they were deaf.
"Bandits attack! Bandits attack!" The sharp voice of a horse army soldier echoed in the night sky like the siren of an air raid. The sleeping people were awakened by this harsh shout, and then they heard a dozen people shouting at the same time.
There was a shout, and people hurriedly got up and looked outside the tent.
The sight in front of them dumbfounded them. Hundreds of bandits rushed towards them brandishing swords and spears. The leader, a tall man with a long sword in his hand, shouted: "All the people pulling the carts stay where they are. Who is running around?"
Whose life is wanted? The heroes of Bagong Mountain only kill officers and soldiers, not ordinary people."
The coachmen who originally planned to flee quickly retracted their heads and lay down in the tent, covering their heads with quilts and praying to the Bodhisattva for blessing. The bandits did keep their promise. On the horse was a dragon, and under the horse were the insect bodyguards Ma Jun. If they walked a little slower, they would be captured.
He was shot with a bow and arrow behind him, and then he was hacked to death by the bandits who caught up with him.
Long Zhen was sleeping soundly when he suddenly heard shouts from outside, followed by screams and the clash of weapons. His heart went cold, knowing that he could not escape after all. Long Zhen shouted at everyone while
He stood up and put on his clothes and armor. As soon as he put on his boots, he saw the door of the house being pushed open with a bang. The soldiers who were on duty at night finally showed their horse spirit and escaped back.
"It means... Sir Commander, bandits... there are bandits." The soldier almost bit his tongue in panic.
"Don't panic, how many people are there and in what direction?" Long Zhen shouted, and he picked up his long knife.
"Countless number of them, covered in darkness, are heading here." The soldier recovered and began to quarrel sharply.
Long Zhen shouted: "Everyone mount their horses!"
A squad leader came over and said, "Commander Long, how do we fight?"
Long Zhen scolded: "Hit your mother's thighs. How can you beat the bandits who are so thick and thick with thousands of people? Do you want to die? Give me my order and all of them mount their horses and rush out."
The squad leader asked: "What about the food?"
Long Zhen turned over and said in one sentence: "Food? Do you want food or life? Idiot."
The bodyguard Sima Jun was well-trained and remained calm in critical moments. In just a few dozen breaths, they were already on horseback. Their daily training skills came in handy at this moment, and no one was holding back.
When the bandit army rushed nearly a hundred steps away from the gathering place of the horse army, they couldn't help but hesitate. The officers and soldiers with bright armor and tall horses were menacing and looked far from easy to mess with. Even Shen Yaozu and Qiu Dabao felt that they might be afraid this time.
It was about to be loaded. The intelligence was wrong. There were more than a hundred cavalry under the bonfire in front of us, at least two or three hundred. In a head-on confrontation, the 400 people I brought with me would be trampled to a pulp by two charges.
Shen Yaozu was discouraged. He exchanged a look with Qiu Dabao. From Qiu Dabao's eyes, he saw fear. Shen Yaozu no longer hesitated, raised his right hand high, and just uttered half a word of the command of "all retreat", He could no longer say the remaining three and a half words, because the scene in front of him was enough to turn him into a fool.
The bandit leader raised his hand, and Long Zhen judged that the bandits were going to attack desperately. It would be a while before this happened. Long Zhen, who had seen fierce bandits, also heard that the bandits were equipped with powerful crossbows and bed crossbows. Once they let go, They charged close, and it would be difficult to escape. At the same moment when the bandits issued the charge order, Long Zhen shouted decisively: "Turn the horses' heads, and everyone retreats."
The bandits have two legs, and the horse army has six legs. Two legs cannot catch up with six legs. After a while, the horse army has disappeared without a trace, as if there has never been this team of bodyguards and horse soldiers here. .
Shen Yaozu breathed a sigh of relief and loudly ordered all the coachmen to be driven out, harnessed the oxen and horses and drove back overnight.
When the dawn illuminated the earth, Zhu Shiyong of Luzhou received the news that the food had been robbed. He marveled at the efficiency of the bandits, and at the same time he was secretly happy that everything was developing in the direction he expected.
Zhu Shiyong loudly called his master and ordered: "Quickly notify the Xiang army to dispatch to recover the grain, without any mistakes."
The master twisted his butt and was about to leave, but Zhu Shiyong added behind him: "By the way, I sent someone to invite President Tang of the Chamber of Commerce, and said that I have something important to discuss."
When the Luzhou Xiang army dispatched in force after receiving the order, there was already a busy and joyful scene of unloading grain at the foot of Bagong Mountain.
In the morning, Luzhou Xiang soldiers turned back halfway when they reached the road. The commanding general who led the army said that the sentinel came to report that the food had been transported to the stronghold by the bandits and they could not catch up.dd