On the official road leading to Chengyi Mansion.
An army of five thousand people was advancing mightily.
All the cities along the way saw this unabashed army, but what surprised these city officials was that they did not receive any news that the imperial army was passing through!
Soon, someone recognized that this was the Ping Japanese Army who had gone to Huangshan Prefecture before. They were wondering why the Ping Japanese Army came here, and reported all the news.
Soon, Heyue Mansion received news that the Japanese troops were marching eastward. After learning about it, Zhao Ansheng sneered indifferently:
"Keep an eye on them. I want to see what they want to do. If there is no order to kill them first and tell them later, if they do something extraordinary, I will immediately pretend to be them and give them a good drink!"
Chengyi Mansion also received the news quickly. As the person involved, Zhao Cheng, the prefect of Chengyi Mansion, only thought about it and immediately understood that the other party was probably here because of his own incident.
He quickly called Huang Hu, the head catcher he sent to deal with the salted fish.
"Huang Hu, have you dealt with all the things I asked you to deal with a few days ago?"
The prince of the palace suddenly asked about this matter. Huang Hu, who had something in his heart, felt suddenly. However, he remained calm on his face and replied calmly: "Go back to the prince, everything has been taken care of!"
Zhao Cheng was immediately relieved when he heard this, and then asked curiously: "How did you deal with it?"
Huang Hu and others had already been prepared for this and had unified their approach. Huang Hu replied:
"We found a bottomless cliff and dumped dozens of carts of salted fish into it. There seemed to be a lot of wolves at the bottom of the cliff. I guess by now the salted fish would have become the wolf's meal! "
Zhao Cheng frowned when he heard this and asked, "Why don't you fall into the river? You must fall under the cliff."
Huang Hu shook his head and explained: "Sir, dead fish will float when they are thrown into the river. With so many salted fish, the entire river will be covered with them. I'm afraid everyone will know about the trouble."
After hearing this, Zhao Che, who was inseparable from grain to grain, suddenly understood. He nodded and said: "Very good. In this case, I can rest assured. Later, you can go to the accounting room to get one hundred taels and share it with the people below. Tell me." Don’t talk nonsense what they shouldn’t say, do you understand?”
Huang Hu's heart trembled, and he immediately knew that this was probably the hush money, and he quickly nodded: "Don't worry, Mr. Fu, brothers will never talk too much!"
"That's fine."
He waved his hand to ask Huang Hu to retreat, and after thinking carefully, there should be no flaws on his side, and Zhao Cheng completely relaxed.
Over there, the 5,000-square-meter Japanese army led by Cao Yi and Zuo Hui had arrived less than thirty miles away from Chengyifu City.
The scouting horse in front came to report in a hurry.
"Report! We've heard from the front that a new group of bandits fell into the Pheasant Mountain next to the official road twenty miles ahead half a month ago!
It has been proven that it should be our target this time! "
Cao Yi, riding on his horse, looked at his men who ran back to report the news and asked, "Is there any witness?"
"have!"
The subordinates responded and waved, and immediately two detective horses came up with a thin man dressed as a businessman.
As soon as the thin businessman came up, he immediately bowed his hands to Cao Yi and said, "Young man Zhou Fu, I have seen this general!"
Cao Yi lowered his head slightly, looked down at him and asked, "You were the one who told the general's detective horse that there was a group of newly fallen bandits ahead?"
The thin businessman nodded quickly: "Return to the general, exactly what the villain said!"
"Tell me everything you know."
"Yes, General!"
The thin businessman responded and immediately began to tell.
"That day, as usual, I brought a convoy of goods to the next door. Those of us who have been running business all year round are also very familiar with the green forests on this road, and we have taken care of everything that needs to be taken care of. Generally speaking, we will not encounter Nothing dangerous.
But that day, our convoy had just passed by Pheasant Mountain when a group of bandits suddenly emerged from the mountain..."
During his explanation, Cao Yi realized that there was no copycat in Pheasant Mountain, and now this bandit had only arrived within half a month at most.
Because the last time this businessman made a delivery was half a month ago, and he had not encountered this bandit at that 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 Lulin and the merchants in the Song Dynasty. That is, as long as the merchant is willing to pay money and pay protection fees regularly, any Lulin who abides by the rules cannot kill him, otherwise he will be killed by Lulin. Comrades laughed at me.
Because most of the deals done in this way are one-time deals, which don’t last long.
Not only can you only eat it once, but you also cut off other people's business.
It is a market-destroying behavior that is boycotted by the entire Green Forest.
Of course, there are always some people who will not follow this form. Such people are generally called unruly bandits.
They are the kind of bandits that businessmen are most afraid of encountering. Once they encounter them, they will not even have a chance to survive. They want money and people. They kill just for the sake of killing.
Generally, when encountering such unruly bandits, as soon as information about them is revealed, most local businessmen will tacitly raise a sum of money to suppress them.
Even if the money offered was more, everyone would be willing to do so. Unless such a savage bandit was eliminated, no one would be able to do business with peace of mind.
This skinny businessman finally escaped. After returning to Fucheng, he immediately followed his past practice and wanted revenge. He summoned all the merchants in the city to pool money to deal with this group of wild bandits.
But what he didn't expect was that the big guys in the factory who hated the gangsters all refused to get involved when they heard that the gangster in Pheasant Mountain was the one they wanted to get rid of.
How could he be willing to do this? He had lost a fleet of goods, as well as dozens of men. Not to mention the goods, he had lost several hundred taels just for the settlement expenses of these dozens of men. silver.
He simply hated this bandit in Pheasant Mountain.
But no matter who he looked for, they were unwilling to come forward to deal with this wild bandit. In the end, he got the news that this wild bandit was related to Fu Zun, and it only appeared after Fu Zun came to take office.
Although there is no connection on the surface, everyone is not a fool. There is no disaster. If a wild bandit suddenly appears, 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.
Now that one suddenly appears, there is no doubt that it must be under the command of the new Lord Palace Master.
As there is no conflict of interest at present, they do not want to offend the Lord Palace Master.
Now the businessman suddenly became desperate and had no hope of revenge?
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard the news that the Japanese and Japanese troops were coming here.
As people in the shopping mall, they knew the news that Feiyun Trading Company's goods had been robbed nearby some time ago.
After just a moment of thinking, he realized that the opportunity had come, and hurriedly came to the official road to wait for Cao Yi and others. As expected, he finally got the chance today!
"So, how much do you know about this bandit?"
Cao Yi asked.
The thin businessman immediately replied:
“I have been collecting relevant information since I wanted revenge.
Through observation during this period, I found that they go down the mountain to collect supplies every three days. General, you also know that when we do business, the most important thing is to have good eyesight and calculation ability. As for the supplies they transport up every time, If we look at the three-day consumption, the number of people on the other side's mountain is at least more than 300 and less than 500.
As for their supplies, according to my observation, most of their staple foods are flour, and there are a lot of spirits!
Judging from these materials, most of the people in the village should be from the area near the northwest. I also noticed when they were robbing the convoy that although these people were all bandits, they moved in an orderly manner, unlike Ordinary bandits use ruthless tactics to attack people's vital points.
I've only seen this happen to one kind of person! "
Cao Yi narrowed his eyes and then said: "Who is it?"
The thin businessman glanced at Cao Yi and others and finally affirmed firmly: "Soldiers in the army!"
Cao Yi's eyes slowly returned to normal, and he asked meaningfully:
"How to say?"
The skinny businessman said: "Those of us merchants travel all over the country. When we started our business a few years ago, we even transported grain to the east of the river for salt in exchange for the salt issued by the imperial court.
On the Hedong border, I have seen people similar to them. Those border troops all move in an orderly manner and have fierce eyes. They have been at the border all year round. They like to use wine to numb themselves. In addition to food, wine is sold everywhere. At best, almost everyone who serves in the military is an alcoholic.
Moreover, most of the soldiers from Hedong and Guanzhong mainly eat pasta, so I guess that this bandit is probably a deserter who escaped from the Hedong border, and the imperial court is very strict about deserters. , once caught he will be executed on the spot!
This also explains why they are in the hands of Magistrate Zhao. In the entire Chengyi, only Magistrate Zhao has the ability to let them enter Chengyi Mansion without anyone noticing, and no one has stopped them yet. "
After hearing this, Cao Yi fell into thinking, but the thin businessman became a little worried at this time: "General, is it possible that you don't dare to deal with them because they may be people under the prefect Zhao?"
After hearing this, Cao Yi raised his head and smiled slightly: "You don't have to worry about this, we don't care about your prefect Zhao, I'm just thinking about a problem.
Since the opponent is from the military, it may not be easy for us to attack the mountain stronghold that has a defensive advantage from below. How can we minimize casualties? "
Upon hearing this, the skinny businessman's eyes immediately lit up and he said: "This little thing can help!
Some of the people who delivered supplies to him were bribed by me, otherwise I wouldn't know so much information. When the time comes, I will ask him to put something in those drinks and rice noodles, and the generals will be able to get there easily! "
Cao Yi was immediately delighted when he heard this: "Can you do it?"
The thin businessman nodded affirmatively: "Okay!"
Cao Yi suddenly smiled. It was great to be able to solve the problem with minimal casualties.
"Then let's do it this way. When was the last time they collected supplies?"
"Just tomorrow!"
Then get ready first. We won't get close to you yet. We'll wait for news from you. It's only about ten miles away and it will go by in a blink of an eye. "
"I understand, I just have a request!"
The thin businessman made his request and Cao Yi not only didn't feel disgusted, but also smiled. It was always easy to make people suspicious if a person suddenly appeared to help him unconditionally. If there was no request, there would be problems.
Now that I have asked them for help, I can explain it.
"But it doesn't matter. As long as it's not too much and we can solve it, I can promise you anything."
The skinny businessman was immediately overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, General, it's definitely not an issue that embarrasses you. It's just a small matter for you."
Then he stated his conditions:
"When the caravan was robbed, Xiao Xiao was almost chopped alive by the leader of the opponent. If a few guys hadn't happened to block it, he probably wouldn't have survived.
Xiao Xiao's request is very simple. When the time comes, Xiao Xiao wants to kill the other party's gang leader to avenge that knife! "
Upon hearing this request, Cao Yi immediately laughed and agreed: "Hahahaha, what did I think it was? It turned out to be just this request.
Can! no problem! When the time comes, Ben will let a few brothers control him, and you can chop him as many times as you want! "
The skinny businessman was overjoyed when he heard this: "Thank you, General! Thank you, General!"
…
The plan was finalized, and the businessman quickly went back to prepare.
But as the saying goes, you must not have the intention to harm others, and you must have the intention to guard against others.
Cao Yi still made a gesture, and immediately someone quietly followed the businessman. Newcomers must be a little wary of everyone.
The army moved forward for more than ten miles and camped on the same spot.
Immediately, Cao Yi also immediately sent out exploration horses to the direction of Pheasant Mountain.
Although the businessman has already given some general information, it is more reliable to find out the specific information yourself.
Furthermore, we have to be aware of the terrain, otherwise what will happen if there is an accident?
In this way, everything started to be prepared, but the bald master and others in Pheasant Village were still drinking and eating meat, unaware that the danger had quietly come.
In Chengyi City, Zhao Chengqun has always been paying attention to the movements of Cao Yi and others, although he does not know the specific situation.
But he still knew the general trends of where the Japanese troops were.
Soon he received news that the Ping Japanese Army was stationed more than 20 miles away from Chengyi City, which made him confused.
But he didn't know the reason, but he spread the news to Pheasant Village to make them more vigilant.
Night is coming soon.
Everything gradually fell into silence, waiting for changes to happen...
…
(End of chapter)
