After crossing the Yellow River, Chang Yu and his party ran wildly for more than ten miles and finally exhausted themselves. When they looked up and saw the scorching sun in the sky, it was already late (one to three o'clock in the afternoon) and wiped the sweat from their faces. Chang Yu ordered to find a place to dismount and rest.
In front of them was a village called Qiaozhuang. The villagers were panicked when they saw the officers and soldiers there. Unexpectedly, the officers and soldiers just dismounted their horses and unloaded their saddles at the entrance of the village, and then went into the village to ask for water. They did not commit any other crimes, so they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
But soon they became panic again, because the officers and soldiers told them that tens of thousands of Tatar troops would arrive in the next day and flee quickly. They would either run east to the seaside or west to the mountains. Anyway, they could not go to the south or north.
In the blink of an eye, the village was in a state of chaos.
"Mr. Factory, Lao Jia and Lao Jiu should have withdrawn by now, right?" Kuang Ren asked, half leaning under a tree and looking at the little eunuch lying on the ground with big characters.
Chang Yu squinted his eyes and hummed. According to the plan, Lao Jia and Lao Jiu could evacuate after they crossed the river. Of course, if they could delay it for a while longer, Chang Yu would have guessed that the Qing army would be confused and couldn't react at the moment. Come.
Fortunately, Kangkal's uncle and nephew were too suspicious and were dragged by Jia Waixiong and Lao Jiu until noon. Chang Yu ran for more than fifty miles in one breath and crossed the Yellow River. He also ran for more than twenty miles before the Qing army responded. come over.
As for whether his two battalions would be overtaken by the Qing army after they withdrew, he was not worried at all, because he had already told him that if he was closely pursued by the Qing army, it was important not to go south but to immediately escape to the east and west sides.
Those who fled to the east could follow the coast south and cross the Yellow River to Qingzhou Prefecture, while those who fled to the west could go directly to Jinan to wait for orders. The young eunuch also expected that if the two battalions fled towards the two wings, the Qing vanguard would not divide their troops to pursue them, because their mission was Go to Qingzhou Mansion! How could it be possible that something happened halfway and the troops were divided to chase hundreds of Ming troops and missed the important event?
It has to be said that Chang Yu has already figured out the context of the Qing army.
"Mr. Factory, if we cross the Yellow River now, we won't be able to catch up with the Tatars." Kuang Ren asked again because he was really worried and looked towards the due north from time to time.
Chang Yu smiled slightly: "It's only about 200 miles south to Qingzhou Prefecture. There are no hills and flat rivers in the wilderness. We will reach it in two days by running as fast as we can. At this time, the Tatar vanguard is left behind by us at least six or seven miles away. It’s hard to catch up!”
Kuang Ren finally breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good, that's good. Let's run away after we rest and let those dog Tatars eat dirt behind."
Chang Yu laughed loudly: "Take a break and start."
But Kangkal's uncle and nephew didn't think so. When they learned that they were being teased by the young eunuch, they felt ashamed, so they gathered their troops to cross the river and chased him all the way.
The Qing army already had enough strength and after a night's rest, the troops and horses were still strong. They ran like arrows from the string. After chasing for twenty miles in one breath, the horses were exhausted and had to move slowly. However, there was no Ming army around. The uncle and nephew were angry. His teeth were itching, but he didn't know that Lao Jia and Lao Jiu were crossing the Yellow River at this time.
Besides, the young eunuch who had been resting for a moment outside Qiaozhuang Village broke out of camp and left on time. At the same time, the people in the village fled west with their families and their families.
Chang Yu and his party rode in a hurry, and when they encountered village warnings, they stopped and walked until dusk when they entered Guangrao County. Qingzhou Prefecture is a hundred miles to the south, and Jinan Prefecture is a few hundred miles to the southwest.
When he saw no pursuers, he knew that he had left behind the Qing army's vanguard. This afternoon, the wind and sun were blowing and the horses were galloping. He was really tired and couldn't run anymore, so Chang Yu decided to find a place to rest for a while.
Looking around the wilderness, there was no village or store. He saw a forest in front of him on the right and was about to go there. A sudden jingle in the air passed by. Everyone was stunned and didn't understand. Suddenly, he saw nearly a hundred people pouring out from several miles away. Chang Yu suddenly thought of a word in his mind. , thieves!
Thieves, also known as horse thieves, have been a specialty of Shandong since the Han Dynasty. There are countless historical records and large groups of thieves will appear almost every 20 or 30 years. As for why thieves appear in Shandong, there are different opinions. In the final analysis, it is because of poverty! The Yellow River in Shandong breaks its banks several times or even more than ten times a year and changes its course. The people's livelihood is in dire straits, which naturally breeds thieves.
However, neighboring Hebei and Henan, which are both major agricultural provinces, are also having a hard time but have never experienced a similar situation. Therefore, some scholars think it is related to the local traditional culture of Shandong.
What about traditional culture? Let’s talk about two interesting things. The thieves regarded as the ancestor of thieves is from Shandong. Mohist thought originated from Shandong. Mohism’s “Nothing is more valuable than righteousness” and the most important thing in thieves’ culture is the word righteousness.
Anyway, there are a lot of thieves in Shandong, and most of them are concentrated in mountainous areas such as central Shandong and western Shandong. There are fewer in Jiaodong Peninsula and northern Shandong. This is also something that puzzles the little eunuch. Guangrao County is located within several hundred miles from the east to west of Shandong. How could there be a roaring horse coming out of the mountains and rivers?
He ignored the fact that at this time, the world was experiencing drought and chaos, and thieves were at their peak.
The thieves stole money and reported themselves to the family with loud arrows, which made everyone feel frightened. However, the young eunuch was more curious, having heard about the famous name for a long time but had yet to see it.
He had seen horse bandits before. On the way to Taiyuan, he used the sword they practiced. He had also seen bandits. Li Zicheng had fought many battles with hundreds of thousands of dollars. This horse bandit was... new.
"Enemy attack, alert." Kuang Ren, Chen Suole, Chen Ruxin and several other commanders of the soldiers immediately shouted when they saw the battle. In fact, they didn't need to say it. The soldiers had already drawn their swords and drawn their bows, tightly surrounding the young eunuch. .
But the little eunuch didn't seem nervous at all. He even had a smile on his face and reached out to push away a soldier blocking his view.
"The two sides are just waving flags, where is the real master?" Chang Yu raised his hand and pointed to the woods due south. Sure enough, dozens of riders walked slowly out of the woods.
"There are no more than a hundred horse bandits here. Even though we are tired, we can defeat them in one fell swoop. We just need to wait for the factory boss's order," Kuang Ren said in a low voice next to Chang Yu.
Chang Yu narrowed his eyes and showed a sneer at the corner of his mouth: "Don't worry, horse thieves are different from the ferry gangs. They are cruel and ruthless and can do anything. Don't underestimate them."
In fact, in later generations, Chang Yu was very familiar with the "glorious deeds" of the Shandong horse thieves. Not to mention the Liangshan heroes in the Song Dynasty. In the modern Republic of China, Sun Meiyao bombed the railway track to block the train and kidnapped foreigners, which shocked the world. Let's just talk about the recent 14th year of Chongzhen. , Li Qingshan (from Liangshan) rebelled, cut off the canal water transportation, and even kidnapped Zhou Yanru, the chief minister who took office via Shandong. He must be brave enough.
Of course, they kidnapped Zhou Yanru and did not do any harm. Instead, they gave him gold and silver and asked him to return to the capital to say good things and recruit Li Qingshan. Zhou Yanru used money to do things and Li Qingshan was recruited as expected. However, he rebelled repeatedly and was killed. This is all a story later. But we can see how tough the Shandong horse bandits are.
Chang Yu crossed the line of fire from Tianjin and led only two battalions under his command. They were dozens of miles apart at this time. He only had his own soldiers around him. His soldiers were formed during the Zhending Mansion's suppression of bandits and were selected from tens of thousands of officers and soldiers. Hundreds, but there were only sixty or seventy people who followed him through life and death in this month.
Although the soldiers are all the toughest soldiers in the world, they have been exhausted and even exhausted after running around day and night for the past two days. Facing the horse thieves around them, although they may not necessarily lose, Chang Yu does not want to damage the soldiers, horses and these horse thieves in vain. It’s better to fight fiercely and resolve it peacefully!
At this time, the sky has not yet completely darkened, and you can still roughly see the outline of the horse thieves' faces from a few dozen meters away. They don't all look ferocious, but they are not good either. They stand on horseback and hold swords, guns and clubs with great arrogance. As Chang Yu said before, these people are different from the local snake gangs in the ferry. It is common for horse thieves to rob homes, kill people and set fires, and they have seen blood.
Just like in front of you, you even dare to snatch the officers and soldiers!
Dozens of cavalry coming out of the woods in the south were walking slowly and stopped fifty steps away from the officers and soldiers. Chang Yu asked the guards in front of him to get out of the way, but was stopped by Chen Suole: "Factory supervisor, please don't take risks. Go ahead with your humble duties."
Chang Yu let out a laugh: "You have little experience in the world, so you won't be able to deal with them. Don't worry, you are not afraid of the intruders or the hundreds of thousands of Tatar troops. What can a mere horse thief do to me?" After saying that, he beat the horse out of the queue and secretly thought: It would be nice if Wuzhong was here. Chen Suole and others were about to follow but he raised his hand to stop them, so they rode off alone.
After walking twenty or thirty steps, I could clearly see the appearance of the horse thief in front of me. His burly figure and fierce face were in line with the rugged image in movies and TV series.
Chang Yu's eyes were poisoned, and he could see that the current few were the leaders of the horse thieves, but he couldn't tell who was the boss for a short time, so he smiled and clasped his fists and said: "Did the leader make a mistake? We are officers and soldiers."
Hahaha, the horse thieves all laughed, and one person shouted: "That's right, we haven't been open for a few days, so how can you still think about picking and choosing, just make do with it."
It was obvious that these horse thieves did not take the officers and soldiers seriously at all.
"The leader must have made a mistake. We are all poor soldiers with no money and no money to honor you." The thief laughed louder: "Poor? These dozens of war horses and armor are too much for us. But they are all treasures!”
Chang Yu uttered a sound and was stunned. The horse thief laughed again when he saw his appearance: "Boy, go and tell your boss, today you must either give me passing money, or leave your horse and armor, or we can have a fight." The beard pulled his male duck's voice and shouted loudly. When he saw Chang Yu, he thought he was just an errand boy.
"Is there no other way besides this?" Chang Yu frowned, and the bearded man said cheerfully: "Yes!"
Chang Yu's eyes lit up: "Master, please tell me."
"Come on, guys, let's have a big bowl of wine and eat meat together!" The bearded man chuckled. Seeing Chang Yu's stunned expression, he added: "Many of the brothers in our team were soldiers before. To be honest, tell the court It’s better to work hard and have no money or food than to die without anyone to bury you, so it’s better to join a gang!”
Chang Yu's expression was solemn and he nodded slightly: "What the master said is not unreasonable. Being an officer and soldier these days is really... Hey, but I have a better suggestion. Do you want to listen to it, the master?"
"Oh, tell us, let's listen." The bearded man seemed very interested. Maybe he also thought that it would be better to negotiate the deal without using a knife. After all, if a fight started, people would die. With so few officers and soldiers, Although he didn't take it seriously, the dozens of strong bows made him very afraid.
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