"Yang Tou, there's a fire in the north of Yangyuan County."
Yang Yuan looked over and saw that in the direction of Yangyuan County, the fire was soaring into the sky, and most of the sky was lit up by the fire.
A bandit holding a spear on the side said: "Yang Tou, do you think the boss led people to rob a village near the county seat?"
"Fart!" Yang Yuan glared at the other party angrily and said, "Since our master took us, have you ever seen the master take over nearby villages? To use a word from the master, root, Base area, for base area, this will be our base area from now on."
The scolded gangster shrank his neck.
Yang Yuan continued: "The boss said that we will settle here in the future, and no one is allowed to harm the poor people. If anyone dares to do anything random, don't blame me for enforcing military law."
The bandit said with a smile: "Don't worry, Yang Tou, the master's order is the imperial edict, no one dares to disobey it."
"It's good to know. I don't want to see my brother not die in the hands of the army, but die in the hands of his own people because he violated the rules set by the master." Yang Yuan did not forget to remind the other party.
The bandit nodded solemnly, stepped forward and said, "Yang Tou, why is there no one to put out such a big fire? The fire is allowed to burn bigger and bigger, even in the middle of the night. "
"How the hell did I know." Yang Yuan said angrily.
Lying on the grass next to him was a sentry horseman from the bandit camp.
The rider sneered and said, "It's hard to guess. Naturally, the officials of Tiancheng Guard sent troops to rob the surrounding villages. Otherwise, villagers would have gone to put out the fire. How could the fire be so big?"
Compared with Liu Heng who only suspected that the government troops would send troops to chase them, Yang Yuan had already discovered the traces of the government troops and saw them chasing them to the county seat of Yangyuan County.
The place where they rested was only more than 20 miles away from the official camp. Because of the small number of people, it did not arouse the idea of the official army. Moreover, the dozens of people in the team were equipped with scouts and sentries, so they had to prepare early before meeting the official army. Get the message in advance and get out of the way.
"Brother Xu, you mean the fire was started by those officers and soldiers?" Yang Yuan opened his mouth in surprise.
Several bandits nearby also looked surprised.
"You have too little knowledge." The rider, who was called Brother Xu, said, "The bandits are like soldiers passing through the grate. The bandits may steal some gold, silver and food and then leave, but if the officers and soldiers loot, they will directly destroy the villages and villages. In addition, Those officers and soldiers couldn't find us, so they massacred the village and used the villagers' heads as military merit, killing two birds with one stone."
"Isn't this just killing a good person and taking credit for it?" Yang Yuan couldn't help but cursed.
Xu Xuewu sneered: "Otherwise, how could there be so many heads for those officials to get promoted and make a fortune? The few heads expected from the Tatars would not be enough. Besides, killing Tatars requires death. It is so easy to kill common people. You can also make money by taking away property." A small fortune.”
"These damn dog officials." Yang Yuan punched the grass beneath him with his fist.
"Okay, let's all go to sleep. This kind of thing is nothing new in the border town. It has happened in all dynasties." Xu Xuewu put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. After a while, he snored slightly.
The distant firelight did not affect their rest at all.
It's not that they don't hate the officers and soldiers who robbed the people, but they know that they are just bandits and can't control anything. The only blame they can blame is those officials who regard the lives of the people as nothing but trivial matters, and the imperial court treats the lives of the people as nothing.
The fire continued to burn until almost dawn, leaving behind puffs of black smoke.
At nine o'clock, Yang Yuan and the dozens of people he brought were woken up. They each took out the dry food they carried and ate it. After eating, they started to go on the road to chase the bandit army.
By the time they left, it was already a quarter past two o'clock, and the direction of the army camp was still quiet.
After a night of madness among the officers and soldiers, the soldiers in the camp were still resting. The soldiers on patrol also yawned again and again. Some soldiers on guard simply found a place to lean on and fell asleep.
Yang Yuan brought a total of two teams of refugee recruits, a total of sixty people, and a few horse scouts, totaling no more than sixty people.
Traveling faster when there are fewer people, and these refugee recruits were among the first batch of trainees. They carried out the orders very well. They didn't say anything along the way and just kept walking. Finally, before dark, they caught up with Liu Heng's leader. A large army of bandits.
At this time, the bandit army had arrived at the foot of Huokou Mountain at the junction of Yangyuan County and Yuzhou.
By the time the news reached Yangyuan County, Liu Heng had already left with his army.
After hearing the news brought back by Yang Yuan, Zhao Yutu couldn't help but take a breath.
If Liu Heng hadn't been urging everyone to hurry up and asked Yang Yuan to lead some people to distract the government troops halfway, I'm afraid they would have been surrounded and suppressed by the government troops by this time.
After this incident, Zhao Yutu became more and more in awe of Liu Heng.
After traveling for a long time, the bandits in the camp have already been reasonably divided into what they should do, and there will be no such thing as someone being idle and others being busy.
Reasonable arrangement of work not only improves the efficiency of the entire bandit camp but also saves time.
Every time the camp stops for a rest, the refugees among the bandits will take the initiative to make fires and cook, take care of livestock and other chores. The refugee recruits and archers among the bandits are mainly responsible for patrolling and keeping watch at night, and at the same time taking care of food and grass.
Everyone in the entire camp eats and drinks the same, no one is special, even Liu Heng, the nominal boss, eats the same food as ordinary refugees.
Don’t worry about scarcity but inequality.
The refugees in the camp can have full stomachs. They are no longer like when Shi Yunhu was the cabinet, even half-full meals were a luxury for them.
The refugees in the entire camp respected Liu Heng, the great master, because they were not treated differently when they were full. The refugee recruits and archers won the battle under Liu Heng's command, and they were very convinced of Liu Heng, the great master. Through the news brought back by Yang Yuan, several leaders of the bandits also highly praised Liu Heng.
Now the entire bandit camp is divided and has its own thoughts as it was before Shi Yunhu.
Liu Heng's prestige was extremely high in the camp, and no one could shake Liu Heng's status. Even the archers who were once under Li Shuheng's command only recognized Liu Heng as the master.
The bandit camp rested at the foot of Huokou Mountain for a night, and then continued on the road at dawn.
This time Liu Heng did not let the bandit army continue to Yuzhou, but turned back to Guangling.
The Tianchengwei army stationed in the county seat of Yangyuan County has broken camp and returned.
For the officers and soldiers, this trip to Yangyuan County was a fruitful one.
Although there were many poor people in the villages that were robbed, there were still a few wealthy families. Just from these wealthy families, Huang An, the commander who did not show up, gained nearly a thousand taels of silver.
The heads of the "rogue bandits" were also gathered in several villages. The soldiers below had received tangible benefits and had no intention of staying in Yangyuan County.
Without the army, Yangyuan County Magistrate Zhu Jiuchang naturally did not dare to deal with a bandit team of thousands of people alone. Even if he got news about the bandit army, he pretended not to know and allowed the bandits to come and go freely within the territory.
Finally, Zhu Jiuchang got the news that the bandit army had gone to Guangling County, which made him secretly relieved.
A dead Taoist friend is not a poor Taoist, as long as the bandits do not cause trouble in the county under his jurisdiction.
