Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 349
Everyone looked around the town, and the farmers looked at Zhao Zhen and his party with fear. No one dared to approach and talk to him. Zhao Zhen lost interest when he saw this.

Each of them left more than ten soldiers to guard several houses, and everyone went to the military camp outside the town to spend the night. Zhao Zhen released Shi Kuo, Shi Yue, Liu Mu, Xu Tan and his son, Sun Guang, and Wei An, and asked them to come to the camp at noon tomorrow to receive orders.

The patrol of the camp was arranged, the soldiers took off their armor, and the war horses were unsaddled. Although alcohol was prohibited in the camp, a lot of pigs and sheep collected from the Zhang and Qi families were slaughtered and served with rice. The soldiers were all smiling.

At night, when Zhao Zhen was about to rest, Sun Guang, who had been released during the day, came to the military camp with four farmhands and a short and strong man.

After meeting Zhao Zhen, Sun Guang kowtowed and pointed at the man with his hands tied behind his back and said, "General, this guy is called Fan Shi, the eldest son of Fan Ying, the village chief of Fanzhuang, and he is engaged to the second daughter of Zhang Gai, the village chief of Zhanggai. Today, a resident of Zhanggai village escaped to Fanzhuang to report the news, and this guy came to my house at night to contact me. He is going to raid our camp at three o'clock tonight. Let me pretend to entertain him, and have someone capture him at the table, and quickly send him to the general to report."

Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "Sun Lizheng is thoughtful. I will remember your contribution for now. When we defeat the bandits, I will certainly treat you well."

After hearing this, Sun Guang said he didn't dare.

Someone took the walnut out of Fan Shi's mouth, and Fan Shi cursed: "Sun Guang, don't forget that your son married the eldest daughter of Zhang family. You betrayed me today and failed to save your father-in-law's family. Your family will never have peace in the future." Then he spat at Sun Guang.

"Humph, you married the daughter of the Zhang family and you still want to stay out of it. Who will dare to employ your sons in the future?"

Zhu Wu said, "Sir, at dinner today, we were discussing who should be the village chief. Today, Sun Guang made a great contribution. Why not appoint Sun Lizheng as the village chief to reward him?"

Zhao Zhen looked at Sun Guang who looked worried and said, "The military advisor is right. Sun Lizheng's contribution is indeed worthy of reward. Once the county has cleared the land and population, the appointment will be announced. As for the eldest daughter of the Zhang family, she has already married into the Sun family, so she is naturally a member of the Sun family. For Sun Lizheng's sake, I will not pursue the matter."

After hearing this, Sun Guang thanked him repeatedly.

Zhao Zhen gave a wink, and Zhu Wu understood and went downstairs to prepare.

Zhao Zhen then said, "Sun Lizheng, you go back now and pretend to gather the local militia. If anyone else tries to contact them, detain them in the village."

After hearing this, Sun Guang took a few farmers back to Sunzhuang.

Fan Shi was taken away, and Zhao Zhen also got ready to ambush and fight after three o'clock in the morning.

After the third watch, there was still no sound. Zhao Zhen thought that Fan Village had only 50 households, and the soldiers had been running all day and were already exhausted. He whispered to Zhu Wu beside him, "Brother, I'm afraid Fan Shi has an agreement with the village. He has never returned. I'm afraid they have already known that the matter has been exposed, and he will not come tonight."

Zhu Wu said: "It is better to be cautious. Only leave a hundred men on guard, and the rest of the soldiers go to rest. Keep your armor on tonight. Let's go to Fanzhuang tomorrow."

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen arranged for the soldiers to return to the camp to rest.

After a night, no one from Fanzhuang came to rob the camp. After replacing the night watchman, Zhao Zhen sent someone to bring Fan Shi and shouted, "Why, are you the only hero in Fanzhuang?"

Fan Shi sneered and didn't reply.

Zhao Zhen was not angry either, and said, "Is it funny? Because of you, I will send troops to attack Fanzhuang today. I want to see if you can still laugh after I capture Fanzhuang."

Fan Shi was shocked and angry when he heard this: "Everyone has his own responsibility. Fan Zhuang didn't provoke you."

"Why, aren't you coming to rob the camp?"

"That was what I lied to Sun Guang." Fan Shi said quickly. Seeing Zhao Zhen staring at him, Fan Shi said, "I got engaged to the second daughter of the Zhang family this year and will be married next month. Yesterday, I heard that the general had captured this place, and I also heard that the general wanted to marry the women of the Zhang family to the soldiers, so I begged my father to come to rescue. My father didn't want to, so I ran away secretly. I thought that Sun Guang's son married the eldest daughter of the Zhang family, so I wanted to encourage him to send troops. Then I secretly took Lanxiang back to Fanzhuang. I didn't expect that Sun Guang was a coward and tied me up." As he spoke, his tone dropped.

Zhao Zhen and Zhu Wu looked at each other in bewilderment. Who could have thought that all their preparations throughout the night would turn out to be a mistake.

After hearing this, Guang Hui went up and kicked Fan Shi to the ground, saying angrily, "Damn it, you've been tossing me around all night. Sir, I'll lead the charge today and I'm going to wipe out the Fan family."

After hearing this, Fan Shi felt disheartened.

Zhu Wu comforted him, "Master, please calm down. It is human nature for young men and women to love each other."

Then he turned to Zhao Zhen and said, "Sir, Fan Zhuang was not involved after all. Why not give brother Fan Shi a chance to atone for his crime? Let him go and say that his father has surrendered, how about that?"

Before Zhao Zhen could speak, Fan Shi said, enduring the pain: "Yes, yes, let me go back, I will go and convince my father, and save the general from the hard work."

Zhao Zhen said, "If you can persuade your father to surrender, I promise to return the second daughter of the Zhang family to him. How about that?"

Fan Shi nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, General. I am the only son of my father and he will not ignore me."

Zhao Zhen waved his hand and said, "Before noon today, I want to see your father surrender. After noon, I will lead an army to attack Fanzhuang, and you can forget about the second daughter of the Zhang family."

As he said this, he had Fan Shi untied and driven out of the military camp. Before leaving, he let Fan Shi take a look at Zhang Gai's daughter.

We will not go into how Fan Shi went back to Fanzhuang to persuade Fan Ying to surrender. Let us just say that at the time of Sipai just now, the seven people, Shi Kuo and Shi Yue, Liu Mu, Xu Tan and Xu Qing, Sun Guang, and Wei An, who had been released yesterday, each brought their own farmers, escorted three to five cartloads of food and fodder, and drove pigs, cattle, and sheep to the army to entertain the troops.

Everyone met in the military camp and congratulated themselves. They had agreed to come to the camp at noon yesterday, but they all came earlier. Fortunately, they were careful, otherwise General Zhao would have left a bad impression of disrespect.

Zhao Zhen invited several people into the tent. After greeting them, he asked them to sit down. Zhao Zhen said, "Sun Guang came to report the news last night. Although it was a false alarm, it also showed Sun Guang's loyalty. From now on, Jingmen Town will station a battalion of soldiers here to guard the border. After the land and population are cleared, the position of township chief will be held by Sun Guang. Shi Kuo said that he has made great contributions in conquering E Liuzhuang, so he will be appointed as township assistant. One or two of you who have made the greatest contributions will be selected to serve as township elders, township cadres, and mobile collectors. The rest of the township positions will be assigned to clerks from the county to assist you in handling official documents with the county. The county will also transfer some clerks to serve as deputy village heads in each village to manage village affairs together with the village heads."

After hearing this, everyone looked at Sun Guang, flattering him on the surface, but cursing in their hearts: "This guy is too lucky."

"Only the main culprits of the Zhang and Qi families will be executed, and the rest will not be pursued. In the future, if anyone instigates trouble, the county will naturally reward him for his meritorious service in exposing him. In the future, the main responsibilities of each village head will be to urge the collection of the two taxes and assist the county in collecting corvée labor. The village will not be allowed to carry out private punishment. The army will also deploy sergeants to serve as instructors of the militia in each village."

"Today, County Magistrate Xiao is leading people to clear the land. You must cooperate well. If you conceal anything, once it is verified, you will not be forgiven."

After hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement, no matter what they thought.

"I will buy the food, cattle, sheep and pigs sent to me at the market price. The money belongs to the family from whom it was collected. I will not embezzle it."

After hearing this, everyone said they didn't dare.

Here, Zhu Wu had people weigh the food and fodder, and guard each village household, and deliver sufficient money to each village head. When the farmers saw this, they all said that Zhao Zhen and his gang were kind and righteous.

Near noon, a spy came to report that twenty or thirty people rushed out of the fog and headed towards the military camp.

(End of this chapter)