Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 378 Urgent Report
Three days later, Zhao Zhen, Wu Yong and others were counting their harvest at Shouzhang County Government Office.

There are five townships and sixty-three villages in Shouzhang County. Because Shanglaozhuang Township was massacred by Li Erseng and the hidden households were cleared out, there are only more than 7600 households in the entire county. Except for the fact that the land is larger, it is not as good as Dulonggang.

After taking over Shouzhang, Zhaozhen Township was west of Jingyang Town and east of Jingmen Town. Except for Dulonggang, the entire Liangshan Mountain was connected. Zhao Zhen's territory expanded by more than half in a flash.

There was less than a thousand strings of cash in the treasury, but there was plenty of cloth, silk, and grain.

In addition, Zhao Zhen cleaned up the gentry with bad records, either killing or punishing them, and there were nearly 20,000 strings of money. From the confiscated property, he took away the fine and valuable ones, and sold the clumsy ones at a discount. The land, shops, and houses were also rented or sold and all were arranged properly.

The Yellow River in Shouzhang is connected to Liangshan Lake, where there is also a magical fish. Every year the county mobilizes fishermen to catch this fish for offering as sacrifice.

The Book of Songs says, "If he eats fish, it must be carp from the river." This fish refers to the Yellow River carp. There is also a saying that "Luo carp and Yi carp are as expensive as cattle and sheep." They have always been the best food.

However, this fish is extremely difficult to catch. Unlike the four-bearded carp that Zhao Zhen had seen, only a dozen or so of this fish were caught in previous years. The county priced this fish at 20 strings of cash per fish, and private trading was not allowed. It could only be sold to the government.

Zhao Zhen stayed in Shouzhang for a long time, but no fisherman caught a single fish.

There were only 78 acres of spiritual fields discovered in the entire Shouzhang County. Xiao Rang redeemed all of these spiritual fields, along with the surrounding land, as public land and hired someone to take care of it.

In each village, a clerk was assigned to each village with more than 100 households to publicize the official documents issued by Liangshan. In several nearby villages, three or five disabled soldiers were assigned to teach the village warriors in their spare time.

Shouzhang was stable, leaving Li Ying and others behind, Zhao Zhen packed up his troops and horses, escorted the property, and set off to return to Liangshan. The soldiers were arranged in an orderly manner, with the cavalry going first and the infantry escorting the chariots and weapons following behind.

The embroidered colorful flags are like clouds and fog, and the steel knife is dipped into the bright snow and spread over the frost.

The phoenix bells ring and the war horses gallop.

The drums beat and the soldiers were excited.

It is said that Zhao Zhen's group had only been walking for an hour and had not yet left Shouzhang when they saw two riders on fast horses rushing towards them.

Guo Sheng and Lu Fang, who were leading the way, quickly ordered people to kidnap the two men on horseback. Upon questioning, they learned that the two men were Liu Guang's trusted farmhands in Jingmen Town. Today, they encountered a group of bandits breaking into Niutou Mountain, and Liu Guang and Yang Zhi led their troops to confront them at the foot of the mountain.

There were quite a few bandits on this road, about 200 to people, fortunately they were all infantry, only the first few were on horseback. Seeing the cavalrymen in Jingmen Town, they did not dare to move rashly, so they occupied the Taoist temple on the mountain and set up a rough camp.

Liu Guang only had 500 infantrymen, and it was inconvenient for the cavalry to go up the mountain, so he just surrounded the enemy without attacking and sent people to ask for help.

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen immediately sent orders to transfer to Jingmen Town.

On the way, Zhao Zhen discussed with Wu Yong and asked Wu Yong to lead Yan Shude, Lei Heng, Bao Xu and Jiao Ting to lead the infantry to march slowly. Zhao Zhen took 300 cavalry soldiers and Zhu Wu, Bai Sheng, Lu Zhishen and Guang Hui to ride horses to Jingmen Town first.

They rode at full speed all the way, and at dusk, Zhao Zhen and his companions arrived at Jingmen Town. The town's [advance officer] Li San, dressed in military uniform, led a hundred or so fully armed soldiers and the town's militia to guard the town.

When Li San saw Zhao Zhen, he stepped forward and greeted him. Zhao Zhen asked, "How is the situation at Niutou Mountain?"

Li San replied: "This group of people are still confronting the chief steward on the mountain, but they haven't fought yet."

Zhao Zhen heard this and said with a smile: "It seems that I arrived just in time. Have you found out the origins of this group of people on the mountain?"

Li San said: "The general manager has not sent back any news yet. Judging from their attire, they are in disarray and definitely not the government troops."

Zhao Zhen said, "It's getting late today. We have been traveling for a day. Let's prepare food and fodder first, and let the soldiers and horses rest so that we can fight tomorrow." After that, Zhao Zhen called Lu Fang, Guo Sheng, Liu Qi, and Hu Sanniang, and the five of them rode at full speed to Niutou Mountain ahead, where they met Liu Guang and Yang Zhi.

Zhao Zhen asked, "Father, have you found out who these people are?"

Liu Guang said, "My dear son-in-law, these people are only camped on the mountain and have not come down to talk to us. Today, Brother Yang Zhi came forward to challenge them, but the people on the mountain did not respond. If we drive our soldiers up the mountain, we will probably suffer heavy casualties. I see that there are not many tracks on the mountain road, so these people must not have much food and grass. We should surround them first, and when they run out of food, they will definitely come down the mountain. Then we can fight them. I have cavalry here, so I am not afraid that I cannot defeat them."

Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "My grandfather is very thoughtful, but we have to guard against sneak attacks tonight."

Yang Zhi said: "Don't worry, sir. We have arranged spies to monitor the bandits on the mountain."

Zhao Zhen nodded and said, "In that case, we will go back to Jingmen Town first, rest for a night, and come back to the mountain tomorrow. Liu Qi will stay to help patrol the camp."

Early the next morning, Zhao Zhen and his men had breakfast, and then more than 300 of them mounted their horses and trotted all the way to Niutou Mountain, with dust rising into the sky along the way.

The bandits on the mountain looked at each other in bewilderment. This group of people roamed around, not attacking the county town, but only attacking the villages. They didn't expect to meet a tough guy this time. Judging from the situation, it would be difficult to escape.

The two leaders gathered together, standing on the roof of the Taoist temple and looking down. The first one was wearing chain mail, a phoenix-wing helmet, a red robe, and holding a large iron stick. This man's surname was Song, with a single given name, and he was originally the head of the horse cavalry in Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan. Because he offended his superior, he accidentally killed someone and fled.

The one behind him was dressed as a monk, not wearing armor, only a dark blue robe, his Buddhist name was Miaokong, and he held an iron crescent shovel in his hand.

Miaokong was lustful and kept two young mistresses at the foot of the mountain without the knowledge of the abbot. One day, he was drunk and was discovered and exposed. He simply killed all the monks in the temple, took away his valuables, set fire to the temple, and became a wanderer from then on.

When Song Sheng was robbing the place, he met Miao Kong. Seeing that Miao Kong was very skilled in martial arts, he invited Miao Kong to join his gang. The two of them formed a group and recruited many poor people to roam around.

Miaokong said, "Brother, judging from the situation, this place is not easy to get."

Song Sheng said, "Brother, there are many horses at the foot of the mountain. If we don't kill them for a while, the people below us will be scared and there will be nowhere to escape. We should have made up our minds last night and evacuated overnight."

Miaokong said: "Brother, there is enough food and grass on the mountain for three to five days. Why don't we take a rest today and sneak into the camp at night?"

Song Sheng said, "That's fine. If that doesn't work, we can go down the mountain and fight him tomorrow. Most of these government troops are drunkards. As long as we kill the leading officer and then we leave, they will definitely not dare to chase us."

After the plan was finalized, the two men arranged for people to monitor the movements at the foot of the mountain, while the rest of the troops rested in the tents and Taoist temples to recuperate and prepare to raid the camp at night.

Zhao Zhen and others challenged each other at the foot of the mountain, but the people on the mountain hung a sign saying "No Fight", and did not accept the challenge.

After noon, Zhao Zhen and his men had lunch in the camp. Liu Huiniang said, "My husband, looking at the situation, I'm afraid that the people from the mountain are going to raid the camp tonight."

As he was speaking, Li San sent someone to report that Wu Yong had led his soldiers to Jingmen Town and were heading towards Niutou Mountain.

Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "After seeing so many people and horses, I'm afraid the people on the mountain won't dare to come tonight."

At night, Zhao Zhen made preparations, but unfortunately the bandits in the mountain saw the men brought by Wu Yong and did not dare to come down the mountain.

On the second day, Song Sheng and Miao Kong did not dare to wait any longer, fearing that more troops would arrive. After packing up, they led the bandits down the mountain and roughly formed a battle formation.

Miaokong carried a crescent iron shovel and rushed out of the battle formation first, shouting, "Who is not afraid of death? Come, come, let me help you to be reborn."

(End of this chapter)