Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 59
The biggest difficulty in suppressing bandits is that the officers and soldiers do not know the exact location and movements of the bandits.

It would be much easier if there were insiders to provide information.

After seeing Cai Ping and Cai An, Liu Hong carefully asked about the situation in Hongshanling.

Including what the leader looks like, what the people on the mountain usually do, and so on, they asked me everything.

After listening to Cai Ping and Cai An, Liu Hong has a basic understanding of the situation in Hongshanling.

But how to act requires some thought.

Liu Hong knew from Cai Ping and Cai An that the bandits in Hongshanling were different from those in other places.

Especially Li Jing, the bandit leader, he doesn't look like a bandit at all.

Liu Hong had never heard that the bandits were paid on a monthly basis, and the pay was more punctual than that of the officers and soldiers.

In addition, this group of bandits is not allowed to go down the mountain to rob and commit crimes. If they don't rob, what kind of bandits are they?
If he hadn't known that many of Li Jing's subordinates were bandits, and Li Jing usually trained these people strictly, Liu Hong would have wondered if he had heard it wrong.

According to the information provided by Cai Ping and Cai An, Liu Hong carefully analyzed Li Jing's character and way of doing things.

Liu Hong felt that Li Jing, the bandit leader, was not simple and could not be treated like an ordinary bandit.

So Liu Hong took his men to Xiaozhuang Village, stationed there, and then sent scouts out to inquire about the news.

He was shocked when he knew that the bandits were stationed in three places.

These three places are the horns of each other, they can be attacked when they advance, they can be defended when they retreat, and they can escape anytime and anywhere.

Although Liu Hong had three times the number of bandits, he did not dare to act rashly.

Liu Hong couldn't help secretly admiring the arrangement of the bandits.

However, Liu Hong still has a trump card.

That is, there are bandits on the mountain who are dissatisfied with Li Jing and want to rebel against Li Jing.

As long as the bandits are in civil strife, then Liu Hong's chance will come.

Liu Hong immediately ordered the officers and soldiers to get ready and wait for the bandits to have civil strife. As long as the bandits have civil strife, they will start attacking the mountain.

Unexpectedly, there was no movement from the left waiter, and no movement from the right waiter. After midnight, a bandit came outside the barracks, saying that he was here to deliver a letter.

Liu Hong immediately received the bandit.

Unexpectedly, the bandit ignored him, an official and a thousand households, and only said that the news should be reported to the Xu family.

Liu Hongwen was furious and almost ordered the bandit to be beheaded.

Fortunately, Liu Hong has a strong self-control ability. He knows that this time the troops are sent out by the Xu family. Moreover, Liu Hong also knows that the prefect of Weihui Mansion is the Xu family's backer. He cannot afford to offend the Xu family.

In addition, the Xu family also sent people to participate in the suppression of the bandits. If I killed the messenger, I am afraid that the Xu family would not let me go.

So Liu Hong hurriedly invited people from the Xu family.

This person is none other than Xu Laosan Xu Bin.

According to Xu Laosan's character, how could he come out with officers and soldiers to suffer?
But the housekeeper Xu Er woke him up with a word.

Xu Er only said: "Third Young Master, if you don't go, once the officers and soldiers take Miss Shen's family, I'm afraid you will regret it later."

After hearing this, Xu Laosan immediately went to his brain. Regardless of the cold weather, he brought Xu Er, Cai Ping, Cai An and others to the barracks.

The big customer wanted to follow the bandits, how dare Liu Hong refuse, so he had to arrange camp for the third young master.

Third Young Master Xu originally thought that the officers and soldiers must have taken down the bandits in one go, but who knew that the officers and soldiers would not leave when they arrived in Xiaozhuang Village.

Xu Laosan was bored waiting, so he went back to his tent and fell asleep.

Hearing that Qianhu Liu Hong asked him to meet the bandits who delivered the letter, Youngest Xu yawned and came to Liu Hong's military tent impatiently.

The messenger knew Cai Ping and Cai An, and after introducing him, he learned that this young man who could hardly keep his eyes open was the young master of the Xu family. He was a little disappointed at first.Seeing Liu Hong's respectful attitude towards the young master of the Xu family, he was immediately overjoyed and thought he was hugging a thick leg.

The man hurriedly told Third Young Master Xu the news of the last few days on the mountain.

Unexpectedly, Young Master Xu didn't understand the usefulness of these news at all, so he yawned and said that he only needed to tell Liu Hong about these news.

The news that Third Young Master Xu didn't care was of great use to Liu Hong.

After Liu Hong's analysis, he guessed that the bandits were already prepared.

Just how to prepare, the messenger was also kept in the dark.

Liu Hong thought hard, and even switched places between himself and Li Jing, and finally thought that the bandits would definitely transfer their property and family members.

The bandit leader is no where to be seen, and I'm afraid that's what he did.

Just where to go, Liu Hong also spent a lot of thinking.

Liu Hong made a rough calculation, and finally thought that he would definitely go in the direction of Lingchuan in the northwest.

But Liu Hong couldn't tell where it would be transferred to. He could only determine a rough range.

But having an approximate range is enough.

Liu Hong immediately selected [-] elite soldiers from the army, and led by his confidant Liu Baihu, they detoured from the west to the South Village in the northwest of Hongshanling to search for the whereabouts of the bandits' families.

Hearing that the whereabouts of Shen's family had been found, Xu Laosan immediately lifted his spirits, and yelled to arrest them regardless of the cold weather.

Liu Hong didn't dissuade them either. Anyway, most of the bandits are here. These two hundred soldiers are all elites. What's the point of dealing with some ordinary people?Even if the bandit leader is there, there are only a hundred or so people, and with these 200 people, he will be able to catch them all at once.

Liu Hong just told Liu Baihu to take good care of Young Master Xu.

After Liu Baihu and Third Young Master Xu left, Liu Hong immediately gathered all his men to prepare for attacking the mountain.

Because the bandit who sent the letter told him that the inside line on the mountain would be activated at [-]:[-], so that the officers and soldiers should be ready.When ready, the arrows sounded to inform the inside line action on the hill.

Liu Hong has made all preparations, just waiting for the inside line to start to move, and then attack the mountain aggressively.

But at this moment, someone from behind came to report that the supply troops stationed outside Beiyang Town had been attacked and all food and grass had been burned.

Liu Hongwen almost fainted when he heard the news.

If there is no food, grass and luggage, it is still a fart.

I don't know what the Qianhu who is in charge of guarding the food and grass is doing, but he can't even keep the food and grass.

When he heard that Qianhu was dead, Liu Hong felt a little relieved.

However, Liu Hong was very surprised that someone so powerful could actually burn the food and grass of the officers and soldiers.

And except for the death of Qianhu, all the soldiers were fine, at most they were slightly injured due to panic.

Hearing Liu Hong ask who did it, the soldier who reported the letter showed a look of panic on his face, and even said it was a ghost.

For the soldier's answer, Liu Hong did not believe it in his heart.

I've heard of ghosts eating people, but I haven't heard of ghosts setting fire to food.

Could it be that the ghost has a grudge against grain?
In addition, why did the ghost only kill one person from a thousand households? Could it be that the thousand households were not pleasing to the eye?And I have never heard of ghosts killing people with knives.

After driving out the soldiers who reported the news, Liu Hong started to have a headache.

Food and grass are gone, how can we fight this battle?Unless all the bandits can be wiped out in one fell swoop.

But the bandits are as smart as monkeys, it's hard to say whether they can be caught.

Now we can only count on those insiders.

Liu Hong decided to wait and see.

Although the food and grass were gone, the officers and soldiers also carried some themselves, and it would be no problem to persist for a day or two.

If the bandits cannot be defeated within two days, it will not be too late to retreat at that time.

At the third quarter of the hour, the sky gradually brightened, and Liu Hong ordered people to fire arrows, and then began to wait for Jinniuling's response.

Unexpectedly, after waiting for a long time, there was no movement in Jinniuling.

After a while, someone came to report, and the bandits came to surrender.

Liu Hong was overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered someone to bring the bandits in.

When the bandits came in, Liu Hong counted them, but there were only about twenty of them.

Ask again, the leader is Guo Zhen.Isn't this the internal response on the mountain?

You didn't respond internally, why did you come back?

After staring at Guo Zhen for a while, Liu Hong slowly asked, "Didn't you say you wanted to be an internal response to the army? Why did you escape?"

"My lord, Li Jing, the leader of the bandit, has suddenly arrived at Jinniuling, and we really have no chance to attack." Guo Zhen said hastily.

"Oh!" Liu Hong responded lightly, and then continued: "If you don't have a chance to attack, do you have a chance to go down the mountain? And you didn't bring any weapons when you went down the mountain. Obviously, you didn't want to fight against the army. Maybe he came to surrender. Do you think Li Jing is a fool or is he blind? Doesn’t he know that there is an army of officers and soldiers at the foot of the mountain?”

Liu Hong said a few words indifferently, but Guo Zhen and others were shocked into confusion.

I didn't expect this officer to be so powerful, and the flaw can be seen only from the fact that they didn't carry weapons.

"Damn the villain, you shouldn't lie to the adults. We were actually discovered by Li Jing and driven down the mountain by Li Jing." Guo Zhen had no choice but to tell the truth.

Not wanting Guo Zhen to tell the truth, Liu Hong didn't believe it even more.

If the bandit leader is so talkative, is he still called the bandit leader?
Liu Hong stared, and shouted: "You're talking nonsense! Someone! Pull me down and beat me with twenty army sticks."

Immediately, a group of officers and soldiers came in like wolves and tigers, and dragged Guo Zhen and others out.

Guo Zhen and others didn't dare to resist, so they obediently accepted the twenty army sticks.

After the batons were beaten, the soldiers dragged them back to their tents.

"Are you still telling the truth?" Liu Hong sneered.

"The villain is telling the truth, then Li Jingshi was squeezed by my words and had to let me wait." Guo Zhen said anxiously.

"Oh? I was run over by your words? What did you say, let me listen to it." Liu Hong asked.

Guo Zhen didn't dare to hide it, so he immediately told Li Jing exactly what he said to Li Jing.

After listening to Guo Zhen's words and looking at Guo Zhen's expression, Liu Hong knew that Guo Zhen was not lying.It's just full of doubts about why Li Jing let them go down the mountain.

Didn't Li Jing know that by letting these people go down the mountain, the situation of the bandits would be exposed?

"My lord, the leader of the bandit, Li Jing, is in Jinniuling right now, and he is attacking the mountain at this time, just in time to take him down." Seeing that Liu Hong believed his words, Guo Zhen said hastily.

When Guo Zhen said this, Liu Hong had even more doubts.

Then Li Jing let these people go down the mountain to reveal their whereabouts, is it not enough to live?
I think there was either an ambush in Jinniuling, or he had already fled.

Thinking of the attack on the logistics troops, Liu Hong secretly felt vigilant, and even more suspected that there was an ambush in Jinniuling.

At this time, the sky is dry and the things are dry, if the officers and soldiers enter the mountain rashly, once Li Jing hides a fire starter at the foot of the mountain, people like himself may not be spared.

"Could it be that Li Jing is using counterintuitive tricks? Is it okay to use these people to lure me into a trap?" Liu Hong thought to himself.

While Liu Hong was thinking, he couldn't stop looking at Guo Zhen and the others.

(End of this chapter)