Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 283

However, they did not expect that Shangguan Bingyun would be so bold that he would sneak into the midst of thousands of troops and assassinate Cao Bin, which resulted in a failure.

Although Ye Chen didn't let them pay attention to Cao Bin's safety before, Shangguan Bingyun actually hid among Cao Bin's entourage, but Huaxia Weifu didn't get any news in advance. With the relationship between Ye Chen and Cao Bin, Cao Bin Bin was assassinated and almost died. From Li Junhao and Bai Canghai to several ministers, they all felt a little dereliction of duty.

Therefore, when we met, Li Junhao led several ministers to salute, and then said: "Master Chief Minister, my subordinates and others have neglected their duties and caused Mr. Cao to be assassinated. Please punish me." Several ministers followed suit plead guilty.

Bai Canghai didn't salute Ye Chen before, but just nodded, and said at this time: "I didn't keep an eye on Shangguan Bingyun, and I am also responsible for this matter."

Ye Chen smiled slightly, and said: "I can't blame you for this matter, after all, I didn't arrange for Uncle Cao's safety for you before. Well...Brother Li! You are in charge of the intelligence department, so how did Shangguan Bingyun become the middle supervisor of Uncle Cao's army?" Accompanied by the military eunuch, will there be an investigation after this incident?"

Li Junhao said: "The subordinates have already investigated, and the final results show that there is something wrong with the supervisor, but the supervisor has disappeared now, and his body was found in an inn in Bazhou three days ago. And the supervisor The army was directly dispatched by His Majesty in the palace, so the source of this matter is in the palace. Because of the seriousness of the matter involved, the subordinates did not continue to investigate, and waited for the commander-in-chief to make a decision."

Ye Chen frowned and pondered for a while, then said: "Let's put this aside for now, and we'll talk about it when we get back to Kaifeng. The top priority is these rogues."

For Ye Chen and the officers and soldiers, the most important thing is to be able to find the rogues, surround them and eliminate them in one fell swoop.During the discussions with the generals of the various armies just now, everyone has reached a consensus.In fact, it is not difficult to think of this.But the difficulty is how to do this.

"According to the information obtained by the Intelligence Department, the rogues in Lizhou accounted for [-]% of all the rogues. After the first sixteen rebels were merged and annexed, under the secret manipulation of Shangguan Bingyun, there are now only seven rebels left. Xu Qingfei, the leader of the largest group of rebels, is the king, and the leaders of the other six groups of rebels are the generals, namely Hei Lang, Poisonous Scorpion, Blood Butcher, Guo Shanhu, Huang Yidao and Tie bone."

"There are more than 8 rogues near Lizhou, but about 1 of them are vagrants who were kidnapped and coaxed by them to hold weapons. The real fighters are the more than 3000 horse thieves. In this kind of encirclement and suppression, almost all the food that could be eaten in the countryside outside the city of Sichuan and Shu was robbed, and the Baizhang Pass and other passes leading to Guanzhong were firmly guarded by the imperial guards in Guanzhong. The rogues could not go to Guanzhong, and now these days there is less and less food , according to the news from the intelligence agents who broke into the rogues, the rogues have killed more than [-] horses and used them as food. And the phenomenon of cannibalism has begun to appear among the refugees. Well! Now they are all concentrated in Daba Mountain The Xiaokou Canyon area." Du Qianqiu, the chief envoy of the Reconnaissance Department, was not there, and Li Junhao, who personally led the Reconnaissance Department these days, spoke first at this time.

Speaking of this, Li Junhao glanced at Bai Canghai, and found that the latter had no intention of speaking, and then said: "The Sichuan and Shu Forbidden Army, the Guanzhong Local Forbidden Army, and the [-] Forbidden Army that Duke Cao brought from the capital blocked the Sichuan-Shu Pass. Passes leading to other places made it difficult for the bandits to get out of Sichuan and Shu, and then chased and intercepted them, gradually advancing and compressing the area where the bandits were active. Among them, the forbidden army in the Guanzhong area was only responsible for blocking the passage of the bandits fleeing westward to Guanzhong. Wei Da led [-] elite soldiers from the capital, and they defeated several bandits, large and small, in recent days. The local imperial troops in Sichuan and Shu were also extremely brave in their battles, and killed many bandits these days."

"The difficulty lies in the fact that the canyons around Xiaokou Canyon in Daba Mountain are smooth, dry rivers are everywhere, and there are mountain roads everywhere, but there are no dangerous places to stop them. The horse soldiers moved quickly, and the rogues led by Xuebutcher, Guo Shanhu, and Huang Yidao were defeated by the officers and soldiers many times. Most of my war horses in the Song Dynasty were given to the Northwest and North Camp frontier troops to defend the Khitan, and the local forbidden army in Sichuan and Sichuan lacked cavalry, and most of them were infantry. Most of the time, even if we found the rogues, they would not be able to catch up with the horse thieves among the rogues in the end."

Ye Chen frowned deeply when he heard this, and said, "How many of our dark chess pieces are there among the rogues?"

Li Junhao said: "Our intelligence department has more than 40 intelligence agents sneaking into the rogues."

The Assassin Department's commander, Lian Jicheng, glanced at his boss Bai Canghai and saw that the latter had no intention of speaking, so he took the initiative to say: "Report to Mr. Chief Commander. The assassination department has sent more than 50 assassins to kill him." Among the rogues, there are 11 Chinese Golden Guards and 43 Chinese Silver Guards. And these people have been scattered among the seven rogues, and they can be beheaded at any time as long as the adults give orders."

There used to be a town called Xiaokou Town in the Xiaokou Gorge area of ​​Daba Mountain. Now refugees all over the mountains are camping outside the town. They don't have enough materials and physical strength to build a place to live. Many people just live in the open air.

There are still several intact mansions in the town, and a large red flag is erected in front of the gate, with the four big characters of King Xu Qingfei written on it, and there are six smaller flags with the flags of the other six rogues written on them.From time to time, a group of sturdy people on horseback came to the door, chatting and laughing loudly with each other in Sichuan accent, and then entered the house together.

It used to be a squire's house, but today it is a temporary residence for King Xu Qingfei. His camp is not here, but to the north of Xiaokou Town, and closer to Daba Mountain. Today, he just came here to gather the bandit leaders to meet and talk. thing.Hei Lang, as the second largest rogue, arrived here early. He and Xu Qingfei have been traveling as partners recently, and they were the backbone of the first sixteen rogues.

There are many horses scattered in the east and west gardens of the house. They are grazing inside, and the ground is full of manure, making a mess of a quiet and elegant garden.In the middle of the garden on both sides is the place where the landlord Lao Cai used to live, and the main hall is full of burly men.

The one with broad shoulders and round waist is wearing a fine chain mail and a blackened red cloak behind him. His dark and yellow face is covered with weed-like beards, and there is a tyrannical look in his eyes. The young man is Xu Qingfei.He has a calm demeanor, he doesn't eat and drink like those bosses, he just takes a sip from the wine bowl occasionally.Next to him was a rough middle-aged man, about forty years old, with a stern expression on his face, it was Hei Lang.

"Brother, you have to think of a way quickly. Now the beatings are getting less and less, and there are more and more dog officers and soldiers in Guawazi." A Sichuan-Shu accent yelled at the door, and the big man smiled and raised his head. Huang Yidao strode into the hall with a yellow complexion.

The gangsters around greeted Huang Yidao enthusiastically, but Huang Yidao didn't respond. He walked up to a little thief, snatched the leg of lamb he had gnawed halfway through, and took his bowl, and sat next to Xu Qingfei. .His strength now ranks third, second only to Xu Qingfei and Hei Lang.

Nine of the first sixteen bandit leaders have died or disappeared, leaving only seven.Huang Yidao is brutal and domineering, and he doesn't have much respect for the other six bosses. Only Xu Qingfei can subdue Huang Yidao.

At this time, a bandit leader below said in a mixed voice: "You son of a bitch, Huang Yidao, I heard that your son of a bitch was beaten until you lost your pants by the 5000 people that Cao Bin brought from Kaifeng."

Huang Yidao looked over coldly, his eyes were fierce, they both looked at each other fiercely, Xu Qingfei drank calmly in the middle, and the others ate their own food, as if it was commonplace.

"You are the first to be strict, when did I lose my pants because of the beating?"

The person who spoke was the blood butcher who ranked fourth in power, he was brutal, he laughed and said: "Sooner or later, you son of a bitch will be beaten by the officers and soldiers until your legs are broken."

Huang Yidao stood up with a whoosh, and a wine bowl flew over with a whoosh. The blood butcher was already prepared, and he blocked it with a wave of his hand. , The posture is about to go up and kill.

"Okay." Xu Qingfei waved his hand lightly, Huang Yidao stopped, Xu Qingfei stood up and walked to the middle, and shouted: "Right now, this dog officer and soldier has forced us brothers to have nowhere to grab food, and killed a lot of us Brother, you two sons of bitches are still fighting here."

After hearing this, Huang Yidao sat down, waved his hands to put away the waist knife, threw the knife on the ground with a clang, sat down angrily and drank, and gave the blood butcher a hard look from time to time.

Xu Qingfei cupped his hands to the people around him and said: "Everyone is here today, I am looking for you, not here to fight and drink, the emperor has now sent tens of thousands of people to block us in the Sichuan Basin, Sichuan and Sichuan It's just the size of a palm, where should I go in the future, I just received instructions from my master, let me tell you."

Huang Yidao glanced around and saw that there were no annoying monks, and said in a low voice, "Why do we keep listening to that monk..."

"Shut up!" Before Huang Yidao finished speaking, Xu Qingfei shouted loudly.

"Did you forget how the dwarf bears died?" Xu Qingfei scolded.

Huang Yidao didn't dare to speak anymore.

It’s just that the leaders of the gangsters are listless at this time, and now they all regret it. When they were bandits or thieves, their lives were so chic, but now they are running around and robbing everywhere. Where there is something to grab, they go there. It's very enjoyable, but as time goes on, they feel bored with the days of running around.It's just that they are already riding a tiger, and they can't even stop, otherwise their leaders will undoubtedly die.

Xu Qingfei saw that no one spoke anymore, so he said: "The master said, now that there are four sets of officers and soldiers, the number of people will only increase, and it will block the way to other places. It is not an option to continue like this. The master said that he will meet tomorrow. In the afternoon, find someone to kill the officer and general of the turtle son of Baizhang Pass, and personally find a way to open Baizhang Pass, let us go to the middle of the pass. But the premise is that we must repel the officers and soldiers surrounding the north."

(End of this chapter)