I want to be emperor

Chapter 84 The Disappearing Sentinel of Officers and Soldiers

Xie Liangcai didn't work in Lushan County before, but was a county magistrate in Shaanxi, but he was unlucky when he was a county magistrate in Shaanxi.

During the three years of his tenure, he encountered thieves attacking the county every year. In the first half of last year, he encountered an army led by Gao Yingxiang himself and killed them.

At that time, the thousands of officers and soldiers guarding the city couldn't stop him, and he, a small county magistrate, naturally had no way to do anything, but later he was killed and escaped with the retreating officers and soldiers.

Later, it took a lot of money to avoid the charge of falling into the city, and was transferred to Lushan County as the county magistrate.

The reason why he was transferred to Lushan County without any charges was also because he was attacked by tens of thousands of thieves at that time. .

So the higher-ups didn't blame him too much. Instead, they felt that this person had also experienced great storms, and he had worked in Shaanxi for several years and dealt with thieves. He also did a lot of things during the defense of the city, helping the defenders collect food and grass Mobilize civilians to defend the city together.

In addition, Xie Liangcai spent a lot of money to get his joints opened, and someone above him spoke for him, so instead of blaming him, the court transferred him to Lushan County to continue serving as the county magistrate.

Originally, he thought that it would be safer to be a county magistrate here in Henan, but he didn't expect that a large number of rebels would come from Shaanxi to Henan as soon as he took office.

This made Xie Liangcai very nervous. In the past month, he begged his grandpa and grandma to send troops to garrison Lushan County, so as to avoid another fall of the city.

But instead of sending troops to garrison Lushan County, the superiors were transferred away by the two or three hundred soldiers who were originally stationed here because of the tense fighting in the north.

This made Xie Liangcai even more terrified, for fear that a wave of thieves would come and kill Lushan County.

The soldiers were transferred away, Xie Liang had no choice but to rely on a local county brave of hundreds of people in Lushan County as the main force to defend Lushan County.

Speaking of this county brave, he has to thank Wang Jida who has been transferred to Ruzhou Tongzhi.

After all, this army of county warriors was created by Wang Jida's tenure. Although the combat effectiveness is not much different from that of the decadent guard soldiers, it is better than the civilian husbands anyway.

For the past month, Xie Liangcai has been concerned about the war in the north while being frightened.

But what he didn't expect was that before the large number of rogues from the north came over, a large number of rogues appeared on Funiu Mountain.

"At least two thousand thieves? And there are fine cavalry and artillery?" Xie Liangcai couldn't believe the news he heard: "Didn't it mean that the thieves from Funiu Mountain had gone to Lu's side, why did they suddenly There are so many rogues? Could it be that the rogues from the north are going south around the mountain?"

When he took office, he also had a brief understanding of the situation in Lushan County. He knew that there was a group of thieves in Funiu Mountain, and it was said that there were hundreds of people. The thieves have gone to the depths of the mountains to the west.

Nothing Wang Jida reported was true. Not only did his superiors not know, even Xie Liangcai couldn't figure out whether it was true or not.

Now that Xie Liangcai suddenly learned that at least two thousand thieves had been killed from Funiu Mountain, his first reaction was that these were not those little thieves in Funiu Mountain at all.

How could ordinary thieves have fine cavalry and artillery? These things are usually only available to large-scale thieves.

Looking at this part of Henan, only those big thieves in the north can have this kind of fine cavalry and artillery.

So Xie Liangcai's first reaction was that these rogues were the main force of the rogues from the north going south.

I just don't know why I didn't go to the flat hinterland of Ruzhou, but ran to the west to climb the mountains.

The officers and soldiers sentinel who came to report was just an ordinary small army. How could he know so many twists and turns? After there were cavalry and artillery inside, he didn't even have the courage to take a close look at it. He just took a look from a distance and ran back to report.

It was also his own estimate that the bandit army had at least two thousand troops.

Anyway, those thieves seem to be menacing, and this force is indispensable, and according to the tradition of coercing the thieves, they came all the way after crossing the mountains. It is estimated that there will be several thousand soldiers when they arrive at Lushan County. people.

So at least the number of 2000 people is very safe in his opinion, and he even said it was less.

After hearing a lot of questions from Xie Liangcai, especially the question of whether these thieves came from the north to the south, the scouts naturally didn't know what to ask.

Seeing that Sentry didn't know anything more, Xie Liangcai didn't bother to ask any more, so he let Sentinel go down, and then urgently summoned the county seat, chief secretary and others to discuss countermeasures.

After the officer sentry was sent out, he waited outside for a long time but no one responded to him, his face was very ugly: "I rode all the way back to report the letter, and I didn't even give any reward, damn it, if I do this again in the future Work hard, I'm a bastard."

When the detective left cursing and leaving, many people in the county government were also anxious by Xie Liangcai.

Before everyone arrived, Xie Liangcai asked the county magistrate: "Li Xiancheng, a large number of bandits are coming out of Funiu Mountain, what should I do?"

The Lili county magistrate took a look at Xie Liangcai, and muttered in his heart: "The bandits are here, you ask me what I am doing, I don't know how to lead troops to fight."

"When encountering such a situation, it must be a general who sees the bravery of the county first. Ask me what a scholar who has no power to restrain a chicken will do..."

"Besides, looking at this man's flustered expression, I'm afraid he was scared out of his wits. How did this idiot not die after serving as a county magistrate in Shaanxi for several years? This is unreasonable!"

Although Li Xiancheng complained in his heart, he didn't show it in the slightest. Instead, he showed a fearful expression very cooperatively, and then said: "Xianzun, the thief is coming, should you call Wang Dusi from Xianyong's side?" ?”

Only then did Xie Liangcai come to his senses, and immediately said: "Yes, yes, call Wang Dusi over immediately."

As Xie Liangcai became more and more anxious, it didn't take long for everyone in Lushan County to know that a thief was about to kill him.

Regardless of the reaction from Lushan County, Luo Zhixue led the people and continued eastward in a calm manner.

Although after mentioning Songshan Village, the places I passed were all the outskirts of Funiu Mountain, and the roads are far easier to walk than those in the mountains, but this place is still a hilly area, and many roads seem to be passable by horse-drawn carriages , but it is still very troublesome, and the road is not smooth, and there are many ups and downs.

Before this time, a large number of people had to be used to help push and pull artillery and ammunition carts, as well as a large number of carriages for transporting food and luggage.

Sometimes you will encounter small bridges across streams and small valleys. These small bridges are generally wooden bridges of poor quality. The Baoxiang camp often had to temporarily reinforce the bridge, or simply build a small wooden bridge on the spot.

Therefore, the entire marching speed was actually not fast enough. They only tossed and tossed for six full days in the outer hilly area before arriving at a relatively flat place.

Luo Zhixue heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that although the terrain still had ups and downs ahead, there were no obstacles from the mountains.

It is too troublesome to march in the mountains with a large army, and a large number of artillery and supplies.

Fortunately, I moved my headquarters to Songshan Village. It is so troublesome to march in the outer hilly area. If I still nest in Sanshui Village like before, I probably won't be able to get out in half a month.

"Finally come out, set up camp and rest as planned!" Luo Zhixue dismounted himself, and ordered the army to rest on the spot.

Climbing mountains and wading all the way consumes a lot of physical energy of soldiers and mules and horses. In addition, this place is still more than ten miles away from Songjiazhuang. It is already afternoon, and it is impossible for him to directly lead the army all the way to Go to Songjiazhuang.

Naturally, we have to camp and rest for a while, and we have to come tomorrow if we have any action plans.

After arranging his subordinates to camp, Luo Zhixue called Er Yongduo over again: "Is there any news from Blind Wang? Have you found any officers and soldiers sentry?"

Wang Xiazi led the cavalry post to set off half a day earlier. According to the plan, his cavalry post should be about five miles northeast of the army. As the peripheral vanguard of the whole army, he will scout the enemy's movements in advance and intercept the enemy's small-scale vanguard. force.

An Yongduo said: "Brother Wang sent someone to report that everything is normal now, and we haven't noticed any changes in Lushan County and the north, and we haven't encountered officers and soldiers' scouts, but our scouts found that Songjiazhuang has been closed. Zhuangmen should have heard the news of our leaving the mountain."

After hearing this, Luo Zhixue looked down at the crude map: "It's normal for Songjiazhuang to react, but the officers and soldiers didn't respond at all? Not even scout cavalry?"

An Yongduo said: "Brother Wang did not find officers and soldiers scouting cavalry, and our infantry team patrolling outside did not find any traces of officers and soldiers scouting cavalry."

"Either they didn't know what we were doing, or they didn't send a sentry over."

Er Yongduo's guess was wrong, Xie Liangcai from Lushan County and the others already knew that there were thieves coming to kill them, and they also sent out sentries.

But, the few sentinels he sent never came.

These scouts had detected the movement of the thieves before and hurried back to report, but the superiors didn't even reward them with a penny, so they were sent out to investigate again that day.

The scouts were extremely displeased with this, and the investigation was naturally a labor of love. After leaving the city, they found a dilapidated wooden house in a barren mountain and wild forest and spent a whole day there.

The next day was also wandering around, and snatched a group of travelers on the way, and gained a lot.

These sentries never went west at all.

There was no reward for this work, and they were asked to risk their lives to find traces of the bandit army. Naturally, they would not do it.

Xie Liangcai didn't know about this, and neither did Luo Zhixue's side, so Luo Zhixue felt a little strange after he didn't find any sentries from officers and soldiers for several days.

These officers and soldiers did not follow the normal routine. Even if there are no soldiers in your Lushan County who dare not fight, at least you should send a few sentries over to find out the situation.

But there is not even a sentinel...

However, Luo Zhixue only felt a little strange about this, and he would not change the planned battle plan just because the scout cavalry of the officers and soldiers did not show up.

Anyway, after long-term intelligence gathering, Luo Zhixue was very sure that there was no main force of officers and soldiers in Lushan County, and there were only a few hundred county warriors.

The main force of the officers and soldiers in the north did not go south, and the officers and soldiers stationed at Luyang Pass did not go north, so there is no need to worry too much.

The focus now is to win Songjiazhuang!
(End of this chapter)