Five or six hundred horse thieves gathered in the ravine, recuperating their strength, most of the horse thieves sat on the ground at will to rest, and the small leaders of the horse thieves of higher status sat around to eat and drink, they set out with good wine and meat, now eat first, eat more when they are full.

The leader of the horse thieves tore off a large piece of mutton with his mouth and chewed it with a big mouthful, as did the rest of the small leaders, who were accustomed to eating and drinking, so they always looked so ugly, like starving ghosts.

"Brothers, eat more, and when you are full, you can work."

The leader of the horse thieves said rudely as he ate the mutton.

"Big brother, it's really nice to be able to take a good breath this time, and I will definitely kill them later."

"This is nature, not a single living mouth can be left, no, not a single corpse can be left, to make the court feel that these officers and soldiers were buried by the yellow sand, not annihilated by us."

"Yes! As long as we can annihilate all the officers and men, we will be able to completely prevent the leakage of information, and our plan will certainly succeed. ”

"The imperial court spent such a big price, not only failed to exterminate us, but also suffered heavy losses, the emperor Lao'er will definitely feel that this is providence, and it is possible to leave this place alone in the future."

"Big brother, if the emperor doesn't care about it in the future, then let's just call the emperor here in Xiazhou, and in the future, the eldest brother will be the emperor, and we will all be generals, how refreshing is this."

"That's right, this is not the territory of the Central Plains, the ancestors of our Huns have lived here a long time ago, and it is not impossible to build a country!"

"Yes, yes, our eldest brother can be the emperor, we are all generals."

Several small leaders spoke excitedly.

The leader of the horse thieves said with a smile: "Brothers, what kind of bullshit emperor, how tired it should be!" I heard that the emperor has to review what kind of folds every day, where there is no food to eat in natural disasters, and where there is a disaster, you have to take care of it, it is really annoying, or to be a leader and comfortable, what you need can go directly to the merchant to get it, and you can drink with the brothers happily every day, how comfortable it is! ”

"That's what the big brother said! What kind of bullshit emperor to be, or stay in the mountains and be free. ”

"Our brothers can have whatever they want, the emperor is not at ease with us, when this time we clean up this group of officers and soldiers, blame the thief God, in the future, this is still our world."

"During this time, the brothers have had a hard time, and when the officers and soldiers of the imperial court leave here, we must grab a few big ones and have a good time."

The little bosses spoke.

The leader of the horse thieves took a sip of wine and said: "Brothers, listen to me, this is always blocking the road and robbing, it is really tired and panicked, and it is easy to attract the encirclement and suppression of the imperial court. ”

Obviously, after so many years of enjoyment, the leader of the horse thieves has become a little indulgent in pleasure, lacking a fierce enterprising spirit, and in his opinion, if he can comfortably obtain wealth, he does not need to use knives and guns to rob, so that he can live more peacefully.

Direct robbery and collection of tolls, these are two completely different behaviors, robbery will inevitably cause casualties, the prestige of the imperial court is greater, and the collection of tolls, generally will not cause casualties, the majesty of the imperial court is smaller, it is not easy to cause the imperial court to encircle and suppress them, so that they can live a small life comfortably.

After all, whether they were willing or not, but the merchant had already paid the toll, so what else could the imperial court say? Could it be that the businessman would be cheeky to report to the imperial court and tell the court officials that the horse thieves in Xiazhou are too excessive, and they always charge tolls, we don't want to pay tolls, so the imperial court quickly sent troops to clean up these horse thieves! This face is too big!

Although within the scope of their own rule, some people collect tolls, which are also under the control of the imperial court, but such trivial matters are generally managed by the county-level yamen, and the strength of the county-level yamen is too weak, and it can't cure the horse thieves at all, so generally this kind of thing will not have the official uniform to ask substantively, this kind of thing in the ancient dynasties, it is too frequent, almost a frequent thing, which village has few scoundrels, and this kind of thing is commonplace, and the attitude of the imperial court is, Soft persimmons can be managed, but things that can't be managed, so they can only be resigned.

The reason why in ancient times, for these things can not be dealt with, the biggest root cause is because of the cost problem, in the ancient society where the economy and science and technology are not developed enough, the imperial court funds and personnel are only so much, solve this problem, that problem can not be solved, if there is a natural disaster and military disaster, the treasury may not be able to hold up, let alone solve some tricky trivial things for ordinary people.

To take the simplest example, within a feudal dynasty, there may be tens of thousands of bandits and bandits, large and small, the large forces can reach thousands of people, and the smaller ones may only have a dozen people.

If the imperial court really intends to exterminate these bandit forces, it is necessary to dispatch a large number of soldiers and horses, relying on the bandits' familiarity with the terrain, if the imperial court wants to exterminate these bandits, it must have at least five to ten times the number of troops, otherwise, there will be no effect at all, and in this way, even if all the soldiers and horses of the entire empire are transferred to fight the bandits, it is not enough, and in all feudal dynasty eras, they are facing the threat of external enemies from the surrounding areas, especially the strong enemies in the north, which is always the nightmare of the Central Plains Dynasty.

In this case, the imperial court naturally cannot focus its main energy on the bandits who are not very harmful, and the main energy will be on developing the economy and defending against foreign enemies.

For example, the horse thieves in Xiazhou in the Tang Dynasty did not attract the attention of the imperial court at the beginning, but the frequency of looting in the later period became more and more frequent, which seriously endangered the normal economic development of Xiazhou, which made the imperial court pay attention to it, and sent a large number of soldiers and horses to encircle and suppress.

The reason why Shuibo Liangshan was encircled and suppressed by the Great Song Dynasty was because the later development was too fast, which attracted the attention of the imperial court.

And the ordinary bandits, as well as horse thieves and Jiangyang thieves, are not many forces, and they do not pose much threat to the imperial court.

"Big brother, is it too little to only receive one percent of the profit, at least three percent of the profit should be shared."

"Half of the meeting, what's the matter, it's also half!"

"Half is not enough, seventy percent, we must at least collect seventy percent, so that these profiteers can earn less to eat."

Several small bosses are very greedy, and feel that they should collect more money, so that they can live a better and more nourishing life, if they collect too little at a time, they are naturally very dissatisfied.

The leader of the horse thieves hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Brothers, don't be too greedy, Yicheng doesn't seem to be much, but the businessmen will not be so distressed, they will be more willing to obey us, and all the merchants passing by from Xiazhou will send one percent of the profits, brothers, think about this income is not low!" This is lying down and collecting money! ”

"Haha! The eldest brother has also learned the way of profiteers, isn't this just small profits but quick turnover. ”

"Small profits but quick turnover, this idea is not bad! If every businessman who passes by is willing to pay, it is indeed a lot, just listen to the eldest brother, what the eldest brother says, we will do in the future. ”

"These profiteers are all people who understand, and they will not be robbed if they take the initiative to pay 10% of the profits, they will figure it out and will definitely be willing."

"Big brother, what awaits us in the future will be a good life!"

The little bosses looked optimistic, as if everything was going according to their expectations.

The leader of the horse thieves smiled and said: "Brothers, the days will be better in the future, but at present, this battle must be fought well, and there must be no one left alive. In this way, what awaits us is not a good day, but a catastrophe. ”

Obviously, if this thing was done by horse thieves, the court would definitely not give up, but if they encountered a sandstorm and were buried by the yellow sand, then there was nothing for them, at most, at the beginning, they first went to the field to avoid the limelight, and when the wind calmed down, they came back.

"Big brother, don't worry, there are so many of us, and there are our people on every road outside, even if these officers and soldiers have wings, it is impossible for them to escape, and they will definitely be wiped out by us tonight, and there will be no one left."

"Big brother, leave the matter to our brothers, you can rest assured! There will be no surprises. ”

"Big brother, when we will rush and kill, we will leave a dozen brothers at each city gate, it is enough to block these officers and soldiers, don't even think about running away."

The small leaders replied confidently.

The leader of the horse thieves said with relief: "With so many good brothers helping me, what regrets do I have in life?" In the future, if there is riches, our brothers will surely share in the blessings, and I will not do any brother any wrong. ”

This is very touching, however, there is a famous saying that brothers are used to betray, and in times of crisis, whether the feelings of brothers can stand the test is a big question mark.

There are too many such things in history, not all promises to brothers can be fulfilled, and things that harm brothers abound.

For example, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, after ascending the throne of the emperor, in order to let his children and grandchildren be emperors in peace, actually burned to death a group of brothers who followed him from birth to death, which is really ruthless and outrageous.

The same is true of the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, and he also wiped out the brothers who followed him from birth to death, Han Xin, Peng Yue and a large number of other people were killed by him, and the former brothers became stumbling blocks, and they didn't kill what to do.

The Great Song Dynasty was not bad, Song Taizu was not willing to kill a large group of brothers who followed him, but he took away the military power of the brothers and let the brothers go home to be Anle Gong, which was very humane, and it did not hurt the feelings of the brothers.

The Tang Dynasty is much better, as long as you don't make mistakes, all the heroes and brothers are kept, and most of them are in high positions, and even have military power in hand, which can be regarded as a relatively enlightened dynasty.

At this time, the leader of the horse thieves should be telling the truth, because he is just a horse thief, and he has no ambition to dominate the world, nor does he have the leisure to govern the country, and his favorite thing to do is to eat, drink and have fun with a group of brothers, and everyone is happy together, and there is no reason to kill brothers at all.

Encouraged by the leader for a while, the little leaders of the horse thieves became even more excited, and they were all gearing up and preparing to raid the ruins of the old White City in the middle of the night.

The horse thief is in full swing to prepare, the officers and soldiers are not idle, in a col thirty miles northeast of Xiazhou City, Lao Guo finally met with the three soldiers and horses under his command, after they converged, there was no time to study and deploy, after a simple three or two sentences, the team entered a state of rapid marching, they had to arrive near the ruins of the old Baicheng before the middle of the night, and the certainty of exterminating the horse thief was greater.

Because the road is really long, and it is at night when the light is not very good, the pressure of the march is still very great, and the soldiers do not deliberately ride slowly, but once the safe speed is exceeded, it is easy to have dangerous situations.

In the course of the rapid march, a number of soldiers had already fallen off their horses, and it did not matter if they were slightly wounded, they just continued to get on their horses and hurry, while the more seriously injured soldiers had to stay.

This is falling behind, but Lao Guo brought eight hundred soldiers and horses, it doesn't matter if a small part of the team is left behind, as long as the main force can reach the battlefield, in order to be able to reach the destination in time, these fallen soldiers will not be taken care of, they can only take care of themselves, if they are taken away by wolves, it is their bad luck.

Of course, as long as the soldier is not particularly seriously injured, he will not be bitten to death by the wolf, after all, the soldier has heavy armor on his body, and there are swords and arrows in his hands, and there is no problem in self-preservation.