The night with the moon dark and high wind is slightly cold, although the city is burning with a raging fire, but the heat wave is far from affecting the outside of the city, standing in the open space outside the city, a cold wind blows, the climate is still very cold.

However, at the moment, no one could feel the cold temperature, because a huge victory had excited everyone, and everyone was filled with a warm sense of excitement.

"Lao Guo, you came a little late, so you can only drink soup."

Li An said.

Lao Guo said helplessly: "The road is too far, more than a dozen horses have died, and there are fifty or sixty soldiers who have fallen behind, but I didn't expect it to be one step too late." ”

Looking at Lao Guo's appearance, it seems to be a pity, it is strange that he didn't catch up with the good opportunity for meritorious service, and he can be in a good mood.

"Oh, it's so serious, this time I brought one or two thousand soldiers and horses! How can you only see so much? ”

Ang Lee asked.

Lao Guo was stunned for a moment and said, "One or two thousand? There were not so many, only 800 soldiers, but each soldier was equipped with two horses, so that they could run faster, and the remaining 300 soldiers and horses went to the other two city gates in two ways, so that all the horse thieves could be blocked. ”

It turned out that when he saw the fire burning in the city, Lao Guo knew that the fight was going on, so he made a strategy while marching, divided his troops into three ways to block the horse thieves, and when he was about to arrive at the old White City, he left more than a dozen soldiers to take care of the extra horses, and the rest rushed over directly according to the plan.

"Oh, it turned out to be equipped with two horses, no wonder it sounds like there are one or two thousand horses, by the way, Lao Guo, the more than five hundred horse thieves trapped in the city should have lost most of them, and the rest will break through immediately, your people came just right, this soup has been given to you, in addition, there are fifty or sixty horse thieves more than ten miles away in the northwest, who have been hiding and not moving, and I don't know if they escaped."

Li An said.

"Whether you escape or not, you have to go and see, you lead a hundred people to the northwest to have a look."

Lao Guo asked his subordinates to lead a hundred cavalry to the northwest, and he stayed behind to command the encirclement and suppression of the remnants of horse thieves in the city.

"These five or six hundred people should be the main force of horse thieves, and if they suffer such a serious blow today, they will not be able to be arrogant in the future, but it is still very difficult to eliminate all the horse thieves in Xiazhou, the fewer people there are, the easier it is to hide, but if you don't cut the grass and eradicate the roots, it may come back in the future, and it is the people of Xiazhou who suffer."

Li An looked at the gate of the ruined city and spoke.

"Yes! If you want to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, it is a little difficult! The smaller the number of people, the easier it is to hide, but the Wushan Mountain is so big, if it is a comprehensive search, even tens of thousands of people can't do it, and the horse thief smells wrong, maybe he will run to other states, and he can come back after the limelight passes, it is indeed not easy to do, however, it is always a good thing that the horse thief's strength is weak, and our soldiers will be able to patrol more conveniently in the future, before we have to dispatch 500 people at a time, and 200 people will be dispatched in the future, and we will not relax the encirclement and suppression of horse thieves, as long as it takes some time, You can always wipe out all the horse thieves. ”

Lao Guo said.

"That's right! As long as you keep fighting, you can always eliminate the horse thief, but the best way to eliminate the horse thief is not to encircle and suppress it by force, but to let all the people get wealth through the right way. ”

Li An said.

There are only two ways to obtain wealth, one is a legal way, and the other is an illegal way, the best way to be a businessman, selling goods is very profitable, and breaking the law is naturally robbing, and the horse thief is doing illegal work, which is a means to get rich quickly.

However, this illegal way of making money is based on the heavy losses of others, and it must be severely cracked down, otherwise, if everyone goes to be a horse thief, this social order will be completely chaotic, which is very unfavorable to the benign development of this society, and will even lead to social regression.

Major wars will lead to the decline of an empire, and the rampant bandit forces such as horse thieves will also cause an empire to suffer heavy losses, and these bandit forces that can be seen everywhere will seriously interfere with the normal economic development of an empire, and are forces that must be eliminated.

"What Li Shilang said is that it is naturally best to let everyone have food to eat and money to spend, but this seems a little unrealistic! Wealth is always controlled by a small number of people, most people can only get food and clothing after all, and some people are unwilling to eat and wear, always thinking about wealth and nobility, in this way, they will naturally take risks, horse thieves are such people, this kind of atmosphere must be severely punished, if everyone thinks that robbery can be rich, what will become of Datang. ”

Lao Guo said.

While the two were chatting, a dozen horse thieves such as the tall Scarface who was hiding not far from the west gate had quietly run out, and they were really happy to see that there were only two officers and soldiers on the platform of the city gate tower, and for them, the hope of rushing out was great.

"This is a good opportunity, everyone rushed out of the city gate in one go."

The tall Scarface shouted, leading more than a dozen elite horse thieves under his command to rush to the city gate hole at the west gate, preparing to escape from the ruins of the old White City in one go.

Because it was too dark, the city gate hole was not big, and the city was full of crying sounds, so they naturally couldn't find the army under Lao Guo outside the city, although a hundred people were sent to the northwest, and a hundred people were scattered around the city wall, but there were still a hundred cavalry left at the city gate, which Lao Guo kept to protect Li An, and nothing was more important than safety.

A group of horse thieves suddenly rushed in, which caught the two officers and soldiers by surprise, and they had no time to bend their bows and arrows, so they had to quickly light a fire and throw the torches down the moment the horse thieves entered the city gate.

The fire burned instantly, but it didn't seem to have burned the horse thief, because it was a little late, and the horse thief had already entered the city gate cave when the fire was burning, and soon broke through the hole and entered the outside of the city.

However, don't think that the horse thieves will be safe if they break through the city gate, they have just broken through the obstacles and entered the outside of the city, when they saw Li An and Lao Guo's hundred cavalry, staring at them in a fan shape around the city, which made the tall Scarface gasp, and the horse thieves behind him were even more frightened, the power balance was so disparity, the possibility of them rushing out was almost gone.

"Lao Guo, these dozen horse thieves are left to you, and the soldiers come from afar, and they always want to make a meritorious return."

Li Ang said very considerately.

"Haha, then you're welcome, these rabbit cubs rarely encounter such a one-sided opportunity to destroy the enemy!"

Lao Guo smiled happily.

More than 100 soldiers, all bent their bows and arrows, aiming their arrows at more than a dozen horse thieves, as long as Lao Guo gave an order, these horse thieves would immediately become hedgehogs, and the horse thieves didn't have time to bend their bows and arrows, and they were all frightened.

"Give you one last chance, and those who surrender will not die."

Lao Guo asked very kindly.

He doesn't like to kill, and he has also heard that although these horse thieves are fierce, there are not many homicides, as long as they are willing to surrender, they can indeed avoid death, but the disaster of prison cannot be avoided, but as long as they are not the main characters, the criminal law is generally not too heavy, and it will be good to reform labor for a while.

"Don't believe him, the court won't let us go, he's deceiving us, pulling out his saber and fighting with them."

The tall Scarface yells at the horse thief behind him to prevent anyone from surrendering.

The horse thieves behind them were all trembling, and they all saw very clearly that the number of officers and soldiers was much higher than theirs, and if they really fought, they would have no chance of survival, and they would definitely all die here.

However, there is a tall Scarface, they really don't dare to surrender casually, in case they anger Scarface, they will go up with a knife, and the officers and soldiers will not be able to save them.

"The second leader is right, the officers and soldiers can't be trusted, fight with them."

A horse thief drew his saber, but instead of fighting with the officers and soldiers, he suddenly plunged the saber into the neck of the tall Scarface, killing the tall Scarface in an instant.

This scene surprised everyone, the officers and soldiers did not have an order, so they naturally did not dare to move, the horse thieves were all scared silly, the tall scarface didn't even have a chance to turn around, and he got off the horse straight up, even Lao Guo and Li An felt quite surprised.

"Brothers, let's surrender! Being a horse thief is doomed to no way out. ”

The horse thief who killed the scarface, threw away the weapon in his hand, dismounted and surrendered, and the rest of the horse thieves saw this, and all of them dismounted and surrendered, so that the number of horse thieves who surrendered to Ximen has risen to as many as thirty, and the remaining two city gates should not be less, in addition, there should be a lot of wounded horse thieves in the city who can't move because of injuries, the total number will definitely not be less than one hundred, or even two hundred people are possible, as long as these wounded are not too serious, the court will treat them, and it is the safest to let them go on the right path, It is also convenient to recruit the remaining horse thieves, which will help to completely eliminate the horse thief group in Xiazhou, so that the common people and businessmen can completely get rid of the harassment of horse thieves.

"Very good, as long as you can change your evil ways and return to the right, the court will definitely give you a light sentence and will not let you suffer too much, but a small punishment is also necessary, otherwise there is no way to explain to the people of Xiazhou City."

Lao Guo opened his mouth and asked his soldiers to bring these surrendered soldiers down.

"Lao Guo, let them be responsible for recruiting the horse thieves in the city who are still resisting and evading, so that more horse thieves may be able to surrender."

Ang Lee opened his mouth to suggest.

"What a great idea! Will you surrender your companions? ”

Lao Guo opened his mouth and said as a horse thief.

"Yes, we do."

The horse thieves spoke in unison.

However, Ang Lee could also see that these horse thieves were not all good, as could be seen from their eyes.

Some are slightly ruthless, some are quite sleek, and some are unpredictable, of course, there are also kind-looking, which also determines that not all horse thieves will sincerely repent, in the future, some horse thieves will become ordinary people, but there will also be horse thieves to return to their old business, or become a market splasher, in short, different horse thieves, the fate of the future is different, it depends on their own choice.

"Li Shilang, it's getting late, leave it to me here, you and your wife go and rest first! It's going to be fine, 2,000 men will come tomorrow morning to clear the mess. ”

Lao Guo said.

"Alright! I'm really a little tired, ma'am, and let's go. ”

Li An took Li Hanlu out of the West Gate and went to the campsite not too far away, that is, the place where the carriages and horses were hidden, tired for most of the night, it was time to take a good rest, always staying up late is definitely not good for the body, especially overnight is even more serious.

"Madame, you can see it! This old Guo is very careful, 800 soldiers and horses are enough, and he actually mobilized 2,000 soldiers and horses to come, is this afraid that he can't be defeated? Of course not, haha! ”

Ang Lee said with a smile.

"And why is that?"

"No, it's not early, let's go rest! If you come back early tomorrow morning, Bai Cheng doesn't know what it will be like. ”

Li An said.

At this moment, Lao Guo and his soldiers and horses have arrived, in this case, there is no need for Li An to continue to stay outside the city to command the overall situation, in addition, Lao Guo has come from afar, and he must always give him some opportunities to perform, otherwise it will not be good to say good things to him when he reports some battles.

In addition, Ang Lee doesn't intend to tell the truth, if he tells the court about his risky behavior, it is estimated that many people will have opinions, whether they are for Ang Lee or against Ang Lee, they will raise objections, so it will not be so easy for Ang Lee to come out and play recklessly in the future.

The operation to recruit the horse thieves went very smoothly, although many horse thieves still had a trace of luck, trying to escape from the gap in the city wall with the help of the cover of the night, but after many efforts, they found that it was all in vain, the number of officers and soldiers was much more than they imagined, and they could not find the gap in the picture at all, in this case, most of the horse thieves could only choose to sneak attack in order to save their lives.

Of course, there are also some horse thieves who secretly return to the city, look for some broken walls and ruins at random, and hide in the corners, probably thinking that the officers and soldiers will leave if they can't find them!

However, the wishful thinking of these horse thieves was wrong, the officers and soldiers did not have the slightest intention of leaving, most of the men and horses surrounded the ruins of the old white city outside the city wall, a small number of soldiers and horses entered the city, began to search little by little, and carried the wounded horse thieves to the open space outside the city and placed them, and the particularly seriously injured horse thieves were killed directly, so as not to make him suffer too much.

The officers and men had nothing to think about the die-hard horse thieves who were injured and refused to surrender, so they just tied them up, and how could they be soft on these horse thieves.

In addition, the corpses of horse thieves who have been burned to death must also be disposed of as soon as possible, otherwise, it may cause a serious plague, so some officers and soldiers began to dig large pits, which can accommodate many people, so as to facilitate the burial of all dead horse thieves.