The sudden knock on the door woke Sun Tu up from his dream, and then he found that he still had a petite and soft body in his arms, and then he remembered that Ya'er, the little girl, actually slept in his room last night.

Since he went out the night before, Sun Tu didn't return home until yesterday afternoon, which scared Ya'er a lot, thinking that something had happened to his third brother. When he came back, the little girl sobbed and cried, so that Sun Tu was relieved and comforted for a while, and it took her to calm down.

It's just that at night, Ya'er said that she wouldn't go back to her house to sleep, and she always relied on Sun Tu's side. In the end, Sun Tu couldn't resist her, and he couldn't rest after running around all day and night, and finally fell asleep unconsciously.

In fact, Sun Tu has long understood some of today's customs, and the so-called adoptive mother is not a goddaughter in the literal sense (why does this statement look so evil now...... ), but the meaning of child bride-in-law. It is difficult for ordinary people to marry, and some conditions will raise the lonely and helpless girl at home from an early age, and then match her son when she grows up. And now there is only one man left in the Sun family, so Ya'er's identity is self-evident.

But Sun Tu is a traverser after all, and he is always a little unacceptable to such a custom, and Ya'er is too young, so he will always keep a corresponding distance from him on weekdays. But judging from Ya'er's performance last night, he was a little distressed, maybe he was the only one in her eyes.

Seeing that the little girl frowned as if she was about to be woken up by the continuous knocking on the door, Sun Tu quickly got up lightly and tiptoed out. When I came to the outer room, I found that it had just dawned on this day, why did someone come to the door?

With doubts in his heart, Sun Tu opened the courtyard door and saw the errand standing in front of his house, which made his brows furrow even tighter: "I don't know what the errand master commands?" ”

"You are Sun Tu?" The messenger looked Sun Tu up and down a few times, and only after seeing him nodding did he say, "Then hurry up and prepare, and gather at the West Gate at the right time." ”

"What does that mean?" Sun Tu is getting more and more confused. The other party glared: "This is the order of the county Yin and the county lieutenant, today is going to attack Xishangang Hutou Village, you have been requisitioned!" With that, he turned and hurried away, and he had to inform the others.

Sun Tu stood there for a while, he naturally knew very well that the county would send troops to attack Hutou Village, and this was still the result of his own efforts. But he always thought that this matter had nothing to do with him, after all, he was just a hotelkeeper, not a soldier. But now that the county government actually recruited himself, it would be difficult for him to go, otherwise if he was investigated, the crime would not be small.

"Third brother, why did you come out?" Ya'er's voice suddenly came from behind her, and she actually woke up from Sun Tu's arms, still rubbing her eyes and looking confused.

Sun Tu then turned the look of surprise on his face, smiled and said, "It's nothing, someone is looking for me to do something, and I will go out later." You're at home today, and I'll come back in the evening. ”

The little girl obviously felt that something was wrong, but she didn't dare to object, so she could only nod and say, "Well, third brother, you must come back early." Sun Tu immediately nodded his head, but his heart was still heavy, he could clearly feel that someone was correcting himself.

&&&&&

When Sun Tu arrived in front of the West Gate, there were already hundreds of young men in the city who were a little apprehensive and dazed like him. After inquiring about each other, everyone realized that this was the bandits who were recruited by the government to cooperate with the official army to attack Xishangang, which made many people seem a little nervous.

Soon after, Huang Si, the head of the county Yazhuang class, brought more than ten subordinates to rush over, and named them according to the roster, and only after the number was counted did he say: "Today, there are thieves in Hutou Village outside the city who dare to rob the property of the imperial court, and the county Yin will suppress the bandits today in order to protect the safety of my Yuncheng County, and you must obey the order, as long as you can break the thief's nest, everyone will be rewarded." ”

As soon as these words came out, the people were in a panic and uproar, the tiger head village outside the city has existed for more than ten years, and the government has always had nothing to do with them, can it be successfully exterminated this time? Thinking of the dangers they might face, the young people were naturally terrified.

But before they could raise objections, a group of officers and soldiers had already rushed from the long street in the rear, and the first dozens of cavalry were even more murderous, directly crushing the ordinary people who had never seen the battle of swords and soldiers to the point that they didn't even dare to breathe, so they could only obediently take the sticks that were sent, and then obey the order, and follow the officers and soldiers in a chaotic line towards the outside of the city.

Sun Tu was in the middle of the team, and he only scratched his head for a while when he looked at this imposing march, can such a ragtag army really defeat the bandits who have been entrenched here for many years? He had already heard that the tiger head village was not only well defended, but also had no less than 200 bandits.

At this time, a slightly puzzled voice sounded from beside him: "San Lang, why are you also recruited?" ”

"Song Oshiji?" Sun Tu turned his head when he heard the sound and hugged Song Jiang, who had just come over: "I received an order early the next morning, so I have to come." ”

"Your Sun family is now a single household, so it stands to reason that you shouldn't be allowed to take risks, it seems that someone is secretly using some means." Song Jiang said thoughtfully. As soon as Sun Tu heard this, he remembered the cold eyes that Liu Yuan looked at him yesterday, only this old official had such means.

However, he was confident that he would not have an accident with his own ability, so he was still indifferent, and just smiled: "Since it is the order of the government, and it is to exterminate the local thieves, it is naturally my duty to do so." ”

These words made Song Jiang look at him a few more times, and he couldn't help but say: "San Lang is really a hero, Song Jiang admires it." ”

"It's just that there is really something unclear below, shouldn't it be the duty of the officials and soldiers to suppress the thieves, why would they recruit me and other people to go with them?" Sun Tu took the opportunity to ask his doubts.

"Hey, now there are less than 300 township soldiers in my county, plus there are less than 500 yacha, and there is no certainty of victory in terms of momentum or combat strength. Therefore, it is also a helpless move to recruit young and strong people in the city to send troops together. Song Jiang said but found that Sun Tu was still full of confusion, so he explained: "I guess you don't know yet, in addition to the border army, my Great Song Dynasty official army can be divided into forbidden army, box army and township army according to rank. The forbidden army was the elite of the whole country to defend Bianliang in Tokyo, while the Xiang army was weaker, but it only stayed in the important cities of the prefectures, and only ordinary village soldiers were scattered in the counties and towns of the country to maintain local stability. But when it comes to combat effectiveness, the township soldiers are too weak. ”

After hearing this, Sun Tu finally understood a little, and made a further judgment based on his own knowledge - this set of strong and weak military arrangements of the Great Song Dynasty originated from Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin.

And he also had to set such countermeasures because he accepted the lessons of the military generals in the late Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties of the late Tang Dynasty who constantly rebelled and subverted the regime, and was worried that there would be military generals rebelling after the founding of the Great Song Dynasty. It's just that the strategy that may have made an outstanding contribution to stability at the beginning has become a disease that drags down the self-improvement of the Great Song Dynasty many years later.

In addition, the Great Song Dynasty court has always had the tradition of absorbing the people in the disaster area to enlist in the army after natural disasters to prevent riots of the disaster people - there is a way to erect a recruitment flag to have its own food people, and it is completely a means to recruit soldiers as a means to maintain stability and make people eat - this makes the combat effectiveness of the local officers and troops continue to decline, and now more than 100 years after the founding of the country, the Xiang army and the township soldiers have long been weak, and even those bandits and thieves who occupy the mountains as kings cannot be defeated.

Yuncheng County is the same, and under the pressure of Suo Chao, Liu Yaochen can only do his best to bite the bullet, and even take out the helpless move of requisitioning and mobilizing young people in the city to jointly suppress bandits.

Although the number of troops who went out to fight against Pingkou reached nearly 1,000 by relying on this, it looked like it was mighty, but in terms of combat power, could this chaotic thousand people really pose any threat to the hundreds of thieves in Hutou Village? At least in Sun Tu's opinion, it's really a bit choking......