In August, Qingzhou City was thriving and prosperous. With the efforts of Sun Tu and his subordinates, Gao Xiang's harm to the city has become a thing of the past, the fields outside the city are already golden, and there are many more caravans on the official road, the population of the city has increased by three percent compared with a few months ago, and the army has greatly increased, not only the number of new female soldiers has reached 800, even the number of male soldiers has broken 2,000, and the Qingzhou army together has reached 3,000.

Under the general trend of all this, there are only two things that make Sun Tu feel a little worried in his heart.

One of them was that the soldiers and horses of the subordinate state capitals refused to obey his dispatch. When he knew that he was bound to fight with Liangshan, in addition to continuing to train the Qingzhou soldiers under his command, Sun Tu also ordered to transfer a part of the township troops from the state capitals of Jingdong Road to Qingzhou to sharpen them, so that the soldiers and horses of all parties could cooperate seamlessly on the battlefield, and there would be no situation where they were fighting separately.

However, after the order was issued, no troops were sent by the state government yamen, but each found a reason to delay and delay, or that it was almost autumn, and the township army had to be busy in the fields, and it was really impossible to take a break; Or that his own government has been quite quiet recently, and he does not dare to transfer the officers and soldiers...... Anyway, he can't mobilize these nominal soldiers and horses.

In fact, as early as more than a year ago, when Sun Tugang was promoted by the imperial court to be the supervisor of the soldiers and horses of the road, the attitude of the state governments was quite cooperative, and no one even shirked the fact that they were sent to Jeju for training. But today, it's good, Sun Tu's official position has not changed, but these people have changed their minds. In this regard, Huang Wenping once speculated that this should have something to do with the fact that some people in the DPRK and China spoke to the officials of various state capitals early.

This time, Sun Tu suddenly returned, and opened a killing ring in Qingzhou, and killed Gao Xiang and other officials, which was naturally a big taboo. The people may applaud this, but for other officials, it is inevitable that they will not have the sad idea of the death of a rabbit and a fox, so it is natural that Sun Tu will have other thoughts. Some officials are even more worried that the generals under their command will be affected by Sun Tu after a period of time, and they will give themselves such a hand when they go back, and there will really be no place to cry at that time.

And the more important thing is that the salaries and rations of these state capitals and township armies are in the hands of local officials, as long as they don't nod, even if their generals have the heart to lead troops to Qingzhou, they will not be allowed to make the trip, after all, there is no supply of grain and grass, and hundreds of soldiers and horses are really difficult to move an inch.

If it is said that secretly letting the soldiers and horses of the state capitals on Jingdong Road not obey the order is to make Sun Tu a stumbling block, then the officials led by Gao Yu and others in the DPRK and China also put a lot of pressure on Sun Tu above. In just over a month after Zheng Guan left, the military department had issued several military orders one after another, urging Sun Tu to send troops to attack Liangshan as soon as possible.

Although every time Sun Tu would report a reasonable statement to the imperial court, there was no response at all, and often only a few days later, a new military order would be delivered, and the words were more severe than the other. If a different general sat in this position, he would have been unable to withstand such pressure, so he could only rush into the army, but Sun Tu was not comparable to ordinary people, and he was stunned that he didn't make any reaction, as if the military order of the military department did not exist.

However, the generals under his command also know how much pressure Sun Tu is under now, and in the past few days, seeing that the Qingzhou army has improved greatly, many people really have the meaning of attacking Liangshan again and being ashamed of the snow. However, in the face of their initiative to ask for battle, Sun Tu still sternly refused, believing that now was not the time to use troops against Liangshan.

Just when this seems to be prosperous, but in fact there are many hidden worries, August has finally passed. In September, it is time for the autumn harvest.

Because Sun Tu had already distributed the land to his soldiers before, he simply disbanded the township army at this time and let them go home to harvest wheat and grain, thus completely breaking the thoughts of some soldiers under his command who were eager for revenge. Maybe when autumn and winter come and there will be heavy snowfall, we will have to wait until after the beginning of spring next year.

What he wants is such a result, last year's several defeats have greatly damaged the vitality of the Qingzhou army, this is not to come and kill a few officials, and then calm down and practice to make the soldiers recover from the defeat. Only when there is enough rest, and time is used to wash away the original scars, when the army goes out again, will the soldiers not be afraid because of returning to the old place. Although Sun Tu did not make these things clear to the public, he had already made a comprehensive plan, and if he used troops abroad, he would have to wait until after February or March next year.

But sometimes the plan often can't catch up with the change, just when Sun Tu felt that this year could pass so peacefully, a news came that made him have to change his plan temporarily.

At noon on the 11th day of September, two fast horses broke the tranquility of Qingzhou City. The two knights, covered with blood and dust, completely ignored the constant traffic of pedestrians at the city gate, and desperately beat their horses and sprinted, until the surrounding people screamed and hurriedly gave way, and many people even stumbled under their legs and fell to the ground, turning the originally orderly city gate into chaos.

This made the defenders who were just casually taking care of the order here feel angry and nervous, after an order, more than 20 sergeants have quickly rushed up, raised their guns and knives to stop the two intruders on the spot, and the officer led by him stepped forward with an arrow, raised his hand to buckle the head of a horse, and shouted angrily: "Who dares to be presumptuous in my Qingzhou City, I don't know that my family has a strict order, and horses are not allowed to gallop inside and outside the city?" ”

The knight on the horse really didn't wary of the other party's coming, and quickly stopped the horse in an exclamation, but the person was thrown off the horse by inertia, although he stabilized, but he looked extremely embarrassed, and said urgently: "There is an emergency military situation in Dongping Mansion, please ...... begged Sun Dujian to send troops to rescue ...... quickly" Until he said this, as soon as he was relieved, he had fallen off his horse and fainted.

At this time, the guards were a little caught off guard, and the stakes were so high that they did not dare to pursue the sin of these two men who went straight to the city gate, and turned their heads to inquire about the specific situation of the other knight who was also controlled, and on the other hand, they had already asked people to escort them into the city. It's just that this trouble, the matter has been quickly known by the people, and everyone's faces showed a look of horror.

In just half an hour, the two knights had been brought to Sun Tu. At this time, after listening to the two of them, his brows furrowed deeply: "Liangshan thieves suddenly invaded Dongping Mansion? How many soldiers and horses did they go, and you couldn't even hold the city? ”

"There are 5,000 Liangshan thieves who came this time, and the leader is their cottage leader Chao Gai, and there are dozens of other big and small leaders, although my Dongping soldiers are defending the city with all their strength under the leadership of General Dong, but the disparity in strength is huge, and the city is not high enough, so I'm afraid it won't last long......"

"Five thousand Liangshan thieves suddenly killed Dongping Mansion?" Sun Tu's brows furrowed deeper and deeper, "The two places are hundreds of miles apart, and there are several state capitals in the middle, how did they appear in Dongping Mansion unnoticed?" ”

To his question, none of the people in front of him said the chilling answer. Obviously, when the Liangshan thieves appeared in their own territory with great fanfare, the officials of the state capital invariably chose to protect themselves, so a strange scene appeared, this army of 5,000 soldiers and horses actually swaggered through the state mansion, and then successfully killed Dongping Mansion, and killed them by surprise depending on the situation.

"Damn it!" Sun Tu scolded in a low voice, not knowing who he was referring to. And the two cavalrymen looked at Sun Tu with blank eyes at this time: "Sun Dujian, we have asked for help all the way since we left the city, but several cities have deduced that the troops in the city are insufficient, and we dare not send troops to rescue, so we can only ask the capital supervisor to save the people of Dongping from fire and water." If even you refuse to send troops, then tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Dongping will die under the sword of thieves. With that, the two knelt on the ground again and kowtowed to Sun Tu repeatedly.

Obviously, these two people have been rejected repeatedly by the way and are already physically and mentally exhausted, and now their only hope is the Qingzhou elite who once rushed to the aid of Zhujiazhuang and broke the Liangshan army, and Sun Tu, a big hero in the hearts of the Shandong army and people.

Seeing this, Sun Tu also sighed, stepped forward in person, helped them up and said: "You don't have to be like this, I am the prisoner of the soldiers and horses of Jingdong Road, and I have the responsibility to protect the safety of all the cities under my rule, since Dongping Mansion is in danger, how can this official sit idly by." Don't worry, this official will ......"

Just as he was about to say that he was going to gather troops and prepare to go to the rescue, Huang Wenbing, who was on the side, suddenly let out a low cough and gave Sun Tu a look. Although he didn't know what his purpose was, Sun Tu quickly changed his words: "This official will discuss with others and send troops to save Dongping Mansion as soon as possible." ”

The two people below didn't notice anything unusual, and when they saw Sun Tuying about it, they were overjoyed, and they hurriedly bowed down again to thank them, and then they were helped to rest. And it was only at this time that Sun Tu looked at Huang Wenbing, who was suspicious: "What concerns did you have about stopping this official from making a decision just now?" ”

"Metropolitan Eunuch, the lower officials always feel that this matter is a little strange. Why did the Liangshan bandits not hesitate to risk crossing hundreds of miles to attack Dongping Mansion, which had no grudges against them? Moreover, with the combat power of the Liangshan Army and the thoughts of Song Jiang and other thieves, can these two people really break through and ask for help? Huang Wenbing frowned and said.

When Sun Tu heard this, he also felt that this matter was indeed strange: "Yes, what are they doing attacking Dongping Mansion for no reason?" If you have an enemy, you can come to my Qingzhou, if you are easy to attack, Jeju and Dengju are good choices, not to mention the risk of running to Dongpyeongfu? Thinking of these two officers and soldiers who asked for help, Sun Tu faintly guessed something: "Could it be that the attack on Dongping Mansion is just a pretense, and their target is in my Qingzhou?" ”