The Cao army mentioned by Tianba's younger brother is an army dedicated to protecting the safety of shipping on the canal, and it is actually the escort of the official ships on the canal.

At that time, the establishment of Cao's army was about 12,000 people, 3,000 in the capital Dongdacang, 3,000 in Yingtianfu, 3,000 in Yangzhou, and 3,000 in Hangzhou, the southern end of the canal.

Caoyun is subordinate to the Ministry of War, but in addition to the 3,000 people in the eastern warehouse outside the capital, the actual management of the Cao army in the local area is the transfer department of various places, that is, the Caoyun Yamen.

Yang Huairen heard what his younger brother Tianba said, and felt a little strange in his heart, he had seen a lot of Cao troops on the way by boat, and there were more than a dozen to dozens of official ships that basically transported goods, and their duty was to escort the materials of the imperial court.

However, the impression that these soldiers gave Yang Huairen was not very good, although they were wearing the clothes of officers and soldiers, they basically did not look like officers and soldiers.

Even so, the imperial court still attaches great importance to the Cao army, and the weapons equipped with them are very good, such as the hard bows that only the forbidden army has, and they are also equipped with them, plus the official ship itself is tall and strong, they stand on the official ship and are condescending, and there is no problem in dealing with ordinary water bandits.

Xiao Qi was puzzled, "What you said seems to be very common, Caoyun was originally to protect the safety of shipping on the Grand Canal, if there are water bandits in Huangtoubo, it is normal for them to exterminate them."

Perhaps, they don't care in normal times, but now Brother Ren was ordered to go down to the south of the Yangtze River, and ordered Long Wuwei and Hu Benwei to disperse and exterminate the bandits and bandits along the canal, so that Zhao Xianqiu also began to make the Cao army move.

In order to make a show for Brother Ren, Lord Qincha, Cao Jun also learned from us to exterminate a group of water bandits. ”

Yang Huairen also felt that what Brother Xiaoqi said made sense, but when Brother Tianba said this, his expression seemed a little weird, so he felt that something was wrong, so he opened his mouth and asked, "Tianba, do you think something is wrong?" ”

Brother Tianba nodded, and shook his head again, "It is normal for those Cao troops to exterminate the water bandits, and this is also their duty."

However, I feel that after they exterminated the water bandits in Huangtoubo, the appearance was not quite the same as the way I wiped out several bandit dens and water bandit dens along the way.

As for what's different, I can't say right now, it just doesn't feel right. Alas, maybe it's because they robbed me of my credit, and I think too much about it when I'm upset. ”

"Gollum ......"

As the younger brother of Tianba spoke, the sound in his stomach shook the sky.

Yang Huairen smiled, "It's okay, if you can't think of it, think slowly, if you can't think about it slowly, then don't think about it, let's eat something first, you must be hungry after a day's journey." ”

Brother Tianba smiled embarrassedly, "Hehe, my brother still understands me." ”

Yang Huairen immediately instructed the soldiers outside the door to go to the nearest restaurant outside to order wine and food, because they were not good at showing up on the street, so the wine and food ordered were all brought back to Shunfeng Inn by the soldiers with food boxes, and Yang Huairen and they ate in the room.

Because he knew the amount of food that Tianba's younger brother had, Yang Huairen ordered people to order a lot of wine and food, set up a table full of them, and slowly add two large pots of rice.

Yang Huairen and his brothers didn't have so many rules for eating, but they just raised their glasses and toasted Xiao Qi and Brother Tianba with a glass of wine and said, "Brother Xiao Qi and Brother Tianba, you have worked hard to lead troops to suppress bandits these days, come, eat this cup first." ”

He drank it all, and then said, "Originally, I should have cooked a few dishes to treat you, but unfortunately the situation is special now, it is better to let the two brothers taste the local dishes of Jiangyin, and if there is a chance in the future, I will definitely provide you with a table of good dishes!" ”

Xiao Qi will not be polite to Yang Huairen, looking at the dishes on the table, half of which are local specialties of various fish and shrimp dishes, he smiled, "Jiangyin produces fish and shrimp here, it just so happens that I like this bite, so well, I am not wronged at all, haha!" ”

Brother Tianba was even more polite, "Mmmm, little brother, I can make a note of it." ”

After speaking, he immediately brought a plate of dishes to his face, swallowed it into his mouth as if he was gobbling it up, and then directly took the big bowl to the rice bowl and pulled out a large bowl of rice, and it was a burst of slashing.

Xiao Qi looked at Tianba's younger brother eating, smiled at Yang Huairen, and then went to drink with him.

After a while, half of the table of dishes and a pot of rice were wiped out by him, and a high stack of empty plates was thrown into the empty rice bowl.

While eating, Tianba's younger brother's mouth was not idle, and he muttered and complained inarticulately, "This Jiangnan person, eating is exquisite, but it's a pity that this dish is too unreal, you look at a dish plate that is quite big, but the whole dish is picked up in your mouth, and there is really not much ......"

Yang Huairen was about to tell him about the difference in the eating habits of the people in the north and south, but he found that the younger brother of Tianba suddenly looked at an empty plate and froze.

Xiao Qi asked, "Tianba, what's wrong with you?" But the food doesn't taste right? If the food delivered in the restaurant is not fresh, let's call them to return the money! ”

Brother Tianba shook it with one free hand, and then swallowed a mouthful of food that was also in his throat with difficulty, cleared his mouth and said, "Two brothers, I suddenly thought of the matter of Huang Toubo, something is not right. ”

Yang Huairen became serious, "What's wrong?" What do you remember? ”

Tianba's younger brother said slowly, "Brother, I went to suppress bandits this time, and I hit three bandit dens, two water bandit dens, and one bandit den.

As for those bandits and bandits, there is nothing special, but their dens have a common feature, that is, how big the den is, there are as many people as there are.

At that time, the scouts I sent to investigate used the number of houses to roughly judge the number of bandits, and although this judgment was not very accurate, it was generally not too bad.

But when I was in Huangtoubo, I saw that the corpses of the water bandits collected by the Cao army were about forty or fifty of them, and their heads were all cut off.

But the strange thing is that the water bandits' nest in Huangtoubo is very large, and there are forty or fifty grass houses alone, and according to common sense, there must be at least 200 water bandits there.

I just complained that the restaurants in Jiangnan were not real, and the dishes were large, and suddenly I remembered why I felt wrong at that time.

Judging from my experience of exterminating so many bandits and bandits, these people in the green forest can live for six of their subordinates in one house, not just five, and ten houses can accommodate all their subordinates, and they will never bother to build even one more house.

If you follow this reason, then Huangtoubo, where the Cao army only killed forty or fifty water bandits, it is completely unreasonable! ”