Ninety miles northeast of Luzhou, there is a small county under the jurisdiction of Luzhou called Shen County, the official road from Luzhou to the northeast through Shen County, Juchao, Dingyuan, and then through Chuzhou to the southeast through Jiangning, directly to Yangzhou Mansion.

If you look down from the sky, this official road is like a crooked bow, passing through the three states and counties, not in a straight line.

In fact, this is also a helpless move, there is the Huai River waterway in the north, there is the Yangtze River waterway in the south, several counties between the Jianghuai River have suffered a big loss in transportation, so since ancient times, the construction of official roads has also referred to these factors, not to take a straight line, but to try to connect several counties in series, to facilitate the transfer of materials and troops.

In Liangyuan Town, twenty miles west of Shenxian County, the grain truck team led by Long Zhen arrived before dark.

The original plan was to travel 20 miles to the east into the county seat, but it backfired, the snow on the road was trampled into mud, resulting in more than 20 vehicles behind, and the livestock could not pull out, and finally had no choice but to unload the cattle in front, put on the car that fell into the mire, count the cattle and pull, and then pull all the vehicles out.

As a result, a lot of time was delayed, and finally had to settle down in Liangyuan Town.

It is said that it is a small town, but in fact, it is just a sparse dozens of families, living on both sides of the official road, every month, there will be nearby people spontaneously come to catch up with the market, the time is only a few hours in the morning, the rest of the time, here is deserted, is a poor country where birds do not lay eggs.

Long Zhen scolded and ordered his men to concentrate all the ox carts on the dry section of the road in the center of the market town, and ordered them to make a fire and boil water, and the people were sleepy and tired for a day, and everyone longed for a good night's sleep.

Zhao Dutou and Wei Dutou found the security chief, and under the coordination of the security chief, four or five rooms were vacated for the soldiers to rest at night, while the chauffeurs could only sleep with their animals in the tents they had set up temporarily.

The crowd was extremely tired, and the heavens were beautiful, and there was no wind, and under the roasting of dozens of bonfires, everyone's bodies gradually warmed up, and after eating dry food with hot water, and feeding and watering the livestock, all the people breathed into a dream.

Long Zhen drank a few glasses of wine at the house of the chief of the nodding bow, and was also a little sleepy, before going to sleep, he did not forget to ask Zhao Dutou to arrange someone to be on guard at night, of course Zhao Dutou did not dare to slack off, and arranged four squads, one rotation per hour, patrolling back and forth at the beginning and end of the team.

Night. Silence.

The long grass in the wilderness outside the town was windless, and the pupils of human figures in the half-human-tall dead grass were mixed with the sound of blades.

Someone shouted in a low voice: "You are not allowed to make a sound, but take the scabbard in your hand, and whoever makes another sound will immediately tell him to move his head." ”

As soon as the order was delivered, the noise disappeared, and hundreds of people touched the entrance of the town like ghosts.

Shen Yaozu straightened up in the grass, squinted at the dozens of burning fires, and asked Qiu Dabao beside him in a low voice, "Can you see how many people there are?" ”

Qiu Dabao licked his lips and said, "I can't see it, but it doesn't matter how much he has, this deal is decided." ”

Shen Yaozu nodded and said: "There are more than a dozen people patrolling and keeping vigil, and after they patrol to the east, we will rush in, even if there are a lot of them, at night, there are horses that are blind horses, and they are not our opponents at all." ”

Qiu Dabao turned his head and gave an order softly: "Listen to my order, rush in together, only kill officers and soldiers, not chauffeurs and livestock, we still use them." ”

All the men were ordered, the knives were slowly unsheathed, the bows and arrows were wound, and their eyes were fixed on the place where the grain carts were gathered, waiting for the order of the master.

The patrolling horse army wandered around the west of the town for a while, shrunk and scolded a few words and then turned around and walked to the east, when they were about to reach the end of the grain team, they suddenly felt a little wrong, the ground trembled slightly, and at the same time there was a slight rumbling sound behind them, they turned their heads to take a closer look, and suddenly their souls were scattered, only to see hundreds of people running over with their swords high, and what was even more terrifying was that they all bared their teeth but did not let out a shout, if it were not for the rumbling of footsteps, the horse soldiers were still deaf in their ears.

"Bandit attack! Bandit attack! The shrill voice of a horse soldier echoed in the night sky like an air raid siren, and the sleeping people were awakened by the shrill shouting, and then they heard the simultaneous cries of a dozen people, and the people scrambled to get up and look out of the tent.

The sight in front of them made them dumbfounded, hundreds of bandits brandished broadswords and spears rushed over, and the leader of a tall man with a long sword in his hand shouted: "The people who pull the cart all stay where they are, whoever runs around will take their lives, and the heroes of Bagong Mountain only kill officers and soldiers and do not kill people." ”

The coachmen, who had planned to flee in all directions, quickly retracted their heads, lay down in the tent and covered their heads with quilts to pray for the blessing of the Bodhisattva, the bandits did keep their promises, and the horse was a dragon, and under the horse was the insect guard Ma Jun, and the footsteps were a little slower and they were shot by the bows and arrows behind them, and then they were hacked to death by the bandits who caught up.

Long Zhen slept soundly, and suddenly heard a shout outside, followed by screams and the sound of blades, his heart was cold, knowing that he finally couldn't hide, Long Zhen shouted loudly for everyone to get up, while putting on his clothes and armor, just put his boots on his feet, he saw that the door of the house was knocked and pushed, and the soldiers on duty at night finally carried forward the spirit of horses and fled back.

"Refers to ...... Commander, bandits...... There are bandits. The soldier almost bit his tongue in panic.

"Don't panic, how many people are there, in what direction." Long Zhen shouted, and picked up his long knife.

"Countless, black pressing, rushing towards here." The soldier recovered, and the quarrel sharpened.

Long Zhen shouted, "Get on the horse!" ”

A squad leader leaned over and said, "Commander Long, how do you fight?" ”

Long Zhen scolded: "How can you beat your mother's thigh, how can you fight a bandit who oppresses thousands of people?" Sent to death? Obey my orders, and all of them get on their horses and rush out. ”

The squad leader said, "What about the grain?" ”

Long Zhentou didn't shake back and said, "Grain? Do you want food or death? Idiot. ”

The guard Sima Jun was well-trained, and he was not chaotic at the critical moment, and it only took a few dozen breaths to step on the horse's back, and the skills of his daily training came in handy at this moment, and none of them were held back.

The bandit army could not help but hesitate when it rushed nearly a hundred paces away from the place where the horse army had gathered, these officers and soldiers with bright armor and riding on tall horses were menacing, and they did not look easy to provoke; Even Shen Yaozu and Qiu Dabao felt that this time they were probably going to be loaded, the information was wrong, and the horse team under the bonfire in front of them was not only a hundred, but at least two or three hundred, and the four hundred people brought by themselves in a head-to-head confrontation would be trampled into pulp by two charges.

Shen Yaozu was discouraged, he exchanged a look with Qiu Dabao, from Qiu Dabao's eyes, he saw fear, Shen Yaozu did not hesitate, raised his right hand, and the order of 'all retreat' had just spit out half a word, and the remaining three and a half words could no longer be called, because the scene in front of him was enough to make him a fool.

The bandit leader raised his hand, Long Zhen judged that the bandits were going to attack to the death, this matter did not go to when, Long Zhen, who had seen the bandits, heard that the bandits were equipped with strong crossbows and bed crossbows, once they let them rush closer, it would be difficult to get out again, at the same moment when the bandits gave the order to charge, Long Zhen decisively shouted: "Turn the horse's head, all retreat." ”

The bandits had two legs, the horse army had six legs, and the two legs couldn't catch up with the six legs, and after a while, the horse army had disappeared without a trace, as if there had never been this team of guards here.

Shen Yaozu sighed, and loudly ordered all the coachmen to be killed, and they rushed back overnight with oxen and horses.

When the dawn of dawn illuminated the earth, Zhu Shiyong of Luzhou got the news that the grain had been robbed, he was amazed at the high efficiency of the bandits, and at the same time secretly happy, everything was developing in the direction he expected.

Zhu Shiyong called the master loudly and ordered: "Quickly notify the box army to dispatch to recover the grain, there must be no mistake." ”

The master twisted his ass and was about to leave, but Zhu Shiyong added a sentence behind him: "By the way, I sent someone to invite President Tang of the Chamber of Commerce, and said that I have something important to discuss." ”

When the Luzhou Xiang Army, which received the order, was dispatching in a big way, it was already a busy and jubilant scene of unloading grain at the foot of Bagong Mountain.

In the morning, the Luzhou soldiers turned back when they walked halfway up, and the commander of the leading army said that the sentinel came to report that the grain had been transported to the cottage by the bandits, and it was too late to catch up.