Zhang Rong arranged his soldiers and horses, swung towards the valley in the north of Xu Ping, and beat his horse to meet Xu Ping.

In front of Xu Ping, Zhang Rong crossed his hands and said: "Xiaguan Siling Village inspected Zhang Rong and saw the general judgment. The 256 people under this village have been arrayed, please give orders! ”

Xu Ping bowed back: "Inspect and return to the main formation, listen to my orders." I am all native soldiers here, and I don't have a banner and a golden drum, and if there is a real conflict and you have to take the lead, I will lead someone to hold you in the back. Remember, everything is at my command, and those who violate it will be subject to military law! ”

Zhang Rong responded with a promise and turned his horse back to his formation.

In the Song Dynasty, soldiers were forbidden, and irregular troops were not allowed to have crossbows, armor, and spears, especially not to build banners. Xu Ping's township soldiers were organized in the name of self-protection and maintenance of local law and order, not a regular army, although Yongzhou Jiazhan had all this, Xu Ping did not dare to send it down, and it was not a trivial matter to raise troops without authorization.

Among the forbidden military funds, weapons are still secondary, and the most serious is the flag, which has a strong symbolic meaning, cutting wood for soldiers, uncovering poles for flags, and building a flag is a significant symbol of the regularization of the army. In these years, the command of the battlefield relied on the strength and drum, and it was good to be able to command 100 people by shouting in the voice, but if the command and drum were banned, an army would lose its soul, and no matter how many people there were, it would be a rabble.

Although the more than 1,000 people behind Xu Ping were all trained in military affairs, they did not have a command and could not fight in a coordinated manner. Xu Ping's original plan was also to use a hundred people as a unit, so that his right-hand men such as Gao Daquan and Tan Hu would take turns to charge the formation, and he would hold a large army and stand by. With more than 200 regular troops patrolling the village, they just let them take the lead, and this army has a sound system and is much stronger than the people under their own command.

Xu Ping and Zhang Rong waited at the mouth of the valley for most of the hour, and the sun had already set in the west, pulling out a long shadow on the ground.

The heat gradually subsided, and the dead mountains and forests slowly came to life, unknown birds sang and flew around, and roe deer jumped and grazing in the forest. Occasionally, two little monkeys peeked out of the dense forest, curiously looking at the crowd in front of the mountain, a gust of wind made the leaves flutter, the two little monkeys screamed, suddenly climbed the branches, swung a few times, and never saw their shadows again.

Duan Fang was expressionless, staring at the exit of the valley deadly, and suddenly his eyes widened.

Huang Chengxiang finally appeared.

Dozens of miles of mountain roads, although Huang Chengxiang grew up in the mountains since he was a child, he also walked anxiously. As soon as I came out of the valley where I didn't see the light of day, the fiery sunlight shone on my body, and my mood brightened up.

As soon as this comfortable feeling came to his heart, as soon as Huang Chengxiang looked up, he saw Xu Ping at the mouth of the valley and the army that had already set up a formation behind him.

The soldiers of Chungju did not have any decent organization, and there was no reconnaissance of the front line on the march, so they suddenly followed behind Huang Chengxiang and several leaders, and when the leaders stopped, they waved behind them.

Looking at the large army behind Xu Ping, Huang Chengxiang's face changed, and he clashed with the prepared imperial army, and the barbarian leaders had no precedent for taking advantage. They fought with the army, relying on the terrain to maneuver, the mountains and forests were full of miasma, and the light of day was not seen, and the troops from other places were quickly dragged down. At that time, the bravery of the barbarian army was revealed, and the tiger that could not move was not much stronger than the sick cat.

Qiang calmed down, Huang Chengxiang said to Xu Ping in a loud voice: "Xu Tongju, what do you mean by bringing people and horses here?" Isn't it trying to disadvantage us Chungju? ”

Xu Ping didn't answer him, he looked at Huang Chengxiang coldly, and waited until all the soldiers behind him left the valley and set up a formation behind him, before he said loudly: "Huang Chengxiang, you took soldiers and horses out of the state border without permission and entered Ruhe County without authorization, do you want to rebel?!" ”

Huang Chengxiang shuddered when he heard this.

The autonomy of the Tuzhou governors is very high, and all of them are Tu Emperors, but that is limited to their own territory, not to mention leading troops out, and it is taboo to run around with a bare pole. Especially when Huang Chengxiang led territorial soldiers into the prefectures and counties directly under the imperial court, not to mention that he was originally a troublemaker, even if he came out to travel and hunt, it could be regarded as a rebellion. I think that when Cao Keming first knew about Yongzhou, he was the one who recruited all the barbarian chiefs to Yongzhou City to give lectures on the Tiancheng Festival, establish the authority of the imperial court, and hide at home and not go to the Lord of Hongdong, who was later shown to the public by Cao Keming. Since that incident, the barbarians under Yongzhou have regarded Cao Keming as a god, and no one dares to be disobedient.

In recent years, the power of Jiaozhi has increased greatly, and the barbarian forces that compete with the Great Song Dynasty for the border between the two countries have gained confidence again, and some have become unruly, but still no Tuzhou dares to rebel. Huang Chengxiang's wishful thinking was originally to make some benefits in Ruhe County by surprise and quickly return to his own territory, but in hindsight, as long as he did not admit it, the current situation would not do anything to him.

As a result, as soon as I came out of the mountain, I met Xu Ping and others waiting here, and the nature of the matter changed completely, and now it is not about getting any benefits, but whether you can go back to the ground well.

Seeing that Xu Ping was sinking like water, Huang Chengxiang's mind turned sharply and said: "Recently, there have been people fleeing in our state, and they all say that they have come to Ruhe County. As the governor of a state, I had to bring people out to see it, and I didn't have any other thoughts. ”

Xu Ping cultivated land in Ruhe County, so he naturally had to raise the population, Zhongzhou was the closest, and naturally there were the most people from there, and Xu Ping knew these things.

However, Xu Ping didn't plan to reason with Huang Chengxiang about this, and shouted loudly: "Huang Chengxiang, you led soldiers and horses out of the state border privately and invaded the imperial court and counties, are you going to rebel?!" ”

Huang Chengxiang saw that Xu Ping didn't say anything else at all, but just bit him to rebel. No matter how much he thought about it, he was not very familiar with the imperial court system after all, so he didn't know how to answer, but he just said loudly: "I brought people out to chase the fugitive households-"

"Huang Chengxiang, transfer troops and horses privately, are you going to rebel?!"

"I—"

"Say, are you going to rebel? Is Zhongzhou going to oppose my Great Song Dynasty?! ”

Speaking of which, Xu Ping was already full of emotion.

If you are a person who can see the limelight, you should clearly say no at this time, turn your head and quickly retreat to the mountains with people, and don't say a word. No matter what Xu Ping is, he will not lead the troops to chase him to Zhongzhou, and then write a book to explain his reasons, turning big things into small things and small things.

Huang Chengxiang rushed out of the mountain with his people, and he was very excited along the way, but he hadn't turned a corner yet, and he was forced to ask by Xu Ping's words, and he was so anxious that he was sweating profusely on the horse.

The knight beside him couldn't help but be angry when he saw that his master was embarrassed, and said in his heart that this young official spoke aggressively, and did not give his master a chance to distinguish at all, and made it clear that the barbarians who bullied them were not good at words, and it was too much.

This person is used to being rampant in Chungju, he has never dealt with the government, and he has never bowed his head to anyone except the master, thinking of this, he shouted angrily: "This young man is spewing blood, we will be forced to rebel by you if we don't rebel!" Eat me with an arrow! ”

As soon as the words fell, he opened his bow and shot at Xu Ping.

Huang Chengxiang was worried, and he didn't have time to stop it, watching the arrow go straight to Xu Ping, and was slapped to the ground by the tall Daquan beside him.

"It's over, it's over—"

Huang Chengxiang muttered to himself, his face was like ashes, and he added another murder to the court official, if he didn't die, he had to die. Nominally, he is the governor of the state, and in terms of rules, he has to be respectful when he sees the county order, not to mention the use of force against the general judgment.

Xu Ping looked coldly at the arrows on the ground, turned to look at Zhang Rong on the other side, raised his arm, and waved violently: "Kill!" ”

Zhang Rong took a breath, held a spear in his hand, and popped out of his mouth word by word: "The whole army obeys the order, follow me to kill!" ”

With the words, the handsome flag beside him rolled lightly and slowly pointed at Huang Chengxiang.

The flag is pointing to, the soldiers and horses are going, more than 200 soldiers are in high spirits, the flag bearer points with the flag, the soldiers follow the flag bearer, and the escort team holds the long knife in the back, and presses up to Huang Chengxiang and his party at a not fast speed.

As the whole army was launched, the drums sounded in the back, unhurried, controlling the rhythm of the march of the whole army. After only a dozen steps, the people in the army could no longer hear any other sounds, only the sound of drums accompanied their footsteps, and even the sound of the drums had controlled their hearts and even their lives.

The soldiers behind Huang Chengxiang saw that the Xiang army was pressing up, and wanted to set up a position with both wings extended, but they were blocked by Xu Ping's brigade, and they couldn't help but panic.

Even if the two armies were facing each other normally, Huang Chengxiang's five or six hundred Ding soldiers could not deal with the more than 200 formally trained Xiang troops, and at this time, they were killed from the diagonal direction, and they could not even meet the enemy head-on, and they were almost slaughtered by others.

Huang Chengxiang's mind turned sharply, and he said to the knight beside him: "You take the elite of your subordinates to fight with the van army that came over for a while, and I will protect you behind with neat men and horses!" ”

The knight also reacted, probably he was in trouble today, and he didn't dare to talk back, so he took the men and horses who usually followed him, about fifty or sixty people, to Zhang Rong's department.

The two armies were fifty or sixty paces apart, and the drumming suddenly stopped, and the knight did not know why, and hurriedly reined in his mount.

The marching marching soldiers stopped standing at the beat of the drums and squatted down together, and before the knights could understand it, the overwhelming rain of arrows had reached the top of their heads.

When the arrows rained down in midair, the drums beat louder again, the drums became more dense, and the speed of the Xiang army suddenly increased, and in a few breaths, it had already drowned out the fifty or sixty people who rushed up.

At this time, Gao Daquan had already led a hundred people to complete the formation on the other side, and wanted to rush to Huang Chengxiang's rear to intercept the retreat of these five or six hundred people.

Huang Chengxiang understood the situation on the horse, sighed, stopped talking, and turned his horse to run towards the valley behind him.

As soon as the commander ran, all the barbarians scattered and rushed to the valley in a chaotic manner.

Xu Ping let out a sigh and asked Gao Daquan to lead people to chase after Zhang Rong to the valley. At this time, the number of people is meaningless, it is purely the number of people who are chasing and killing.

Huang Chengxiang hit his horse and ran into the valley, and after not traveling much distance, he was stopped by the defeated soldiers who came later, and he could no longer move.

Huang Chengxiang got off his horse, squeezed to the side of the road under the escort of a few personal soldiers, turned around and went into the mountains and forests, and shouted: "Come into the mountains, the Han people are not good at walking mountain roads, let's go back to Zhongzhou and deal with them again!" ”

With this reminder, the panicked barbarians rushed into the mountains and forests and quickly disappeared.

Duan Fang, who was beside Xu Ping, looked a little melancholy, and sighed: "It's a pity that Huang Chengxiang ran away, he has been operating in Zhongzhou for many years, and it is a disaster after all!" ”

Xu Ping smiled: "Run? Where did he go? Chungju is there, after today's events, how can the imperial court still tolerate the existence of this Tuzhou? Without the Chungju territory, he is just a lost dog, and he is killed to eat meat wherever he goes! ”