Lu Xiangsheng led Liaodong cavalry out of Hezhou City to advance to Chuzhou. The villages on both sides of the official road along the way were silent. The horses were exploring their horses and traveled back and forth, constantly transmitting the investigation back and forth. The bandits had looted all these villages. There were almost no living creatures in each village except for the corpses, and the people either fled, were killed, or were plundered.

This situation is commonplace, and then sent someone to inform the baggage camp behind them to bury the bodies of the victims. The weather is getting hotter and it will cause an epidemic if it is not buried. That is the most terrible thing. Once it spreads, even the strongest army will lose its combat effectiveness.

The cavalry team was walking along the official road for about twenty miles away from Hezhou City, Lu Xiangsheng ordered to stop and rest, waiting for the arrival of the Tianxiong Army infantry and baggage battalion behind. The cavalry team came to an open area in front of the village beside the road. After arranging the surrounding guards, the cavalry dismounted one after another, unloaded the saddle weapons on the horses, went into the village to find a well to wash and feed the horses. Lu Xiangtong volunteered to take Tianxiong Army's Yebukuro to investigate the enemy situation. After a battle with Gao Yingxiang last time, hundreds of war horses were seized. In addition to being disabled, more than a hundred could be used. Lu Xiangtong selected more than 30 people who were good at riding and shooting from the original Yebukuro, and formed a cavalry team with one person and two horses. Then he hired several masters from the Liaodong cavalry to train. After half a year, the team was already quite powerful.

The village is not big, with only more than a hundred families, but now there is no one. Lu Xiangsheng and Li Chongjin took several personal soldiers such as Wu Dading to walk around the village and found more than ten corpses, all of which were older people. It is estimated that these people were killed by refusing to leave home to avoid the thieves. Every household was in a mess inside and outside the courtyard. Lu Xiangsheng ordered the personal soldiers to carry the bodies to the open space behind the village to bury them. A personal soldier came to report that the houses of a large family in the village had been cleaned up, and the two followed the personal soldiers to the family to rest and wait.

Lu Xiangtong led more than ten riders to trot along the official road. The more than ten riders were all experienced. As the various weapons created by the Beijing Military Arts Supervisor were sent in a steady stream, Ye Bu Su was the first to choose. Each of them was equipped with a small crossbow, three crossbow arrows with steel arrows, twenty-tenths of iron armor, and thirty steps to break leather armor and cotton armor. Each of them wore double-breasted cotton armor with copper nails lining, and their ability to defend against bows and arrows was greatly improved. They wore a red tassel helmet in the shape of a straw hat, and a small leather shield on their left arm. Each of them had a slightly curved long knife suitable for chopping. The bow was tied to the left of the cotton armor, the quiver was on the right, and there was a short axe in the partition bag on the right side of the horse to throw and kill the enemy. This piece of equipment was extremely exquisite.

After running for more than twenty miles, Lu Xiangtong ordered a rest. Everyone came to a forest covered by a mountain not far from the road. After getting off the horse, they tied the horses to several trees and took out the water bags and intestine bags from the horse's partitions. The two were responsible for feeding the war horses. The two climbed up the top of the mountain to watch, and the others sat around and started drinking water and eating.

Ye Bubu took off Zhao Yong, took out the lining, then took out a few handfuls of fried noodles from the intestine bag and put them in, poured water into a small dough, then pinched a piece and stuffed it into his mouth to eat, and laughed while eating, "It's so damn delicious! Boss, what did we mean by what we were eating? The pickled vegetables were saltier than salt, and the pot helmet was harder than stone. He didn't even say that he had a bite and half of his teeth were broken. He was still hungry after eating. It was still delicious. It was so damn fragrant!" The others nodded and agreed.

Lu Xiangtong swallowed a large mouthful of fried noodles, picked up the water bag and drank a sip of water, and cursed with a smile: "I just had a few full meals and I forgot the feeling of hunger?"

Another night, he didn't accept Li Shitou and said, "What the boss said is, Lao Zhao, have you forgotten? In the seventh year of Chongzhen, we chased thieves in the mountains of Yingcheng. After three days of food, the commander-in-chief took the lead in eating the tree roots and grass. He kept cutting the sweeping ground before leaving the mountain!"

Lu Xiangtong continued: "I heard from the Ministry of War that the Ministry of War who was escorting food and grass that the marching rations were thought out by the emperor himself. The emperor cared about the difficulty of suppressing the thieves, so he made such delicious food for the entire army. If we can have enough food, don't forget the emperor's kindness!"

Zhao Yong said: "Let's not talk about military rations, this is a benefit from the emperor's glory. Now our armor and weapons are so powerful. I think it's okay to fight five!"

Zhao Shuanzhu, who came out of the same village as Zhao Yong, interfered with: "Boss, we can't go back empty-handed this time. We have to kill a few thieves and take the heads back to see the Liaodong barbarians! These barbarians usually have nostrils and look down on us at all!"

"That's it! We will kill a few rebels and find these guys!"

"It's not that I'm bragging. We don't necessarily lose when we fight with the barbarians!"

Ye Busu, shouting.

Lu Xiangtong glared at her and shouted: "Shut up! Zhao Yong, Shuan Zhu, you two go back for dinner for the brothers on the mountain. Let's continue walking forward for another quarter of an hour!"

At this time, Sun Cai, who was on guard, hurried down from the mountain, came to everyone, and said, "Boss, there are several riders on the official road a few miles away! You are coming here!"

Lu Xiangtong immediately ordered the preparation for the war. Everyone put away the water bags of food and rushed towards their respective horses. Zhao Er also came down from the mountain. After everyone turned over the horses, Lu Xiangtong said in a solemn voice: "There are no other official troops in this area. The thieves must be probing horses! After a while, everyone will use bows and arrows to shoot people first, and shoot people with good heads, and shoot bad horses! Then rush over and fight!"

There were more than 20 horse-striking horses on the official road. The leader was Ma Liu, an old thief from a horse bandit. When Gao Yingxiang was still a horse seller, he knew the horse bandits of Ma Liu. He often sold the weapons purchased from the border army to the horse bandits. The horse bandits also handed the various items robbed to Gao Yingxiang to sell stolen goods. Gao Yingxiang was generous and generous, and often bought stolen goods at prices higher than others. Therefore, he was well-known among the horse bandits. In the first year of Chongzhen, Gao Yingxiang zào      fǎn, and many horse bandits joined the gang.

Ma Liu, who was originally just an ordinary horse bandit, is now the leader of more than a hundred cavalry under his command. Because he can't use cavalry to attack the city, and there is nothing to do in the camp, Ma Liu then took more than twenty cavalry out to provoke.

The bandits and horses were walking in groups of three or three on the official road, about seven or eight miles away from the camp at this time. In addition, they had just passed this road a few days ago, and Ma Liu and the others were in a very relaxed mood. Several people with good relationships were talking dirty and joking, and strange laughter sounded from time to time in the team.

Ma Liu looked at a mountain bag not far ahead and said to Hu San beside him: "Turn around that mountain, let's take a rest and go back to the camp to play money in my tent. You have to bring enough money. Whoever pays for the debt will have a grandson!"
Chapter completed!