After the inspection, Liu Jun returned to the barracks temporarily assigned to them in the fort. Like the Jiutou Bird's village warriors, they dug well water by the well and rinsed it over, then returned to the bed and fell asleep.

After a night of marching, fighting, and marching, I was very excited and didn’t feel tired before. After washing and relaxing, I immediately felt extremely tired and fell asleep for a moment.

Two hours later, the servant came over and woke him up.

“When?”

"It's noon soon." The servant replied, "Don't worry, the team has not set off yet, County Magistrate Lu has arrived. There are still many officials who are sending orders from the superiors, and they will not be able to set off tomorrow. I originally wanted to let you sleep a little longer, but Mei Gong sent someone to call you over."

Liu Jun rubbed his sore eyes, put on his clothes and went to the conference hall in the center of the fort.

When approaching the conference hall, Liu Jun found that there were many horses tied outside, and there were many carriages and sedan chairs parked. There were many men in different clothes standing next to him, and they were obviously servants.

Looking at these people, Liu Jun secretly guessed that there were really many big names coming.

Originally, the most important thing is to send troops to attack the thief's cave immediately. As time goes by, it will be a long time to dream, which will make the thief ready to notice and even escape. However, he also knew that many things were involved in the official position and could not be fast.

"Jiye, you are here, leave, Mei Gongzheng is waiting for us." Li Chunjiang was already waiting for him at the door. Seeing him coming, he said with a smile.

"Look at this situation, who is coming?"

Li Chunjiang glanced at the chariots and horse servants and said softly, "It's true that the Lin family's village is very disturbing. Now even the governor's yamen knows it. I heard that the governor has slapped the table and solved the case within a specified period. You know, recently Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others surrendered in the Junzhou area and rebelled, which made people in the world panic. At this time, such a tragedy occurred, and the superiors were very angry."

"Why, Magistrate Lu has arrived, and Huangzhou Guards also sent a thousand households to come in person, and the military guards have also come in person. As soon as Zhao Bingxian arrived, he announced that he would take over the charge of the bandit suppression. He is now mobilizing the guards of Huangzhou Guards, as well as the troops and squads of the yamen. It seems that he is preparing to make a big move." There is such a sarcasm in Li Chunjiang's words.

**zi's thief cave is only a few hundred people, of which there are only more than a hundred young and strong thieves. There is no need for such great motivation to fight against them. The Baoshengbao Township Group will be dispatched immediately to ensure that they can succeed.

However, Zhao Bingxian has the power, so everyone can only abide by it.

The military preparation road is a type of sub-council road, which belongs to the Censorate Division in the three departments of each province. At first, there was no such official position or organization, but after the middle and early Ming Dynasty, the branch guards and sub-council roads were established in important areas of the country, which belonged to the dispatching agency of the General Administration and the Censorate Division, and later the military preparation road was established in the sub-council.

The military preparation road is specifically responsible for military and food and salary, and also manages judicial affairs, patrols and private tea, is responsible for water conservancy, military garrison, etc., and can directly participate in combat. Therefore, military preparation road can actually be regarded as the commander of the local military region, especially the jurisdiction of the regional military.

There are two military preparation roads in Huguang area. The official name of the military preparation road in Macheng is Xiajiang Defense Road, stationed in Qizhou, and is in charge of the Han River to Qihuang De'an and other places. The entire eastern Hubei capital is under the jurisdiction of Xiajiang Defense Road, and Zhao Bingxian's official position is Xiajiang Defense Road.

To put it bluntly, these Taoist platforms stationed in various places are actually equivalent to small governors, but their jurisdiction is not as large as that of governors, but their jurisdiction over the prefectures and counties under their jurisdiction is very strong.

Zhao Bingxian came in person, so he naturally became the commander-in-chief of the bandit suppression this time.

After Liu Jun entered the conference hall, he recognized Zhao Bingxian at a glance. In the whole room, there was only this person wearing a blue official robe, and there was a white squid patch on the robe. Liu Jun knew that the official robes of the fifth to seventh ranks of the Ming Dynasty were all blue, while only the civil servants of the fifth rank could use white squid patches.

Zhao Bingxian was a civil servant of the fifth rank. The military preparations were actually assigned to the post. Like the governor, governor, and general, they had no rank. The officials who held these positions had to be their own duties. For example, military preparations were mostly appointed as deputy envoys of the Censor, and the Censor, and the Deputy envoys of the Censor Department were the fourth rank, and the Censor was the fifth rank.

Now Zhao Bingxian's patch is a fifth-rank white squid, so his job is to be an assistant to the Censorate.

Although it is only a fifth rank, the two prefectures and eight counties of Qi and Huang are all under his jurisdiction.

Liu Jun was looking at Zhao Bingxian, but Zhao Bingxian was also looking at Liu Jun and Li Chunjiang who had just come in.

"These two young talents must be the captain of the Nine-Headed Bird Horse Team who had just wiped out the fierce thieves in the battle." Zhao Bingxian looked in his early forties, with a blue official robe, a black hat on his head, five long strands of whiskers, a little thin, but very elegant.

He looked at Liu Jun and the other two with appreciation, "Li Chunjiang and Li Gong, and Jie Yuan, Shangke Huguang Provincial Examination, has been famous for all kinds of geniuses. Liu Jun and Liu Jiye, a student of Weiwu in Huangzhou, are specially recruited into martial arts with their bravery and wisdom and excellent martial arts. Both of them are just twenty years old this year. It's amazing. They are really talented. I really didn't expect that the two such young talents actually only took more than a month to recruit and train the Nine-Headed Horse Team, and then they can wipe out more than fifty thieves in one battle. They hurt themselves and did not die. It's amazing, very great."

Liu Jun and Li Chunjiang went forward to salute, and then said, "This is all the commanders of Magistrate Lu and Mei Gong are good at commanding."

Zhao Cheng just smiled. Although he was a civil servant, he still knew very well about the habit of supposing people in the officialdom. When he came, he had already sent someone to carefully inquire about the bandit situation and Li Chunjiang and Liu Jun who came into his sight. Therefore, he knew very clearly that this battle in Xing'an Temple was all the victory achieved by these two or two young people personally commanded it.

But he didn't break it.

"To the two young heroes, each of them will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver!" Zhao Cheng was very happy that there were such capable young people under his jurisdiction, and it was rare to give out 200 taels of silver to reward him with generous help.

Seeing that Zhao Cheng only rewarded them, but nodded again, Liu Jun knew that Zhao Bingxian wanted to win over them, so he nodded and thanked him for accepting them.

Zhao Cheng turned to Mei Zhihuan and said, "Mr. Mei, I didn't expect that there are such a great young man under your command, but he still hid and refused to recommend it to the court. This is a bit unkind."

Although Mei Zhihuan retired from his hometown, he was also a Jinshi, and was a Shujishi. He served as a two-time governor. Therefore, he still looked like a senior in front of Zhao Cheng, waved his hand and smiled, "East East Hubei has outstanding people, and there are many such promising young people."

The two laughed together.

"Then Mr. Mei must give me some good introduction." Zhao Cheng said with a smile.

"I am also trying to recommend some young handsome men to Zhao Bingxian."

Mei Zhihuan began to introduce the people in the hall to Zhao Cheng one by one. Among the people in the hall, there were several officers in the township regiment. Among them, the official in the barracks was Hu Dukeguo, who had the fame of juren, and several captains with the fame of scholars, scholar Lu Yuansun, Lu Yuanrang's brothers and scholar Zhou Muying. These four were all natives from Macheng.

In addition, there are Huanggang scholars Wang Guangshu, Yang Jishan, Yi Daosan, Yi Mingfu, Ma Shiying, Wang Zhijing, Dai Jin, Fan Weizhang, Huang An's Cheng Jishan, Wu Zaiyu, Jiang Zhongqing, Wu Guoyu, Geng Yingqu, Zhou Congxian, Qin Zihui, He Binran, Zhang Xiangfei, etc.

These people came from eight counties in eastern Hubei. There were both military officers directly under the Baoshengbao Township Group like Lu Yuansun, and some were leaders of the township group outside the branch. However, these people all had the same identities, either juren or scholar, or supervisor or martial artist, and were all children of large families from all over the country, all of whom were local gentry and gentry. Their township group was mainly based on their own servants.

Zhao Cheng personally rushed to command the bandit suppression, and Mei Zhihuan immediately sent someone to invite these gentry leaders, big and small, and big gentry armed.

Looking at these people, Liu Jun was really shocked. This was just a small part of the arrival, and many people still didn't come for a while. It turned out that he thought that there were thousands of local heroes in Mei Zhihuan, which was really awesome. Now he realized that it was just the tip of the iceberg. There were many gentry gentry in eastern Hubei, and the armed gentry was also amazing. They had already had a loose alliance. If the gentry armed gentry in the two prefectures and eight counties of Qihuang were counted, it might have exceeded 10,000 people.

However, it is not unusual to think about it. The garrisons of the Ming Dynasty have long been decayed, especially in mainland areas like Huguang, which are even more decayed and have loose military equipment. The eastern Hubei area is already rich and is adjacent to the Dabie Mountains and Xunyang areas. As early as many years ago, refugees rebelled in the Xunyang area. Millions of refugees gathered in the mountainous areas of Xunshan. Finally, after the imperial court quelled the rebellion, it was not allowed to set up a new palace there and sent a governor.

However, over the years, rebellions of all sizes have continued, and thieves have also emerged. The gentry could not rely on the imperial army, and in the end they could only rely on themselves to protect their property, land and personal safety. To this day, all major families have their own family corps, and the smaller families have even established village groups, dozens of smaller ones, hundreds or thousands.

The court completely acquiesced or even supports these situations.

The gentry paid for the food themselves, recruited the family townsmen, purchased armed forces, equipped the townsmen, and safeguarded the country and the people. They also reduced a lot of burdens for local officials.

Zhao Cheng was full of enthusiasm for the gentry in the hall, and later he began to introduce the people on his side.

The first one is a fat man, who looks like a butcher, but has a fifth-rank official rank. He is a thousand households in Huangzhou Guards, named Zhu Chong. This time he was ordered to bring 200 people to follow Zhao Cheng to suppress the bandits. However, his 200 people were actually only fifty servants who could fight, and the remaining 150 were just his tenants. He couldn't even line up a decent queue. He either lacked armor or had few swords. Each of them came with a bamboo gun and wearing a cloth robbery, just joining in the fun.

Although he is a fifth-rank military officer, his military officer is far inferior to that of a civil servant, not to mention that he is also a military officer in the garrison office. Therefore, in front of Zhao Cheng, a serious military officer who was a Jinshi, he acted like a guard leader.

Even Zhu Chong was very humble when facing Liu Jun and other leaders of the township heroes. Although he was a serious officer, and only the ranks of the township brave leaders were all in the group, but they all had fame and fortune such as scholars. They were still gentry from various townships, and Zhu Chong did not dare to offend him rudely.

The other few people were Zhang Cheng's servants, and there were several officials, plus several small officials from Huangzhou Prefecture.

Zhu Chong greeted people with a smile on his face, but not many of them were really willing to pay attention to him seriously. In the eyes of the gentry, the officers of the garrison in the Ming Dynasty were as annoying as Tuoshi.

However, Liu Jun responded enthusiastically to him.

"Liu Jun has met Lord Zhu."

When Zhu Chong saw Liu Jun's good attitude, he couldn't help feeling flattered, but someone was willing to look at him directly.

"It's really awesome for young people. Teammate Liu is from our Huangzhou Weiwu Academy. We are still a family."

Liu Jun smiled and said, "Yes, when I saw Zhu Qianhu, I felt like I saw my own family. Without the cultivation of Huangzhou Wei, I, Liu Jun, would not be what I am today."

This made Zhu Chong very useful, "It's a pity that you are so outstanding, staying among the village heroes. Looking back, I would like to advise you to join our Huangzhou Guardian. As long as you are willing, I dare to guarantee you that I will come to my Thousand Households and I will guarantee a hundred households."

Liu Jun did not believe in his guarantee at all. Although hundreds of households were small, he still had more than a hundred people. How could he have agreed to it if a thousand households said that, let alone the ward, such a decay, he didn't want to go to.

"Thank you, Lord Zhu, for your kindness. But Mr. Chunjiang took me to help him manage the Nine-Headed Bird Horse Team. I can't just leave like that."

"Yes, that's right." When Fatty Zhu heard Li Chunjiang's name, he quickly gave up his idea of ​​poaching people. This is Li Chunjiang, and he can't afford to offend the Li family.

At this time, Zhao Cheng saw that the two sides knew each other and smiled and said, "Okay, now everyone has arrived. Let's discuss how to attack the thief's cave and destroy the thief in one fell swoop. Gong Ji and Jiye, why not talk about your views first?"

"There are masters and seniors here. We are just juniors and younger generations. How dare we play a big axe in front of Lu Ban's door? I'd like to ask the master to arrange and deploy. We will follow the order and follow the order."

In front of so many people, Liu Jun didn't want to show off again. After all, Mu Xiu was defeated by Lin Feng. With the victory of the previous battle, the Nine-Headed Bird had already shown his might. In this battle, they just need to fight soy sauce behind. Anyway, with so many soldiers, no matter how they deploy commands, there will be no problem in this battle.

Tomorrow's dispatch of troops, Jiutou regarded him as a long-distance training and marching exercise. No matter how they fought, Jiutou was just a cheerleading team.
Chapter completed!