The next morning, when Zhang Jing woke up, his personal bodyguard Li Fu reported to him.

"General, the soldiers sent to implement the exhausted plan last night seemed to have encountered bandits on the mountain, and some casualties occurred."

Zhang Jing frowned and asked, "Why are you so careless?... Forget it, please invite Huang County Magistrate, and I'll ask him in person."

"yes."

A moment later, Li Fu sent someone to invite Huang Ben.

When he saw Zhang Jing, Huang Ben bowed and immediately heard Zhang Jing ask, "Prince Huang, I heard that he was not going well last night to harass the bandits?"

Huang Ben looked embarrassed and explained: "You are not cautious enough, right?"

As he said that, he told Zhang Jing all the time when he harassed the bandits in the mountains last night.

Around the Xu hour last night, according to Zhang Jing's instructions, Huang Ben brought about thirty officers and soldiers to the foot of the mountain, knocking on weapons and shouting, creating the illusion of sneak attacking the thief's mountain village.

At that time, the mountain was quiet. Although Huang Ben and his gang had only about 30 people, the momentum was quite high. During this period, Huang Ben was vaguely heard some riots coming from the mountain, and he was naturally happy.

But the good times didn't last long. The bandits on the mountain immediately sent a group of men to search for them all over the mountain. When Huang Ben and others made noises in the third time, the other party finally found their place and attacked them.

Fortunately, the bandits did not send much personnel. After some chaos, Huang Ben finally successfully retreated with his officers and soldiers. However, during the retreat, they inevitably suffered some casualties. It was estimated that more than a dozen people were missing, probably dead.

After hearing Huang Ben's explanation, Zhang Jing nodded, not caring very much.

As for war, death is inevitable. As a general, he cannot win every battle without bloodshed. The only thing he can do is to minimize the casualties of his soldiers as much as possible. The sacrifice of last night is inevitable.

Of course, although it is inevitable, Zhang Jing still reminded Huang Ben to be extra careful in the next few days: "Since there were bandits going down the mountain to search you last night, then they will definitely do this in the next few days. I hope that Huang County Magistrate is careful in the next few days and do not let the soldiers sacrifice unnecessary."

"yes."

Huang Ben promised confidently that he would harass the bandits in the next few days, and shouted and changed his guard to ensure that the bandits on the mountain could not find them and would be busy.

Zhang Jing smiled and sent him out of the military tent.

Another day passed, and after waking up the next morning, Zhang Jing immediately asked Li Fu: "Last night, Huang Ben harassed the bandits, did any bandits chase them?"

"have."

"Have Huang Ben's men ever suffered casualties?"

"No." Li Fu shook his head and said, "Last night, Huang County Magistrate was extremely careful, and there were no casualties."

"Okay!" Zhang Jing nodded with satisfaction.

He didn't care that the bandits on the mountain sent people to chase Huang Ben and his gang. After all, the essence of this tired military strategy is that it makes the enemy unable to sleep well, and cannot let the other party find their whereabouts. As long as the bandits can never find the whereabouts of Huang Ben and his gang, the more people they sent, the more they will fall into Zhang Jing's thoughts. If Huang Ben and his gang can only use twenty or thirty people, hundreds of bandits will chase them all night and cannot rest? Isn't this a profit?

However, just as Zhang Jing was relieved, Li Fu said with a strange expression: "General, although the soldiers under Huang County Magistrate did not suffer losses last night, the soldiers patrolling the night outside our camp were attacked by bandits."

"ah?"

Zhang Jing was stunned when he heard this, and his face became a little strange like Li Fu.

"Can it be that the bandits could not catch Huang Ben and others, and they became angry and took out their anger with the soldiers patrolling outside our camp? This is really..."

Zhang Jing shook his head with a wry smile.

On that day, in order to cooperate with the tired soldiers, Zhang Jing and Ma Gai, Huang Ben and Gao Chun made an appointment to attack Heihu Village. The only purpose was to prevent the bandits in Heihu Village from sleeping during the day.

Hundreds of officers and soldiers rushed to the mountain with great might and tried to climb the top of the mountain with the ruined old Black Tiger Village as a stronghold.

As Zhang Jing guessed, the bandits on the mountain indeed sent people to block the attack, and the two sides stalemates appeared in the entire forest.

During this period, Huang Ben, Gao Chun, Ma Gai and others tried to launch an attack every once in a while, disturbing the bandits on the opposite side.

It was not until dusk that the officers and soldiers went down the mountain again.

By around the Xu hour, the officers and soldiers under Huang Ben quietly approached the mountain and carried out harassment strategies.

When he was a feint attack during the day and at night, Zhang Jing did not give the bandits on the opposite side a chance to breathe, just to make them nervous all the time.

The bandits on the opposite side seemed to have sent people down the mountain every night to take revenge on him. These bandits would look for the whereabouts of Huang Ben and others in the first few days, but in the next few days, they simply attacked the patrol soldiers outside the officers and soldiers camp, which made the soldiers responsible for night patrols quite frightened.

Zhang Jing also found this interesting, and he said to Li Fu: "The 'striker' on the mountain must have seen through my tired soldiers' plans. Look, in the past few days and nights, he simply stopped sending people to find Huang Ben and others, and just started to attack the patrol soldiers outside our camp. He is using his own way and also treating the other person's body... This person is a bit interesting."

It has to be said that in recent days when Zhang Jing and others implemented the exhausted military plan, Heihu Village sent people down the mountain every night to arrest the guards patrolling outside the officers and soldiers' camps.

Poor guards patrolling at night with torches, they often shoot a few arrows in front of them as they walk, and then a group of bandits launch a sneak attack on them.

The enemy is dark and I am bright, and this is simply impossible to guard against.

Although Zhang Jing also set up some ambushings for this, such as asking Gao Chun to send someone to ambush at night. As long as a patrol soldier is attacked, he will immediately send out a support and take advantage of the situation to chase and kill the bandits.

But the effect of this move was not obvious. The bandits were very cunning and retreated immediately after succeeding. If they were found to be ambushed, they would escape quickly, so that the officers and soldiers could do nothing to the bandits.

Therefore, Zhang Jing felt that this was the counterattack made by the "scheming" in the Heihu Village against his tired soldiers' plans.

It's really interesting.

Li Fu nodded and asked again: "Did the general guess the purpose of sending someone to arrest our patrol guards?"

Hearing this, Zhang Jing fell into deep thought.

Yes, the first few days were not obvious, but as day by day passed, he gradually discovered that the bandits sent by the plotter of the Heihu Village seemed to be aimed at capturing patrol soldiers rather than killing them.

To be fair, killing is much easier than arresting. You can kill it on the spot and let it expose the corpse in the wilderness, but if you arrest it, you still have to take it away. Zhang Jing suspected that there must be some purpose in this.

"Can it be the bandits trying to exchange the captured soldiers for their captured people?" Li Fu guessed.

“It’s possible.”

When Zhang Jing nodded thoughtfully when he thought that dozens of bandits were still imprisoned in the camp.

This guess is not impossible, but the problem is that the bandits in Heihu Village are really so righteous? They have to save their captured companions without fear of obstacles?

Or is there any conspiracy?

Zhang Jing personally prefers the latter, but he still can't guess the other party's intentions for the time being.

Around May 18, about ten days after Zhang Jing implemented a plan of exhausted soldiers, the officers and soldiers at the foot of the mountain had gradually changed their feint attacks into attempts to attack the village, waiting for the bandits in the Heihu Village to fall into fatigue and launch a general attack. Unfortunately, Zhao Yu saw through the plan of exhausted soldiers of the officers and soldiers early, so that Zhang Jing's intention failed.

Under this circumstance, what Zhao Yu, Guo Da and others have prepared is almost the same.

Around the hour of the day, Guo Da came to Zhao Yu's house with a stack of paper and handed the paper in his hand to Zhao Yu.

This is not ordinary paper, but a confession written by Guo Da forcibly asked the officers and soldiers to sign.

In the past few days, Chen Mo and Chu Yan took their men down the mountain to arrest officers and soldiers every night. After each officer and soldier was captured and put in the mountain village, there were only two roads in front of them: either sign a confession letter and become the supporter of the Heihu Village; or they would die.

When they learned that there was still hope of survival, most officers and soldiers chose to sign a confession.

After taking the stack of confessions handed over by Guo Da, he glanced at him casually. Zhao Yu smiled and said to the former: "Okay, send someone to negotiate with the officers and soldiers."

Guo Da nodded and sent someone down the mountain that day to pass the news to the patrol soldiers of the officers and soldiers in the form of an arrow book.

The patrol officers and soldiers did not dare to neglect the arch letter and immediately informed Gao Chun, Huang Ben and Ma Gai three county lieutenants.

"Heihu Village requires a replacement of prisoners?"

After seeing the content of the book of arrows, Gao Chun, Huang Ben and Ma Gai looked at each other.

Of course, they knew that many of their subordinates had been captured by bandits from Heihu Village in the past few days. They originally thought they had some tricks, but they never thought that the opposite side actually planned to exchange these prisoners for their captured companions.

"Hey, it's really righteous." Huang Ben sneered.

However, no matter how ridiculed, should we agree to the Heihu Village’s request for prisoner replacement?

Huang Ben, the county magistrate of Runan, refused on the spot: "How can you compromise with the evil thief? You can't agree!"

Gao Chun, the county magistrate of Ye County, shook his head and said, "There is no absolute thing in the world. Although you must not compromise with evil thieves, there are indeed our soldiers in the Heihu Village. Should we let them ignore it? Even these bandits try every means to save their companions. If we don't save them when we die, how do you let the soldiers in the camp treat us?"

Just as Huang Ben and Gao Chun were controversial, Zhang Jing repeatedly looked at the book of arrows.

As a general, he does not reject exchanging prisoners with the enemy. After all, not only the captured soldiers, but also the morale of the army and the support of the soldiers. Therefore, it is no big deal to exchange prisoners with the enemy as long as it is not a critical moment.

What he thought deeply was the intention behind the prisoner exchange.

The plotter on the opposite side wanted to exchange for dozens of bandits captured by his officers and soldiers. There was no problem in itself, but the problem was, can the entire situation be changed if dozens of bandits in Heihu Village have been added?

Of course not. Judging from the current situation, even if there are dozens of bandits, Heihu Village is still at an absolute disadvantage.

Since the overall situation cannot be changed, the planner on the opposite side spent a lot of energy asking the bandits to arrest the patrol officers and soldiers. Now he has made a request to replace prisoners. What is the purpose?

『…』

He glanced at Ma Gai who was sitting in the tent quietly, and a guess suddenly arose in Zhang Jing's heart.

"How can you ignore the soldiers if you promise to replace prisoners?"
Chapter completed!