"Shuren!"

Just when Zhang Jing was thinking about the incident of the bandits in the house, a familiar voice came from outside the house.

Without waiting for his response, Xue Ao broke into the house in a hurry.

"Second brother."

Zhang Jing stood up and said hello.

"ah."

Xue Ao waved his hand casually, found a chair in the house and sat down, and said at the same time: "Have you received the news about the recent abnormal behavior of the bandits?"

After saying that, he smacked his lips and urged, "Call someone to send you a pot of cold tea."

When Zhang Jing, who was about to speak, heard the second half of the sentence, shook his head with amusement and cry, and called the guard to give a few instructions.

Immediately, he walked to the chair next to Xue Ao and sat down, asked his brother, "Has the second brother heard the news?"

"Hey."

Xue Ao snorted and then frowned slightly and said seriously: "This time, the bandits of Taishan suddenly changed their strategy and no longer tried to attack various counties, but instead stared at the convoys that were coming from various counties... These messes are really entangled."

I have to say that when the bandits of Mount Tai were mentioned, the general of the chariot was filled with anger.

The reason is nothing more than that the bandits of Mount Tai have always avoided him and avoided fighting in front of him, especially the Western Heavenly King Dingman who was sent to restrain him, and he shrank in the mountainous areas of Mount Tai and was allowed to attack by Xue Ao, and refused to take a step forward in Mount Tai.

Most of Xue Ao's commands are cavalry. Although with the well-trained cavalry of Taiyuan, even if they are dismounted, they are not defeated by the raids of Taishan bandits. After all, the cavalry are cavalry after all and are not good at fighting in mountains and forests. Moreover, Xue Ao is unwilling to let the elite cavalry under his command die worthlessly in mountain combat.

This unfavorable factor has made Xue Ao never gain any advantage from the Taishan bandits since last autumn to the beginning of spring this year. Although it is certainly a complacent thing for the Taishan bandits to escape in front of him, is Xue Ao a complacent person for this? What he wants is to eliminate the Taishan bandits as soon as possible! Then he rushed south to Jiangdong, killed the damn Zhao Bohu, and avenged his fourth brother Han Xu!

Unexpectedly, some time ago, the bandits of Mount Tai suddenly changed their action strategy, and Xue Ao quickly came to Linzi to discuss countermeasures with Zhang Jing.

A moment later, Zhang Jing's guards brought a pot of cold tea. Xue Ao, who was so thirsty, took the teapot and poured it into his mouth, without paying attention to the demeanor of a chariot and cavalry general.

However, Zhang Jing and Xue Ao have been brothers for decades and know the temperament of this second brother very well, so they are not surprised to see this.

He looked at Xue Ao who was pouring cold tea into his mouth and asked, "In the opinion of the second brother, is the target of the Taishan bandits changing the robbery this time due to helplessness, or is there someone giving him advice behind the scenes?"

"You mean... 'Shen Hu'?"

Xue Ao glanced at Zhang Jing, and Zhang Jing nodded solemnly.

Until now, they can basically believe that the big tiger "Yinhu" in the "Two Tigers Prophecy" is mostly Zhao Bohu, the new leader of the Jiangdong Yishi, but there is no clue to the little tiger named "Shenhu".

Although they suspected that the Shin Hu was behind the bandits of Taishan, this was just a guess.

"Pu"

Xue Ao put the teapot in his hand on the small table next to the chair, frowned slightly and said, "I don't know if Shen Hu was giving advice to the Taishan bandits behind his back, but I think the abnormal behavior of the Taishan bandits today is probably not due to helplessness... they should have changed their strategy."

"How do you know it?" Zhang Jing asked.

"Are you testing me?" Xue Ao glanced at Zhang Jing angrily, and then said in a casual tone: "It is not difficult to guess when the Taishan bandits' actions are consistent today."

"Um."

Zhang Jing nodded with a smile, obviously he thought so in his heart.

The Taishan bandits do not work for production. If they want to survive, they must plunder food. With the size of tens of thousands or even nearly 100,000 Taishan bandits, small-scale looting cannot support at least tens of thousands of mouths. Therefore, the Taishan bandits must plunder the counties and directly plunder the official warehouses where the grain is accumulated in each county.

Now, the Taishan bandits have suddenly changed their strategy and no longer think about plundering the county towns, but instead attacking the caravans and grain transport convoys between the counties. This is either because the Taishan bandits have given up on the plundering the county towns, and are forced to struggle to death due to the increasingly shortage of food, or they have thrown their cans; or because of the Taishan bandits have other tricks.

Out of his importance to the bandits of Mount Tai and the mastermind behind him, Zhang Jing naturally favored the latter.

After thinking about it, he said to Xue Ao: "Shaoyan probably is coming soon. When he comes, let's discuss it carefully."

"OK."

Xue Ao shrugged, and didn't ask why Zhang Jing decided that their fifth brother Wang Su would come to Linzi.

The reason is very simple. As their younger brother and one of the five tigers of the Chen family, Wang Su must have noticed the recent abnormality of the bandits of Mount Tai, and then rushed to Linzi to discuss countermeasures with them.

As expected, just one day later, Wang Su came to Linzi with several guards.

In recent months, Wang Su has led the Hebei army to be stationed near the border between Beihai County and Langya County. As long as he is responsible for boycotting the Tai bandits, Dongguan City where he stationed his troops is actually closer than Lu City where Xue Ao was stationed, considering that Xue Ao is almost all cavalry and the news is transmitted quickly, it is not surprising that Wang Su arrived in Linzi one day after Xue Ao.

"Second brother, third brother."

"Stop talking."

The next day, when he learned that Wang Su had arrived in Linzi, Xue Ao and Zhang Jing's brothers personally went out of the city to welcome the younger brother into the city, invited him to the mansion where Zhang Jing lived, and set up a small banquet to entertain the latter.

There was no one invited to this small banquet, only Xue Ao, Zhang Jing and Wang Su.

Wang Su was undoubtedly also for the recent abnormal behavior of the bandits of Mount Tai. He even spent some more time collecting the list of caravans that have been robbed in the Beihai and Langya areas.

According to the information he collected, 17 convoys of Anqiu, Chang'an, Pingchang counties in the southern part of Beihai County, and Gumu, northern part of Langya County, have been attacked by Taishan bandits in recent months, one of which is the official chariot that transports grain between Pingchang and Gumu counties.

Xue Ao sneered repeatedly after hearing this: "It's really a mountain bandit!"

It has to be said that since the bandits fled into Mount Tai last year and joined forces to establish the so-called Taishan Yishi, this Taishan bandit who claimed to be the Justice Division has never done anything to loot the mountain villages or caravans. The reason is as mentioned before, these small fights could not support the at least tens of thousands of thieves, so the Taishan bandits were targeting the official warehouses of various counties in Shandong at that time.

But now this bandits of Taishan, who claim to be a righteous master, have started to do their old career of "Jidao". It is no wonder that Xue Ao would speak up and mock him.

"They don't just rob the way..."

Hearing Xue Ao mocking, Wang Su said with a serious expression: "According to the news I have received, the bandits of Mount Tai are still destroying the roads between counties in an orderly manner and setting up private checkpoints in dangerous places. Thanks to these thieves, it is becoming increasingly difficult to transfer grain, rice and vegetables between counties..."

While speaking, he accidentally saw the expressions of Xue Ao and Zhang Jing. Seeing that the two were also surprised and thoughtful, he asked in surprise: "Is this the same place under the jurisdiction of the two brothers?"

"Um."

Zhang Jing turned his head and looked at Xue Ao, frowned and said in a deep voice: "A few days ago, I had received news that the Taishan bandits destroyed the official road. At that time, I couldn't figure out why these people were doing this. Now it seems... the Taishan bandits may want to cut off the connection between counties in Shandong, so that the counties are isolated from each other and cut off their contacts."

Immediately, Xue Ao nodded reluctantly, indicating that the same thing happened in the area under his jurisdiction.

Seeing this, Wang Su showed a little surprise: "This move is a bit powerful..."

He looked at Zhang Jing, Xue Ao and the others analyzed in detail: "If the roads between each county are destroyed, not only will the convoys of the interchangeable areas be unable to travel smoothly, but it will also delay the army itinerary we sent to aid..."

In fact, even if Wang Su doesn't explain, Xue Ao and Zhang Jing can still detect the serious consequences of the destruction of roads between counties. Wang Su's explanation will at most make the two of them feel worse.

Then Xue Ao immediately said unhappily: "Okay!...I wish these miscellaneous people would go out of Mount Tai. As long as they dare to show up, I will clean up one by one."

"Second brother, don't be impatient." Zhang Jing dissuaded Xue Ao.

He had no doubt about the bravery of his second brother Xue Ao and the strength of the Taiyuan cavalry under his command. The problem was that now the Taishan bandits were dispatched at various sides at the same time and plundered the convoys of various counties. How could the more than 5,000 cavalry under Xue Ao be able to be flattened in a short time? - Compared with the Taishi Army, the Taiyuan cavalry is too eye-catching in Shandong. When the cavalry approached from afar, the Taishan bandits knew that they were the Taiyuan cavalry under Xue Ao and would immediately escape. Even if Xue Ao could chase after him and kill some of the bandits, it would not be able to change the whole situation.

"How about letting the troops from each county send troops to expel them?" Wang Su suggested.

"Counties and Army?" Zhang Jing frowned, looking a little hesitant: "Those newly conquered county soldiers have only been practicing for two or three months. Some have even just started practicing. At this moment, they are asked to attack and suppress the thieves. I'm afraid..."

Hearing this, Wang Su shook his head and explained, "I didn't ask them to attack and suppress the bandits, but asked them to expel the bandits in the territory. ... According to the news I received, most of the bandits attacking everywhere were 500 people and about a thousand small forces. If we sent troops, we might not repeat the mistakes of last autumn and were exhausted. Since this is the case, it would be better to ask the troops from each county to attack and expel them. First, we can take the opportunity to train troops, and second, we can share the pressure of ours. If we encounter a difficult thief army, it is not too late for us to send troops... I think that although the soldiers in each county are weak, the bandits in the Taishan are not much more powerful."

“Um…”

Zhang Jing nodded thoughtfully. He also felt that his fifth brother's idea was good. It could not only train the county troops of each county, but also greatly share their pressure. It could be said that he could kill two birds with one stone.

"Then do it like that."

Seeing that Xue Ao did not raise any objection, Zhang Jing made a decision.

On the same day, Xue Ao and Wang Su returned to their respective cities. The former returned to Lucheng in Jibei County, while the latter returned to Dongguan County in Langya County.

As for Zhang Jing, he immediately issued an order to the counties and counties around Mount Tai in the name of Taishi Chen, ordering each county to send county soldiers to expel the Taishan bandits who had robbed the road in their respective territory.

He did not force the county and county troops to attack and expel the Taishan bandits in this attack. After all, as Wang Su said, his main purpose was to give the county and county troops the opportunity to train troops and prepare for the joint encirclement and suppress the Taishan bandits in the next few months. At the same time, he also hoped to use the forces of the county and county troops to curb the arrogance of the Taishan bandits.

So in general, he felt that this order was relatively safe.

However, what he never expected was that just three days later, he received a bad news: Zhang Xi, the county magistrate of Zhuxu County, Beihai County, led 2,000 county troops to drive out the Taishan bandits in the territory to the Jiwu Mountain area in the south, unfortunately was ambushed by the bandits, and the situation was unknown.

Zhang Jing was frightened when he learned the news and immediately sent Chen Jie to the Jiwu Mountain area to rescue. At the same time, he was afraid that the bandit army would take the opportunity to attack Zhuxu County, so he sent Xiahou Lu to lead his army to reinforce the county.

A full day later, General Chen Jie sent someone to send the news back. When he led his army to Jiwu Mountain, the two thousand county troops of the county magistrate Zhang Xi of Zhuxu County had been defeated. Only more than 300 people escaped from the two thousand county soldiers. The rest were either killed by the Taishan bandits or surrendered to the Taishan bandits. Even the county magistrate Zhang Xi himself was captured by the Lu Liao army.

What puzzled Zhang Jing was that the Tai bandits who defeated two thousand Zhuxu County troops did not take the opportunity to attack Zhuxu County.

"Why is this happening? Why don't the Tai bandits take the opportunity to attack Zhuxu County?"

Zhang Jing was very surprised.

The next day, after Chen Jie returned to Linzi without success, Zhang Jing urgently asked him to ask about the truth.

Chen Jie explained: "According to the soldiers of Zhuxu County who escaped by chance, they should have been trapped by the Taishan bandits. The group of Taishan bandits they pursued should be subordinates of the thief king Lu Liao. He deliberately asked the thief soldiers under his command to show their defeat, lure Zhang Xi to pursue, and guide him to the Jiwu Mountain area. When Zhang Xi found that he was chasing the enemy too deeply and wanted to retreat, he had been cut off by the thief king Zhu Wu's thief army. The two thief troops were attacked from the front and back, so Zhang Xi was defeated."

“…”

Zhang Jing looked surprised and suspicious, and he felt something was wrong.

Whether it is the thief king Lu Liao's lure the enemy deeper, or the thief king Zhu Wu happened to lead the troops and cut off the retreat of Zhang Xi and Zhang County Magistrate, it is like a bandit in Taishan... were prepared long ago?

"Is it a coincidence? Or is it true that the bandits of Mount Tai were prepared?"

After the general Chen Jie retreated, Zhang Jing sat in the house thinking.

At this time, he was still not sure what was going on, but in a few days he understood, because in the next ten days, each county sent county troops to expel small groups of Taishan bandits, and were ambushed by large groups of Taishan bandits one after another, causing heavy losses.

Now Zhang Jing finally understood: the Taishan bandits were indeed planning to ambush the troops of various counties and counties, and these mountain bandits seemed to have expected them!

On the second day of April, Wang Su came to Linzi again to discuss countermeasures with Zhang Jing.

Compared with the previous episode, Wang Su was a little embarrassed when he saw Zhang Jing today. After all, he asked the county and county troops to attack and expel the small bandits of Taishan who were robbing the road and took the opportunity to train the county and county troops. This was originally his suggestion.
To be continued...