Northern Prefecture Rivers and Mountains

Chapter 86 Missing
Lushui Pond.

Liu Zun came back with a group of pigs and sheep, and the soldiers in the middle and the banners greeted him happily.

"I asked you to borrow twenty or thirty heads, but you already have almost sixty heads..." Liu Daogui was speechless.

Cao Tengyun is not a generous person.

"I said I only wanted to borrow twenty or thirty, but Old Cao insisted on forcing so many on me. It would be disrespectful to refuse, so I had no choice but to accept it. I couldn't ruin his kindness."

The people around him looked strange.

"You didn't just rob it, did you?"

"You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want. Looting civilians' property is a violation of military law, but his Cao family is not ordinary people." Liu Zun's eyes rolled around a few times.

He knew there was something fishy going on, but it was hard to expose it. After all, he had brought so many pigs and sheep. Liu Daogui waved his hand and said, "Eat meat!"

"Eat meat!"

The soldiers in the middle and the flag were overjoyed and dragged the pigs and sheep down to slaughter them.

Soon the bonfire was lit and the fragrance filled the air.

The children watching the fun around were drooling with envy.

The total number of the middle and branch soldiers was over 1,200, with more than 60 pigs and sheep, and almost 2,000 to 3,000 kilograms of meat, which was enough for them to feast on.

Liu Zhong brought a big bowl of stewed meat, which was full of white fat. It seemed that it was not yet cooked. He didn't care and swallowed it in three or two mouthfuls.

Eat well, drink enough, and have a good night's sleep.

Before dawn the next day, Liu Zun's troops and Liu Guangzhi's troops were ready to set out.

Each man was equipped with a ring-handled sword, and each unit was equipped with fifteen armored soldiers and seventy bows and crossbows.

"March out!" Liu Daogui pointed to the hazy mountain shadows in the north.

"kill!"

I don't know who shouted, and the others followed suit.

The momentum was as if they were really going to the battlefield.

Liu Daogui stayed in Lushuibi and originally wanted to have the villagers train every day, but he found that it was impossible to do so. During the slack season, the elderly, the weak, the women and the children only ate one meal a day and spent most of their time lying in their huts to save energy...

To train them, you need to invest food.

Liu Daogui "borrowed" a lot of food and grass from Cao, Xiao, Sun and other families, but with a total population of over 4,000 in the eight villages, he had to be frugal...

We had no choice but to let them train once every five days, and eat twice a day on the training day.

"Join the army. When can we become soldiers?"

A dozen half-grown children gathered around Liu Daogui and chattered. Most of them were orphans, and they often listened to Liu Daogui talk about the old days of the Qin and Han dynasties.

"Why do you want to be soldiers?"

"Recover our homeland and take revenge." Children of this age cannot lie and say whatever they think.

"Then you should wait another two years to grow back stronger."

"Then we will practice martial arts well and join the army in the future!" The little faces were full of seriousness. The oldest was only ten years old, and the youngest was only five years old. They were all pale and thin.

"Okay, I'll wait for you." Liu Daogui thought about letting these children eat some oily food in the future, after all, they are all in the stage of growing up.

The northern Hu people had already become powerful. The Xianbei, Xiongnu, Qiang, and Dingling had successively established their own countries. The Northern Expedition could not be completed in a day or two.

It may take several generations of effort.

Liu Daogui had too little money and power in his hands, and everything was still in its infancy.

Even if there is Lushui Dam, it will take at least three years to accumulate water.

If we can marry into the Cao family and get their support, perhaps things will be faster, at least these children can have enough food to eat.

However, given Cao Tengyun's personality, I'm afraid things won't be that easy.

There are countless bandit camps in Mount Tai, and it was thought that the two groups would have a great harvest.

Unexpectedly, five days later, Liu Zun's troops, who returned first, only brought back dozens of wild boars, wild deer, wild sheep, foxes, rabbits and other wild animals, but not a single bandit's head.

"What's going on?" Liu Daogui looked surprised.

Liu Zun said, "All the camps on the mountain are deserted. I don't know where they went. I've been wandering around for three days and haven't seen a single person."

"Have all the bandits been scared away?" It is understandable that a small camp was scared away, but it is impossible to scare away the large camps with three or four thousand people.

Something must have happened in the mountains.

Within two days, Liu Guangzhi's troops returned, also empty-handed, without a single prisoner.

The old soldiers in the middle army cursed, "How come we can't even see a single bandit leader?"

"Isn't this trip in vain?"

"I was hoping to snatch some money to help my son get married, but it looks like my hopes are dashed again."

As they were talking, their eyes glanced at Liu Daogui with a lot of resentment.

The main reason was that the last time they took over Qingguang Village, they gained too much, and the soldiers showed off everywhere, which gave others hope. Now that their hopes have been dashed, they can't help but feel resentful.

"Let's wait and see after some time." Liu Daogui could only comfort her.

Liu Guangzhi said, "Perhaps they were intimidated by the might of our army. They retreated deep into the mountains. I dared not go any deeper for five days."

When they captured Zhang Fonu's Qingguang Village, they almost wiped out all the bandits, leaving not a single one alive. Bai Longzi led the bandits into the mountains.

Now that the Northern Army is here again, the bandits will definitely not sit idly by and wait for death.

Liu Daogui thought for a moment, "Have any bandits attacked Qingguang Village in the past two months?"

"No, since we took over Qingguang Village, there have only been a few bandit spies hanging around."

"Let the scouts run farther away and find out the news from the surrounding counties." Liu Daogui couldn't guess anything due to the limited information he had, but he always felt that this matter was not that simple.

These bandits had only lived in the mountains for a few decades, and Mount Tai had long been their home.

It is impossible for them to flee in panic just because Liu Daogui has such a small number of troops.

Someone was brought a map. To the northwest of Lanling was Zhai Wei, and to the north was Qingzhou occupied by Yan State.

At this moment, the Western Wei was attacking Luoyang, and Zhai Wei was also ready to make a move. Liu Laozhi's troops in Pengcheng marched north and stationed in Pei County to contain Zhai Wei.

Liu Daogui speculated that these bandits were not afraid of him, but probably of the two fierce tigers, Liu Laozhi and Zhai Wei.

Whenever there is a major war, these small forces will wisely stay away.

Normally, with such a large-scale melee, the Yan State in the north should not be so calm.

After two consecutive rounds of advancing into the mountains, we finally achieved some success.

They were just small fish and shrimps. There were only about a hundred people in the village. They could barely make ends meet. They relied on peeling bamboo shoots from the mountains and catching mountain rats and rabbits for food...

But after all, the person was caught.

After a round of torture and interrogation, they finally got some information out of it. It said that Zhang Fonu, Bai Longzi and Duan Feihu were colluding with various bandit camps and were preparing to launch a major attack.

As for what these thieves were going to do, they had no right to know, nor did they have the right to participate...

Liu Zhong said, "We have robbed Zhang Fonu's village, so he will definitely not give up. He must be coming for us."

The nearby counties and prefectures, apart from Lanling, are Pei County, Langya State, and Mount Tai.

Even if these villains had a hundred guts, they would not dare to touch Pei County where Liu Laozhi's 20,000 Northern Army was stationed. Langya State was the birthplace of Emperor Yuan, and it had the General Jianwei Mansion and a certain number of troops stationed there.

So it can only be Lanling.

It is never too late for a gentleman to take revenge. Since the Han and Wei dynasties, revenge has been one of the deepest obsessions in the hearts of the Chinese people. There was the Orphan of Zhao, and later there was Huan Wen who risked his life to enter the Jiang family to avenge his father.

The same goes for the thieves. The fathers and brothers of those who escaped had no place to be buried, and their heads were piled up under the city wall, becoming a Jingguan.

There is no room for two tigers in one mountain. If Liu Daogui develops in Lushuibei, the bandits will never be able to live in peace.

Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents.

After Liu Daogui captured Qingguang Village, the powerful people in Lanling County no longer paid tribute to them with food and fodder, which was equivalent to cutting off their source of income.

It would be strange if they didn't come to retaliate.

"Send a message to all the troops, return quickly and prepare to fight the bandits."

It is now July and the crops in the fields have grown. If Liu Daogui's speculation is correct, the thieves should launch a surprise attack during the autumn harvest next month.

At that time, the villagers were busy with the autumn harvest, and the thieves took advantage of the opportunity to attack them by surprise.

(End of this chapter)