Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Ever since Du Fei led his men to support Zhang Yan, Zhang Mo sent scouts to follow him out to gather information. She already knew about it when Qu Yi led his troops to attack Jingxing six days ago.

Fortunately, Juyi Village is on the west side of Taihang Mountain, quite far away. It is expected that Qu Yi's 3,000 troops would not dare to advance alone.

To be on the safe side, Zhang Mo asked Xu Chu and Guan Hai to take turns guarding the valley entrance day and night. The old and weak in the village were also mobilized to carry stones and other supplies for defending the village. At the same time, the carpenters were asked to speed up the production of three small catapults.

Two days later, news came from Jingxing Road again. Qu Yi was advancing like a hot knife through butter and had captured four mountain strongholds in succession along the way. Those who surrendered were spared, while those who resisted stubbornly were killed after the strongholds were broken.

After a few days, the number of Qu Yi's troops increased instead of decreased. Now there are more than 6,000 young and strong soldiers and more than 10,000 old and weak ones. There are surrendered soldiers leading the way, and the troops are heading towards Juyi Village.

Upon hearing the news, everyone in the village became uneasy. There were only two hundred young and strong men left in the valley. Even if there was a wall at the entrance of the village, it would be difficult to withstand the attack of thousands of people.

"Boss, no, why don't we surrender too!" A soldier looked at Zhang Mo and spoke cautiously.

Since this little boss took over the stronghold, he has strictly prohibited looting. Since you have a conscience, you might as well take this opportunity to surrender to the government and save your life.

The others also looked at Zhang Mo with hope.

Surrender? Seeing the cowardly soldiers, Zhang Mo's panic calmed down. These people were weak-willed. If she showed her fear again, the stronghold would be lost.

So much money and effort was spent to build this den of thieves, how could it be possible for Qu Yi to get it for free?

Moreover, she always felt that there was something fishy about this matter. Although her knowledge of Qu Yi was limited to a few lines in history books, it could be seen from the fact that he rebelled against Han Fu and welcomed Yuan Shao that this person had poor character and great ambitions. How could he be so kind as to recruit more than 10,000 elderly and weak people to surrender? Who would feed these people?

If we analyze with these people whether Qu Yi is sincere in surrendering or not, they will definitely not listen. Zhang Mo can of course use force to force them to defend the village, but if they are not willing to do so, even if they are taken to the city wall, it will not be of much use. We can only stabilize them by offering benefits first.

"If we surrender to the government, the factories in the village will have to be turned over. Without that income, do you think we can still have enough to eat with the little land the government has distributed?"

Everyone looked at each other, thinking back to the days before they became bandits. After working diligently for a year, most of their income had to be paid as taxes. In years with good weather, they could barely survive, but if there was a famine, most of them would starve to death. But since they followed the little boss, they have never been hungry again.

Zhang Mo continued to encourage, "The stronghold is protected by a wall, so it may not be invincible. If my guess is correct, the reinforcements sent by Zhang Feiyan must be on the way. This is our Black Mountain territory. Qu Yi has advanced alone and dared not stay for long. We only need to hold out for a day or two, and he will surely retreat."

Zhang Yan's goal this time is to eliminate this elite force from Jizhou. Regardless of whether his men are already on the way or not, Zhang Mo must say this. Only with hope can they persevere.

"Boss, what you said makes sense. I don't want to live a life of hunger and fullness like before. Today, even if it costs my life, I will defend the village." A man shouted first.

"Defend the village and never surrender!" another person shouted.

"Defend the village and never surrender!" Most people followed suit, but some still had vague and hesitant eyes.

Zhang Mo raised her hand to signal for silence and continued, "I've already analyzed the pros and cons. If anyone still wants to surrender, stand up now and I'll let you out immediately without making things difficult for you. But if you choose to stay, there will be no room for regrets. I'll give you time to consider..."

She paused for a moment, "After a quarter of an hour, anyone who talks about surrendering will be executed without mercy!"

When she said the last sentence, Zhang Mo's beautiful eyes were filled with murderous intent.

"I will never regret it!"

"No surrender, no surrender!" the crowd began to shout again.

Looking at the high morale that was suddenly aroused, Guan Hai couldn't help but admire it. If it were him today, he would definitely kill the first person who surrendered to serve as a warning to others.

This can certainly shock everyone, but unless they are willing to fight to protect their own interests, morale will never be high. A-Mo explained the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages in just a few words, without losing her kindness and authority. He even saw in her the fierce aura of a superior that even the head of the family did not have.

A quarter of an hour later, even if some of them had thoughts of surrendering, they had no choice but to follow the crowd under the influence of their high-spirited companions, and no one left the village.

Zhang Mo's words to inspire everyone were not nonsense. After Zhang Yan learned that Qu Yi had entered Jingxing, he sent 30,000 troops to pursue him.

Of these 30,000, 25,000 were moth thieves whose nests had been wiped out, and there were 5,000 of Zhang Yan's own troops. If Qu Yi dared to enter his own territory, how could Zhang Yan let him leave so easily? As long as there was a village ahead that could trap Qu Yi, he would be unable to escape even if he had wings.

However, Zhang Yan overestimated his bandits. Among the four strongholds captured by Qu Yi, only one fought hard and killed Qu Yi more than a dozen times. Two of them surrendered after resisting for a while, and the remaining one simply surrendered directly. Only then could Qu Yi cross the Taihang Mountains and reach Bingzhou within a few days.

At present, only Li Gui's troops are left near the Jingxing Road. Qu Yi had already learned clearly from the surrendered soldiers that Li Gui's troops are the weakest one in the vicinity, with only about a thousand young and strong men in total. Zhang Yan sent seven or eight hundred to help this time. Now there are almost only old and weak people left in the valley, which can be easily defeated in a snap. Or maybe there is no need to fight at all. Once his own troops arrive, he will wait for them to open the gate and surrender.

However, Qu Yi underestimated these bandits. When his troops arrived outside the Juyi Village, he saw a three-meter-high wall built at the entrance of the valley, with rows of bows and arrows mounted on the top of the wall. He knew that this bone was not so easy to chew.

It would be best if they could surrender. Qu Yi waved his hand, and a loud-mouthed man rode forward, stopping a hundred paces away. "Listen up, everyone in the valley! My general has issued an order: those who surrender will be pardoned and given a share..."

Before the man could finish his words, he heard a whoosh and a sharp arrow flew through the air and pierced his throat. The man grunted twice and fell off his horse.

Xu Chu had just put the arrow on the noose and was hesitating when he saw the officer who had shouted had fallen. He looked behind him in surprise and saw Guan Hai holding a bow. It was obviously he who shot the arrow just now.

Guan Hai glanced at Xu Chu and said calmly, "Once he finishes his flattering words, the high morale that A-Mo has built up will fall back. If you don't want to be an enemy of the government, then leave."

"I……"

Xu Chu looked at the crowd of people outside the valley entrance, tightened his grip on the bow, and familiar faces emerged in his mind. Among them were the uncles who had watched him grow up; the playmates who grew up with him naked; the aunt who had mended his clothes; and the little kids he had bullied. But that year, when the bandits attacked Xujiazhai, many people died at the hands of the bandits.

If Envoy Wang had not come to my aid in time, I might not have been able to hold out for long, and the entire village would have been killed by the moth bandits. Now, am I supposed to help the moth bandits kill the officers and soldiers?

He didn't like this group of moth thieves in the first place. If it weren't for Amo, he wouldn't want to come to this den of thieves at all.

Amo!

Xu Chu looked towards the village and saw the young girl not far away directing the elderly, weak, women and children to carry stones.

For two years, she had been teaching herself to read and learn military tactics. When she heard that he wanted to learn archery, she spent a lot of money to ask a traveling merchant to bring her a three-stone ox horn bow from Yuzhou. Every few days, she would give herself a bottle of wine from the restaurant that cost thousands of coins, but she never let him drink too much, saying that a little drink can soothe the mood, but excessive drunkenness can harm the body.

She had always treated him as her brother and never treated him unfairly, but when he needed help, he hesitated while drawing his bow.

Fuck those officers, soldiers, and thieves!

Xu Chu shifted his gaze away from Zhang Mo. From now on, he only knew that the little girl whose eyes were prettier than crescent moons when she smiled was his code of conduct. Whoever wanted to touch her would be killed by him.

Outside the valley, Qu Yi looked at the messenger lying on the ground with a slight surprise, "This small village actually has a master archer hidden?!"

Qu Heng muttered, "More than just a sharpshooter, this is also a fairly wealthy village. Of the several large villages we've captured along the way, which one could build a wall at the valley entrance like this? And look at those people on the top of the city walls. Their faces are much rounder than those below. They should all be able to eat their fill."

"You have money!"

Qu Yi chuckled and asked, "Where are Zhang Yan's reinforcements?"

Qu Hengdao said, "We have already entered Jingxingkou. If we walk fast, we can catch up in about two days."

"He's coming so fast..." Qu Yi ordered, "Hurry up and send people to cut wood and build ladders. Let the surrendered soldiers lead the charge tomorrow. We can use this small village to kill some of them."

"Why not drive the old and weak up there as well? Even if we fill it with corpses, we can still fill the top of the city walls."

"Do not……"

Qu Yi shook his head. "This general's target is Zhang Yan's reinforcements. I have my own uses for these old and weak men. This small village only has a few hundred people. It will be easy to capture them."

Qu Yi had sufficient manpower and there were many trees in the Taihang Mountains, so he built several ladders by the evening of that day.

The next morning, after feeding the more than 3,000 surrendered soldiers, Qu Yi ordered an attack on the stronghold.

Although these moth bandits outside the valley surrendered to the government, they did not want to engage in war with their former neighbors immediately. However, their families were under control, and they had Qu Yi's archers behind them to protect them. Retreating would mean death, so they had no choice but to charge forward.

Zhang Mo was guarding the city wall last night, and today she was personally commanding from the front. Seeing that she, a young lady, was not afraid, everyone's morale was boosted a bit.

The archers drew their bows and drew their arrows, without aiming, but just kept shooting down. Although there were only dozens of archers, they caused screams below the city.

Although there were few guards on the city wall, the valley entrance was narrow and the thieves attacking the city could not rush in all at once. Three thousand people were crowded in the valley entrance, and every arrow shot from the city wall could almost take a life.

"The morale of the small village is very high!"

Qu Yi watched the battle from afar and saw that hundreds of the surrendered soldiers had been killed or wounded. He said to Qu Heng, "It's almost done. Now let's have our archers follow behind and provide cover with swords and shields to help him capture the city."

Qu Heng nodded, and slowly moved forward with the three hundred archers and sword and shield soldiers who had been waiting on the side. After entering the shooting range, he began to shoot at the enemies on the city wall.

"what--"

On the top of the city wall, a young man who was drawing his bow was shot in the arm by an arrow and couldn't help howling. Zhang Mo shuddered and heard another scream in her ears.

"what--"

This time, the young man was shot directly in the left eye by an arrow. The arrow was two or three inches long and he rolled on the ground in pain. It was obvious that he was not going to survive.

Screams rang out one after another, and Zhang Mo's hand holding the hilt of the knife trembled slightly. Although she had followed Wang Yun to fight the Yellow Turbans before, she had never been on the battlefield in person. This was her first time to fight at such a close distance. It would be a lie to say that she was not afraid.

Looking at the wounded and dead lying on the ground, she suppressed her fear and shouted sternly, "Everyone, get behind the wall first!"

With the help of archers, the moth thieves in front carrying ladders loosened their pace and rushed to the foot of the city in a short while.

Seeing that the moth thieves in Juyi Village didn't dare to show their heads under the suppression of their own archers, Qu Yi smiled. It's just a small village. Taking it down will be a piece of cake!