I have been a county magistrate for ten years. My subordinates insist on giving me a yellow robe.

In the dense forest, Jiang Yuan took a deep breath and forced himself to break both ends of the feather arrow.

"Let's go. We can't stay here for long. We need to hide in the mountains for a while and come out to check the situation tomorrow during the day."

Wang Gang nodded with a heavy expression, and the group moved again, struggling through the dense forest.

A moment later, they found themselves in an area covered with rocks. Jiang Yuan and his group hid behind the rocks and began to set up camp.

Without the shelter of the carriage, the group was severely chilled by the cold wind, but considering that starting a fire was too risky, they had to give up.

Wang Gang took off his coat and covered Jiang Yuan with it, his eyes still bloodshot: "Master, are you hungry? I'll go get you something to eat."

Jiang Yuan raised his hands weakly: "Don't panic, it's just excessive blood loss, you won't die."

"Besides, this is a barren mountain. Where can we find food? Let's talk about it in the morning."

Chen Qing frowned and looked at Jiang Yuan: "Sir, why don't I try to see if I can enter the city? Your injury cannot be delayed."

Jiang Yuan hesitated for a moment, then nodded gently: "Okay, safety is the most important thing."

"I, I'll go too." Li Hu gritted his teeth, unable to bear to look at Jiang Yuan's pale face again.

Jiang Yuan fell asleep in a daze.

When Jiang Yuan opened his eyes again, it was already bright outside. Wang Gang had lit a fire and was baking some pancakes.

Zhao Kai and Chen Qing wiped the blood off the knife ferociously.

"Master, please eat something."

Seeing Jiang Yuan wake up, Wang Gang immediately brought over a small bowl of boiling water with a large pancake broken into small pieces soaked in the water.

After Jiang Yuan looked around, his heart tightened. Where did Li Hu go?

"Where are Li Huren? What's the situation over there?" Jiang Yuan asked hurriedly.

Chen Qing sheathed his sword and said in a deep voice, "Sir, the situation is not good. Chen Qing, Li Hu and I have already completed our investigation of the surrounding Taiping, Tai'an, and Taizong counties."

"The bandits have sent out five to six hundred men eastward this time, and there are hundreds of them lying in ambush around the three counties. Now, not even a bird can fly out, let alone people."

"They are determined to break through the three cities. I'm afraid we are powerless to stop them."

"What about Li Hu?" Jiang Yuan asked again.

Zhao Kai scratched his head and held up two fingers: "Sir, now there is good news and bad news, which one do you want to hear first?"

Jiang Yuan groaned weakly. It’s already this fucking time, let’s stop playing around.

"The good news is that Li Hu successfully entered the city under the cover of Chen Qing and me." Zhao Kai said calmly.

Jiang Yuan's expression eased a little. As long as they could enter the city, they would be fine. Then they could contact Ma Zhi, and with the help of both inside and outside forces, they could at least get into the city safely.

Just as this thought came to his mind, Zhao Kai spoke again: "The bad news is that Li Hu entered Tai'an County, not our Taiping County."

The fire that had just risen in Jiang Yuan's heart was extinguished in an instant. In Tai'an County, Li Hu would never send anyone out to help even if he said the worst.

The current situation is that everyone should clean up the snow in front of their own door and not worry about the frost on other people's roofs.

Jiang Yuan took a sip of water, smiled bitterly and looked towards the direction of Taiping County. He was finished now.

"Sir, what should we do now?" Zhao Kai asked.

"How many horse bandits are surrounding Taiping County?" Jiang Yuan held the bowl, breathing out hot air.

"Roughly speaking, there are at least a hundred people." Chen Qing said with a serious expression.

Jiang Yuan nodded: "What about us?"

"Four of them!" Zhao Kai said in a deep voice.

Jiang Yuanlie grinned and looked at his pierced shoulder: "No, you counted me in too?"

"Aren't you a human being, sir?" Zhao Kai's soul-searching question made Jiang Yuan fall into silence.

Four to one hundred.

How can we fight this? Not to mention me, Jiang Yuan, even if we bring the military genius Han Xin here, we won’t be able to defeat us.

"We can't defeat them by force, we can only defeat them with wits." Jiang Yuan spoke slowly, and then picked up three small stones from the ground, representing Taiping County and Tai'an and Taizong counties.

There was no human habitation within 500 miles around the three counties, and there was no possibility of asking for help.

As for returning to Luoyun City, it was even more nonsense. Once people got there, not to mention whether Tian Wen was willing to send troops to support, even if he was willing, it would take a full month to wait until they reached Taiping County.

Since Ma Zhi has already blocked the city gates and even Pooli has come up with this method, he must be at the end of his rope.

There was simply no time.

Jiang Yuan looked a little conflicted, but he did come up with a solution, the only solution.

But this method is quite unethical, and to say that it is like giving birth to a child without an anus is an understatement.

"Damn it! He did it. If a man doesn't care about himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth! Anyway, I'm not a good person!" Jiang Yuan cursed loudly, stood up and looked at Chen Qing and Zhao Kai.

"What are your orders, sir?" Chen Qing and the other man shouted in unison, holding scimitars.

Jiang Yuan immediately raised his hand and made a shushing gesture: "This is only one kilometer away from Taiping County. You're going to die if you shout so loudly."

"Sir, just tell us what you want us to do." Zhao Kai said, holding the long sword in his hand.

Jiang Yuan pointed to three stones on the ground and said, "Look, these are the three county towns, and the bandits have completely surrounded them."

"If at this time..."

After Jiang Yuan's story, the expressions on Chen Qing and Zhao Kai's faces froze.

"Isn't this move a bit too inhumane?" Zhao Kai asked weakly.

Chen Qing didn't feel the slightest bit of psychological burden. He waved his hand and said, "Those who achieve great things don't care about trivial matters. Besides, we're not using them as cannon fodder. It's just that they have suffered the greatest sacrifice among the three counties."

"Even if Your Excellency doesn't do this, the final outcome will be that the three counties will be defeated one by one, with no survivors."

"Okay, let's do as you wish, sir." Zhao Kai also nodded.

Jiang Yuan took a deep breath and looked at the half wooden pole that had not been pulled out from his shoulder. This thing was really affecting his movement.

"Chen Qing, help me pull it out." Jiang Yuan said, making up his mind.

"Okay, sir, I'll count to three, and then I'll pull it out. Be prepared, sir."

"Okay." Jiang Yuan nodded subconsciously.

Chen Qing tore off a piece of clean cloth from his body with a serious expression, then found some unknown herbs around, crushed them and placed them on the cloth.

"My lord, let's begin."

Jiang Yuan bit his sleeve and nodded, indicating that he was ready.

"Okay, three!"

"one!"

As soon as Chen Qing finished speaking, he pulled out the wooden pole with his hands like lightning, and Wang Gang quickly wrapped the cloth strip around Jiang Yuan's arm.

Jiang Yuan opened his mouth and said, "Fuck! Lao Liu!"

The first person in the world who successfully fooled him was Lao Liu.

"Sir, this move is called surprise attack." Chen Qing said seriously.

Jiang Yuan bared his teeth and gasped for breath. It took him a long time to recover. He tried to move his arms a few times. Fortunately, he only hurt his flesh and not his bones.

Time passed minute by minute, and before they knew it, it had darkened, but Jiang Yuan and the others were still sleeping.

It was not until the fifth watch (3 to 5 in the morning) that Jiang Yuan and his group set off fully armed.

Target, Tai'an County.