Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 479 Ambush
However, when Song Jiang received the pigeon letter from Zhou Tong, he immediately called his military advisor Lai Yong'er and showed him the pigeon letter.

Song Jiang asked, "Military Advisor, the cavalry from Liangshan Prefecture and Zengtou City left Laiwu Prison. Are they coming here?"

Lai Yonger frowned and said, "According to what Brother Zhou Tong said, Mr. Zhao only blocked the road to Laiwu Prison and surrounded it without attacking. He must be keeping his promise and not wanting to be an enemy of us. Zengtou City was originally dissatisfied with the two militia commanders of Lingzhou, so he must not be here to help Hu Yanzhuo. I'm afraid he went to Qingzhou."

Song Jiang heard this and said gloomily, "Qingzhou cannot be in chaos, military advisor, what should we do?"

Lai Yonger said: "Brother, after crossing Laiwu Prison, we will reach the Lushan Mountains, which are the easiest places for ambushes..."

After the two of them whispered to each other for a while, a carrier pigeon flew out of Laiwu. At three o'clock in the morning, the east gate of Laiwu quietly opened, and it turned out that Lai Yong'er led Huangfu Xiong, Fa Tong, and Zhao Fu, commanding 3000 elite minions, wearing soft war clothes and riding horses without phoenix bells, quietly left the city, taking advantage of the moonlight, and ran away with a secret message.

As dawn was about to break, everyone sneaked into Lushan and ambushed in the dense forests on both sides of a canyon.

Huangfu Xiong changed his clothes and pretended to be a hunter, and went to inquire about the whereabouts of a group of cavalry coming from Laiwu Prison.

Let's not talk about Song Jiang, who still pretended nothing happened and fought with Hu Yanzhuo, Shan Tinggui, Wei Dingguo and others under the city every day. Zeng Tu and Zeng Mi led the cavalry and followed the horse hoof prints left by Shi Wengong and others into Qingzhou. After leaving Lushan, they saw Shi Wengong's troops heading southeast, so the two brothers turned around and headed north.

Along the way, the two brothers passed by villages and only attacked the big towns, and successively conquered Chishang Township and Yuanquan Township. Most of their cavalry were from the Kingdom of Jin, and they drove seven or eight thousand people from the two places back along the way they came.

Zeng Mi led more than 300 people to clear the way, while Zeng Tu led the remaining soldiers to supervise the chariots and guard the left and right.

The soldiers were full of vigor and enthusiasm, and there were few casualties, but they got a lot of money. Zeng Tu also promised to send the men and women in captivity back to Zengtou City as slaves, and the soldiers could buy them. Even when [Optimus Prime] Ren Yuan, who followed behind after hearing the news, led 5,000 Qingzhou bandits, the soldiers were not afraid.

Relying on his fast horses, Zeng Tu led 1500 cavalry to counterattack. Unfortunately, Ren Yuan had already received instructions from Song Jiang through a pigeon letter and had a tight defense, so Zeng Tu was unable to succeed.

After following for another two days, Ren Yuan turned around and went back.

Zeng Mi saw this and said to Zeng Tu, "Brother, these Qingzhou thieves are really cowardly. The thieves in front are hiding and not coming out, and the thieves in the back don't dare to fight."

Zeng Tu laughed and said, "How can infantrymen be a match for our cavalry? It's good enough that they can follow us for two days."

Entering Lushan, the two men could not help but relax and urged the captured farmers to hurry towards Laiwu Prison. Zeng Mi, who was leading the group, was even more arrogant, riding slowly on his horse only a mile away from the main group.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at Lai Yong'er's ambush. With Huangfu Xiong's intelligence, the Qingzhou bandits had already loaded their crossbows. They let Zeng Mi's group go and waited for the main group to come over. A gong sounded, and on the hillsides on both sides, Fa Tong on one side and Zhao Fu on the other, their crossbows rained down. Even a very heroic person would have found it difficult to dodge so many arrows. It was a pity that Zeng Tu, the leader of the Five Tigers of Zengtou City, had great martial arts skills, but he never used them. He and his yellow-fat horse were shot dead in Lushan.

Zeng Mi, who was in the front, saw the incident and rode his horse desperately to rescue. He was hit by a hail of arrows and most of the 300 cavalrymen fell off their horses. The close soldiers saw that they were in trouble, so they rode their horses desperately to protect Zeng Mi and escape.

Of the 2500 cavalrymen in Zengtou City, only to men escaped the ambush. Most of them fled back to Laiwu City, and a small number of them followed the people and ran towards Qingzhou. Although the captured Qingzhou people were not the targets of the crossbows, many of them were accidentally injured. In addition, the horses and men collided, trampled on each other, abandoned their property, and fled in all directions. Five or six out of ten groups had been killed.

As for the soldiers and civilians who were fleeing to Qingzhou, as soon as they ran out of the mountains, they ran into Shi Wengong and his group who were returning. The soldiers and civilians who were fleeing were all terrified.

Many people recognized Shi Wengong and bravely stepped forward to tell him about the ambush. After Shi Wengong heard it, he discussed with Tang Bin and Wang Tianba and left Wen Zhongrong and Yang Tengjiao to lead 300 cavalrymen to gather soldiers and civilians to guard the gold and silver treasures that Wu Yong had taken out from the silver cellars of several wealthy families in Yiyuan. Shi Wengong and others led the rest of the cavalry and galloped to the ambush site, and all the civilians and soldiers who fled along the way were allowed to leave the mountains.

The Qingzhou bandits who were cleaning up the battlefield heard the sound of galloping horses in the mountains. At Lai Yonger's shout, they quickly dropped the collected weapons, gold, silver, and cloth and gathered their soldiers.

Many of the Qingzhou thieves were greedy and would not listen. They were reluctant to give up the money they had obtained.

As the shoveling continued, Shi Wengong, Tang Bin and other cavalry soldiers had already come close. As the horses galloped, the Qingzhou bandits had no time to line up, and when they saw the Liangshan flag, they shouted and fled in all directions.

Fortunately, the chariots and horses left on the battlefield, corpses and dead horses scattered all over the ground, blocked the Liangshan army from catching up. Looking at the corpses on the ground, scattered horses and cloth, Shi Wengong and others chased for a while, and turned their horses around after killing a few of the Qingzhou bandits. They sent soldiers to Yiyuan to inform Wu Yong of the situation there.

A group of cavalrymen guarded the place and waited for Wu Yong to arrive with 3000 soldiers. Only then did they treat the wounded and clean up the battlefield.

The dead bodies were buried on the spot, and the rest that could be taken away were sent to Yiyuan.

Shi Wengong and others also escorted the carriage all the way and followed Wu Yong back to Yiyuan.

The harvest was light, and there were still more than 3,000 people who had fled. Wu Yong divided them into villages south of Yiyuan County according to their households and distributed fields and houses.

Some of the seized money and grain were also distributed to the people, and people were asked to spread the news of Zhao Zhen's grace in Liangshan.

The remaining money was sent to the county treasury, waiting for Zhao Zhen to send people to calculate the achievements and reward the meritorious ones.

Wu Yong also transferred salt from Yishui, skinned the dead horses, and distributed them to the troops. The surplus was pickled into bacon and sent to various places. More than 600 good horses were seized and fed. Unfortunately, Zeng Tu's head was not found. I don't know if it was taken away by the Qingzhou bandits. Only Zeng Tu's body and a steel spear were found.

After the inventory was completed, a carrier pigeon sent a letter to Xintai and it was not until three days later that it was delivered to Zhao Zhen.

Zeng Mi returned to Zengtou City, under the Laiwu prison city, in a panic with an arrow wound. Zeng Sheng was shocked when he saw this and immediately asked the military doctor to clean the wound and apply medicine to Zeng Mi. After bandaging it, Zeng Sheng asked, "Second brother, where is the eldest brother?"

Zeng Mi burst into tears and told him everything that had happened along the way. After Zeng Sheng heard what had happened, he shouted, "Brother, stay here and recover from your injuries. I will take people to look for you, brother."

Zeng Sheng ordered the 500 cavalrymen who stayed behind to leave the camp without waiting for Zeng Mi's consent. On the way, they met soldiers who had fled back from time to time. One of them reported that he had seen Zeng Tu being shot and killed. Zeng Sheng gritted his teeth and shouted, "You lead the way, and I swear to avenge my brother!"

Another two or three hundred people gathered along the way, many soldiers had lost their armor and helmets, and their horses were lost. Zeng Sheng became even angrier when he saw this.

As luck would have it, Zeng Sheng was on his way and encountered the Qingzhou bandits rushing out of the mountains. The two armies engaged in a chaotic battle. The Qingzhou bandits were numerous and powerful, and they were even more tired after chasing them for a long time. Zeng Sheng had fewer people, but most of them were fresh troops and cavalry. After a fierce battle, both sides suffered casualties.

Zeng Sheng saw that he could not gain any advantage, so he had to retreat. Lai Yong'er's men were all foot soldiers, so he did not dare to chase after them. He packed up his things and rushed back to Laiwu City with great fanfare.

(End of this chapter)