My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 250 Fishing Law Enforcement
At noon on the third day, Gao Shun led the Xianzhen Camp, which was replenished with 800 people, and returned to Pingcheng on time.

However, in order to avoid causing unnecessary misunderstandings and leading to impeachment from the imperial court, all the soldiers in the Xianzhen Camp were not wearing iron armor, but only light leather armor. The iron armor was placed on the accompanying baggage carts, which could better save the physical strength of the men and horses and speed up the journey.

The arrival of these eight hundred sturdy warriors riding two horses immediately caused an uproar in Pingcheng.

Once bitten by a snake, the people of Pingcheng will be afraid of ropes for ten years.

Thinking that it was another alien race coming to kill them, many people even prepared to flee with their belongings.

However, when they saw that the leader was Gao Shun, the newly appointed Pingcheng County Magistrate, they realized that these men were recruited by the county magistrate to help them wipe out the group of bandits entrenched near Pingcheng, and they felt relieved again.

But they did not return home. Instead, everyone excitedly followed these elite soldiers whose aura was almost overwhelming them and ran towards the city of Pingcheng.

Their homeland was almost destroyed because of the invasion of the Xianbei people.

Therefore, everyone couldn't help but show joy when they saw Pingcheng had such a strong force because of Lu Yi. They knew that if the Xianbei people refused to give up and wanted to make a comeback, their safety would be greatly improved with this force.

"My Lord, I have fulfilled my mission and will return on time!"

When Gao Shun arrived at the south gate of Pingcheng, he saw Lu Yi personally leading Pingcheng officials out of the city to greet him. He immediately dismounted, took two quick steps forward, and knelt in front of Lu Yi to report.

"Gao Shun and the other guys have worked hard. The city has prepared wine and meat. You will camp outside the South Gate to rest for a day, and follow me to suppress the bandits tomorrow!"

Lu Yi helped Gao Shun up with a smile on his face. With a strong army at his side, he felt more confident.

"My lord, these warriors are...?"

Huang Song, the head of the Huang family, a local powerful family and the head of the household department of Pingcheng, and the clerks around him who were also from local powerful families were all horrified when they saw this, and they hurriedly stepped forward to ask carefully.

"Haha, Huang Hu Cao, don't worry. These are the guards of my family's caravan. I heard that Huang Hu Cao once said that Pingcheng was not peaceful, so I specially summoned them from Jiuyuan to wipe out the group of bandits entrenched near Pingcheng!"

"Your Excellency, are you saying that these mighty warriors are all your men?"

Huang Song and the others were stunned upon hearing this, and could not believe what Lu Yi said.

My goodness, we are all from prominent families in Pingcheng, which family doesn’t have a few guards?
But I've never seen anyone with a guard as outrageous as yours.

Each of your eight hundred guards is incredibly strong and powerful, with an intimidating aura, and each of them rides two horses. I guess even if an equal number of Han regular troops come, they will not be able to withstand the test of your guards, right?
"Cao Huang, please do not be suspicious. These guards of mine have been accompanying me on business trips outside the Great Wall for many years. The bandits and foreigners outside the Great Wall are not easy to deal with, so they have seen many battles. In addition, I led the army to defeat the Xianbei a few months ago, and among the soldiers under my command were these 800 guards."

Seeing this, Lu Yi understood the doubts in Huang Song and others' minds, and explained with a smile.

"It turns out that these guys are the warriors who saved us from the Xianbei people!"

"That's not surprising!"

"That's not surprising..."

"So it's the benefactors who have arrived. We, the gentry, have no way to repay them, so we would like to offer pigs and sheep to reward the soldiers!"

Huang Song and the others suddenly realized what was going on when they heard this. Thinking of Lu Yi's amazing performance a few months ago, they immediately felt that only such a warrior could achieve such an achievement.

Faced with the invasion of the Xianbei people, the losses suffered by these large clans were far greater than those of ordinary people.

Now seeing that there are such elite warriors guarding Pingcheng, they all feel at ease. With such a strong army at their side, they can finally sleep soundly tonight.

"Is this the fellow that the Lord was talking about...?"

After Huang Song and the others smiled again, Chen Gong on the side still found it difficult to recover from the shock.

This was also the first time he saw Lu Yi's direct armed forces.

However, in addition to being as shocked as Huang Song and the others, he also felt a little embarrassed.

At the beginning, out of modesty, Lu Yi did not describe the true strength of the Xianzhen Camp. When Chen Gong heard this, he thought that Lu Yi was just being realistic.

In order to calm Lu Yi's emotions, he spoke to comfort him and claimed that it didn't matter even if there were only a few hundred ordinary guards, and that he would help Lu Yi train more and more elite soldiers in the future.

However, when these eight hundred elite and powerful soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp actually appeared in front of Chen Gong.

Only then did Chen Gong realize how wrong he had been.

And he finally realized why Gao Shun had such an awkward look on his face when he opened his mouth.

"Exactly."

"Although the number of people is a bit small, the fighting strength is still acceptable. Gongtai University can look forward to the bravery of my men tomorrow!"

However, Lu Yi did not see what Chen Gong was thinking and subconsciously gave him a few words of encouragement.

Unexpectedly, Lu Yi's words of encouragement sounded particularly harsh to Chen Gong, who was feeling deeply ashamed, and his old face couldn't help but turn red.

"Hum..."

"Are you shocked by this?"

"When my men are ready and armed tomorrow, what will you do?"

Gao Shun, who was standing by, felt quite pleased when he saw this.

He could silently endure what others said about him, but if someone said that Lu Yi and the soldiers of his Xianzhen Camp were not good, no matter who it was, Gao Shun would never agree.

After a day of rest in the Xianzhen Camp.

On the second day, under the guidance of Gao Lan, Lu Yi personally led the army to the hiding place of the bandits to prepare to suppress them.

However, the bandits were hiding in the mountains, so not only could they not use their horses, but a frontal feint attack would also be disadvantageous to Lu Yi.

Therefore, Chen Gong immediately seized the opportunity to offer Lu Yi the strategy of "the mantis stalks the cicada, while the oriole waits behind".

First, arrange for people to disguise themselves as passing merchants and parade through the city. There is no need to worry about not attracting the attention of bandits who are taking advantage of the situation.

These bandits who were entrenched in the deep mountains also had nothing to gain. The bandits, who were already hungry, would surely come out in full force upon hearing that a caravan was passing by.

Lu Yi led Gao Shun and the Xianzhen Camp to follow behind, waiting for the bandits to show up, and then they would charge and take them away.

Even if a few of the fish that were caught in the net escaped and returned to the thieves' den, they would naturally be trapped like turtles in a jar and could be easily captured by Lu Yi.

It just so happened that the baggage carts used by the Xianzhen Camp to transport crops were actually all the commercial horse-drawn carriages owned by the Lu family caravan. There was no need to disguise them. All they had to do was remove the armor and load some stones to make it look like they were fully loaded with grain with deep ruts. There was no need to worry about the bandits not being fooled.

In order to show off, Chen Gong personally led the caravan as bait.

Lu Yi wanted to dissuade him, but seeing Chen Gong's eagerness to make a contribution, and the fact that this group of bandits had a good reputation, they were not interested in killing people except for the merchants who were resisting. Some merchants who could not take a detour had even started to pay them tolls based on the number of times they passed.

From this, it can be seen that the leader is by no means a brainless bandit who only knows how to show off his strength and fight fiercely.

Therefore, Lu Yi thought about it for a while and agreed.

He also wanted to take the opportunity to let Chen Gong make more contributions and encourage him to quickly gain a foothold under his command.

However, he asked Gao Lan to lead ten elite personal soldiers to protect Chen Gong, so that Chen Gong's safety would be guaranteed.

While Chen Gong and Gao Lan led the caravan slowly forward with Qiu Chan acting as bait, Lu Yi and Gao Shun led the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp acting as orioles and followed behind at a distance of several miles.

As soon as the Mantis Mountain bandits showed up, the caravan would resist them for a moment, and then Lu Yi and Gao Shun would be able to rush over.

Gao Lan had already found out that only a few bandit leaders in this group of bandits had horses, but they were just slow horses used to pull goods in the caravan and could not run fast at all.

As long as the Xianzhen Camp, with everyone on two horses, charged forward, they would face the Xianzhen Camp soldiers who were fully armored and invulnerable to swords and spears. They could not defeat them, and they could not escape with only two legs. They were defeated before the battle even started.

The only thing waiting for them was to kneel down quickly when begging for mercy, so as to avoid being killed by the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp who were excited about killing.

In fact, Lu Yi's use of such a large force to deal with a group of thousands of bandits entrenched in the area was like using a butcher knife to crack a nut, which was really a bit bullying.

However, Lu Yi was cautious by nature and did not seek to achieve anything but to avoid making mistakes.

The soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp were all trained and raised by him over a long period of time. They were impeccable in both martial arts and loyalty. He felt it was not worth it even if ten thousand bandits killed one soldier of the Xianzhen Camp.

Just as Lu Yi had made all the arrangements and was slowly approaching the bandits' hilltop.

The bandits who had been observing the official road in the distance from the top of the mountain immediately discovered the appearance of the caravan disguised as Chen Gong.

"My lord! A large caravan is coming. Judging from the depth of the ruts, it's obviously a big fish!"

After the bandit's scout discovered the fat sheep that had fallen into his trap, he immediately returned to the bandit's lair to report to the bandit leader.

"Great!"

"The camp is short of food, and I didn't expect that a fat sheep would fall into my trap. It just so happens that I am itching to fight. If they dare to resist, I can use them to practice my archery skills!"

The bandit leader was not very old, and looked like a young man, but he had a sturdy body, especially his arms were very long. His body was slightly bent towards his right hand, and it was obvious that he was an expert in archery.

Upon hearing this, he immediately stood up from his seat, picked up the bow and arrow and quiver hanging beside him, and hurriedly went down the mountain with a group of minions to plunder.

The bandits had no formation to speak of. They all swarmed behind the bandit leader, holding all kinds of things that were more like farm tools than weapons, and rushed towards the caravan disguised as Chen Gong with strange shouts.

"Mr. County Magistrate has a brilliant plan. The bandit leader was fooled and came out in full force!"

Gao Lan, who was beside Chen Gong, had excellent eyesight and was the first to discover the thieves' attack. He was overjoyed and kept talking to Chen Gong.

"Haha, the thief is stupid, I just used some tricks."

Chen Gong stroked his beard and smiled, then immediately arranged for a knight beside him to go back the same way and inform Lu Yi and others who were lying in ambush behind.

Upon receiving the order, the knight immediately left the caravan and rode away on his horse. He believed that as long as Chen Gong and Gao Lan held on for a while, they would be able to achieve complete success.

"My lord, a horse ran away!"

The bandit leader's minions cried out in pain upon seeing this.

The more chaotic the situation, the more expensive the horses become.

Look at the fast running horse under the knight's crotch. It must be a good horse. It can definitely be sold for a lot of money and exchanged for a lot of food.

"Haha, it's just a fish that slipped through the net. Look at the caravan, there are many fine horses. As long as we surround the caravan, it won't be a big deal!"

The bandit leader was not blinded by the small profit in front of him. His goal was very clear, he always wanted to capture Chen Gong's caravan.

Chen Gong's caravan was filled with heavy stones. Even with horses pulling them, they could not run fast, and naturally had no way of escaping. They were soon surrounded by the bandit leader and his gang.

However, Chen Gong was originally used as bait, so he never intended to escape.

"You caravan owner, don't you know that this is my territory? I planted this tree and built this road. Your heavy baggage cart has damaged a lot of my road. Why don't you come out and surrender quickly? You can save your life at the cost of your wealth!"

The bandit leader felt relieved when he saw that he had successfully surrounded the caravan.

He saw that the guys in Chen Gong's caravan were all strong and powerful young men. Not only did everyone have a sharp weapon in their hands, but most of them also wore leather armor. It was obvious that they were a caravan outside the Great Wall preparing to go out of the Great Wall for business.

He had dealt with this kind of caravan several times before and knew that the guards therein were all very capable and difficult to deal with.

If you attack rashly, you will suffer no consequences.

He intercepted them here just to make money, and most of the businessmen were the same, cherishing their lives very much.

Both sides naturally have a tacit understanding.

Therefore, the bandit leader would naturally not attack right away, but would always shout a few words.

"I am the manager of the caravan. I didn't know that Your Majesty was here. I have to give some money to Your Majesty when I pass by His Majesty's treasured land. However, I am poor and I don't have much money with me. I wonder how much toll Your Majesty needs?"

Seeing that the bandit leader did not rashly come up and shout for war and killing, Chen Gong felt relieved and immediately stepped forward, bowed, and asked very politely.

"Well, you are a shopkeeper who is quite pleasant to the ear. Money is of secondary importance nowadays. You can't buy food even if you have money these days. I see that your carts have deep ruts, so you must have loaded a lot of food. I won't take much. I will let you go if you leave half of the food."

"If you are smart and hand over the food, I can give you less toll next time you come!"

The bandit leader couldn't help but smile after receiving Chen Gong's compliments, and gave Chen Gong instructions.

"To be honest, Your Majesty, the caravan is full of goods, and there is not much food. I hope Your Majesty can see clearly."

Chen Gong naturally wanted to delay time, and seeing that he seemed willing to communicate, he pretended to negotiate.

"Whether there is food or not, I can tell at a glance. Put down your weapons and get out of the way..."

The bandit leader couldn't help but put away his smile when he heard that, and ordered the minions around him to surround Chen Gong and his group more tightly, as they were greatly outnumbered.

The situation suddenly became dangerous...

(End of this chapter)