Chapter 22 Patrolling the City Like the Wind
“How could they come so fast?!”
Wu Ning remained calm though he was shocked and asked carefully, “How many people are here?”
Zhu Hui spoke very quickly: "You can't see clearly, the dust is billowing, there are hundreds of people at least. "
Wu Ning breathed a sigh of relief: "The trampling of horse hooves and the flying dust can easily make onlookers overestimate the number of those people. There are actually more than a thousand of them. If they have all arrived, you can take a look. From the looks of it, one would think there were thousands of people.”
"So, they actually only came with more than a hundred people?"
Zhu Hui said quickly, "But they unfurled two flags, both with large gilded characters on a black background. One of them wrote a letter, Imperial Governor Dongchang The other one is the eunuch in charge of the official school, and the other is Fusi, Jinyiweibei Town. It seems that Cao Wubo is already among them."
Zhu Ji has a knife in his hand. Handle: "Let's meet the enemy!"
"Even if they only come with more than a hundred people, they are twice as many as us, and most of us haven't been able to properly recover from our injuries..."
Wu Ning pondered for a moment and said decisively, "There are many empty houses in the west of the city and the terrain is complex, which can be used. Let's go there."
Everyone immediately started to move.
At the same time, Dongchang’s troops have arrived at the city gate.
Wu Ning's judgment was not wrong. Their actual number was only more than a hundred people, and a large number of other people were still near Gaohe County and failed to come over.
In order to delay the progress of the Dongchang Brigade, Wu Ning and others harassed them extremely frequently, and even sent people to assassinate Cao Wubo more than once.
But since the past two days, these enemies who have been following around Dongchang seem to have suddenly disappeared, and they have been so quiet that they are a little too quiet.
Cao Wubo immediately realized that there was something fishy, and made up his mind to set off for Pingyang City in advance with a hundred elite troops using only the more than a hundred horses he had just found.
Of course he didn't know that Wu Ning had speculated that there would be a strong wind and sandstorm on March 9th, but he knew very well that he would never let his opponent predict what he wanted to do.
Although some people in Dongchang and Jinyiwei were quite worried about this, Cao Wubo considered himself to be highly skilled in martial arts and full of confidence, and his judgment was unquestionable.
After what he had seen and heard along the way, he had already concluded that even if the opponent's number in Pingyang City was gathered together, they would be far smaller than his own number of more than a hundred, so naturally he would not take this risk seriously. inside.
However, with such a arrogant mentality, after he arrived in Pingyang City, he did not ignore the local county government and do his own thing like Lu Xiaochuan and others did.
Instead, after sending ten men each to carry the sounding arrow signal and guard the city gates in all directions, he took the initiative to go to the county government office to ask for the help of the local people.
“Dongdongdong, Dongchang, Mr. Factory?!”
When the Pingyang County magistrate was dragged out of the yamen by two Jinyi guards, he saw a man with silver hair and red hair on the road in front of the door. The majestic man in front of him was wearing a strong military uniform and a black cloak. He was sitting on a horse and glanced down from a high position.
The big stall scalper Shaotang was also on the horse. He threw a token from behind and said: "You are a small official, but you still have some eyesight. This is indeed the governor of our East Factory, the imperial court Lord Zhaowu Bocao."
When the county magistrate saw the big characters on the two flags, his legs were already weak, and he had no intention of distinguishing the authenticity of the tokens in his hands. He cried bitterly: "Xiaguan has been working hard in Pingyang City these years... ”
"It is precisely because of his achievements that Mr. Cao gave you a chance to rise to prominence."
Pi Shaotang interrupted him, "Recently, there have been rebels staying in your city. As the head of a county, you , The whereabouts of outsiders should be known. As long as you report the clues, after the matter is settled, it will be okay to transfer you back to the capital as an official. "
The county magistrate was stunned.
Going to the capital as an official? Even if he cannot become an official and is just a petty official, the life he leads in Beijing cannot be compared to that of a border magistrate like him. Isn't this just a meteoric rise?
“There are outsiders, there are some!”
Before his mind could fully wake up from this surprise, he had already started shouting, "There are indeed many foreign strongmen these days. A few nights ago, they also used knives in the west of the city, killing many people. There is a river of blood."
"One of them is dead, and the other is dead. There are more people on one side, but I only have a few useless government officials, and I dare not provoke them."
"They should be in the area of the General Temple in the north of the city."< br>
Pi Shaotang’s expression changed: “Is one of the parties dead?”
Cao Wubo seemed to have expected it. His face was not moved at all, and he said: "How many people are alive?"
A clever government servant next to him immediately stepped forward and said first: "The county magistrate is I was sent to negotiate with them. There were a dozen at first, and then more than thirty, and now there are more than fifty in total. There are two children, one is disabled, and many of them are injured. "
< br>"It seems that Jia Ting and the others have really been harmed by this group of people."
Qianhu Bai Qi wondered, "The child must be from the Yu family, but who is the cripple? They fled "Don't forget to bring it with you at all times?"
Pi Shaotang snorted: "It must have been disabled in the process of rescuing the Yu family's children. It is ridiculous to refuse to deal with such a drag. He deserves to die." ! ”
He bent down to explore, grabbed the clothes on the back of the neck of the yamen servant who had just spoken, lifted him in the air, and shouted, "Show the way!"
The yamen servant hurriedly pointed the direction.
When everyone was galloping, Pi Shaotang always held him in the air with one hand. His body sitting on the horse was very stable, without any imbalance. His waist, legs and arms were like copper poured into iron. As powerful as casting.
They arrived near the General Temple in the north of the city. Before they reached the temple gate, they found many fresh horse hoof prints.
A team of royal guards entered the temple first to check, and sure enough, no one was there.
"There is a lot of noise when we enter the city. I am afraid that these people have noticed it and will run away."
Qianhu Bai Qi felt that there was no need to delay, so he ordered everyone to turn their horses and look for traces to catch up.
But when Cao Wubo saw the tattered clothes in the temple, he narrowed his eyes, raised his hand and shouted: "Wait a minute."
"There are too many clothes here. , you said your county magistrate sent you to deal with them "She, how did you negotiate?"
Cao Wubo turned to look at the government officer, "On what night did they fight with the other party? How long did it take for the more than 30 people behind them to come? ”
The yamen servant was carried all the way, with the wind in his ears and his feet not touching the ground. His thoughts of asking for some favors were overwhelmed by panic. When he faced Cao Wubo's eyes, he felt goosebumps all over his body, but he did not dare not to answer. .
After hearing what he said, Uncle Cao Wu closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened his eyes again, he looked calm and composed. He chuckled and said with unclear meaning: "You are so bold... Okay, okay Ah."
"Listen to my order, slow down your horse, and check your bow, sword, and shield."
Cao Wubo waved his hand, and the sound was like a bell, without any shrillness of an ordinary eunuch. Give orders to everyone.
“Don’t be anxious, pay attention to your surroundings, let’s chase slowly!”
(End of this chapter)