Amid the rapid footsteps, the bearded man's voice rang out of the shaft: "General, it's a horse thief."

Wang Pu took the helmet from Chen Yuanyuan and put it on, then kicked open the door and came out loudly.

Outside the gate, the bearded man, Xiaoqi, Zhen Youcai and others had been waiting for a long time. Wang Pu asked, "Do you know how many people there are in the robbery?"

Xiao Qi said: "At least four or five hundred riders, all in the east."

"Where is the west?"

"There is no movement in the west yet."

"Where is Scarface?"

"Start on the east wall."

Wang Pu said: "Big Bearded, you will take fifty brothers to the Western Wall to strengthen your defense to prevent the horse thieves from sneak attacking from behind. Xiaoqi will take twenty brothers to stay in the headquarters. The remaining brothers will follow me to the East Wall to pick up Scarface."

"yes."

The bearded man and Xiaoqi took the order with a loud bang, and each led his servants away.

When Wang Pu and Zhen Youcai arrived at the east wall, they closed it dark, but the air was filled with the smell of pungent smoke. Scar face came forward and said, "General, Xiangmath's thief wants to steal the gate, but we were discovered by our secret card. If they can't attack, they will attack. Now Xiangmath's first attack has been repelled by his brothers."

"How are the casualties?"

"Only one brother suffered a little bit of minor injuries." Scarface said, "but the secret card that stayed outside the pass was dead."

Wang Pu looked up at the dark night sky outside the pass and asked in a deep voice: "How many people have died of the robbery?"

Scarface said: "It's too dark and I can't see clearly."

"Where is the thief now?"

"It's not far ahead." Scarface reached out and pointed to the dark night sky in front of him, and said in a deep voice, "General, you can listen carefully, and you can still hear the sound of horses."

Wang Pu listened for a moment and heard the slight sound of horses sniffing.

At this moment, hundreds of torches suddenly lit up under the night sky ahead, almost illuminating the open space in front of the gate as bright as day. Under the fire, hundreds of riders and horse thieves were waiting for battle. Although there was no neat queue or mighty battle robes and armor, these group of horse thieves still gave people a strong "murderous aura".

Since the founding of Emperor Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, horse administration has been implemented, forcing the people of Shandong, Henan, Northern Zhili, Shaanxi, Shanxi and other provinces to raise horses for the court. The implementation of horse administration provided a large number of war horses for the Ming Dynasty, but it also brought serious disasters to horse owners who raised horses, and many horse households went bankrupt because of horse breeding.

The bankrupt horse households have no support, and some of them become horse thieves. This is the origin of the original origin of the horse thieves.

Because the children of horse households have been in contact with horses since childhood, most of them are skilled in bowing and horses, the sound horse thieves that have changed from a dismantled horse household have been more dangerous, more difficult to deal with, and more elusive from the beginning than any other thief. It can be said that since the beginning of the horse thieves, the Ming Dynasty has never truly purged them.

Later, the elements of horse robbery gradually became complicated. In addition to the bankrupt horse households, many non-bank horse households also began to engage in robbery, because they were all serious people of the Ming Dynasty, and in order to avoid being exposed, they often killed people and silenced them after robbing.

The sound horses are skilled in stealing bows and horses, and they kill people without blinking. Over time, they become a formidable elite soldier.

Wang Pu thought for a while and shouted: "Scarface, raise the torch and show the flag!"

Zhen Youcai, who was standing next to him, was his heart thumping. Is the general trying to recruit these thieves?

This is a dangerous move! It is not difficult to defeat the thieves or the thieves, but the difficult thing is how to make them loyal. During the Chongzhen period, since the rise of the thieves, there were many local governors and generals who recruited thieves, but in the end, all the thieves who were recruited surrendered and rebelled again. Those governors and generals either committed suicide or were killed, and none of them seemed to have a good end.

Scarface hurriedly dissuaded: "General, the general is skilled in stealing bows and horses. The villain thought it would be better not to raise a torch, so as not to become targets for the archery thieves."

"Rise the torch!" Wang Pu turned around and stared at Scar's face viciously, shouting, "Take a flag!"

"Yes." Scarface agreed and turned around and shouted, "The general has an order, raise the torch and show the flag!"

At the command of Scarface, more than a hundred servants guarding the walls polished the fire and ignited the torches. Scarface even lit up the banner of Wang Pu's general. The night breeze was blowing, and the flag was fluttering. The big "king" embroidered on the flag, which was clearly visible under the light of the fire.

Under the banner, Wang Pu stood proudly wearing heavy armor.

Suddenly, the torch was raised and Wang Pu's general's flag was displayed, which seemed to surprise the loud horse thieves outside the pass. A small riot broke out between them, but it quickly calmed down. Then two masked loud horse thieves came out and approached the close of the door along the big path.

Wang Pu shouted: "Brothers, please listen, no arrows are allowed, and no fire is allowed."

Soon, the two horsemen covered with masks approached within twenty steps of closing the door. The rider on the left raised his head and asked, "Liao Jia, is the general of Datong Wang Pu?"

Wang Pu replied loudly: "Yes, it's this town."

The two riders faced and loudly horses held their fists respectfully on the horse's back and bowed respectfully to Wang Pu, and then the rider on the left said again: "General Wang, you destroyed the Jiannu's nest with a single army and captured the slave chief alive. This alone is enough to be compared with Prince Yue. You are a real hero, a great hero, and the young people respect you and apologize to you for today's offense!"

"No need." Wang Pu said coldly, "As long as you have the court in your heart, you will be at ease for the people from now on and no longer gather in the mountains and forests to do evil, this town will not blame you."

"General Wang misunderstood." Xiangmatao's tone suddenly turned into indifference and shouted, "The villain hasn't finished speaking yet."

Wang Pu said arrogantly: "Tell me."

Xiangmata said, "The young ones respect General Wang as a great hero. Today we will make an exception and no longer meet each other. But the young ones want to survive. Please understand our difficulties. Please give us a portion of the gold, silver and jewelry you have captured from Liaodong. We don't want much, and 100,000 taels of silver is enough."

"Dream!" Scarface shouted sternly, "I have one if I want money or not!"

Wang Pu suddenly raised his hand to stop Scarface and asked Xiang Mathieu: "Do you think you are sure to win?"

Under the wall, the thief on the left replied proudly: "The villain doesn't need to hide from General Wang. In addition to the five hundred cavalry behind the villain, there are five hundred cavalry in the west of Futuyu! This time, we came for General Wang. We have already found out your details. There are less than three hundred people in total!"

The thief on the right said, "We didn't say we wanted all one million taels of silver, but only one hundred thousand taels would be very polite. If General Wang insisted on refusing, then the brothers would have no other way to survive. We could only take action and snatch it! At that time, the sword and war would hurt General Wang without eyes, which was also God's will."

"Hahaha." Wang Pu laughed to the sky three times and said coldly, "If a tiger doesn't show its power, you really treat it as a sick cat! Thousands of Jiannu's iron cavalry have been dealt with by me. Just because of these hundreds of riders and horse thieves, you are worthy of threatening me? Come on, even if you let the horses come over, if you can't get into the gate, you will be raised by your grandson. If you have the ability to get in, all the money will be yours."

Two horse thieves below the gate shouted in a fierce voice: "Since General Wang is determined to act alone, don't blame the young people for being presumptuous."
Chapter completed!