Li Guodong secretly looked at Hong Chengchou and saw that he was wearing a black hat and a crimson official robe. He was tall, had thick eyebrows and big eyes, a white face, a long beard, and was handsome, with a sense of being arrogant without anger.

It was exactly what Chen Peisi said: I didn’t expect that you, a guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes, would also become a traitor.

Li Guodong didn't know whether Hong Chengchou's fate would change when he came to this era. I hope Hong Chengchou would not be captured, but one thing Li Guodong can be sure of is that if Hong Chengchou really surrendered to the enemy and became a traitor in the future, he would definitely lead troops to chop Hong Chengchou's head!

When Cao Wenzhao ordered his left and left, he and Hong Chengchou were left, he only told his plan to Hong Chengchou.

"A clever plan!" Hong Chengchou raised his eyebrows, a little excited, but turned to a worried look and said, "It's just that Zhang Liwei is reliable? If he fights against the bandits and cooperates with the thief leader Wang Jiayin, he gives us a trick to commit suicide. When our army penetrates into the thief's nest and sets an ambush for us, our army will suffer heavy losses."

"Don't worry, Governor Hong, I have considered it safe!" Cao Wenzhao replied with a bow. After saying that, he turned around and shouted, "Let Li Guodong enter the account!"

"Li Guodong? But he is a horse thief outside the border, but he does not forget to serve the country. Li Guodong, who defeated Jiannu in Tongzhou?" Hong Chengchou asked in surprise.

"It's this person!"

While the two were talking, Li Guodong walked into the central army tent, knelt on one knee, clasped his fists with his hands, and saluted Hong Chengchou and Cao Wenzhao: "The last general has met the two commanders of the Cao army!"

"Gen. Li, get up quickly!" Hong Chengchou personally helped Li Guodong up.

Li Guodong also stood up, after all, he felt so unhappy when he asked him to salute Hong Chengchou, a future traitor.

Cao Wenzhao said: "Director Hong, in fact, the last general's bitter plan was General Li's idea. He first proposed to let someone get into the bandit camp and find an opportunity to assassinate. As long as he assassinates the thief leader Wang Jiayin, the bandit army will be in chaos!"

Hong Chengchou raised his eyebrows and turned around and asked, "How can General Li ensure that Zhang Liwei will not harm our army?"

Li Guodong explained in detail: "Duchen Hong, Mo Jiang, as a horse thief outside the Great Wall, had previously mixed up with the Hequ and Panguan areas, and met the Eight Kings Zhang Xianzhong. In order to confuse the thieves, Mo Jiang sold some cattle and sheep traded from the grassland and grain transported from the south to Zhang Xianzhong, and gained Zhang Xianzhong's trust. Xianzhong also gave Mo Jiang a waist card. With this waist card, Mo Jiang could enter Hequ City with the opportunity to traffic in grain, so that he could approach Wang Jiayin and monitor Zhang Liwei. If Zhang Liwei really betrayed our army, Mo Jiang would be willing to take action and eliminate Wang Jiayin!"

Hong Chengchou frowned and said in a deep voice: "Plan is a good plan, but General Li sells food to the bandits. Are you not afraid that the court officials with ulterior motives will impeach General Li to the enemy?"

"This is to use a plan to eliminate the thief heads. What's the point of losing some food? What's more, even if the court officials want to frame the last general, the last general thinks that this is not a capital enemy! Most refugees are ordinary people and military households who cannot survive. Originally, the court should have provided disaster relief. Unfortunately, the court did not have the money to appease the victims, so they were held by the thief heads. As long as this battle can eliminate the thief heads, Wang Jiayin, the court will understand everything that the last general does."

Hong Chengchou nodded while touching his beard, and asked worriedly: "General Li went deep into the tiger's den, but be careful! Otherwise, if there is any mistake, my Ming Dynasty will lose a good general!"

"Thank you, Governor Hong! The last general will naturally act carefully!"

On the afternoon of that day, Li Guodong personally brought one hundred elite soldiers and his three hundred firearms. Cao Wenzhao also sent five hundred elite servants, led by Cao Bianjiao, and nine hundred people disguised as caravans and drove a large cart full of food to Hequ. Except for a few officers and soldiers disguised as caravans, the rest hid their weapons in the mezzanine on the bottom of the caravan.

The scenery in front of me is like hell, surrounded by yellow and white, and the bare trees tremble in the yellow earth, with no leaves, no bark, and no grass leaves on the ground, because they were all eaten up.

A gust of wind blows, and it is the dust that blows on the face.

There is no river on the ground, because it is all dried up. It is really a barren land, cracked everywhere, and the ground is yellow. A gust of wind blows, bringing up the overwhelming yellow sand and dust.

Most of the villages I passed were empty, with hunger everywhere, and there were many people who were starving to death. The rest were also skinny and dull, like a skeleton wrapped in a piece of skin.

When the caravan arrived, some refugees were ready to come up and rob the grain.

Li Guodong ordered without hesitation to kill a group of refugees, shocking the others and making them dare not act rashly.

There was a woman who was so thin that she couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman. She held a skeleton-like child and knelt on the ground and begged to the caravan to reward them with some food.

A man like Cao Bianjiao, who was as steel as iron, shed tears and roared to the sky: "God! Why don't you open your eyes? Let me, the people of Ming Dynasty suffer this suffering!"

Perhaps it was because he saw Cao Bianjiao, a man who looked kind, surrounded him with a group of women holding the child, knelt on the ground and kowtowed to him, begging for food.

"Don't give them food!" Li Guodong stopped Cao Bianjiao who wanted to give food. "If you give one, we will be surrounded by them. Unless you kill someone, you will not be able to escape. If you don't want to kill the people, don't worry!"

"But I really can't bear it."

"Natural disasters and man-made disasters are no longer our ability to control. Let's go, don't miss it." Li Guodong urged Cao Bianjiao to leave quickly.

In desperation, Cao Bianjiao was forced to disperse the woman who surrounded him and asked for food.

When he walked away, Li Guodong said to Cao Bianjiao: "General Cao, do you know that if you were soft-hearted just now and gave them food, they would only die faster!"

"Why is this?" Cao Bianjiao said inexplicably.

"If they were given food, can they hold on? Haven't they been robbed by those refugees? Maybe they even lost their lives!"

In fact, Li Guodong did not hate bandits like some people. He still sympathized with these peasant uprising troops. The people could not survive. Should they really wait to starve to death if they did not rebel? What's more, it was these peasant uprising troops who surrendered the fastest, but the Ming officers and soldiers who did not rebel.

But this is not the time for women to be kind. Since he wants to suppress the thieves, Li Guodong must do his best. He needs the thieves' head to exchange for military merits and money.

"Who is coming?" A group of horse thieves appeared on the road ahead, all of whom were arching their swords and shouting at Li Guodong and others.

Li Guodong replied: "I am the friend of the Eight Kings, the Zantian Monkey. I was originally a horse thief outside the border. A few days ago, I robbed a caravan that went out of the border and robbed food. I came to trade with General Wang!"

"Zhutian Monkey? I seem to have heard of this name. Can you have evidence?" said a thief.

Li Guodong walked forward one by one, took out a jade token that Zhang Xianzhong gave him, and handed it on.

"It's indeed the Eight Great Kings' jade plaque, please follow us."

The officers and soldiers disguised as caravans followed the bandits and walked through the loess valleys. After more than two hours, they arrived at Hequ City.

——
Chapter completed!