Dao Scar learned about Cao Cao's troop movements from Yang Jin and Fan Yi, knew about when the government would send troops, and also knew that they were targeting his head.
According to what Yang Jin said, there would be no less than ten people lurking among the refugees, waiting for opportunities to assassinate them. Scar then set up an ambush for several days, waiting for the pretenders to be caught.
However, he never expected that he would fall into the opponent's ambush. At first, in order to counterattack smoothly, he gathered all the leaders of his men in one place. This meant that now he had no room for outsmarting him except head-on confrontation.
Scar couldn't figure out when and how so many officers and soldiers got into the refugees. He could only wonder if he had been deceived by those two people. It was not an assassination at all, but a naked encirclement and suppression.
But no matter how deeply he thought about it, it didn't matter anymore. After the thief Cao Zhong Qiang gave an order, the soldiers and the bandits entered into a melee.
The battle is simple and fierce. One side has been trained, while the other side is just composed of farmers and butchers. Even if they have some fists and kicks, they are still unable to defeat the orthodox soldiers.
All the top members were captured, and only a few of them followed Scar and the swordsman who stayed with him and fled up the mountain.
In this crackdown, Scar was the target, so Zhong Qiang personally led his men to chase him.
The night was dark, and the lonely mountains were illuminated by many torches, stirring up birds and beasts.
There were only about ten people left in Scar's group, and they fled in panic in front of them. The thieves and Cao soldiers behind them were chasing them. Seeing that they were about to be surrounded again, Scar was so angry that he threw the torch on a pile of grass and trees in desperation.
In autumn and winter, the vegetation is dry and flammable. As soon as the torch was dropped, it ignited the surrounding vegetation almost instantly.
Scar saw the fire gradually igniting and felt very satisfied. He ordered others to light fires around him and yelled crazily:
"You want me to die, okay, I will be buried with the entire Chengyang County, and I will not be alone on the road to hell. Burn you to death, and I will see what you can do, hahaha..."
Zhong Qiang came a step late and failed to stop Scar from setting the fire. Seeing the fire getting bigger and bigger, he became anxious. If this continues, the fire will not only spread to the entire mountain, but also the surrounding mountains. By then, the entire Chengyang County will be affected.
Exposed to a sea of fire, the consequences would be disastrous.
He ignored Scar and quickly divided the soldiers into three teams. One team went to the city to report for help. The other team was responsible for leading the refugees down the mountain to get water to put out the fire and cut down trees to put out the fire. The remaining team stayed on the mountain to put out the fire as much as possible.
.
The two teams hurriedly went down the mountain, and Zhong Qiang led the people to take off their clothes to put out the fire. However, the dead branches and leaves ignited when exposed to fire, so how could they be extinguished by a small amount of manpower.
Seeing that the fire was out of control, Zhong Qiang was very frightened. Although he had sent people to request rescue, he knew very well that once the forest caught fire, it would be almost impossible to put it out easily.
He seemed to have seen the scene of the people in the city struggling miserably in the sea of fire.
"Sir, that letter, open that letter quickly." In the panic, a subordinate suddenly reminded him.
Zhong Qiang's heart suddenly brightened, yes, before setting off, Shi Shi gave him two letters and specifically told him to open them and read them as soon as the time came. He was so panicked that he didn't think of them for a moment.
He quickly took out the letter in his sleeve. Although he had been confused before about what "the time has come", but now, he could not consider the issue of timing, so he had only one way to open the letter.
There were two letters, one with "Two" written on the cover and the other with "Three" written on the cover. Zhong Qiang hurriedly opened the second letter and took out a piece of folded letter paper. When he opened it, he found that there was also a piece of paper sandwiched inside.
The spell made me feel unsure.
Spells like this were often sold by bachelors on the streets, and he always thought they were meant to fool people.
"My lord, please look at what's written in the letter?" the subordinate asked.
Zhong Qiang suppressed his uneasiness and took a closer look. There was only one sentence written on the letter: Throw this charm into the air.
Zhong Qiang hesitated for a moment, feeling that the fire had burned his skin to the point of pain. He thought to himself, "A dead horse should be treated as a living horse doctor", and then threw the charm into the air.
The talisman was soft and thin. Zhong Qiang imagined that it would fall to the ground lightly, but he didn't expect that when he threw the talisman, it turned into a flash of light and flew high into the sky.
After a while, there was a burst of thunder, large groups of dark clouds rolled in, and in almost a blink of an eye, heavy rain fell.
Zhong Qiang was so shocked that he couldn't open his mouth from ear to ear. The rain was heavy and his whole body was wet in an instant. The flaming tongues were also dampened by the rain, and they were all extinguished in a short time.
A disaster that would have endangered hundreds of thousands of people was completely wiped out by this rain.
Without the fire, the mountains fell into darkness again, and only the sound of rain could be heard hitting the mountains and forests.
"Sir, are you going down the mountain?" the subordinate asked tentatively, his voice still trembling uncontrollably.
Zhong Qiang came back to his senses, thought for a moment, and realized that Scar had already run away. There was no intention of pursuing him again, so he nodded: "Let's go down the mountain."
The group of people groped down the mountain and met someone who came to put out the fire halfway. Zhong Qiang explained in a few words that it was a timely rain in Chengyang County.
Back at the foot of the mountain, looking at the Tai'an Gang members kneeling in confusion, Zhong Qiang subconsciously touched his sleeves. There was a letter there. Does this mean something else happened?
He was uneasy in his heart, but he could only force himself to be calm on his face, and ordered his men to lock up the arrested man and prepare to return to the city.
A huge group of people walked along the city wall, waking up the refugees along the wall.
The refugees all knew people from the Tai'an Gang. When they saw these villains being arrested, they couldn't help but cheer and yell. These emotions were contagious to each other and became more and more agitated. In the end, the soldiers were unable to move even an inch.
The team of hundreds of people was surrounded by tens of thousands of refugees.
Being stared at by countless pairs of hungry or hateful eyes, Zhong Qiang's heart went crazy. He only had a hundred people, and if the refugees rioted, he would be trampled to death under those bare feet.
"Please give way, everyone. The Tai'an gang is causing harm to you. I am planning to send these people to the Yamen for punishment." Zhong Qiang's voice was soft, for fear of accidentally angering these refugees.
The refugees did not move. At this time, they had fallen into silence. They were in ragged clothes, and their eyes were like wolves hidden in the dark night, hungry and thirsty.
Zhong Qiang became more and more panicked, and his subordinates could not hide their panic and whispered in his ear: "Sir, these people are like hungry wolves now. If we want to leave this place, I'm afraid..."
"Why did the Sheriff ignore us?"
"These people deserve to be killed, and they deserve to be executed prematurely."
"Yes, kill them and avenge those who died."
"Sir, please let us enter the city. We will only die if we stay here. Please let us enter the city."
"Let us go into the city. Go into the city. We want to go into the city."
...
The voices of the refugees rose up one after another to a deafening chorus. The suppressed and threatening momentum made Zhong Qiang panic. The soldiers kept retreating, and the refugees pressed forward step by step.
"Why don't you care whether we live or die?"
"If you officials don't care about us, then we will die together."
Seeing that the refugees were getting more and more excited, Zhong Qiang hurriedly explained loudly: "Everyone has misunderstood. The county governor has always cared about you. Now the city is collecting winter supplies for you, and today we will come to suppress the bandits. It is also the county governor's arrangement."
"We don't want supplies, we want to enter the city, let us enter the city."
"We are only raising money now. Is it because we are doing too much because we are afraid of ghosts knocking on the door in the middle of the night? We have been here for more than a month, how have you ever asked me?"
"My child is dead, my husband is dead, and I am the only one left in the family. You must pay for the lives of my family."
Complaints arose from the refugees, and it seemed that they would be devoured alive in the next moment. Zhong Qiang broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly took out the third letter from his sleeve.