The woodcutter's sudden visit was surprising enough.

Now he wants them to go together to recapture Kaide Prefecture.

The five military leaders in the room were all in their forties and had served in the army for decades. They had at least ten gold thieves on their hands, if not thirty, so their minds were a little confused.

How did things turn out like this?

"Old Nine, we need to think about this matter carefully." Ding Dashan said, not daring to pause this time, for fear of being interrupted by the man. "We don't have many people now. The five nearest garrisons have no more than a thousand people in total. There are three more garrisons farther away with more people, but after all, without orders from the top, it's difficult for us to mobilize them."

"Do we need orders from our superiors to kill Jin Gou?" Lao Jiu looked at him and said.

The words were questions, but his tone was that of a statement.

You are woodcutters and you do not obey the imperial court's control, so of course you do not need orders. But they are soldiers, and their superiors have been telling them to wait for reinforcements, but have not told them to take action.

Of course, without reinforcements, these few monkey people can't do anything alone.

To put it bluntly, this woodcutter was a bandit, but he killed gold thieves. It is indeed not easy to talk rules to bandits.

Ding Dashan wiped his sweat.

"To be honest with you, we have received orders to wait for reinforcements. Besides, each garrison is housing nearly a thousand civilians." He sighed and said, "It's not that we are afraid of death, but we really don't dare to die."

Of course they also wanted to kill Jin Gou, but the difference in strength was too great. It didn't matter if they died in battle. The key was that the people they were protecting would also die.

They could only rely on the garrison to hold out until reinforcements arrived.

Wang Juntou and others also nodded.

"We can't come and go as freely and happily as you good men," they said sincerely, "but our hatred for the Golden Dog is the same."

Lao Jiu nodded.

"In fact, Duke Cheng knows that we are here." He said suddenly.

Duke Cheng!

Ding Dashan and others were stunned.

What does this mean? Did Duke Cheng send them here?

Can Duke Cheng mobilize them?

So, they are really Duke Cheng's men?

Duke Chengguo raised his own private army...

The people in the room were confused again.

This, this can't be said casually, did they hear it or not?

"It's like this, the northern army is pressing in." Lao Jiu said slowly, "Duke Cheng is also besieging us again."

Encirclement and suppression?

That’s not the case... Ding Dashan and others breathed a sigh of relief.

Hey brother, could you please not be so concise when you speak?

"They said that the military affairs in the north are urgent and cannot afford any negligence. We are not allowed to disrupt the military situation and the war." Lao Jiu continued.

This makes sense. The reason why the imperial court did not allow woodcutters to exist is because they were disobedient and acted arbitrarily, which sometimes ruined the overall situation.

After all, battlefield tactics are very strict, and one wrong move could lead to the failure of the entire battle.

Duke Chengguo's military command and border defense response to the challenge were indeed prudent and thoughtful.

In the past, when he was killing the Jin people, he could turn a blind eye to it, but when the real battle came, he would not allow any mistakes.

Ding Dashan and the others looked solemn and respectful, wanting to praise Duke Cheng for his wisdom, but thinking of the woodcutter's identity, they swallowed their words.

"Duke Cheng is wise." Old Nine nodded and said, not disguising his admiration, "We respect him very much."

Oh, Ding Dashan and others said in their hearts.

Lao Jiu looked at them and did not continue speaking immediately, as if he was waiting for something.

Ding Dashan had a flash of inspiration.

"Duke Cheng is wise," he said hurriedly.

Others also responded and nodded.

"Duke Cheng is wise."

"Duke Cheng is both brave and resourceful."

After they finished talking, Lao Jiu nodded and continued speaking.

"So we listened to him and retreated." He said, "Duke Cheng also told us that there were too many Jin soldiers in the north, and it would be meaningless for us to kill a hundred or so. If we really wanted to kill gold thieves, we might as well kill fewer of them. If we killed one gold thief, we would lose one gold piece."

As he spoke, he patted his thigh, as if imitating Duke Cheng's expression, and pointed with his hand.

"So you guys go to Kaide Mansion."

So they came to Kaide Mansion.

So that's how it is, Ding Dashan and others suddenly realized.

"So, when you say reinforcements, we are the reinforcements." Lao Jiu looked at them and said in a deep voice, "When you say orders from the higher-ups, then killing the gold thieves is the order from Duke Cheng."

This seemed to be the truth, Ding Dashan and others nodded in confusion.

"Have you guys come to an agreement?" Lao Jiu said, "Do it or not?"

Ding Dashan and others suddenly came to their senses and became panicked again.

Bro, this is still too fast.

I only said two or three sentences.

"This matter is of great importance. Let's discuss it carefully." Ding Dashan said hurriedly.

Lao Jiu nodded.

"Okay, let's discuss this." He said, sweeping the ground with his big feet and ticking a square. "You are more familiar with this Kaide City than we are. Is there any way to sneak into the city?"

Discuss, discuss this? No, that's not right.

Isn't this going to happen?

Is this not what they want to discuss?

Everyone was stunned, but someone spoke subconsciously.

"The walls of Kaide Prefecture are strong and tall, easy to defend but difficult to attack," he said, "but it's not impossible to get in."

"Yes." Another person also hurriedly said, "There were several secret passages left at the beginning."

"But this secret passage has been destroyed." Someone else shook his head, "Originally, someone wanted to escort the prefect out through this secret passage, but the prefect refused and destroyed the secret passage himself, vowing to live and die with the city."

Thinking of that tragic incident, there was silence in the room.

It's so tragic, is the death in vain? Are we just going to watch it like this forever?

Ding Dashan suddenly clenched his fists.

"There is another secret passage," he said.

and?

Everyone looked at him. Ding Dashan was the guard closest to Kaide Prefecture and knew the most about the military secrets of the prefecture. If he said there was something, then there must be something.

But...

"So what if there is a secret passage? Only one person can pass through at a time, and there are 3,000 well-trained Jin soldiers in the city." Wang Dashan shook his head and said.

Once you enter, you will undoubtedly be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth.

"That's why we need everyone to come together." Lao Jiu said, tapping his feet on the ground, "Let's go in, kill the defenders, open the gate, and you all come in together to attack the city."

Even if we gather together, there are less than 2,000 people... How can we attack?

Wang Dashan and others swallowed their saliva.

Lao Jiu smiled and patted the axe behind him.

"How to attack?" he said, "Attack with your life."

He stood up.

"We often deal with gold thieves. These people are very vicious and have strong individual combat capabilities, but they have a weakness. Probably because of their small population, they cannot withstand a large number of casualties."

This had not been heard before, and the military leaders present were looking at him intently.

Lao Jiu looked at them and slapped them.

"I can tell you that if we kill 500 of the gold thieves, we will be able to disperse 5,000 of them."

Five hundred people are enough to disperse them?

The military leaders' eyes lit up.

In that case...

Before they could say anything, Lao Jiu had already pointed his feet at the outlined city of Kaide Prefecture.

"We will first set fire here, here, where most of the Jin soldiers live, and then kill the guards at the west gate."

Following his instructions, the military leaders subconsciously gathered around, just like they were obeying their superiors' orders and missions as usual.

"You go into the city to meet the enemy, and we will take advantage of the chaos to attack where Zhan Tiemu is."

Zhan Tiemu was the leader of the Jin soldiers in Kaide Prefecture.

The principle of capturing the leader first also applies to the Jin people.

The fire would eliminate some of the Jin soldiers and cause chaos, while killing Zhan Tiemu would make the Jin soldiers lose their backbone. Under the cover of night, they were more familiar with the geographical environment than the Jin soldiers and knew where to hide and how to ambush and kill.

This sounds easy.

The military leaders became somewhat excited.

Wang Dashan coughed lightly.

"We only have 1,700 men," he said, "and the Jin soldiers are well-equipped, and they have occupied the armory of Kaide Prefecture. We only have broken swords and broken spears, and we don't even have decent armor."

These words were like a bucket of cold water that woke everyone up.

The disparity in military strength is still too great.

Lao Jiu stepped on the picture on the ground and straightened his body.

"It won't start until tomorrow night, so you have time to think about it," he said. "We'll do this then. The city gates will be open, and it's up to you whether you want to come or not."

Brother, now that you have said this, how can we make the decision?

The military leaders were at a loss for words and were about to say something, but Lao Jiu had already walked out and stopped at the door.

"Oh, there is one more thing." He turned his head and said, "This is our own behavior. It has nothing to do with Duke Cheng. In order to avoid causing trouble for him and ruining the overall situation, I hope you can hide our identities. If we die, just pretend that nothing happened. If we become..."

He looked at the military leaders behind him.

"That's your bravery in killing the enemy and regaining lost territory, and your loyalty to the country and the people."

As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of the five military leaders in the room seemed to light up with flames.