Zhang Zuolin was very pleased with Zhang Hanqing's performance during this time. He does not think that his family is "noble", and mingles with middle and lower-level officers and even soldiers, which has won Zhang Zuolin's meaning in governing the army, which is also the storyteller's "style of generals" in ancient and modern times.

This little sixth son, there is intelligence, there are many ghost ideas, and he can endure hardships, these are quite eye-catching advantages. However, Zhang Hanqing's occasional banter and some stories of ups and downs still give Zhang Zuolin a bit of a headache. He's a bit like a big kid, and he can't get rid of his bad taste, so what should he do?

Isn't it young? Give him a home, maybe this bad horse will be tethered, right? After all, the sign of a man's maturity begins with having a woman. And Xiao Liuzi is not small, and the high-ranking officials in Fengtian are also vying to introduce their female relatives and relatives to him, what is the intention, Lao Zhang has been mixed for so many years, and he is naturally clear.

But Lao Zhang has a scale in his heart, and he has already booked a daughter-in-law for this eldest son. That was eight years ago.

Eight years ago, in April 1908, Zhang Zuolin led thousands of men and horses to Zhengjiatun, the seat of Liaoyuan Prefecture. As soon as I arrived at Zhengjiatun, I couldn't help frowning. Although Zhengjiatun is the seat of the government office of Liaoyuan Prefecture and has the reputation of "Sand Desert Treasure Road", there are only two main streets crowded with small shops, and the houses are very tight. Not only did the thousands of horses he brought with him nowhere to station, but even his command could not find a suitable place to stay.

The officer who was looking for a house came back and reported that there was a grain store on West Street, which was suitable for the headquarters. Zhang Zuolin rode to West Street and dismounted at the gate with a plaque of "Fengjuchang". Walking into the courtyard, the courtyard is neat and spacious. The owner of the grain store is surnamed Yu, named Yu Wendou, and his ancestral home is Haiyang County, Shandong Province. During the Tongzhi period, following the tide of immigrants in the eastern part of the country, he settled in Zhengjiatun.

In the last years of Guangxu, Yu Wendou was elected as the president of the local chamber of commerce. Due to the remoteness of Zhengjiatun, wealthy merchants became the targets of bandits. "Fengjuchang" is one of the most famous shops in the local area, and it has become an important target for bandits, and Yu's family has suffered greatly. Yu Wendou heard that the "Wang Shi" came to suppress the bandits, and the leader was the "great hero of the bandits" in Liaoxi, not to mention how happy he was. Immediately let Zhang go indoors and enthusiastically brewed the best tea. Zhang Zuolin was very happy and said: "Then I will set up the bandit suppression headquarters in your 'Fengju Chang', what do you think?" Yu Lian nodded again and again: "I can't ask for it!" Can't ask for it! In this way, the "Fengjuchang" grain store has become the headquarters of the suppression of bandits.

President Yu is hospitable and talkative, and Commander Zhang is reliant and interceding, and after a long time, the two have become old acquaintances who talk about everything.

Once, Zhang Zuolin led the horse team to go deep into the Daxing'an Mountains to suppress bandits, all the way through the mountains and mountains, the rebels fought and fled, and at sunset, the rebels fled into the wasteland. Zhang's team was exhausted after a day of fighting and was resting in a village. The cunning rebels killed the rifle during the night and surrounded the village. Zhang's team did not take precautions, broke through in a hurry, and suffered heavy losses. In order to preserve his strength, Zhang ordered his soldiers to stop breaking through and wait for reinforcements. The two sides confronted each other for a long time, and reinforcements were delayed. At the desperate moment when Zhang Zuolin was cornered, Wu Junsheng, who lived in Zhengjiatun, urgently transferred a team of light horses from Taonan to help, and Zhang Zuolin was able to survive.

It turned out that Yu Wendou was anxious when he heard the news that Zhang Zuolin was besieged. He told the news to Wu Junsheng, a fellow villager in Shandong, and persuaded Wu Junsheng to have the scene of the wasteland being relieved. Zhang was grateful for his life-saving grace, and took the initiative to ask for a blood alliance with Yu Wendou to "tie the knot with Jinlan". The life-and-death friendship between Zhang Zuolin and Wu Junsheng was laid at this time.

Since the wasteland was rescued in distress, Zhang Zuolin always feels unsteady every time he sits with Yu Wendou. It seems that something indescribable is pouring out of his veins, and he doesn't know if it's gratitude? Is it apologetic? Or something else, which made him unable to fully concentrate.

One day, when he and Yu Wendou were chatting, a little girl came to the living room with a book, timidly walked up to Yu Wendou, opened the book, pointed to a line of words on the book with her little finger, and asked, "Dad: What does this sentence mean?" ”

Zhang Zuolin's eyes lit up: the way to repay has finally been found!

Zhang Zuolin looked at the little girl in front of him, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and guessed that her age should be about the same as his son "Little Liuzi". If you let the "little six sons" marry the little girl in front of you, will you have a little reward for this life-saving grace? After thinking about it again, children should be cautious about their marriages, do their birthdays match? Is the temperament compatible? …… His head was spinning at high speed, and the little girl was already out of the room with a book in her hand. Yu Wendou looked at Zhang Zuolin a little stunned, guessing that he might be thinking about the bandit again, so he said, "It's not too early, let's rest early." ”

Back in his room, the figure of the little girl and the "little sixth son" always lingered in front of Zhang Zuolin's eyes. After that, as soon as he returned to "Changjufeng", Zhang Zuolin wanted to see this little girl, and as soon as he saw the little girl, he naturally thought of "Little Liuzi".

This thought, born from the emotion of gratitude, has always been held in my mind. Let's say, many question marks don't come up with a clear answer; Don't say it, it lingers in a hazy way. Leading troops to fight is "pulling radishes in the sand - simply and neatly", and when dealing with such a thing, he is really a bit "blunt knife to cut flesh - he can't get it up". It wasn't until the summer of the following year that a chance encounter prompted him to make up his mind.

One day, Yu Wendou heard the shouting of a fortune teller on the street, so he sent someone to invite the fortune teller to his home. The fortune teller is over half a hundred years old, he is a blind man, and he said that he came from Guanli.

Yu Wendou asked: "May I ask what method does Mr. use to tell fortunes?" ”

The fortune teller replied, "Zipingshu." ”

The so-called "Ziping technique" is the folk saying "batch eight characters", because in the early years of the Song Dynasty, there was a person named Xu Ziping who was more famous for "criticizing eight characters", so fortune tellers often called this method "Ziping technique". Yu Wendou is a businessman, he has seen a lot of people, and he is not a stranger to drawing posts and divination.

Yu Wendou told the fortune teller that Yu Fengzhi was born on the eighth day of the fifth lunar month in the 23rd year of Guangxu.

The fortune teller pinched his fingers and muttered for a while, and finally said loudly: "This woman is 'phoenix life', and your lady's life is ......."

Yu Wendou listened while writing down what the fortune teller said on a piece of paper.

Just sent off the fortune teller, I suddenly heard the soldiers outside the door shouting: "Commander Zhang has arrived!" ”

Zhang Zuolin entered the house and saw the Yu family smiling happily around a table, and there were several pieces of paper full of words on the table. Zhang Shun picked up one and saw that it read: "Yu Fengzhi" and "Feng Life......

Zhang Zuolin thought to himself: "Fengzhi, what an auspicious name!" Feng Zhi, Feng Zhi, until the Queen. So, whose house does she fall into, isn't it the emperor's house? "Little Liuzi" is the "Jiangmen Huzi", if he marries the "phoenix daughter" of the Yu family, he may also be able to sit on the dragon chair in the future.

In that era of war and chaos, three-year-old Pu Yi could be the emperor, and it was normal for Zhang Zuolin, who had always been conceited, to have such hopes. Besides, who doesn't have the idea of "Jackie Chan"! "Fengzhi" was originally an ordinary name, but for a warrior who was eager to find a way to repay his kindness, and for a traditional farmer who only knew the best way to be an emperor, it was natural to induce some outrageous whims.

As for what is a "phoenix life", no one can say clearly, fortune-telling itself is superstition. But it provides a new clue to clarify the year of Yu Fengzhi's birth. Zhang Xueliang himself said that Yu Fengzhi was three years older than him, so Yu should have been born in 1898, and some books said that he was in 1899. Recently, I saw a memoir written by Yu Fengzhi's nephew Yu Zhaoying, saying that Yu Fengzhi was born in 1897. According to the fortune teller's statement that she is a "phoenix life", Yu Fengzhi should have been born in 1897. Because this year is the Year of the Rooster in China, the "chicken" is often called the "phoenix" in ancient Chinese classics, and the fortune teller is mostly a person who wears chisels and attaches to the wind and catches shadows, so the fortune teller says that she is the "phoenix life". Based on this, we have reason to infer that Yu Fengzhi was born in 1897.

The words "phoenix life" and "phoenix to" are deeply imprinted in Zhang Zuolin's mind, and the more he looks at it, the more he feels that he is delicate and extraordinary, noble and intelligent. So, I made up my mind the idea of marrying the Zhang family and the Yu family. Zhang Zuolin said to Wen Dou: "I have a blind man under me, who is proficient in yin and yang gossip and Mai Shenxi. Can I take Feng Zhi's hexagram back and let the blind man calculate it again? Yu Wendou nodded in agreement. The fortune tellers are all memorized according to what is written in the book, and the eight characters of the birth date are the same, and the words are naturally almost the same. Zhang Zuolin even more believes that Zhang Xueliang, the "Jiangmen Huzi", and Yu Fengzhi, the "daughter of the phoenix's life", are really made in heaven. Within a few days, Zhang Zuolin asked someone to formally propose to the Yu family and decided on this family matter.

At the end of 1910, because Zhang Zuolin made great contributions to the bandits, Qing ** wanted to reward him for his fame according to the rules, but Zhang Zuolin did not want it. The imperial court divided the fame and fame, rewarded Zhang Zuolin's mother with a seal, and rewarded Zhang Zuolin's eldest son Zhang Xueliang with a five-grade household Langzhong, similar to the treatment of today's Ministry of Finance clerks. Zhang Xueliang wore a red top at the age of 11, which was probably the last red top given to the Northeast by the Qing Dynasty. The following year, the Qing Dynasty fell, and Zhang Zuolin became the commander of the 27th Division of the Army, becoming the most powerful figure in Fengtian.

For ordinary people, the power is great, the status is high, the eyes are focused on the next bigger goal, and the past events that have little effect on the future have gradually faded out of memory. Zhang Zuolin is not such a person, for those who are kind to him, even a little kindness, he always keeps it in mind, and does everything possible to draw useful nutrition for the future from the past experience.

To put it mildly, this is also Zhang Zuolin's personality charm. With such a great family business in the Northeast and almost all the old subordinates following him for a lifetime, if it weren't for this kind of righteous style of making promises, how could he subdue those arrogant soldiers and fierce generals in the Northeast?