Yatou Pass is located on the edge of the Yellow River in the north of Shanxi, at the junction of Jin and Mongolia, and is also the west confluence of the Inner and Outer Great Wall, and the Ningwu Pass and Yanmen Pass form the outer three passes.

Guancheng was built in the thirteenth year of Hongwu, with a partial head to guard the palace of a thousand households, a thousand general appointed Guancheng garrison officers, the number of troops is 1,120 people, and the old Niuwan Fort and Yongxing Fort are under control.

South of Guancheng along the Guanhe River, 18,000 acres of official land were cultivated, with a quota of 15 mu for each soldier, 30 percent of the number of troops for drilling, and 70 percent of the tuntian.

Originally, the phenomenon of the border army fleeing was extremely serious, when Wang Jiayin captured the river meander, there were many defenders in the partial head pass who ran to the river meander to serve Wang Jiayin, and now there are less than 400 defenders left in the partial head pass.

After the change of Denglaikong, some of Sun Yuanhua's subordinates who escaped death were punished for being in the army, and several of them were punished to the side of the army.

Chen Zhan is one of them.

Three days ago, the news that Sun Yuanhua was beheaded in Xishi spread to the side gate pass, and from that day on, Chen Zhan had not run out of rice, and sat on the sheep's head ridge on the south bank of the Guan River for three days and three nights, facing the direction of Denglai in Shandong, and sat quietly and waited for death.

He was originally the head of the Yu Hengqing Officials Department of the Ministry of Industry, in charge of the Ordnance Bureau to supervise the manufacture of firearms, and when the military Tai Sun sent 25 Portuguese to make cannons in Denglai, he volunteered to ask Master Xu, a scholar of Dongge University, for help, and was finally allowed to go to Denglai to follow Sun Da to quell the chaos.

After Kong Youde's rebellion, the Portuguese died and fell, and when Lord Sun returned to Beijing to state the truth, he and several colleagues were taken out of Denglai, but ......

Lord Sun died, and he and several of his colleagues were also sentenced to be used as military soldiers.

He didn't understand, Master Sun was obviously loyal to his duty and did his best, why did the emperor kill him?

Lord Sun just wanted to help the imperial court keep the 800 elite artillery battalions and 20,000 Denglai soldiers, why did the emperor kill him?

Why?

Chen Zhan thought about it for three days and three nights on Sheepshead Ridge, but still couldn't figure it out.

Two colleagues had already become deserters, and they came to persuade him before they ran, and they went to serve Zijin Liang together, and turned against the damn Ming Dynasty.

Chen Zhan didn't want to go, and he didn't want to go.

There are only three points in the world, where can we go?

If he leaves, won't his family members in Anqing Mansion be arrested and beheaded?

Therefore, if he doesn't leave, he will die and accompany Master Sun down to Quantai.

When the two colleagues were leaving, they poured him a stomach full of water, and he didn't eat a grain of rice.

Now, he knew his time had come.

Chen Zhan took a hard breath, then slowly closed his eyes.

At this moment, a rush of footsteps came from the hillside, getting closer and closer, mixed with the sound of a foul scolding girl.

Soon someone broke his mouth open, and a stream of sweet, cool water flowed into his mouth.

Out of instinct, Chen Zhan greedily swallowed the saliva into it.

This was followed by a sweeter stream of millet porridge.

Chen Zhan regained some consciousness and slowly opened his eyelids, the first thing that caught his eye was a handsome young man who was a Sai Pan'an, followed by a little old man with a wrinkled face and a smirk with big yellow teeth, and a half-sized man with big drums.

"Hey, he's awake."

The half-grown man approached him and spoke.

Chen Zhan smelled a pungent halt and almost fainted again.

The little old man with big yellow teeth also came over and smirked, "Lord Chen, you can wake up, we are ...... The chief steward would like to invite you to visit us. ”

Chen Zhan opened his mouth with difficulty: "You guys...... Who is it? ”

The handsome young man arched his hand and said, "Lord Chen, we are sent by the Qin Grand Steward of Mengjiazhuang in Loufu Town, and we want to invite you to Mengjiazhuang as a guest." ”

"Qin Da...... Who are the stewards?"

"Ahem, you'll find out when you go."

"I'm not going anywhere......"

"Lord Chen, please rest assured, after you left, Chen Zhan, the director of the Yu Heng Qing Officials Division of the Ministry of Works, who was assigned to the Eccentric Pass, had already died of hunger strike in Yangtouling, and was hastily buried by well-wishers passing by, you are just a guest of Master Meng of Mengjiazhuang in Loufu Town."

Chen Zhan's eyes widened, looking at these bold guys.

For a moment, he shook his head with difficulty: "I can't go...... Can't go. ”

The handsome boy's face looked very embarrassed.

The half-grown man on the side said impatiently: "Lao Huang, knock him out and go back." ”

"Ahem...... To get, to get. ”

Chen Zhan opened his mouth, and then fainted.

……

Zhao Mancai used to be the head craftsman of Wang Gong's factory, with ten craftsmen under him, and his daily work was to point fingers at this and scold that one, relaxed and comfortable, and majestic.

When Wang Gong's factory changed, Zhao Mancai just took a young and beautiful aunt, and he couldn't get up on his aunt's belly that day, so he was lazy and didn't go to work.

Unexpectedly, this party could save his life.

Around the clock, he went to a toilet, washed up and was just about to go out to buy some food, when a shocking noise suddenly came from the direction of Wang Gongchang, such as thunder on the ground, and like a catastrophe, for a time the bricks and tiles in the capital flew sideways, and the corpses were floating.

Zhao Mancai knew that it was not the Nine Days Thunder Tribulation, but the explosion of Wang Gong's powder magazine.

The other two craftsmen in the factory, and thirty craftsmen were not spared, only Zhao Mancai, who liked to steal and play tricks, escaped, but was also fined for this, and even his new mother-in-law was not spared.

At the beginning, Zhao Mancai had no complaints, feeling that he deserved to be punished, because he had changed his life against the sky and escaped a catastrophe, and he had to pay something.

But over time, Zhao Mancai couldn't stand it.

Every day, he carried water from morning to night, and he did this day after day, not only did he not have enough to eat, but he was also troubled all day long, and the hundred households in Guancheng also beat his beautiful mother-in-law all day long.

I can't stay in this place anymore.

Zhao Mancai wanted to escape, but he was afraid that he would be caught and beheaded, so he hesitated in his heart.

Until a handsome boy with a face like a crown and a jade appearance Sai Panan found him.

One day, Zhao Mancai and his mother-in-law both went to the river to fetch water, chose a place where no one was around, and the two of them slipped under their feet, and the wooden barrels of their shoes fell into the water together.

After a while, someone shouted "Someone has thrown himself into the river" by the river.

The nearby Tuntian soldiers rushed one after another, and some of them jumped into the river and touched for a long time, only two pairs of shoes and two pairs of wooden barrels were fished.

Zhao Mancai and his young and beautiful mother-in-law committed suicide by throwing themselves into the river.

……

That night, Zhao Mancai and his mother-in-law disguised themselves, escorted by a group of vicious merchants, left the Yaotou Pass, took Wuzhai Fort, crossed the Lan Mountain into Lan County, and went south to Lou Fu.

At this time, Zhao Mancai found out that Chen Zhan Chen, the former director of the Ministry of Works, and two masters of the Ordnance Bureau were also traveling with him, as well as more than 20 craftsmen.

With these peers, Zhao Mancai is much more courageous.

I don't know what kind of person the chief steward of Mengjiazhuang Qin is.

……

Li Baba, the guard of the Guantou Pass, was in his house in the city, eating wine with a woman in each of the two hundred households under his command.

The wine was brought by Jingle's handsome boy surnamed Luo, and the woman was also brought by him.

And in addition to that, four hundred and eighty taels of silver.

Among them, 100 taels were bought for the head of the Ministry of Works, Lord Chen, 100 taels for two ambassadors of the Ordnance Bureau, 30 taels for Zhao Mancai, the head craftsman of Wang Gong's factory, and 25 craftsmen for the remaining 250 taels.

As a result, these people either committed suicide by hunger strike, committed suicide by throwing themselves into the river, or died in other strange ways.

Some of them who don't have families are simply counted as deserters.

Anyway, the soldiers in Guancheng have all fled, and they are not worse than these few.