After waiting for a day, Longhair didn't move.

The next day, the long hair outside the city did not come to attack again.

Han Xiufeng did not dare to take it lightly, so he asked Chen Zhankui, Chen Tianru, Zhang Biao and others to continue to strengthen the camp, and asked Li Tianbao to go to the riverside to let Tuan Yong and the shipwrights and sailors guarding there transport the remaining grain and grass, and asked Pan Er and Liu Shanyang to go to Wulidun and Hongshan Camp respectively to inquire about the news. As a result, they waited until dark, but neither did they see Changmao attacking, and Liu Shanyang and Pan Er failed to find out about the thieves from Hu Linyi and Li Xubin.

On the third day, Longhair still didn't attack!

If something is abnormal, it must be a demon, Han Xiufeng didn't think that Shi Dakai and Wei Jun would die because of the arrival of the group training in eastern Sichuan. Early in the morning of the fourth day, let Chen Zhankui and Chen Tianru send more scouts, and let the scouts go farther away to find out what the long hair in and out of the city was doing as soon as possible.

Xu Jiu, who had been idle for the past few days, took the initiative to ask Ying to investigate.

Thinking that Xu Jiu was originally a scout and was familiar with the terrain around Wuchang, Han Xiufeng simply gathered the twenty-six scouts from the left and right two battalions and organized them into a scout team dedicated to investigating thieves, and let Xu Jiu lead it.

Unexpectedly, after waiting for another day, Liu Shanyang, who went to visit Yan Shusen in the Wulidun camp, and Pan Er, who went to visit Bao Chao, came back one after another, and the scouts sent by Xu Jiu to the direction of Wuchang City in the morning to inquire about the thieves also returned, but Xu Jiu, who personally led the scouts to the Shidakai camp to investigate, and his six scouts did not come back.

Liu Shanyang took out the pocket watch that Han Xiufeng gave him last year, leaned under the oil lamp and looked at the hands, silently counted the hour, looked up and said, "It's almost two o'clock, Xu Jiu, why haven't they come back yet, will something happen?" ”

Han Xiufeng, who had just finished washing his feet, sat cross-legged on the bed with door panels, looked at the map with the help of dim light, and said: "It may be that you have to take a detour when you encounter long hair, or it may be that the road is not easy to walk at night, or it is delayed because of other things." In short, he used to follow Zhang Dejian to do this, so there shouldn't be anything. ”

"Lord Hu and Li Xubin also sent scouts, but the scouts they sent only went around the neighborhood and wouldn't go far." Pan Er said in a low voice.

"I can't blame them for this, I finally have a chance to breathe, so I naturally have to hurry up and rest."

"Zhixing, I still have something to inquire about in the afternoon."

"What's the matter?"

Liu Shanyang put away his pocket watch and said with a wry smile: "I'm afraid the relationship between Lord Hu and Lord Zeng is not as good as we thought, as early as this spring, when Shi Dakai was attacking the city in Jiangxi, Lord Zeng, who was losing and retreating, sent people to Hubei to let Luo Zenan, who had not been martyred at that time, come back to help. Luo Zenan neither led his troops to return to help, nor did he say that he would not return to help, so he dragged on. Later, when Ji'an fell, Zeng sent letters to Lord Hu and Luo Zenan respectively, asking Luo Zenan to lead troops back to help. For fear that Lord Hu would not agree, he would play with Wen Jun, the governor of Jiangxi, and ask the emperor to supervise the matter.

At that time, the battle situation in Wuchang was quite stable, and Luo Zenan and his thousands of Xiangyong were originally ordered by Lord Zeng to aid Hubei. As a result, Lord Hu did not let Luo Zenan lead his troops to rescue him on the grounds that the siege of Wuchang could not be defeated. Luo Zenan also said that the thief will run out of food, and he must not give up his efforts. ”

"Such a thing!" Han Xiufeng was taken aback.

"This is just the beginning," Liu Shanyang sighed lightly, and continued: "In order to deal with the emperor, Lord Hu said, 'If Wuchang can't be quickly defeated, thousands of troops will be sent back to Jiangxi'. As a result, a few days later, Luo Zenan was seriously injured and martyred. Lord Hu played again, planning to retract the preface on the grounds that 'Luo Zenan is newly mourned, Li Xubin takes over the Luo army, and there is no general to divide'. ”

"What did the emperor say?"

"The emperor was furious and rebuked Lord Hu, 'If the time is delayed with whitewashed words, Wuhan can neither be recovered, but Jiang Province cannot be restored, and the teacher will not be paid, wouldn't it be two mistakes?'"

"And then?" Han Xiufeng asked.

Liu Shanyang said with a smile: "Zeng Linshu, the father of Lord Zeng, was worried about the safety of Lord Zeng, and as soon as he heard that Luo Zenan had been martyred, he asked his second son Zeng Guohua to rush to Wuchang to 'help with camp affairs' at night. ”

Pan Er blurted out: "Old man Zeng, this is planning to let the second son take over those Xiangyong under Luo Zenan!" ”

"It also implies urging Lord Hu to send troops."

"And later?"

After Zeng Guohua arrived, Lord Hu had no choice but to divide 4,000 soldiers from the Luo army and hand them over to Zeng Guohua to lead the troops to help Jiangxi. But the main force of the Luo army was still handed over to Li Xubin, and he still stayed in Hubei. Liu Shanyang paused, and then said solemnly: "Zhixing, the lessons of Luo Jun's past are there, and we can't help but guard against them." ”

"Brother Shi Zhen, are you worried that Hu Linyi will swallow us up like the soldiers who robbed Zeng Guofan?" Han Xiufeng asked in a low voice.

"Master Hu really eats people and doesn't spit out bones, I think I still have to be guarded." Afraid that Han Xiufeng would not take it seriously, Liu Shanyang continued: "As soon as I arrived at the Wulidun camp today, those of his friends knocked on the side to ask us about our name is Chuandong Tuanlian, but why are there so many Huguang people in the camp. He even wanted to ask me for the roster of Tuanyong, saying that he would be rewarded for his meritorious deeds in the future. ”

Speaking of this, Pan Er hurriedly said: "Fourth brother, Li Xubin's friends not only asked me how many of their fellow villagers were in the camp, but also always asked me about foreign guns!" ”

"So they're really eyeing us?" Han Xiufeng asked with a smile.

"Zhixing, they won't want you and me, what they want is our regimental bravery, or our foreign guns!"

"It's expected, send a big piece of fat meat to the door, who doesn't want to eat it?" Han Xiufeng smiled and said casually: "Fortunately, we have been prepared, not only to rush to help, but also to bring our own food, so we will not be pinched by them because of food." ”

"I don't think it's enough to be self-sufficient."

"It's really not enough, just keep quiet, wait for the right opportunity to give them a knock on the mountain, let them know that the 'guest army' is the 'guest army', not what they want to handle." Han Xiufeng pondered for a moment, and then said, "As for those things between them and Zeng Guofan, it's not strange to think about it carefully. ”

"Fourth brother, what do you mean by that?" Pan Er asked puzzled.

"As the governor of Hubei, Hu naturally wants to recover Wuchang and attack the long hair in Hubei. Before the overall situation of Hubei is decided, it will be in charge of Jiangxi's life and death; As for Li Xubin and Luo Zenan, who had been martyred, the reason why they didn't listen to Zeng Guofan's orders when they arrived in Hubei was that they and their soldiers were originally only serving the imperial court under Zeng's banner, and in fact they were not Zeng's people; Second, Lord Zeng is in an embarrassing situation, and to this day he is still an official or a gentleman, and how can he have a future with Lord Zeng or Luo Bingzhang, the governor of Hunan. ”

"So they don't want to leave when they get to Hubei!"

"To be exact, I don't want to go back after being under Master Hu."

"Zhixing, what you said is on point." Liu Shanyang muttered: "I heard Yan Shusen say that Hunan Governor Luo Bingzhang is recruiting talents, and the Hunan gentry are either only Luo Bingzhang is the first to look forward, or Hubei comes to join Lord Hu, and few are willing to serve under Zeng Guofan." ”

"We are actually the same in eastern Sichuan, if the people in Taiwan are as willing to promote the talents of eastern Sichuan as Luo Bingzhang, how many are willing to listen to us like now?" Han Xiufeng asked rhetorically and said with a wry smile: "Fortunately, my literary style in eastern Sichuan is not prosperous, and I don't have as many scholars in Hunan, let alone as many talents in Hunan." ”

Liu Shanyang thought so, but after thinking about it, he still reminded: "Zhixing, don't talk about this, if it spreads, others will really mistakenly think that we support the army and respect ourselves." ”

"Yes, yes, don't talk about it, rest early."

……

I slept late and woke up early.

Han Xiufeng washed his face and rinsed his mouth, inspected the defense of the inner and outer trenches as he did a few days ago, turned around and returned to the "handsome tent" and was about to have breakfast, when there was a rush of footsteps outside.

As soon as he raised his head, he saw Liu Shanyang and Pan Er leading Xu Jiu in.

"Lao Jiu, why haven't you come back until now, are the brothers who went with you okay?" Han Xiufeng stared at him and asked.

Xu Jiu, who had been on the road all night, hurriedly put down his weapons and packages, bowed down and said, "My lord, the brothers who went with me are all fine, and they have all come back with their humble duties." The reason why it was delayed here was because he found that the long-haired soldiers outside the city had withdrawn and retreated all the way to Gedian! ”

Han Xiufeng thought he had heard it wrong, leaned over to look at the map, found the location of Gedian, and muttered, "Why retreat so far, they don't plan to attack?" ”

"My lord, I rushed to the outside of Shi Dakai's camp yesterday morning, and found that the camp tent was all gone, and I couldn't even see a figure, so I changed into the clothes of the Citi Army, and followed the traces left by those thieves and chased all the way to the east, until I found the newly established camp of those thieves in Gedian."

Xu Jiu took the water handed by Pan Er, poured a few big mouthfuls, raised his arm to wipe the corners of his mouth, and continued: "Seeing that the thief camp was set up in an orderly manner, he did not dig a trench or a wall, and he didn't even send troops to handle it outside the camp, so he led the brothers to disguise themselves as thieves and infiltrate the thief camp.

I don't know if I don't go in to investigate, but after I go in, I was surprised, and those thieves were panicked and confused, saying that Shi Dakai had led two thousand old thieves from Guangxi to leave by boat, and I didn't know whether they went to Jiangxi or returned to Jiangning. The Citi Army that was thrown down also has a boat, and those who have not found the boat are now leaderless. ”

"Shi Da drove away!"

"At the beginning, I couldn't believe it, so I took my brothers to disguise themselves as thieves and went around several thief camps, and found that those thieves were all discussing where to flee."

Liu Shanyang relieved himself, looked at the map and said with a smile: "Just leave, all the previous efforts are lost, Shi Dakai is too anticlimactic in this battle." ”

"It's strange to be humble." Xu Jiu thought about it and said regretfully: "If it is close, if the road is easy to walk, the adults can send a battalion to defeat those thieves in one fell swoop." But it was too far away, and the road was not easy to walk, and the team would not arrive until the afternoon at the earliest, and they would run away early when the team arrived. ”

Han Xiufeng asked, "You mean they have already left at this time?" ”

"When they came back, they were all packing up the gold and silver, saying that they would leave at dawn, and that it would be best if they could grab the boat, and if they couldn't grab the boat, they would go to Ezhou or Huangzhou by land."

"Got it, hurry up to eat, and rest after eating."

"Yes."

Seeing Xu Jiu away, Han Xiufeng looked down at the map again.

Liu Shanyang couldn't help but ask: "Zhixing, such an important military situation, do you want to report it to Lord Hu?" ”

"If you want to report it, send someone to run to Wulidun, but I don't think Master Hu will believe it."

"It's not for him to believe it, if he really doesn't believe it, send a few scouts to take a look."

"I mean, he won't believe that Shi Dakai just retreated like this, he will definitely feel that this is probably Shi Dakai's trick, and he won't dare to send troops to pursue him easily." Han Xiufeng straightened up, thought about it and said, "Don't say that he doesn't believe in Shi Dakai and just left, I don't believe it, God knows if this is Shi Dakai's trick." ”

"Also, it's better to march and fight safely, and you don't need to take that risk."

"That's why it's not the same."

"Then I won't report it."

Han Xiufeng picked up the dishes and chopsticks, and then advised: "Shi Zhen, no matter whether Shi Dakai is a real or fake retirement, but the long hair in the city is still there." Let Chen Zhankui, Chen Tianru and Zhang Biao not slack off, let them keep an eye on me! ”

"Okay, I'll go."

As soon as Liu Shanyang's words fell, Chen Zhankui hurriedly ran over with a letter. As soon as he saw Liu Shanyang, he presented the letter and said: "Master Liu, this letter was sent by someone from the Wulidun camp. ”

"What about the messenger?"

"I left, saying that I was afraid of delaying official business, and I had to go back as soon as the letter arrived."

"Okay, I'll take a look first." Liu Shanyang opened the letter, looked at it and frowned.

Han Xiufeng asked curiously, "Shi Zhen, what's wrong?" ”

This letter was sent by Yan Shusen, who said that he had just received the news that Qian Junchen was seriously injured and martyred. Also said...... He also said......"

"What else are you talking about?"

He also said that according to the rules of the Hunan army, if the battalion officer was killed, the battalion had to be abolished. Those young men recruited by Qian Junchen from his hometown, who wanted to go back to his hometown and didn't get entangled, heard that we were here, and planned to come over to join. ”

"How many are there?"

"Originally, there were more than 300, but nearly 200 were killed and wounded in battle, and there were only about 100 people left."

Han Xiufeng weighed it, got up and said, "Changsheng, you go on my behalf to see how Qian Junchen's funeral was done, and bring back the more than 100 fellow villagers by the way." ”