Lao Wang swallowed the bun three times and divided five by two, wiped his hand on his clothes, and said: "Why don't you two know about this." Some time ago, the military gate was cleared out of the front, rear, and left three guards, with more than 9,000 real battalion troops, and more than 2,500 real repair troops from the right guards, all of whom were young and strong. The battalion army has been divided into six battalions for regimental training, and the repair army has allocated to build additional provinces and three passes. ”

"Oh, I see." Guo Mingtao and Lu Xingyun suddenly realized, "Here are 10,000, so what about the remaining 10,000?" "Recently, the two of them have been entangled in chores, and they really don't have so much energy to take care of other aspects.

"Hey, how else to say that Lord Junmen is not a mortal. The two of them think about it, these soldiers and horses add up, there are actually 13,000 people, and this number is probably comparable to that of Master Hong. ”

Lao Wang's estimate is very accurate, three months ago, Hong Chengchou went to the imperial court, and when talking about the number of officers and soldiers in Shaanxi, he said: "The actual number of soldiers in Shaanxi is 13,700 horses. Sichuan infantry 5,300, mainly Lantian and Shangluo, intercepted the thieves who came and went. "The total strength of the host and guest is 19,000. It also includes the troops of Guyuan and Lintao Towns, which should have belonged to Sun Chuanting's control but were temporarily transferred to Hong Chengchou.

"But the Lord of the Military Gate didn't know what kind of magic power he used, and he actually said that he moved the big masters in the court, and approved another 10,000 soldiers. In the past few days, the governor's yamen has been in and out of the news, and it is all news that he has been sent to various places to recruit troops, and I heard that 10,000 people will soon be recruited. Lao Wang said it solemnly, and Guo Mingtao and the others had no doubts. The other party is a native of Xi'an, and the relationship network in the city is intertwined, and it is easy to inquire, so it is not a problem to know this.

The two towns of Guyuan and Lintao are known as strong soldiers, and Sun Chuanting has put a lot of effort into regaining control of the two towns. It's just that the situation in northern Shaanxi is really urgent, and Hong Chengchou will not let them out easily if he is killed. Hong Chengchou has a very high prestige in Shaanxi, "Doctor Qin Shi will eventually return to Hong", the governor and Futong suppressed thieves in Shaanxi, and there will be a lot of cooperation in the future, and Sun Chuanting does not want to stiffen the relationship. So after appealing many times to no avail, he changed his tune and said, "The soldiers of the Provisional and Solid are all in front of the Governor's army; Yan, Ning and other town soldiers, and the ministers had no choice but to call the neighbors", "the governor and the ministers leaned on it, and the ministers did not dare to argue and ask for it", changed the dispute to the request, and finally the ministry proposed that Sun Chuanting recruit 10,000 troops, which was a small progress in disguise.

Lu Xingyun nodded while listening: "It's better to ask for others than for yourself, the military can have a heart of self-improvement, and it has already surpassed the generations of Gan Xuekuo and Xuanmo." "Gan Xuekuo is the predecessor of Shaanxi Fu, and Xuan Mo is the predecessor of Yufu, both of whom were impeached and removed from office by many parties because of their inaction and inaction.

Guo Mingtao also thought about it, and said excitedly: "With the training of more than 20,000 male soldiers, what is there to be afraid of the thieves in Shaanxi!" ”

Lao Wang chimed in: "Yes." And soon after the rumors, the military gate will start to slow down the people's movement and repair the plank road, which is another move to benefit the people. "He has a small position, and he is not less greedy and oppressive to the people on weekdays, but when it comes to righteousness, there is no ambiguity at all.

Guo Mingtao sighed, and Xu Yan: "It is really my luck to have this minister." I only hope that the military gate will make a big move, and it will be able to do great things, destroy the thieves in my Shaanxi, and calm the people in my Shaanxi. After that, there was a murmur in his belly, and he felt hungry. I touched the plate with my hand, but I actually touched it empty. At this time, he suddenly found that the buns full of two large plates had already been swept away by Lu Xingyun and Lao Wang.

Under the scorching sun at the end of June, in the south of Xi'an, in the vast and deep Qinling Mountains, another three people sat around.

These three people, one is Zhao Dangshi, one is Hou Dagui, and the other is Xu Hui.

The weather is hot and hot, even though Hou Dagui lifted both trousers to his knees, he still can't help but sweat like rain. I took a bite of the dry and hard steamed bun, and beads of sweat unconsciously slipped down my cheeks and into my mouth, causing a burst of bitterness and saltiness. He subconsciously stuck out his tongue, but the bun in his mouth fell out and fell to the ground. Decades of hard life have passed, and naturally, the hand is fished there, stretching out halfway, but the other hand is cut off.

The owner of the other hand was Zhao Dangshi, who shook his head at Hou Dagui and said, "It's all stained with ashes, don't want it." There was a lot of dry food on the pack. ”

Hou Dagui suddenly remembered that he was no longer the ruined household he used to live in the past, and it was rare to see it, so he laughed embarrassedly: "I let everyone laugh." When I was a child, my family was poor, and there were natural and man-made disasters, at that time, I was so hungry that my two brothers ate Guanyin soil and stuffed their stomachs and died. When I was young, my father and mother caught a mouse and gave me all the food, and they went out to find food, but they never came back. ”

The content of this story is very tragic, but I don't know if it's because he has been numb after talking too much or because he is really hard-hearted, Hou Dagui has a calm face and no waves. Zhao Dangshi followed his words and thought about it, Hou Dagui's parents were lucky to kill them, and they were unlucky to eat them.

Happy people are as happy as they are, and miserable people have their own misery. Zhao Ying's soldiers and horses are hundreds or thousands, and if any one of them comes out, the story told will be appalling and shocking. Xu Hui seemed to be touched by Hou Dagui's words, and his chewing mouth slowly stopped, his eyes were empty, and he fell into deep thought.

"Old Xu, how is your body?" Hou Dagui took two pieces of hard cured donkey meat from the cloth bag on the pack horse tied a few steps away, and asked casually as he passed by. Although he often disagrees with Xu Hui and always disagrees on military affairs, to be honest, in Zhao Ying, in addition to Zhao Dangshi, Xu Hui can also get into his eyes. Obedient is obedient, Hou Dagui is not a villain, Xu Hui is very important to Zhao Ying, both public and private, he feels the need to show his concern for his colleagues.

Xu Hui stopped distracted, stared at the ground, and was a little depressed: "It's okay, I haven't had a seizure so far this month." ”

Zhao sighed at the time and said: "It's settled, find a reliable doctor to take a look, it's not a way to go on like this." ”

Hou Dagui also suddenly laughed for some reason: "When King Chuang defeats Xi'an, there must be a good doctor." After holding back for a while, he still said what was in his heart, "At that time, Shaanxi will really become our rebel army, and King Chuang will become the real king. ”

Zhao smacked him at that time and said: "What nonsense, it's true, I don't care about it." ”

Hou Dagui smiled and greeted him: "That is, what kind of people are we making, how can the golden scales be a thing in the pool, if you want to do it, you have to be a noble person above the prince." ”

The two talked and laughed, but they saw Xu Hui's face covered with gloomy clouds, and asked, "Old Xu, what's wrong with you?" ”

Xu Hui was a little hesitant, and he wanted to open his mouth, but one person pushed through the grass and came in, it was Zhou Wenhe. He saluted the three of them separately and said: "The military report in front of the army, dozens of miles away the waist ridge pass plank road collapsed, and now it is being repaired with all its might, and it is expected that it will not be completed before sunset, so we will stay here for one night and wait for tomorrow's progress." ”

As soon as Bu finished speaking, Hou Dagui's smile retreated suddenly, and the corners of his mouth twitched: "What the hell, you have to wait, just these dozens of miles, I walked for five days, and when I got out of the valley, the daylilies were cold." ”

Zhao was also frowning at that time, and unintentionally glanced at Xu Hui, suddenly understood, and said to him: "Old Xu, are you worried about this?" ”

Xu Hui nodded slowly and said, "It's all wise." Before entering the valley, it was expected that it would be possible to pass in five days at most, but it was expected that until now, the front team has only walked less than 200 miles, if there is no half a month, how can you get out of the valley? ”

The Meridian Valley is more than 600 miles long, and Gao Yingxiang's original plan was to go out of the valley in five days at most, killing the Xi'an defenders by surprise. The trail is extremely narrow and winding, and the terrain is rugged, it is difficult to march at full speed, so the whole army walked for five days, and the vanguard horse army led by Liu Zhe only traveled 200 miles.

There are tens of thousands of troops breaking into the camp, and the personnel are redundant, walking between the mountain roads, unable to walk side by side, and the queue is like a long snake, stretching for hundreds of miles, greatly delaying the speed of the army, not to mention the sudden restrictions such as the collapse of the plank road that Zhou Wenhe said. Among them, there were even situations in which many troops were more than 10 miles apart, cut off from contact, and could not communicate with each other.

If the 5th can still have the effect of a surprise army, then on the 15th, if the movement of the camp cannot be detected, the officers and soldiers are not people but pigs. Zhao Dangshi was very sure that if it dragged on any longer, at most a day or two, Xi'an would get the news of breaking into the camp and marching from the Meridian Road.

However, once the army is more than 100 miles apart, it is necessary to turn around and go out of the valley, and the difficulty of this organization is not just lip service; once it is blocked in the narrow road, stranded before and after, not to mention that the officials and troops take advantage of the fire to loot, they will fight for land because of lack of food, and violent contradictions will also break out. No matter how high Gao Yingxiang's prestige is, in the end, he is still the leader of the alliance rather than directly commanding the battalions and departments, and Gao Yingxiang will not tolerate this kind of foreseeable and catastrophic consequences.

Second, Gao Yingxiang still scoffed at the combat effectiveness of the Xi'an official army. He has been fighting for more than ten years, and he doesn't understand anything else, but he still has a lot of experience in evaluating the combat effectiveness of officers and troops in various places. He knows very well that at present, all the elites in Shaanxi are following Hong Chengchou to entangle with Li Zicheng and Hui Deng in the north. Expecting the old and weak remnants of the army in the Guanzhong area to block their iron hooves is just a fool's dream.

The Zhao battalion was arranged in the rear of the entire army, and after that, there were even many troops that had not yet entered the valley. The sent night does not collect and continuously send back to the front Tang report, at least in the last two days, Zhao Dangshi has not received any news that Gao Yingxiang intends to withdraw from the army.

"By the way, what's the name of the new governor of Shaanxi?" In the early military discussions, most of the generals who broke into the camp were directly referred to as Shaanfu or surnamed Sun. Because everyone has a low evaluation of this newly appointed and unfamous Shaanxi Fu, Zhao Dangshi has no intention of exploring the other party's basic information as soon as possible. At this time, there was a flash of lightning in my mind, and I asked this sentence casually.

Zhou Wenhe replied: "It just so happened that my subordinates also heard about it in front of me, the new Shaanxi Fu is called Sun Chuanting, a native of Shanxi, who used to seem to be an official in Zhili, and his name is not big. ”

"Sun Chuanting?" Zhao Dangshi gasped when he heard this, "It's really called Sun Chuanting?" ”

Zhou Wenhe's eyes were full of strangeness: "Yes, yes, it should be, anyway, the brother in front of me said it." The rest of the subordinates didn't know either. ”

Hou Dagui saw Zhao Dangshi's strange expression, and also asked, "What?" Do you know this man? ”

Zhao Dangshi had naturally heard of Sun Chuanting's name, but he couldn't remember any entanglement between Sun Chuanting and Gao Yingxiang. But he knew that this Sun Chuanting was by no means an incompetent person in the mouths of the generals. Gao Yingxiang despised him, and it was difficult to guarantee that he would not capsize in the gutter.

A few people were talking, and there was a rush of horses' hooves not far away, and Zhao Dangshi turned his head to see that the three horsemen had arrived in front of him. All the people on the horse dismounted, and the first one bowed slightly and said: "Zhao Zhangpan, break the king's military order." ”

It was the person who broke into the king, and Zhao Dangshi changed his face and said, "Please speak." ”

"The plank road in front of the waist ridge pass is difficult to walk, and our army has found a remote path on the side, which can go around to Huodi Pond, but the mountain road is narrow, and it is inconvenient for the army to pass through. The meaning of the king is to concentrate the horse army first, and the infantry behind. ”

Zhao Dangshi said suspiciously: "King Chuang wants to transfer my horse army?" ”

"Exactly. King Chuang's military order has been conveyed to the whole army, as long as there is a horse army, the infantry and cavalry are separated, and the horse army will copy the small road and report to the forward Liu Zhangpan tent before noon tomorrow. ”

The meridian road is hundreds of miles, the terrain is complex, and it also passes through Shiquan, Zhen'an and other county boundaries along the way, among which the small roads are innumerable. The road is narrow and small, the army can't go, one or two hundred people can still pass quickly, looking at Gao Yingxiang's meaning, I think I also realized that I can't continue to stumble in the valley, and I made up my mind to leave the infantry first and concentrate the horse army as the main force to attack Xi'an.

King Chuang has a call, even if Zhao Dangshi is afraid of Sun Chuanting, he can't say it. It happened that Yang Chengfu took 200 horse troops to the surrounding sentry grain and returned, and just called him over to meet with the people who broke into the king.

Yang Chengfu had diarrhea for several days in a row, and his expression was very bad, and at this time, when he heard that he was going to serve in front of the king of Chuang, his spirit was sharply lifted, and he straightened his waist and said: "I see, it is our duty to serve the king, how dare I disobey." In the past few months, he often felt that Zhao Dangshi did not rely on Ma Junsi very much. Occasionally, they are only sent to do some work as food guards, and it is really difficult to have a chance to perform. Who wants to break into the king, who will refuse to have this opportunity to work for him. Once he earns face for Zhao Dangshi in front of King Chuang, not to mention anything else, in Zhao Ying in the future, his status will naturally rise.

Because of Sun Chuanting, Zhao Dangshi was actually more hesitant, not because he was self-conscious, but because he knew that Sun Chuanting was not an unknown person in the original history, and there were many opportunities to shine in the future, and it would never be perishable because of Gao Yingxiang's march. During this time, Zhao Dangshi clearly felt that although there was such a battalion of people, it had little impact on the current situation, and the trend of history did not seem to have changed dramatically. To be clear, he vaguely believed that the outcome of this march was likely to end in failure.

These two hundred horse troops, five or six hundred mules and horses, are the family of all the cavalry in the Zhao camp. Even if the combat effectiveness is weak and cannot be directly put into the battlefield, it can be used as an irregular cavalry, which still has some effect. Zhao Dangshi still cherishes them very much.

It's just that I think of the fact that Zhao Ying has never participated in several major battles in the past two or three months, and King Chuang refused when he first came to find him, which is unreasonable. Looking at Yang Chengfu, it was a rare eagerness to try, and the three messengers who broke into the king continued to fan the flames, Zhao Dangshi finally made a decision.

"Lao Yang, when you get to the front to do things, you are no more casual than Zhao Ying in front of King Chuang, and you can weigh the weight yourself." Zhao Dangshi patted Yang Chengfu's back meaningfully.

"Okay, let you rest assured, your subordinates will never disgrace Zhao Ying." I don't know if Yang Chengfu understands his extraneous sound, and as he spoke, he quickly turned on the horse's back.

After the three messengers of King Chuang finished their reports, they took their leave and left for the next camp. Yang Chengfu shouted for a while, and soon gathered nearly 200 horse troops under his command. Because of the tight time, he didn't have time to rest, and after saying hello to Zhao Dangshi, he led the crowd to leave in a hurry.

Zhao Dangshi was full of melancholy, standing behind, watching the horse army go away. Yang Zhaofeng led the horse, fell behind, saw him, took the reins with him, hugged his fists and said: "All envoys, go." ”

"Be careful all the way." Zhao Dangshi had nothing else to say, and nodded to him slightly.

Yang Zhaofeng smiled and stepped onto the horse. The whip of the horse, the horse's hooves kicked under the crotch, the horse's bell rang clearly, and a thin layer of dust was lifted and flew in the air.