At noon on the day of the winter solstice, Sun Zhongshan came, and brought Shang Cheng a few carts of things, such as tribute rice, white noodles, Shu Jinnan, silk, copper incense burners, silver candlesticks, gilded plates, dried beef and mutton, and large pieces of black and mushy tea bricks, all kinds of messy things. He even brought Shang Cheng something very rare, a half-inch high gold shelf with a villain on it, said to be a god at the end of the world in the west.

Shang Cheng was amused by Sun Zhongshan's words, and while giving him a seat, he said with a smile: "What a god." This is the cross of Christianity, and the man on it is Jesus, the founder of Christianity. Seeing Sun Zhongshan's ignorant appearance with blinking eyes and not understanding, he explained, "It's a foreign monk...... It's Hu Seng! He, like Shakyamuni in Buddhism, was the founding patriarch of their religion. ”

This time, Sun Zhongshan understood, and laughed along.

Shang Cheng asked Sun Zhongshan to drink water, and sat on the side with the cross and looked at it carefully. Crosses are not uncommon, he saw a lot of blonde hair and blue eyes of European businessmen in Beijing, and also saw missionaries dressed in black, and heard that there are their churches in the capital, so it is not uncommon for a few crosses to spread to Yanshan. But most of the crosses he saw in Shangjing were made of rough iron, and the handiwork was very rough, and some even used two wooden sticks to tie together with hemp rope, one horizontal and one vertical; These cannot be compared with the golden cross brought by Sun Zhongshan at all. The gold cross is not only exquisitely made, but also inlaid with many red, red, green and green gems on the four sides; There are even two lines of Latin engraved on the back of it. This is clearly not a teaching tool for spiritual communication between ordinary believers and gods; It looks more like a Christian relic, and there must be an extraordinary origin and story behind it.

He suddenly realized a question: how could such a thing come into the hands of the Turites, and could it be that the Turnits had a connection with Christianity? He immediately asked Sun Zhongshan, "Where did this thing come from?" ”

Sun Zhongshan said: "It was captured in the battle in September. ”

"Oh?" Shang Cheng nodded. "Who seized it? How was it seized? ”

"It was when I went into the prairie that I turned out of a rotten felt bag of a Turquoise people."

This is a completely unexpected answer. He originally thought that this cross of extraordinary origin was copied from the son of the king of Donglugu who died in Liuzhen, or from a certain samu, who knew that it was actually found from the herdsman's house. The question is, how could an ordinary Turthian herdsman have such a thing in his home?

There is no doomed answer to this question. In order to ensure that the speed of movement and whereabouts of Zhao Bing who entered the grassland this time were not revealed, there was no living mouth left in the places where he passed, regardless of men, women, young and old, whether they were from the Turks or not, as long as they could not speak the Central Plains dialect, they all cut off their heads and ears. Even if they were Han people in the Central Plains, if they were weak and couldn't keep up with the team, Zhao Jun had to bear to let them fend for themselves. In the face of the frenzied revenge of the Turks, their fate can be imagined. Until now, Sun Zhongshan mentioned some scenes at that time, and his expression and tone were very sad.

Shang Cheng's heart was also uncomfortable.

But there's no way around it. War and victory are always accompanied by bloodshed and sacrifice, and this is a fact that no one can change. The only thing he could do was to do his best to make the war end faster and let the victory come earlier, he hoped that the glory of victory would spread all over Yanshan, and all the pain and disasters brought by the war would fall on the enemy's head.

After being silent for a while, he said to Sun Zhongshan: "This time, the Wei Mansion summoned you back to prepare for you to go to the newly built cavalry brigade of the Chinese army as a brigade commander, five cavalry battalions, and a baggage battalion, a total of 2,900 people, and the garrison is temporarily considered to be located in Yanshui. He was not very surprised to see Sun Zhongshan, so he asked, "Why, you already know?" ”

Sun Zhongshan nodded with a smile and said, "On the way back, I met Governor Sun at Chisheng Pass, and he already told me. He lowered his gaze, pondered and said slowly, "Commander, there is a sentence that I shouldn't have said, but I have been holding it in my heart for a long time, and it is uncomfortable not to say it. Are you going to tell the imperial court about our situation and ask the military department to transfer General Li Shen to another place? ”

This is also what Shang Cheng is most annoyed about. Before the autumn war, because of Zhang Shao's concessions, the relationship between Zhang and Li had improved a little, and Li Shen also gave Zhang Shao a gift from Duanzhou during the Mid-Autumn Festival. But after the autumn war, Zhang Shao was promoted and knighted, but Li Shen only took a credit. At present, Zhang Shao is on par with Li Shen in terms of title, not to mention that he is far more than superior to Li Shen in terms of title. For this reason, Li Shen picked up the matter of how to distribute the five cavalry battalions and fought with Zhang Shao, and did not send cavalry to the Chinese army despite the transfer order of the Wei Mansion, so the formation of the cavalry brigade by the Chinese army has been delayed until now. In the end, Li Shen was summoned to Yanzhou by Shang Cheng's order and was severely reprimanded, so he stopped and reluctantly drew out 600 soldiers. Originally, the right army of Duanzhou was going to transfer out a half-cavalry battalion of 800 people, but he still discounted it and only gave 600. However, he did not dare to go too far, although the number of cavalry was insufficient, the quality was not bad, and more than half of the six hundred cavalry were veterans of one or two battles.

After talking about military affairs, the two of them gossiped again. Hearing the bell of Shen Shi outside, Sun Zhongshan stood up and said goodbye.

Shang Cheng kept him and said, "I'll leave after dinner." The sixth uncle of the Huo family sent a few jars of liquor, you stay and taste it. And the fresh and tender little lamb that Suza roasted, it was a delicacy in the world. ”

Sun Zhongshan already knew that Huo Lun had arrived in Yanzhou, so he smiled and said, "Everything else is fine, just forget about mutton." On the prairie for half a month, it was all mutton, and now I am disgusted when I hear others mention mutton. When I went home the day before yesterday, my mother-in-law said that I had a strong smell on my body, and she didn't let me go on the kang. Shang Cheng and several of the guards all raised their heads and laughed. I also have a few jars of wine brewed by Liubo, and I have hidden them in my house. I'm not afraid to tell you, last month, Liubo sent dozens of jars of liquor to stay in the town, Sun Huan and Shao Chuan were crazy, and Shao Chuan hated to soak in the wine jar every day. Even the ten jars of wine I left for Tian Xiaowu's happy event, all of them were stolen by them and drank all of them without paying attention. He added, "Don't blame the sixth uncle. He wrote to me that this wine is not the kind of high light that you want...... High-concentration liquor ......"

Shang Cheng shook his head and smiled bitterly. How could he blame Hollen. Before he explained the matter of making liquor to Huo Shiqi, he thought that sooner or later there would be this day. It is conceivable that even in the future, some of the liquor stored in the army will definitely enter the stomachs of the soldiers. He understands that, too. The military career is inherently boring and hard, and alcohol can not only relieve fatigue, but also enliven the atmosphere, mobilize people's emotions, and enhance friendship between people, as long as they don't miss things.

He decided to wait for the Winter Solstice Festival to let the Wei Mansion formulate some rules and disciplines related to liquor.

Because Sun Zhongshan still had to go to Huo Shiqi's house to worship the festival, Shang Cheng sent him out of the backyard.

After he sent Sun Zhongshan back to the front yard, he actually met Gao Xiaosan head-on in the courtyard......