Making fires and cooking during marches and battles was an important subject for the Qin army during ordinary training, even if the hundred-man team did not have a special leader.

Almost every soldier will cook some simple meals, so that the army can maintain combat effectiveness in any environment, reducing some of the disease damage caused by drinking raw water and eating raw food.

After Liu He listened to the order of Zhu Lihua to make a fire, he immediately ordered more than 20 sergeants to set up a cauldron and boil boiling water.

After the water boiled, some millet was boiled.

Because Fang had just taken over Muqi Pass, although the original hundred generals did not leave, they did not hinder the change of defense of the Yuli Army, so the gate to the Yuxiao Pass was controlled by the Yuli Hua Army at this time, and it was not closed.

At this time, it was the wax moon, and the cold north wind blew the fragrance of millet boiled rice soup into the wooden hedgehog pass.

A quarter of an hour later, only to hear a "squeak", and in the cold wind outside the gate, huddled and snuggled up by a fire to keep warm, the sergeants of the 100-man team raised their heads in unison, and looked at the source of the sound, the wooden hedgehog, and saw a person coming out of the wooden door of the barracks in the gate, this person was the An Baijiang who was called by Wang Min.

The hundred generals didn't speak, and walked straight to the side of Lihua outside the closed door with Mi Xiang.

Behind him, scattered soldiers who followed the guards came out of the house and walked out of the gate.

The distance of twenty or thirty steps is only a few breaths for the sergeants on the side of Lihua, but for these soldiers in Muqi Pass, it is indeed so long.

At least in the eyes of Sergeant Lihua.

Under the leadership of the An Bai general, they slowly walked to the cauldron, and watched the millet in the pot tumble up and down with the boiling water, and his soldiers were also like their own generals, silently watching and watching around the cauldron.

Zhu Lihua and the others were silent when they looked at these "beggar" soldiers who were close at hand, but what everyone thought in their hearts was not asking what happened here to make the defenders of the Qimu Pass so miserable.

From the other side, I can't help but feel a little empathy, looking at it, I actually showed sympathy and then sadness on the faces of some soldiers.

Zhu Lihua approached An Xuzhi's people, stood next to An Xuzhi, turned his head and said to Liu He behind him, "Give the brothers a meal." ”

After Liu He said "oh", he and the soldiers took the porridge together.

The first bowl was naturally handed to An Xuzhi, An Xu subconsciously took the porridge, looked at it in a daze, and suddenly drank it with a tilt of his neck, as if he was not afraid of being hot at all.

After drinking, he handed the empty bowl to Liu He, Liu He glanced at Zhu Lihua, and after seeing Zhu Lihua nodded, he took another bowl and handed it to An Xuzhi, An Xuzhi took it and gobbled it up again, and ate it all. Like the sergeants and his own commanders, they ate bowl after bowl of porridge.

After a while, the porridge in the pot was eaten completely.

An Xuzhi nodded lightly to Lihua, turned around and walked into the stone house of Qimuguan, and his soldiers also followed the main general.

When the customs returned to tranquility, Gao Yunce, Liang Qingshu and Wei Yuanqi gently walked to Zhu Lihua's side, and Zhu Lihua did not look back, and said softly: "Do you want to know the reason?" ”

Gao Yunce said softly: "Lord Baijiang, do you know the inside story? ”

Zhu Lihua turned his head to look at Gao Yunce, thought for a while, then turned his head to look at the pitch-black Qimu Pass, and asked softly:

"Brother Gao, if the Rong people have ten times more troops than me to invade the pass, even if it is dangerous, it will be precarious, at this time, if Brother Gao is a guard, how will he deal with it?"

"Hold on and wait for help!" Gao Yunce said without thinking.

"If reinforcements don't come, what if the defenders suffer heavy casualties?"

"Fight to the death!" Gao Yunce replied.

"If someone opens the gate from the inside, what if they let the Rong people in?"

"This, who is so bold."

Gao Yunce and the others were shocked when they heard this, and they didn't understand who was so bold that they dared to open the gate and offer the gate to the Rong people.

But at the same time, he also understood that the reason why natural danger is called natural danger is that it relies on the condition of being invincible to defend the pass, and if this condition is lost, the blow to the morale of the army will be far greater than the situation itself.

"Thousands of people attacked the pass, killed and wounded hundreds, although the defenders in the pass also had casualties, but it was not necessarily impossible to hold it, but when the fortress was opened from the inside, there were no more than two options for the defenders, one was to surrender, and the other was to die.

An Xu's hundred generals chose the latter, and insisted on defending the Muqi Pass alive, but they also killed nearly seventy percent of the soldiers. ”

Zhu Lihua still looked at the pitch-black Guan Nei and said quietly.

"Han Qianren only told me this, and didn't tell me who opened the gate from the inside, nor did he tell me why he didn't send reinforcements to rescue me. Brother Gao, can you guess the reason? ”

Gao Yunce listened to Lihua ask himself, lowered his head and muttered for a while, and then said to Lihua, "Brother Lihua, I can't guess, but you must have guessed, right?" ”

Lu Lihua sighed softly, turned to face the three of them, and said slowly:

"Three brothers, if those people in Longde City know that Wang He was killed by you and me, the next time the Rong people invade the pass, will what happened to An Xu's hundred generals happen to you and me?

The three brothers have also seen what happened tonight, go back, you don't have to commit yourself to danger with me. ”

Gao Yunce and the three of them looked at each other, and shook them to the ground together, Gao Yunce said categorically: "Since leaving Longde City, the three of us have sworn to advance and retreat with the hundred generals, and both glory and loss." ”

Wei Yuanqi also said solemnly to Lihua:

"From this day on, my life will be entrusted to Lord Baijiang.

The matter of Longde, I also think clearly, Lord Baijiang does not have to kill people, and he is in danger.

It must be for the sake of me waiting, although Yuan Qi is dull, he can feel it.

Therefore, Lord Baijiang, don't say anything again to motivate us to leave. ”

Liang Qingshu was also full of excitement after listening to Gao Yunce and Wei Yuanqi, and pointed to his heart without saying a word, and then looked at Lihua fixedly.

Seeing that the three of them were reluctant to leave, Lihua smiled and hugged the three of them, and muttered:

"One wins, one loses."

There was nothing to say all night, and early the next morning, one of the guards of the wooden deer pass walked out of the house sleepily.

He suddenly noticed that the inside of the pass was much cleaner, and when he looked up, he saw the lively scene of soldiers cleaning up the garbage and filth all over the ground, and he could see that hot air was coming out of everyone's body and hair.

While he was in a daze, a soldier came to him and said to him:

"This brother, if you want to go to the toilet, go over there."

He looked where his finger was pointing and saw a simple latrine in the south corner.

He nodded, and walked slowly to the latrine, and found that some of the other sergeants had cut wood and were about to build a large barracks, because they could see that the foundation of the barracks had been dug out, and the soldiers were laying the side walls of the foundation with stone slabs.

If this barracks is built, it will be right next to the stone house where he lives.

He hurriedly finished his work and ran back to the stone house, and after a while, An Xuzhi and more than 20 of his brothers walked out of the stone house and stood in the courtyard to watch the sergeants in Lihua work.

Soon, a sergeant from Lihua walked up to An Xuzhi and hugged An Xuzhi's fist and said:

"General An Bai, General Lili Bai invites the brothers to the gate for breakfast."

An Xuzhi didn't answer, so he walked towards the closed door.

Zhu Lihua looked at An Xuzhi, who was gobbling up beside him, and for the first time, he saw the face of this hundred generals up close.

Although he was dressed in rags like his sergeant, and there was no clean place on his body, he had a round face and a wide face, big shoulders and a round waist, and at first glance he was a warrior who could rush through the battle, and then look at the scars left by knives, guns and clubs all over his face and hands, which best showed his identity as a warrior.

Zhu Lihua said to An Xuzhi: "My name is Zhu Lihua, a hereditary doctor, a hundred generals, and I was ordered to come to Muqi Pass to garrison the pass, and the military period is three years. ”

An Xuzhi didn't speak, still silently eating the food in his bowl.

"General Anbai, I know that there is not much food in the prison, and I have ordered someone to bring grain and grass for the brothers to eat for a year."

As he spoke, he took out a letter and handed it to An Xuzhi.

"General An Bai, Han Qianren has agreed to let you and me defend the Muqi Pass together."

When An Xuzhi heard this, he opened the letter, looked at it silently and lowered his head.

Lihua and An Xuzhi were close, although An Xuzhi intended to avoid Lihua from seeing it, but Lihua still saw it, and An Xuzhi's eyes were a little red at this time.

Zhu Lihua said to An Xu: "An Xu's hundred generals, I, Lu Lihua, swear that I will avenge the brothers who died in the battle of Qimuguan." ”

After that, Zhu Lihua paused, put his hand on An Xuzhi's shoulder, and said softly in a voice that only An Xuzhi could hear:

"Whether it is the Rong people or the Qin people, I will avenge you."

After saying this, he found that An Xuzhi's shoulders began to tremble sharply, only to see An Xuzhi raise his head and meet his eyes for the first time.

Zhu Lihua could see that there was a glimmer of hope in An Xuzhi's cloudy eyes.

An Xuzhi looked at Lihua, hesitated for a moment, and said slowly: "You are also a nobleman." ”

Zhu Lihua smiled and slowly let go of the hand on An Xuzhi's shoulder, and said to An Xuzhi:

"The nobleman should be the hero who leads everyone to charge into battle, he should be a moral model who abides by etiquette in peacetime, and he should be the pillar of the court who worries about the world.

Yao Jun set up a noble lordship system, and the original intention was the same, but now, hehehehe. When she said this, she laughed softly.

Bullying the township, harming the court, and fighting for power and profit have become the usual behavior of these nobles, and what the Wang family did to Lihua and what happened in Muqiguan the day before yesterday made Lihua disgusted with these nobles from the bottom of his heart.

Thinking of this, Lu Lihua laughed angrily, and said to him in a voice that only An Xuzhi could hear:

"You are a nobleman, but you can also kill nobles, if you want revenge, follow me, this is your only chance."

After speaking, Zhu Lihua stood up and said, "Give me your roster of soldiers after eating" and turned around and walked into the gate.

After listening to what Lihua said, An Xuzhi squatted in place motionless, and after a long, long time, he slammed the rice into his mouth, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and walked in the direction of Lihua.

Zhu Lihua sat in the stone house on the north side, looking at the spirit cards in the room while pondering, next to him stood Gao Yunce, Wei Yuanqi and Liang Qingshu, An Xuzhi, who was sitting opposite him, was like a wronged child at the moment, lying on the table and crying, afraid that the soldiers outside the house would hear, so he could only bite his sleeves and make a small sound as much as possible.

Gao Yunce, Liang Qingshu, and Wei Yuanqi also had red eyes, looking at An Xuzhi, not knowing how to comfort the man in front of them.

Just listen to An Xu's way: "Let Lord Yuli and a few brothers see and laugh, I was originally a person from Panhe, Yuanzhou, Zhou Li just turned eighteen years old in 578 when he was on the border in Xiao Pass, Rong Di killed three Rong people when he invaded the pass, and after the war, he was awarded the title of Gongshi, and was ordered to lead the post of chief under the 100 people of Mugao Pass. ”

Liang Qingshu asked, "Is it Han Yunqian?" ”

"Yes, it's him."

An Xuzhi looked at Liang Qingshu and continued: "In the 581st year of the Zhou calendar, I was in the wooden prison together with Lord Han, who was still a hundred generals at the time, until a major event occurred in 584. ”

An Xuzhi paused when he said this, as if he was combing his thoughts, and everyone didn't urge, just waited quietly.

After a while, An Xuzhi sighed and said:

"In March of that year, the Rong people outside the wooden prison pass did not know why, but suddenly nearly 100 people came one day, and these 100 people did not look like soldiers, but like some civilians, because there were many old and young women and children among them. When they came to the pass, they did not attack, but sat there quietly, like a leader standing in front of the crowd and observing us.

That day, it happened that I and ten brothers were on duty at the gate, and when I saw this situation, I quickly reported it to General Han Bai, and Lord Han came to see it, and he sent someone to report the situation to Wen Zhaoyuan, a thousand generals in the wooden prison. Speaking of this, everyone saw An Xuzhi silent, but the fists in his hands were clenched together.

After a while, I saw An Xuzhi and said: "After Lord Han reported the situation to Wen Zhaoyuan, he took people to the gate, and when he saw the people under the gate, he ordered the soldiers to shoot arrows at Rong Di's people to kill, and we can only do as ordered." The people under the gate cried when they saw us release the arrows, and then something strange happened, and a Qin man ran out of Rong Di's people. ”