Lian Buxin came back with dozens of horsemen, and according to what he said, the remaining two hundred or so knights were all folded on the battlefield or on the road. And the officers and soldiers who gave a heavy blow to the Lian Buxin Department in the mountain gorge of Ningqiang Prefecture were speculated by Zhao Dangshi to be the Sichuan army that had been destroyed at the hands of Hao Shaoqi and Hui Dengxiang.

After losing the battle and almost annihilating the entire army, it stands to reason that Zhao Dangshi must severely punish Lian and disbelief in order to enforce military discipline. But considering that the decision-maker of this rash move is himself, Zhao Dangshi believes that what Lian Buxin has to bear is only the responsibility of command. Besides, Lian Buxin risked his life to return to the camp this time, and also brought a major military situation, which alone was enough to make Zhao Dangshi open to him.

This military situation is neither early nor late, it came at the right time, that is, Lian Buxin saw the general scoop of Liukou in northern Sichuan "line 100,000" Hu Jiusi, and Hu Jiusi expressed his willingness to cooperate with Zhao Dangshi's actions in northern Sichuan.

Two or three months ago, Zhao Dangshi wanted to get on the line with Hu Jiusi, but at that time, the situation in Hanzhong was confusing, and later it was a heavy snow that closed the road, and Zhao Dangshi's intention has not been realized. And the previous time to send Lian Buxin to Ningqiang Prefecture, there was not only a strategic purpose, but also the idea of hoping to contact Hu Jiusi. Since the defeat of Yuan Tao, Hu Jiusi has taken advantage of the situation, and is currently entrenched in Nanjiang, Bazhou, Zhaohua, Guangyuan and other vast areas in northern Sichuan with Liang Shizheng and Yang San, with about 30,000 or 40,000 troops, and Yuan Tao and Jing Keqin in the south are fighting against each other, and it is difficult to distinguish for a while.

On the same day, Lian Buxin was defeated in Ningqiang Prefecture, panicked and fled wildly, running for a day and a night, people were sleepy and horses were lacking, and he wanted to find a place to rest, but he accidentally hit and broke into an outpost of stick thieves in northern Sichuan, and was besieged by hundreds of stick thieves. Lian Buxin was unable to fight again, and he was in a hurry, knowing that the other party was also a rogue, so he simply reported his home. Several leading posts had heard of "Zhao Ying", and they did not act rashly, and quickly asked Yang San, the nearest palmer, and according to his instructions, lifted the siege, copied the path, and invited Lian Buxin and others to a branch near Nanjiang Yulin Pass, and Hu Jiusi, who had already received the news, was waiting there.

Hu Jiusi has a good impression of Zhao Dangshi, not only because the appearance of Zhao Dangshi greatly weakened Yuan Tao and gave him a chance to make a comeback, but also because Zhao Dangshi has no door and no faction, and he is an outlier from the ground. You must know that the main reason why Hu Jiusi would rather stay in Sichuan and suffer Yuan Tao's exclusion is that he knows in his heart that after leaving Sichuan, he Hu Jiusi will have no status and development at all - no matter how horizontal the stick thieves in Sichuan are, in the eyes of the giants in Shaanxi and Henan and other places, they are just miscellaneous pieces of "stealing the people's chickens and dolphins in the hidden valley". If you can climb to the rookie of Zhao Dangshi, although it is not as good as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong bluffing, it is not a strong backer.

Lian Buxin stayed in northern Sichuan for a long time, during which Hu Jiusi treated him very well, and constantly inquired about the movements of the officers and soldiers, and finally seized the opportunity a few days ago to send Lian Buxin out of the mountain pass. Due to Zhao Ying's recent actions, all the officials and troops in Hanzhong shrank to Fucheng, and they came back along the road with Lian Buxin, which was quite peaceful.

Zhao Dangshi called Bai Jiaolong and asked him to identify the token of Hu Jiusi presented by Lian Buxin. This token is one of the more than ten small iron knives that were cast by more than a dozen people in charge of the plate and swore an oath in Sichuan, and the white dragon himself also has one. Thinking about the beginning, everyone raised their vows and promised to work together to open up the situation in Sichuan, but in just two years, they fell apart and the oath did not exist, which is really embarrassing.

No matter how poor the quality of Hu Jiusi's soldiers is, there are 30,000 or 40,000 of them, and hiding in the mountains to fight guerrillas can also cause a lot of trouble to Hou Liangzhu. If he can contain Hou Liangzhu, then Zhao Dangshi will have enough energy to free up his hands and go all out to deal with the upcoming Zu Dabi.

After Xue Feixian's death, Zhao Ying's horse army was barely only 1,500, and there were only dozens of horsemen left. But I don't know if because Lian Buxin is popular on weekdays, or Han Gon is more optimistic about him, the final result is that Han Gon assigned the horse army under Xue Feixian to him, and at the same time, Meng Aocao also funded some people and horses for him, so in general, at present, Han Gon, Meng Aocao, and Lian Buxin in the Ma military camp have five hundred horses each, and their strength is equal, and without Xue Feixian's-stirring stick, the cohesion of the generals of the Ma Army is undoubtedly much stronger than before.

In February, after some time of adjustment, the shortage of personnel in the various departments of the Zhao battalion was gradually replenished, and after several battles before, Zhao Dangshi believed that the front battalion, as the main combat force of the whole battalion, should be strengthened, so a total of 1,000 soldiers were drawn from the center, left, right, and rear four battalions to fill the front battalion, and then recruited soldiers and horses to fill the vacancy of these four battalions.

As for the candidate for the "general manager of the central division" newly added in the front camp, Zhao Dangshi's original intention was to level Wu Liangjie, who had been performing well in the back camp. However, for some reason, Wu Liangjie had no interest in the former battalion that was most likely to make meritorious contributions in the whole army, and unexpectedly said that he was not good at fighting, and he was only afraid of losing the favor of the lord. Some people also laughed at him in private for being greedy for life and afraid of death, or saying that he was greedy for oil and water in the back camp, but when he heard it, he ignored it all, and his attitude was extremely firm.

The twisted melon is not sweet, Zhao Dangshi didn't want to catch the duck on the shelf, so he didn't force Wu Liangjie, after consulting everyone's suggestions, Hou Dagui proposed that Li Yanyi, who was in Toucheng County, could come up, and patted his chest and was willing to give Li Yanyi a guarantee.

Li Yanyi was the head of the independent team earlier, and there were thousands of people under him in his heyday, which can already be called "young and promising" for people of his age. Zhao Dangshi has been in contact with him, and he feels that this person is old and scheming, very capable, and not an ordinary character. And more importantly, Li Yanyi still has some resources behind him, although it is useless now, but he has a long-term vision, and it is not for nothing that he will have the opportunity to match him in the future.

Because of Hou Dagui's private notice, Li Yanyi was still mentally prepared for Zhao Dangshi's appointment, but when the words of the appointment came out of Zhao Dangshi's mouth in front of hundreds of generals and soldiers, Li Yanyi still felt that his eyes were a little moist and hot.

Along with Li Yanyi, who was brought into the Zhao camp was the late Ru Pingyang, the daughter of Ru Jinsheng, the county commander of the county. At the beginning, Ru Pingyang was desperate for death, and he was saved several times when his life was hanging by a thread. Later, perhaps it was because he heard that Xue Feixian, the culprit who killed his father, had been killed by Zhao Ying, or perhaps it was the efforts of Qin Shilu and Meng Liu, who were sent to do ideological work, that Ru Pingyang's mood was appeased a lot. Zhao Dangshi learned from Zhou Wenhe that Li Yanyi loved Ru Pingyang very much, so for him, Ru Pingyang was like a card, keeping her in the camp, he was not afraid that Li Yanyi would betray like he did in the county.

When Ge Haishan was carried to the back camp, Xu Hui was getting down from the couch, recuperating so far, his vitality has finally recovered most of his vitality, although he doesn't know when the next illness will be, anyway, he feels good now. The soldiers helped him to the front camp, and halfway through, he ran into Zhao Dangshi.

Zhao Dangshi jumped off the horse, went up to hold his hand and said, "Old Xu, you can count it." ”

Xu Hui's body was still a little weak, and he didn't speak loudly: "Hehe, I heard in the back camp that Zhangpan is going to fight a big battle next, and I can't hold it back, so I have to get up and do my part." ”

If Hou Dagui is like a fierce dog that has been tethered, then Xu Hui is a falcon standing on Zhao Dangshi's shoulder. Zhao Dangshi's trust in Xu Hui is no less than that of Fa Xiao Wang Laixing. To be able to get Zhao Dangshi's trust, if nothing else, it was all earned by Xu Hui himself.

Zhao Dangshi smiled and said: "Old Xu is out of the mountain, why worry about foreign insults." ”

Xu Hui shook his head embarrassedly and said, "It's too serious." As he spoke, he looked at the two soldiers who were following Zhao Dangshi, "Palm, take a step to speak." ”

Zhao Dangshi walked to the side with him and asked, "What's the matter?" ”

Xu Hui said with a serious face: "During the time that my subordinates were in the back camp, I smelled something unusual. ”

As soon as Zhao Dangshi heard the "back camp", he immediately became alert, closed his eyebrows, and said, "Say." ”

Xu Hui didn't say it directly, but said: "The young and heroic man in charge of the plate must not forget the old saying 'red face and troubled water'. Someone in the back camp does something immoral under the nose of the palm, not only is it not good for you, but I am afraid that Zhao Ying will also suffer from it in the future. ”

Zhao Dangshi wanted to continue to ask, but Xu Hui said: "It's detailed, I want to check out Zhou's total ability." These things are outside the authority of the subordinates, and the subordinates have no right to chew their tongues, but the subordinates have to remind the boss to die, 'I don't know the people, and the disasters are endless'. ”

Xu Hui's skeletal character, Zhao Dangshi has long been taught. He is a generous and introspective person, and after Xu Hui said this, he basically knew what he meant. He nodded and said with a straight face: "I have taken your words to heart." ”

After saying this, Xu Hui's face relaxed, stretched his waist, and looked a lot more energetic, he said: "That is the case, the subordinates have nothing else to say." Alas, after so many days of laxity, I am about to lose touch with the front camp, go back and rest for the night, and call Hutou and Bai Wang tomorrow morning to take a good inventory. I'm afraid I'm going to have a headache again! ”

Zhao Dangshi smiled: "It's okay to have a headache, don't have abdominal pain like an aunt." They both laughed and went their separate ways.

Separated from Xu Hui, Zhao Dangshi continued his plan, and seeing that he was about to reach the back camp, he simply stopped getting on the horse and walked all the way.

Zhao Dangshi didn't go anywhere else, he went directly to He Kewei's tent, He Kewei received the news early, as soon as Zhao Dangshi entered the account, he saw him pouting and kneeling there with a big ass.

"Alright, give me back this set!" Zhao Dangshi kicked him in the ass and scolded with a smile.

He Kewei nodded like pounding garlic: "Yes, yes, the subordinates are blocking the way of the plate, so get up!" Zhao Dangshi knew his temperament, and this kick was not light or heavy, which not made him feel pain and fear, but also showed a kind of intimacy. And this kind of intimacy is the source of He Kewei's feeling of steadiness.

"How's the grain and grass in the army?" Zhao Dangshi sat on the chair and saw some dried fruits on the case, so he picked them up and ate them, and said jokingly, "He, look at the situation in Counselor He's account, this military ration is very generous!" ”

These candied citrus fruits were all searched out during He Ked's inventory yesterday, because the amount was small, he did not record it in the public account, and took it back to enjoy it himself, but at this time he forgot to clean it up, but it was arranged.

"This, this ......" I don't know why, the sharp teeth in the past can't be used in front of Zhao Dangshi, how can he be afraid of a shy face, and Ai Ai doesn't know how to answer.

Zhao Dangshi came to have something to do this time, and he didn't have time to embarrass him, so after eating two mouthfuls of candied fruit, he changed the conversation and said: "Have you seen all the things that Mr. Zhou sent?" ”

When it came to official affairs, He Kewei breathed a sigh of relief and immediately replied: "My subordinates took them for a careful study as soon as possible, and confirmed that those arrows were indeed the weapons in our army. ”

"How can you be sure?"

"The shape of these arrows is all from the east of Sichuan, thinking about this Hanzhong Prefecture, where did these come from, nine times out of ten my battalion plundered the arsenal and brought it here."

"Possibly discerning a specific source?"

"This still needs to be screened, but rest assured, each arrow has a small number, and the distribution at that time is determined according to the number, as long as the account books and records at that time are found, it will not be a problem to investigate and deal with the source." He is fearful and full of confidence.

"Well, okay, this time it's done, I'll give you a big credit." Zhao Dangshi looked at He Kewei approvingly.

He Kewei was excited at that time, his knees immediately weakened, and he knelt down with a "plop", and said: "How dare your subordinates ask for credit, as long as they can do their part for the palm, they still have no regrets even though they have died!" ”

Zhao Dangshi listened to He Ke's praise of merit, his face was expressionless, what he was thinking about at the moment was that no matter what happened this time, he had to find out this hidden threat in the camp.