The combat effectiveness of any army or armed force is directly related to the style of discipline. The discipline and style of work are invisible, but inextricably linked, with the character and style of the commander. The style of the Great Western Army is exactly the same as Zhang Xianzhong's character style. Unlike Li Shouhan's modern army discipline and Li Zicheng's strict military discipline, Zhang Xianzhong, who has a strong character and is a leader with a strong lumpenproletarian or reckless style of rivers and lakes, naturally brings out the army with a strong flavor of rivers and lakes.

Li Dingguo urged the snow green horse from Xifandi under his crotch, and surrounded by more than 200 personal soldiers, trotted all the way into Shunqing Mansion City. After entering the city, the scene inside the city made him feel a little strange.

Except for the soldiers of the West Camp lying in the streets, resting, chatting, and waiting for the meal to be served, they did not see a single thing about looting, killing, adultery, arson, and other matters that were commonplace in the towns. From the windows on the second floor and behind the doors of the storefronts, although there are still occasional frightened faces, they are no longer the despair of facing death, but the unforeseeability of the future.

It was only at a few street corners and in relatively wide places that Li Dingguo found some familiar scenes. Here, on the trees on the side of the road and on the pillars of the buildings, there are a lot of mules and horses tied in a mess, some of which are the war horses of the Great Western Army at a glance, and many of which are newly collected civilian mules and horses. The mossy stone slabs were scattered with a lot of horse manure. On the ground, I don't know which careless groom spilled the horse's material all over the ground, and several mules and horses snorted incessantly, trying to break free from the reins and eat the fragrant beans into their mouths.

In the square in front of the government office, it was another hot, even noisy scene.

This will allow us to see the differences and gaps in the armed forces. If it is the troops of the Nanyue Army, not to mention that Li Shouhan himself has arrived, it is the brothers Li Huayu and Li Huabao, Li Huamei and Shi Lang and his wife, who will turn the old camp into the most solemn and majestic place.

It is necessary to clean up the square outside the gate, and no idle people are allowed to enter, erect artillery at the arrow crossing, and arrange at least one team of musketeers to garrison around the gun position. Then, at least two six-pounder cannons or eight-pounder cannons were also placed at the gate of Xingyuan, one to show the prestige of martial arts, and the other to facilitate guarding.

However, in the square in front of the Yaqian of Shunqing Mansion, Li Dingguo could not see the majesty and martial arts at all.

More than a dozen cauldrons that are enough to put down two fat pigs at one time are lined up, and the flames at the bottom of the pot lick the bottom of the pot happily with the help of the constantly added firewood, and the water in the cauldron is splashing. Not far from the cauldron, a few freshly slaughtered buffalo vultures on a wooden rack emitted heat from themselves. On the other side of the square, dozens of buffalo are enclosed in one place, waiting for the butcher to slaughter them.

"Nonsense! Who wants you to slaughter the ploughing ox?! Seeing this, Li Dingguo could no longer suppress the anger in his chest, and as soon as he raised his legs and jumped off the horse, he was about to hit him with a whip.

"Second handsome! The second handsome man is angry! The second handsome man is angry! The secretary of the old camp was in charge here, and when he saw that Li Dingguo was carrying a whip and had no brains, he was about to hit a few miscellaneous servants who were working, and hurriedly came out to dissuade him.

"You said, our general has repeatedly ordered that ploughing cattle must not be plundered, let alone slaughtered! You're just taking the lieutenant general's order as a child's play, right? Do you have to try military law today?! The anger on Li Dingguo's face did not subside.

"If I don't dispose of you today, you won't know the majesty of the general's order!" Li Dingguo threw away the horsewhip in his hand, stretched his hand to his waist, and was about to pull out his sword to cut the secretary of this old battalion. Save him from continuing to corrupt military discipline in the future.

"Ning Yu! Ning Yu! Wait! Wait! A hand reached over from the side and held Li Dingguo's hand.

"Brother Wenxiu?" It was Zhang Xianzhong's other adopted son, Liu Wenxiu, who held Li Dingguo down. "Ning Yu, why haven't you changed your thunderbolt fiery temperament? If I hadn't arrived in time, I'm afraid that there would not only be bull heads here, but also a few human heads rolling on the ground. Liu Wenxiu teased a few words playfully, which eased the original atmosphere of slaughter a lot.

"Brother Wen Xiu, who wants them to corrupt our military discipline and slaughter the ploughing cattle?"

"That's right! Military discipline cannot be corrupted, and ploughing cattle cannot be slaughtered. But this isn't a ploughing cow! This is what your third brother and I brought back from Fushun County, and they are all strong bulls used by the salt well to push water (that is, to lift water). You also know that several places in this artesian well are famous for salt, and Zhuo Wenjun's family is said to have made a fortune in the salt business. They all brought up the brine from a depth of hundreds of zhang underground, and then fried it in a large pot to boil salt. The brine on the crane is carried by cattle, and people can't withstand such a large consumption of energy. Even if it is a cow, it will be two years at most, and the cow will be tired and crippled. There is a local proverb that says: "There is a lot of feces in the mountains, there are many beef in the short streets, there are many small salt boats in the river, and there are many sedan chairs in the narrow roads." It is said that the consumption of thousands of cattle a year! I got 100 buffaloes to be slaughtered, and gave them to the brothers in the old camp, in this Sichuan dialect, that is to beat the tooth sacrifice! Don't worry, the third brother gave the money! ”

Li Dingguo snorted, which can be regarded as sparing the old camp secretary once. He has always been known for his tolerance and benevolence in the Great Western Army, and when he was in battle, he took the lead and was extremely brave, and was known as "Little Captain Chi" or "Ten Thousand Enemies", and was a wise and brave general in the Great Western Army. Naturally, it's not good to be too serious with an old battalion secretary, not to mention that there is Liu Wenxiu's face in it. After the Qing army entered Sichuan, Liu Wenxiu successively beheaded Baiqijia Lazhang Jingxi Teku, Niulu Zhangjing Wubashi, Gulang'a, Bayana and others. After Zhang Xianzhong was killed, he also made many military exploits and made great achievements in the crisis of the Great Western Army. At the most critical moment of the retreat of the Great Western Army after Zhang Xianzhong's death, he and Sun Kewang led the rest of the tens of thousands of people to flee to Chongqing, but they suffered from no boat, but Liu Wenxiu was good at swimming, and the water was like flat ground, so he captured the boats on the opposite bank, covered the army to cross the river, and defeated more than 100,000 people under Zeng Ying, the general soldier of the Ming Dynasty, shot Zeng Ying, and incorporated his troops.

"Ning Yu, don't you know, now that we have hundreds of thousands of horses under our command, don't the troops and horses that have been collected with great difficulty have to gather the morale of the people? I just got these cows, let the master brought from Fushun cook them well, and give them a few good meals to the soldiers inside and outside the city, so as to restore everyone's physical strength and morale. ”

"Third brother, I think that eating something good is the next policy, like killing that bullshit left prime minister Wang Zhaolin is the best means to encourage the morale of the army." Li Dingguo said that Wang Zhaolin, the prime minister of the left, was Zhang Xianzhong's favorite minister when he was alive, and this person had no other skills, so he would instigate Zhang Xianzhong to kill the soldiers and civilians in vain, and he had been a hater in the army for a long time. Therefore, after defeating and surrendering Zeng Ying's subordinates, when he triumphantly came out of hiding and was ready to continue to be powerful in the Great Western Army, he appeared in front of Sun Kewang and others who had just recovered Chongqing Mansion, and even became a good choice to use his head to calm the resentment in the army and boost the morale of the whole army.

"However, there is only one Wang Zhaolin, but there are thousands of fat buffaloes that can't work!" Liu Wenxiu laughed and pulled Li Dingguo into the second gate of the mansion.

The smell of beef slaughter and boiled meat outside the government is different, and the courtyard inside the second gate is filled with the intoxicating aroma of wine. Seven or eight wine jars, stacked under the osmanthus tree. Behind a large table made of four or five tables, Sun Kewang, Ai Nengqi, Bai Wenxuan, Ma Yuanli and other generals of the Great Western Army each had their own side.

"Ning Yu! It's waiting for you! Come, try the good dishes cooked by this southern Sichuan chef! There are also the ingredients brought by Mr. Li, with the good wine from Xufu, Luzhou, and Gulin, it is really enjoyable to eat! ”

Sun Kewang held a wine glass in his hand, and greeted Li Dingguo who had just arrived with pride, and he couldn't see that he had just experienced the blow of defeat. It is no wonder that in his military career, including the military career of Li Dingguo and others, great victories and defeats, pursuit and retreat are often intertwined. Failures like those of Phoenix Mountain have not been unheard of before. And the victory in Chongqing at Qijiang also happened.

"That's it! Three generals, try the salt dishes of this artesian well! This fireside beef, as well as boiled beef, are all enjoyable to eat! We've already drained two buckets of rice! Bai Wenxuan, the general of Xiying, also greeted Li Dingguo with oil flowing from the corners of his mouth.

Li Dingguo felt that something was wrong today. If it is usual, this kind of banquet is not unprecedented, but often the people present have already drunk crookedly, cups and plates are messy, and wine jars, bowls and chopsticks are thrown everywhere. There must also be some singing and dancing girls present to help the fun. But today, not only can I not see the singers and dancers singing and dancing, but they are still saying that they have killed two buckets of rice?! Could it be that not only are they drinking too much today, but they have not let go of it?

Could it be said? Li Dingguo's heart suddenly changed, he has followed Zhang Xianzhong since he was ten years old, and he has seen a lot of all kinds of ghost tricks of annexation and fire merger, and he has also done a lot with Zhang Xianzhong. He casually glanced around to see if there were ambushes around. Luckily, the portals were wide open, and there was no sign of an ambush. It is true that a few wine jars have only opened the mud seals, and the aroma of wine wafts out from them.

By Sun Kewang's side, in the position of chief, there was a stranger sitting.

"Big brother, who is this gentleman?"

Li Dingguo swept the afterglow of his eyes, and suddenly felt that this person was so strange. Although he was wearing a yuan-colored robe, he did not have a bun on his head, but a short hair that was just an inch long, like a steel needle. Moreover, from the facial contours and facial features, it can be determined at a glance that it is definitely not a person from the Central Plains.

"This Mr. Li, speaking of which, is also your own family?!" Sun Kewang's words were full of banter.

"Under Li Zongfang. It made the three generals laugh. ”

"Which Li is under the foot?" Although he has been surnamed Zhang for many years, Li Dingguo still knows a lot about his family's surname. He couldn't think of any branch of the Li family that had such descendants.

"So that the three generals laughed. The appearance below is originally a barbarian appearance. However, it is also a bit of a blessing that he was adopted by his mother since he was a child, and his surname is Li. ”

"Ning Yu, I'll tell you the truth! Mr. Li is a merchant from the south, and he has come here to discuss business with us. His background is much more noble than that of the previous Nanzhong merchants. That's a character who grew up under the knees of Grandpa and Mrs. Li Guo! It's the same as us in front of our father! ”

Since the Tang and Song dynasties, there has been a habit of adopting adopted sons in the army. From Li Keyong to Guo Wei, which big man with a head and face has a large number of adopted sons, who are used to charge into battle. This habit has continued for thousands of years. Therefore, when Sun Kewang introduced Li Zongfang as Yan Meier's adopted son, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi and others were in awe. I see! No wonder it looks like a non-Chinese face, but it is fluent in official dialect and has a name surnamed Li.

They didn't know that a figure like Li Zongfang was just an orphan from various tribes and villages adopted by Yan Mei'er, and there were not 10,000 but 8,000. It's just that people like Li Zongfang have good qualifications and luck, and if they are released to do things, they can only find a place to get some fields and be a good grain man with plenty of food and clothing. However, it is not too bad fate. Compared with Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang followed a large group of people in his teens to beg for a living in the bushes of knives and guns, and the struggle to crawl in and out of the pile of dead people is much stronger, at least, food and clothing are worry-free.

"Come, come, come! Ning Yu, try this beef first! This is cooked by the chef brought by Mr. Li himself, and it is a seasoning introduced by Grandpa Li Guo from overseas, what is the name of chili, which is the most suitable for eating on the humid ground in southern Sichuan. ”

Li Dingguo followed Sun Kewang's instructions, first filled a big bowl of rice, and then sandwiched a few chopsticks of so-called boiled beef. After taking a bite, he felt as if his tongue had been hit hard. I hurriedly took a few bites of rice, which slightly relieved the burning sensation in my tongue. However, the chopsticks in his hand still involuntarily ran to the huge clay basin filled with red soup and filled with thinly sliced beef slices.

"It's really enjoyable! No wonder you refused to drink, but you killed two buckets of rice in one go! After a bowl of rice swept into his stomach, Li Dingguo understood why a few righteous brothers and subordinate generals acted like that.

"Big brother, do all our soldiers eat this today?" Li Dingguo pointed to the beef in the basin, and Tongsun Kewang, who was in a rather relaxed mood, gossiped, "I see that cattle are also being killed outside, don't you also eat this?" ”

"I'm afraid that there are more than 100,000 people in Shunqing Mansion, all of them eat this, even if the beef is enough, I'm afraid that the rice will not be steamed in a hurry! Don't worry, Ning Yu, when I came from Fushun, I took all the cooked beef that could be bought in the city and called it what kind of fireside beef, I'm afraid it didn't cost tens of thousands of catties!? The elite soldiers and horses of the old battalion are one pound each, the horsemen of the ordinary battalions are half a pound each, and the infantry are four taels each. Enough beef broth! Liu Wenxiu talked about his handwriting, not without pride. (The old scale is sixteen taels per catty, and half a catty is eight taels and four taels, which is now two and a half.) ）

The fireside beef is a famous food in Fushun, which is to select the best fine beef to remove the tendon omentum, open it into a piece of meat more than an inch thick, spread it flat on a diagonal wooden board and nail it, and then use a very sharp thin knife to cut the beef horizontally into very thin and thin slices. This cutting is extremely technical, requiring uniform thickness when drawing, and can faintly shine over the light, but it is not allowed to have a little leakage. Then these beef slices are smeared with an appropriate amount of salt and soy sauce, hung in a ventilated place to dry, and then spread one by one on a breathable large-eyed fence, which is supported by a special beam, and the bottom is made of what the local people call "cow dung ba", that is, a briquette-like fuel made of buffalo cow dung mixed with yellow mud, and the beef is slowly smoked on the kang with a slight fire burned by this thing.

"That's it! How can the whole army eat the same? Similarly, in the artesian well and the tribute well, the dishes should also be divided into salt merchant dishes, salt worker dishes and guild hall dishes. Outside, there is a big pot of cooking, and they are all cooks who cook for the salt workers. Their dishes are the most suitable for bitter haha! ”

"Mr. Li, when this beacon smoke is everywhere, if you don't avoid the arrows to come to this southern Sichuan land, won't you just invite our brothers to a meal? If that's the case, Li is very affectionate. However, when I followed the emperor in Kaifeng Mansion, I didn't just deal with my brothers and businessmen, if you have anything, please advise! Li Dingguo's words turned sharply, and he went straight to the point, asking Li Zongfang about the purpose of his trip.

Li Zongfang smiled and didn't say anything, just drinking Luzhou Daqu with beef.

"Ning Yu, Mr. Li has helped us a lot. This time, he came here to escort the marquis of Qin Liangyu in the area of the stone pillar in Chungju. The approximate number of types is tens of thousands of earth-shattering thunderbolts, 2,000 firearms and 100 rounds of supporting medicine, as well as thousands of armor and a number of drugs for the treatment of knife wounds and firearm wounds in the army. As a result, when I arrived in Chongqing Mansion, I happened to encounter hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses from our Xiying and Zeng Ying's house. Mr. Li drew his sword to help, and even allocated 10,000 earth-shattering thunderbolts to me. Otherwise, with the scattered division of our Daxi soldiers and horses, and they have been without food for a few days, even the soldiers are brave and desperate to kill the enemy, and it is difficult to shake the soldiers and horses of the dog thief Zeng Ying! ”

The earth-shattering thunder that Sun Kewang said was the horsetail grenade of the Nanyue Army. This thing is most suitable for mountain warfare and the army that fights against the formation and relies on the trenches, often a horsetail grenade is thrown out, it is a situation where flesh and blood fly sideways and a military formation is scattered. Relying on these 10,000 grenades, Sun Kewang Liu Wenxiu rectified the defeated soldiers and horses, boosted morale, and defeated Zeng Ying's department of the Ming Army in eastern Sichuan who attacked the Great Western Army like a mad dog.

"Now, Mr. Li and we have important matters to discuss."