Shang Cheng knew that Mazhizhai was in the northwest of Beizheng. When he was still recuperating from his injuries in Huojiabao, he heard Ji Zheng and Fan Quan talk about this military village in casual conversation. Sixty or seventy years ago, Mazhi was the largest military village of Yanshanwei at that time, and the permanent guard army has been maintained at more than 3,000 people. In order to resist the southward Tu people, the Great Zhao Dynasty took Mazhizhai as the center at the beginning of the country, and set up five forts in succession in the upper and lower Mazhichuan and the West Mazhichuan, and built several layers of defense lines; Relying on these large and small forts, they immigrated from the interior to Tuntian. In order to compete for Ma Zhichuan, Da Zhao and Tu Ji Ci went back and forth on the 120-mile Sichuan Road, and it was forty or fifty years in a flash. During the reign of Xianzong, the imperial court also moved the idea of setting up a county in Mazhi, the purpose of which was to complete the local rule and complete the local defense. But just when the rumors of the establishment of the county were in an uproar, the two water sources near the mouth of the river on the grassland dried up one after another, and a river that meandered for hundreds of thousands of years has not seen a drop of clear water since then, leaving only a dry lake and a river covered by dry grass. People say that God is angry and that he is punishing the dogs. There was no water source, and the Turquoise no longer coveted Ma Naogawa, and turned the direction of attack to Ruqi and Liuzhen; Because there is no pressure from the Turbidity, the garrison of Mazhi is also decreasing year by year, and now there are only two battalions of border troops and two sentinel guards in the entire Mazhi Road, which add up to only more than 1,000 people, and even less than 20% in the heyday.

Shang Cheng asked while putting vegetables in Sun Zhongshan's bowl, "Your situation in Mazhi is not bad, right?" ”

Shi chewed a piece of cow tendon in his mouth and said, "What is wrong with Captain Sun in Ma Zhineng ......" Before he finished speaking, he was stepped on under the table by Bao Kan.

Shang Cheng ignored the stone and continued to ask with concern, "Can the soldiers under him listen to you?" ”

Shang Cheng glanced at the stone, his lips moved, and a long breath erupted from his nose, but he still didn't open his mouth to blame him after all. With Ji Zhengfan Quan taking care of him secretly, Shi Shi's official was too smooth, and he still didn't know how many people he had offended.

Sun Zhongshan glanced at Shang Cheng with both gratitude and surprise. He was not at all surprised if these words came out of Bao Kan's mouth, or if they were someone else. Bao Kan looks like a veteran, and those who have been in the military for more than ten years must know the mystery one by one, the new official has no ability, and he can't suppress the scene at all when he arrives in a new place. But Shang Cheng, the packer, also has such insight, which is really admirable. He held the bowl and said respectfully, "It's worrying your lordship." However, the subordinates are not the transfer of positions, but the change of guards of the whole sentry, and now the subordinates in Ma Zhi are all old people from the past, and they all support the moves, and they also listen to me. ”

Shi glared at Bao Kan, stretched his neck and swallowed the cow tendons, and was about to scold two sentences, when he heard Shang Cheng say this, he interjected again: "Who dares not to listen to the chief?" He used chopsticks to pick up a large piece of sauce meat, handed it to his mouth and didn't eat it in a hurry, pouted, "Whoever dares to disobey will be whipped thirty leather whips first!" If you dare to snort, hang it on a stake and hang it to dry......"

Bao Kan couldn't help but sneer: "Speaking capably, I still hang it on a stake to dry, and I don't know who is hanging on a stake!" ”

The stone had green tendons on his forehead and was about to sneer at him, Sun Zhongshan had already picked up the wine bowl and said: "Come, Brother Shi, I respect you one by one, if you don't block it for me, where is there such a person as Sun Fu in this world." ”

Shi picked up the bowl and shook his head and said, "Brother Sun, don't you listen to what you said about fighting a while ago, and you can still survive without taking care of each other?" I'll block it for you, so how many times did you block it for the monk brother? How many times has Brother Monk blocked me again? When I was guarding the camp at the south gate, if it wasn't for the buns who desperately pulled me, my head and body would have been divided. There is also the Du family ancestral hall that beat Zhao Ji, a soldier blocked a knife for me, a slit was broken in the stomach, and the intestines flowed out...... "The more he spoke, the lower his voice became, and then he was already faint like a ghost, and his two eyes looked at the dim beams of the house in a daze, and his pale face looked like a ghost under the oil light. After being silent for a long time, he suddenly drank all the wine in the bowl, let out a long breath, wiped his tears, squeezed out a smile on his face and scolded, "Your mother's grandson, happy days, said some bastard words, hooked people to remember those troubled things, one by one, Brother Monk, do you think he should be punished for three glasses?" ”

Shang Cheng was also a little distracted, and only after listening to the stone asking him did he pull his thoughts back, reached out and grabbed an unopened wine jar on the ground, and lifted the mud two or three times and threw it in front of Sun Zhongshan: "You can do it yourself." ”

Sun Zhongshan was not ambiguous, holding the jar and raising his neck, coo-dong was a booze, and the yellow and clear wine was dripping all over the corners of his mouth. At the end, he lifted the jar upside down and shook it twice, indicating that he had not cut corners, so he put the jar on the ground, lifted the corner of his clothes and wiped his mouth, his slightly bloodshot eyes flashed red, and he looked at the three people one by one, and said with wine in his mouth: "I have drunk it." Brother Monk, Brother Shi, and Brother Bao, what about you? ”

Shang Cheng laughed, and took a jar of wine to seal the mud, and drank it in one go.

When ordering noodles in the restaurant, five catties of "Four Seasons Fragrance" stones asked for four altars. The first four people had already drunk one jar, and the second jar was also half smaller, and Shang Cheng and Sun Zhongshan each had one jar, and there was not much wine left. Stone stood up and said, "I'm going to buy wine," turned around and went out the door.

For such a faux pas of the stone, Shang Cheng had long been surprised. He poured himself wine from Baokan and asked Sun Zhongshan: "When did you come to Yanzhou?" ”

Sun Zhongshan thought that this was a conversation between superiors and subordinates, so he sat down with a smile on his face, and looked at Shang Cheng respectfully and replied: "My post arrived on the seventh day of the ninth month, and it has been twelve days until today. ”

"Our friendship is different, we don't have to be so restrained when we talk in private, and we seem to be angry under the position of an adult." Shang Cheng said with a smile.

"Your Excellency respects your order." Sun Zhongshan Road. Saying that, he laughed himself, and changed his title in a sentence of flattery. "I didn't want to talk like this, it's just that the monk's eldest brother is angry, I always feel that the peak is considering me......" Seeing that Bao Kan was going to pour wine for himself, he hurriedly stood up and wanted to grab the wine jar, and said in his mouth "I'll come by myself", and he didn't succeed in winning two times, so he held the cup in both hands and bowed his head slightly to let Bao Kan pour it for him.

Looking at Sun Zhongshan's appearance and face, Shang Chengcheng knew that he was definitely much older than himself, but he also knew that Sun Zhongshan would never let him call him "brother", so he no longer asked his age, so as not to embarrass everyone, and asked casually: "What are you doing in Yanzhou?" ”

"Wei Fu sent the following notice a month ago, saying that forty military horses were allocated to us, and I came to receive the horses this time. But after arriving, I learned that the horses had been temporarily requisitioned by the camp, and it was said that they would be issued during the Double Ninth Festival, but I didn't even see a horse's hair until now. ”

"And where do you live now?"

Sun Zhongshan smiled and said, "We also live in this post house......

"Staying here too?" Shang Cheng asked in surprise, "Then why have I never seen you before?" ”

"We lived in the front yard, a big house for a dozen people...... Adults enter and exit through the west gate, and we go through the south gate. ”

As soon as Sun Zhongshan said it, Shang Cheng immediately understood. He stroked his scar and laughed.

As he spoke, Shi Shi came back with four jars of wine in his hand, and ordered two brown and crispy roast leg of lamb in the street market, both cut into thin slices of meat, and neatly stacked in a black lacquered wooden tray.

When he was drinking and eating food and chatting again, Shang Cheng learned about another thing: one by one, the border army stationed in Mazhi had two battalions, but there was only one lieutenant battalion commander. He immediately used his brains for this position, and inquired in detail about the situation of each village and battalion in Mazhi. He thought that although the promotion of the border army was slow, but his current lieutenant Guide was almost at the end, and if he wanted to go further, if he did not have outstanding achievements, he would have to stand still for the next few years or ten years, and even if he got a brigade-level position, he would not have the opportunity to fight on the battlefield in the future, and most of the time he still had to command and dispatch behind the military formation. It wasn't something he wanted. He wanted a real charge, a bloody battle, and a vengeance with the blood of the Turrets on the straight sword and spear. The only question now is, does the Ma Zhibian Army have a chance to go head-to-head with the Turks?

"Yes." Sun Zhongshan said with certainty, "Although the army of the Turks is not straightforward, the small group of Turks and dogs are still often harassed, especially in the early spring and late autumn, the dogs often jump in and plunder. Last month, we fought with them in West Malaysia, and we cut down sixteen or seventeen dogs in one go. ”

Shang Cheng was still stroking his scars and groaning, and Shi and Bao Kan became excited first, and began to ask Sun Zhongshan about the opportunity to "slaughter dogs".

Shang Cheng knew that the main responsibility of the border army was to guard and garrison the border, followed by protecting the border people in Tuntian, and basically there was no possibility of taking the initiative to attack; Moreover, it is unlikely that the imperial court will send a border army to fight against the Turks, and even if a border army participates in the battle, at most it will be responsible for transporting or guarding the grain routes, and the distress of charging into battle is minimal. And he still has one thing to consider, he went to the border army to be a battalion captain, if the imperial court starts to make a big move against the Turbers, is it possible for him to rush back immediately?

"The monk brother can 'take a leave'." Sun Zhongshan gave him an idea. Seeing that Shang Cheng didn't understand what a "fake position" was, he explained, "It is to temporarily serve as a battalion captain for a few days, and once there is a suitable person to replace you, you can return to the guard immediately." ”

"What if there is no suitable person to take my place?"

Sun Zhongshan couldn't answer this question. He had never heard of such a situation. What if there is no one to replace me? Of course, I had to keep going......

Keep working in the border army? Shang Cheng didn't have this idea. So he quickly dismissed the idea and moved the conversation elsewhere.

…… For the next three or four days, Shang Cheng stayed in the post house and did nothing. It wasn't until the fifth day that someone suddenly called him to Weifu. The Wei government officially informed him that he had been temporarily transferred to Mazhi Xizhai as a "fake" battalion captain. The high-ranking officer in charge of the dispatch and coordination of his duties in the Wei Mansion also specially received him and told him in a serious tone that the transfer of him to a "fake post" in the border army this time was actually to give him the opportunity to learn more about military affairs and increase his experience in military command, so that in the future, he would not be as brutal as he had done in the past, and would rush forward with a straight sword. Shangfeng also said that a brave general like him will soon come in handy......