The yellow sand covers the sun, and the sky is flying.

Xu Mingzhu walked with the soldiers of Yumen Pass and the veterans of Chengzhuang, staggering forward with difficulty in the yellow sand.

The climate of the desert is unpredictable, no one knows when and where it will encounter what kind of disasters, sometimes there are no clouds and clear skies, and suddenly a strong wind blows, followed by a sandstorm, coming and going without warning, people are unguarded, or when you take a temporary rest, you will be stung by the giant poisonous scorpion in the desert, and in a moment you will foam at the mouth, and watch him die of anger.

The veterans of Yumen Pass and Cheng Zhuangzi were not very lucky on their westward journey this time, they had experienced three large and small sandstorms along the way, the team was reduced by more than 200 people, a long and boring march, Cheng Chumo and Tian Renhui were anxious many times along the way, coupled with unpredictable heavenly power and disasters, the morale of the soldiers had fallen into a trough, and there was an indescribable resentment in the army.

Xu Mingzhu is a woman, a woman has the most careful heart, and she is naturally the first to notice the grievances of the soldiers, but she can only harden her heart and pretend not to see it, the soldiers are bitter and tired, but in the distant Xizhou, maybe the husband is struggling on the edge of life and death, and this army that rushes thousands of miles to help is the only hope to save the husband's life.

Xu Mingzhu himself is too tired to be human, the bright eyes of the past are deeply immersed in the sockets, the hair is withered and messy, the skin on the face has long lost its moving ruddyness, has become pale and yellow, there is no trace of blood on the lips, and there is only deep exhaustion and anxiety in the eyes.

Fang Lao Wu is still the same, always smiling and grinning, thousands of miles back and forth, it seems to him to be just a walk after dinner, there is no tiredness on his face, and occasionally he can shout a few slang ballads at the top of his voice, which makes the soldiers look sideways.

It was another two days and two nights of marching, and the soldiers were so tired that they almost collapsed. The veterans of the Cheng family Zhuangzi are okay, after all, they are all soldiers who have survived a hundred battles, and they are loyal to the Cheng family, and they can endure no matter how hard and tired they are, but the soldiers of Yumen Pass can't stand it, and most of the grievances in the team also come from them. Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there have been countless foreign wars, but there has never been such a precedent for using soldiers as cattle. This time, we traveled thousands of miles to help Xizhou, all the way non-stop, day and night, and everyone even slept and ate on the back of a camel, which was too hard.

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There was a hurried sound of horses' hooves ahead, and a scout dressed as a caravan guy arrived quickly, and when Xu Mingzhu frowned, Cheng Chumo had already met him.

It didn't take long. The scout turned his horse's head and continued to explore the way, while Cheng Chumo returned to the group.

"Brother and sister, rest for a while, this is not far from Xizhou, there are more than a hundred miles, the scout came to report, twenty miles ahead of a group of fleeing people, it is the ...... of the township and county under the jurisdiction of Xizhou"

Xu Mingzhu straightened up suddenly. He said urgently: "Brother Cheng, do you know what the situation is in Xizhou?" ”

Cheng Chu sighed silently: "Xizhou...... Sure enough, it was besieged by the Western Regions coalition forces, and the siege had been nearly half a month. There were about 30,000 enemies who came to attack, and the defenders of Xizhou City were only a few thousand, and Li Su fought very hard in this battle......"

Saying that, Cheng Chumo suddenly showed admiration, and said: "My brother is really a man, and before the war, he decisively ordered all the people in the city to be sent away. Only one empty city and thousands of defenders gritted their teeth to hold on, thousands of people could withstand the attack of 30,000 men and a half months, and to this day, the city is still in the hands of my brother, good! ”

Xu Mingzhu's tears poured down. Hurriedly said: "This place is only more than 100 miles away from Xizhou, saving people is like fighting fires, and I also ask Brother Cheng and General Tian to order the march to solve the danger of Xizhou's upside down!" ”

Cheng Chumo smiled bitterly: "Brother and sister, don't worry, the city is still in the hands of your husband, and there will be no change for a while, but our soldiers are going to rest, marching in the desert, more than a hundred miles of land can not be walked with a few breaths, look at the soldiers are too tired to be human, let's let them get off their horses and rest, otherwise, even if we go fast, the soldiers are too tired to hold swords, and when we get to the city of Xizhou, it is only the end of being completely wiped out by the enemy, what is the point of our thousands of miles to help?" ”

Xu Mingzhu was stunned for a long time, knowing that Cheng Chumo would not deceive her, he knew better than himself the doorway to march and fight, so he had to nod with tears, forcibly suppressed his anxious mood, and hung his head silently.

Cheng Chumo is also anxious, but after all, he was born in Jiangmen, and he can see that the morale of this patchwork army is really low to the extreme, marching day after day, disasters on the road are continuous, and even sleeping and eating are solved in the march, which is a great destruction to people's body and mind, with the morale and physical strength of the soldiers at present, it is really impossible to expect them to be able to relieve the siege and retreat from the enemy under the city of Xizhou, so it is very important to recuperate before the war, and no matter how critical the situation is, the soldiers must recover their physical strength and morale, otherwise the war will be defeated.

After hearing the military order to rest on the spot, the soldiers exhaled a long breath, rubbed their faces tiredly, and some simply rolled directly from the camel's back to the ground, fell heavily on the yellow sand, spread out their hands and feet, closed their eyes and began to fall asleep, and some people scolded softly, not knowing what they were scolding.

Xu Mingzhu listened to everything in her ears, she knew very well that most of these scoldings were directed at herself, after all, she was the most anxious one in the team, regardless of her fatigue for several days, and kept persuading Cheng Chumo and Tian Renhui to march day and night, and she naturally knew who the grievances of the soldiers were directed at.

This rest was unconsciously three hours, from noon to almost sunset, Cheng Chumo and Tian Renhui saw that the soldiers' physical strength had almost recovered, so they ordered to continue the march.

After the military order was handed down, the soldiers got up lazily, still listless, and slowly turned over and rode on camels, and sorted out the team.

Everything is lazy and slow, Xu Mingzhu knows that everyone is very resentful, but he is anxious but can't explain it.

Sorting out the team is very slow, in the generals scolding their mothers, the team barely has a look, Tian Renhui was about to give the order to leave, but Xu Mingzhu suddenly said: "General Tian is slow." ”

Tian Renhui paused for a moment and said with a forced smile: "What does Mrs. Li command?" ”

For Xu Mingzhu, Tian Renhui can be described as a headache, most of his life has never been held hostage, and he is still a woman from a Taoist family, the consequences of this matter are very serious, and it will inevitably greatly affect his prestige in the hearts of the soldiers of Yumen Pass, and after it is transmitted back to Chang'an, I don't know how many ministers and colleagues will laugh at it. Therefore, Tian Renhui also had a stomach of resentment against Xu Mingzhu, and avoided her all the way to the west, and never took the initiative to talk to her.

Xu Mingzhu naturally knew that his popularity in this team was extremely poor, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

In order to save your husband, you can live without your life, what are you afraid of?

"General Tian. In order to understand the siege of Xizhou, the woman knew that the soldiers were working hard day and night, and the woman really didn't want to go to ......"

Tian Ren opened his mouth and was about to say something, but Xu Mingzhu quickly picked up: "Yes, it is Your Majesty's will to relieve the siege of Xizhou, and it is said that they are all loyal ministers and good generals driven by Your Majesty, and everything they do is ordered by Your Majesty, and it has nothing to do with the wife and my husband." However, the will is the will, the favor is the favor, the wife will not be arrogant enough to think that all this for everyone to do is justified, the hard work of the soldiers, the wife of the life in the eyes, the grace of the five at the same time, the wife also wants to do something for the soldiers to do what she can to compensate......"

Raised his head and looked into Tian Renhui's eyes. Xu Mingzhu said word by word very slowly: "My husband is a talented man, and he has not only made countless contributions to the country in recent years. I also earn a lot of money, Jingyang County's Li family has a lot of surplus, I am the eldest lady of the Li family, I am willing to be the lord of the husband once, the soldiers are in addition to the court and His Majesty, there is one in the team today. The Li family is willing to give each person another five yuan to reward the soldiers for their hard work for many days, and this can be fulfilled immediately after the siege of Xizhou is lifted. ”

Tian Renhui was taken aback: "Five yuan per person? This ......"

What a big deal! Five money, in the current Zhenguan years. Under the price of only three cents per bucket of rice, Wuguan can be regarded as a huge amount of money, Li Xianzi's wife looks soft and weak, and she can't see that she has such courage, and she also knows the truth that "there must be a brave man under the heavy reward", this woman is not simple.

Xu Mingzhu stared at Tian Renhui's eyes, and said in an aggravated tone: "Yes, five yuan per person, there are a total of more than 5,000 people in this team today, that is, about 25,000 yuan, the money is gone, you can earn it again, the people are gone, the gold and silver mountains are meaningless, this promise, I can call the shots, presumably the husband and the family will not blame me." ”

Tian Renhui's shocked expression has not disappeared, Xu Mingzhu continued: "The woman was born in a businessman, her status is too low, but the family of the businessman is also honest, here I will say one more thing, to solve the siege of Xizhou, if the soldiers have the unfortunate war dead, in addition to the court compensation, my Li family is willing to give the soldiers who died in the war ten times per small household, and set up a case, enshrined in the Li family, you are all the benefactors of the husband and the Li family, if there is something difficult in the future, the Li family will reach out to help, never stand by!" This sentence is also the promise of the Li family! ”

Xu Mingzhu was talking here, and the soldiers who had already had sharp ears behind him quickly passed her every word and sentence to the whole army, and before Tian Renhui could express his position, he heard thousands of soldiers behind him suddenly burst into earth-shattering cheers, and the sluggish morale completely disappeared at this moment, and the long-suppressed dissatisfaction and resentment against Xu Mingzhu these days also disappeared at this moment, and no longer existed.

Everyone's eyes are full of joy and gratitude, they are all soldiers who fight for the country, they are a group of ordinary veterans, their fate is basically nothing to get promoted and rich, the only thing they want is to live safely to old age, to be able to survive in large and small battles during the war, and to be an ordinary person after retirement is not burdened by the hardships of livelihood, so that the family can fill their stomachs, and they can have surplus food to survive natural disasters.

Xu Mingzhu's promise of five guan money is not a small number, it can make the soldiers' families live better, you can buy ten more acres of fertile land, and even buy a ploughing cow, this five guan money for the soldiers, the effect is very shocking and encouraging.

Morale boiled to the peak in an instant, and in the face of the heartless cheers of all the soldiers, Xu Mingzhu smiled and shed tears, and glanced at Cheng Chumo and Tian Ren, and everyone's eyes were full of deep smiles.

The military heart is available, and this battle will be won!

Xu Mingzhu greeted the cheering soldiers, walked a few steps forward, suddenly knelt on his knees, bowed to the soldiers, and cried: "Xizhou is not far ahead, the Li family spares no money, but also invites all the soldiers to work hard, use their lives in wartime, you are all heroes and strong men, my husband is fighting for the country, supporting the war situation, he is also a hero, now Xizhou is in danger, my husband's life, please ask you, the wife is grateful." ”

There was a loud sound of grinding iron leaf armor, and all the soldiers dismounted, knelt down on one knee and saluted back, and said in unison: "I am willing to pay this life and fight with all my might!" ”

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PS: There is one more ...... The Battle of Xizhou is coming to an end, so it took a lot of thought about the arrangement and layout of the plot, and the update was a little slower, forgive me...... (To be continued.) )