After getting the news, Liu Ruilin concluded that this group of people should be the fugitives from Henan Chengxuan's political secretary? Or the person who was kicked out of the mountain by the Shaolin Temple, but after all, it was just speculation and didn't dare to make a conclusion! Wu Junzhen and the captains of the Jinyi Guard also explained that there was a red-robed woman (the proprietress among them), she shouldn't be from Shaolin Temple? As for those who use cinnabar palms? It must be the man on crutches, or the rest of the masked men in black, right?

At this moment, it is very late, and it has entered the beginning of the fourth watch, and everyone has been busy for so long and is a little tired, Wu Junzhen proposed: "Everyone, it's getting late today, so you might as well take a rest!" But Liu Ruilin didn't dare to be careless, he discussed with the captains of the Jinyi Guard, and decided to take turns to patrol in case of accidents, so everyone spent the night with trepidation.

The next day, on December 10, under the fluttering of the flag in the Xijing City of Shaanxi Chengxuan, the Shun soldiers who defended the city stood majestically, not afraid of any wind and snow, and after a cold wind blew on the street, the Shun army Zuo Fu led the soldiers to the gate of the palace of Xijing Shun Wangfu.

The guards guarding the gate immediately saluted and said, "See Lord Zuofu, the king has been waiting in the palace for a long time, please inside!" Shunjun Zuo Fu strode into the mansion, and saw the generals sitting on the left and right sides of the discussion of political affairs, and the new Shun King on the throne saw Zuo Fu coming, and immediately waved his hand and shouted, "Everyone, be quiet!" Lone summoned all the generals to come today, so don't make a noise if you have important matters to discuss! ”

After hearing this, the generals immediately fell silent, and King Xinshun asked, "Lord Zuofu, is our army's soldiers, horses, food, and grass sufficient now?" Shunjun Zuofu nodded and replied: "Our army has sufficient soldiers and abundant materials, which is enough to fight against the Ming Dynasty for a few years, and it will not be a problem!" Plus the local surrendered Ming army, which also counted 100,000 people? ”

Hearing that his powerful Xinshun King had begun to do something adventurous, he said, "What do you think if you go east with the current strength of King Lone?" "As soon as you hear that King Xinshun is going to the east? Shunjun Zuo Fu said: "Great King, if the Northern Expedition is now, the ministers advocate crossing the Yellow River to the north first, and through Henan Chengxuan, the political secretary will seize the north and directly subordinate to attack the capital. ”

But Yang Yongyu, the waiter of the Shunjun Rite Department, retorted, "No! The imperial capital is the center of the Ming Empire, and if it is directly attacked, it will inevitably be counterattacked by the Qin Wang Ming army from all over the country. On the contrary, he thinks that the success rate of the Northern Expedition will be greater if he first captures Nanzhili to cut off Cao Yun, sit in the North Zhili area and cut off economic materials, and then wait for the opportunity to make the Northern Expedition?

At this time, the Ministry of Military Industry of Shun was engaged in: Gu Junen also stood up and suggested, "King Qiyu, the minister thinks that Shanxi Cheng Xuan Zhengsi should first attack the capital in the north of Zhili, after all, there is a Xuanda garrison, if it is not solved, it may be difficult to enter Beijing!" If it is too risky to directly attack Beizhili, this Forbidden City, as the imperial capital of the Ming Empire for more than 200 years, is difficult to break through for a while, in that case, our army will retreat and have no way back, and it is not appropriate to march into Nanzhili? Nanzhili is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, even if it succeeds, it is only a partial peace, and it is difficult to achieve a big thing. ”

After listening to the analysis of the three people, King Xinshun felt that what they said made some sense? Unable to make up his mind, he decided to take a gamble, and he chose to follow the advice of the Shun Military Industry Department (first attack Shanxi Chengxuan Zhengsi in the fight against Beizhili).

After making up his mind, the new Shun king asked the soldiers to pass on the instructions to let the battalions send troops and horses to the east to conquer Shanxi, Cheng announced the political division, the herald took the order flag and quickly ran out of the house to the battalions, and the generals of the Shun army also began to set off in Tongguan to prepare the territory of the thousand households to gather 100,000 soldiers and horses, by the Shun army Xijing Weizuo Weiwu general: Gao Yigong, the commander-in-chief, the governor of the Shun army: Li Guo, for the deputy marshal two led the generals to wave the knife and slaughter the ox to sacrifice the flag.

The king of Xinshun, who was standing behind the army and watching, was a little regretful, he originally planned to conquer in person, but no matter what, Xijing City was busy with internal affairs and couldn't take a break at all, so he could only send someone to take command.

On the other side, everyone in the Longfu Inn was also ready to go on the road, Liu Ruilin proposed: "For today's plan, only by going to the nearby Shaolin Temple to investigate can we know the situation of the group of thieves, otherwise we have no evidence!" But the pedestrians thought that this matter should go to the prefect of Ming Pingyang: Ou Yejun, let him help find His Royal Highness the Lord of Tai'an County in this way, Wu Junzhen also supported this approach, after all, the government has a lot of eyeliner.

And the lieutenants of the Jinyi Guard also planned to go to the government or county government area to contact, and the eyeliner scattered all over the place to inquire about the news, so they began to go their separate ways, Wu Junzhen and the pedestrians went to Linfen County, the capital of Pingyang Prefecture.

After getting on the road, the Jinyi Guards came to the city of Lixian County, walking on the streets, pedestrians braved the drizzle to walk, everyone saw the Jinyi Guards passing by and honestly got out of the way, and the Jinyi Guards dispersed when they came to the crossroads.

Among them, two Jinyi Guard captains came to an alley and saw two strange men walking towards them? His eyes were still looking at them from time to time, and the captain of the brocade guard quickly noticed that something was wrong, and quickly turned around and pulled the two men into the corner as he passed by....

When Wu Junzhen and the pedestrians crossed Pu County, they came to the mountains and forests at the foot of Luoyun Mountain, and the rain kept falling on them, Ma Wei on horseback couldn't help but shiver, even Wu Junzhen felt very cold, and suddenly there seemed to be five yellow-spotted leopards in the forest? Frightened, everyone stopped, and the pedestrians pulled out their lancets and shouted, "Everyone be careful, there is a leopard in front!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the golden leopard in the forest roared and quickly rushed over, and rushed straight to the flank of the pedestrian division with the knife, biting the necks of the two pedestrian divisions, causing the horses to be frightened and Ma Wei and Wu Junzhen fell off the horse, only a few people tried their best to hold on to the reins to control the emotionally uncontrollable war horse.

At the moment of crisis, Liu Ruilin jumped and stepped on the horse's head, pulled out his saber, jumped up, and quickly cut off the head of a money leopard from mid-air, and the rest of the money leopards looked at him when they saw this, and opened their mouths to reveal the sharp fangs like the moon and also made a (whoop, whoa) roar, Wu Junzhen, who had landed, took the opportunity to pick up the dead pedestrian and rushed over with a pedestrian saber.

The footsteps instantly alarmed the agile leopard, forcing Wu Junzhen to immediately turn sideways to dodge a leopard that jumped over with his claws, and bypassed the other three leopards to come to the last leopard who was ready to pounce, Wu Junzhen did not hesitate to use the S-shape to bypass the approaching leopard, aiming at its eyes and quickly stabbing down, the leopard fell to the ground in pain and struggled.

The pedestrians also mustered up the courage to step forward, when they heard the sound of gongs in the distance? The leopards were frightened by this sound, and began to slowly retreat and gradually disappear into the woods, Wu Junzhen and the others felt very curious about who saved them?

So Wu Junzhen and Liu Ruilin asked, "Who is here?" Please also show up quickly. ”

I saw a few monks wearing robes walking out of the woods and paths in front of them, among them there was a monk who held a Zen staff and looked a little skillful, and a monk holding a gong and wearing a silver costume appeared in front of everyone, Wu Junzhen and Liu Ruilin greeted them and said, "Thank you for the rescue, dare to ask the master's number, and you will repay you in the future!" ”

However, the monk holding the Zen staff said, "Amitabha, the donor Pingshui meeting is the fate, and the old man is the presiding name of the Shaolin Temple in Songshan (Haikuan, word meaning).... Before he could finish speaking, Liu Ruilin asked, "I don't know if there are people in your temple who know cinnabar palms?" ”

As soon as he heard the other party ask, the monk immediately saluted and replied: "Amitabha, I am ashamed to say that the cinnabar palm is the head of the seventy-two arts of my Shaolin Temple, and the people who can practice this palm are all first-class masters, I don't know where the donor saw someone using the cinnabar palm?" ”

Liu Ruilin hurriedly walked up and replied: "In the Longfu Inn fifty miles west of here, the shopkeeper was killed by the cinnabar palm!" The monk lowered his head and was silent for a moment, and said, "I'm afraid it's Lao Gu's junior brother: Galio!" Since he was a child in Shaolin Temple, he has been particularly competitive, since the death of the master, he has been trying to seize the position of abbot, but he does not want to be the first to be taken by others, so far the younger brother is depressed and restless every day! After Lao Qu became the host, he arranged for him to go to the backyard of the Tibetan Scripture Pavilion to temper, I wanted him to calm down, but who knew that he actually stole the cinnabar palm and Shaolin Tan leg injured the monk guarding the mountain gate and fled down the mountain, according to the monk who usually had a good relationship with him, Lao Qu's junior brother seemed to be going to Shun Jun? ”

Hearing this, Ma Wei walked over and said, "It seems that the Liukou invaded Henan before, and you must have heard about it, right?" So dare to ask how can I find your junior brother now? The monk continued to reply: "The reason why the junior brother left the Songshan Shaolin Temple is nothing more than to mix up a position, if he can post a list and post a martial arts ring or something, he will definitely appear?" ”

After hearing this, Wu Junzhen turned to look at the pedestrians, and the people smiled and said, "It seems that the master knows that we are from the imperial court?" The monk smiled and said, "Bodhi has no tree, the mirror is not a platform, there is nothing originally, where to stir up dust." ”

At this moment, the 250,000 Shun troops who crossed the river were all on the big boats, and some places on the snowy river were frozen by ice, which made it somewhat difficult for the Shun army ships to march.

The Governor of the Shun Army first asked, "Uncle Gao, what do you think is the chance of our army winning this expedition to Shanxi Chengxuan?" Can you be sure of winning it? After drinking a glass of wine, General Weizuo of the Shun Army, Xijing Weizuo, thought for a while and replied: "This general has fought countless battles, and I have long heard that Shanxi Cheng announced that the political secretary announced that the Ming army was powerful in the north, but he was not fortunate enough to receive it, and the garrisons in the rest of the places are not worth mentioning!" ”

Seeing him so confident, this made the governor of the Shun army increase his confidence, and the two continued to toast and drink, when a soldier hurriedly ran into the cabin and reported, "Report, General Zuo Weiwu and Governor, our ship has encountered thin ice on the river, and I also ask the general to send someone to dig and break the ice quickly." ”