"Thank you, lady." Zhou Twenty Niang was a stirring spirit and woke up from a trance.

Yang Ren handed a coin to Zhou Twenty Niang. Zhou Twentyniang took it and looked at it, handed the money back, and said embarrassedly: "The military master gives too much, one plate of tofu is fifty wen, and six boards are three hundred wen." She recognized this as a "dang tael" silver coin in Kansai, which was full of fineness and quantity, and was worth about copper coins, that is, Qianwen. If it is a little cheap, Zhou Twenty Niang will be greedy, Yang Ren gave twice as much money for tofu, but she didn't dare to ask for it, in this Xiangyang City, there are many ill-intentioned people, if you are not always careful, a widow's family, how easy is it to settle down.

A hint of appreciation flashed in Yang Ren's eyes: "In addition to the tofu money, there are also silver coins that use your household utensils." He paused, looked at Zhou Twenty Niang, whose face was a little crimson, and secretly praised: "What a Peugeot lady." He glared at the sergeants next to him who were frowning at each other, and said with a smile, "For the rest, let's be shocked." "If he doesn't take it, Zhou Twenty Niang can't force the money back. Yang Ren confessed, picked up a bag of freshly made tofu, turned around and walked outside the door, all the way to the front of the mount. Yang Ren's mount is a jujube red horse with a diamond-shaped white stripe on his forehead. This horse is a fine breed in the river, with a light body, long legs, and powerful hooves. Even people who don't understand horses will love it at first sight. Even though the war horse waited for a long time, when he saw his master come out, he neighed happily and bent his neck to rub his master's military robe.

The horse seems to be human, Zhou Twenty Niang and the two children look strange, she thought that Yang Ren was going to tie the tofu bag to the saddle, who expected Yang Ren to gently stroke the mane of the war horse, stretched the skin bag containing tofu in front of the horse, and smiled at the war horse: "Taste what this is?" Gluttonous, right? ”

The war horse snorted twice, and actually lowered his head, and put his mouth into the bag to eat tofu. The beast ate very vigorously. More than a dozen sergeants were amazed, and Zhou Twentyniang was also amazed, Yang Ren turned around with a smile and explained: "This is a home-raised horse, starting from its grandfather, it will be better." Saying that, she stroked the oily and slippery mane of the war horse lovingly, and Zhou Twenty Niang found that the horse's fur was very clean, obviously because the owner often washed and cared for it properly.

"This big man carries a knife and arrows, can hold up the façade, and he is really a careful and gentle person." Zhou Twentyniang couldn't help but lose her mind a little, and her heart was filled with sorrow and sourness that she hadn't felt for a long time. She looked up at the group of sergeants, she had thought that evil spirits had come to the door, but now, her mood was not very good, but it was not bad.

More than a dozen sergeants put the tofu they had just made and the tofu they bought from Zhou Twenty Niang's shop into a large leather bag and hung it behind the saddle. After this toss, it was getting late, and the golden afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled on the street. The neighbors found that these soldiers were not fierce and evil, and the more daring ones also came out to watch the excitement. Dozens of people gathered in the market, some surrounded those war horses and admired them, and some looked at these soldiers of the Xia Kingdom in awe and curiosity. There is a shortage of horses in the Song Land, and these people have never seen such a miraculous horse. Especially Yang Ren's war horse, it finished eating the small stove, and was shaking its head and humming softly.

Yang Ren hung the empty leather bag behind the saddle, turned over on the horse, and said to Zhou Twenty Niang: "Thank you, boss!" "Pull up the warhorse's chewing head.

"The general is polite," Zhou Twentyniang looked up at him and said in passing, "Let's take care of the business again." This sentence is not often said, the voice is very small, who expected Yang Ren to hear it, he turned around, and said with a smile: "Okay." His gaze stayed on the woman's face for a moment, Zhou Twenty Niang's face was red, the war horse ran lightly, and he turned his head. More than a dozen cavalry followed him, and disappeared into the corner of the street and alley sprinkled with the afterglow of the setting sun with the crisp sound of "get it".

In a corner of the woods near the Gunshot Battalion station, seven or eight officers of the Firecrackle Battalion gathered. The officers sat cross-legged, and on the seats in the middle were roasted sheep's backs, milk tofu, and Sanle berry wine. The gathering place is sparse and suitable for trees. The people outside couldn't see inside the woods clearly, but the eleven officers were facing in a circle, and anyone approaching them could see clearly.

"Captain Yang personally led the team, and in addition to noodles and cooking cakes, he also added tofu to the first battalion."

Guo Yuanzhen, the commander of the fourth battalion of the fire gun, said, "Yang Ren, as the first captain of the Protectorate Mansion, actually took the sergeant to grind tofu to eat, it's really nonsense, nonsense, this is the captain of the Protectorate Mansion!" The major affairs of our Great Xia court are decided by such people. ”

Li Ziweng shook his head and said: "Yang Ren can promote the captain, and he can call for wind and rain in the Protectorate Mansion, how can he be a 'nonsense' idle person." The sergeants of the White Feather Army treated him like a god. In my opinion, even General Wu may not have the heart of the army. His face was a little gloomy, "It's a pity that the captains are very thoughtful, and nine points are used to grasp the hearts of the army. Take this expedition as an example, it is clear that we can take advantage of the defeat of the Liao and Song dynasties to swallow Liao and destroy the Song in one fell swoop. But the lieutenants in Hezhong and Northern Xinjiang didn't care about the overall situation, and they didn't dare to offend the sergeants in Hezhong, so they had to send troops to attack the Roma Turks first, and Prime Minister Liu Cheng also followed them, alas——"

mentioned Liu Yi, Li Ziweng had some scruples and didn't say any more. Liu Zijian, the centurion of the fifth battalion, said: "In the place where I fought four wars in the east and west, since the founding of the country, the Liao and Song dynasties have fought more than once, and the opportunity to unify the world has been more than once, but they have all been wasted by the mouse-eyed protectorate. He said it with a bang, slapped his knee, and said loudly, "Take 10,000 steps back, even if the Liao State and the Song State don't fight each other, with our sharp armor, what is the difficulty of one enemy and two?" "Several officers were born in the Honorable Marquis Sect, and when they talked about the Protector Mansion, there was more disdain in their tone, and there was less respect that ordinary Xia people often have.

"That's impossible, you see that today the siege of the city, a hundred people died, and the marching commander Shi was in a hurry. If you really want to fight the war to destroy the country, tens of thousands of soldiers will be killed in the battle, and the Protectorate Mansion will probably explode. Even Prime Minister Liu Cheng and General Zhang couldn't resist it. Pu Lingduo, deputy commander of the third battalion, shook his head and said, "When the founding dynasty was founded, the world had just gone through troubled times, and the sergeants did not hesitate to die for military merits, but after the Weiyuan Dynasty, there were more ideas. Everyone wants to eat meat, not to gnaw bones. Coupled with the general Confucianism that eats the ancients, what is said that Kanto is different from the barbarians, after the fight, when Huairou is the mainstay, everyone thinks that there is no oil and water in Kanto. ”

"Alas, the sergeant of Cheng Ye, the sergeant of defeat," Li Ziweng sighed, "I won the world with sergeants, but if it goes on like this, I will definitely lose the world because of sergeants." He punched a deep hole in the ground, "That's why we have to recruit troops and train the Fire Gun Army." Those workers in the gate are not as difficult to serve as the sergeants, you see, a bag or two of millet is very happy. If a person dies in a war, the Protectorate will not ......" He stopped, drank a glass of wine, and said in a low voice, "Since it is cheap to recruit soldiers and can fight, isn't it ridiculous to put the state handle in the hands of the Protector Mansion and the sergeants?" ”

"How can you say not? As the saying goes, there are a thousand people in a family, and there is one person in charge. It's time to change the system of deliberations of the Protectorate Government. Li Ziweng said in a low voice, "Attacking the Kanto, the Protectorate is unwilling to damage the sergeants, it is a good time to take advantage of the situation to recruit troops to expand the firecracker camp, as long as the Kanto region is slightly determined in the future, the power of the firecracker army will be greatly expanded, waiting for the future......" His voice became lower and lower, and it was almost inaudible in the back, and several officers of the firecracker battalion looked at each other and nodded tacitly.

"Come, this cup of heroic blood!" Li Ziweng raised his glass.

............

In the Prime Minister's Mansion in Ezhou City, Chen Dong, Han Shizhong, Cao Liangshi, Deng Su and others were sitting dangerously.

As soon as Han Shizhong got up and stood up, Deng Su asked, "The stakes are so high, does it really not need to be attended by the Holy Driver?" "Not necessarily." Han Shizhong and Chen Dong said in unison, and Deng Su frowned. Cao Liangshi coughed, "There are a lot of things that the Holy Driver is worried about. After the war is agreed, I will agree on the date of sending troops with Lord Cao, and finally send it to the saint to draw a circle. Chen Dong and Han Shizhong exchanged glances and nodded at the same time.

Seeing that Deng Su didn't speak again, Han Shizhong walked to the front of the large topographic map of mountains and rivers and pointed to Xiangyang: "The soldiers of the Xia Kingdom went down from the Han River and passed through Fangzhou," he glanced at Chen Dong and continued, "Taking Xiangyang directly cuts off the grain route of Yelu Dashi." The Liao army has been attacking Ezhou for a long time, and now the grain route has been cut off, and even the back road may not be guaranteed, and it is inevitable to retreat. However, since the Liao soldiers invaded the south, they have killed more than one million of our soldiers and civilians, and now they cannot be allowed to retreat unscathed. The Liao soldiers claim to be 300,000 horses, and in my opinion, there are always more than 200,000 horses. The army consumed a huge amount of grain and grass, the Liao army cut off the supply of grain and grass by waterway, these 200,000 horses could not last long, and when the troops retreated, it was impossible to concentrate together, otherwise, they would not be able to collect enough grain and grass along the way, and they would have to starve to death more than half of them just by starving. When the Liao army retreated, the army was panicked and had to divide the troops, which was a good time for us to take advantage of the situation to pursue and take revenge. ”

Cao Liangshi groaned: "The Xia Kingdom asked us to attack Yelu Dashi in the north and south. ”

"Do we have the strength to combo the attack?" Deng Su shook his head and said, "It was said that the north and the south were attacking, and the Xia army occupied the fortified city, and the camera moved." We were fighting with the Liao army, and they were reaping the benefits, which was still a trivial matter. He said with a solemn face, "Since the Liao soldiers invaded the south, they have conquered the city and conquered the city, and the momentum is like a bamboo, and now the elite soldiers in the southeast are all in Ezhou, just stabilizing the situation, rashly attacking, desperate, in case of failure, this half of the country, tens of millions of people will no longer have elite soldiers to resist foreign aggression." ”