Li Xiao, who walked back to the cave room with a shaking, saw Zu Wan'er, who was wearing a red hijab and a bright gold decoration under two gold-painted red candles, was sitting on the edge of the pineapple wood carved bed. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Li Xiao walked over gently, controlling his hazy drunkenness, and gently lifted Zu Wan'er's hijab with a golden pick embedded with crystal jade.

"Oh, Wan'er is so beautiful!"

Seeing Zu Wan'er blushing in front of him, Li Xiao sighed lightly in his heart.

I saw her, with ink-like sideburns coiled, a brilliant jasper and phoenix hairpin obliquely inserted on it, and a jasper dragon and phoenix clip adorned with jasper dragon and phoenix clips in her carefully tied bun, and her eyes were full of spring water. Yu is more beautiful and beautiful than Hua Jiao, and she has jade fingers and arms, thin waist and snow skin, and a stunning beauty.

Seeing Li Xiao looking at herself like this, Zu Wan'er blushed with shame, her slender fingers like peeling onions, lightly covered her cherry mouth, and smiled softly, even more shy.

Li Xiao's heart was surging, and he couldn't help but gently stroke her smooth and cute face with his hand.

"Wan'er, we're finally together."

Li Xiao's exclamation made Zu Wan'er's heart fluctuate.

"Husband。。。。。。

Wan'er whispered, but was hugged into her arms by Li Xiao, and her hot lips blocked her small cherry mouth that was like an orchid.

"Husband taps 。。。。。。"

"I know 。。。。。。"

The red gauze tent, the candle shadow swaying, the warbler moaning, like a magnificent dream.

。。。。。。

The day after the wedding, because Li Xiao released carrier pigeons two days earlier, the four boats of Dongjiang Town, led by Wang Tingrui, the deputy general of Dongjiang Town, came to the shore of Jinzhou.

Because he had to wait for the order of the imperial court to give a reward, Li Xiao left all the cavalry team with him to temporarily stay in Jinzhou, while all the infantry and firearms troops followed the fleet in Dongjiang Town and returned to Chifengwei.

In the days of waiting for the imperial court's reward, Li Xiao and Zu Wan'er finally had the opportunity to play the eight scenic spots of Jinzhou together.

Only five days later, Jinzhou's good news letter was sent to Emperor Chongzhen's desk by Zhang Fengyi, the secretary of the Ministry of War.

When he heard Zhang Fengyi's loud report on the steps, telling Chongzhen that in the battle of Jinzhou, a total of 823 true Tartar heads were captured, Chongzhen's face was overjoyed.

After presenting the recital, Chongzhen quickly glanced at it, and suddenly looked up and laughed.

"Haha, sure enough, it's this Li Xiao again!"

Chongzhen sighed with joy on his face: "Li Xiao rescued Jinzhou in Liaodong for thousands of miles, which can be a model for my Ming Dynasty officials and soldiers, and he alone won the 300-level true Tartar head, this person is so brave and good at fighting, it is really a rare tiger general in my Ming Dynasty!" ”

Seeing that the emperor was so happy, Zhang Fengyi hurriedly interjected on the side: "Your Majesty, the son of heaven, virtue is worthy of the world, Li Xiao and others will serve loyally, but it is a natural duty. ”

Chongzhen smiled on his face and shook his head: "I bow down to the thin morality, so that the world is in turmoil." Now in the northwest to the Central Plains, the thieves are in turmoil, and the Tartars are infesting in the same place in Liaodong. My achievements in governing the world are enough to be ashamed. ”

Zhang Fengyi hurriedly said: "Although there is a lot of chaos today, but Your Majesty is benevolent and generous, and he will govern with all his heart, and he will not destroy the thieves and retreat from the Tartars. ”

Chongzhen waved his hand, not wanting to listen to Zhang Fengyi's meaningless exaggerations, he asked Zhang Fengyi: "Now that Li Xiaoli has made such a contribution, how should he be rewarded?" ”

Zhang Fengyi thought about it, but said softly to Chongzhen: "In the opinion of Weichen, the reward given to Li Xiao this time should still be based on martial arts and loose ranks, and the actual official rank and gold and silver rewards can be less. ”

"Oh, what does Aiqing mean by that?"

"Your Majesty, that Li Xiao was rewarded last time, but at the end of February, it was only less than three months later, if you immediately give a generous reward, but I am afraid that Li Xiao will see that the fame of the court is easy to obtain, so that he will be arrogant."

"How does this make! The rewards of the imperial court were originally designed to motivate the soldiers to fight bravely to kill the enemy, but if the reward was too stingy, it was afraid of chilling the hearts of meritorious soldiers. Jiubao, do you think that Li Xiao's military exploits are very easy to obtain? And I'm thinking that this big victory, it must be Li Xiao's great efforts, Zu Dashou, Zu Dale and others, I'm afraid they are all just meritorious. Chongzhen shook his head, disagreeing with Zhang Fengyi's opinion.

"Your Majesty, having said that. The official rank of the imperial court is a rare thing, that Li Xiao is only twenty-three years old, so young, if he rises too quickly, he is afraid that in the future, he will have a big worry about it. ”

Seeing Zhang Fengyi's solemn expression, Chongzhen also groaned.

"Then let's do it, the rank of martial officer, I only give him a promotion, but if there is no rank, I will give Li Xiao a strong promotion."

"Oh, Your Majesty is also appropriate to arrange it so." Zhang Fengyi understood that Chongzhen had made a great concession, and hurriedly seconded the agreement.

"Okay, then Zhang Aiqing drafted the holy decree, promoted Li Xiao to the commander of the second grade Shandong, and sent the general to the deputy general, and promoted to the general army!"

"Wechen obeys the holy oracle!"

。。。。。。

Because Chongzhen was in a good mood and made special arrangements, a week later, Li Xiao and others received the holy decree of promotion and reward.

At the military academy of the Jinzhou Forward Battalion, Li Xiao, Zu Dashou, Zu Dale and others knelt down to greet the order.

"Fengtian carrier, the emperor said: Since May, the Tartars have invaded Ningjin on the occasion of our Liaodong army to aid Shanda in the west, plundered people and animals, and ruined the lives of people, so that Liaoxi is in danger and the northeast is swinging. Fortunately, Chifengwei commanded Li Xiao to drive the king, help the danger and chaos, thousands of miles to the north, destroy the enemy under the city, the rest of the Tartars fled to Wenwei, and the cities of Ningjin turned into safety. When I heard the report, I was overjoyed. Li Xiaozhong is upright and righteous, the pioneer of the king, and he is fortunate to be this tiger general. Such meritorious deeds, can be praised for their achievements and not praised for their favor? Zi Tejin Li Xiao was awarded the title of commander of the same rank from the second rank, and was awarded the general of the scattered rank Zhenguo, and was given Wuxun as the protector, and was promoted to the rank of commander of Chifeng. In addition, a brocade robe, a piece of gold armor, and a high-grade sword are appreciated to show honor and favor. The department is recruited from the soldiers, and the military department is preferentially discussed. I hope that Li Xiao will be arrogant and unreserved, and he will make achievements, fulfill his duties, and work hard to prosper. Chin Jai。。。。。 ”

"Thank you, thank you, long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

Li Xiao received the holy decree from the eunuch with a respectful expression.

Subsequently, Zu Dashou, Zu Dale, Zu Dabi and other generals also received the holy decree and thanked God.

Among them, Zu Dashou was promoted to the chief officer of Liaozhen, Zu Dale was awarded the hussar general, and Zu Dabi was also promoted to deputy commander-in-chief.

Zu Dashou gave an order, and immediately had his subordinates follow, sent a plate of 500 taels of snowflake silver, and gave it to the eunuch who announced the decree, and the eunuch left with a happy face.

Subsequently, Zu Dashou, who was grateful, gave another order, and the whole army feasted to celebrate the promotion of a group of people.

Zu Dashou then poured wine for Li Xiao in person to show his gratitude and affection.

Zu Dale also didn't care about the identity of his father-in-law, and frequently persuaded Li Xiao to drink. And Zu Dabi even dragged Li Xiao to drink non-stop, but his name for Li Xiao has quietly changed from the elder brother to General Li.

However, Li Xiao immediately corrected it and told him that it was really uncommon to call him like this between brothers, and it was better to call himself Brother Li.

Zu Dabi was very happy to see Li Xiao so easy-going, and his words became more and more warm and cordial.

Seeing that everyone was so welcoming to him, Li Xiao sighed with emotion in his heart.

In fact, when the emperor's edict to promote the reward was issued, Li Xiao did not have much joy in his heart.

Because, most of the rewards given by the emperor are fictitious titles, and the most important thing is to promote him from the original position of general to the chief soldier, but the actual benefits of such a promotion are not much.

Because Li Xiao is still in the establishment of the guard, he is actually not a regular Ming army battalion soldier and soldier.

The army of the border town of the Ming Dynasty can only be a regular field force of the Ming army if it is not a soldier of the guard army. Among them, the soldiers and horses directly led by the general army are called "regular soldiers", the soldiers and horses directly led by the deputy general soldiers are called "strange soldiers", the soldiers and horses led by the guerrilla generals are called "guerrillas", and the soldiers and horses led by the staff generals are called "reinforcements".

Now the emperor has exempted Chi Fengwei from money and grain for five years, which is quite a discount, but after five years, Li Xiao will have to pay the grain and silver to the top.

As for the prospect of five years later, Li Xiao doesn't care at all now.

After all, now that the Ming Dynasty is declining and crumbling, it is conceivable what the future of the Ming Dynasty will be in five years.

It's just that now that he has the title of the Red Phoenix General Soldier, although he has not gained much in terms of land and money, Li Xiao knows that with this title, it should be logical for him to further expand the opponent's army in the future, and he will not be criticized and blamed by others.

Another important thing for Li Xiao is that he is now the general soldier of Chifeng, although the area is not large, he is on the same level as Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Shandong.

In other words, now Liu Zeqing has no nominal leadership, and Li Xiao's soldiers and horses are all directly under the responsibility of Li Maofang, the governor of Shandong.

Although Li Xiao has long been ignorant of Liu Zeqing, he is now completely separated from this person in the official sense, and is on an equal footing, which is undoubtedly a great improvement for Li Xiao's status.

According to Li Xiao's plan, his next step is to expand each of the current soldiers and horses into battalions.

That is, from the three total soldiers and horses of the Red Phoenix Battalion, the Iron Dragon Battalion, and the Golden Wolf Battalion, to the Red Phoenix Battalion, the Iron Dragon Battalion, and the Golden Wolf Battalion.

According to Li Xiao's opinion, each battalion of soldiers and horses should be composed of three general commanders, but now that it has just been upgraded and restructured, in order to ensure that there will be no large-scale tension in the supply of materials, it will first be changed from the Chifeng battalion to the number of soldiers and horses under the jurisdiction of the three generals. Although the other two general rules were also promoted to battalions, the number of soldiers and horses remained unchanged for the time being.

In this way, the Chifeng battalion has three generals, that is, nine sentinels of soldiers and horses, with a sentry of 5 teams of shield soldiers, 10 teams of spearmen, a total of 45 teams of shield soldiers, 90 teams of spearmen, and the horizontal sentry is expanded to 600 people, the Xuanhu heavy cavalry is expanded to 600 people, and the flying harrier is expanded to 600 people, so that the total number of cavalry reaches 1200 people. The firearms unit has maintained the status quo for the time being, but the number of auxiliary troops has also been tripled from the original total of 600 to 1,800.

In this way, in Li Xiao's Chifeng battalion, there were a total of 4,590 shield soldiers, 9,180 spearmen, 600 rampant soldiers, 600 Xuanhu heavy cavalry, 600 flying harriers, 150 artillery troops, 50 Lumi gunners, and 1,800 auxiliary soldiers.

It can be easily calculated that there are a total of 18,170 soldiers in the Chifeng Battalion, of which more than 15,000 are soldiers.

Such a force is also quite impressive for Li Xiao, the general soldier of Chifeng.

Li Xiao was even thinking that if this army was well trained, it should be able to completely compete with the more than 10,000 troops of Dolgon who were now wreaking havoc in the Daxi area.

The only thing that restricts Li Xiao's ambition is that the scale of his farming is not enough, and the economic project has just started, even if it is only to completely expand the number of soldiers and horses in this Chifeng battalion, I am afraid it will take a lot of time.

Li Xiaoxin preliminarily estimated that after the expansion is completed, it may take half a year before the expanded Chifeng Battalion soldiers and horses can truly form combat power.

Moreover, in the past six months, Li Xiao still has something to focus on, that is, to develop and expand the firearms unit.

Li Xiao thought to himself, but he didn't know that Shen Zhixiang, the deputy chief soldier of Dongjiang Town, had really kept the agreement and sent the group of firearms craftsmen who were doing maintenance work on Phi Island to Chifengwei.

If there are a batch of firearms craftsmen, Li Xiao's firearms research and development can really enter the substantive stage.

However, although Li Xiao was paying attention to this matter in his heart, there was a more important matter, but he was waiting for Li Xiao, who had just been promoted to the chief soldier of Chifeng, to do it.

That is, to go to Jintang City on Xuanfu North Road to check the progress of the work in this city.

After all, it has been more than half a year since I left in September last year, but I have never even seen what the built Jintang City looks like.

Therefore, after the banquet that day, Li Xiao stayed for two more days, and then resigned to Zu Dashou and others.

After saying goodbye to Zu Dashou and others, Li Xiao wanted to take Zu Wan'er to Jintang City together, but Zu Wan'er rarely went home once, and she was very reluctant.

"After I go, Wan'er has to take good care of herself." Before leaving, Li Xiao hugged Zu Wan'er, who had already pulled the woman's hair, with a look of concern and reluctance.

"The slave family will take care of themselves, but the husband is going to Xuanfu, but he has to be careful all the way." Zu Wan'er neatly dressed Li Xiao, and she was also full of affection.

"Don't worry, after I have been to Jintang City, I will return to Chifengwei immediately, and then wait for your return." Li Xiao hugged her tightly.

Zu Wan'er snuggled happily in front of Li Xiao's warm chest.

The two lingered for a long time, and Li Xiaocai said goodbye to Zu Wan'er.

"Father-in-law, please take care of Wan'er." Li Xiao, who led a group of cavalry out of the south gate of Jinzhou, looked back at the city of Jinzhou with a worried face, and then whispered to Zu Dale.

"Rest assured, Wan'er is the pearl of the old man's palm, and we will care for him. And let her go to the house for a while, and when the realm comes, the old man will personally send troops to escort her back to Chifengwei. Zu Dale smiled.

Li Xiao smiled and exchanged a few words with Zu Dale, and then led the crowd south.

Subsequently, Li Xiao and his entourage, all the way south, through Shanhaiguan into Yongning Mansion, and then turned westward, finally, a week later, through Yanqing Prefecture into the boundary of Xuanfu Town, and then turned north, two days later, arrived at Xuanfu North Road outside the Jintang City.

When Li Xiao saw from a distance the Jintang City, which showed his vast and majestic figure under the rising sun, endless joy and surging pride suddenly stirred in his chest.

(Thank you for the ququ monthly pass, thank you for your support). (To be continued.) )