The night was deep, and the vast mountains of Liaodong were low into the embrace of the night. Tonight was a sunny day, the sky was full of twinkling stars, the moonlight smeared the heavens and the earth with a layer of silver glow, in a mountain nest less than thirty miles away from Hui'an Fort, Yue Xiang and the others were lying behind the trees in the night to peep outside.

Through the starlight in the sky, you can vaguely see the mountain road outside, and there seems to be no people.

They had just come out of a crevice in the hidden rock of the mountain, which was usually covered with trees so tightly that no one could see it even during the day, let alone at night.

Yue Xiang had long expected that there must be another passage leading to the outside in the secret room under the broken temple, otherwise the iron gate would have blocked the way back, if there was no other secret passage, wouldn't it trap people below. Sure enough, after they found the treasure map that they didn't know was true of, they looked around in the secret room, and really found a well-disguised moving stone, and the breeze that Yue Xiang felt in the secret room was blowing in through the gap next to the stone.

And behind the stone, there is a hole, a zigzag mountain crack extends in, through the mountain wind that runs through it, it can be judged that it is a living road, Yue Xiang and the others walked along the mountain crack in the dark for nearly two hours, needless to say the hardships during the period, Xiao Wan's feet were swollen, and she rested countless times, and when she finally came out of the mountain crack, Xiao Wan was almost exhausted and collapsed.

No one can walk anymore, including Yue Xiang, and it is very unsafe to walk at night in this barren mountain area, Wang Yining thinks that since the purpose of the Jurchen soldiers is Yue Xiang, they obviously have obtained accurate information, so they can no longer go to Puhe as originally planned, and the road back to Qinghe must also be guarded.

Yue Xiang helped Xiao Wan find a grass nest and helped her lie down. She fell asleep almost as soon as she closed her eyes, and Yue Xiang sat next to her. Wang Yining was opposite him. And Ma Sandao and Li Shoucai were far away from leaning against a tree, as if they were hypnotized, and they felt that the whole person had aged by twenty years at once.

The two of them didn't say a word along the way, as if they had lost their souls, in fact, they had been like this since they were in the secret room, and the words written on the treasure map directly shattered their illusions, and it seemed that they couldn't stand the blow and fell into a state of distraction.

Yue Xiang also felt a little pitiful when he saw them, after all, they hadn't done anything bad by their side except for the identity of the Red Envelope Society that they had been hiding before. In addition, following himself to life and death on the battlefield, loyal to himself, and now only the two of them are left with his hundreds of subordinates, and he really can't bear to give up this little bit of incense.

"Let's rest here for a while, I really can't walk, let's talk about it when it's dawn." We are not familiar with the terrain and roads here, and it is easy to get into trouble when we walk around. Wang Yining was still holding his feet, rubbing his face bitterly, Yue Xiang really didn't expect him to grit his teeth and hold on until now.

"Dawn......" Yue Xiang looked up at the starry sky, "Dawn maybe the Tartars are coming, alas......" He sighed, but there was nothing to do, everyone present was too tired to eat, and it was useless for him to say anything else. Besides, he himself felt a little unbearable. The battle along the way is constantly dangerous, ordinary people have long been tossed and lying down, and it is not easy for them to survive until now.

"Not necessarily, I guess we are generally going south, as long as we get to Hui'an Fort, we will not be afraid." Wang Yining looked up at the stars in the sky, as if he was discerning the direction.

"Fort Hui'an? I don't think it's better to count on it, I don't know if everyone has run out. Yue Xiang had already recognized that they were heading south, but he really didn't have confidence in the Ming army in Liaodong now, if the Jurchen soldiers really went to copy their own back road, then they would definitely pass through the defense area of the Ming army in Hui'an Fort, and as long as the officers and soldiers there could hold on to the Goatyu Fort and not abandon the city and flee, they would be considered a Bodhisattva manifestation.

"Not necessarily, if your Li Dai Taozhuang's plan is successful, the main force of the Jurchen should be chasing Yang Shan and them north to Huabao Chong and Fu'anbao, and there will not be many people who come back." Wang Yining sighed lightly.

"Moreover, the officers and soldiers stationed in Puhe are under the command of the deputy general Li Guangrong, and Wang Xuan, the commander of the garrison of Hui'an Fort, are all quite courageous people among the Liao generals, and they may be frightened in the face of the main enemy; However, if it is a small group of enemies, it may not be afraid to fight. The officers and soldiers you met earlier who fought against Yangshan were the subordinates of Wang Xuan of Hui'an Fort. ”

"Oh? It turned out to be a soldier from Fort Hui'an. When Yue Xiang recalled it, he felt that the officers and soldiers at that time were not incompetent, they advanced and retreated in an orderly manner under the night battle, fought bravely, and were obviously well-trained, unlike ordinary officers and soldiers who only knew how to bully the weak and fear the hard.

"I don't know how many Jurchens there are in this mountainous area for hundreds of miles, I don't believe that they can completely surround this mountain so that there is not a single road left? As long as we are careful and adaptable, we still have a good chance of getting out. Wang Yining's words carried an optimistic confidence.

"Hmph, daring to go to war with bandits doesn't mean that they dare to fight with the pigtailed soldiers, haven't you heard that the Jurchens are dissatisfied with ten thousand people, and the world is in turmoil? To tell you the truth, this slip of the tongue was the first to spread among the officers and soldiers. I've been in the army for a long time, and I know exactly what kind of virtue our officers and soldiers are. It's good to be improvised, but I advise you not to put too much weight on the officers and soldiers, otherwise you will definitely suffer. ”

"Hey, you yourself are also a general of the imperial court now, so it's okay to save some face for the officers and soldiers." Wang Yining seems to be in good spirits, and he still has the heart to joke.

"No matter what face they save, they don't want to lose face themselves. The officers and soldiers lost the battle, and even let the people organize their own volunteer brigades to defend the city. Besides, I'm also the commander of the light pole at the moment, and I don't receive a salary, and the seal letter has not been sent yet, so I can only obediently give way after I go back. ”

"I don't think so, now you have a ready-made treasure in hand, the court is worried about having no money to recruit soldiers, I heard that the new economic strategy Yang Hao has arrived at Shanhaiguan, as long as you are willing, not to mention the general, it is the general of Qian, the deputy general, and the general."

"Yang Ho? Yang Hao can't win, he is too far behind Nurhachi. Yue Xiang glanced at Wang Yining in surprise, although he had said that the money would definitely not be used to support the current commander, but Wang Yining's opinion was still very important to him. After all, he didn't know whether the history of the era he was in now had been affected, whether it would turn a fork or continue in the original direction.

"It's strange, you decided from the beginning that Yang Hao couldn't win, and you swore so much. This battle hasn't been fought yet, how do you know if you can't win it? After all, the Ming Dynasty has a large number of soldiers, and there are only tens of thousands of Jurchens in Jianzhou, compared with the Ming Dynasty......"

"In the Northern Song Dynasty, when the Liaodong Jurchen Wanyan Agu raised an army against the Liao, he was a thousand people, and finally destroyed the Khitan and drove the Song family to the south of the Yangtze River. Fighting a war is not about winning with a large number of people. Yang Ho commanded the army, for example, a flock of sheep led by wild boars, and the Eight Banners Army of Nurhachi in Jianzhou was a pack of wolves led by fierce tigers. Ten times more pigs and sheep, they are no match for tigers and wolves. ”

"Here we go again, listening to your tone, it's like you can't beat it, can you predict it? The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have become pigs and sheep to be slaughtered in your mouth? ”

"Whether it's a pig or a tiger or a wolf, it mainly depends on who is the leader, I don't think Yang Hao is a tiger. And Nurhachi has proven that he himself is not a lamb to the slaughter, and even if Yang Ho is a tiger, I think he would dare to eat a tiger. ”

"Do you know until you can eat it, you haven't even seen what Yang Ho looks like, how can you tell if he's a pig or a tiger based on some hearsay? Don't forget that there is another word in this world called pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger. ”

"The so-called pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger means that it is not a pig itself, so it needs to be pretended. If it was, what else to pretend? Don't forget how the Ulsan fiasco came about when you were in North Korea, and only half of the more than 40,000 people came back alive. And the opponent is in the early 20,000s, including reinforcements. ”

"The Japanese are fierce and good at fighting, which has been famous since the Jiajing Dynasty, and it is not comparable to leisure."

"That's a good point, but the strength and courage of the Jurchen Tartars are even more incomparable to the Japanese Kou."

"I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary, besides, are Tartars that terrible? Back then, Ning Yuanbo guarded Liaodong, and many girls and real Tartars were beaten by him, and Nurhachi also made him a minion, if the Jurchens were really as powerful as you said, wouldn't they have turned against the sky a long time ago? ”

"Ning Yuanbo, what year is that old imperial calendar? Say now. How did Zhang Chengyin under Fushun City be wiped out? More than 10,000 elite Liao troops, as well as firearms and iron cannons to help, digging trenches and building fortifications, and they were completely crushed by the Jianzhou Iron Cavalry before they could even hold out for an hour. I think that even the elite Mongolian soldiers under Genghis Khan were nothing more than that. Looking at the officers and soldiers, even the Gulin bandits under Yang Shan can't be defeated, so there is no need to talk about this combat effectiveness. ”

"What if the Liao soldiers are unbearable? The Ming Dynasty claimed to have 1.8 million soldiers and horses, but not the Liao soldiers, the Gan soldiers, the Sichuan soldiers, the Zhejiang soldiers, and the Beijing soldiers. Could it be that among this million-strong army, there is not a single hero who has beaten Nurhachi, and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses with combat effectiveness cannot be found. ”

"Yes, there is, but unfortunately the distant water does not quench the thirst of the near. Liao affairs need to be solved by Liao people. There are heroes and heroes in the army of our Ming Dynasty, but unfortunately they have all been selected by the generals of various wealthy families to be their own tribal masters. If you can ...... the world No, there is no need for the world, it is the families and private soldiers of the wealthy families in eastern Liaodong gathered together, and I think there is a fight with the Jianzhou Jurchens. It's a pity that they should hand over their own households, it's like digging up their meat, alas......"

"Could it be that except for these people, the others are all wine bags and rice bags?"

"I can't say the same, it's mainly about who is in charge, and if so, it's a different ...... Well? Yue Xiang suddenly looked at Wang Yining strangely, looking him up and down.

"Haven't you always been dissatisfied with the imperial court before? It's really strange that you, a halfway bandit, actually talked to the court. If you have such confidence in the imperial court, why bother to be a thief, wouldn't it be better to simply become an official. Besides, even if the court and Nurhachi start a war, what does it have to do with you, a grass people, who wins and who loses? What are you doing here? ”

"What? The sound of wind and rain, the sound of reading, the sound of the ear. State affairs, family affairs, world affairs, everything is concerned. The rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of the husband, why can't I, a small people, care about national affairs? Besides, even a lawless person like you has run away to become an official, so why make a fuss about it if I talk about it a little? ”

"You are lawless, who is going up the mountain and falling into the grass...... Wait, what did you just say? Yue Xiang was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and Wang Yining was also stunned by his question.

"What do you mean?"

"It's the sound of the wind and rain, the sound of reading, the sound of the ear; State affairs, family affairs, world affairs, everything is concerned. ”

"What's wrong with those two sentences?" Wang Yining was surprised in his heart, Liaodong was located outside the Guan, and was regarded by the Central Plains people as a barren land, almost an isolated area. Yue Xiang didn't leave Qinghe, so he shouldn't have heard of these two words.

"Donglin Academy......" Yue Xiang's mouth popped out of these four words, "Do you know the people of the Donglin Party?" ”