Chapter 304: Warriors

"The enemy is five miles ahead, Guards, charge!"

"Charge!"

Three hundred horsemen swept down from the Pinggang, although the number was not large, but the momentum set off was no different from that of thousands of troops. These were musket-carrying dragoons, and in order to lighten the weight of the horses and increase the speed of the charge, they wore cotton armor. When they charged, they used not muskets, but sabres bent like a crescent moon - although the Song dynasty and the opposition realized that muskets were the most important weapons on the battlefield of the future, this unit did not abandon the training of cold weapons. In the pursuit of the remnants of the enemy, when the ammunition is exhausted, the saber will remain one of the most important weapons of this force.

The rolling yellow dust soon covered the sky, Wang Qinian looked at this momentum with satisfaction, turned back to the first subordinate who was sitting on a horse with a hard booklet and nodded: "Yes, write it down." ”

The subordinate immediately smiled, they had been training in this mountainous area for a whole month, and Wang Qinian had passed this pass, which meant that they could walk out of this isolated mountainous area, transfer to Datong, and directly face Menghu.

"Let's go first, and see if these boys know how to work around without our orders." Wang Qinian turned his horse's head: "Dragoon, dragoon, do you know what dragoon means?" ”

Several generals behind him shouted at the same time: "Go deep into a desperate situation, be surrounded by captives, fight more with less, and die and live!" ”

"Exactly, the Son of Heaven gave us sixteen words, that is, we can have combat power even when we are deep behind enemy lines, all the tribes on this grassland, originally relied on guerrilla raids and plunders to consume our Central Plains strength, and now we are more capable of guerrillas, more persevering, and more decisive than them."

When establishing the dragoon troops, Zhao and Ju determined the essence of these sixteen characters for them, in his opinion, the dragoons were the minions of the dragon in Huaxia, an offensive force, not for defense. When the Great Song Dynasty was about to attack, although the decisive battle must rely on the infantry, before that, it was the dragoons that forced the enemy to accept the decisive battle. When the title of "Guards Dragoon" was decided, the ministers still felt that this was a bit arrogant, but at the insistence of Zhao and Ju, they also acquiesced.

Instead of going back the way they came, the group took a small road, and after walking a short distance from the path, they saw intermittent coal dust coming from the road. Today, when the steam engine is becoming more and more popular, coal is the food of the industry, and without coal, the industrial production capacity of the Great Song Dynasty will be reduced by eighty percent. When an officer saw the coal, he shook his head: "These guys are too wasteful, although there is a lot of coal in Hedong, they can't help tossing like this." ”

"This is a civil administration, and it should not be paid attention to by the military." Wang Qinian snorted, and the officer shut up and smiled bitterly.

Wang Qinian is known as the "flying general" in the army, and in the two major battles with Menghu, he landed by boat from Tamluo Island in Haidong, rushed to the battlefield in the shortest possible time, and carried out key battles, which can really be regarded as a great achievement. He was also a pure soldier, and even when he was on Tamna Island, he never intervened in the civil administration of Tamna Island. Li Ye once blamed him for this, but he said excitedly: "Martial artists are murder weapons, they should only be external and not internal, how can they interfere in government affairs and make the king worry about the people?" ”

A group of more than 10 people believed in the reins and walked along the path with coal dust, and after a while, they saw a concrete hardened road. Looking at this road, Wang Qinian's face moved slightly, although he did not interfere in civil affairs, he couldn't help but secretly sigh that these coal owners in Hedong were rich. This kind of concrete road is not uncommon in the rich Liangzhejiang, and it is not uncommon in Bianliang, which has received a large number of bank loans, but in Hedong, which has only been restored for more than two years, it is really emotional.

The group walked forward silently, and suddenly the guard who was walking in the front suddenly raised the riding gun in his hand and shouted: "Who! ”

Wang Qinian frowned again, they deliberately chose this mountainous area to perform, because there were few people here, so as not to harass the people too much. But thinking that even the concrete road had been built here, he shook his head again, and it was inevitable to encounter the people.

I saw a sound of jogging in the grass, but for a long time I didn't see anyone in the grass come out, and the sentry shouted again, pulled the bolt, and prepared to shoot.

"Wait a minute, catch it alive." Wang Qinian stopped him and pouted forward.

The two guards grinned and hung their rifles on their horses, dismounted, and slowly moved in that direction, both of them were trained to capture prisoners, and regarded Wang Qinian's orders as an assessment of themselves.

As they approached the bushes, a man suddenly sprang out of the bushes, screaming, "I'm fighting with you," and grabbed one of the guards. The guard had a good fist and kick, and he was not afraid, but the man had great strength, and the guard struggled under this hug, and was hugged by the man, and rolled on the ground a few times, almost seven or eight elements.

It was only a matter of moments, and another guard rushed up and scuffled with the man, who had the upper hand at first, but after a few breaths, the man was so strong that he pressed the guard to the ground again, and rode and thrashed. Wang Qinian snorted coldly when he saw it, and two guards rushed over and pushed the man down together, because he hated him for sweeping everyone's face, one of the two guards stepped on his neck, and the other stepped on his waist, and the force was quite ruthless, and the man could only barely raise his head so as not to eat a mouthful of soil.

"Thief bird, if it weren't for Lao Tzu's hunger and lack of strength, how could he be caught by you!"

The man looked simple, and although he was pressed to the ground, he still didn't dare to admit defeat. Wang Qinian laughed, thinking that this man was interesting, he reached out and took a revolver from the hand of his general, tilted his head to look at the kid, and then shot at the side, and a crow fell in response.

"Can you dodge this when you have the strength?" Wang Qinian said with a smile.

"Huh?"

The man, who was frightened by the gunshot, took a long time before he vomited: "You are Song Jun?" ”

These words immediately alerted Wang Qinian, and he frowned: "You are not from Song?" ”

"I'm a golden man...... Now it seems that you are also Song people, you are officers and soldiers, save people, save people! The man howled.

"What?" Wang Qinian asked again: "Who are you, and who do you want us to save?" ”

"My name is Tang Shili!" The man said loudly.

After Tang Shili and the others were brought to the Zhuangzi, they began to live in darkness, eating every day was indeed full, but they had to get up early in the morning and enter the bottomless mine, digging out a basket of coal, so tired that everyone didn't even have the strength to talk to each other. Tang Shili watched his companions die in a mining accident almost every few days, and when they asked to quit their jobs, it was a severe beating, and they demanded to settle their wages, which was still a severe beating.

At this time, they understood why the group of people who tricked them into calling them "piglets".

Although he was clumsy, it took nearly two hours to finally explain the matter clearly, and Wang Qinian was furious when he heard it: "There is such a thing!" Qiao Zhidong! ”

"Here!"

The named dragoon generals stood up.

"You go and gather the troops, and when everyone is ready, follow this kid to the black-hearted coal factory, don't let one go!" Wang Qinian's words were murderous: "I allow you to shoot if necessary!" ”

"Yes!" After Qiao Zhidong heard this, he was also full of murderous intent, they were all veterans of the battlefield who followed Wang Qinian to fight in the east and west, and killing people was not a problem for them at all.

"Wait!"

A young officer beside Wang Qinian finally couldn't help it, and his face turned red: "Participate, don't you mean...... Doesn't it mean that martial artists don't do government affairs? ”

"This is not government affairs, this is saving people." Wang Qinian snorted, and then he said: "Your Majesty set up the Guards, not to protect those greedy black-hearted coal bosses, our brothers in the Guards shed their blood to recover the Central Plains, in order for the people of the Central Plains to live a good life, not to be beaten by this gang of scum!" ”

His words were crisp and apparently thoughtful, and the dragoons often heard him say that martial artists were not allowed to interfere in politics, but they did not expect that there was such a thought behind it.

Qiao Zhidong turned his horse backwards in response, Wang Qinian motioned to the guards to take out dry food for Tang Shili to eat, Tang Shili ate three large bags of dry food and four field cans, and the guards were dumbfounded. Not to mention the canned food, the dry food is the field dry food after compression, of course the taste is not very good, ordinary people eat a small bag and are full, and this Tang Shili still looks unsatisfied!

"Are you full?" Wang Qinian also found it interesting, no wonder this guy's strength is comparable to a bison.

"It's just seven points ......full," Tang Shili said honestly.

"Then why don't you eat it?" Wang Qinian asked again.

"I'm afraid that if I eat too much, the general won't care about our ......"

"Huh?" Unexpectedly, this fool also had a fool's mind, Wang Qinian and the dragoons were stunned for a moment, and then they all laughed. Wang Qinian felt that this simple person was very funny, and after thinking about it, he asked: "What are your plans now, do you want to serve in the army?" ”

"My old lady said when she was alive, a good man is not a soldier, a good iron does not hit nails, I don't do it!"

"Follow me as a soldier, not only are you full of esophagus today, but also oily braised pork, do you want to do it?" Thinking of the story of being deceived, Wang Qinian asked again.

Tang Shili's eyes immediately straightened when he heard this, he really had no resistance to being full, although he had just been fooled a few days ago, but when he heard Wang Qinian talk about it again, he couldn't help but shake his mind: "Aren't you me?" ”

"How could Lao Tzu scold you, could it be that Lao Tzu also wants you to dig coal?" Wang Qinian laughed.

Although he sent troops to sweep the black-hearted coal factory, he only grabbed the owner and thugs of the coal factory and sent them to the local prison, and did not come to trial himself, and did not take the crucial step of the martial arts to interfere in politics. In addition, he also wrote a steady stream of this matter into a recital, and urgently played it with Zhao and Ju.

On the sixth day of April in the seventh year of Yanhuang, Lin'an City.

Prime Minister Cui walked unhurriedly, the heat of the early summer did not make him feel uncomfortable, on the contrary, when the temperature rose, he was like a bear waking up from hibernation, looking around hungrily, looking for suitable food - for him, the most suitable food was to help Zhao and Ju deal with those tedious government affairs involving many interests. So far, he himself and the Son of Heaven have been very satisfied with his ability to deal with these things.

In front of the palace gate to see the original need to stand, later Zhao and Ju sympathetic ministers, specially let people set up a seat, Cui sat down with not long after, then saw the Ministry of Shangshu Zou Yinglong, the criminal department Shangshu Zhao Kui and Dali Temple Zhengqing Yuan Shao. Cui He was a little strange in his heart: "You are all here to ask for your majesty?" ”

"Your Majesty sent someone to summon me." The oldest of these three should be regarded as Zou Yinglong, but the oldest is Yuan Shao, the head of Dali Temple, and it is Zou Yinglong who came forward to answer, and Yuan Shao sat quietly after the salute, looking like he closed his eyes and recuperated.

Hearing Zou Yinglong's answer, Cui nodded with him, and had a good idea of what might be involved in this summoning of the Son of Heaven.

The Criminal Department and Dali Temple are enforcing the law and trying each other, Zhao Kui and Yuan Shao came, of course, because there was a big case, and Zou Yinglong, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, was also there, proving that this case involved officials. Cui He tried hard to recall the twists and turns he had seen in the past few days, most of them were related to the Northern Expedition that had already begun, and the few that involved the criminal law were also some routines, and there seemed to be nothing worth fighting about.

Then it can only be a twist and turn through the military intelligence system, and the twists and turns of the Son of Heaven from the military intelligence system are not through the hands of the prime minister, which is also the right thing for the Son of Heaven to monopolize the military power. But the twists and turns of the military intelligence system should only have something to do with the criminal department at most, why are the officials and Dali Temple involved?

Cui He immediately became vigilant in his heart, just like all scholars and doctors since the Song Dynasty, he thought of the extremely dangerous four words: martial arts interfere in politics.

Although he did not have access to the intelligence of the military intelligence system, this did not mean that Cui He knew nothing about the army of the Great Song. Whether it is the Forbidden Army, which is being reduced, or the Guards that are constantly expanding, or even those who have been transferred to the Ministry of Punishment, because of the successive victories over the years, they are falling into an unprecedented optimism or restlessness.

"The Great Song Heavenly Soldiers are invincible, how can we make the surrounding small countries insult the dignity of our Celestial Empire, wherever the interests of my Great Song Dynasty people are damaged, there must be a chance for my Great Song Heavenly Soldiers to be powerful!"

Such an atmosphere permeated the young officers in the army, especially among the young and strong officers of the former forbidden army who had entered the army academy for training. They were very happy to use force, and they were very dissatisfied with the fact that the Song Dynasty had such a strong force and still adopted a more restrained approach on the frontier issue, and of course they would not blame the emperor for this practice - on the contrary, they had a complete reverence and love for the emperor, and they believed that it was the civil bureaucracy around the emperor that caused all this, and it was these civil officials who had always discriminated against the military people that bound the hands and feet of the Son of Heaven and made it impossible for the Son of Heaven to carry out his ambitions.

The most resented by the warriors is the former Hubu Shangshu and the current Governor Wei Liaoweng, followed by Zhao Shanxiang, the military secretary who was regarded by the warriors as a betrayal of the martial arts class and the royal family, as for Cui He, he is not ranked in this list.

Although he was not the object of the martial arts' resentment, Cui He understood that if the resentment of the martial artists was not restrained, then the hard-won situation of the Great Song Dynasty would come to naught in the infighting among the military generals. If what the Son of Heaven said today is really the beginning of military generals' interference in politics, then he must take action to repel it.

Even if he made himself on the list of martial artists' resentment, he thought to himself.