The fifth day of the seventh month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen.

Early in the morning, the official road from Laizhou to Qingzhou was dusty, the people helped the old and the young, drove thousands of large and small ox carts and carriages, and carried countless backpackers, the marching team stretched for dozens of miles, and they were escorted by more than 3,000 soldiers, slowly moving towards the direction of Changyi City.

The whole army walked all morning, and it was almost noon, and the temperature was gradually rising, and the weather was becoming more and more intense.

Suddenly, a man in the team shouted in despair: "Father! What happened to you?! ”

An old man collapsed on the side of the road.

The man was accompanied by a woman with two children.

The people around looked at the family sympathetically, but they couldn't help it, no one didn't stop, and the team still moved forward slowly.

The man's shout soon drew several soldiers.

The man was a little afraid of the soldiers, so he was so frightened that he quickly carried his old father on his back, left the road, and carried his father to rest in the shade of a tree.

"Big brother, what's going on?" Several soldiers also followed and asked politely.

The man said anxiously, "My father fainted..."

One of the soldiers looked at it for a moment and comforted him: "Your father is just suffering from heat stroke, just rest for a while." ”

The soldiers flattened the old man's body, removed his clothes, shaded him, fed water, fanned the wind, and worked for a long time before the old man woke up.

The soldiers were about to leave when they were done, and they still had a task to keep the ranks in order. Unexpectedly, the woman on the side suddenly went crazy and ran to the team, lying on the road.

The woman kept shouting and making noise, and alone blocked the way of the group, and she threatened, "Don't give way until you give us a carriage or two!" ”

The official road, which was not spacious, was suddenly blocked, and the people behind were blocked and could not walk an inch, and the official road suddenly became noisy and noisy, and the shouting and scolding were endless.

Cui Dazhuang rode over on horseback, and he asked, "What's going on ahead?" ”

A soldier was embarrassed: "Back to General Cui, there is an old man who has suffered from heat stroke, and his family is blocking the road and is reluctant to go anymore. ”

Cui Dazhuang governed the army very strictly, and once strictly ordered that the people should not be bullied, and those who violated the order were whipped at the light and beheaded at the worst. Therefore, when the soldiers encountered a tricky matter, they did not dare to use force, and they mainly relied on persuasion, but they could only meet the unreasonable demands of the people.

The people on the road also watched the excitement and completely blocked the official road.

The soldier kindly persuaded: "Sister, we were originally cavalrymen, and my horses have been given to you, so how can there be any carriage now." ”

The woman didn't care about this, she said arrogantly, "I don't care, if you don't give our family a carriage, I won't get up." ”

The soldier was helpless, so he had to frighten: "Sister, we really don't have horses, and if we delay the journey, I'm afraid that the Tartars will chase and kill." ”

"Even if the Tartars come, I won't get up, I'm not afraid!" The woman rubbed dirt on the ground, and when she saw Cui Dazhuang coming, she pointed at him and said, "Look, that man has a horse, give us his horse!" But as soon as she finished speaking, she was afraid, and the general on horseback was full of murderous aura.

When the people saw a man on horseback, they knew it was a great official, for this was the first man on a horse they had seen in five days.

The person who came was Cui Dazhuang, who obeyed Wang Jian's will and moved the people of Laizhou to Qingzhou.

In the past month or so, he has fought thousands of miles, exterminated countless horse thieves, his skin was tanned by the scorching sun, and his body was more burly, he was no longer the hairy young man who had just come out of the mountain, but a general who made the Jiaodong bandits fearful.

Seeing Cui Dazhuang dismount and walk to him, the woman was a little frightened when she looked at him.

Cui Dazhuang asked the reason, and said majestically: "Set her up!" ”

Without saying a word, the two soldiers dragged the woman to the side of the road, and the man of the family hurriedly grabbed his daughter-in-law so that she would not get into trouble again.

A gust of wind blew and rolled up dust.

Cui Dazhuang looked at the old man who had fallen asleep from heat stroke under the shade of the tree, and he shouted: "Horse! ”

The soldiers on the side hurriedly led his horse over.

This horse has been following him since the day he left Beijing, Cui Dazhuang caressed its brown mane lovingly, and then led the horse to the front of the family, and said to the man: "This horse has been with me for nearly three months, dozens of battles, I have never abandoned it, I will give it to you today, I hope you treat it well!" ”

The man didn't expect Cui Dazhuang to really give him the horse, so he was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and kowtowed violently.

The woman was also ashamed and cried bitterly, pressing her eldest son's head and kowtowing to Cui Dazhuang.

Seeing that her father-in-law suffered from heat stroke, she took two children, the eldest just learned to walk, and the youngest was only a few months old. Without the carriage, they really couldn't walk.

Seeing this, the people next to them were also very moved, they all knew that these officers and soldiers escorted them all the way, in addition to ensuring their safety, but also to help them carry all kinds of luggage, they were also too tired, but never complained.

Moreover, except for a few war horses used to detect the enemy, the rest of the more than 1,000 war horses were all given to the people on the road.

Cui Dazhuang said majestically: "The whole army rests, and continue to rush after an hour!" ”

Cui Dazhuang came to the improvised pergola, saw that Confucius Meng wanted to speak and stopped, and asked, "What is on the mind of Mr.?" ”

After getting along for more than a month, the two complemented each other well, and several times they listened to the advice of Confucius and Meng, and Cui Dazhuang was invincible.

Confucius Shimeng said with a serious expression: "General Cui, our troops are too small, it's okay to deal with thieves, if you encounter a Tartar, I'm afraid it will be more than lucky." ”

Cui Dazhuang was puzzled: "Tartar? Where did the tartars come from? According to intelligence, the nearest Qing soldiers were also in the city of Cangzhou, thousands of miles away. ”

Confucius Shimeng groaned: "Haoge naturally doesn't dare to come, if he dares to come, if the emperor copies his back road, he is afraid that there will be no return, what I am worried about is the sea." ”

"At sea? You mean the Tartars across the sea? Impossible. ”

"Yes, I'm not afraid of 10,000, I'm afraid of just in case. Besides, we are still migrating with hundreds of thousands of people, and it is inevitable that the news will leak out, and if they come across the sea, it will be dangerous! ”

"What does the gentleman think?"

"Conscription, there are now more than 600,000 people, and there are countless young and strong people, if we recruit them to expand our troops, then we can also have a defense."

"No, there is no need to talk about this anymore!" Cui Dazhuang didn't think about refusing.

Conscription, Cui Dazhuang didn't think about it, but private conscription is a taboo, and he will never do it.

Confucius Shimeng sighed helplessly, he also knew that conscription without permission would make the emperor suspicious, and it was a taboo for generals, but the current situation always made him have a bad premonition.

I was really afraid of something, and in the evening, the scout came to report: Kong Youde led 30,000 horses to land from Wang Xu Zhai and went straight to Laizhou City, which was only more than 200 miles away from them.