After a free conversation, Wang Maozhang said: "King, the minister has been guarding Ezhou for four years, except for some bandits, he has not even experienced a decent war; However, the minister dares to guarantee that none of the soldiers of the National Army in Zuozhen are of a bad breed, and if they go to the battlefield, they will definitely be able to perform well. ”

Yang Wu smiled: "I also believe that your subordinates can perform well, but this record is played, not blown; It's useless to just talk about it. When you get to the battlefield in a few days, I want to see if you behave like you say! ”

It's good to have confidence, but what Yang Wu worries about is that he is overconfident.

This attack on Jiangling should be reasonable to say that there should not be many problems, but the recent news from all sides shows that Liang and Shu have taken precautions against the attack of the Wu army, and a large number of Shu and Liang troops have been assembled in Guizhou and Xiangzhou.

Although it is not certain whether the two have been united, whether it is Yang Wu, or Guo Chongtao, Zhu Jin and others who are with the army's staff officers and military aircraft, they all believe that they should prepare for the worst.

Therefore, today's Yang Wu no longer has the same casualness as when he set off from Jinling.

He introduced the specific situation to the generals, and sure enough, all the generals became serious.

Seeing this, Yang Wu couldn't help but laugh in his heart.

"It is worthy of a veteran who has been on the battlefield for decades, and this most basic caution is still there."

After talking for a long time, Yang Wu's boat also slowly leaned on the dock, and Wang Maozhang stood up at this time and said: "The king, the minister has ordered his subordinates to line up outside the city to greet him, and ask the king to go and review!" ”

"Review your people? That's not bad! Lone also wants to see if there is anything surprising about the subordinates who make you so confident! Yang Wu suddenly became interested and immediately agreed.

Wang Maozhang said happily: "The minister will arrange it first!" ”

After Wang Maozhang retreated, Zhu Qianyou, the commander of the capital who came with him to meet him, paused for a moment before leaving the ship, and then turned back.

Yang Wu was a little surprised when he saw it, and immediately asked, "General Zhu went and returned, but what do you have to report to Gu Yu alone?" ”

Zhu Qianyou was one of Wang Maozhang's two most trusted generals, and he had followed him in the Quartet for a long time.

Later, Wang Maozhang's position was promoted all the way, and his position rose with the tide, and now he is the commander of the Zuozhen National Army.

Wang Maozhang's other confidant at the beginning was Zhang Chong, but unfortunately this person was too greedy for money, and was dismissed a few years ago for privately taxing the people, leaving Zhu Qianyou to continue to follow Wang Maozhang.

So at this time, Zhu Qianyou suddenly had something to report to him, but he didn't say it in front of Wang Maozhang, which naturally surprised Yang Wu.

Zhu Qianyou hesitated for a moment, and then replied in a low voice: "King, the reason why the last general turned back is indeed that he has something important to report to the king. General Wang fought on the battlefield in the past, and he had always taken the lead in the battle, and he suffered a lot of wounds, especially when he was a junior colonel, he was seriously injured and dying, but fortunately he was rescued in time, and only then did he pick up a life. ”

Yang Wu nodded and motioned for him to continue.

Wang Maozhang was Yang Xingmi's bodyguard at the beginning, and later because of his bravery, he got the opportunity to be promoted, from a small battalion commander, has been promoted to the governor who is now in charge of the 20,000 army, relying on the support of Yang Xingmi and Yang Wu father and son, but also because of his personal bravery.

So Yang Wu was not surprised by what Zhu Qianyou said.

I only heard Zhu Qianyou continue: "King, General Wang hasn't been on the battlefield much in the past few years, but the general's body is a little weak, especially the trauma he suffered at the beginning, and now he is often injured, and sometimes he even vomits blood and falls into a coma......."

"What? Is it so serious? Yang Wu was shocked.

No wonder after seeing Wang Maozhang this time, I felt that he was much older than the last time I saw him.

You must know that Wang Maozhang is not very old, he is only forty years old now, and he is the youngest among those veterans, that is, Qin Pei and Zhu Siqing, who are known as "rising stars", who are also older than Wang Maozhang.

However, Zhu Siqing, these generals, now all look still strong, in Yang Wu's opinion, they will have no problem living for more than ten or twenty years, but I didn't expect Wang Maozhang to be so weak.

"Since General Wang's old injuries have recurred, and he even vomited blood and fell into a coma, how can he not know such a big thing?" Yang Wu raised his voice and asked with some dissatisfaction, while looking at Fan Yu on the side.

Zhu Qianyou hurriedly explained: "Don't blame General Fan, the king, this is also General Wang's hidden good, except for the last general, there are no more than ten people in the army who know about it!" So it's normal for General Fan not to know. ”

Yang Wuleng paused for a moment, and then understood.

Although the people of the Long Sword Capital will do some surveillance on those generals who lead the troops, this is what these generals themselves know; However, this kind of surveillance is not strict, after all, the long sword is not a spy agency like Jinyiwei, and it is impossible to monitor his own people so closely.

You must know that even Jinyiwei was established after the Ming Dynasty unified the world, and if there is chaos today, and all forces are fighting endlessly, Wu still has a long way to go before unifying the world.

Under such circumstances, closely monitoring every general like a thief like Jinyiwei is undoubtedly a very demoralizing and cohesive practice.

Therefore, under this kind of not very close supervision, if Wang Maozhang has the intention to conceal it, it is indeed possible to hide it from the people of the Long Sword Capital.

As for why Wang Maozhang hid the recurrence of his old injury, Yang Wu could also guess the reason, which was nothing more than that he was worried that he would recall him back to Jinling, thus making him lose the opportunity to lead the troops to fight.

You must know that Wang Maozhang has not had any war in Ezhou in the past three years, and now he is finally waiting for a large-scale war, and he is naturally unwilling to give up this opportunity.

Zhu Qianyou saw that Yang Wu was silent, and immediately knew that he had figured out the reason for the matter, and immediately requested: "King, the last general thinks that General Wang is sincere in his meritorious service, which is understandable; However, General Wang took such a pity for his body, and now he is only forty years old, like an old man, and the last general asked the king to give an order to recall General Wang to Jinling to recuperate after this battle! ”

Yang Wu nodded and said: "It should be so, General Wang has made great contributions to the establishment of this dynasty, so naturally he can't be allowed to come so nonsense; He is only forty years old now, and he still expects him to lead the army in the future and make the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains! ”

Zhu Qianyou said happily: "Then I will thank the king for his grace!" ”

His words were sincere, obviously genuinely grateful, which made Yang Wu value him even more.

You must know that Zhu Qianyou's current position is a little delicate, on the one hand, as Wang Maozhang's cronies, when he sees his lord coming in such a mess, he has the responsibility to raise it to Yang Wu, otherwise it will be a dereliction of duty; But on the other hand, as Wang Maozhang's deputy, if Wang Maozhang resigns and returns to Jinling to recuperate, he is likely to take over Wang Maozhang's position.

In this way, if he explained Wang Maozhang's illness to Yang Wu, it might cause misunderstanding among others, and some people would think that he was deliberately reporting to Yang Wu for his own future; But if he didn't say anything, but helped Wang Maozhang hide it, it would be a loss of his duty, and he would also ignore the love between him and Wang Maozhang for many years.

However, now, in the face of this dilemma, Zhu Qianyou seems to be completely unaware of half of it, and is completely sincerely happy for Wang Maozhang, which is either that this person is loyal and righteous, and he didn't think it was so complicated at all; Either this person's acting skills are too high, and even Yang Wu and others have been deceived by him.

Of course, Yang Wu feels that the former situation is more likely, Zhu Qianyou is just a general after all, not those old fritters in officialdom, and his acting skills should not be so high.

After Zhu Qianyou left, Qin Pei and Hou Zhan's expressions were also a little unnatural.

Yang Wu's heart moved, and he hurriedly asked: "General Wang was originally a fierce general, and he often took the lead; And General Hou and General Qin are the same, the two generals also suffered a lot of injuries when they fought on the battlefield back then, right? I wonder what the situation is now? ”

Speaking of which, the veterans left by Yang Xingmi back then, except for Li Shenfu and Tai Meng, who can be called talented generals who win with wisdom, the other generals are basically brave.

In fact, in this era, the courage of the generals, whether an army has combat effectiveness or not, often depends on whether their generals are brave enough; Like Zhou Ben, Wang Maozhang, Qin Pei, Hou Zan and other generals of Wu State, as well as generals such as Zhang Xun and Liu Cun who have passed away, they are all known for their bravery.

And now the famous general Liu Zhijun, who has defected to Qi State, as well as the famous general Ge Congzhou of Liang State, and the famous generals of Jin State Zhou Dewei, Li Cunzhang, Li Sizhao, etc., are also known for their bravery.

Of course, in addition to being brave, these generals can occasionally play a "stroke of genius" and score some appalling victories, such as Zhou Ben's Battle of Ivory Pond.

But for the most part, they still won with bravery.

Hou Zan and Qin Pei, the two generals, were also regular pioneers back then, especially Hou Zan , as a cavalry general, it was very common for him to personally lead the troops to charge, and when he was following Zhu Jin, he had many times with a small number of cavalry to face the siege of enemy troops several times his own.

After so many tragic battles, they are afraid that they have also left a lot of injuries on their bodies; On the battlefield, those injuries and illnesses cannot be effectively treated, and they are often finished after stopping the bleeding, but the body is left with many hidden wounds.

When they are young, these dark wounds don't matter, and when they are old, these injuries are afraid that they will kill them.