In the dense forest, Xue Peng and his soldiers ate the dried meat and hot water handed over by the Jingwei Battalion, and couldn't help but gobble it up for a while, and after a while, the chewing sound gradually faded down.

After discovering that the Jingwei Battalion would indeed not harm themselves, many of Xue Peng's soldiers relaxed their nervous expressions, and then leaned against the trunk of the tree and fell asleep, they were too tired these days.

"General Xue, take a drink." Qin Mo handed his wine bag to Xue Peng, Xue Peng took it and poured two mouthfuls, and suddenly felt more comfortable again. Liu Ce on the other side didn't say a word, stuck two pieces of dried meat on the branches, and was roasting them on the fire.

Seeing Xue Peng's embarrassed appearance, Qin Mo couldn't help but ask, "Isn't General Xue in Shengzhou?" Why is it here?"

"Alas~ This matter is a long story......" Xue Peng handed the wine in his hand back to Qin Mo, Qin Mo shook his head and motioned for Xue Peng to keep it for himself.

Xue Peng said with humiliation on his face, embarrassed: "I don't want to talk about this matter, but Mr. Qin has a life-saving grace for me, and he is a hero among people, so it doesn't hurt to talk to you......" As he spoke, he also glanced at Liu Ce on the side, only to see that he looked calm and didn't seem to care.

Xue Peng paused and said, "Have you ever heard of Lord Xue's beloved daughter?"

Qin Mo nodded: "How can Lord Xue's palm pearl ink not know?" Although I didn't have the opportunity to meet each other, I heard that this woman was all over the country and the city, and she knew everything about piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and knew everything, although she was young, she was more sensible and ambitious than many Confucian students who read poetry and books, and I heard that many sons of famous families squeezed their heads to marry the beloved daughter of Lord Xue's family at any cost? Isn't there a nursery rhyme 'Jiang Jiaruoyan Saichang'e, Gyeonggi is like a iris skin wins the snow'? How? Could it be that General Xue is here to have something to do with Miss Ru Kite?"

Xue Peng sighed, nodded his acquiescence, and then said: "Thirty years ago, Liangzhou Province changed hands and was occupied by the barbarians of the Xia State, and the famous Chayan Army was wiped out at that time, and now the imperial court wants to reorganize the Chayan Army, but there is a lack of excellent war horses, and it is to send envoys to Xia to buy war horses, of course Xia Guo refused, but the Holy Shang still did not let the envoy negotiate, and finally Xia Guo agreed to send envoys to my Dazhou to discuss related matters......"

"Chasing the wild goose army? Could it be the ace iron cavalry of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the wild goose army led by Li Xian and Li Ye's father and son back then?" Qin Mo exclaimed, although the Xiliang Chase Wild Goose Army has been dead for more than 30 years, his prestige has always made Qin Mo yearn for it.

Xue Peng said: "Yes, it's a pity that the two generals Li Xian and Li Ye were killed by spies among the marching soldiers, and were ambushed by the barbarians, and the 20,000 Zhuyan army was wiped out, along with their father and son, and they were also killed on the battlefield together......

Qin Mo nodded, full of regret, and then said: "It's far away, then the envoys of the Xia Kingdom came to my Great Zhou to discuss the transaction, and then what?" What does this have to do with Miss Ru Kite? ”

"Sir doesn't know." Xue Peng's face was bitter, "That envoy is not someone else, it is the third son of Yuan Tianhao, the chief of Xia Kingdom, Yuan Muhao, the king of the Western Regions, everything has been negotiated between the two sides, but there is a stubble in it, Yuan Muhao met Miss Xue on the way to the Shendu Luoshen River, and was shocked, so he put forward a request to accept Miss Xue as the princess......

Qin Mo was startled, and glanced at Liu Ce on the side, only to see that he was still expressionless and focused on the dried meat in his hand, with an expression that he didn't care about himself.

Qin Mo said: "So the royal family and the Xue family agreed?" But as far as I can hear, Miss Rukite has a marriage contract with Shi Zongjie, the second son of the Jiangnan Shi family! And it is said that Miss Rukite and Shi Gongzi also fell in love with each other at first sight, chanting poems under the moon before the flowers, and a piano and flute ensemble is fascinating, such a talented and beautiful woman, it is simply a pair made in heaven......"

"Alas~" Xue Peng sighed and said, "How could Lord Xue agree?" Helplessly, Nayuan Mu Hao threatened that if he couldn't get Miss Xue, not only would the war horse transaction be canceled, but he would also send 100,000 soldiers to threaten the border of my Great Zhou. After repeated negotiations between Lord Xue and the royal ministers, Nayuan Muhao agreed to take Miss Xue as a proton and go to Liangzhou for three years, and after three years, Miss Xue will be released back......"

Qin Mo was speechless for a long time, he used to think that it was very appropriate to sacrifice a woman in exchange for the interests of the dynasty, but since he stayed by Liu Ce's side for a long time and was influenced by him, his way of thinking was gradually changing.

"It's a pity......" Qin Mo spit out a sentence for a long time, "The Shi family's son and Miss Ru Yuan were broken up like this, it's a pity~"

Xue Peng shook his head, and then said: "Miss Xue knows the general situation, bids farewell to Shi Gongzi with tears, and sacrifices herself for the righteousness......

Suddenly, Liu Ce, who had been silent, spoke up: "Dare to ask General Xue, what is the price of the war horses sold by the Xia Kingdom to the imperial court?" How much? ”

Xue Peng didn't know why Liu Ce asked this, so he said: "One thousand fine war horses a year, each priced at thirteen thousand taels, a total of three thousand, will be delivered in three years......"

"Hmph~" Liu Ce sneered, "Thirteen million taels a year, what a big deal, I heard that a good horse on the grassland is only a few dozen taels of silver, and a war horse is only a hundred taels, spend a hundred times a huge amount of money to buy a horse, plus send a woman, and also say that it has been earned, what is the righteousness?" I don't know if I'm slaughtered as a pig! ”

Xue Peng was at a loss for a moment: "I...... You don't know that my Da Zhou is short of good horses right now...... If you want not to be bullied, you have to ......"

"Is the lack of good horses an excuse for being bullied by an alien race?" Liu Ce interrupted Xue Peng's words, his eyes were cold, "There are hundreds of millions of men in the Great Zhou, but they are bullied by hundreds of thousands of alien barbarians in turn, their homes are destroyed, and their wives and daughters are enslaved, and then the reason is that there is a lack of horses?" Amusing! ”

Liu Ce suddenly said to Xue Peng: "Isn't there a horse farm on the outskirts of Gyeonggi?" Is there no racecourse in Gangnam? Are there no horse farms in the Far East? You might say that horses are not as good as others, yes! That's right! Looking at the war horse you are riding, you can see that it comes from the Western Regions, and the horsepower is extraordinary, but don't forget! There are so many horse farms in Da Zhou, and there is no problem with hundreds of thousands of good horses! Why did you encounter barbarians and still be defeated repeatedly? It's not because of the horses, it's because the soldiers are cowardly! I don't have the courage to face the butcher's knife of the barbarians! will only send wealth and women to win the favor of foreign races in exchange for peace! ”

"Besides, what kind of historian is the son, it's just a waste, a man should be desperate to keep his woman behind him, even if ten thousand arrows pierce his body, a thousand knives will not hesitate, instead of doing that ridiculous tearful farewell, is it going to be recorded in history as a good story for the ages! Why is he a man? Besides, your Lord Xue, pushing your daughter into the fire pit is simply inferior to a beast ......"

"You are not allowed to slander my family!" Xue Peng's face turned blue by Liu Ce's barrage of words, every word and sentence Liu Ce said made him unable to refute, and when it came to Lord Xue, he finally couldn't bear to get up and scolded loudly.

For the first time, Qin Mo saw how powerful Liu Ce's poisonous tongue was, and every word was completely reasonable, so that he couldn't find any flaws.

"Poof!"

The six people from Sun Biao's department around heard Xue Peng's shout and immediately pulled out their waist knives and surrounded them, and Chu Zijun and Wu Zhenying also followed over to surround Xue Peng, and they were tense for a while.

"Stand down, what? Put the knife away! Liu Ce turned around and roared angrily, Sun Biao, Chu Zijun, and Wu Zhenying glanced at each other and put the knife back into its sheath, preparing to leave.

"Wait, take it." Liu Ce stopped Sun Biao and handed him the meat in his hand, Sun Biao took it, hehe smirked, glared back at Xue Peng, and then took the meat and nibbled back to his campfire.

"Okay, okay, stop arguing, sit down, General Xue, sit down." Qin Mo hurriedly signaled Xue Peng to calm down, and Xue Peng saw Liu Ce's indifferent look and hateful teeth, but he still resisted the urge to go crazy again and sat down.

Liu Ce took a sip of wine and threw some pine resin on the side into the bonfire, and the flames immediately jumped, exuding a fragrance of plants.

"General Xue, is there something wrong with what I said? If it were you, would you give your children to the barbarians in exchange for peace? Liu Ce put away the wine bag and asked.

Xue Peng's face was bruised, and he thought about it and said: "Lord Xue is different from us, he thinks more, his old man can't bear the lives of the border people, and he also can't bear to cut his love......"

"That's it, let's not talk about it for now." Liu Ce knew that there was no point in talking to him again, so he simply shut up and stopped talking, and the atmosphere was very awkward for a while.

Seeing this, Qin Mo on the side asked Xue Peng out loud: "Is General Xue going back to restore his life?" Why did you pass by here?"

Xue Peng said: "This is a long story, originally I wanted to clear the customs through Wuliang Town, but that side was already on the verge of war, and the commander of the guard had already ordered that no one should be allowed to approach Wuliang Town. In desperation, the last general could only lead his brothers to break through the Liudaokou at the risk of death, and fled all the way to Tengjiangkou, encountering several bandits along the way, losing most of the men and horses, until they met Mr. Qin and ......"

Xue Peng said and glanced at Liu Ce, who was roasting the fire, and stopped talking.

Qin Mo said: "Heading east is the stronghold of the thieves Gaoyang, and thousands ......of thieves are rushing here, general, if you move forward again, I am afraid that there will be an accident."

"Huh?" Xue Peng was taken aback, "Is this serious?" Tens of thousands of thieves are going to pass through here?"

"That's right, the situation in Wuliang Town is precarious, the thieves in Gaoyang are transporting this batch of supplies to the front line, and there are three thousand sharp soldiers in the formation......" Qin Mo saw that Liu Ce didn't react, and continued, "My Jingwei Battalion is here for this matter......

Hearing Qin Mo say what happened roughly, Xue Peng was taken aback, and his face was full of disbelief: "Tens of thousands of thieves should not be underestimated even if they are a baggage team, and you more than a thousand people dare to ambush and rob here?"

Liu Ce glanced at him coldly and said, "Otherwise, what are we doing before the thieves?" Is it just to get frozen here? I want to eat! ”

"But......" Xue Peng suddenly had a little trouble in his mind, even if he was ambushed, he had to have a considerable number, but there were 8,000 thieves and more than 10,000 people, and there were 20,000 horses. Moreover, even if the more than 1,000 infantry baggage he said could arrive before the battle, it would be more than ten times different from the thieves, even if the 2,000 people of the Thunder Army directly under the banner regiment were extremely difficult to win against 20,000 horses, how could this young man in front of him have such great courage? couldn't help but make him curious.

"General Xue, you don't know, the Jingwei Battalion has always won more with less......" Qin Mo saw Xue Peng's face surprised, and said with a smile, "The general soldiers are different, if you are interested, you will know in a few days......"

Seeing Qin Mo's indifferent appearance, Xue Peng was even more shocked, he seemed to be surprised by his feelings, if he didn't know that Qin Mo was a person, he wouldn't be able to open his mouth, he really suspected that this Confucian student had gone crazy.

……

Hundreds of miles away, Pei Xu was commanding tens of thousands of people and livestock to transport grain, grass and weapons, and he was very anxious.

Since it was winter, and the weather after the snow was unusually hard and smooth, many porters carrying heavy burdens fell to the ground as soon as they stumbled, and a thief immediately beat him with a whip and urged him to get up quickly. Not far away, a donkey cart full of supplies fell into a dry and hard mud pit, half a wheel deep, and a dozen young people around were pushing and pulling against the cold wind with their milking strength, and several thieves were urging from the side, whipping them from time to time. On the other side, a person carrying hundreds of pounds of heavy objects finally couldn't support it, he fell on his back tired, no breathing, a thief kicked him a few times and found that he was unresponsive, spitting, secretly cursing a waste, and fiercely instructed two people to unload the heavy objects on his body and tie them to the other person's back, and the dead people just lay in the middle of the road, no one paid attention.

Pei Xu rode on horseback, pulling the reins of the horse, very dissatisfied with the current progress, and said to a sharp soldier: "It's too slow, less than twenty miles a day, when can it be sent to Liudaokou?" You hurry up and urge them to speed up the trip, you and I can't afford to delay the military plane! ”

"This road is really difficult, as long as you get to Yihekou, it is much easier to walk, and hundreds of porters and homeless people have died in the past few days." The soldier replied.

"I don't care! I don't care how many civilians die, I just know that if we can't deliver the baggage to Liudaokou on time, we will all have to walk around without food! Pass the order down, at all costs, speed up the trip! ”

"Yes!" The soldier turned his horse and ran towards the thief overseer!

"Quick! Speed up your trip! Otherwise, you will be slaughtered! "The overseers, on orders from the soldiers, tortured the people even more brutally, and the whip could not stop beating the porters who were a little slower.

"Bang!" A mule and horse finally couldn't bear the mountain-like weight in the car behind him, and fell heavily to the ground, foaming at the mouth and convulsing! The surrounding people turned pale with fright.

"What are you doing? Why don't you go? An overseer came to the mule cart with a whip.

"Uncle, I'm afraid this mule won't work......" said a man timidly.

The thief overseer walked up to the mule, looked at it, kicked it a few times, and found that the mule was indeed not working.

"Then what are you doing all the time! Don't take things off and carry them away! The overseer said with a wave of his whip.

The people were all terrified, and they trembled when they had to carry such a heavy thing and walk so far.

"Smack!" The overseer whipped a civilian's hand, and suddenly the sleeve of his shirt was torn, and a blood-red whip mark was clearly visible, and he screamed in pain.

"Don't hurry yet!" In the face of the violent acts of the thieves and overseers, the people gave in, unloaded the goods from the cart, tied them to their shoulders and waists with thick ropes, and continued on with heavy steps......

"Are you lazy?" The overseer saw that the things on the back of a thin young man seemed to be not as heavy as the others, and he couldn't help but reprimand angrily.

"Uncle! He's still a child...... "One man couldn't help but try to intercede for the overseer.

"Get out! Do you have a part in speaking? The overseer whipped the void with a whip, "You plead with him, don't you?" Good! Come on! Saying that, the thief stopped a donkey cart, let people unload dozens of pounds of grain bags from the cart, and put it on the man who pleaded fiercely, and the heavy object on the man's body pressed again, and the bean sweat couldn't help falling down, and his legs began to tremble. Then the same dozens of pounds of weight pressed on the thin young man, the young man gritted his teeth, and his whole body was already in a curved shape, but he was stubbornly holding on to the goods on his back, and without saying a word, the rough hemp rope deeply dented the shoulder blades on both sides of him......