Long Qisheng and his wife's temporary residence last night was in a side house in this garden, so Long Qisheng's new daughter-in-law did not let everyone wait for a long time.

Li Cuilan is not tall, has an ordinary appearance, and has almost no features.

However, when she stepped on the heel of her shoes and walked into the spacious water pavilion, the shocking outfit and the unique femininity displayed by the dress shocked the eyes of all the civil and military generals.

Because, in the hinterland of the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty, Li Cuilan wore a brand-new cyan summer women's military uniform, and it was the latest model designed and cut by Miss Luo herself - the fifteen-year-old women's uniform of Chongzhen of the Protector Army.

This set of military uniforms is not at all the style that women in the Ming Dynasty are accustomed to wearing, not jackets, skirts, and shirts; It is not a half-armed, it is not a bibi, it is not a cloak, and it is not the xia drapery (PEI) worn by the Lady of the Commandment.

In short, it doesn't look like anything, not even women's clothing.

I saw that he was wearing a red and blue forehead with a long and short flanged sunhat on the brim, a small lapel tunic on the upper body, straight trousers covering the hips on the lower body, dark shiny leather mid-heel sandals on his feet, a belt around his waist, and a two-foot leather sheath short sword hanging from his waist.

His face was frosty, and his eyes were like ice and snow. Walking slightly swaying, the style is fully displayed; Standing in the hall is heroic and cool, implying enchanting.

In addition to the style of clothes, pants, shoes and hats, what makes men even more curious is the strange metal jewelry she wears.

For example, in the center of her blouse, there is a row of shiny copper buckles from top to bottom; On the left chest is a rectangular sign with red stripes on a white background, and an unknown text is embroidered in the middle; a small silver crossed badge on the right chest; The upper right arm is adorned with a bronze round shield armband, which is engraved with some kind of uneven pattern.

……

In the face of the opposite sex, a woman's intuition is always extremely sharp.

The naked gaze of the men is not only very curious about the uniform of the Protector Army, but also instinctive greed for the woman's body.

Li Cuilan felt a little disgusted in her heart. She tried her best to suppress her emotions, walked up to the hall in a dignified manner, stood in the middle, and saluted the people present with a new hat brim salute of the National Protector Army.

"The Protector Army has military discipline, and the armor is not worshipped. The little girl is polite! ”

Li Cuilan's voice was very brittle. As soon as she spoke, the people in the hall suddenly felt that they had lost their temper just now.

Wen Ruzhen is the chief soldier and the oldest person in the seat. He hurriedly got up and said politely, "Madam Long, please take a seat!" I heard Brother Long say that there is a dragon and a crouching tiger hidden in the Protector Army, and there are many generals, but I didn't expect that Mrs. Long is also a heroine! ”

"Tsk, it's a pity that there are so many Mulan in the Shu army! Thinking of the general Qin, who is a woman and a very popular minister, it is rare in ancient times! ”

Wang Shicongwen was angry, but Mo Chongwen was interested. Wang Shicong sighed, and Mo Chongwen asked with a smile:

"Mrs. Long's dress would have been an eye-opener. Is it that everyone in the Protectorate is dressed like this? Brother Kelong is also a protector, how can they dress the same as us?? ”

Li Cuilan seemed to know this question, and replied calmly: "This is a new summer military uniform issued by the National Protector Army at the beginning of this year. Because of the shortage of military uniforms, they had to be changed in batches. Miss Liu ordered the little girl to come here on behalf of the Protector Army and the Shu Prince's Mansion. According to military regulations, I must wear the official military uniform of the Protector Army! ”

"I don't know how Miss Liu represents the Shu Prince's Mansion?"

"Miss Liu's maiden name is Liu Hongting, she is loyal and good, and her father Liu Sance was originally a ...... of Renshou Zhi County"

"Renshou Zhi County? Liu Sance? Ben got it. In the winter and December of the previous year, Ben Jiang and Jia Denglian pursued the thieves who had passed by Renshou, pitiful, and the whole city was slaughtered...... At that time, the thieves were approaching Shudu, and the military situation was like fire, and the general was ordered to rush after the thieves, but he did not stay for half a day, and collected the corpses of Zhongliang in the city into the earth......"

"Miss Liu is looking for her father to Shu...... The prince praised loyalty, and the loyal ministers will be good after the compensation, so Miss Liu entered the palace of the king of Shu. Now Miss Liu is an important minister of Shu Mansion, and she has the clear will of the prince, who is the representative of the prince in Nanzhili and Zhejiang, and is also the treasurer of Huitong Qianzhuang Nanjing General Village. ”

"In this way, Miss Liu's official is bigger than Brother Long?"

"That's nature. The husband is here, and he has cut off contact with Huguang and Shudi. Bozhou belongs to the Nanzhi territory, so it is now under the command of Miss Liu......"

"Madame Long used to be Miss Liu's attendant, and she must also be under Miss Liu's command." Mo Chongwen's unfazed face showed a faint evil smile, "In the future, Brother Long and Mrs. Long, who will I listen to these rough people?" ”

Mo Chongwen meant something, which made everyone's eyes suddenly brighten.

Li Cuilan didn't panic.

She knew that Mo Chongwen, a court general who refused to eat the Shu Wangfu or take the Shu Wangfu, still couldn't pull down and refused to give in in front of the Shu Wangfu.

If he wants to do what Miss Liu thinks, he must take a dose of fierce medicine to make him and the other generals sober up.

General Mo was serious. You are all the pillars of the imperial court, and the Shu Wangfu is only the lord of Shu, where can you talk about who listens to whom? This time, the little woman followed her husband here, but it was just her husband singing and her wife following. ”

"Miss Liu doesn't have any orders?" Wen Ruzhen felt that something was wrong.

Li Cuilan put a flat-ended military hat with one hand, sat straight on the chair with her upper body, and gently shook her hair:

"What is the command? There is only one notification.

The Jiangnan disaster caused the price of grain. The 5,000 stone grain in Huai'an was secretly intercepted from the grain by Miss Liu at the risk of a huge amount of work. Dredging the government, renting a boat and hiring people, eating on the road, and checking checkpoints, the cost is calculated, and it costs eight taels of silver to transport grain! Our national army has transported food and food for thousands of miles, which is already benevolent and righteous, but only one but not two! ”

Only one, not two!

In this way, these five thousand stone grain is the last batch of grain supplied by the Shu Palace?

This is tantamount to an ultimatum from the Shu Palace!

The officers and generals present immediately realized that the problem was serious, and the hot sweat immediately came down. The person who was rushing to express his opinion a few minutes ago immediately shut up, making the silence of the water pavilion suddenly contain a strange atmosphere.

It's no wonder that everyone's faces are ugly.

After arriving in Bozhou, the four regiments organized a large number of routs, which instantly swelled to nearly 20,000 people. Especially Ma Jinzhong's department, because the garrison was closer to the route of the rout retreat to the south, Ma Jinzhong made an old way of being coerced by thieves, and the more the better.

When he realized that it was impossible for Wang Shicong to come with food, and Luyi was more short of food than Bozhou and other places, he cheekily spit out more than half of the soldiers who ate it, and distributed 4,000 to Wen Ruzhen, Mo Chongwen, and 1,000 to Yang Guodong, who were short of soldiers.

Who knew that Wen and Mo accepted it, but Yang Guodong refused. Yang Guodong said that one battalion of 3,000 is enough, and no matter how much it is, it will not be able to survive!

There are more than 20,000 horses and horses, and they also need 5,000 stone of grain every month to be half full. broke away from Zuo Liangyu and the command of Huguang, and cut off the food and salary of Huguang. But Fengyang Mansion didn't take it over, and it became a two-way failure.

Fortunately, Liu Chao raised 2,000 stones in advance, and Ding Hengchang took Zhai Ding to help collect thousands of stones of summer wheat, which allowed him to cope with it until now.

If the food supply is not settled by the beginning of August, then the army will not be able to pay the salary, and the soldiers will go hungry.

The shortage of military salaries can also be dragged out with sophistry, and military discipline can be used to take a town for a while. There is a shortage of food, then there is no other way but to rob it, otherwise the army will disintegrate and even mutiny!

But this is not Huguang.

The towns and villages around Bozhou can't be grabbed, and the surrounding states and counties can't be grabbed!

Ding Hengchang is a local hero and a local wealthy gentry, with a high prestige in Bozhou, Luyi and other places. The people nearby are all based on the heroic Ding Hengchang. Without his support, the four battalions would have starved to death. Robbing the people is robbing Ding Hengchang, and it is turning his face with Ding Hengchang, and there is no other way but fire.

What about the nearby states and counties in Bozhou?

Looking at Henan, Chenzhou is thousands of miles away, and there is no grain to grab;

Xiayi and Yongcheng are places where the big families live, and Liu Chao is a lesson from the past;

Guide is the territory of the thief Xiao Yuanying.

Looking at Nanzhi, Mengcheng, Suzhou, Taihe, Yingzhou and other places all belong to Fengyang Mansion. Robbing these places, it is Tai Sui's head breaking ground, and the sin is greater than Liu Chao!

Therefore, now the choice of the four battalions is either the imperial court or the Shu Palace, and the two must be one of them.

Obey the dispatch of the Shu Palace, you can exchange for the food and salary support of the Shu Palace. However, that means offending the imperial court, and from then on he will remain in history forever as a traitor!

……

The person who dares to smash the ice under his feet may be a real brave man, because he does not care about the pain of getting wet;

Maybe a former overboarder, because he doesn't care about getting wet again.

What kind of person Ma Jinzhong is, later generations have mixed reviews. But his words in the water pavilion did play the role of an icebreaker.

"Say it! What do Miss Liu tell us to do, light up a plate happily! ”

Ma Jin stood up and shouted loudly:

"But first I have to say it: if you let Ben raise the anti-flag again, then don't open your mouth!

Back then, Ben General and Li Wanqing were both from Yan'an, meeting brothers, living and dying together. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the two of us were defeated by Zuo Liangyu, and I surrendered to Li Wanqing first, which was regarded as selling Li Wanqing once. Later, Liu Guoneng and I persuaded Li Wanqing to recruit and save his life, which was regarded as helping him. The two offset each other, and each does not owe each other.

Now that Li Wanqing was killed by Li Zicheng in Xiangcheng, I can no longer break my promise and vote to kill my brother's enemy!

I rebelled for 12 years, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan, and owed countless life debts. Today, the emperor did not hold me accountable for my crimes, and made me a dignified deputy commander-in-chief. I can't be ungrateful anymore and turn my back on the emperor and the court! ”

Ma Jinzhong has never intersected with the Shu Wangfu, and he can't talk about the understanding of Shu and the Shu Wangfu at all. The only thing he wanted from the Shu Wangfu at the moment was food.

But the issue of food and salary does not stop Ma Jinzhong from boldly piercing the layer of window paper, that is, the fundamental principle of whether to oppose or not to oppose in the future!

Ma Jinzhong's words clearly told everyone:

As long as he doesn't rebel, he can follow the Shu Wangfu, just like he followed Zuo Liangyu before; If the Shu Wangfu is reversed or does something he thinks is wrong, then I'm sorry, he will lead the army to leave like in Zhuxian Town!

As soon as Ma Jinzhong finished speaking, Mo Chongwen interjected:

He joined the army in his early years, from a small soldier to a general, and the court and the emperor were as kind as a mountain. So even if he starves to death, he won't rebel.

But now the court is a bastard, Wen loves money, and Wu is afraid of death. The defeat of the Central Plains and the defeat of Liaodong were all defeats; The famine in Shaanxi, the famine in Henan, the famine in the north and the south, and the famine everywhere. If this continues, the Ming Dynasty will be finished sooner or later!

His brother Jia Denglian praised the son of Shu to the sky, saying that the son of Shu was a talented man and a young hero, and he pacified the local tyrants who had been ravaging Sichuan for many years as soon as he made a move. Sichuan is under the governance of the prince of Shu, it is a strong army, a strong country, and a peaceful and prosperous world. If Shu Shizi is willing to be a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, lead everyone to protect the Ming Dynasty, and give the brothers a future in the future, the brothers will naturally support it. If he rebels, I'm sorry, he won't accompany him!

The ice cracked, stirring up a thousand waves.