Xining City is located in the south bank of the upper reaches of the Huangshui River, was once the outcast of the northern nomads trampled on wantonly, Tubo, Siro, Western Xia, Jurchen, Mongolia, etc., have established their own sphere of influence here, the Ming Dynasty Hongwu three years (AD 1370), the Ming army began to enter Xining.

But at that time, Xiningwei was not peaceful, Meng Yuan Yu was still eyeing this rich grassland, in order to consolidate the rule of the Han people in the local area, let this grassland provide a steady stream of war horses for the Han people, Hongwu 19 years (AD 1386), Changxing Hou Geng Bingwen built a city here.

After several years of labor, Xining City stands in the mountains encircled, the whole castle is rectangular, the wall is five zhang high, the thickness also reaches five zhang, after the continuous improvement later, the four city gates of the east, west, north and south are built with gatehouses, and the high pine color painting is magnificent.

On the sixth day of the fifth lunar month, at the Shixia Pass, about 30 miles east of Xining, a group of more than 100 soldiers appeared, and the soldiers looked very tired, they had obviously gone through a long journey, but fortunately they did not have much baggage on them, except for the leather wallet they wore on their bodies and the white pole gun in their hands, which were almost shriveled dry food bags on their shoulders.

Seeing the pass, the tired soldiers suddenly became excited, maybe they could spend the night in this pass.

This group of soldiers, it is the reinforcements from the left guard of Ganzhou, Li Zicheng looked at this pass, the wall is tall, built near the water, and leaning on the mountainside, it is a dangerous place, if a soldier is stationed here, the end of the invincible, can protect the safety of Xining City.

However, at this time, Xining was still the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the east of Xining was under the control of the Ming Dynasty, and Shixia lost the significance of the dangerous pass, and only a small flag of soldiers was stationed in the pass.

Hearing that someone knocked on the pass, the soldiers on duty immediately sealed the pass, and flew to report to their little flag officer, the small flag officer heard that more than 100 soldiers had come, did not dare to be careless, trotted to the front of the pass, and sure enough, he saw a soldier in leather armor and holding a white pole gun, and was immediately shocked: I have not received a military order for the transfer of the army recently, where did this come from? He shouted at the gate: "Well, where are you soldiers? Where will it go? ”

Ma Youshui looked at Li Zicheng and saw that he nodded, so he stepped forward and replied: "We are soldiers of the left guard of Ganzhou, and we were ordered to come to reinforce Xining. ”

"Ganzhou Left Guard?" The little flag officer was stunned for a moment, retracted into the pass, obviously discussing something with the soldiers, and after a long time, he poked his head out again, "Since it's reinforcements, do you have documents?" ”

"The paperwork is here!" Ma Youshui raised the piece of paper in his hand, put down the hanging basket on the pass, collected the paperwork, and hung it up.

After a while, the little flag officer laughed: "Sure enough, it's from Ganzhou, we've been waiting for you for a long time." He had apparently heard about Xining's message to Ganzhou and the imperial court asking for help.

The small flag officer opened the pass and led the soldiers into the pass, but the stone gorge was too small to accommodate the more than 100 soldiers, so the soldiers had to camp under the pass.

"I wonder what this adult is called?" Li Zicheng bowed to the little flag officer.

"It's good to say, my brother is just a small flag official guarding Shixia, surnamed Ma, and he can't be called an 'adult'," the little flag officer surnamed Ma returned the salute to Li Zicheng, "You are ......"

"I'm a hundred of these soldiers." Li Zicheng pointed to the soldiers under the gate.

"It turned out to be Li Baihu? Disrespectful under it! The little flag officer surnamed Ma met Li Zicheng again, "It took a lot of time to come all the way from Ganzhou, right?" ”

"No, hurry up, it's going to take half a month."

"Half a month?" The little flag officer surnamed Ma looked at Li Zicheng again from head to toe, "So fast? Are you really from Ganzhou? ”

"Of course," Li Zicheng smiled slightly, "We heard that Xining is in danger, so there is a rapid march all the way, and the food and grass consumption of the rapid march is also large, no, the dry food is almost exhausted, can Master Ma make it convenient for the soldiers to have a hot meal?" ”

The small flag officer surnamed Ma immediately made a bitter face, "Don't hide it from Li Baihu, there is only one small flag in Shixia, and there are few grain and grass reserves, you one hundred and ten soldiers...... Maybe you are here to reinforce Xining, and this meal, your subordinates have invited you, so you should take it as a pick-up for Li Baihu. ”

"There's Rauma-sama!" Li Zicheng knew that it would be unreliable to ask him for some dry food again, but the soldier had traveled so far and had a hot meal, so he still saluted the Xiaoqi officer surnamed Ma, which was grateful.

The little flag officer surnamed Ma asked the fire army to prepare steamed buns and cabbage, and chatted with Li Zicheng at the same time, "Ganzhou is the seat of the Shaanxi Xingdu Division, how can you have no food?" ”

"It's not that there is no food," Li Zicheng naturally wouldn't say anything about the new army being abandoned by the Ganzhou Left Guard, "It's just that Ganzhou heard that Xining was in danger and ordered us to march urgently, so we couldn't carry baggage, even the dry food we carried with us, and it was also because the consumption was too great day and night, and if it was a little later, I was afraid it would be ...... Haha, I'm afraid that the soldiers are going to starve, how about it, how dangerous is Xining? ”

"Xining is in danger?" The little flag officer surnamed Ma blinked, "I haven't heard that Xining is in danger, although the Mongols are making trouble like flies, but they are only petty fights, and they have never threatened Xining." ”

"A little fight? Then we were relieved, we thought that the Mongols were besieging the city of Xining. Li Zicheng laughed dryly, looking relieved, the little flag officer surnamed Ma thought that he was relieved because of Xining, who knew that Li Zicheng was relieved for these recruits, since the Mongols were petty fights, even if the recruits went to the battlefield, there would not be much danger.

On the afternoon of the next day, this recruit arrived at the east gate of Xining City, looking at the painting towering on the city gate, Li Zicheng had mixed feelings, and finally arrived in Xining, but he didn't know whether Xining Wei welcomed these new troops to their reinforcements.

Li Zicheng asked the soldiers to stay outside the city, and he only brought his own soldiers Ma Youshui and He Xiaomi into the city, asking to see Zhao Feng, the commander of the guard in the city.

Xiningwei attaches great importance to the reinforcements from Ganzhou, for them, Li Zicheng is not only a reinforcement, but almost a rescue, Zhao Feng summoned Li Zicheng in the official office.

The current Xining City is just a military town, and there is no government and county, and Zhao Feng is the highest official in the entire Xining.

Li Zicheng left his soldiers outside the official office, and entered the main hall alone to meet a military attache of Xiningwei, "Subordinate Li Zicheng, knock on the commanders!" ”

To Li Zicheng's surprise, Zhao Feng was just sitting on the right side of the main hall, on the left was Liang Wencheng, the commander of Xining Wei, and several unfamiliar military attaches were on both sides, and sitting in the middle of the main hall was Wu Shaoling, the eunuch guarding the town.

"Li Baihu get up, this is not the official office of civil officials, no need to be polite, look at the seats!" Zhao Feng was very easy-going, not only with a smile on his face, but also asked his own soldiers to bring Li Zicheng a wooden stool and sit opposite them.

"Thank you, Commander!" Li Zicheng thanked Zhao Feng, and saluted the military attaches one by one before taking a seat.

"Li Baihu came from Ganzhou, and it was really hard all the way," he obviously already knew about Li Zicheng's arrival in Ganzhou, "How about it?" Did the soldiers camp outside the city? Do you want to let them slow down for a few days before going forward? ”

Li Zicheng saw that his smile did not seem to be fake, so he replied: "My lord, the soldiers have just arrived outside the city, and they have not set up camp for the time being, and the brothers have worked hard all the way and run out of food. ”

Zhao Feng didn't reply, but set his eyes on Wu Shaoling.

Wu Shaoling's face sank like water, and the two ribbons hanging from the eunuch's hat were also still on the cheekbones on both sides, not moving at all, "Li Zicheng, how many soldiers have you brought?" ”

"If you go back to your father-in-law, including your subordinates, there are a total of one hundred and four people." Li Zicheng saw that Wu Shaoling's face was not good, and he was sitting directly opposite, as if a prisoner was on trial, but Wu Shaoling was sitting in the center of the main hall, probably the person who actually controlled Xiningwei, so he had to speak carefully.

"There are only one hundred and four in all?" Wu Shaoling hoarsely voiced, "When will the soldiers in the back arrive?" ”

"Back to my father-in-law, my subordinates came from Ganzhou Zuowei this time, and I haven't heard that there are other reinforcements." Li Zicheng said in his heart, looking at the impatient appearance of this eunuch, Xining should be a major general who is short of soldiers, and his own hundred people should be their treasure.

"None? Only 100 of you? Wu Shaoling suddenly changed color, there was obviously a layer of anger on his cold face, and even Liang Wencheng next to him was a little impatient, "Li Baihu, I heard that your weapons are white-pole guns, are you fighting the Mongols like this in Ganzhou?" May I ask Li Baihu, how many times did you fight the Mongols? ”

"Lord Hui, my subordinates are new recruits, soldiers who were recruited only two months ago." Li Zicheng swept Liang Wencheng's face and found that his face was a little resolute, which was obviously different from Zhao Feng's civilian-like gentle drizzle, maybe he had personally been on the battlefield, and the Mongols had really swords and guns #, I hope that for the sake of these recruits, don't let them go to the battlefield for the time being.

"What? Are you the new army? No experience of fighting the Mongols? Liang Wencheng sighed, turned his face and shook his head with his eyes closed, as if he couldn't bear to look at Li Zicheng again, Wu Shaoling was holding on to the desk, and stood up from his seat with a "bang", "Recruit? Two months? White pole guns? What's wrong with Ganzhou? Are they going to give up Xining? Another finger pointed at Li Zicheng, "You ......"

Li Zicheng was stunned, it seems that the recruits are not welcome anywhere, but in his heart, he greeted the eight generations of the ancestors of this dead eunuch, and it is not that Lao Tzu is coming to Xining to fight, if you have the ability, you can find the kingdom, he only knows the kingdom of the generals, and no matter how big the official is, he doesn't know, "Father-in-law, Ganzhou said that when you get to Xining, you will replace it with new weapons and armor......"

Wu Shaoling waved his hand and sat on the chair weakly, the smile on Zhao Feng's face was gone, and he said with a straight face: "Li Baihu, are you ready to go to the front?" ”

The officers sitting on both sides of the flanks did not pay attention to etiquette at this time, and blatantly talked about the new army, and Li Zicheng clearly heard someone whispering: "...... A hundred new troops, it is better for us to recruit troops in Xining ourselves! ”