In the shelter on the north side of the camp, a pile of dry firewood burns, occasionally making a "crackling" sound.

On the flaming pyre, the originally white sheep has been roasted to a golden brown and crispy. Whenever the sheep fat drips and collides with the firelight, it stirs up a strong burnt smell.

In the camp not far away, dozens of soldiers carefully looked after the mutton, and at the same time excitedly talked about the hundreds of ways to eat the mutton. The smell of mutton is mixed with the aroma of wine, the smell of burnt meat is matched with the light of fire, and the shouts of the soldiers set off the excited faces......

The moonlight and starlight of the night seemed to be about to be broken.

The ordinary soldiers of the Great Zhou were able to eat roasted whole sheep and be able to drink a full time of bad wine, of course, it is worth rejoicing.

Li Xiang roasted sheep in a lowland on the north side of Meihuawu, in a sheltered place by the stream, and heard the laughter and noise of the soldiers in the camp through the small mound, but he was not happy.

Next to the fire, Old Man Zhang, Lei Lei, Cheng Clerk, Liao Shikai and others do not need to go into battle to make contributions, and it is difficult to express their opinions. So I had to blink my eyes, staring at the tempting roast lamb, waiting for the meal to begin.

Liu Sheng was angry, threw the stick that provoked the fire away, and looked at his eldest brother Liu Yuan. Liu Yuan raised his head speechlessly and looked at Xiong Dachun. Xiong Dachun raised his eyebrows and looked at Liu Chengdong.

Zhang Qingping didn't know the details, and looked at Yang Yingdong with an inquiring eye. Yang Yingdong took a breath and looked at the owner with a sad gaze.

The atmosphere was dreary.

Except for the background sound not far away, there was only the sound of running water, breathing, burning, and the roasting of mutton by the stream.

The young people such as San Yanzi, Ding Shihang, and Da Niu did not dare to speak rashly, and after looking at each other a few times, they tacitly took over the work of taking care of the fire and roasting sheep.

Liu Chengdong and Li Xiangweng's son-in-law looked at each other at the same time. Liu Chengdong's eyes were angry, embarrassed, cold and tired, and Li Xiang's eyes were the most unsurprising.

The Great Zhou Dynasty launched a full-scale counteroffensive, and Liu Chengdong led the army out of the mountains and forests north of Deqing County.

With limited troops, Liu Chengdong had no choice but to attack the northern city wall of Deqing County, taking advantage of the cramped terrain and fighting with the Fangla defenders in the city.

After fighting unhurriedly for a few days, Liu Chengdong helped Li Xiang build a lot of siege equipment, hand-in-hand mentioned all kinds of details of the siege and the rhythm of using troops, and then asked for battle from above according to Han Shizhong's intentions, and asked to be transferred to Han Shizhong's Chinese army to fight.

For the entire Jiangnan battlefield, Deqing County is a remote and embarrassing little corner. When the Great Zhou army retreated, Liu Chengdong was nailed here as if he were nailed to the waist of the Yongle Dynasty. Fang Tianding used all means to take the city over, so naturally it was impossible to give Liu Chengdong any opportunity to take advantage of.

Although thousands of men and horses were taken away, Fang Tianding still had tens of thousands of soldiers. The supply of mountains and forests north of Deqing County is difficult, and Liu Chengdong cannot get more than 20,000 men and horses and inexhaustible materials, so he will not pose a threat to Deqing County.

Fang Tianding understands, Liu Chengdong understands, and many people understand.

Liu Chengdong wanted to hand over part of the army to Li Xiang, and let this cheap son-in-law take 2,000 men and horses to practice under the county seat of Deqing, and earn more military exploits by the way. He led the main force that dared to fight brought out by one hand and threw himself into the battle of encircling and suppressing the Yongle puppet dynasty, and earned another credit.

The war army was sent up, and the response of several senior officers was hundreds of sheep and hundreds of jars of wine.

The pacification envoys, the envoys for recruitment, the transfer envoys, the envoys for supervising the army, and the soldiers and horses were all superintended, and the senior officers of the Jiangnan and Jiangnan roads, who were responsible for supplying, commanding, and mobilizing the army, said very euphemistically: Deqing County is more important, and General Liu should restrain Fang Tianding to the death and prevent him from being thrown into other battlefields. General Liu's department worked hard and made great achievements, and specially allocated wine and meat as a reward. I heard that General Liu's subordinates were infected with the epidemic in Deqing County, so it was better to completely suppress the epidemic first, so as not to spread the epidemic......

Liu Sheng was so angry that his eyebrows were about to rise, "What Deqing County is more important, how can this place be able to fight?" The same thousand people, fighting in other places consumes 1,000 guan a day, and fighting here in Deqing county costs at least 3,000 guan! ”

Liu Yuan shook his head, "I knew that when my department was in the city, I was harmed by Fang Tianding's vicious methods. I didn't give any medicine, but I gave some food and drink, which was a clear beating. ”

Li Xiang smiled bitterly, but did not make a sound, got up and began to divide the meat.

There are a lot of scorched places, but fortunately, Ding Shihang, Da Niu, Radar and others rushed to eat it, and there was no waste at all.

Li Xiang cut off the fattest and delicious parts and put them on the plate of Lord Yue. Liu Chengdong cut the meat into thin slices with a dagger, dipped it in fine salt and spice powder, and nodded to express his appreciation for Li Xiang's craftsmanship.

The two brothers, Liu Yuan and Liu Sheng, were depressed and stepped forward to cut the meat themselves.

Xiong Dachun took a leg of mutton, and exhaled while cutting it: "Some people don't want the eldest brother to continue to make meritorious contributions." That's it, there are things to fight for merit everywhere, but it is a bit too much to leave the eldest brother in this corner, and let others see the joke. ”

Yang Yingdong leaned over and took the leg of mutton handed by Li Xiang, "I really don't know what some adults think." If the old village owner and Han Zhao negotiated and merged together, they defeated Wu Fu two days ago, so how could there be a truce? ”

Zhang Qingping respectfully took the leg of mutton, immediately took a bite, it was not too hot, and said as soon as Yang Yingdong's voice fell:

"In today's Jiangnan, there are four envoys alone. There are more than a dozen capital schools, hundreds of generals, and the supervising army, soldiers and horses are all superintendents, and the horses are counted separately. They all want to make meritorious contributions, and the wolves have more meat and less meat, so they naturally can't see others being too outstanding. ”

Before the full-scale counteroffensive began, the Great Zhou Dynasty suddenly promoted Wang Yu, Yang Keshi, and Liu Guangshi to envoys, alongside Han Shizhong. The four envoys had greater autonomy on the battlefield, but they still had to accept the control of Yu Yunwen, the marshal, and the civil officials of the Jiangnan and Jiangnan roads.

Liu Chengdong raised his head and glanced at Zhang Qingping, surprised by Zhang Qingping's quick thinking.

Li Xiang and Liu Yuan and Liu Sheng were polite, sat back in their seats with a leg of mutton, sprinkled a layer with the mixed powder first, and then cut it upside down with a knife to eat.

Li Xiang's movements are too chic and his eating method is too exquisite, and he has successfully attracted everyone's attention.

Less than ten meters away, several girls who had been spinning for several days were surrounding a large pot, putting the sliced mutton into the soup and soaking it twice, and then eating it with fine salt, soy sauce, and minced garlic.

Wang Xiaochen ate a piece of meat, his little face was full of satisfaction, sighed, and poked the spice bag in the iron pot with chopsticks and said:

"Our owner is really omnipotent, and he can actually think of sealing the spices into a small cloth bag and boiling them into soup to eat with mutton. Convenient and clean, delicious and elegant. ”

A petite little girl with a bun face stuffed with a mouthful of scones and mutton asked Sister Xiaochen she admired the most vaguely, "Sister Xiaochen." The owner and the old man are in the owner, why are they not happy? "The voice was so low that it was almost inaudible.

The heat was steaming, Wang Xiaochen was "banging" the meat in the pot, tilted his head and thought for a few breaths, and said uncertainly: "Sister doesn't know much." It seems that someone is crowding out the old village owner and doesn't want the old village owner to continue to make meritorious contributions, so the old village owner and the village owner can only stay here. ”

After Wang Xiaochen finished speaking, he pinched the face of the youngest girl and put the mutton slices into the little girl's wooden bowl. The little girl puffed out her cheeks and hummed happily, and her delicate appearance attracted a coquettish smile.

There was a tall and thin cold-faced girl who was close to the age of peach and plum, elegantly wiped the corners of her mouth and wondered:

"Wouldn't it be nice to stay here?"

"There are very few casualties these days, and if you go elsewhere, how many people will die every day?"

"We have few people and can't be cured, so don't we have to watch people die?"

Wang Xiaochen knew that the other party was knowledgeable and even talented, and it was not easy to think about the family when he was a child, so he replied politely:

"I think that's the case, too. Maybe for men, dignity, military exploits and status are the most important...... No matter what, the sisters eat more, it's rare to have a night's rest, let's treat ourselves. ”

"Sister Xiaochen, you beware of eating fat, Ding Shihang won't marry you."

"Hey, you stinky girl, you actually laugh at my sister. Isn't it Sichun, why don't you introduce you to a child of Zhuang Nei? ”

"Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee......"

Most women think fundamentally differently from men.

When he approached Zizi, all the fires in the camp were extinguished, and only sparks were left in the fire in front of Li Xiang.

Everyone else went to rest, or was busy with their own ministry, only Li Xiang and Liu Chengdong were still by the fire.

Liu Chengdong glanced at the iron pot used by the girl, "This way of eating is fresh." It's been a long time since I've been back to the mountains, and now all the female dolls are like this? ”

Li Xiang replied with a smile: "The son-in-law named Shabu mutton, and originally thought of taking it out in winter, but it happened that Wang Xiaochen and they thought it was too unsightly to cut meat with a knife, so they let her use it." ”

"The female doll in our village is nothing crazy at all. Everyone in the village is rushing to ask for it, and they don't worry about their mother-in-law's family. ”

"It's that I'm acting in Jiangnan, Meng Lang, not to mention that Lord Taishan is being squeezed out, and I have to be angry in the mountains and forests."

The reason why Liu Chengdong is idle in the corner is that in addition to his great achievements that arouse people's jealousy, the main reason is that Li Xiang has offended too many people.

Li Xiang not only offended many local bigwigs, but also annoyed the industrial and commercial forces on the two roads south of the Yangtze River, whose energy was extraordinary. Although Li Xiang paid a huge price to reconcile, the content of the settlement was limited to rescuing Liu Chengdong.

Liu Chengdong sneered and said:

"! Even if you don't offend those people, Lao Tzu will be trapped here and unable to make new contributions. ”

"Besides, you are also trying to earn money in Jiangnan and reduce the burden in the mountains, so what about offending people? If you do it, you will do it, and it is inevitable to offend people. ”

"It's okay to stay here, and we'll fight as much grain and grass as we put on it. There are already a lot of casualties among the sons of Shonai, and it is always good to alleviate some casualties. ”

The civil officials of the two roads in the south of the Yangtze River ordered to send the sheep from the Xuzhou pasture herd and the wine from the Jianghuai government-run winery, which did not mean to appease, but more to remind, warn, and beat.

The civilian officials were reminding Liu Chengdong that without the money, food, and materials provided by the rear, it would be difficult for Liu Chengdong's thousands of troops to move an inch. Eating is a problem, what kind of battle is there to fight?

The industrial and commercial forces in Jiangnan are warning Li Xiang not to get involved in the current chaos in the Jiangnan business circles, otherwise Liu Chengdong and Li Xiang's merits will not be saved.

The scholars and doctors are beating the martial arts, don't rely on some merit to connive at the perverse behavior of your relatives, this world will always be the literati and doctors who have the final say.

Liu Chengdong was tired and cold-hearted.

From the next day, Liu Chengdong handed over all the affairs in the army to Li Xiang to take care of, and he lived a life of eating meat and drinking, chatting and fart, and reminiscing about life.

Liu Chengdong's heart is cold, and some people's fighting spirit is hot.

From Liu Chengdong's camping on the edge of the mountain forest to the northwest, after walking through the eighty-mile mountain road, it is the county seat of Anji.

Beginning on April 23, Zhao Zhiqiang, who was earning a lot of money with the assistance of Li Xiang, led 1,300 township soldiers to attack Xu Bai's camp with 2,000 Xiang troops.

The strategic position of the Anji Valley is even more awkward. Less than forty percent of the people here remain, but they are once again facing war.