When Song Jingxiu searched all the way and came here, the picture in front of him made people unbearable to look at it directly - Gan Xiaokun and his wife Gu had both died, they fell to the ground face to face, Gan Xiaokun was covered in blood, and his hands were still tightly clasped around Gu's neck......

Gan Xiaokun's fingers were almost embedded in Gu's neck, and Song Jingxiu wasted a lot of effort to separate them.

Song Jingxiu found a small boat and temporarily put the bodies of Gan Xiaokun and Gu in the boat, thinking that when everything was over, they would be buried properly.

The shouts of killing and fighting in the village have not yet subsided. Outside the big house, Gu Siming, who had been paralyzed on the ground, stood up trembling at this moment. He turned around in a daze and groped his way into the big room.

Suddenly there was a bright light in the room, and it was getting brighter and brighter—and the flames were rising! They break through doors and windows, jump and dance, tongues of fire licking everything they can reach, and rapidly expanding their momentum......

The moon hid behind a thick cloud, and the wind picked up on the river! The flames, guided by the wind, grew more and more violent, and they stretched out their scarlet-hot claws to take everything into their arms.

The fire spread quickly, and the fire stopped the fighting between the people who were fighting each other.

Many people began to put out the fire, but those efforts were in vain, and manpower could no longer stop the fire demon from wreaking havoc......

Everyone began to run towards the dock area by the river, which was close to the river and there was an open section of ground that was a good place to hide from the flames.

All the people who were still alive in the village gathered together. They looked at the flames in the sky, devouring everything here, their lives, memories, laughter, and pain here were all burned out......

"What to do...... What do we do next......"

Such a question suddenly appeared in the crowd, with great dazedness and sadness.

The question apparently resonated with everyone, and the crowd began to spread the sound of sighs and sighs, some silently shaking their heads, some covering their faces, and some squatting on the ground with their heads in their hands......

Xu Jin and Hui Ze found Song Jingxiu in the crowd, and after they converged, Hui Ze asked Song Jingxiu, "Brother Song, Brother Chen is still outside at this time, what should we do?" ”

Song Jingxiu looked around at the crowd, "Don't forget the purpose of our coming here, we can't let these people disperse!" ”

After speaking, Song Jingxiu raised his hands and shouted loudly, "Brothers, brothers, please listen to me first!" ”

The eyes of the crowd gathered on Song Jingxiu, and they looked at this outsider suspiciously, not knowing what he wanted to do.

"Brothers, my name is Song Jingxiu, and I am an old friend of your Gan Commander! Those of you who followed Commander Kimball many years ago must have some impression of me. We came this time because we knew that you were all strong men and heroes, and we wanted to recruit you to join the army and serve the country, but we didn't want to encounter such an accident. Now that Commander Gan is deceased, and Shuizhai has also been burned by a fire, have you ever thought about the future? ”

Song Jingxiu's words suddenly set off a lot of waves in the crowd, and the voices of discussion and quarrel came and went, obviously it was difficult for so many people's opinions to be unified.

Song Jingxiu raised his hands again, "Everyone, please stop for a moment!" Song has a suggestion, please listen to it! ”

The crowd slowly quieted down, and threw all kinds of different glances at Song Jingxiu, some were expectant, some were confused, some were dazed, some were vigilant, and of course, there was also hatred......

"The thief's business, you can't do it anymore! You are all strong men, instead of doing those disgraceful things, it is better to join the army with us, live an upright life, and rely on your own skills to win fame and fortune, so that you will not be a husband in vain! ”

"It's all about selling your life for money, so why do you have to go to the court?" Some people in the crowd obviously disagreed with Song Jingxiu's statement.

"That's different!" Song Jingxiu retorted righteously, "No matter how much money you rob as a thief, it is always bad money and dirty money!" The money that soldiers get is called military salary, which is upright and clean money! I do not force you, but if there are brothers who want to join the army, come with me; If you don't want to join the army, I also hope that you can change your mind and live a down-to-earth life; If you hear that river thieves are rampant in this area in the future, Song will definitely come to crusade in person to eliminate harm for the people! ”

After speaking, Song Jingxiu whispered to Hui Ze, "Brother Chen is still outside, please bring him to meet him." ”

By the time Hui Ze brought Chen Qingzhi over, the surviving people had already made their own decision—led by the brothers who had been following Gan Xiaokun, and finally more than 1,000 people were willing to join Chen Qingzhi's troops. The rest of the men, who were already noisily boarding the ship at this time, left one after the other.

Song Jingxiu took a few brothers to find some wood, set up the boat where Gan Xiaokun and his wife were kept, and then lit a flame......

Everyone silently watched the flames rise up, slowly burning more and more, Chen Qingzhi muttered sadly, "It's really people dying for money, birds dying for food......

"At least Xiao Kun is still sober," Song Jingxiu said softly beside him, "Until he died, he was not blinded by money......

Chen Qingyi and his entourage collected some of the remaining money in the village, and finally returned to the military camp in Yixing with more than 1,000 people and horses.

Chen Sibao, Ma Fonian, and Yu Tianshu had already greeted them in Yuanmen.

"Ziyun, that's right, you brought so many people back!" Yu Tianchou said loudly with joy.

"This time, thanks to Brother Song, these brothers are all loyal and brave warriors." Chen Qingzhi also said happily.

"We can talk about it later, the brothers must be a little tired after a long journey, let's arrange food and lodging for them first." Song Jingxiu proposed.

Chen Qingzhi nodded, "What Brother Song said is extremely true! Third Brother Chen, Wencai, I have worked hard for the two of you to arrange meals and tents for these brothers, as well as to distribute ordnance and register them. ”

"Yes!" Chen Sibao and Ma Funian received the order, immediately called these new brothers, and began to make arrangements.

The rest of the people entered the big tent, and Yu Tianshu hurriedly called someone to bring a steaming meal, and everyone was already hungry, so they immediately buried their heads in eating.

After eating and drinking, Yu Tianshu began to ask, "Old Song, how many people have you brought back this time?" ”

"You saw it just now, estimate how many people there are?" Song Jingxiu replied with a smile,

"Looks like there should be a thousand, four, five, right?" Yu Tianshu touched his chin and guessed.

Song Jingxiu nodded, "Almost." What about you, old fish? Have you received any soldiers who fled back from Xuzhou? ”

"If you want to say that I am really convinced Ziyun!" Yu Tianshu smiled, "There are really soldiers who have fled back one after another, I sent people to guard the Huaishui side, pick up the soldiers who fled back, look for strong people from them, and if they are willing to join us, they will bring them to the Yixing Army." ”

"Old Song, guess how many soldiers I recruited?" Yu Tianchou's face was filled with a smug expression.

"How can I guess this," Song Jingxiu said with a smile, "Don't sell it, let's say, how many people?" ”

"One thousand nine hundred and seventy-three!" Yu Tianshu said loudly word by word, "Almost two thousand!" ”

"Awesome, Big Brother Yu!" Chen Qingzhi couldn't help but admire.

"But don't just fill the numbers, we want elite soldiers!" Song Jingxiu reminded Yu Tianshu.

"Don't worry, I'm all carefully selected, and all of them are heroes!" Yu Tianshu patted his chest and took care.

"Good!" Chen Qingyi slapped the food table and stood up suddenly, "Our military strength has increased greatly now!" Hurry up and practice! ”

The days that followed seemed calm and long.

Everything in the barracks seemed to be in good order - the training was in full swing, the soldiers were sweating like rain and seriously honing their combat skills; The familiarity with various formations and tactics is also getting better.

Under Chen Sibao's planning, the ordnance and materials in the battalion became more and more abundant, although the number of soldiers had reached about 5,000, but the equipment was more sophisticated, and the number of war horses had also increased by more than 200.

Xu Jin's cavalry team had expanded to more than 500 people, and the previously captured Northern Wei horse armor also came in handy - a hundred strong war horses were selected to form a small heavy cavalry!

Black Thunder naturally put on horse armor, and he looked more and more majestic. But Hei Lei's speed was not affected by the addition of dozens of catties of horse armor, and he still walked like a fly, and everyone praised Hei Lei as a BMW, which also made Xu Jin very proud.

Time flows quietly like this......

Seeing that the plums outside the barracks are about to ripen again, the rainy season in the south of the Yangtze River is coming as scheduled. ”

The hazy smoke and rain shrouded everything like a light veil. Heaven and earth have become an ink painting on rice paper, and the landscape and scenery are all contained in it.

This is a complicated season, the rain and fog cast a touch of sadness and melancholy in people's hearts, but those young leaves, flowers and fruits that have been washed by the rain reveal delightful colors, showing off vigorous vitality.

Even though they have been living in Jiangnan for several years, Xu Jin and Hui Ze still don't adapt to this kind of rainy season.

For those of them who grew up in the North, this season definitely doesn't make them feel comfortable. The joints of the whole body are like rust, not comfortable at all, and the body is always sticky, and even the clothes have a musty smell, and they can't be dried with fire.

On this day, in the misty drizzle, two horses were walking side by side towards the barracks. The people on the horse were holding oil-paper umbrellas, talking and laughing all the way.

It was Yan Ran, and Wei Xun, who I hadn't seen for a long time.

Xu Jin and Hui Ze shook off the gloomy mood of the past few days, and happily met with Yanran and Wei Xun in the big tent.

Chen Qingzhi asked someone to cook rice wine with green plums to drive away the moisture from Yanran and Wei Xun. Everyone came to the big tent and met the two of them one by one, and it was clear that they were very popular!

"Brother Wei Xun, it's been a long time, Brother Yuan is still okay?" Chen Qingzhi handed a cup of hot rice wine to Wei Xun and asked with a smile.

"The eldest brother Ding Wei has returned to the army after his term of worry." Wei Fang took a sip of wine, and then said, "We all know about your battle in Xuzhou, and the eldest brother is amazed!" ”

"But in the end, we still lost Xuzhou ......" Speaking of this, Chen Qingzhi was still a little depressed.

"It's no wonder Brother Ziyun is this!" Wei Xun comforted, "Being put like this by King Yuzhang, even if the eldest uncle is alive, I am afraid that there is nothing to be done, there is no need to blame yourself, there is no need to blame yourself." ”

After Wei Xun finished speaking, his attention shifted to Song Jingxiu. He drank the wine in his hand in one gulp, and walked towards Song Jingxiu with his head held high.