When Li Mao was still two feet away, he suddenly heard a loud shout, and a "person" staggered up from the pile of corpses. A sneer appeared at the corner of the leader's mouth, and a crossbow arrow grazed his ear and shot out, hitting the "man" in the face.

As the man fell on his back, another man sprang out of the pile of corpses, knelt on the ground and used his knees as skateboards to "slap" and crashed into him, and the leader swung his knife sharply in response, and felt a cool breeze blow under his ribs, and a stream of blood gushed out from the wound.

Li Mao only took the life of the other party's leader with one sword, and the terrifying ambushers were in chaos, and the clerk took advantage of the situation and plunged into the black pine forest, and Li Mao had already crawled into it before him. The ground was too slippery, the sky was too dark, and when he got up, he accidentally slipped a little, which made Li Mao's posture when he escaped unusually embarrassed, but his life was at stake, and he couldn't care about this, as soon as the two entered the black pine forest, they ran wildly, and when the ambusher reacted and chased again, it was too late, and after hurriedly releasing two rounds of arrows, Li Mao and Wen Cheng disappeared into the deep and dim forest.

This black pine forest is an irregular oval, the road leading from the north gate to the west military camp is just cut through the waist, Li Mao and Wen Cheng have seen it on the map, after the two got out, they turned to the west, and walked out of the pine forest in less than a stick of incense.

In front of him was a wilderness, where in summer the grass grew as deep as a man, and in the autumn when the grass was beaten down by the garrison to be used as fodder for horses, and it became an unsheltered wilderness. The rain is getting heavier and heavier, and there is no light in sight, the two can only grope forward with their memory, and they don't know how far they have gone, and a little light suddenly appears in front of them.

In this boundless dark and rainy night, when they suddenly saw this light, their hearts suddenly lit up.

The lantern in the pawn's hand has "Qinghai" written on the front and "Buqian" written on the back. The official name of the Western Military Camp is the "Qing Navy Infantry Front Battalion", it seems that this is the guard post sent by the Western Military Camp on the periphery, the two of them are cold and tired at the moment, and their physical strength has been exhausted, so they immediately greeted them without thinking.

The pawn carrying the lantern in the rain saw two people suddenly appear in the dark night, and he was so frightened that he threw the lantern and got into the tent. The clerk smiled unconsciously.

Out of the tent came four men, all draped in raincoats, one with a knife, two with a gun, and the other with a bow. "What kind of person, breaking into the Western Military Camp at night?" The clerk was about to answer, but Li Mao grabbed the conversation and said: "My own people, I went out to patrol the night, and I was startled and had to come back on foot." The four soldiers lifted the lantern and saw that Li Mao was indeed dressed as an officer, so they beckoned their companions to collect their guns and greeted: "This rain is really heavy, the two commanders are drenched, come and roast the fire." Li Mao smiled: "There is also fire, great." Went straight to the tent, the knife-wielding pawn was overjoyed, and hurriedly led the way, but unexpectedly, Li Mao suddenly swung his elbow and struck, and the pawn fell into the muddy water without saying a word. The clerk was taken aback, but his reaction was not slow, he turned the blade of the sword, and sent the sword into the abdomen of the pawn behind him with his backhand.

In the middle of this Li Mao has slid to the mouth of the tent, the knife in his hand fell to kill the archer, the last pawn saw that the situation was not good, turned to the side and ran, Li Mao calmly picked up the bow and arrow, shot an arrow at him, the pawn was hit by an arrow in the back and fell to the ground, the clerk rushed up to make up a sword As a result, he rubbed the blood on the sole of his boot, but asked Li Mao: "Why do you want to kill them?" ”

Li Mao picked up a gun on the ground and said: "I remember that in October this year, Zhu Zhenyuan saw a new formation from an ancient book, in order to practice this new formation, he changed all the guns in the front battalion, the gun body is half a foot longer than the standard, and the gun body has three iron hoops. ”

Wen Cheng was taken aback, and after taking a closer look, he shook his head and said: "Maohua, I really admire you, you can also notice such details, amazing, really amazing, for these three iron hoops, I almost didn't fight with him, but I forgot all about the kung fu in the blink of an eye, and you still remember." The clerk was surprised, but he still didn't believe it in his heart, so he bent down and touched the soldier's body, but didn't find any tokens, so he believed Li Mao's judgment.

With a fire in the tent and a repelling rifle outside the tent, where the four pawns came from is an unsolved mystery. Li Mao didn't care about guessing the riddle, took off two raincoats and draped them on his body, and continued to hurry with oilcloth lanterns.

This three-way intersection is the best sign, and after walking two miles further along the path to the west, the two met a team of night patrol soldiers in the front camp of the infantry army, and after verifying their identities, the soldiers took the two into the army camp.

The western military camp is loose outside and tight inside, and there is a fire in the city, Zhu Zhenyuan immediately beats the drum and gathers the generals, leaving the generals in the central military tent, and the inferior generals scatter the battalions to suppress the soldiers, the western military camp is an elite division, well-trained, the fire in the city is still calm as usual. In the Qing Navy, in addition to Yin Mu, he had the highest status as a clerk and Shang Helai. Zhu Zhenyuan has always been very respectful to the clerk, and when he heard that the clerk was coming in the rain, he hurriedly greeted him outside the tent, personally held an umbrella for him, and asked: "What happened in the city, the two of you came to my camp at night?" ”

The clerk said: "Someone sneaked into the grass warehouse of the military yard and set it on fire, I am afraid that someone will take the opportunity to make trouble, so I have come to inform the general." ”

Zhu Zhenyuan said: "Please rest assured, Zhu Zhenyuan eats the court, he is a courtier of the court, and I will never be in the same league with the thieves." Seeing that the two of them were soaking wet, he ordered people to prepare hot water and clean clothes, and called for people to boil ginger soup to ward off the cold. Winter night rain is not child's play, a little careless will catch a cold, in this era a cold is enough to kill people, the two dare not be heroes, thank you and go to the bath. As soon as the two left, Zhu Zhenyuan's face suddenly sank, and the camp officer Chen Chuan made a gesture of beheading, Zhu Zhenyuan shook his head, and captured Huang Renfan and said: "If there is no big incident in the city, how can the two of them come to vote at night?" Li Mao had a wound on his arm and blood on his body, so something must have happened in the city. ”

Zhu Zhenyuan said: "They have really succeeded, the two of them shouldn't appear here, wait and see." But he said to Chen Chuan: "This matter must not be known to the Mizhou envoy." "As early as before the fire broke out in the city, a person claiming to be the special envoy of Li Shidao in Mizhou went to the western military camp and asked Zhu Zhenyuan to raise troops to meet Shang He Lai and seize Gushan Town.

Li Shidao promised that as long as Shang Helai and Zhu Zhenyuan could control Gushan Town, he would contact the Li family to force Li Shigu to abdicate, and he would take over as the envoy of Jiedu, and in return, he would transfer Shang He Lai as the envoy of the Ya Army, and hand over Gushan Town to him.

The story of the Li family brothers' open and secret struggle Zhu Zhenyuan almost heard the cocoon in his ears, but it was the first time that Li Shidao sent someone to find him, although he didn't believe it in his heart, but he was a little tempted, Yu Hualong and Yin Mu had left, Shang Helai was ensnared by Li Mao again, and it was difficult for Yu Pai characters to come out and ascend to the sky, he was really unwilling.

But if he only listens to one side of the word and believes the words of the comer, and leads the army to participate in the rebellion, he is not reconciled, Zhu Zhenyuan has the mentality of riding on the wall and watching the wall, let the two families fight first, and then bet when they see it.

The Michigan envoy did not press him down, except to stay in the camp, and did not put any pressure on him. The fire at midnight made Zhu Zhenyuan half believe the words of the Mizhou envoy, and his heart was already ready to move, and now Li Mao and Wen Cheng came to his camp in embarrassment, which strengthened his determination to give it a go, and now the only thing that makes him embarrassed is Wen Cheng, who has a very high status in the faction, and he has the grace of recommendation, if he is killed because of his future, it will undoubtedly be a huge stain on his reputation, Zhu Zhenyuan has great ambitions, and he wants to continue to go up, he is unwilling to bear this stain.

Just when he hesitated about this, Li Mao stood up for him to relieve the siege, took a bath and changed into dry clothes, and drank a bowl of ginger soup to ward off the cold, Li Mao seemed to come back to life, he discussed with the clerk Cheng to leave one person in the western military camp, and the other person went to the south of the city to calm the main general Chen Wanchun. Chen Wanchun is not Zhao Hede's confidant, although there are not many people under his command, the geographical location he occupies is very important. When Li Mao spoke, he frowned several times, he already had a wound on his left shoulder, and he was cut by a knife when he was fighting in the small pine forest, and it was difficult to even lift it now.

Wen Cheng decided to personally go to the Nanliuhe camp, and left Li Mao in the Western Army to feed and supervise the army.

For this kind of good thing sent to the door, Zhu Zhenyuan just couldn't ask for it, he put on rain gear and said that he would personally escort the clerk to Nanliuhe, where was the clerk willing? After some disputes, Zhao Mingge, the deputy general of the pro-army, was sent to escort the clerk out of the camp, and Zhu Zhenyuan was sent to the camp gate in the rain, and he repeatedly told him to return to the camp after that.

Li Mao was very appreciative of Zhu Zhenyuan's performance, and said that this person was brave and strategic, and sure enough. As soon as Li Mao entered the camp of the Western Military Camp, he saw that Zhu Zhenyuan had different intentions, the outside of the Western Military Camp was loose and tight, and the soldiers were all wearing raincoats, not only distributing arrows, but also bringing dry food. Zhu Zhenyuan promised not to participate in the rebellion, but he did not say that he would take the initiative to ask for thieves, with the strength of the western military camp, if he did not take the initiative to attack, the rebel side shouted thank God, who would dare to take the initiative to attack the western military camp?

It is understandable that the battalion sergeant distributes feather arrows, after all, it is necessary to prevent trouble before it happens, but the distribution of dry food is a little incomprehensible, if you don't take the initiative to attack, just guard the camp Why carry heavy dry food bags, besides, on this rainy day, if you are not careful, the dry food will be wet by the rain. But what did he do?

The one who gave Li Mao the ginger soup was a young woman who still had charm, there were not many women in the army, except for the camp prostitutes in the Huanyi Courtyard, there were definitely some people who could move around the camp at will. Li Mao took off a gold bracelet from his wrist and stuffed it into her hand, and said with a smile: "There is a labor lady, and a little heart is not respectful." The woman hurriedly refused: "How dare you, it is my duty to wait for the general's soup." "Li Mao's bracelet is Su Qing's beloved thing, keep it for a thought, Su Qing was born in a wealthy family, and the use of this bracelet is an unusual thing, this bracelet is worth at least 100 yuan, the woman said she didn't accept it, but her eyes stared at it.

Recently, the military has become corrupt in terms of discipline, and in addition to openly keeping camp prostitutes, the battalions have also accepted secret prostitutes under various names. It is rumored that Zhu Zhenyuan is very afraid of the inside, his wife Li Mao has seen it, he is very strong, Zhu Zhenyuan can't get the warmth at home, it is inevitable to find it back in the camp, but with his fear of the inside, he openly supports the outer house, and he is not afraid of it, but it has become the best choice to raise a few secret prostitutes in the name of skillfully.

Li Mao deliberately pretended to be a floating wave, his eyes walked around the woman, fell on her buttocks, and said with a smile: "The eldest lady just take it, I won't leave tonight, I have time to come and talk." The woman glanced at him, snatched the bracelet with her hand, and said in her heart: "Where did the cat and dog dare to tease the old lady?" I don't let you see my methods, you don't know how powerful my mother is. I put the bracelet in my hand and touched it again, knowing that it was a good thing, I was full of joy, and I thought to myself: This guy is rich, generous, and good-looking, so I will be married to him tonight.

So he gave Li Mao a look, and deliberately said with a cold face: "I still have something to do, so I don't have time to take care of you." I was about to leave, but I was pulled by Li Mao, Li Mao smiled greedily and said, "Lady, let's go, where can I find you?" The woman winked and said, "Fool, how can there be a cook in the army, she is a stove kitchen." ”

This woman hooked up with Li Maomei for a while, and then went by herself, and when she went out, she saw the guard pursing her lips and snickering, so she chirped: "What are you laughing at, you will let him come later." I am very grateful. ”