The sky was gray, and it looked like it was going to rain.

There is more water in the air than the wine sold in the small hotel next to Fengxiang Mansion's hometown. The wine mixed with water back then should be said to be water mixed with wine, Li Xin remembered that when his father drank it, he scolded while drinking, and the more he drank, the more he got angry. At that time, my father should never have thought that there would be a day when he would be a feuder. Li Xin smacked his lips, but now no one dared to add water to his wine.

'Holy. ’

All year round, there is no ice visible on the water, but the wet and cold air can still penetrate the leather jacket and cotton jacket and penetrate the bones, Li Xin feels that the south is a little colder than the winter in Shaanxi. He has been in Jingnan for three years, but he has not yet gotten used to it. It has already reached Guangxi, which is further south, and the situation is still the same. It only took a moment to stand on the bow of the ship, and his hands and feet were already cold.

Li Xin moved his hands and feet, and he didn't know when he would be able to transfer back to the north, and he would have to ask his cousin when he finished fighting. Looking at the shore, every official ship can only go up the river under the pull of more than a dozen slender men. When it comes to hardship, he is far inferior to the one who pulls the fiber.

"Metropolitan Prison." Lei Jian walked out of the cabin, her face still pale and obviously sickly, but she was able to stand firm on the ship.

Li Xin turned his head and looked up and down, "Brother Lei, are you feeling better today?" ”

Lei Jian straightened up and gave a somewhat reluctant smile: "It's almost good." ”

The medical officer who treated the sick and saved people was sick, like a joke, but Li Xin couldn't laugh. Seeing that Lei Jian was now finally able to get up and walk around, a stone in his heart was finally put down, "That's good." ”

"Let the eunuch worry." Zhilu said that Li Xin is a saw-mouthed gourd and will not flatter people. Nodding as comfort, Lei Jian was not surprised. If it weren't for Han Gang, Zhang Shouyue and Zhang Dian all the way to support, how could such a character climb up in the army? How could he overpower Liu Zhongwu this time, and was ordered by the Son of Heaven to lead the Jingnan Army south to rescue Guangxi? This is the advantage of having someone in the DPRK.

However, Li Xin's prestige in the Jingnan Army is also full of real gold, and he was the first soldier in the battle back then, and the soldiers below were all obedient to him. Lei Jian also saw that several commanders who went south together didn't dare to say anything in front of him.

The cold wind blowing across the water made Lei Jian tremble, and he hugged his shoulders and rubbed them, "Where are you now?" He asked.

"Ahead is Xing'an County." There are more boats on the river, and the mouth of the Lingqu canal, which communicates Jing and Guang, is just as lively even in winter.

"It's almost Hung Yen?! Already in Guangxi? Lei Jian was startled, after entering Xing'an, the Lingqu was in sight, even if he entered the boundary of Guizhou. How many days did he lie on the ship?! I just felt that I had just left Tanzhou, and I had arrived in Guizhou all of a sudden.

Li Xin looked at Lei Jian, he seemed to be very sick, and his mind was confused, who would dare to believe the prescription he prescribed, "Brother Lei, when you get to Guizhou City, it is better to raise it for a few days." ”

How could this be done, his deputy was waiting to grab his place. "Jing Strategy and Yun Envoy recruited to accompany the army, why did they come to Guizhou to recuperate?" This time the opportunity to join the army is also rare, where is Lei Jian willing to let it go. In the Imperial Medical Bureau, his medical skills are ranked at the bottom, far inferior to the few imperial doctors who treated the Son of Heaven and the Queen Mother, but he was not slow to be promoted. What to rely on, Lei Jian knows very well.

Lei Jian refused to listen to the persuasion, Li Xin glanced at it again and ignored it, let his cousin pay attention to this matter.

"It's been to Xing'an, and the slender man can finally rest." Li Xin was to take charge of his soldiers, and sat in the last boat, while Zhang Dian and Han Gang were in the main boat in the middle. The sound of the horn came from the dock and reached the ship, and Zhang Dian and Han Gang lifted the curtain and walked out, "There is no light, the Lingqu is not easy to walk in the night, and the slender man has to let Xing'an County replace a batch, and it will take time." Rest for the night today, and when you cross the Lingqu tomorrow, you will be able to reach Guizhou. Yukun, what do you think? ”

"The flow of the Ling Canal is from Hunan to Lishui, and after entering the Ling Canal, you can go straight down the stream, and you don't need a slender man. Walk to the Lingchuan at the south exit overnight, and after dawn, you can just go to Guilin along the water. ”

Zhang Dian glanced at Han Gang in surprise, how could he, a native of Shaanxi, know the direction of the water flow of the Lingqu Dao. But he looked at the water again, and it dawned on him. An embankment was built in the middle of the river, and there was a sharp mouth upstream to divert the water, and they went up to the artificially dug channel, as long as you think about it, of course, you will know where the water in the Lingqu comes from. "I see, Yukun is really as careful as a hair."

"Don't dare to be." Han Gang had once enjoyed the customs and customs between Lixiang and Xiang, and it was not the first time he had come to Lingqu, but he had not walked on Lingqu by boat. Zhilu Dao Zhangdun had misunderstood, but he was only modest and couldn't explain it.

"Since you don't need a slender man to cross the spirit canal, it's easy to do." Han Gang wants to travel overnight, and Zhang Dian will not object. They went up the same line along the Hunan River, all by the slender man all the way up, how fast the slender man walked, how fast the boat went, it was useless to be anxious, and now it finally changed from the reverse current to the downstream, Zhang Dian also wanted to go faster, "Let Xing'an County be replaced with a group of boatmen who are familiar with the water conditions, and let them guide them to cross the Ling Canal." ”

The further the Xiangjiang River goes, the more it has to rely on the means of the slender man. Lingqu also has a slender man, but he is only responsible for the ships going north, and the boats going south are launching boats, going straight down the river. Although Han Gang said that he was in a hurry to cross the Lingqu to Guizhou, his heart was no longer very impatient. More than a month and a half have passed, and there has been no bad news from Yongzhou, and Su Mian wants to keep Yongzhou, so there should be no problem.

Zhang Dian and Han Gang went south from the capital, all the way to the same time, but it took 15 days to arrive in Tanzhou. The Tanzhou army, which was waiting for the dispatch to be called, made all the preparations, and it took them another two days. Then it went up all the way along the Xiangshui River, and arrived in Xing'an today, and entered the boundary of Guizhou, which was exactly the tenth day.

It took only twenty-seven days to get from the capital to Guizhou, and a third of the journey was carried with soldiers, albeit by boat, which was fast enough, and only a little slower than the hurried travel between Guangxi and the capital.

At the beginning, in the post station in Tangzhou, the messenger from Guangxi met them, and after hearing that Yongzhou had been guarded for more than 20 days, Han Gang and Zhang Dian were relieved. Generally speaking, if the siege cannot be captured within 10 days and a half, it will be difficult to maintain the morale of the besieging side, and if it refuses to withdraw the siege, it will turn into a siege. And it is not uncommon for the siege to drag on for a year and a half.

It was only when I arrived in Xiangzhou that I heard the news that the Guizhou reinforcements had been wiped out. All of a sudden, the situation changed again. There is no army that must be saved outside, and there is no city that must be defended inside. If the defenders of the city are in turmoil, it is likely that there will be a mole to open the city.

Yongzhou's military situation was reported by the Guangxi Economic Strategy Department every day. Han Gang and Zhang Dian went south day by day, although it was impossible to always bump into the messenger in the post house, but they could always know whether the Yongzhou City of Yongzhou was broken or not. Until yesterday, judging from the distance, at least until seven or eight days ago, Yongzhou City was still stable.

On the way south, Han Gang and Zhang Den's hearts were relaxed day by day.

Zhang Dian is the old boss of the Jingnan Army, Li Xin's prestige in the Jingnan Army is extremely high, and Han Gang's name is also spread in the army, so he can greatly boost his morale with the army. They are in charge of the Jingnan Army, like an arm's finger. With these four commanders as the core, it is possible to form an army of more than 6,000 people with sufficient combat power. On the narrow battlefield near Yongzhou City, it doesn't take much strength to break through the Jiaozhi army, which has been besieged for a long time and the division veterans are tired.

A fleet of forty official ships arrived at a port outside Xing'an County, stopped at the wharf, and Zhang Dian sent someone to disembark to inform Xing'an County. The people who sent Lu went to the gate of the city, and Xing'an Zhixian had already greeted him with the officials in the county.

has already set a schedule with Han Gang, Zhang Dian has no intention of talking nonsense with his subordinates, so he first asked about the current situation in Yongzhou, and heard about it

The plan to go to the Lingqu overnight was said, and Xing'an Zhixian made a difficulty, "I don't know a little, the water in the Lingqu is dry in winter, and I have to use Doumen to store water, but as soon as the water is stored, it flows slowly." If you want to go south, you can only rely on the slender man to pull, and you can't see your feet clearly, and it is difficult to pull the fiber. ”

Zhang Dian and Han Gang looked at each other, and only after asking again did they realize that the Lingqu was dry in winter, and even the southward needed a slender man. Every winter, many people in Xing'an County will take the initiative to come to pull fiber, all of them eat this bowl of rice, and in winter, they will do odd jobs to supplement their families, even if they pull official ships, they will also pay wages. It is not as good as the old Yaqian and husband servants in Shaanxi, all of them are day workers.

"The military situation is urgent, pay three times the salary, and I will go through the Lingqu tonight!" Zhang Dian said decisively, threatening the officials of Xing'an County who looked embarrassed, "Ben Jingluo led the army south to rescue Yongzhou, and only acted by military law. ”

The top boss threatened with his life, and knew that the road was an important matter that could never be delayed, and the officials were busy for more than an hour, and after nightfall, the soldiers on the clothes had eaten, and the county of Xing'an came to report that everything was ready. Not only the slender man and the boatmen who are familiar with the water conditions, but also the various doumen on the Ling Canal have sent people to inform them.

The slender men on the embankment shouted trumpets, and there were people on both sides lighting them with torches. After entering the spirit canal, the water in the canal is indeed only shallow. However, when the bucket gate is lowered in front, the water in this section of the river immediately rises, like a lock or a dam. After passing a bucket gate, use lights to notify the front bucket gate.

"Thanks to Li Shizhong." Zhang Dian and Han Gang stood on the bow of the boat, watching the fleet slowly advance in the narrow canal, "The thirty-six doumen on the Ling Canal were still repaired by Li Shizhong when he was in Guangxi. At that time, there was a reef in the canal, and he also sent people to dig it. ”

Although it was very unpleasant to have a relationship with Li Shizhong in Qinzhou, his credit, Han Gang also generously admitted, "It is indeed thanks to him." ”

Amid the sound of the trumpets of the slender men, it took a night to carry a fleet of more than 1,500 officers and soldiers through the Lingqu and arrive at Lingchuan County. The rest of the road is easy to walk. It took only two hours to go straight down the verdant peaks on both sides of the Li River, and at noon, the city of Guizhou had already appeared in front of them.

On the wharf, Liu Yi, the envoy of Zhizhou and Jingjing, who had already received the news in advance, and Li Pingyi, the transfer envoy, went out of the city to greet Zhang Dian and Han Gang and his party.

The military situation is urgent, and no one cares about all the common gifts sent to each other, and after seeing each other's names and inspecting their bodies, Zhang Dian asked: "What is the situation in Yongzhou?" ”

Liu Yi and Li Ping glanced at each other, with some trepidation, "The thieves have blocked the big and small roads recently, and it is difficult for the scouts to get one step closer to Yongzhou, and they have not received any news from Yongzhou since yesterday." ”