Ten miles outside the south gate of Datong City, there is a pavilion, known as the Ten Miles Long Pavilion, basically all the cities in the world have such a pavilion outside.

Its function is not for pedestrians to rest, but for farewell or welcome. Generally, those who can have this kind of treatment are basically people with noble status.

And today, outside the ten-mile long pavilion, there is a group of brightly dressed people waiting here, the leader of which is a tall general, wearing a waist armor with fish scales and leaves, and a sword hanging from his waist, and next to him stands a civil official wearing a red civil official uniform and embroidering a peacock on the patch on his chest.

The military commander of these two people is Li Yongnian, the general soldier of Datong, and the civil official is Mu Zuo, the prefect of Datong. The group of people who followed behind them were naturally the civil and military officials of Datong City.

At the back of the officials were the gentry with heads and faces in Datong City, and today everyone was dressed up, and they all pulled their necks to look at the official road coming from the south.

On both sides of the official road, there were two columns of soldiers with protruding chests and bellies, but the robes and armor of these soldiers were not much different from those of these dignitaries and nobles.

Unlike the anticipation, apprehension and other expressions on the faces of the officials and gentry, the expressions on the faces of these soldiers were numb. For them, they are just doing what they are told, and there is nothing to be happy about.

So many people are waiting here for Yuan Chonghuan, the famous secretary of the military department of the Ming Dynasty. There was already news that Yuan Chonghuan would personally go to Datong to supervise the division and launch a counterattack against the Manchus in order to recover Liaodong.

Now that the news has been confirmed, the holy decree has been promulgated, so these people are waiting here for this Yuan Shangshu and Yuan Inspector, all hoping to give a good first impression to this top boss.

The reason why this Lord Yuan is famous is not because he is high in the military department, but because he single-handedly presided over the war to suppress and exterminate the thieves, and used one move to surround the thieves from all sides, commanding all the armies to close the net and surround the two largest bandit teams in the world, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, in the Shangluo Valley, just waiting for them to run out of ammunition and food, and then annihilate them in one fell swoop.

You must know that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the two branches of the Liukou, are very powerful, wandering all over the world, attacking cities, and many prefectures and counties have been breached by them, and even the ancestral tombs of the emperor of the current dynasty have been swept away by Li Zicheng, and the emperor's uncles and cousins have not been captured or killed by thieves.

Therefore, almost no official in the world does not talk about the change of lust of thieves.

The various encirclement and suppression armies of the imperial court were defeated and retreated under the fierce offensive of the thieves, and the army was defeated, so that the thieves became even more unscrupulous, and even shouted the slogan of going to the capital to pull the emperor off the horse.

The Ming Emperor was furious and wanted to send another army to exterminate the thieves, but there was no one to use. As soon as the officials of the court heard that they were going to fight the thieves, they all hid back, so angry that the emperor didn't know how many people he had beaten, but there was still no one who was handsome.

Just when the emperor was anxious, a letter was handed up from Jiangnan, and the above table was Yuan Chonghuan, a small prefect in Jiangnan, who asked to lead troops to exterminate the thieves, and was willing to make a military order, if not, he was willing to lose his head.

When the news came out, the government and the opposition were in an uproar, and basically all the voices were ridiculed and ridiculed. There are so many things that the generals and ministers can't handle, and you a little prefect dares to speak wildly, it's really unbelievable.

However, the emperor was like a man in the water grasping a life-saving straw, sent someone to recruit Yuan Chonghuan to the capital, talked with him for a day and a night, and the next day issued an order to promote Yuan Chonghuan to the left servant of the military department, acting Shang Shushi, that is, he became the actual head of the military department, one of the six departments of the imperial court.

And the emperor also gave him a flying fish suit, and granted him the great right to mobilize the provincial armies, select generals, and take full responsibility for the extermination of the thieves.

This news shocked the government and the opposition even more, because before this, few people knew the name Yuan Chonghuan, at most, the people from the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War had a little impression of him, that is, this brother had a very special hobby during his time as the prefect, that is, to exterminate the bandits. After three years as the prefect, all the robbers and bandits in the territory under his jurisdiction were basically wiped out by him, and even those who did not die ran to other prefectures.

Therefore, these people in the green forest gave Lord Yuan a nickname called Yuan Manzi, which means that this person is too tough to provoke.

Other than these things, this benevolent brother doesn't seem to have any great deeds.

Therefore, after the holy decree, many people shook their heads, waiting to see Yuan Chonghuan's jokes, waiting to see him lose his head, and waiting for His Majesty the Emperor to lose face.

What so many of our bigwigs can't do, can you let a little prefect do it?

But Yuan Chonghuan does have a lot of energy, and the things he recognizes have to be done for him. He didn't care how others ridiculed and ridiculed, as if he hadn't heard it, he sent troops around with a dark face every day, and selected many generals he liked from various provinces, such as Sun Chengzong, Hong Chengchou, Cao Bianjiao, Zuo Liangyu and others, and then on the one hand, let the relevant provinces raise grain, grass and military salaries, and on the other hand, take these generals and soldiers to study how to break the enemy.

In the end, a strategy of encirclement on all sides was studied, which was simply like hunting, and the ten-way army drove the thieves to the middle from all sides, and finally rushed into the battlefield selected by the officers and soldiers, and then came to catch turtles in an urn.

No one believed that he could do this, because the arrogance of the thieves had scared many officials out of their courage before, not to mention that a stunned Yuan Chonghuan and a group of stunned generals could do it.

However, the facts soon surprised all the people who were waiting to see the joke and see Yuan Chonghuan lose his head, and his face was beaten.

In less than half a year, Yuan Chonghuan really forced the two thief armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong into the Shangluo Valley, and the thieves suffered heavy casualties, and now there is only enough left to survive.

Half a year ago, when the thieves were strong, many people felt that the sky was going to change, and they began to half-heartedly find a way back for themselves. As a result, I didn't expect that in less than half a year, the situation has changed dramatically. This caught many people by surprise, so they were impressed by Yuan Chonghuan, a barbarian.

His Majesty the Emperor was even more joyful, and directly gave Yuan Chonghuan the hat of the secretary of the Ministry of War, and also crowned him as a scholar of the East Pavilion University and entered the cabinet to do things. Although he was the last in the cabinet, this has fully demonstrated the trust of His Majesty the Emperor, and for a time Yuan Chonghuan became the hottest figure in the court.

The small prefect who was originally ridiculed and ridiculed has now become the most popular court member of the dynasty, and for a while, Yuan Chonghuan's small courtyard in front of the door became crowded.

But Yuan Manzi quickly let everyone understand another meaning of the title of his barbarian. All those who came to him with gifts were kept behind closed doors.

And let it out, if you want to talk about business, please go to the military department to sign the detention room. Want to talk about personal matters? I'm sorry, but I, Yuan Manzi, don't have any personal matters to talk about with the princes of the court.

The hundred officials were closed, and they scolded Yuan Chonghuan and Yuan Manzi, saying that he had made up his mind to be a lonely minister.

Yuan Chonghuan didn't care.

However, this attitude greatly satisfied His Majesty the Emperor, who had suffered greatly from party strife, and trusted Yuan Chonghuan even more, and began to consult him about the Liaodong war.

At this time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty attacked Datong again, and Datong City sent people to the imperial court to complain.

The emperor invited Yuan Chonghuan to consult, but Yuan Chonghuan took the initiative to go to Datong to supervise the division, and made a military order to His Majesty the emperor for five years.

The emperor was even more pleased, and directly crowned Yuan Chonghuan with the title of Wenyuan Pavilion student, supervised Datong as the secretary of the Ministry of War, controlled the civil and military affairs of Liaodong, and presided over the war against the Qing Dynasty with full powers.

In this way, Yuan Manzi came to Liaodong with great ambition.

The civil and military officials of Datong have different thoughts, and the civil officials are a little afraid of Yuan Chonghuan, everyone has heard of his stinky temper, and they didn't want to come but they couldn't help it.

The generals were happy in their hearts, and they preferred to deal with such straightforward superiors.

Just when everyone was thinking about their own thoughts, a flying horse galloped from the pipe, and immediately the knight shouted loudly: "Coming, coming, Inspector Yuan is here." ”

Hearing the knight's report, all the civil and military officers in Datong were in good spirits, and they looked at the official road with wide eyes.

I saw that after a while, the horses' hooves and dust were flying on the official road, and they were coming this way.