After Li Huai finished speaking, Zhang Xiao and Song Tongyin couldn't help but sigh, Daming came to this point, and the immortals couldn't do it, Zhang Xiao asked about Yue Hesheng's situation again, Li Huai lowered his head and sighed: "Lord Yue's health is getting worse and worse, and the situation in Yansui is even worse, this year's drought in the northwest, the grain harvested is less than half of that of previous years, and in some places there is even no harvest, and the people are struggling to live, but the taxes of the imperial court cannot be paid, and the people can't live anymore, so they can only be displaced and flee everywhere. If there is a big drought next year, the northwest will definitely be in chaos, Lord Yue is now restless and anxious, but the situation in the DPRK and China is delicate, and he does not dare to take the liberty of playing, in fact, the two adults also understand that even if the court is played, it is useless, the courtiers are staring at the court, who cares about Yansui thousands of miles away, that can only cause greater trouble to the locality, Lord Yue is difficult! ”

The three of them looked at each other, there was nothing to say except sighing, Zhang Xiaoqiang smiled and said to Li Huai: "I see that Yushan is extraordinary and talented, and he must do something when he enters Beijing this time, I can write a few letters to my old friends in the DPRK and China, and introduce you to them, maybe I can help Yushan." Song Tongyin also hurriedly said that he would also write a letter to recommend Li Huai.

"Thank you two adults, the late students know their own abilities, and the middle one will be satisfied, this time I just want to take a walk and see more, increase my knowledge, and the others don't dare to hope," Li Huai hurriedly got up and thanked him, he smiled and continued, "The late life entered Beijing this time, starting from Yulin and walking east along the Great Wall, along the way, while rushing to explore the side wall passes, I gained a lot, and after visiting the old man in the late life, I also continued to go east to Xuanfu, Jizhen and Shanhaiguan to see, and then went to Beijing, I went out and left home early, There was enough time, but I didn't pay attention to the exam. ”

"Yushan has great ambitions, he is not an ordinary person, and he will do something in the future." Song Tongyin sighed.

Zhang Xiao shook his head: "Yushan can have such knowledge, and the old man is also quite appreciative, but the matter of the examination must not be sloppy, aside from the words of Guangzong Yaozu, with Yushan's talents, if you can enter the court as an official with the title of the gold list, you must be the talent of the pillars of my Ming Dynasty, and there is no shortage of nerds who read dead books, what is lacking is a pragmatic talent like Yushan." ”

"The eldest man is in love, he was born in a military family in his later years, his father was a town mark guerrilla of Lord Juniper, and he went to Salhu in Liaodong with Lord Du and never came back, and his brother went to Sichuan with Lord Du Wenhuan to suppress thieves, and he also buried his bones in another country, and the third brother also went to Liaodong at the age of sixteen, and his whereabouts are still unknown. Li Huai replied a little sadly.

Song Tongyin glanced at Zhang Xiao, it turned out that this Li Huai's family and the Du family of the Northwest Jiangmen still have a relationship - Du Tong, the three masters of the Du family, the two Juniper brothers and Du Tong's son Du Wenhuan are all famous generals in the Ming Dynasty, Song Tongyin said to Li Huai: "I look at Yushan riding horses and swords, I must be a person who can write and martial arts, and Yushan is willing to stay in Yanghe and serve in the army?" Zhang Xiao also cast an expectant glance at Li Huai.

Li Huai got up again and saluted: "The two adults raise love, Yushan is supported by Lord Yue, and he can't bear to abandon it, he will serve the two adults one day." ”

Zhang Xiao and Song Tongyin couldn't help but sigh, the three of them were talking, Zhang Xiao's house in the house ran in, panicked and said something big, the family looked at Li Huai and didn't dare to say, Li Huai hurriedly got up to say goodbye, but Zhang Xiao waved his hand to signal him to sit down, and shouted at the family: "Mr. Li is not an outsider, you just have to tell what happened." ”

Jia Ding said at this time, the patrol officers and soldiers of the southern outpost came to report that Fang Zhikun, the general of Xinpingbao, brought more than 500 Xinpingbao defenders to the Tatar camp of Baishan Mountain, and asked for fire with the Tatars of the superintendent, as if because the Tatars had beaten the people of Xinpingbao two days ago, and the general Fang Shenjun claimed to set foot on the Tatar camp.

Zhang Xiao's face changed, but he quickly returned to normal, and said with a smile: "These Tatars have not changed their wild nature, and they actually dare to beat my Ming officers and soldiers, no matter what, this time let General Fang teach them a good lesson and let them learn some rules." ”

Song Tongyin stood up helplessly: "I'll take Zhang Chuanjie's sentry for a trip, don't make any big trouble, these Tatars are usually quite regular, how dare they come this time?" ”

Zhang Xiao turned his face to look at Li Huai, and asked softly, "Yushan, how do you manage the Yi soldiers in Yulin Town?" It seems that there are many Yi soldiers in the officers and armies of the three northwest sides, and those Yi soldiers are quite obedient and work hard to fight. ”

"Our three sides have been fighting with the Mongols since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and they have been fighting for more than 200 years, and there are a lot of Mongols who have thrown themselves to us, these people are born to be cavalry materials, and the iron cavalry in the towns in the northwest is indispensable to them, these people are also easy to manage, they are just to live a good life, and they will not make trouble," Li Huai nodded and replied, he quietly glanced at Zhang Xiao, and then said: "The most important thing for Guan Yi soldiers is fairness, as long as a bowl of water in the army is leveled, no one will bully anyone, and nothing will happen, In fact, our Yi soldiers there are better than the Han soldiers, when we send out elite soldiers to burn the wasteland and smash the nest in Yulin Town, they are generally the ones who lead the way and fight the vanguard, these Yi people do not have the hearts and eyes of the Han soldiers, we are good to them, and they will also die with us. ”

Zhang Xiao nodded thoughtfully: "Yushan, since you are familiar with Yiwu, can you accompany Deputy Envoy Song to have a look?" ”

"Dare to disobey!" Li Huai replied, and Song Tongyin happily pulled up Li Huai and left.

Fang Zhikun rushed to Baishan Mountain at dawn, he is a veteran military affairs, he understands the truth of the speed of soldiers, and he also fully considered the arduousness and difficulties of this fire - the other party is an elite Tatar cavalry, as soon as he ran back to Xinpingbao, he gritted his teeth and transferred more than 500 people, including the Shoukouyi people, from Xinpingbao and the surrounding small forts and piers under his jurisdiction, and also made up forty or fifty pairs of armor and a dozen three-eyed guns that could be beaten, in order to strengthen his cavalry team, he also borrowed a lot of horses, mules and even donkeys from the merchants of Xinpingbao, Fight out more than 100 cavalry - if horses, mules and donkeys are also called cavalry, Fang Zhikun is very satisfied with his preparations, to be honest, he will not be so attentive to war, but this is the first time he has taken so many people out of the house since he arrived at Xinpingbao, he had to be cautious, after the preparations, he set off overnight with the Xinpingbao expeditionary force, aiming at Baishan Mountain, fifty miles away.

The interest of the Ming army in fighting is obviously higher than fighting, and the character of the soldiers is good this time, and they rushed to Baishan Mountain before dawn, and the other party's camp was dark and silent, probably these Tatars are still sleeping. Fang Zhikun is worthy of being the general of the Ming army, and he made extraordinary moves, and as soon as he arrived at the Tatar camp under Baishan Mountain, he ordered the camp to be robbed, and he wanted to launch an attack before dawn to catch the other party off guard. Fang Zhikun ordered, the Ming army held torches, blowing the trumpet murderously rushed to the Tatar camp, known as the first brave general of Xinping Fort a garrison is the first soldier, holding a big knife to lead dozens of people under his command to kill the camp first.

Everything seemed to be going well, Fang Zhikun was still proudly thinking about how to deal with the prisoners, and the Ming army who suddenly rushed up ran back in a swarm as if they had blown up, and some people kept shouting in horror, "There is an ambush, you are fooled!" "The Tatars are coming, run!" The Ming army that followed behind heard the shout, and ran away regardless of the officer's order, Bai Shan also rushed down a group of cavalry, and shot at the chaotic Ming army with a bow, the Ming army was beaten to the wolf howl, desperately running back, Fang Zhikun began to want to reorganize the chaotic army, but no one listened to him, but instead squeezed him back and forth, the other party quickly noticed Fang Zhikun, a group of people on horseback, and immediately shot at them, Fang Zhikun's surrounding family members and personal soldiers immediately howled, and Fang Zhikun himself was hit a few times- Fortunately, it was the projectile that was shot instead of the arrow, and the other party still didn't dare to poison it, but the projectile hit by the slingshot also hurt, Fang Zhikun saw that the situation was not good, and took the family members and soldiers around him to cover their buttocks and faces, and ran for five miles in one breath before stopping.

At this time, the sky was already bright, and Fang Zhikun, who felt that he had lost his old face, did not run, he had to get his face back, his family and personal soldiers were sent out, and he collected the defeated soldiers who fled everywhere, as long as the Ming army was not fighting, it was still relatively honest, and no one wanted to lose their jobs, and the Ming army that ran away soon came back in twos and threes, Fang Zhikun counted the number of people, and most of the five hundred people brought out came back, only the bravest garrison and his thirty or so people were nowhere to be seen, Someone reported that the garrison and his men seemed to have fallen into the trap dug by the Tatars, Fang Zhikun was angry, when did the Tatars learn to dig traps, this is obviously a trick in "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms", do the Tatars also watch "Three Kingdoms"?

Fang Zhikun gathered his subordinates and scolded him again, before they could beat you like this, if there was a fight, would you be able to look like a bear? The face of Xinpingbao has been lost by you. Fang Zhikun scolded everyone's faces, to be honest, people are Tartar merciful enough, except for the unlucky guy who fell into the trap, everyone else jumped back alive, and the injuries were also beaten by a slingshot or the ability to escape was not good and sprained, you are embarrassed to blame others, but the people of Xinpingbao have enough foreign appearances, everyone only cares about running away, a lot of weapons and dry food have been lost, even a few cauldrons for cooking have been lost, and some of the losers' things have also thrown away valuable armor and livestock, are you embarrassed to ask others for it now?

Fang Zhikun finished scolding, and encouraged everyone again, now we want to get back the lost face, in the end, there are still many people, and we still win, we not only want to take back the lost brothers and property, but also make them kneel on the ground and kowtow and beg for mercy, and everyone was quickly incited again, shouting and beating loudly. So, Fang Zhikun took this group of people back to the bottom of Baishan Mountain, but this time he didn't dare to play clever anymore, but honestly set up a battle formation in front of the camp, and more than a dozen guys with loud voices were also sent out to scold the formation.

Before the scolding people could speak foul language, more than thirty people came out of the camp opposite, and the people of Xinpingbao immediately cheered - the brave garrison with his people was released, Fang Zhikun was also very happy, it seemed that the other party was still afraid. When the garrison came back, it was not that they couldn't fight, and no one could have imagined that the Tatars would also dig traps, and the black light blinded the fire and fell in, but the Tartars were frightened by their righteousness, and only kicked them in the ass a few times and ignored them, and when the general brought people, he immediately released them, and asked him to bring a few words to the general.

Fang Zhikun asked with a disdainful expression, "Are they planning to surrender?" It's not that cheap. ”

"No, their Qian always asked me to ask my lord, are you going to fight to the death, or are you going to fight alive?" The garrison saw the puzzled faces of Fang Zhikun and the officers, and hurriedly explained, "Death beating means that no one is merciless, fighting like a war, those who have the ability to live, those who die deserve it, and they fight alive, that is, everyone sets the rules first, and you can't beat people to death or maim when you start, everyone wins or loses according to the rules, and no one can play tricks, listen, people Tatar even have to talk about the rules when they fight, and the way of this fight is not shallow." ”

The officers nodded one after another, and without waiting for Fang Zhikun to speak, some people immediately advocated beating alive, this proposition was unanimously agreed, everyone came out to be a soldier just to eat with a mouthful of food, and now they can't get military salaries, why let everyone play with their lives, if they want to fight, they will fight alive, Fang Zhikun also feels that he can't make a big deal out of it, and it's best to fight alive, but the rules for beating up must be set well, and we can't let us suffer.

The garrison shook his head and said, "The Tatar Qianzong has said that they can use headless arrows and projectiles, and the spear will always remove the tip of the spear, and when using a knife, we can only use the back of the knife to cut, and they will ask us if we agree.

"No!" The officers of Xinpingbao unanimously replied that the rules had to be set by everyone, so why should they decide by themselves. Then everyone came up with ideas, and someone covered his swollen face and said that they couldn't be allowed to hit people with bows and arrows, headless arrows and projectiles that hurt too much, and what if they were blinded by shooting? Some people say that you can't use a knife at all, if you hit a red eye, you can still distinguish the blade and the back of the knife, can they afford to hurt someone? One of the most talented guys even suggested that we should not let the Tatars fight us on horseback, because their horses were good, and if they could not beat them, they could run away, so where should we run?

The officers finished putting forward all kinds of requirements, and the garrison was dumbfounded, these requirements would be agreed to by a fool, he was embarrassed to go to the Tatar camp, so everyone recommended the general to negotiate with the Tatar camp Qianzong, Fang Zhikun's brain was stunned by these guys, he was unwilling to deal with a small Qianzong, but everyone thought that only the general could suppress the Tatar Qianzong and force the guy to admit the account, Fang Zhikun had no choice but to obey the public opinion and come forward to talk to the Tatar Qianzong, But he had to go with the guard and a few of the officers who shouted the hardest.

Li Yu had been waiting in his camp for a long time, and after cleaning up the people of Xinpingbao, he expected that those guys would come to retaliate, and made arrangements in advance, he stayed in Jinguo for more than half a year and did not mess around in vain, he had read the script of "Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and dug a trap according to what was said in the book - he was too familiar with this, and he did this when hunting, and Buck's team of men and horses was also ambushed by him on Baishan Mountain, Li Yu especially emphasized that he could not do things absolutely, just drive people away, and try not to hurt people. When the Ming army of Xinpingbao came, Li Yu knew from a distance from the camp, these guys were carrying torches all the way, and they were shouting, it was really difficult for others not to know, and just like that, they still had to rob the camp, isn't this looking for a fight? Wuhai and Buck took it a hard time to bring down these guys. When everyone was having breakfast, the Ming army of Xinpingbao came again, Li Yu drove away the captured garrison, and immediately asked everyone to prepare for war.

Li Yu didn't wait for the Ming army to come, but waited for the general and their group of people to come, these people had to set rules with them before fighting, Li Yu had to invite them into the camp, and as soon as the ass sat down, General Fang said that the meal was ordered, you didn't let us have breakfast, we have to let us eat at noon, and the smallest of the people we came are all ethics, so you can afford to invite us to dinner, we can not drink wine, but there must be meat. Li Yu had no choice but to pay out of his own pocket and take out a piece of broken silver for people to go to Baideng Village to buy some meat and come back. Since you have seized our cauldron and dry food, we will ask you for food, and the Shoukouyi people from Xinpingbao do not regard themselves as outsiders, and go directly to the villagers' pots to scoop up rice and eat, and the soldiers are good to talk to each other, and everyone will be familiar with the kung fu for a while, and the soldiers of Xinpingbao still have tobacco leaves, and the soldiers on both sides of the meal will sit by the river with a smile, basking in the sun and smoking, while waiting for the official's idea.

Li Yu was about to be bombed in his broken thatched house, the officers brought by General Fang could speak well, and pointed out the danger of the bow and arrow weapon with one mouth, it can not only shoot arrows but also projectiles, General Fang pointed to the bag of pebbles in Wuhai and said, how painful this thing hurts on people, if you blind people's eyes, the family wants you to compensate, you are poorer than us, what to compensate others, and you still want to play with knives, how scary that thing is, what to do if you hurt people, Fang Shen will last slap the table, Bows and arrows must be banned as weapons of mass destruction, and of course we don't take advantage of you, and we don't use three-eyed firearms either—in fact, he doesn't count whether his dozen or so three-eyed guns can be fired. The garrison was even more ruthless, and directly demanded that Li Yu and they must dismount and fight them, so that it would be fair, and several other officers also took the opportunity to make various demands, even limiting the weight and length of the sticks used in the fight.

Li Yu was also anxious, and immediately made a counter-request, we can not use knives and bows and arrows, but you can't wear armor, we are Tatars, of course we have to fight on horseback, don't you also have cavalry? The officer of Xinping Fort immediately retorted, of course we have armor to wear, or is it better to take a stick? How can our cavalry be considered cavalry, have you ever seen a cavalry on a mule or a donkey?

The two sides quarreled, each with its own reasons, and no one refused to give in, Li Yu was a little angry, pointed at Fang Zhikun and shouted: "Old Fang, are you here to fight, or are you here to quarrel?" If you want to fight, you will fight, and if you don't fight, you will get out of the house as soon as possible. ”