Early the next morning, the Ming army began to pack up the camp tent and prepare to set off, last night the eight kings Zhang Xianzhong fled with his hundreds of people, the Ming cavalry chased for a while and did not catch up, and he didn't care, this kind of small thieves are everywhere now, no one takes this as a big deal, Li Yu left dozens of stones of grain to leave for the people, persuaded them to go back to Dingbian, Jingbian hometown, the rest can not be controlled, the departure of the military horn sounded, the Ming army of the brigade set off from the camp, and drove north to Yulin City.

Yulin City, one of the important towns in the northwest, east of the Hump Mountain, west of the Yuxi River, to the north over the big sandy land, you can enter the Hetao grassland, to the south through the land of hills, can also go deep into the land of Sanqin, for the grassland and the throat of the land of farming, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty military strength, the famous generals Feng Sheng, Fu Youde recovered the northwest from the hands of Meng Yuan, and attacked to the north to control the Hetao, in the grassland area north of the big sandy land set up Chahan Brain Guard, and Dongshengwei, Xinghewei and Kaiping Wei connected into a line, the Ming army and the Mongolian departments attached to each other assisted, Like an iron wall blocking the route of the remnants of the Mengyuan forces to the south, but the Ming Emperor Taizu then used the Lanyu case to purge the army, Feng Sheng, Fu Youde and tens of thousands of fierce soldiers in the army died at the hands of the mad Taizu, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army declined sharply, and can no longer recover, Taizu in view of the army's inability to gain a foothold outside the border, as well as supply difficulties, forced to abandon the border guards, although the Chengzu Dynasty has the intention to expand to the north of the border wall, but with the rapid recovery of the strength of the Mongolian tribes and Emperor Chengzu's five northern expeditions failed, The imperial court finally decided to abandon the border and retreat to the line of the Great Wall, which became a border wall of Suidewei - Yulin Fort.

With the retreat of the Ming army's defensive forces, the Mongolian departments continued to infiltrate southward, the Hetao grassland was gradually controlled by the Mongolian forces, and developed to the south, the importance of Yulin Fort became more and more apparent, the Ming court was forced to strengthen the garrison here, Chenghua seven years here set up Yulin Wei, Chenghua nine years governor Yu Zijun was ordered to move the Suizhen Governance Office from Suide to Yulin, since then Yansui Town is also known as Yulin Town, Yulin City has also been expanded three times by the Chenghua Dynasty, Hongzhi Dynasty and Zhengde Dynasty, and has become a brick-covered fortified city with a height of three zhang and six feet, and the top width is three zhang. It is like an iron wall, bordering Ningxia Town in the west and Shanxi Town in the east, becoming the fulcrum of blocking the southern invasion of Mongolia.

The situation of the nine-sided thirteen towns is similar to that of Yulin Town, almost all of them are formed with the Ming court retreating to the side wall, building the Great Wall to raise nearly one million defenders, the huge consumption exhausted the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, but did not block the footsteps of the border iron cavalry to the south, the border wall defense line was repeatedly breached, Shanxi, Shaanxi suffered many intrusions, Oirat's Yexian, the Mongolian right wing of Altan Khan and the Jin State's Tiancong Khan were three times to the Jingshi City, the majestic Great Wall could not achieve the Ming Emperor's dream of the iron to fight the country, What made the Ming Dynasty breathe a sigh of relief was the peace agreement with the Mongolian right wing, which was probably unthinkable by the previous Ming emperors.

Yulin City has finally arrived, and there are already thousands of Yulin people waiting under the far gate of Chengnan Town - Yulin City is a military town, and the vast majority of the people here are military households, and the Yulin Army is their children. The team of the Ming army drove over, the city immediately made a noise of gongs and drums, firecrackers rang out, the people rushed up to welcome the soldiers, the Ming army immediately changed the sloppiness on the road, very consciously lined up, walked with their heads held high, and some deliberately raised their heads to show off, causing a burst of cheers from the people, "I Yulin Army is mighty", "My Yulin Army is victorious" The shouts resounded together.

The Fengzhou army hid far behind with great interest, they knew that this meeting had nothing to do with them, and they had to wait until they returned to their hometown in Fengzhou to enjoy this glory, but Hou Shijie was as excited as a dog returning to the den, scurrying around in the team.

"See, this is Yulin City, my hometown, how magnificent, the city has been built for two hundred years now, and it has never been breached, is it a cow or not?" The old marquis blew proudly.

"Lao Hou, are you annoying, what's the big deal, our Datong City is even more magnificent than here, Lao Zhang, are you right?" Full Pillar was a little disdainful.

Zhang Chuanjie nodded vigorously, but then said a frustrating word: "This is a fart, it's better to pay us the money for building the city!" ”

The Mongols in the Fengzhou army are envious, the Ming country is really rich, such a poor place can build such a tall and strong city, and we will be very angry if we build an earthen wall, how can this be compared with others! Meng Ke complained to Li Yu, we should at least repair the Great Commander's Mansion, and in the eyes of the people of the Ming Kingdom, it is not much better than a livestock shed.

Yansui governor Hong Chengchou, Yansui general Wang Chengen personally out of the city to meet the Ming army, Hong Chengchou this person is very real, announced to the Ming army soldiers, in order to celebrate Qingjian, Huaining two great victories, all the soldiers immediately issued a month's full salary, one by one boxes were then carried to the front of the army, opened all full of white flowers and silver, the Ming soldiers were so excited that tears filled their eyes, cheers immediately sounded.

When Hong Chengchou returned to the city, he also invited the main generals of the Ming army to the governor's yamen at noon for a banquet, but Du Wenhuan said that he was not feeling well, turned his head and went home directly, Li Yu thought about camping outside the city, and wanted to refuse, but he was pulled by his old acquaintance Wang Chengen - this time he did not enter the city, it was not that Hong Chengchou discriminated against his Yi soldiers, the governor specially explained to him that he had too many cavalry, and it was more convenient to camp outside the city, and he also allocated grain, grass and camp tents, Li Yu still had a good impression of Hong Chengchou, His soldiers rode step by step, this time everyone got a horse soldier salary of one or two or eight yuan, plus four dollars of horse material silver, Zhang Zongheng of Datong has never been so generous, Hong Chengchou is still very sorry, Yan Sui is too poor, and he can't pay double pay to his guest army, please understand, Li Yu is a little flattered.

Li Yu is very strange, isn't Wang Chengen the chief soldier of Lintao, why was he suddenly transferred to Yulin Town? Wang Chengen intentionally or unintentionally glanced at Cao Wenzhao, who was not far away, and whispered to Li Yu in his ear, probably because the court thought he was old, and let him go back to his hometown for a few days and go home directly, in fact, this position should have been Du Shuai's, who knows what the courtiers thought, he had to let him do this errand that offended people, forget it, when he is old, make room for others, anyway, he is lazy to take care of things, and it is good to stay at home and recuperate if he has nothing to do.

At the banquet, Li Yu wanted to find a corner to sit down according to the old habit, but Hong Chengchou pointed to the position next to him, and beckoned him to come and sit with a smile.

"I heard that Vice General Li took the word Hanmin, and this official will also call you Hanmin, in this Yulin City, the military attache with the title of Governor of the Metropolitan is you, Du Shuai, and Wang Zongbing, and Hanmin don't have to be too modest," Hong Chengchou took Li Yu's hand and said affectionately, "Hanmin forced to retreat outside the Datong border, regained Dongsheng, Xinghe and two guards, and Gyeonggi repeatedly defeated Jianyi and made great achievements, and can be called a tiger general of our dynasty, this official was ecstatic when he heard that you were coming to Yansui, and sure enough, as soon as Hanmin came, the thieves in Qingjian and Huaining immediately disappeared, The official will personally perform the chapter for you to recount your merits and ask for rewards. ”

"My lord, Hanmin is our Yulin people, the emperor has summoned him, he has a future in this future life, and we have a successor in Yulin Town!" Wang Chengen also interjected.

"That's natural, the official still wants to have a drink with the Han people," Hong Chengchou nodded in response, Cao Wenzhao immediately smiled and came over to pour wine, Hong Chengchou pressed Li Yu, who wanted to get up, and said earnestly, "Han Min and sit down and listen to the official, the Ming Dynasty has accumulated a lot of disadvantages in the two hundred and sixty years since the founding of the country, so that internal and external troubles, the people are not able to make a living, such as the difficulties in the northwest, although they originated from natural disasters, they are actually caused by man-made disasters, officials are greedy, soldiers are afraid of war, so that thieves are rampant, and lives are ruined. It will take time to get results, don't have any doubts, you and I just need to do our duty, this official tells you, in my eyes there is no distinction between Huayi, and there is no civil and military nobility, your department's food, ordnance and military rewards are treated equally with the Yansui army, and the affairs of the military department will also be taken care of for you, you can only rest assured that you will kill the thief when you arrive in Yansui, who dares to make it difficult for you, and your own official will support you. ”

Li Yu listened to Hong Chengchou's words, felt warm in his heart, and hurriedly got up to thank Hong Chengchou, Hong Chengchou waved his hand, and said with concern: "Vice General Cao said your life experience, since you have gone home, you must go back to see, and you will have to stay for a few more days, there is no war in the army for the time being, and the official will give you a few days off." ”

Hong Chengchou obviously valued Li Yu very much, and pulled him into his study after eating, after the two sat down, Hong Chengchou suddenly asked Li Yu, why did the Fengzhou soldiers not wear the Ming army's uniform, but wore sheepskin jackets that dragged to their knees, and Datong Town didn't give them clothes? Li Yu replied dejectedly, Datong Town almost didn't care about them, weapons, grain, grass and clothing had to find their own way, and there was no way to talk about military salaries, Fengzhou was so poor that he couldn't afford to eat, cotton cloth and cotton were even more scarce, and it was not easy to give everyone a leather jacket to wear.

"This official is negligent, tomorrow I will send someone to send you two thousand taels of silver to buy clothes and quilts, the soldiers have walked more than a thousand miles to get here, and I can't wronged them," Hong Chengchou said immediately.

Li Yu was so moved that his eyes were red, and he stood up and saluted, Hong Chengchou stopped him, smiled and chatted with him about Fengzhou, Hong Chengchou listened very carefully, and interjected from time to time to ask a few words, and sometimes listened to laughter, Li Yu felt that the adult in front of him was a loyal elder, and told him about the situation in Fengzhou.

"My lord, we want to belong to the imperial court, but the imperial court turned us away, there are no court officials in Fengzhou, and there is no "Da Ming Law", no one cares about us at all, we are poor there, there is not much food in the field, famine, plague, hundreds of people die, I don't hide it from my lord, we came out to fight to have something to eat, in order to survive, we have done everything to sell livestock and salt, my lord, do you think we can go on like this? Sometimes I really want to run away secretly, but I just can't bear to talk to my fellow villagers. Li Yu said with a sad face.

"Hermes-Epitek, you have overcome so many difficulties, you must not give up, in fact, with the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court does not send officials to Fengzhou, nor does it implement the "Daming Law", which is also a good thing, otherwise Fengzhou and even Xuanda will be in chaos, and the courtiers are not confused," Hong Chengchou replied, and then laughed again, "The Ming Dynasty could not gain a foothold outside the border, gave up Dongsheng, Xinghe and Liangwei, and inserted the Han Dynasty to kill almost all the Mongolian Taiji and Nuoyan there, and finally grabbed this territory, but it was untenable, but let you break into it in a daze, And stand firm, this is the will of God, maybe Chahan Brain Erwei and Kaiping Wei will also fall into your hands in the future, you can't do it! ”

"I don't dare to ask for it anymore, I'm already going to die in this place, my lord, I really don't know how long we can last." Li Yu hurriedly shook his head.

Hong Chengchou thought for a while, and said solemnly: "The poor will change, change can be passed, through and reachable, your set of methods in Fengzhou, I have not read in the book, but the rule of three generations is the road of the road, the world is the public saying, Mencius also said that the people are the state, the solid Bangning, in fact, the people who know how to live the most are the people themselves, the Han people do not follow the old system and the new plan to survive, do not seek authority and obey the wishes of the people, this may be more in line with the way of heaven, Fengzhou can let you be lawless, do as you like, this is very good, Han Ming is still young, there is time, With energy to practice, this road has been cleared, and it may be able to bring a new way of life to people all over the world. ”

Li Yu got up and bowed respectfully to Hong Chengchou, and said gratefully: "My lord's words have taught the younger generation, thank you for your teaching." ”

Hong Chengchou was even happier, the two talked for a long time in the study, Li Yu saw that it was not too early, and he was worried about the soldiers outside the city, so he said goodbye to Hong Chengchou. Before leaving, Hong Chengchou warned Li Yu that the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty was very dirty and rotten, and there were traps everywhere, so he must be cautious and follow the instructions of the governor's yamen in everything.

The junior of the Li family is back, this matter has spread in Yulin City, the relatives and friends and neighbors of the Li family have come to the Li family to see, Yulin City is not big, almost all of them live in military families, several generations or even more than ten generations of old friendships, there are not so many rules of officialdom, the house and courtyard are crowded with people, the widowed sister-in-law Chen left by the eldest brother Li Yang, as well as Li Huai and his wife Zhang's house to greet guests inside and outside the house, busy without stopping, Li Yang's son Li Xuan, Li Huai's son Li Yao pulled his third uncle and refused to let go, the neighbors said, Li Guerrilla has been honest all his life, good people have good rewards, the second child has been lifted, the third child has also come back, and he has become a big official, Li Guerrilla and the old couple have knowledge of the ground, and they should be satisfied, Du Hongtai and Du Hongfang brothers are also helping in the Li family, and they hurriedly dissuade everyone, don't say such things on the big day, it makes people cry.

Li Yu entered the house, scooped a scoop of cold water from the water tank by the door and drank, I didn't expect this action to make the sister-in-law and the second sister-in-law cry, this is my Yuzi, he was at home on this habit, the action is exactly the same, the two women remembered Li Biao, Li Yang father and son who died in battle, Li Yang father and son, and the mother-in-law who died sadly, couldn't help crying, Li Yu also couldn't help crying, Li Huai and everyone were busy persuading them.

"Don't cry, our little third Yuzi is back, Brother Li will laugh when he looks at it in the sky, this is a great joy, everyone help Zhang Luo and let Yuzi eat our hometown meal in Yulin." An old man living with a wooden stick limped into the courtyard, followed by an old man wearing a white hat and a sheep in his hand.

"Yuzi, this is Uncle Qin, who fought Salhu with us, that is Uncle Ma, who was Du Tong's personal soldier with us, and they are all brothers who have kowtowed, do you remember them?" Li Huai hurriedly pulled Li Yu to meet the two old men.

"This baby is a lot taller than when he left, and it is carved out of the same mold as Brother Li, baby, there is a future!" Uncle Qin touched Li Yu's face, his eyes were red, Uncle Ma didn't talk much, he just said, let's just come back, it's good to come back!

Li Huai and Du Hongtai let the old people into the house, and several people went to the kang together, Li Xuan and Li Yao were too young to go to the kang, so they found a bench to sit under the kang and looked at the third uncle with a look of adoration. The kang was already hot, and the small table on the kang was full of red dates, walnuts and frozen persimmons, and the old and young sat comfortably on the hot kang and chatted.

Uncle Qin was in the town of Juniper Marshal as the capital division, and the town standard guerrilla Li Biao participated in the Battle of Salhu, the battle of the Ming army was defeated, he was also wounded and captured, relying on his kung fu, killed the Tartar soldiers who escorted him with his bare hands, grabbed a horse and escaped while it was dark, he was one of the few Yulin people who came back alive in the Battle of Salhu.

"There are traitors in the court of the dog day, and the elite Sichuan army of Liu Ling has not yet arrived, and he will not give us winter clothes to protect against the cold, so he forced Du Shuai to send troops, and it still snows in March and April, and it is so cold that we can't even pull the bowstring, how can this battle be fought? The gang of spies in the Liaodong Army also harmed us, deliberately led us to the wrong way, Li Rubai's brute also escaped, and more than 10,000 of our Yansui children were gone, Du Shuai, Brother Li, they couldn't even get their bones back, I want to cry when I think of this. Uncle Qin took Li Yu's hand and talked about the past.

Li Yu didn't say anything, he heard about the Battle of Salhu when he was in the Jin Kingdom, that battle was very fierce, and the Jin army also killed a lot of people, Sibeile said that if this kind of vicious battle was fought a few times in a row, Zhu Shen would have to hide back in the mountains, Uncle Qin suddenly pointed at Li Yu and asked sharply: "Yuzi, I heard that most of your team are Yi people, and there are Jiannu with pigtails in tow, what's going on, you died in their hands, you don't kill them and take them in, are you still a child of Yulin?" ”

This is not easy to explain clearly, Li Yu touched his head for a long time before explaining: "Uncle Qin, in fact, there are also good people in the Mongols and Jiannu, they are willing to be brothers with us, willing to fight with us, we have become a family, we can't harm others." ”

"You are brothers with them, then do you recognize us Yulin people, you look at your own soldiers, either Yi people or Han Yi, none of them are Yulin people, you also want to be Han Yi?" Uncle Qin became even more angry, pointing to Li Yu's entourage outside the door and said.