"The thief army has come to the city of Xi'an, the king and the thief are powerful, there are more than 200,000 displaced people, and there are not many military horses in the city. Huang Erxing, the governor of Shaanxi Province who accompanied the army, was the most anxious, and at this time, regardless of his status as a civil servant, he was out of place in a group of martial artists, and said eagerly and loudly: "There is still Lord Ha in the city, he holds the rank of the official secretary, if he is trapped in the chaos of the army and there is one less hair, the regent will definitely not spare us, it is light to cut off officials and remove posts, and it is possible to cut off the head and raid the house!" ”

Huang Erxing's small family property is in the city, which is the yellow and white things he has painstakingly looted for decades. In case the city is broken, he will be left alone, and Wu Sangui and others are guest troops, and they may not be so concerned about Xi'an, so Huang Erxing heard that the rebels were besieging Xi'an, and he immediately couldn't sit still.

"Lord Wang, send troops immediately, there is no time to delay!" He was almost on his knees.

Wu Sangui looked at him lightly, and saw that Huang Erxing's face was full of tears, and he didn't know how much of this face was for the court and how much for his own family.

But he was relieved: "Lord Huang, don't worry, the affairs of the military family should be discussed in the long run, otherwise it will be messed up, and if the siege is not resolved, we will also be put in, rest assured, everything is with me, and Xi'an will not lose." ”

Li Benshen also echoed: "Yes, Lord Huang, don't worry, you need to know that if you care, you will be chaotic, and the thief may be waiting for us to panic." ”

Huang Erxing was helpless, even if he was anxious, he had no military power in his hands, and he couldn't move these uncles, so he had to sigh and stand aside.

Wu Sangui appeased Huang Erxing, and said solemnly to the generals in the tent: "Now the plan, do you have a good plan?" ”

Wang Pingfan stood up and said loudly: "Didn't the prince already set a strategy, we stayed here and watched, the king thief came to destroy the king thief, the Ming army came to attack the Ming army, since the king thief came first, then we will go back to Xi'an first, and destroy the king thief first." ”

Some of the generals nodded in agreement, this is a plan that has been set a long time ago, and Wang Pingfan is right.

Huang Er was overjoyed, and he rushed to Wang Pingfan.

Wu Sangui had an indifferent face, and looked down at the table in front of him expressionlessly, as if there were flowers on it, noncommittal.

And Xia Guoxiang, Li Benshen and other witty people, after seeing Wu Sangui's reaction, they were all thoughtful and did not make a sound.

Wang Pingfan said a few words, and suddenly found that Wu Sangui didn't speak as if he hadn't heard himself, he lowered his eyelids and didn't speak, he was stunned for a moment, and then he was shocked by something, and immediately bowed to Wu Sangui and said: "This, the situation is changing rapidly, the art of war cloud moves with the situation, and the last general is worried about the wrong thing, so let the prince decide at his discretion!" ”

These words became so fast, hearing that Huang Er's face full of joy froze, Wu Sangui glanced at Wang Pingfan with slight approval, this Wang Dadao finally opened up.

Save Xi'an, that is a must, but don't rush at this time, the news from Meng Qiaofang that there are actually 250,000 thieves in northern Shaanxi, which no one expected, what is the concept of 250,000 people? In that year, Sun Chuanting led the Qin army, the Sichuan army, and nearly 40,000 Henan soldiers to fight a decisive battle with Li Zicheng in Tongguan, Li Zicheng was surrounded by countless displaced people, known as 300,000, the two sides were opposite, Sun Chuanting's officers and troops were defeated in a bloody battle, and a generation of famous generals fell under the city of Tongguan. By the way, Shizhu Qin Yiming was the chief soldier under Sun Chuanting's account at that time.

Now Wang Yongqiang has 250,000 soldiers, even if two-thirds of them are homeless, this number is also very terrible, Wu Sangui has only more than 20,000 people, although they are all elites in Liaodong, and the world-famous Guanning Iron Cavalry is also among them, but the master is killed by fists, and the soldiers can't stand the crowd, Sun Chuanting's fate is just around the corner, Wu Sangui doesn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past.

So from the moment he received the number of rebels besieging the city, Wu Sangui shook his original intention and decided to wait and observe and investigate, first, to find out if there were so many thieves, and secondly, Xi'an Jiancheng is not so easy to capture, if you can use the city to consume some of the rebels' sharp energy, kill and injure some people, it would be great.

Xia Guoxiang and Li Benshen thought about it lively, and immediately understood Wu Sangui's intentions, while Wang Pingfan was a little dull, but he was not stupid, all the generals in the tent were generals, and looking at the expressions of several people, they all had more or less aftertaste, so no one mentioned the matter of returning to the division immediately.

The tent was silent, Wu Sangui glanced at everyone with satisfaction, except for Huang Er's wonderful expression, everyone else looked at him silently.

He coughed and was about to speak, but he heard someone outside the tent shouting: "The messenger in Xi'an has arrived!" ”

Everyone in the tent looked unsurprised when they heard the sound, and Wang Pingfan smiled and said, "How many times has this been?" Isn't Lord Meng afraid to send all the soldiers out to urge no one to defend the city? ”

In the past two days, the people who broke out of the siege of Xi'an to urge the troops, not twenty pulls, but also nineteen pulls, almost every other hour there will be a wave, back and forth, from the expression on the messenger's face, you can see the anxious mentality of Meng Qiaofang and Ha Ha Mu in the city.

For these messengers, Wu Sangui avoided them if he could, and asked Xia Guoxiang and others to greet them, perfunctory excuses to gather troops to prepare, and delay as much as he could.

At this time, I heard that there were people urging the soldiers outside, Wu Sangui glanced at Huang Erxing on the side, and felt that it was a little difficult to explain to refuse people thousands of miles away in front of him, so he had to wave his hand and let the soldiers let people in.

After a while, a man in sackcloth rolled in, he was covered in sweat, his face was covered with dust, and he should have slipped out of his makeup as a civilian.

As soon as this person entered the tent, he saw the characters in the tent clearly, bowed his head to Wu Sangui, and said in a loud voice that Xi'an was in danger and the like, and took out the wax-sealed letter from his arms and handed it to Wu Sangui.

The letter was nothing more than saying that the situation was worrying, and he hoped that Wu Sangui would immediately enter the army to relieve the siege or something, Wu Sangui could recite it, he crushed the wax pills and looked at it hastily, and wanted to send the messenger out.

Unexpectedly, the messenger took off the cloth hat on his head and revealed his face, Wu Sangui was surprised, this messenger turned out to be a banner man.

The messenger reached into his arms, took out a wooden token, handed it to Wu Sangui respectfully, and said: "This is Hahamu to the villain, Haha, Lord Ha said that he must hand it over to the prince himself, and ask the prince to see this token and immediately send troops." ”

Wu Sangui was not calm, and took the token with a solemn face.

The token is not big, two palm-sized circles, a circle of embossed moire around it, the middle is engraved with words in Manchu text, the vermilion lacquer is the face, the ink is profound, and the color is viewed, it should be something that has been used for a long time.

Xia Guoxiang, Li Benshen and others did not recognize this thing, but Wu Sangui recognized, this wooden card, the origin is not small, he is the regent Dolgon used to transfer troops and send the trump card, see the card such as see Dolgon himself, has always been a token awarded to the commander of the army.

At this moment, Hahamu used it to mobilize himself, and if he didn't move, he couldn't say anything, even if he won this battle, Wu Sangui couldn't afford to be charged with disobeying the king's order.

"Please reply to Lord Ha, this king will immediately lead his troops back to the division without delay!" Wu Sangui stood up and put the token in his underwear pocket.

The messenger promised to bow down and retreat, and went back to Xi'an.

Huang Erxing was overjoyed again, this time he was relieved, although he had never seen the token, but he could see Wu Sangui's statement, that solemn look and respectful tone, it could not be faked, King Pingxi was really going to send troops.

He confessed his guilt, and went out in a hurry, and the army was dispatched, and he, the grain and grass transport officer, had to prepare first.

As soon as Huang Erxing left, all the generals in the tent looked at Wu Sangui, and they were all speculating in their hearts why King Pingxi's attitude suddenly changed, Li Benshen arched his hand and said: "Lord Wang, then we really want to go back immediately?" Don't wait? ”

Wu Sangui frowned and nodded: "I can't wait any longer, Hahamu seems to be in a hurry, even the token given to him by the regent has been used, and if he doesn't move, we won't be able to make a difference." ”

Li Benshen said again: "The thieves in northern Shaanxi came so suddenly, and the army is so huge, it is too strange, it stands to reason that the local chaos party can't protect itself, how can they gather so many people to attack the town, I'm afraid it's a little weird." ”

Wu Sangui's eyes flashed, his eyes rolled again and again, he groaned for a while, and propped his hands on the table and said in a deep voice: "If you have to go if you are weird, Wang Yongqiang is just a reckless ear, Li Zicheng's remnants back then, he occupied some states and counties, and he couldn't play much tricks, as long as we are careful and don't fall into his pile, it's not difficult to kill him, I'm a strong pawn in Liaodong, are you really afraid of him?" ”

Li Benshen opened his mouth, he wanted to say that the weirdness was not Wang Yongqiang, but that he meant something else, but Wu Sangui had already stood up and gone out of the account, and the generals followed, he wanted to speak, but he had no chance, so he had to give up.

The Liaodong Army was vigorous and resolute, and an hour later, people got on horses, cars were set, the huge camp was empty, and the whole army set foot in the direction of marching into Xi'an.

The army went east, and only some troops deployed by Meng Qiaofang on this side were left to guard the front line of the Qinling Pass, totaling nearly 10,000 people, scattered in various passes.

Among them, Chencang Road, which is the most westward in the Guanzhong of the Qinling Mountains, is Ma Ning, the chief soldier under Meng Qiaofang.

Ma Ning was also a Ming general, good at using a spear, quite brave, in the Ming court was unwilling, became a garrison officer, followed Meng Qiaofang to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, Meng Qiaofang was promoted to governor, he followed the promotion of the general soldier, since then raised his eyebrows, very proud, vowed to make a career.

Unexpectedly, it didn't take long for the good days to change, Shaanxi changed the sky, first lost Hanzhong, Pao Ze Chen De and Ren Zhen died in the battle with the Ming army, and then the Yan'an battalion in northern Shaanxi rebelled, the situation was critical, and the Ming army on the other side of the Qinling Mountains heard that they were also gathering, and they seemed to have moved.

Ma Ning has 3,000 soldiers under his command, guarding the most spacious and easy Chencang Road in the Qinling Mountains, the responsibility is heavy, so that he has been frightened, deeply afraid of losing, a few days ago the king of Pingxi led the army between the Qinling Mountains and Xi'an, tens of thousands of troops like a backer, so that he was relieved a lot, but a few days later, Wu Sangui left again.

Wu Sangui left in the afternoon, and Ma Ning only got the news that night.

At that time, Ma Ning was sitting on the tower of Fengxiang Mansion in the town of Zhencheng to blow the wind, and when he heard the news, he was immediately not calm.

His lieutenant Liu Youyuan comforted him and said: "The military gate is in a hurry, the king of Pingxi is going to relieve the siege of Xi'an, and with their army, Wang Yongqiang's generation will not make a big mess." ”

Ma Ning glared at him and said, "Am I in a hurry in Xi'an?" Lao Liu, you and I have been comrades for many years, and you still don't know what I'm worried about? ”

Liu Youyuan is a capable little man, looking a little cunning, with two mustaches, one left and one right, but no beard on his chin, which is very funny, he smiled: "What are the military men worried about? ”

Ma Ning sighed: "Xi'an Jiancheng, and there is a large army of the imperial court, naturally there will be no problem, what I am worried about is Hanzhong." ”

"Oh?" Liu Youyuan was surprised and said: "Hanzhong is just a Ming army, those incompetent, what are you afraid of?" ”

Ma Ning shook his head: "Incompetent? Lao Liu, do you still think that Pingliang Bo Wang Huan in Hanzhong is still the Ming general you and I will see when we eat Ming Court dinner? No, no, no, this Pingliang Bo is so powerful, even Hauge is not his opponent, you say he is not terrible? ”

Liu Youyuan pressed his hands on his knees and said leisurely: "The military gate does not need to increase the morale of others. ”

Ma Ning shook his head again and again: "It's not that I raise his ambition, but it's true, Lao Liu, look at it, our enemy must not be from northern Shaanxi, but from the west!" ”

(End of chapter)