On the second day of the sixth month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Wang Jiayin, a great thief in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, finally left the historical stage in Yangcheng, Shanxi, after repeated entanglements with the official army.

Cao Wenzhao, the fierce general of the Ming army, led his subordinates to follow and chase after the thieves, but because the number of thieves was too large, he could not win for a while. Cao Wenzhao heard that his subordinate was a soldier named Zhang Liwei, and his sister was Wang Jiayin's woman. Therefore, Cao Wenzhao sent Zhang Liwei to pretend to surrender to Wang Jiayin, and later won Wang Jiayin's trust.

After some planning, Zhang Liwei conspired with his sister and Wang Jiayin's subordinate Wang Guozhong to get Wang Jiayin drunk on the night of the second day of the sixth month, and finally stabbed the thief to death in his sleep.

Then they set fire to the rogue thieves with the officers and soldiers who were prepared outside. Wang Jiayin's right Bai Yuzhu surrendered, and the left Zijin Liang (real name Wang Ziyong) fled with the remnants of his troops. After that, Zijin Liang joined other thieves in Shanxi, continued to plunder everywhere and regained momentum, claiming to have 160,000 people.

Zhang Mengcheng, who only received the news in early July, naturally did not know the details of this incident, he only learned about Wang Jiayin's death from the imperial court's official newspaper. At the same time, he also received news that several officials and troops in Shaanxi had defeated the thieves in various places.

However, the other news was not as shocking as the killing of the thief Wang Jiayin. After carefully reading the newspaper, Zhang Mengcheng confirmed that there was no useful news, and left the house and came to the school field outside the village.

Since recruiting the subordinates of Dingshangyan, Dingshanyan has reverted to his real name Chen Weili, and led his subordinates and Jindingshan's troops to wipe out the surrounding thieves.

Then Chen Weili and more than 30 strong people who surrendered to the cottage followed Yu Baocheng to surrender Duhe Fort. With Yu Baocheng going to replenish Duhe Fort, there were also twenty soldiers of the original Jindingshan cavalry, so now there is a huge gap in Jindingshan's combat power.

Zhang Mengjin, the big boss, meant that he planned to let the wounded who had recuperated in Duhe Fort be filled after they recovered in the stockade.

However, it takes time for the wounded to recover, so Zhang Mengcheng had to apply to his eldest brother to change the plan. Xiucai selected more than ten of the foot soldiers from the Jinding Mountain Association to ride horses for training, and he hoped that after these people were trained, they could protect the security of Jinding Mountain together with the remaining ten or so cavalrymen of Jinding Mountain.

Fortunately, the newly recruited troops a while ago can top up to the shortage of tuntian in the stockade. In addition, the horses captured from the Mongols, after a period of training, also increased the number of ploughing horses in the stockade. The matter of cottage planting can be relieved a little, so Zhang Mengcheng can finally squeeze out some time to train this group of cavalry newcomers.

At this time, Zhang Mengcheng was looking at a teenager who was riding a horse to practice obstacle crossing.

Zhang Shuangxi rode over the two-foot-high earthen wall again, and he thought that he had done a perfect job in his obstacle training. So he saw that no one was practicing the three-foot-high earthen wall, and he planned to try it on the newly trained war horse under him.

But before Zhang Shuangxi turned the horse's head, he found that the gentleman from the grass hall was coming over. Zhang Shuangxi immediately became honest and continued to obediently ride his horse to practice crossing the two-foot-high earthen wall.

Although Zhang Shuangxi is also surnamed Zhang, he is actually not a relative of the Zhang brothers. He was an orphan picked up by Zhang Mengcheng in the winter of December of the second year of Chongzhen.

During a routine patrol mission, Zhang Mengcheng was inspecting a ruined temple within the patrol area, and Xiucai found Zhang Shuangxi hiding in the grass with a shrunk body.

The young man who was huddled in the corner at that time, I don't know if it was because the weather was too cold, or because he was afraid of the bandits who broke in with knives, his thin body was constantly shaking. However, Zhang Shuangxi still knew how to resist at that time, and he used his frostbite-covered hands and held a tattered kitchen knife to constantly intimidate Zhang Mengcheng away from him.

Maybe it was Zhang Shuangxi's fearful and stubborn eyes that aroused the pity of the scumbag Zhang Mengcheng. Zhang Mengcheng made a decision at that time to bring this skinny child back to the cottage to raise.

So Zhang Mengcheng easily slapped the kitchen knife in Zhang Shuangxi's hand, and at the same time, before Zhang Shuangxi was about to bite, he stuffed a steamed bun into the mouth of a hungry and cold child.

Zhang Shuangxi, who was later taken to the cottage, was lucky to become the righteous son of the big boss Zhang Mengjin, and he read and read with other children in the cottage. may be because of the relatively close age, Zhang Shuangxi, who is only half a year younger than Guan Yuze, has a strong sense of confrontation with Guan Yuze.

As long as Guan Yuze learned something in the cottage or did something. Zhang Shuangxi also wants to do it again in the same way, always showing signs of being different from Guan Yuze.

As a teacher, Zhang Mengcheng is happy to see children of this age competing with each other. Therefore, in addition to very risky behavior, Zhang Mengcheng generally does not stop Zhang Shuangxi and Guan Yuze's other behaviors.

It's just that Guan Yuze is a little older, and he also entered the cottage for training earlier. Therefore, in the competition between Zhang Shuangxi and Guan Yuze, Guan Yuze usually wins.

For example, Jin Dingshan's equestrian training is because Guan Yuze has a few months more foundation than Zhang Shuangxi. So now Guan Yuze can almost complete all kinds of training projects of the cavalry team. And Zhang Shuangxi can only continue to use the two-foot-high earthen wall to continue to exercise his ability to ride a horse and cross obstacles.

In this regard, Zhang Shuangxi, who is unwilling to admit defeat, has always been more concerned.

"Xizi (Zhang Shuangxi's nickname), you hold the reins too tightly. Don't always push the horses, these animals are human, and they won't trust you if you rush it. Zhang Mengcheng saw the stiffness of Zhang Shuangxi's movements, and knew that Zhang Shuangxi was starting to be anxious again. So he directly reminded Zhang Shuangxi and asked Zhang Shuangxi to regain his composure as soon as possible.

After hearing Mr. Zhang's teaching, Zhang Shuangxi nodded. He took a deep breath to calm his mood, patted the horse's neck, and began the obstacle crossing practice again. The horses also seem to have regained their trust in Zhang, so this time the obstacle crossing performance was perfect.

Zhang Shuangxi, who had completed the exercise, was very happy, he came to Zhang Mengcheng and said, "Sir, I can already cross a three-foot-high earthen wall, if I don't believe I can practice for you, let me try." ”

Zhang Mengcheng uniformly requires his students to call themselves sir, and no one is exempt. Therefore, Zhang Shuangxi is now in charge of the big family, Zhang Mengjin is called father, but for Zhang Mengguang, the second eldest of the Zhang family, he is called the second uncle, and when he calls Zhang Mengcheng, he can only respectfully call Mr.

"Don't be foolish, let's practice kung fu first. If you're hurt, I'll have to find someone to take care of you. Zhang Mengcheng knew that he was a student, and he had secretly tried a three-foot-high earthen wall behind his back. However, Zhang Mengcheng still believes that a solid foundation is the key to the maturity of various skills.

"But what do I have to practice to be called Lisuo, I can do everything else, or I'll ride a horse and run around to show you." Zhang Shuangxi, who was in a hurry to perform, directly slapped his horse and came to the starting position, just waiting for Zhang Mengcheng on the side to order.

Zhang Mengcheng also wanted to know how the child's self-confidence depended, so he handed Zhang Shuangxi a line gun and allowed him to conduct a complete training.

Generally, the lancers in the Jinding Cottage are trained by drawing people from the experienced cavalry. However, unlike others, Zhang Shuangxi is indeed quite talented in the use of line guns. The second brother Zhang Mengguang was very excited to say to Zhang Mengcheng that he finally had a successor to the mantle after watching Zhang Shuangxi ride a horse and play with a line gun.

With the permission of his husband, Zhang Shuangxi rode over a two-foot-high earthen wall, and then crossed the subsequent earthen pit into the next training area.

In the assassination training area, Zhang Shuangxi launched more accurate attacks on the six straw men on the runway one after another by constantly changing the way of holding the gun with both hands and holding the gun with one hand. After Zhang Shuangxi completed each attack item one by one, he rode his horse to a 30-step (about 45 meters) long runway, and rode his horse back and forth at both ends of the track.

There was a circle with a diameter of two steps (3 meters) at each end of the runway, and Zhang Shuangxi skillfully controlled his war horse to turn in it and did not run out of bounds. Then Zhang Shuangxi, who returned to the obstacle crossing training area, once again crossed over against the two-foot earthen wall.

After finishing all the projects, the children ran to Zhang Mengcheng very happily and boasted: "What is the matter, sir, I have worked hard, and I haven't embarrassed my second uncle (Zhang Mengguang)." ”

Looking at the proud Zhang Shuangxi, Zhang Mengcheng smiled, approached him and praised: "Good job, all the projects have been completed, I can see that you are usually very serious." Practicing to this level in such a short period of time is worthy of being the fastest riding among the Caotang students. ”

For Mr.'s praise, Zhang Shuangxi was very useful. But before he could say anything, Zhang Mengcheng suddenly grabbed his line gun and used it skillfully, and instantly pulled Zhang Shuangxi's whole person down.

Zhang Shuangxi, who lost his balance, didn't have time to react, and was already held in his arms by the teacher in the grass hall.

At this time, Zhang Mengcheng said teasingly: "It's just that your sense of balance is still too poor, and you probably can't do anything on the battlefield." So you should be honest and practice the basic skills, step by step. ”

Because he was unprepared for a while, he was subdued by his own husband all of a sudden. Zhang Shuangxi, who was very unconvinced, blushed and shouted: "This doesn't count, sir, you cheat, you take advantage of people's unpreparedness, if you don't come again, I will never be pulled down." ”

"How do I teach you normally, soldiers don't get tired of cheating, anything can happen on the battlefield. No matter how loud you shout, it won't work, and in the end you can only reason with Lord Yama. Obediently give me the basic skills, and replace all the kung fu you are shouting for practice time, and you will have already been able to catch up with the level of other people's Yuze. Although Zhang Mengcheng was indeed cheating, he still seriously asked Zhang Shuangxi to continue practicing.

Zhang Shuangxi originally wanted to continue to say something, but when he saw Mr. being quite serious, he knew that it would be useless to continue, and it was himself who annoyed Mr. and suffered. In addition, when he heard Mr. mention Guan Yuze, Zhang Shuangxi didn't want to waste any more time shouting, but calmed down and obediently rode on the horse and continued to practice riding.