As soon as this incident made a fuss, in fact, everyone was in no mood to celebrate. Because the deputy marshal's face is already very bad, after all, everyone knows that the deputy marshal came here from the capital to take up his post, and in addition to his family and servants, there is only this Mr. Liu Xunzhi except for Liu Jun and Liu Dehai.

Liu Jun and Liu Dehai both came with official documents issued by the Ministry of War, and they were generals sent by the government, but Liu Xunzhi was the only strategist that Wang Yuan brought with him except for his family. Seeing that Wang Yuan was also polite and respectful to Liu Xunzhi, he heard that Liu Xunzhi took care of the deputy marshal when he was in a bad situation, and even offended Li Shizhi, the left minister at the time, and everyone understood why Wang Yuan valued Liu Xunzhi so much.

And now, this matter has involved Liu Xun directly, and the deputy marshal must enforce the law impartially, but he must be in a bad mood.

The dull banquet ended hastily, although Wang Yuan toasted Song Jiangong with a smile and said some words of praise, but the scene and atmosphere were always a little awkward. Originally, the next step was going to be discussed, but Li Mi saw that Wang Yuan was obviously depressed, so he proposed to end it early, and everyone had a good night's rest tonight, and it was not too late to talk about military affairs tomorrow, and Wang Yuan did not insist.

After the banquet was dispersed, Song Jiangong took people back to the South Bank military camp and walked a few steps, and Li Mi behind him quickly followed, pulling Song Jiangong aside to speak.

"General Song, it's not that the old man said you, you shouldn't be like this today. The deputy marshal was very unhappy in his heart. Li Mi said in a low voice.

Song Jiangong scratched his head and said: "Old general, I didn't think that this matter had anything to do with Mr. Liu, my original intention was to find the reason, in case there were any more mistakes in the future." I can't joke with the lives of the soldiers. ”

Li Mi sighed: "I didn't say that what you mentioned was wrong, but you should pay attention to the way." This mask is something that the deputy marshal has thought about for a long time, and it is precisely because of this mask that we can not be afraid of the Yin Damage tactics of the soldiers and horses of Nanzhao, which plays a role in reversing the overall situation. Think about it, if we didn't have this thing, would we be able to easily win this battle this time in Lushui River? Yesterday, a great miasma of poison shrouded the top of the mountain, if you didn't have a mask, would your 15,000 people escape this catastrophe? What you just said is obviously excessive, you have to look at the big effect, the big impact on the battle situation. ”

Song Jiangong was stunned and said, "I don't mean to erase the effect of the gas mask." I didn't want the deputy marshal to kill Liu Xunzhi. How did it end up like this? ”

Li Mi shook his head and said, "You, you, what did I say about you?" You've always had this temper, and you don't care about saying anything you want. At the beginning, you were rarely led by the handsome, haven't you suffered enough because of this? At that time, I supported you, because at that time there was a miasma in the army, and you were one of the few generals who admired the old decay. But today, the old man does not dare to agree with your ways. Even if the mask incident caused casualties to the soldiers, you should not forget that most of the masks still protect the soldiers from the miasma, and that's the point. Of course, the failure of the mask and the large number of casualties cannot be left unattended, but there is no need to be so fanfareful. I thought it would be better to communicate with the deputy marshal in private. If you make such a fuss, the deputy marshal has to punish Liu Xunzhi severely before the generals. And it seems that the deputy marshal racked his brains to design the mask that caused all this to happen, aren't you adding to the deputy marshal's blockage? ”

Song Jiangong stiffened his neck and said: "I don't mean to offend the deputy marshal, I stand upright, and I'm not afraid of other people's gossip." ”

Li Mi shook his head and said, "General Song, you are ignoring the overall situation. Finally, there is a deputy marshal Wang, who is brave, resourceful and responsible, which of our Jiannan generals who have experienced the previous defeat is not happy? Who doesn't want to be disgraced? Do you want Vice Marshal Wang to be in a low mood, pat his ass and leave? Let Xian Yu Dashuai lead the army again, are you willing? Take care of the overall situation, take care of the overall situation, why don't you open your mind? Besides, how can there be immortals in war? ”

Song Jiangong stood dumbfounded and muttered, "Did I do something wrong?" Are you saying that the deputy marshal will be unhappy because of this, and may leave Jiannan? ”

Li Mi said: "I don't know, Liu Xunzhi is the confidant of the deputy marshal, if he really has to kill him tomorrow, Vice Marshal Wang is in a bad mood, it is difficult to say that he will not pick his son and leave." Don't forget, Vice Marshal Wang is here to put out the fire, and the shame of our Jiannan Army has nothing to do with Vice Marshal Wang. ”

Song Jiangong smacked his lips and said: "I really didn't think about this, when the old general said this, I was beating a drum in my heart." I really welcome the arrival of the deputy marshal, and I hope to follow him all the way to defeat the Nanzhao Kingdom, and I don't want him to leave because of this incident. What am I going to do? ”

Li Mi said: "What can I do?" Tomorrow morning, let's plead for Liu Xunzhi together, and we can only do this. General Song, I admire him for acting upright, but he is not blindly upright. You used to be like this, how did it turn out? It's nothing to meet a big-minded Shangguan, but when you encounter a small-minded person who cares about everything, you will find trouble for yourself. You're just too tendonous. ”

Li Mi sighed and left, Song Jiangong felt very uncomfortable, and he had the heart to go back and explain to Wang Yuan, but when he saw that the lights had been blown out in Wang Yuan's tent, he didn't dare to disturb. After wandering for a long time, he had to decide to come tomorrow morning to intercede with Li Mi for Liu Xunzhi and make up for his mistakes. After returning to the camp, he slept in the tent and felt restless, and he tossed and turned for a long time before falling asleep.

At dawn the next day, Song Jiangong got up and rushed to the north bank, and discussed with Li Mi about interceding for Liu Xunzhi together, and the two came to Wang Yuan's big tent with more than a dozen generals. Liu Jun and Liu Dehai also arrived, glaring at Song Jiangong, looking extremely dissatisfied.

Not long after, Wang Yuan got up and washed up and walked out of the big tent, and when he saw Li Mi and Song Jiangong and dozens of generals surrounded in front of the tent, he was stunned and said indifferently: "You are all here to listen to the news, right?" Don't worry, I haven't forgotten. I will enforce the law impartially and will never show favoritism. ”

Song Jiangong wanted to step forward to explain, but was gently pulled by Li Mi.

Wang Yuan stretched his waist, turned his head and ordered the guards beside him: "Go and escort Liu Xun directly." ”

Soon after, Liu Xun came to the front with a pale back, seeing that his face was haggard and his eyes were dark, obviously he had not slept all night last night.

"Liu Xunzhi, the time has come, and the time we agreed on has arrived. Have you found the reason? How many of the masks worn by soldiers in the army are defective, but have they all been found? Wang Yuan asked in a deep voice.

Liu Xun arched his hands and said in a dumb voice: "Back to the deputy marshal, I found some reasons, and the remnant masks have also been found." ”

Wang Yuan's face changed and said, "Oh? So quickly. I thought it wasn't going to be easy, but did you split all your gas masks and see the length of the charcoal core? ”

Liu Xun said straightly: "That's not necessary, the old decay has his own way." Deputy marshal, don't worry, the old man will explain to you. ”

Liu Xun beckoned to the side, and more than a dozen veterans of the military arsenal pushed two large carts of piled masks over, Liu Xun pointed to the masks on those cars and said, "Deputy Marshal, these are all defective masks, the number is eight thousand seven hundred." ”

Wang Yuan walked over and picked up a temporary new mask and took a look, seeing that there was no damage, let alone anything unusual, he frowned and said, "How do you know that this is a defective product?" ”

Liu Xun directly passed the mask and asked Liu Jun to cut it with a long sword, and sure enough, the charcoal core was shortened, and then one was cut open, and it was still a defective product that was shorter. Seven or eight were cut open in different parts of the two major cars in a row, and the results were all defective products, which shows that all the two cars should be defective.

"How do you know? Lightweight, right? Wang Yuan asked.

Liu Xun shook his head and said: "Weighing is not possible, the weight of each mask is different, the weight of the carbon core is very light, and the one that is missing may be heavier than the normal weight of the mask, that is impossible to judge." ”

"So how do you know that one is qualified and that one is defective?"

Liu Xun sighed and said, "Deputy Marshal, you handed over the matter of supervising the production of gas masks to Lao Yu, which is a great trust in Lao Yu. And this mask is related to the life and death of the soldiers during the battle, and the old man feels that the responsibility is heavy, how dare he be the slightest neglect. Yesterday, General Song asked about it, and the old man also felt very strange. After I went back, I carefully recalled the situation at that time and remembered some details. ”

Liu Xunzhi stretched out his hand and took off a gas mask from his body, flipped it over, pointed to the lining and said: "Deputy marshal, please see, at the beginning, Lao Yu took more than ten people to be responsible for the final acceptance and packaging, and each qualified mask was marked with the word 'three' written on it, which means that this is the third batch of qualified masks packed." Decay vouches for this good mask. ”

Liu Xun borrowed Liu Jun's sword, and cut the bamboo tube of the mask with a sword, and the tightly pressed charcoal core inside rolled out, the length met the specifications, and there was no doubt that it was a qualified mask.

"You can take a look at the numbers written by the old people in their masks, if there are any masks that have been tested by the old people himself, if there are unqualified ones here, they are old people's faults."

Everyone took out their masks one after another to flip them to check whether there was any handwriting inside, and sure enough, they found the numbers one after another, some were 'one', some were 'two', some were 'wanton', some were 'wu', etc., each was different.

"The first batch of packing trucks is the word one, the second batch is the word two, and so on. You can split it to see if the length of the carbon core inside is qualified. Liu Xun said straight.

"Then you don't need to split it, so is there a number on the mask lining of this car?" Wang Yuan frowned.

Liu Xun picked up a defective product on the car and flipped it over and said, "Deputy Marshal, there are no numbers on these defective products, which means that these are masks that have not been tested for qualification." It is based on these that the decay quickly sorts out these defective products. ”

Wang Yuan and the generals all suddenly realized, and it was naturally very quick to distinguish whether it was a qualified mask or not. But how these defective products are produced and transported to the army is a very strange thing.

Liu Xunzhi knew what everyone was thinking, and without waiting for Wang Yuan to ask, he spoke: "Old decay is not to excuse himself, but these more than 10,000 defective masks have obviously not been tested by decay. After thinking about it, only one batch of masks has not been tested by me, and I am afraid that the problem lies in this batch of masks. ”