The Mule Army envoy officially took office for the first time today, and the Mule Army under his command did not dare to slack off. They were all neatly dressed and lined up, waiting for Chu Tianya to speak.

Chu Tianya became an officer of the Great Song Dynasty, this is also the first time that the eldest girl has been on the sedan chair, and there is nothing to say to them, so she talked a few innocuous nonsense such as "serving the Great Song Dynasty", and let everyone go to their own affairs, and he went into the barracks, ready to clean up and cover up.

Jiang Lao's three thieves came in in awkwardly, and saw Chu Tianya hurriedly snatching it up when he was making the bed by himself, "Taibao, how can your dignified military envoy do this kind of thing by himself, then what do you want us soldiers to do?" ”

Chu Tianya smiled, happy and relaxed, and asked him to help with the covering.

After cleaning up, Jiang Laosan came to Chu Tianya with a smile, and the thief stuffed a handful of things into Chu Tianya's arms, "Taibao, take it quickly!" ”

"What's that?"

"Your new official has taken office, and the brothers have gathered to honor you!" Jiang Laosan rubbed his hands and smiled

Chu Tianya checked the bag of things, it was quite heavy, and it was estimated that there would be forty or fifty taels of silver. couldn't help laughing and said, "It's you kid who is fake Huwei asking for bribes from them, right?" Say, how much have you swallowed? ”

"Ugh! ......" Jiang Laosan was really frightened, and then said with a wry smile, "The Taibao often rewards and never treats the villain badly, although the villain is greedy for money, but he doesn't dare to swallow the benefits of the Taibao until he dies?" The villain did mention this to them, but in fact, they would make it up without the villain mentioning it, which is a rule everywhere! ”

Chu Tianya shook his head and sighed secretly: Just Chong Jiang's third sentence, 'all rules', it can be seen how corrupt the officialdom and army of the Great Song Dynasty are now...... Well, I can't afford to be unique here, then they won't be able to tolerate me, but don't miss the current major event by dwelling on a little detail!

"Okay, I'll take it. I thanked my brothers and said that I would not treat them badly in the future. Chu Tianya casually took out two silver ingots from it and stuffed them to Jiang Laosan, "It's very clever, I will reward you." Tell the brothers, when you have a free day, I will invite the brothers to Taiyuan City to eat a few tables of good wine. ”

"Xie Taibao!" Jiang Laosan accepted it overjoyed, and his mouth was almost drooling.

"However, you can't do anything like this again." Chu Tianya said, "I'm new to the road, so I can't be too ostentatious. ”

"Yes, the villain remembers."

Afterwards, Chu Tianya pretended to patrol his own territory to supervise these mule troops. Grinding noodles, cooking soup, cooking rice, washing stables, that's all there is to do.

In fact, these things are really done by special van soldiers and miscellaneous soldiers in the barracks. It's just that now they are guarding the palace as Tong Guan's personal guards, and there are no soldiers to use them, so it is expedient to let the mule army do the work for them. If you really want to start a war, the responsibility of the mule army is to protect the baggage in the army, and whenever there is a situation, you must give full play to the "advantage" of the mobility of the mule cavalry - run!

"I didn't expect Lao Tzu to become the leader of the mule army as soon as he came to the Great Song Dynasty, I was really worried that there would be someone in the future, and I was also nicknamed 'Chu Ran Run'." Chu Tianya was really angry and funny.

It's really boring this day, and I don't know how to get through. During this period, Jiang Laosan and more than a dozen soldiers went out to buy grain and forage and came back, and stuffed Chu Tianya with a sum of money, saying that it was a "kickback" given by a merchant who sold rice and grain.

In just one day, Chu Tianya earned more money here than in a month in prison city. He couldn't help but sigh, no wonder those people sharpened their heads and wanted to drill into the yamen and barracks, it turned out that the "money" was immeasurable!

Finally, in the evening, Chu Tianya thought of an excuse and prepared to go out of the camp to meet Ma Kuo. When he walked to the back camp and was about to leave the mansion, Chu Tianya saw several groups of generals and sergeants of the Shengjie Army in front of him, who were also quietly slipping out from here. When they went out, they all stuffed things into the hands of the guards guarding the door. So the guards were as if they were blind, and they let them go out of here.

It seems that there are unspoken rules in this, and at night there are many people in the barracks who sneak out and be chic and happy. But the premise is that the guards who guard the door have to be given a "benefit fee".

"You really can't live without money anywhere!" Chu Tianya shook his head with a wry smile, bought a passage with a piece of silver as he drew a gourd, and went out of the house along the way, and came to the Star Picking Building where he drank with Ma Kuo yesterday.

Just yesterday in the same room of the Accord, Ma Kuo had already drunk half a pot of stuffy wine alone. When Chu Tianya came in, he didn't say anything, and still poured himself wine cup after cup.

"Ma Dujian, it's easy for you to get drunk like this." Chu Tianya took the cup and filled himself with a cup to salute him.

"It's good to be drunk!" Ma Kuo angrily slammed the wine glass on the table, and said in a rough voice, "I'm going to get drunk today!" Just call those two girls yesterday, you want to vent happily today! ”

When Chu Tianya saw his situation, he must have been scolded by Tong Guan today, and he guessed that it was mostly related to the conversation between the two yesterday. It's just that Ma Kuo is so excited now, so it's better not to discuss business with him for the time being.

So Chu Tianya followed his temperament, drank with him, and chatted about some military and military affairs.

When he was half-drunk, Ma Kuo suddenly sighed heavily, then let out a long sullen breath, and then lowered his head, looking very depressed.

"Eunuch, what's wrong?" Chu Tianya asked in a low voice.

Ma Kuo waved his hand dejectedly, "I'm in prison, I've done it." ”

"How?"

Ma Kuo raised his head, gripped the wine glass again, frowned, and said, "After a long conversation with you last night, I went back and thought about it for a long time. I think that it is still necessary to tell the Taishi about the fact that the Jin people are about to invade the Song Dynasty in the south. Didn't the Taishi just send me to Jinying to discuss the matter of handing over the Kyushu after the mountain? In fact, who wants to spit out the fat that has been swallowed in the stomach, and how easy is it to want the Jin Kingdom to give us the land in hand? I have made this trip, and even if the Jin people are willing to negotiate with us, it is because they are suspicious to paralyze us, so that we have no intention of guarding against military defense. So I suggested to the Taishi, saying that our army might as well be planned and prepare in advance to set up an ambush in the middle of the road. If the golden people don't come, it's the best; If they break the covenant and go south, we will ambush them in the middle of the road! ”

"Very nice building!" Chu Tianya suddenly said, "The Jurchen Iron Cavalry is really strong, it is difficult for my Great Song Infantry Army to compete with it head-on, and the cavalry army is even more scarce and not strong in combat power. If you can take advantage of the geographical advantage to set up an ambush in advance, it is indeed a good tactic! ”

Ma Kuo's expression became more and more depressed and dull, and he shook his head dejectedly: "But Taishi doesn't think so. He took the case on the spot and scolded me, saying that I was unfounded and pretending to be smart, and that I was taking the initiative to provoke the Jurchens if I wanted to use the army in vain! If this angers them, thus leading to the breakdown of the peace alliance and the war between the two countries, it will be the sinners of the Great Song Dynasty through the ages, and no one can afford this sin! ”

"Hey......" Chu Tianya sighed helplessly, "These are actually what we expected, aren't they?" ”

"I angered the Taishi in public today, and I will definitely not end well." Ma Kuo said, "You also heard it today, he asked me to lead a 400 infantry army and a 100 cavalry army to conquer the Xishan bandits. Do you know how many thieves' dens there are in the West Mountain area? ”

Chu Tianya shook his head.

Ma Kuo smiled bitterly, "In recent years, because of the Song and Jin Dynasty joint extermination of Liao, the situation in the Yanyun area of Hebei Province has been chaotic, many civilians in Han and Liao have lost their homes and become homeless, and some deserters have scattered and cut off the way back, so they have gathered in the Wuthering Mountains and forests to occupy the mountains, so the thieves in the land of the two rivers have swarmed and the cottages are numerous. Up to now, in the area of Hedong, Taiyuan Mansion and the west foot of Taihang adjacent to the hometown of Liao, there are nine mountains and eighteen villages. It is mainly concentrated in the West Mountain and Taihang Mountain. Taishi sent me to conquer the thieves in Xishan, where there were eighteen villages, which were connected to each other as horns, and all the other villages came to help if one village was in trouble. The nearest village alone is called 'Monk Cave', and there are six or seven thousand minions. Taishi led tens of thousands of troops to Taiyuan for a long time, and he didn't talk about Pingkou, but now he only gave me 500 soldiers and asked me to suppress the bandits, isn't it clear that I will be sent to death? ”

After Chu Tianya listened, his brows tightened and he fell into deep thought.

"Chu Tianya, since you are resourceful, do you have a strategy to teach me?" When Ma Kuo said this, he lost the slightest arrogance and temper, which was akin to a helpless pleading.

Chu Tianya's eyes widened, "Yes!" ”

Ma Kuo suddenly lifted his spirits, "Speak quickly!" ”

At that moment, he picked up the wine jug, and for the first time he came over and poured a glass of wine for Chu Tianya, and said more politely: "Please also ask Ziyuan to teach!" ”

"It's all heavy." Chu Tianya politely replied to him, and said, "My method is to plan the plan!" ”

"How do you make a plan?"

Chu Tianya said: "Taishi only gave you five hundred soldiers to let you go to conquer Xishan, which is undoubtedly to let you go to death." In other words, he's moved to kill you, and he doesn't trust you anymore. It's just that because of the past or something else, he didn't kill him personally. ”

"That's right, I can pay attention to ......" Ma Kuo nodded with his eyebrows furrowed, "I have followed him for many years, and I have made small achievements in the east and west, and I have a small reputation in the Shengjie army." Now that I have not committed any serious crime, it is inconvenient for him to kill me openly in order to prevent the army's morale from drifting. But I know that he is a human being, and anyone who really offends him will surely die! …… This time, when Ma talked about the matter against Jin Guo, he undoubtedly touched the forbidden place in the heart of the Taishi, and he hated to kill me on the spot! ”

"That's right...... As I said yesterday, the Taishi was ordered by the imperial court to negotiate with the Jin State about the transfer of states and counties. If war suddenly breaks out now, he can't afford it. Chu Tianya said, "So, no matter who it is, if he mentions half of the word 'war' in this matter, he will definitely be furious - in other words, it is he Tong Guan who is most afraid of the war between the Song and Jin countries!" ”

"That's right. Actually, I understand the reason, but I just can't help it. I can't bear to sit and watch my Great Song sit and wait to be killed, and let the Jurchens slaughter at will! Ma Kuo's teeth clenched, "The matter has come to this, and it is useless to say more." The left and right masters are all going to kill me, and then it's going to be fast. How should I act, and I hope Ziyuan will teach me? ”

"What I said will be calculated, that is, after the eunuch takes away these five hundred soldiers, he will never come back." Chu Tianya raised his eyebrows and said bluntly, "If you start a fight with the Eighteen Villages of Xishan, you will definitely lose if there is such a huge disparity in strength." At that time, the capital eunuch will either die in the battle array, or come back and be executed by Tong Guan in the name of defeat, both horizontally and vertically. Instead of this, it is better to go out and join the Xishan Rebel Army! ”

"What?" Ma Kuo's eyes widened suddenly, "My dignified Song Dynasty general can only catch thieves, how can I fall into the grass and become a thief?" ”