In May, it is already hot in the southwest. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info Although it is still cool in Guizhou Province, the hot sun at noon still makes people's backs hot. Especially along the way, there are mountains and mountains, and the mountain roads are difficult and dangerous, not to mention that both the Ming army and the caravan have brought luggage carts, and it is more and more difficult to walk. The soldiers were greedy for coolness, many of them untied the silk of their armor, and took off their helmets and hung them behind their backs, and the officers were also very hot, not daring to be as unruly as the soldiers, and many of them simply took off their armor, only wore the inner arrow sleeves straight, and tied their battle skirts.

On the other hand, the guards, although their backs were so hot that they were sweating incessantly and several layers of clothes were wet, Li Yongzhong did not speak, and none of them dared to take off their armor and hats, and not only that, but they also brought a lot of equipment -- unlike yesterday's battlefield, today, except for the wounded, half of the guards did not carry firearms, but carried a big gun four or five feet long. Compared to the common gun heads, the large gun holsters in the hands of the guards are half a foot long.

It has been two hours since the departure, and noon has passed, and the father-in-law Chen Xianda in front of him has sent a message to him, saying that he will make a meal and rest for the time being, and then set off when the sun is slightly reduced. Now the two teams stopped in the middle of a sparse mountain forest, for the sake of prudence, the Ming army first sent people to hastily investigate, but there was an unexpected joy - there is a mountain stream in the mountain forest, cool and lovely.

The officials of the hundred households looked at Chen Xianda with their eyes, and the thousands of households laughed and scolded, and there was no more difficulty for them, and the officials of the hundred households cheered, and then ordered the general banners to rest on the spot with the soldiers, because they only planned to rest for a while, they had no intention of cooking, and everyone took out the dry food they carried, and then went to fetch water and came back, which was a light meal.

The guards also sat down on the spot like the Ming army, but compared with the Ming army, their food was much better - those who were troublesome used to use ready-made meat jerky and kohlrabi to sandwich into the pancakes, which tasted delicious; There are also those who don't want to give in, so they light a fire, tear up the pancakes and dried meat and pickles, throw them into everyone's iron lunch box, add water, and cook them a little, and it is a hot meal.

Li Yongzhong was at Chen Xianda's place, and he also shared two pancakes and dried pickles with the guards. Chen Xianda saw that he was eating sweetly, and couldn't help laughing: "Zhong Guan'er is a child, don't pick his mouth." He looked at the dried meat and vegetables in Li Yongzhong's hand again, only to feel that the gluttonous worms in his stomach were going to be hooked, and then looked at the dried meat and white flour cake in his hand, shook his head with emotion, and sighed: "Fortunately, we don't eat together on both sides, otherwise I can't keep the little food in the hands of the people under you." ”

"I can't even keep my own job, so what's the door? What kind of guard? Li Yongzhong swallowed the last bite of the cake, took the water bladder handed by Chen Mingjiang and drank it happily, then he breathed a sigh of relief, and Zhengse spoke to Chen Xianda: "My son-in-law has been doing salt for many years, and I haven't met such unreasonable people, and when I saw the meat and vegetables in the guard's bowl, I just went forward, and there was the thin-skinned one under my hand, and the food was snatched away. Kai Chu was really angry, but the son-in-law felt that you had a knife and a gun at hand, but you couldn't even keep your own job, so what martial arts do you still practice and what knives do you use? ”

His straightforward and undisguised words made the faces of the hundreds of households next to him not look very good. The soldiers suffered hard, but the officers still had some preferential treatment, but compared with the food carefully prepared by the Li family for the caravan, I don't know how much worse. There were a few people who were not quite right-minded, and turned to the idea of letting the soldiers below get close, and even coaxed and deceived to get some food from the caravan. Who knew that this young master, who looked very young, was actually a man who didn't eat oil and salt, and he was stunned for a while, and many people scolded secretly in their hearts, strange that it was Chen Xianda's son-in-law, and the two sons-in-law were poured out of a mold!

Chen Xianda glanced at the few hundred household officials who were not very good-looking, sneered a few times secretly, and then ignored them again. He asked Li Yongzhong to come over for dinner, and anyone with a discerning eye could see that the two Weng and son-in-law had something to say, but a few of them pretended to be smart and insisted on moving forward, so he was too lazy to talk about the idea, and taught them to touch the nails.

He didn't speak, a few hundred households were a little embarrassed, looked left and right, coughed dryly, and then found some reasons to retreat, and waited until a few people dispersed, Chen Xianda snorted from his nose, suppressed a little anger and said: "These people are muddy!" Don't worry about them, the rough people in the army don't know how to be polite! He also distinguished Li Yongzhong for his subordinates, sighed heavily, and sighed: "I don't complain about them, I have to walk these many mountain roads, and I have to fight, even if I am beaten by iron, I have to turn into molten iron, not to mention a lot of hard work, running around, but I can't even eat enough." "At the end of the day, I was a little discouraged.

Chen Mingjiang's face was also heavy, and he bowed his head and said nothing. Although what Chen Xianda said had the meaning of showing weakness, none of it was false. The soldiers eat all day long, which is really slightly better than calling Hanako! If you dare to argue with the grain and grass officer, you will say that you will collide with the official, and after a meal of military law, you will go to half a person's life!

For a while, the atmosphere was stagnant, and even the guards did not dare to approach. After a while, Chen Xianda forced a laugh and said: "This is also a helpless thing, going out is suffering, and you have to relax when you return to the camp." He glanced at Li Yongzhong, and saw that his lips were pursed tightly, and a pair of dark eyes stared at the Ming army sitting in groups of three or five scattered in the forest not far away, with an indescribable expression on his face. After turning the words in his mind for a long time, he didn't know how to say it, and after a while, Chen Xianda coughed, which attracted Li Yongzhong's attention, and when he saw his son-in-law looking over, he simply stopped thinking about it so much, and said bluntly: "Zhong Guan'er, Mingjiang talked to you in the morning?" ”

Li Yongzhong nodded and responded, "Yes." And he said no more. He knew what Chen Xianda wanted to say, but now he couldn't sort out the many distractions in his heart, how could he answer Chen Xianda? Cao Jinliang's words of persuasion last night were still in his ears, he thought about it a few times by himself, and he also knew that refusing was the right policy, but looking at the expectation in Chen Xianda's eyes, he couldn't say anything when it came to his mouth!

"Yes, he can't hide his words, and he has made things clear to you." Chen Xianda stroked his knees, looked at Li Yongzhong, and suddenly smiled-just like looking at his own son and nephew--put aside the sadness on Fang Cai's face, patted him on the shoulder twice, and sighed: "I met your father, and I was a little younger than you are now. Who knew that the two families would form such a long-term fate? The Chen family's previous career banner came to me, and first the whole family collapsed, both parents were gone, and the younger brother was lost in Liaodong......"

He babbled on and on," he said, "...... I only have one girl, Pei Pei, she is a good child, and her ten sons are sensible and well-behaved. But the world can't be counted on, the Chen family has reached my generation, the clan has gradually withered, blood relatives are scattered, and even a son and nephew who can serve with me can't be found! Chen Xianda smiled bitterly, rarely showing fatigue, but was quickly restrained by Qianhu, the smile on his face was gone, he looked straight at Li Yongzhong, and said very seriously: "Zhong Guan'er, my Chen family has been loyal and filial piety for generations, and has made military achievements, and the old man does not want to cut off, now I ask you, the old man wants to give you the world, are you willing to take it?" ”

For a while, no one answered.

Chen Mingjiang looked left and right, and was about to speak, when Li Yongzhong suddenly said loudly: "My father-in-law is asking me now, but I don't dare to agree immediately." I carry hundreds of mouths from the top to bottom of the Li family, and every move I have to think about these hundreds of people. I know my father-in-law's problem now, and when I return to Bijie, my son-in-law will talk back to my father-in-law. He stood up from the horse and arched his hand towards Chen Xianda: "It's not too early now, I will be on the road in a while, and my son-in-law will leave." After speaking, he nodded at Chen Mingjiang and went straight to the ground without looking back.

His face was calm, but his heart was churning. Walking to the caravan, Cao Jinliang's eyes were sharp, he saw him from afar, jumped down from the cart, walked in front of him in a few steps, looked at his face and understood a little, just patted him on the shoulder, and said: "You make your own decisions about everything, don't think too much, what to do, it's also a big guy to break through." ”

His words were really comforting to Li Yongzhong. Chao Cao Jinliang smiled gratefully, and said in a low voice: "As you said, my father-in-law told me that he wanted to give me the worldly position, but I didn't know how to choose-this is a charcoal group, but my father-in-law treats me as a parent, I really ......" Speaking of this, I couldn't help but sigh.

As they walked, they said that they had returned to the middle of the caravan. Li Yongzhong first instructed the coachman to set up the car and prepare for departure, and then asked the guards to prepare separately, and Cao Jinliang also checked everywhere, and after a busy while, the two of them were idle again and turned over on their horses. Li Yongzhong stroked the horse's thick and hard mane, and said bluntly to his number one henchman: "Even if I don't talk about those feelings, but as far as this matter is concerned, it is also difficult for me to decide - it is better to agree and agree, and it is quite difficult to be willing to be unwilling." ”

Cao Jinliang hung the cloth grain bag on the horse's ears, let the mount eat happily, heard Li Yongzhong say this, also nodded, and said to him: "If you want, there is a title of a hundred household officials, pulling the banner of the official army, it will be convenient everywhere in the future; But if this is the case, it will no longer be as comfortable as it is now, the affairs of the army are difficult to handle tightly, they are intertwined everywhere, and the middle official is not a person in the military gate, and if there is a slight mistake, the consequences are unpredictable. ”

They talked and talked, and after half a while, the Ming army also packed up, and the two teams of men and horses were back on the road. Li Yongzhong was silent for a long time before he spoke a little angrily: "Jin Liang is not bad at all. That's all I care about. He wanted to sigh, such a thing fell on his head, and others said that it was good luck, but he felt that it was not necessarily.

As he was thinking about it, the Ming army in front of him stopped, and the caravan had to stop. As soon as he pulled the reins, before he could give orders, Cao Jinliang had already mounted his horse to investigate, and after a while, he came back and told him with a bad face: "There is a fork in the road ahead, and the officers and soldiers are blocked there, and they don't know which way to go." ”

At first glance, Li Yongzhong's conditioned reflex was generally about to blurt out the word absurd, and although Cao Jinliang's face was not very good-looking, it was not heavy, his heart moved slightly, and he turned his head and asked him: "How do I remember that this road is the way we came?" Doesn't this army have a guide? Don't even recognize the road? ”

"How many people are there together? A contingent of several hundred officers and soldiers. Cao Jinliang shook his head and told Li Yongzhong the news he had heard: "I heard that the official army was chasing the Miao people, so they didn't take this road when they came. The guide brought out of the camp died when he encountered a thief last time, this place is remote, and the officials and soldiers are from our eastern Sichuan, and they are not familiar with the road here, and now, Chen Qianhu is leading several hundred households to discuss countermeasures. ”