"Sir!" The old servant hurriedly stepped forward to pick up the long sword and wanted to hand it to the master, but Hong Chengchou didn't reach out to take the long sword back, he was stunned there with a thoughtful look, and the old servant didn't dare to step forward to interject and disturb, and after a while, he saw that Hong Chengchou was still like that, and then he whispered: "Master, it's windy outside at night, it's better to go back to the house first!" ”

"It's windy outside?" Hong Chengchou woke up from his thoughts, he looked around, took the robe from the old servant's hand and put it on, returned to the house and sat down next to the bookcase, but did not continue to read the documents, just closed his eyes and pondered, the old servant saw this and bowed and gently withdrew, leaving Hong Chengchou to sit alone in the room, like a clay carved wood sculpture, suddenly the muscles of his face twitched violently, he reached out to cover his face, as if trying to cover everything.

"Raise up the latent crime and die in prison!" This brief news is the reason why Hong Chengchou has become like this. What did Gao Qiqian say before he died? If you say that you are implicated? Is there still a chance for remedy? Hong Chengchou didn't know anything about all this, which made this gentleman, who always seemed polite on weekdays, unable to maintain that false shell.

Compared with several famous Wenchen at the same time, Hong Chengchou was born poor, and more importantly, he was only the fourteenth Jinshi in the second list. According to the political practice of the Ming Dynasty, the top list, especially the top three Jinshi, can directly enter the Hanlin Academy to become a Shujishi, and then follow the road of Shujishi - Zhan Shifu - a certain Shilang - a certain Shangshu - to enter the cabinet, and the fastest to be promoted can even enter the cabinet without even being a magistrate, Zhou Yanru is a typical example. And the Jinshi of the second list is much worse, generally at the beginning of a county order to sit in, and then all the way to the promotion, obviously compared to the Shu Jishi next to the Son of Heaven, the promotion speed of the county order is much slower, and it is much more dangerous. For example, in the second year of Chongzhen, the peasant army Wang Zuogui and Miao Mei besieged Hancheng, and there were no generals in Yang He's hands at that time. Hong Chengchou, who had never led a soldier before, defeated the peasant army and killed more than 300 people, and became famous and promoted to the governor of Yansui. This is also the reason why Hong Chengchou agreed to deal with Yang He as soon as he received Gao Qiqian's signal - until now, Hong Chengchou has not forgotten the panic on the way to Hancheng with his troops.

But in the end, he has ascended to the throne of the governor of the three sides, and according to the usual practice, his own post is about to be hung up on the military department, as long as the chaos in Shaanxi is pacified. Either enter one of the six Shangshu, or enter the cabinet, enter the long-awaited peak of the power of the Ming Dynasty, and the jade belt is golden and purple, the wife is in the shadow, and the name is just idle in the history.

And the premise of all this is that the things that he and Gao Qiqian secretly colluded with have not been revealed. Otherwise——, Hong Chengchou would not dare to continue thinking about it.

I don't know how long it took, Hong Chengchou picked up the newspaper again, re-read it, and he read it very slowly. It's as if you want to break every word, put it in your mouth and ponder it carefully, and taste the hidden taste. When Hong Chengchou finally finished reading, the whole person had returned to his former calm. If everything written in the Di Bao is true, Gao Qiqian died in the edict on the night of his condemnation, and it is reasonable to infer that he should not have had time to say such an important matter, and it is very likely that he was killed by the people behind the scenes.

Hong Chengchou stretched out his hands to cover his face. The broad palms of the hands squeezed the muscles of the face hard, as if to return them to their normal position, when the cool hands left the face again. Exposed to the air was the reserved and calm Hong Chengchou again.

"Come on, send the order out, ten days later, the generals of the towns will meet in Qingyang, and those who come later will be killed!"

In ancient times, the land was uplifted from the sea, the hills became mountains, the seabed became plains, and the winds of the Pleistocene period blew hundreds of millions of tons of loess from the far northwest, covering this vast plain, and the thickness of the loess was as high as hundreds of meters. In the next millions of years, rivers and floods are like a pair of invisible giant hands, cutting, peeling and bulldozing the plateau, forming countless plateaus, ravines, beams, river valleys, flat rivers, mountains, slopes, this is the foundation of the ancestors of the Chinese nation, across Gansu, Shaanxi Meridian Ridge will be divided into east and west two parts, respectively Jing River and Luo River two major basins, and Qingyang is located on the west side of the Meridian Ridge.

In the early morning, although the spring cold in the northwest still made the crows clench their wings on the branches and hunch their necks, a cavalry of about fifty people galloped along the direction of Yan'an to Qingyang, and the horses were sweaty and constantly spewed white flags from their nostrils. The strange thing is that although this small group of cavalry is the color of the Ming army's uniform, many of them have high noses and deep eyes, and their hair is curly, and some people simply shaved the hair on both sides of their heads, leaving only a small handful of them, which are clearly dressed as Hu people, this group of cavalry did not carry baggage, and all the necessary things were placed on the seven or eight dromedaries at the end of the cavalry, which was extremely unsightly. On the black horse in the ranks sat a military general less than thirty years old, with a dusty face, thick eyebrows, a broad, bulging forehead, a high nose, and a short beard under his chin. At this time, the war horse was running forward with broken steps, but he was squinting and dozing on the horse's back, and his upper body swayed with the horse's body. The red cloak was blown away by the wind, revealing a thick cashmere robe within, and at his waist, in addition to the usual saber, was a cowhide belt with twelve brass pipes for gunpowder and a buckskin bag for buckshot, and behind the saddle was a fine bird gun wrapped in oilcloth.

For five days, this small group of cavalry had been hurrying forward in the wind and dust, and when the sun had gone down and there was no accommodation, the rooster had only set off on the frost before the rooster had made its first crow. Six or seven hundred miles from Chaoyi to Qingyang, there were ravines and ravines along the way, and the horses ran away from their fat, and finally arrived in Qingyang early this morning.

"Lord Liu, my lord!" An officer with a beard on his face ran to the side of the general who was dozing off on horseback and shouted in a low voice: "The front is Qingyang Mansion, just seven or eight miles away!" “

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng, who was awakened, snorted, rubbed his somewhat astringent eyes with his calloused right hand, looked at the Mongolian cavalry who were still alive on both sides, and scolded in a low voice: "Damn, wave the flag, these Tartars can survive." “

"That's it!" Hao Shaoqi laughed: "People are born on horseback, and they can't walk when they get off horseback, and besides, these tartars are also carefully selected, and all of them can be beaten." It seems that that Batur Khan also made a bloody investment. “

"Nonsense!" Liu Cheng sneered: "Immediately take out 1,200 bird guns, and then 500 per year, each with eight taels of silver, and the factory opened by Lao Tzu is all for his family." ”

Hearing Liu Cheng scolding his business rival thousands of miles away, Hao Shaoqi just laughed and didn't speak. Liu Cheng asked a little strangely, "Huh! Why do you just giggle and don't speak? ”

"My lord, although I haven't been with you for a long time, I haven't seen you suffer, and I don't believe that what kind of sweat can take advantage of you!" Speaking of this, Hao Shaoqi lowered his voice: "Besides, everyone has brought their daughters over." Shouldn't you take some benefits and go? What a handsome little lady, I never thought that a sao tartar could give birth to such a handsome girl! ”

"Okay, you are waving the flag, I didn't expect you to have flower intestines in your belly, but the Khan's daughter, it's a few Ji, do you think it's those Tartars who take a bath three times in their lives?" Hearing this, Liu Cheng laughed, as Hao Shaoqi said, in fact, Liu Cheng did not suffer a loss in this transaction. 1,200 firecrackers seem to be a lot, but in fact, if Liu Cheng had worked three shifts in the arsenal of hydraulic machinery in Yanzhou, that is, the output of one or two months, and he would have paid more overtime to the craftsmen, maybe he could finish it earlier. Not to mention that Liu Cheng's warehouse has 300 bird guns in stock. Anyway, now Liu Cheng's soldiers are in the early 2,000s, and no matter how many birds are made, no one will make them, so it is better to sell them to Batur, and they can make money. Second, it can also allow craftsmen to practice their hands. As for the elite cavalry of these three hundred and one people with two horses, not to mention a general, the total number of soldiers that can be pulled out in the northwest border town is only a handful. Not to mention the huge profits brought by the copper mine, Xu Hecheng has already patted his chest, and three out of every ten copper plates earned from the copper mine are for Liu Cheng. But this deal brings not only benefits, but also a trouble, a beautiful trouble.

"Liu Cheng, Liu Cheng!"

In this small team, no, there is only one person who dares to call General Liu by his name in the left camp of Yansui Town, and that is that Min Min Beiji, Liu Cheng really has no way to deal with this beautiful and cunning Mongolian girl with extreme curiosity. Out of vigilance against Hong Chengchou, Liu Cheng did not plan to bring the original soldiers under his command with him, and these new Mongolian cavalry were a good choice, with good riding skills, and they would not be in awe of Hong Chengchou's official position. In case the new boss turns his face, maybe he can still rely on these cavalry escorts to fight his way. But after his peers' request was rejected, Min Min arrogantly declared that unless Liu Cheng agreed to his request, he would not even want to take away a single horsehair, forcing Liu Cheng to make concessions.

"Min Min Beji." Liu Chengqiang squeezed out a smile on his face, turned his head and smiled at Min Min, who came over from the horse, and said, "Do you have any instructions?" “

"Hey, Liu Cheng, don't smirk like that, I feel uncomfortable looking at it!" Min Min shook his whip disdainfully: "Am I not good-looking?" The princes and chieftains of the Eruts say that I am a walking flower on the steppe and a talking bird of paradise, and they are willing to exchange a bag of golden sand and herds of cattle and sheep for a dance with me. ”

"That's because you are the daughter of Batu Khan, otherwise a bag of golden sands could be exchanged for a dozen beautiful slave girls!" Liu Cheng slandered, but said: "No, I'm too tired to travel in the past few days, so I look like this." ”

Min Min stared at Liu Cheng's face, looked at it for a while, and suddenly laughed, Liu Cheng was a little hairy by her laughter, and asked, "What are you laughing at?" “

"You're lying!" A disdainful smile appeared on Min Min's face: "It's really disappointing for me to be so clumsy." ”

"I'm not lying!" Liu Cheng subconsciously raised his voice: "I'm really too tired, and I'm not like you can rest on a camel." ”

"Really?" Min Min suddenly laughed slyly: "I've already noticed, the middle finger of your right hand will subconsciously shake when you lie." ”

"My middle finger is shaking!" Liu Cheng retorted, while subconsciously looking down at his right hand, only then did he realize that he had fallen into the trap of the other party, lowered his head in frustration, and muttered in a low voice: "Actually, I'm really a little tired, and it's polite to say that a smirk!" “

"Well, knowing where you missed the stuffing, it's not stupid!" Min Min smiled and threw his whip: "Don't be too depressed, I've been like this since I was a child, and I can tell who is telling the truth and who is lying at a glance." “

A dignified traverser, who was actually played by a little girl who was almost half his age, and was comforted by the other party's words, Liu Cheng lowered his head in frustration. The two rode side by side like this, and after walking for a while, Min Min suddenly said, "Liu Cheng, I'm actually very disappointed in you." “

"Disappointed? Is it because of me that I'm lying? Liu Cheng asked in some surprise.

"Lie, what's this?" Min Min laughed: "In our grassland, a leader must be as brave as a lion, as cunning as a fox, and as stoic and ferocious as a wolf, so that he can lead his people to survive. You are a general, isn't it a matter of course to lie to an outsider like me? I'm disappointed that you said it so badly, and that you were frustrated that I saw through it, as if you were a little ashamed, which is so undeserved. Originally, I looked at the weapons, armor, and all kinds of goods made in your factory, and I thought you were a real hero, but now it seems that you are not, at least not yet. “

When Liu Cheng heard this, he couldn't help but be shocked by the consciousness in the other party's words, there was no doubt that the warmth in his heart was noticed by the extremely sensitive girl in front of him, and it was likely to become a fatal weakness in such a cruel era. Are you really ready to fight to the death in this troubled world? Liu Cheng couldn't help but be a little suspicious.

Min Min saw Liu Cheng bowing his head and was silent, gently whipped the other party's arm with a leather whip, and asked with some dissatisfaction: "You are really strange, why do you stop talking and talking?" ”

"Oh." Liu Cheng smiled a little embarrassedly: "Min Min Beiji, forgive me, I am just reflecting on it." “

"That's not necessary, there are not many people in the world as smart as me, and it would be enough for you to deal with those stupid people." (To be continued.) )

PS: The new year is a new beginning, I hope that Daming 1630 will get rid of the fate of the street book, and I also hope that everyone's wishes will come true in the coming year! Good luck!