"Hmm!" Liu Cheng nodded and handed the two ingots of silver to the other party: "You accept this bit of silver first, and find out who is the one who wants to kill me behind my back, I remember today's events." “

Wang Xingguo smiled and stuffed the silver into his waist: "Don't worry, my lord Wang Xingguo's eyes are very bright, whether it is a person or a ghost, I will know it at a glance, my mother said, this child is a life that eats meat and brocade, and it can't be wrong." ”

"Oh?" Liu Cheng watched with interest as the man in front of him took off his straw sandals, and skillfully took off the leather boots of the corpse on the ground: "You trust me so much?" “

"That is, my lord, you have only been eating military rations for a few months, and this time you will at least be a left-behind and hereditary thousand households. Changing to someone else, this is a future that can only be earned by several generations of people cutting the West in the west. If I can keep up with you, you can be a thousand households, let alone a hundred households, a general flag or something, it is a hundred times stronger than being a big soldier. Wang Xingguo sat on the ground, and while talking, he put the dead man's shoes on his feet: "It's just the same size, you see that at least tonight I can earn ten years of military pay and a pair of good boots, isn't this good luck?" “

Liu Cheng was a little embarrassed by Wang Xingguo's optimism, and he patted the other party's shoulder: "Come, do me a favor, and clean up the corpses." “

"Don't worry, my lord stripped off his clothes and threw them into the ravine, and was gnawed by wolves, and the next day the ghost didn't know who it was."

Back at his residence, Liu Cheng lay down, although his body was exhausted to the extreme, but his mind was very clear. He began to look for the murderer among the people he knew, but soon he gave up. The reason is very simple, with what he has done since he crossed over, jealous colleagues, framed enemies, villains who he has inadvertently offended, there are too many people who have the motive to kill him, and he can't find out at all.

"Sure enough, it's a mess, it's not as good as a peace dog!" Liu Cheng sighed, sat up from the bed, crossed his knees, studied the mottled lines on the ceiling as he had done when he was a child with insomnia, and let his imagination run wild, turning the jumble of patterns into all sorts of wonderful patterns—a wild horse with an arrow, a dying boar, a flying vulture, a javelin thrower, and so on. At this moment, Liu Cheng seems to have returned to his childhood, he doesn't have to think about life and death, he doesn't have to think about right and wrong, the only thing he needs to consider is fun.

"Bang, bang!"

I don't know how much time has passed, a few knocks on the door pulled Liu Cheng back to reality from his memories, he took out his saber from under the pillow without moving, and put on his shoes before asking in a deep voice: "Who?" “

"It's me." Wang Xingguo's voice came from outside the house, Liu Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, put the saber back into its sheath, got up and pulled the door open. Wang Xingguo came in, carefully closed the door, and said in a low voice: "My lord, the matter has an eyebrow." ”

"So fast?" Liu Cheng asked in disbelief.

"It's good luck, too." Wang Xingguo replied with a smile: "When the villain was disposing of the corpse, he didn't even touch a silver star on the kid who looked at the wind, so he thought that something was wrong, there were forty taels on the body of the hand, and there was always one of three or five taels on the wind." “

"Maybe I didn't put it on my body!" As soon as Liu Cheng spoke, he realized that he had said the wrong thing, with his understanding of the internal situation of the Ming army at that time, the arrears of wages were very serious, and ordinary soldiers basically did not have much cash in their hands, and if the soldier suddenly got the money, he would generally carry it with him, otherwise if he was discovered by others, he would not be able to say clearly, after all, the source of the money would not be visible.

"So you mean he spent all the money?"

Wang Xingguo showed a look of surprise on his face: "I thought about this for a long time there, and you thought of it so quickly, my lord." “

"You go on."

"Yes, to be able to spend so much money so quickly, it's either gambling or prostitution, but there is no place for prostitution in this place, so it can only be gambling."

"Bet? Where is the place to gamble in this wilderness? ”

"Your Excellency, you don't know!" Wang Xingguo explained in a low voice with a smile. It turns out that behind the armies of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries, there is a large or small, more or less shadow caravan, just like a scavenger following behind the beast, this kind of caravan following the army sells food, wine, **, gambling and other goods or services to the army; They also bought slaves and all kinds of booty from the army cheaply, and of course the Ming army was no exception. A few days ago, the military situation was urgent, this caravan was far away from the Ming army camp, and the generals' restraints on the soldiers were relatively strict, so the soldiers naturally did not dare to gamble; Now that the battle has been won, the soldiers have more or less some loot in their hands, and a few more rewards, these men who have come out of life and death naturally want to spend happily. Since Wang Xingguo knows the description of the pro-soldier, he only needs to go to the gambling stall and ask which soldier has been particularly congested and lost a lot in the past few days, and he can know a lot of things.

"I've inquired, this guy's surname is He Mingcheng, he is a native of Shaanxi Mizhi Caidi, and He Renlong is a township, and a clan, this He Cheng ate and drank with a pro-soldier leader of He Renlong at noon yesterday, and went there to gamble all night at night, and lost a lot, and the gambling table also said that he would go to turn over the book again tonight." Speaking of this, Wang Xingguo stopped, there are many people who know the contradiction between He Renlong and Liu Cheng in this Ming army, and Wang Xingguo is naturally no exception.

"I know, you go down and rest, this matter is over, don't tell anyone!"

"Yes, sir!"

When Wang Xingguo walked out of the house, Liu Cheng sat back on the bed, covered his head and let out a painful **. It can be said that this answer was completely unexpected by Liu Cheng, but subconsciously he was completely unwilling to think in this direction. The reason is very simple, both from an official position or

Judging from the strength of his subordinates, He Renlong has to be far superior to himself, and it is not conducive to a conflict with him at this juncture. Therefore, Liu Cheng was always avoiding the other party subconsciously, and even when he was assassinated, he was unwilling to consider that direction. But Wang Xingguo's investigation has pierced this thin paper, and there is nothing to worry about. Liu Cheng suddenly jumped up from the bed, pulled out his waist knife, cut off the corner of the table with a knife, and said sharply: "Then let's see who is dead and who lives!" ”

Just as the Ming army was enjoying the victory, a group of about 1,000 cavalry was heading northwest along the river valley, and the cold north wind mixed with snow flakes blew on the knights and war horses like blades.

The leader of this team of cavalry is Shen Yikui, and the vast majority of people who can leave a name in history, he also has a special intuition, when the ambush of the Ming army appeared, the balance of victory has irretrievably fallen to the side of the Ming army, Shen Yikui decisively led all the cavalry that could be commanded turned to the northwest to break through, because the cavalry of the Ming army was exhausted, Du Wenhuan did not send troops to pursue. Shen Yikui's breakthrough was successful, and he also contained some cavalry that originally belonged to other leaders, but he did not dare to return to his old camp, but fled directly to the northwest.

In the blink of an eye, it was already five watches, and the sky near the horizon took on a fish-belly white, which was the result of the refraction of the sun's rays below the horizon into the atmosphere. At this time, Shen Yikui's cavalry was already more than sixty miles away from the battlefield, and the terrain gradually rose to the north, which was the real Loess Plateau.

"The one in charge of the plate, there is a river in front of him, let alone run out for fifty or sixty miles, the officers and soldiers can't catch up, let everyone rest, drink and drink horses!" A small leader said to Shen Yikui.

Shen Yikui looked at his subordinates around him and nodded: "That's it." With that, he took his own soldiers and rode to the high post by the roadside, waiting for the cavalry in the rear.

The morning sun, like a red disc, slowly rises from the horizon, and the sun flashes from the ridge to the east. Under the sun's rays, the white frost on the surface of the rocks and plants gradually melted. The soldiers of the gods gathered in groups of three or five, eating dry food, and more soldiers killed the exhausted cattle and roasted them on a temporary firewood fire, and the air was filled with the peculiar smell of animal protein being burned.

"Whoever is in charge of the plate, let's eat something!" He was the only leader of the peasant army who broke through with Shen Yikui, and there were more than 200 cavalry under him, and he was now in a position with Shen Yikui.

"I can't eat it." Shen Yikui pushed the meat away: "Tens of thousands of brothers, all of a sudden—" Speaking of this, the corners of the iron-beaten man's eyes were already slightly red.

"Hey, it's all because of that Liu Donkey." Bu Mu spat in the mud: "Now it seems that the two-sided light has already descended to the imperial court, but Li Hongji was framed." “

Shen Yikui nodded and didn't speak, but judging from the twitching muscles on his face, his heart was very painful at this time.

Bu Mu pulled out the dagger at his waist, moved the saddle next to him, cut off the horse meat piece by piece and put it on the saddle, and asked, "Have you thought about what to do next, who is in charge of the plate?" “

Shen Yikui picked up a piece of horse meat and stuffed it into his mouth, this horse meat was half-baked, and there was no salt, and it was fishy and hard in his mouth, and it was very unpalatable, and he chewed it for a while before swallowing it. Shen Yikui ate two pieces of horse meat, folded a shrub branch casually, drew a few strokes on the ground, and said while drawing: "This is the territory of the Shaanxi Command Division, and then go west is the Shaanxi Xingdu Command Division, the fortress along the border is easy to say, but if you go to the West Fandi, it will be even more difficult." ”

Originally, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the army of the whole country was divided into 16 commanders, 5 commanders, and 2 left-behind divisions. Among the 16 commanders, in addition to 13 of them are the same as the Chengxuan political envoys, there are 3 other ones, namely the Wanquan Metropolitan Division, the Daning Metropolitan Division, which is located in Beizhili, and the Liaodong Metropolitan Division, which is located under the Shandong Buzheng Envoy Division. The five Xingdu commanded envoys in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Fujian, and Shanxi, and their administrative offices were in today's Zhangye in Gansu, Xichang in Sichuan, Yunxian in Hubei, Jian'ou in Fujian, and Datong in Shanxi. The two left-behind divisions are the Zhongdu Left-behind Division (Fengyang) and the Xingdu Left-behind Division (Hubei Zhongxiang). If you have a little understanding of the history of the Ming Dynasty, it is not difficult to see that the two left-behind divisions are historical problems, one is the hometown of Zhu Yuanzhang in Zhongdu and Xingdu, and the other is where Emperor Jiajing was before he ascended the throne. The three commanders of Liaodong, Daning, and Wanquan respectively guarded the three sides of the Beijing Division, and the five lines of the commanders were either located in the key places of the frontier, or although they were located in the interior, there were barbarians or mountainous areas nearby, and there were various potential unstable factors nearby, and in fact they were responsible for the forward positions of the nearby commanders. The geographical location of the Shaanxi Xingdu Command Department roughly coincides with today's Ningxia ** Autonomous Region, the northeast is the Tatar Mongols, and the southwest is today's Qinghai Province. The ancestor of Shenyi has been a soldier in the northwest for several generations, and although he has not been there himself, he has not heard all kinds of rumors about the western land.

"The one who holds the plate!" Bu Mu's expression suddenly became sneaky, he made a gesture to let the guard go farther, turned back to Shen Yikui and said, "Why don't we descend too!" “

"What?" Shen Yikui's eyebrows furrowed suddenly, and he moved back a little scared: "This is also a suggestion, what to do next is still in charge of the plate." “

Shen Yikui did not get angry as he did not expect, but hung his head. Seeing this, Bu Mu continued to persuade: "It's not that I'm greedy for life and afraid of death, it's just that the current situation is really too bad, we only have a thousand people now, and there is no food or livestock, and now it is the day of the spring famine, if the officers and soldiers put it."

Let us go to the west, and these thousand brethren will go to the west to gnaw the earth? “

"But this also requires the officers and soldiers to be willing to surrender us? Zhao'an Zhao'an, I don't know how many good men's lives have been harmed. ”

Seeing that Shen Yikui's attitude softened, and his spirit was lifted without touching the mud, he patted his chest: "I will first go to explore the outlets of the official army, and then make an assertion, even if it doesn't work, more than 1,000 of us are cavalry, and it is not easy for the official army to catch us." ”

"It's good!" Shen Yikui nodded: "Then it's a trip to bother the virtuous brother!" ”

"Don't be idle here, you must contain as many rout soldiers as possible." Bu Mu said in a low voice: "Whether the government agrees or not, it's always good for us to have more people on hand." If you don't agree, if you want to continue to fight with the official army, you will naturally have more soldiers; Agree to recruit An, the more soldiers and horses, the bigger the official hat on our heads. ”

"You're right!" Shen Yikui nodded, and the two of them had made up their minds, and began to eat horse meat. He had just taken a few bites when he heard the sound of a horn in the distance, which was the signal of the sentry informing the horse that someone was chasing him.