"What people!"

"Thief!"

"Your Excellency has been shot!"

He Jin's arrow fell to the ground, and the officers and soldiers suddenly became chaotic, and Liu Cheng stood there in a daze, watching the officers and soldiers in a mess. At this time, a horse rushed over next to him, and the knight immediately held a bow in one hand, and the other hand was holding the horse that Liu Cheng was used to riding, and shouted: "Master, get on the horse quickly, I will escort you and rush out." ”

Liu Cheng took the reins, clumsily climbed onto the horse, and the detachment on the side did not take the horse to bend the bow, and shot down two officers and soldiers who stepped forward in a row, and then rode a horse and knocked down a person, and the officers and soldiers did not have a leader and no one dared to step forward for a while. Liu Cheng had just climbed on the war horse, and was about to turn around and escape, but he heard a cannon, the horse was a two-year-old horse, and the training was not enough, he was frightened by the sound of the cannon, and immediately jumped up.

At this time, something that Liu Cheng did not expect in advance happened, originally Liu Cheng instructed his subordinates to set off cannons to create chaos once the situation was not good to facilitate escape, but did not expect that after hearing the sound of cannons, the people waiting outside the city not only did not scatter and escape, but flocked to Tongguan City to seek refuge, which invisibly blocked Liu Cheng's escape route. Facing the tide of people, the horse under Liu Cheng's crotch kept retreating.

"What should I do?" Totobuhua pulled out his scimitar and said eagerly: "Why don't you give me a head and rush out for the master?" "That's it!" Liu Cheng has little confidence in his riding skills: "Go back and meet everyone first, see the situation before leaving." ”

In the city of Tongguan, the command envoy yamen signed the room. Yang He, the right attendant of the military department and the governor of Shaanxi, was standing in front of a detailed map of the northwest, frowning and carefully examining it. In the 32nd year of Wanli (1604), he was admitted to the Jinshi in only 26 years, and his career was not smooth sailing. But since he became the governor of the tripartite, his originally fair and plump cheeks have also become thin. According to the military and political system of the Ming Dynasty, the huge territory of the empire was divided into 15 provincial-level administrative regions in the north and south and 13 administrative divisions, and each political envoy was responsible for the administration by the political envoy of the Chengxuan, the criminal supervision according to the judicial department, and the military command department was responsible for the military. It is not difficult to see that the reason why the founders of the Ming Empire did this was to prevent subtle chemical changes in the concentration of local administration, supervision, and military power in one person, and the emergence of feudal separatist forces that contend with the central government, which would jeopardize the unity of the empire. However, in order to deal with sudden threats from inside and outside, since the Xuande period, the central government of the Ming Dynasty began to set up governors or governors, generally speaking, the officials who served as governors and governors were Beijing officials from the central government, and the governors and governors were only temporary. (Taking Yang He as an example, his own official is the right attendant of the military department, and the governor's trilateral military affairs are just his dispatch, that is, he is in charge of and coordinates the three northwest military regions in his capacity as vice minister of national defense), that is to say, Yang He has no right to meddle in the government affairs of the Shaanxi local government to obtain financial and human resources. Due to the famine in Shaanxi for several consecutive years, the people revolted in all directions, and the lack of financial resources and the current situation that the soldiers had been in arrears for many years, as the highest military governor in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, he did not advocate sending troops to conscript. In Yang He's view, the popular uprising was caused by years of famine and the levy of salaries, and the use of troops who had been in arrears for several years to suppress the military not only could not solve the problem, but could lead to an even more uncontrollable disaster, so Yang He advocated the strategy of "appeasement". However, because the central government was unable to provide Yang He with the necessary funds for disaster relief, and Yang He himself was unable to interfere in the civil affairs of the local government in Shaanxi, Yang He's "care" was actually a kind of laissez-faire, hoping that with the arrival of spring or the improvement of the climate, the victims would return to their hometowns to farm to solve the problem of displaced people. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that Shaanxi officials impeached Yang He, after all, their ancestral home in their hometown became the target of the starving people's attack and suffered a lot of losses, while Yang He, as a military governor, sat idly by. If Yang He was able to resist these attacks before the rebellion of Chongzhen's Qinwang army in the third year, the situation has changed radically since then: before that, the victims were only trying to get food to satisfy their hunger, and their range of activities was only near their hometown (because when spring came, they would return to their hometown to resume farming), and the addition of the rebels not only brought military experience to the displaced people, but also turned them into a pure bandit group. At that time, the Ministry of War named these two bandits with different natures as "border bandits" (because the rebels were mainly composed of military households in the border areas) and "local bandits" in the middle of the incident.

Qin's thieves are becoming more and more intense. It is not difficult to see that if those mutinous Qinwang soldiers return to Shaanxi, the "border thieves" and the "local bandits" are combined, and Yang He's strategy of "fuming" will be completely defeated.

"Puban, Fenglingdu--" Yang He muttered while drawing small circles on the map with a pen, and the place names in his mouth were all important ferries or passes from Shanxi and Henan into Shaanxi, obviously he was thinking about how the defense line to intercept the rebels from entering Shaanxi was arranged. At this time, there was a cannon shot outside, Yang He's frightened wrist flicked, and a drop of ink had fallen on the map, staining a large piece of black. His brows immediately furrowed, and he slammed the pen on the pen stand, and shouted: "Come on, go and find out what's going on, report quickly?" “

"Yes!" The general on duty outside responded, and reported back after half a cup of tea: "Tell your lord, it was a group of rebels who came to cheat the customs and were found out!" “

"Scam?" Yang He showed a puzzled look on his face, no wonder this is the case, at the moment, Tongguan City can be described as heavily guarded, not counting other armies, there are more than 2,000 people in the standard battalion directly under the governor, and they are all elite soldiers with sufficient salaries, those chaotic soldiers are only a thousand people, and the small ones are even only a few hundred, how can they attack such a dangerous Guancheng as Tongguan City?

"Come on, change the clothes for the official, the old man has to go to the end in person!"

Outside Tongguan City, the chaos has gradually calmed down. Liu Cheng stood behind a big cart and watched as groups of Ming soldiers poured out of the city gate, driving the people away, and banners were spread out. Although Liu Cheng is not sure who it is due to the knowledge he has, he can be sure that this is a very high-ranking official. At this time, he had recovered from the initial panic and began to think calmly about how to get out of the crisis in front of him.

"Master, what should I do now?" Du Gu asked in a low voice.

"You go and release all the captives, and bring all the uncles and nephews of the Du family to me!"

"What?" Du Gu couldn't believe his ears: "Master, those people hate us to the core!" “

"Let it go! At this juncture, are you still afraid that they will kill you? Liu Cheng scolded impatiently. Du Gu was stunned when he heard this, stomped his feet and went to carry out the order. After a while, Du Ruhu and Du Guoying were brought over, both of them looked silent, Liu Cheng coughed and said, "Do you two want to live?" ”

Du Ruhu's face still maintained a silent look, but Du Guoying's face showed a hint of ridicule: "Our uncle and nephew don't mention it for the time being, but your current situation is not much better than ours." ”

"General Du really has good eyesight!" Liu Cheng smiled: "But if General Du is willing to help me, not only can I save my life, but even my uncle and nephew may be able to escape." ”

"Humph!" Du Guoying sneered: "Your own life is in danger, and you are still here to deceive me and others." The person you killed just now is the nephew of the madman He, and that guy will be revenged, how can he let you go so easily? ”

"Whether it succeeds or not, General Du, you can listen to it first. If you think I'm talking gibberish, just because I'm farting! ”

Du Guoying snorted coldly and didn't speak, but his eyes flashed, and he was obviously touched in his heart.

He Jin was lying on the ground, his eyes widening, revealing the whites of his eyes, like a dead fish on the beach. The face was still condensed with the horror before death, the blood stains from the wound in the throat had already coagulated, and a few green-headed flies were buzzing above, and in a dozen hours, the corpse would swell, stink, and turn into an unsightly mass of stinky meat.

"What's going on?" He Renlong sat on a horse and pointed to his nephew's corpse and asked the soldiers.

"Tell your lordship!" The personal soldier at the head replied tremblingly: "Mr. Qian, Mr. Qian, went to inquire about a group of thieves who wanted to get through the customs in a fool's way, but he didn't want the thieves to suddenly poison him, Mr. Qian, who was caught off guard, was injured by the secret arrow-" All kinds of things, the results are too ugly!

"Oh, what did you do?" The look on He Renlong's face became more and more terrifying, in fact, the appearance of this famous warrior in the three towns in the northwest was not ugly, and it could even be said that there was some Wenxiu, which was left by him when he was young, but when he was angry, the muscles on his face would be distorted, and the green tendons on his forehead and temples would be exposed, which would be very terrifying.

"The villain tried his best to snatch Mr. Chi-sama back, but unfortunately the thief's secret arrow hit Mr. Chi-sama's throat, and the injury was too serious, so-" The soldier explained with his head bowed, like a man who had fallen into the water, he was looking for any straw that could save his life.

"Drag it down and cut it!"

"Spare your life! Spare your life! We've already snatched Mr. Qian back! The voices of several of the soldiers immediately became high-pitched, and they struggled and shouted loudly, but they were dragged down by the wolf-like executioners.

"Chop!" He Renlong's voice was as cold and lifeless as steel, and after a while, seven bloody heads were placed next to He Jin's corpse, He Renlong's gaze swept over the soldiers on the left and right, and said coldly: "The main battle will be killed, and the pro-soldiers will be cowardly, all of them will be beheaded!" ”

"Yes!"

"Bring the wine!" He Renlong took the wine glass and drank it all, slammed the wine glass to the ground, and shouted: "Come on, cut off the heads of those dog thieves for me!" ”

"Your Excellency, summoned by the Governor?" A Dusi Pegasus arrived, He Renlong looked at the gorgeous guard of honor on the city gate, all of which only one person could have in Tongguan and even in the whole of Shaanxi, that is, Yang He, the right attendant of the military department and the governor of the trilateral military affairs. He Renlong hesitated for a while between avenging his nephew and seeing Shangguan, and finally decided to calm Shangguan's anger first, after all, he couldn't escape the blame for this kind of thing at the city gate, anyway, that small group of thieves couldn't run to the sky.

When He Renlong came to the city gate, he felt that the atmosphere was a little wrong, and his colleagues on both sides looked at him with a narrow gaze, as if there was something ridiculous about him, he instinctively stopped and tidied up his armor, but it attracted a burst of suppressed laughter.

"What are these bastards doing?" He Renlong couldn't help but feel a wave of anger in his chest, at this time, a colleague next to him who was familiar with him on weekdays made a look, He Renlong looked at the other party's eyes, and saw a person kneeling with his back to him in front of Yang He, and he was talking loudly: "The villain was originally a good citizen of Yujia Village, and he asked the government for merit when he was lucky enough to kill the rebels, but he didn't want to guard the pass but slandered the villain for killing good and risking merit-" Hearing this, He Renlong didn't know what was going on, and immediately rushed up angrily, kicked on the man's back, and shouted:" The dog thief dared to slander his official - "Draw the sword from the sheath of his right hand and kill him on the spot."

"He Shen will stop, be careful and lose your manners!" A loud shout made He Renlong's movements froze, and he looked up to see that it was Du Wenhuan, the general who temporarily signed the general of the Yansui Town General Army, and although Yang He, who was sitting at the top, did not speak, his face was gloomy, and he was obviously very annoyed by his domineering behavior. He Renlong hurriedly put his waist knife aside, bowed down and bowed: "The lower official is angry for a while, and I ask the governor to forgive me!" ”

Although Yang He was quite annoyed by He Renlong's domineering behavior, he knew very well that it was inappropriate to deal with this military general in the northwest who was famous for his combat bravery in the current situation, so he waved his hand reservedly and made a gesture for He Renlong to stand and return to the train.

Liu Cheng was lying on the ground, the kick on his back just now made him almost suffocated, from the next answer he learned that the other party was the uncle of the Qian Zong who was killed, and he couldn't help but be happy and afraid, fortunately the other party's domineering behavior had lost a point on Yang He's side, and the fear was that if the other party slashed over, he was afraid that he would have been in a different place.

"General He, is what this person just said true?" Yang He pointed to Liu Cheng on the ground and asked He Renlong.