The half-grown boy answered, and ran down the stairs, Jiao Haoyun went to the wall with a Hulu arrow, walked to the corner tower of the fortress, and pulled the bow twice to make sure that the bow was well maintained on weekdays, and then squinted his eyes and looked out from the hole.

At this time, the distance between the group and the water bubble had been shortened to only more than forty or fifty meters, and the distance from the fortress was still more than a hundred meters, but their speed did not slow down, and it was obvious that these cavalry were not just passing by to drink water, but were coming towards the fortress. Jiao Haoyun gritted his teeth, broke the arrow of an arrow, and shot an arrow at six or seven meters in front of the team. The arrow pierced the air, and with a screeching sound, it plunged into the ground a few meters in front of the leader's horseman. The knight jerked the reins tight, and the front feet of his mount in his crotch sneered.

"Friends from afar, this is the Daming Yulin Weiding Border Village Cattle Pen Fort, if you want to drink livestock, please take care of yourself, this is not too close, it's not good to have a misunderstanding, this is an official army!"

At this time, one of the horsemen had already jumped off his horse, pulled out the arrow on the ground, and when he saw that there was no arrow and handed it to the man in front of him, he smiled and said, "The one who is in charge of the plate is a clever man, you can see that even the arrow is broken." “

The leader didn't have a smile on his face, and said in a deep voice: "We are the ones who are going to recruit An, and it is better not to say black words like 'palm plates' in the future." ”

"What the eldest brother said is that the younger brother has been smooth for a while, and he must pay attention to it in the future." The man on the ground hurriedly bowed down and apologized. The leader jumped off his horse, and walked forward about ten paces, and was still a little more than a hundred meters from the bullpen fort, and shouted, "I am a god and I will do something with you today, and there is no malice in doing it, so do not worry about it." ”

"God Yikui?" Jiao Haoyun in the arrow tower was frightened and staggered, almost sat on the ground, as an officer of the Ming army, he was naturally thunderous about the name of Shen Yikui, a few days ago I heard a sergeant passing by say that Governor Yang He defeated the thieves, and the thieves in the northwest were killed and wounded, and Shen Yikui was seriously injured, and his life and death were unknown. But looking at the man in front of him, no matter how you look at it, he doesn't look seriously injured.

"Didn't you say that you were hit by dozens of arrows in your body, but only a dozen horses escaped, and you have already run to the west of the land? So who is the strong man in front of him? Damn, it's a false report of military exploits again! For the first time in his life, Jiao Haoyun felt that falsely reporting military exploits was also so hateful.

"Big boss, big boss!" Jiao Haoyun carefully put his head next to the perforation, and shouted in a slightly trembling voice: "What do we want in this bullpen, there is no money, no food, no women, the only thing that is of some use is this bubble water." You just let us go, don't worry, we will never tell our boss after this incident, hello to me and hello to everyone this year, you can't work hard for nine buckets of old rice every month. ”

Jiao Haoyun was pleading in the arrow tower, but he heard the sound of Xixi Suo behind him, and when he looked back, he saw that the young soldier came up with a rusty three-eyed gun, and when he saw Jiao Haoyun coming back, he asked, "Head, do you want to light the arquebus?" ”

"Don't order, don't order! My own grandmother, you want my life! Jiao Haoyun hurriedly lowered his voice and said: "You don't look at how many people there are outside, how many of us have a few people, if we fight and people can cut us all down after half a meal, that's a god, a famous figure in the court, quickly, let people hide all the guys, don't light it, let them smell the sulfur, think we're going to fight!" ”

The soldiers put their firearms in the corner of the wall in a bit of confusion, and leaned against the city plate one by one, except for the half-sized boy who had never seen a sword soldier, everyone's eyes showed fear.

"The man guarding the fort!" Shen Yikui shouted loudly: "I have already asked Yang Zhitai to surrender, and I am here this time to welcome the envoy of Lord Zhitai, and there is no malice." If it's convenient, can you give us a little charcoal? It's good to cook a meal! “

"Well said! Say! Jiao Haoyun hurriedly responded, turned his head and shouted to the outside of the arrow tower: "Get some firewood and grass and throw it down." ”

"Boss, does that god really want to recruit An?" The boy asked curiously.

"Bunny, where did you get so much, why? Regardless of whether he is true or not, let's just get through this time! Jiao Haoyun gave the young man a chestnut, turned to the other veterans and folded his hands and said: "Everyone work together to survive this time, I Jiao Haoyun will not do it anymore, and I will invite everyone to have fun!" “

Maybe it was Jiao Haoyun's promise, or maybe it was the threat of more than a hundred cavalry outside, the veterans in the fortress moved much faster than usual, and after a while they gathered a few large bundles of firewood and grass and a basket of charcoal down, and the god suddenly said that he only sent a few people to move the firewood, grass and charcoal to the water's edge, and began to fetch water and make soup. Jiao Haoyun on the arrow tower breathed a sigh of relief, but he still sat on the arrow tower cautiously, not daring to blink his eyes more.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, the sun was only a finger's width away from the horizon, and the expressions of the soldiers of the gods became uneasy. Their concerns were easy to understand, these hundred or so cavalry were outside the castle, there was no place to be guarded, it was better during the day, and even if a few people rushed out at night, they would be able to disperse this group of cavalry. The man who had just dismounted to pick up the arrows said in a low voice: "Big brother, it's getting dark." Why don't we set up camp in another place and come back tomorrow. “

"No way!" Shen Yikui shook his head: "According to what the person who came back first said, the envoy of the governor agreed to be here, if we leave first, what if the envoy comes and sees that there is no one to go back?" “

"Big brother! It's three o'clock in the afternoon, what time is it? What time is it now? Whose fault is this? When the man said this, he looked left and right, and said in a low voice: "Who knows if it is a trick played by the officers and soldiers to lure you here to catch them all?" ”

"Hugh is nonsense!" Shen Yikui scolded in a low voice: "What are people? Governor Young's emissary; What are we? The thieves who are begging for plausion, can we reason with the adults in the government? Besides, in this wilderness, it is normal to get lost and take a long detour. If I suspected that the governor was playing tricks, I would have followed Li Zicheng to the West would have followed him to the West, so why bother to ask for plausion? ”

While the two were talking, a sharp-eyed man next to him suddenly shouted: "There's someone over there!" Shen Yikui hurriedly stood up, built a pergola with his right hand and looked in the direction of the fingers of others, and sure enough, a row of finger-sized riding shadows appeared on the ridgeline, and he roughly counted about twenty horses, and his heart was down for a long time, he pointed to the man and said, "You go over and see who it is?" ”

"Great!" The man answered, beat the horse and galloped away, and after a quarter of an hour, he rushed back, and there were still more than ten zhang away, so he shouted loudly: "It's Yang Dudu's envoy, and Brother Zhang, who is not muddy, is back together!" ”

"Quick, quick, get up from the ground, spirits!" Shen Yikui hurriedly scolded loudly, and the knights who were originally sitting on the ground hurriedly stood up, sorted out their clothes and armor, and lined up in two rows on both sides of the road, forming a welcome appearance in the middle of the road, and Shen Yikui stood by the road with five or six leaders, waiting for the arrival of the messenger anxiously.

"Lord Liu, the head of my family is over there." Bu Mu half-bowed his back, pointed to the two lines of people and horses not far away, and said with a smile: "Do you want me to go over and have a meeting, and let them come over to greet the adults." ”

"It's okay!" Liu Cheng stroked his cheek, and the five-day trek made the northwest wind cut more than a dozen thin cuts on it, which didn't look obvious, but it was very deep, and it hurt to touch it, which made Liu Cheng have to maintain a "not smiling" appearance, but added a bit of unfathomable majesty in front of the people who didn't get muddy.

"Coming, coming, play music, fire!" Shen Yikui saw that Liu Cheng and his party had arrived, and hurriedly ordered in a low voice, and the two sergeants with suona behind him immediately shook their heads and blew up, and lit a firecracker from nowhere.

"Sinner God's handsome subordinates meet your lord!"

Seeing Shen Yikui and the five or six peasant army leaders behind him kneeling in the dust, Liu Cheng did not dismount immediately, but arrogantly drove his mount around the people kneeling on the ground twice, before jumping off the horse and gently hitting Shen Yikui's shoulder twice with a horsewhip: "You are Shen Yikui?" “

A layer of cold sweat oozed from Shen Yikui's forehead, and he didn't dare to raise his head: "Yes, it's a sinner!" “

Liu Cheng looked the other party up and down, this was the first time he had observed the leader of this famous peasant army at such a close distance, a pair of rough calloused palms and well-proportioned and powerful limbs, a face polished into a bronze by the wind and sand, his eyes were a little disoriented, obviously the other party was not used to his identity.

"Get up!" Liu Cheng said in a deep voice: "Shen Yikui is your real name? “

"It's not!" Shen Yikui shook his head: "The villain's real name is Wu, but he was afraid of harming his family when he got into trouble, so he gave him this nickname!" “

"I see!" Liu Cheng nodded: "The Lord of the Army asked the general to come to make a book and count your subordinate soldiers and horses, let's set off now." ”

"Your Excellency!" Shen Yikui said to Liu Cheng: "It's not early now, the villain's camp is still thirty miles away from here, why don't you rest for one night and hurry again tomorrow morning?" “

Liu Cheng looked at the sky, at this time the sun had already set a small half below the horizon, he knew that there was not much vegetation on the Loess Plateau at this time, the temperature dropped quickly after dark, and it was not a good choice to travel overnight. He looked at the fortress not far away: "Okay, let's spend the night in that earthen fort tonight, so that there is a wind shield." ”

"This-" Shen Yikui hesitated for a moment and told Liu Cheng about the matter. Liu Cheng smiled slightly, took out a talisman letter from his arms, and handed it to Totobuhua behind him: "You went over and talked to the general of the fort, and said that it was the envoy of Yang Zhijun, let us stay for a night." “

After answering the question, he beat his horse and went to that side, and Jiao Haoyun checked the letter and hurriedly ordered his men to open the fort gate. Because the space inside the earthen fort was too small, only Shen Yikui, Liu Cheng, Bu Mud, and a dozen or so guards entered the earthen fort, and the rest rested behind the sheep and horse wall outside the fortress. Liu Cheng couldn't help frowning when he saw the poor and dilapidated appearance in the earthen fort, and called Jiao Haoyun to whisper a few words in his ear, and Jiao Haoyun smiled when he heard it, and nodded busily.

The night in the northwest came quickly, and a few minutes ago you could see the remnant sun on the horizon, but in the blink of an eye the sky was pitch black, and the terrible north wind was curling on the rocky beach outside the fortress, and the howl of wolves could not be heard in the distance. Liu Cheng, Bu Mu, Shen Yikui, and Du Guoying gathered around a charcoal basin, driving a skinny sheep that had been peeled and cleaned.

"Adults!" Jiao Haoyun said with a smile: "It's spring, and the sheep don't have any fat, so bear with it!" “

"It's okay!" Liu Cheng smiled, he also knew that he had done his best: "The money is not short of yours?" You washed and skinned the other two and sent them to the brothers outside! “

"More more, where will there be less!" Jiao Haoyun pinched the cold and hard silver ingot in his waist, the corners of his mouth were about to grin to the cheeks, and the piece of silver that he had just given him was five taels, although since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, due to the large import of silver through sea trade, the purchasing power of silver in the southeast has declined a lot, but in the economically backward northwest region, silver still maintains a high purchasing power, especially for Jiao Haoyun, who is close to the border line, sheep are very cheap livestock, and silver is a hard currency that is very rare.

"Lord Liu, how can this make you break the bank!" Shen Yikui thought that Liu Cheng was relying on the identity of the governor's envoy to bully people to eat white food, but where did he think that the other party was paying money to buy sheep, so he hurriedly glanced at the soldiers behind him, took a package and stuffed it, and said with a smile: "A few things, not a tribute, I hope Lord Liu will accept it with a smile." ”

Liu Cheng took the cloth bag, opened it and saw that it was six or seven ingots of silver, as well as more than a dozen pieces of gold and silver utensils and jewelry, which were worth two or three hundred taels of silver. Liu Cheng smiled and pushed the package back.

Liu Cheng's actions frightened Shen Yikui, thinking that the other party thought that he was stingy, lest Liu Cheng go back and say bad things about himself in front of Yang He, so he hurriedly bowed down and pleaded guilty: "My lord, after the defeat in the previous army, the property in the old camp was not taken away, these are the only ones around, please accept it for the time being, and make up for it later." “

"Great Chief, you still have a lot of money to spend next, I know you don't have enough money at this time, so you can avoid such a false courtesy." Liu Cheng said halfway, only to find that the faces of Shen Yikui and Du Guoying on the table showed disbelief, and they couldn't laugh or cry, so they had to reach out and take a golden hairpin in the package, and said with a wry smile: "In this way, I took this golden hairpin, even if I have received your friendship, how about it?" “