"It turned out to be Grandpa Gao, is there anything going on at such a late hour?" Cao Huachun turned around and arched his hand, with no look on his face.

"We are slaves, where there is anything sooner or later, it is nothing more than to listen to people's calls!" Gao Qiqian walked over with a smile, although he was a eunuch, he had a Chinese face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a burly figure, if he didn't speak, he would look like a great husband.

"I am afraid that there are few people in the Ming Dynasty who can make Gonggong Gao, you blow the cold wind at the gate of the Wenhua Hall in the middle of the night!" Cao Huachun snorted coldly: "Say, what's the matter." “

"It's good for our family to stand at the door of the Wenhua Palace, but there is no cold wind, bring it!" Gao Qiqian smiled and took a robe from the little eunuch behind him, and unfolded it in front of Cao Huachun: "Princess, touch it, the finest sable fur is light and warm, and if you put it on your body, you are not afraid of the cold for nine days, and it is not easy to wear a treasure!" ”

Cao Huachun ignored it, arched his hand and said: "Father-in-law Gao, if there is nothing to do, our family will go back first, the night is already deep, and Ming'er will get up to serve the emperor in the early dynasty." ”

"Hey, don't!" Seeing Cao Huachun turn around to leave, Gao Qiqian was anxious, grabbed Cao Huachun's sleeve and stuffed the sable robe in his hand: "Princess, our family won't go around in circles, this sable robe was sent over by the Zhou and Tian families, a total of two, one for you and one for me, please accept it." ”

Cao Huachun stopped, the Zhou and Tian families in Gao Qiqian's mouth are Chongzhen's relatives, the Zhou family is the queen, and the Tian family is the most favored concubine, he can not sell Gao Qiqian's face, but it is impossible not to sell the face of these two royal families. He took the sable robe and handed it to the little eunuch behind him, and asked in a low voice, "What's the matter with the two noble lords' family?" ”

Seeing Cao Huachun take over the robe, the stone in his heart fell to the ground, although Cao Huachun can't say anything on weekdays, but the joints are extremely tight, if it is not for the guise of the queen's family this time, I am afraid that it will be ugly. He motioned for the little eunuch to step aside, stepped forward and whispered: "There are several businesses in Shanxi that invest under the doors of the two imperial princes of Zhou and Tian, and they send some filial piety every year. These businesses are doing some salt trading, but they don't want the governor of the three sides, Yang He, to sell salt privately, these businesses can be regarded as unlucky, and they want the prince to say a word in front of the emperor. ”

"Humph!" Cao Huachun snorted coldly: "I'm afraid that these businesses are not only Zhou and Tian, but also Gao's father-in-law!" ”

"The prince said he was laughing!" Gao Qiqian snorted haha, wanting to fool the past, but seeing Cao Huachun's expression was very serious, he had to spread his hands: "Don't rub sand in the eyes of singles, yes, these businesses have a little dry stock of our family, but this is also no way, the harvest has not been good in recent years, and many Zhuangzi in the north can't collect rent, but the royal use is indispensable, what is the way for our family not to find money outside?" You can't kneel in front of the emperor and ask for silver, if so, what do you want us slaves to do? ”

Cao Huachun didn't speak, he knew that there were truths and falsehoods in Gao Qiqian's words, and he also knew that the income of Huangzhuang Huangdian was not as good as before in the past few days, and what Gao Qiqian said was true, but if he said that he was all for the family affairs of the Son of Heaven, it would be a ghost. However, there are true and false things in the world, there are false in the true, and there is truth in the false, and the clear and clear is only found in the drama. He thought for a moment and said in a low voice: "Father-in-law Gao, Mr. Zhang Xianke has already been excerpted in the matter, and the emperor means that Yang He has indeed done something wrong, but at present, the military affairs in Shaanxi are very tight, and they have not been sent out." ”

"That means that if you win, you will write off a lump sum, and if you lose, you will count the new and old accounts together?" Gao Qiqian tapped his palm and asked in a low voice.

Cao Huachun nodded: "Father-in-law Gao, don't worry, Mr. Yang is also a last resort, even if you win, it will never be two, and it will never affect your business." “

"Then I'll send a message to the Tian and Zhou families, thank you to the princess." Gao Qiqian sang a fat promise to Cao Huachun, and then turned around and left. Cao Huachun looked at the back of Gao Qiqian leaving, and didn't speak for a while, and suddenly he said to the little eunuch behind him: "Give me the lantern!" “

"Yes!"

Cao Huachun took the lantern, reached out and took out the candle from the lantern, lit the sable coat and threw it to the ground, the bright red flames immediately burst up, and the air was filled with a unique smell of protein being burned.

"Father-in-law, what are you doing here?" The little eunuch asked in surprise.

"Such a good mink is only available in Liaodong, but after the Dongyu Incident, the mink has long been broken. Where this sable coat came from, I don't know. Although I, Cao Huachun, am just a eunuch, I will not wear the flesh and blood of the frontier soldiers for warmth. Cao Huachun's voice was not loud, but the words were clear and loud.

Like most of the rivers on the Loess Plateau, Fulushui is a very seasonal river, and the amount of water in the rainy summer and autumn is more than ten times that of the dry season in winter, which is manifested in the shallow flow of nearly 100 meters wide river bed with only more than 10 meters wide in the middle. Due to the bend of the river, a natural cliff was formed on the inner side of the river, which was three or four meters high above the riverbed, forming a natural earthen wall, and the camp of the Ming army was built close to the bank.

"Work hard, don't be lazy!"

"Oops! Oops! ”

The banks of the river are in stark contrast to the soldiers on the riverbed, who wield shovels and pickaxes to dig out the less steep banks, leaving only a few outlets for counterattacks; And the soldiers on the riverbank, under the command of the officers, wielded various weapons, circled the chariots, and changed formations. Liu Cheng looked at all this with a mixed expression on his face. Perhaps because of Du Guoying's communication, Yang He carried out his dispatch - the thousand general, the most important thing is not this, Liu Cheng's thousand brigade was finally replenished and somewhat overstaffed, and the number of soldiers under his command increased from more than 100 to nearly 500 - the shortcomings were made up by the defeated troops who were defeated in the night attack.

All this is a happy trouble for Liu Cheng, as a time-traveler who is familiar with the future history, although Liu Cheng has not yet determined that he will become a lonely minister who saves the Ming Dynasty from collapse, or become a rebellious minister and thief who digs the tomb of the Zhu family. But one thing is certain: that is, he must have an army loyal to him on hand, even if he is cornered in the end and has to be a leading party like Shi Jingjiao and Wu Sangui that will be infamous for thousands of years, and it will not work without soldiers on hand. Just looking at Emperor Chongzhen's unprecedented "feat" of replacing fifty scholars in just seventeen years of reign, Liu Chengcheng felt that he had no soldiers in his hands and panicked.

It is a good thing that there are more soldiers, but this good thing is not the right time - Liu Cheng may be one of the first few people in this Ming army to know that the war is about to break out, but the army that has finally been assembled is suddenly stuffed in several times the rout, even if Qi Jiguang is resurrected, there is no way to organize and train into an army in just a few days. All Liu Cheng could do was to organize these newcomers into a super large auxiliary battalion and let them take on the work of digging and building fortifications, while the previous more than 100 people stepped up their training and prepared to deal with the next bitter battle.

"Bell, bell, bell!"

With a banging sound, several donkey carts creaked over, but they were delivering food. Du Ruhu sniffed and said to Liu Cheng: "It seems that you won't lose this time." ”

"How does Brother Du know?" Liu Cheng asked in some surprise.

"Sir, don't you smell the smell of mutton? Inspector Yang, who led the troops, was quite smart, and he knew that he would let the soldiers eat a few meaty meals, and he would not lose on this basis. ”

"Brother Du laughed, how can it be so easy to win a battle." Liu Cheng said with a smile: "If you can win the battle after eating a few meals of mutton, then the commander of the division is too easy to be a soldier." ”

"Naturally, it's not like a few meals of meat can win the battle, but if you want the soldiers to work hard, you have to come up with real benefits, there is a benefit, there is a strength, and half a trick is not playable, if it wasn't in Liangxiang back then-" Speaking of this, Du Ruhu's face became gloomy.

Seeing this, Liu Cheng knew that the other party remembered the unhappy past, and was about to open his mouth to persuade a few words, but the guy had already picked a large piece of mutton and put it in a pot, and then packed a few pieces of pickles, millet porridge, and a basket of white flour buns and sent them over. Liu Du and a few followers had just sat down to eat a few bites, when they heard a commotion behind them, and when they looked back, they saw that the crowd of people who were receiving food was scuffling.

"Mr. Du, go over and take a look, what's going on?" Liu Cheng said in a low voice.

"Hey!" Du Gu responded, wiped his oily right hand on his buttocks twice, called two personal soldiers to run over there, and after half a cup of tea, he came back, and saluted Liu Cheng's forked hands: "My lord, this guy is from the auxiliary barracks, but he went to the soldiers to grab meat to eat, so the fight started, I have already escorted people over, and please send it down!" ”

Liu Cheng looked up, only to see a person whose hands were cut off backwards, kneeling on the ground, only to see that his cheeks and temples were full of beards, and his messy hair was spread out, and he couldn't see his face clearly for a while. Liu Cheng frowned and asked, "The soldiers and auxiliaries have their own food arrangements, why do you want to go next door to grab meat to eat?" ”

The man didn't say a word, just leaned against his head, and he didn't know if he was stupid or didn't hear it, Du Gu on the side saw a kick on the man's back and scolded: "The thief is with the army, what do you say?" Itchy skin? “

At this time, the man suddenly spit out an object to the ground, Liu Cheng fixed his eyes and saw that it was a gnawed and clean bone, Liu Cheng realized that the man was still holding a sheep bone in his mouth just now, and he was naturally speechless.

"I haven't touched meat for half a year, how can I bear the smell of meat, grab it and eat it first!" The man raised his head and looked unsatisfied: "Is it a whip or an arrow to parade to the camp, hurry up and wait for grandpa." ”

"Drag it down and get twenty lashes!"

"Yes!" Du Gu answered, dragging the man down, and then there was the sound of counting and whipping on the flesh. A few minutes later, the man was brought back again, his bare back crisscrossed with blood from the whiplash, but the man still had a nonchalant expression, as if the scars were not on him. Liu Cheng looked up and down with interest and asked, "Can you still stand it?" ”

"I don't know where so many white bread buns and mutton have been eaten."

"Dog!" Du Gu was immediately furious, if it weren't for Liu Cheng's presence, I'm afraid he would have gone up to look good for that man. Liu Cheng smiled slightly: "In that case, Mr. Du!" You drag this guy down and get twenty lashes, remember, only whips! “

"Yes!" Du Gu responded, and took the man down with a cruel smile, and when the man was brought back a moment later, his back was already covered with blood, obviously Du Gu was much heavier this time.

"What about this time?" Liu Cheng asked.

"We soldiers are not even afraid of swords, how can we be afraid of leather whips? It's just that this time I ate less meat, and it was a little unworthy! ”

Liu Cheng laughed when he heard this, and ordered his soldiers to take the mutton on his table and put it in front of the man, and said with a smile: "What's your name?" “

"My surname is Wang's name and rejuvenate the country!" The man sat on the ground, eating meat in a big gulp, and at the same time picked out four or five pieces of meat and put them in his arms, Liu Cheng looked interesting and asked, "What are you doing here?" ”

"I still have a little brother over there, and these are reserved for him!" Wang Xingguo replied.

Liu Cheng nodded, he looked at the way this man ate meat thoughtfully, and suddenly asked after half a sound: "Wang Xingguo, how many men like you are in the auxiliary barracks?" “

"It's only six or seven!"

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng nodded and said to Du Gu: "Mr. Du, after he finishes eating, he will pick out those people and put them in the barracks." “

"Yes!"

Liu Cheng finished lunch and was about to find a place to rest for a while, but a herald from the Chinese army came to pass it on, only saying that it was the superintendent who called him, Liu Cheng was a little apprehensive in his heart, and took out two taels of silver from his arms, secretly stuffed it into the hand of the general, and said with a smile: "This big brother, the villain doesn't know why the superintendent summoned him, can you reveal a little bit, so that the villain can be called."

Be prepared in advance, so as not to miss the overseer's major affairs. “

As soon as the herald touched his hand, his face immediately looked a lot better: "I have a humble official position, how do I know the meaning of the superintendent summoning Liu Qianzong, but before the superintendent gave the order, I met a person, and that was the person you took to see Zhao to join the army a few days ago." “

"It's Du Guoying, why is he here again?" Liu Cheng thought to himself in his heart, but a smile appeared on his face: "It turns out that this is the case, thank you brother, this time I went back to Xi'an, the younger brother must be the host, and please be sure to appreciate your face then!" “

The herald got the benefit, and said again and again, Liu Cheng followed him to Yang He's line, the officer entered the pass, Liu Cheng stood outside and waited, thinking in his heart: "Originally, Du Guoying was nothing more than an embarrassment of his identity, and he used himself to pass on the word for him, and he no longer needed to intervene after he got on the line." But now that he has found himself again, could it be that there is some turning point in towing himself into the water? Thinking of this, Liu Cheng couldn't help but be worried.