"Master Ma should have seen Xu Thief's soldiers and horses in the past few days, but aside from obedience, the soldiers and horses under this person's command are fine, and they are not matched by other officers and soldiers. Not to mention www.biquge.info whether you can find a boat to cross the river, even if you gather the soldiers and horses on Huai, I am afraid that you may not be the opponent of the army of Xu thieves! ”

"This-" If it was in normal times, Ma Shiying would naturally not take the words of a prostitute to heart, but the current situation forced him to seriously consider Liu Ruyi's judgment, and the army under Xu Hecheng in the past few days had left a deep impression on him, and finally he had to admit very embarrassed that Liu Ruyi's analysis was probably right.

"Then why did you go to Fujian?"

"The most vicious thing about the Xu thief's rebellion this time was not to take Nanjing, but to cut off the Cao Yun. As soon as this luck is broken, the Beijing division has a million accounts, and what is the food and clothing for the soldiers of the nine sides? Therefore, the most important thing now is not to restore Nanjing, but to recapture Yangzhou and open up Caoyun. If the world talks about the strength of the boat division, there is no one more than General Zheng Zhilong of Fujian. Although the Xu thief is strong on the iron horse, but it is on land, if General Zheng's boat division enters the Yangtze River by sea and separates the north and south, although the Xu thief is fierce, he can only cry out in vain! ”

Listening to Liu Ru's plan, Ma Shiying's eyes lit up, at that time, the waterways in the south of the Yangtze River were vertical and horizontal, and many places were far more convenient to take the waterway than the land route, if he could lead Zheng Zhilong's boat division into the Yangtze River according to what Liu Ru said, isolate the north and south, and block the main force of Xu Hecheng in the south of the Yangtze River, then he could summon the army of Huaishang in the north of the Yangtze River to take Yangzhou first and open up the Cao Yun. He was also a decisive character, gritted his teeth and said: "What Miss Liu said is, but we have to go to the city first, but the soldiers of the Xu thief are very strict, how can we get out of the city!" ”

"I have my own way to do this!" Liu Ru smiled and said, "Please rest on my ship for half a day!" ”

Ma Shiying looked at Liu Ruyi, and then at Chen Zilong, feeling that he had no better place to go now, so he nodded and got on Liu Ruyi's boat. Chen Zilong asked in a low voice, "If so, what can you do?" How did I not know? ”

"Zilong, have you forgotten that Mr. Cheng Er? Just a few days ago, he invited me to meet him in his garden in Nanjing, and I begged him once, presumably not a big problem! ”

"Cheng Er? He has such a great ability? Chen Zilong asked suspiciously.

"Zilong!" Liu Ru sighed: "Do you think that Xu Hecheng would dare to do such a big thing with just a few thousand soldiers?" The hidden power behind him is huge, and this Cheng Er is just a drop in the bucket. Forget it, don't say more, just listen to me this time! ”

"There's a bigger force behind it?" Chen Zilong glanced at Liu Ru suspiciously, but the words came to his lips but did not say them. Seeing his lover like this, Liu Ru smiled bitterly: "Zilong, since the last incident, I have spent a lot of time on this Mr. Cheng Er, and found that the business he does is amazing, not only all kinds of local products, but also salt, iron, weapons, sulfur, saltpeter, copper, Liaodong goods, etc., most of which are needed by the military state, do you think that if he does not have a strong force and background behind him, he can do such a big deal?" Others make money to buy land, thinking that it is a long-term solution, but he has made so much money from so many transactions to the sky, but did he buy any farm houses? Not a cent, where do you think all that silver has gone? All hidden in the cellar? ”

The more Chen Zilong listened, the more frightened he became, and asked, "If so, why didn't you tell me all this in the past?" ”

"Does it work? There are too many Jiangnan gentry doing forbidden business, and there are not many of his Cheng Er's family, not to mention that his brother is an official in the court, who can help him? ”

"Then I can at least show the group members in the society, and prepare a little in advance!"

"Then they asked you where the news came from, and how did you answer?" Speaking of this, the corners of Liu Ruye's mouth turned up, revealing a sad smile: "Did you tell them that a singer told you?" ”

Chen Zilong was suddenly dumbfounded, Liu Ruyi's words pointed directly to his heart, indeed these reasons were not enough for his teachers and friends to pay attention to. Looking at the sluggish appearance of his lover, Liu Ru smiled, stretched out his hand to caress Chen Zilong's cheek, and said softly: "Zilong, no matter whether Xu Hecheng succeeds or fails this time, the world will change, write a few articles like in the past and become famous all over the world, and if you pass the Jinshi examination, you will be above 10,000 people, and there will never be a good thing for a lifetime." Xu Hecheng and Cheng Er are stronger, more cunning, and more ambitious than you, although they are vulgar and annoying, but they will only win in the end. I know this, but I'm a little unwilling! ”

East of Changli County, Hebei Province.

"Yanshan is as long as a snake, thousands of miles to the Han Dynasty" is a poem by the famous poet Su Dongpo of the Northern Song Dynasty, as he described in the poem, the winding Yanshan Mountains lie between the North China Plain and the Northeast, separating them, so in the Northeast and North China, the two regions with little difference in geography and climate have formed a very different political, economic and cultural style. Historically, there were three main roads connecting these two regions across the Yanshan Mountains: Lulong Road, Gubei Road, and Binhai Road.

The route of the Lulong Road is to go north along the left bank of the Luanhe River from Lulongsai (Xifengkou), and then go north along the main stream of the Luanhe River until it crosses the Yanshan Mountains, and then turns east along the west bank of the lower reaches of the Laoha River, and goes to the northeast along the Daling River (in fact, it is the route of Liu Cheng's army entering the Luanhe River this time). The starting point of Gubei Road is in Xijin Mansion, Nanjing, Liaoning, that is, today's Beijing City, passing through today's Shunyi County and Miyun County, crossing the Chaohe River in the north through Gubeikou, crossing the Luanhe River in the northeast of Luanping County, and going east to Pingquan County, meeting with the original Lulong Road. But after going all the way north to the vicinity of Chifeng, it went north along the Laoha River and arrived at Dading Mansion in Beijing, Liaozhong. You can also continue to go north and transfer to Linhuang Mansion in Liaoshangjing. And the coastal road is from the city of Beijing, all the way to the east through the Shanhaiguan through the West Liaoning Corridor into the Northeast, because before the Tang Dynasty the West Liaoning Corridor long-term water and dense vegetation, it is difficult to pass, this road is from the Jin Dynasty after the gradual prosperity, to the Ming Dynasty is to become the most important road in North China into the Northeast, Wu Sangui and Zu Kuan's advance team is along this road to the Beijing Division.

After passing the Shanhai Pass, a flat land composed of shallow hills appeared in front of the Guanning army, the towering Yanshan Mountain Range has been left behind, and only the vast plains and gentle hills are left in front of them, with large reeds swinging in the east, and the light black sea in the farther place. To the west, on the other hand, there is a vast plain, and the fields are overgrown with crops waiting to be harvested, and from time to time you can see a wisp of cooking smoke rising, and that is a village with people.

Zu Gang took seven horsemen to explore the enemy in front, his real name was Lakshen, a Mongolian, because of his bravery and good at fighting, he was accepted by Zu Kuan as a family member, and he changed his name after he did a thousand generals. As an experienced scout, he divided his men into two lines, the front line in loose horizontal formations and the back line in columns, about a stone's throw apart. This allows you to search as large an area as possible, and when you encounter a large number of enemy troops, the team behind you has a chance to escape and bring back information. Although they had been walking for a long time, they searched forward despite their fatigue, and finally after crossing a ridge, they found three men in leather robes under the leeward slope. They wore their robes with the bare side of the robe facing outward, and set their mounts aside, letting them eat the grass and gather themselves together to rest and eat, completely unaware of the enemy. When they heard the sound of the horses' hooves, they jumped up and took their bows and arrows from their horses to return fire. Zu Gang lay his upper body on the horse's mane to avoid being shot by the enemy, but he bent his bow and aimed at the man in the middle, hitting the man's throat, and the man fell to the ground. Seeing this, the other two flew on their horses, and they were about to flee after hitting their horses, and the scouts who followed Zu Gang released arrows one after another, and both of them were hit by several arrows, but they did not die, and one of them roared, turned his horse's head and drew his sword to win, obviously this person was desperately trying to cover his comrades to escape. By the time Zu Gang slashed this person to death, the man in front had already fled.

"My lord, this guy has armor on his body, no wonder he can't shoot to death!" A subordinate turned over the leather robe on the corpse, only to see a layer of lock curtains exposed, Zu Gang turned over the lock curtains, the few arrows just shot did not penetrate, it seems that the quality of this lock curtain is quite good.

"There's a bird on horseback, so magnanimous!" Another subordinate found a bird gun from behind the saddle of the deceased's mount, and the deceased also had lead powder wrapped in paper. Zu Gang took the bird gun from his subordinates and looked at it carefully: "Hongyang's, damn it!" Hurry back! This must be Liu Thief's pro-army! His army should not be far from here! ”

As if to confirm Zu Gang's speculation, there were a few bone whistles in the air, and he who was born in the grassland immediately jumped on his war horse and said loudly: "This is the Tartar ranger, go quickly, you won't be able to walk if it's late!" ”

The subordinates hurriedly dropped their bodies and weapons, jumped on their horses and turned to flee, and they had barely run a hundred paces when the sound of bone whistles suddenly became sharp and dense, as if they were talking to each other.

"My lord, what is this bone whistle, it sounds very upset!" A cavalryman asked Zu Gang.

"This is when the Mongols were shooting and hunting yellow sheep on the grassland, hundreds of horsemen divided into several wings, whistled each other, drove the yellow sheep to a narrow place, and then shot them with bows and arrows!"

The cavalryman's face changed greatly when he heard this: "These dog thieves actually treat us as yellow sheep!" ”

Zu Gang and their horses had been walking for a long time, and they were already tired, so they slowed down after running for a while, and the sound of bone whistles and horses' hooves behind them became more and more urgent, and it was obvious that the pursuers were getting closer and closer. Just as Zu Gang was racking his brains thinking about how to get out, he suddenly heard a whooshing sound, and he subconsciously shrank his neck, and he felt a cold on his head, and his fur hat was gone. He turned his head to see that on the top of the hill on the right were riding their horses and galloping, only forty or fifty paces away from him, and that the arrow had been fired by them, and that there were many more behind them, and it was evident that the enemy had caught up with him from both sides. These knights rode their horses on the slopes of the hills, and could shoot themselves forty or fifty paces away with their bows, and they were also first-class archers on the grassland. Zu Gang knew that he might not be able to rush out today, so he had to fight back with a bow and pray to the gods and Buddhas in his heart to seek happiness after death.

Changli County, East Gate Tower.

"My lord, the striker has taken a few sentries of the Guan Ning Army!"

"Oh! So fast? Yue Tuo raised his head from the map and smiled at Zu Dashou, Kupilon and Hazar on the side: "It seems that I expected them wrong this time!" ”

Hazar stepped forward and asked: "It's okay, the last general is willing to lead this thousand Huo'er Chi (quiver soldiers) as the vanguard, so that these Guanning troops can see how powerful Jinong's cowardly Xue army is!" ”

"The strength of the cowardly Xue pro-army is naturally to be seen!" Yue Tuo said with a smile: "But first inquire about these sentry agents, the details of the enemy army are not too late!" ”

A moment later, the captives were escorted up by their own soldiers, almost all of them were wounded, and they looked very embarrassed. Yue Tuo looked up and down and asked, "Who is your general?" ”

Zu Gang knelt on the ground and covered his right arm, he was not hit by an arrow in the scuffle, but fell from his wounded horse and injured his right arm. At this time, his mind was very confused, and the desire to survive and his loyalty to the general were fighting fiercely in his heart, and he could not tell the winner for a while. Seeing that he didn't speak, a personal soldier came over, scolded and raised the whip to whip him, Zu Gang was about to endure the beating, but heard a voice: "Wait, don't beat him!" Before he could figure out what was going on, he saw a pair of brown riding boots come to a halt in front of him.

"Zu Gang, do you still recognize me?"

Zu Gang raised his head in surprise, saw a familiar face, looking at him with a smile, his eyes widened in surprise: "Master, why are you here?" ”

"Get up and talk!" Zu Dashou smiled and helped Zu Gang up from the ground and untied the rope for him: "Oh, your arm is injured, come on, call the doctor!" ”

"It's fine, just fell off the horse and fell!" Zu Gang had already recovered from Fang Cai's surprise, as Zu Kuan's personal soldier, he naturally recognized Zu Dashou, and also knew that Zu Dashou had defeated Huang Taiji in Dalinghe, and then there was no news, but he didn't expect to meet it here. He looked at Yue Tuo, Kupilon and the others, and immediately judged the identity of the enemy from the other party's dress.

"Master, are the ones behind you Dongyu?"

"Oh!" Zu Dashou nodded: "Yes, those few are all Jurchen noble chiefs, and now they and I are on an errand under the command of the Duke of Yue!" ”

"Yue Guogong?" Zu Gang's body shook, isn't that the anti-thief Liu Cheng who played the banner of Jingnan? Why is the big man with the thief now? Zu Gang opened his mouth, but he couldn't speak.

Zu Dashou seemed to have seen what was on his mind, smiled and did not speak, at this time the doctor had already come, and looked at the injury on his arm for Zu Gang. After finishing reading, Zu Dashou came over again and said with a smile: "This time it is my nephew and Zu Kuan who are leading the troops, you can go back later, and bring a letter to them for me!" ”