At the foot of Miaoshan Mountain, two miles outside the south gate of Dengzhou City, the military camp of Zhang Keda, the chief military officer of Denglai, was temporarily stationed here.

Zhang Keda, the chief military officer, was promoted to the chief soldier because he repeatedly defeated the thieves who invaded Zhoushan, Zhejiang, and was stationed in Denglai in the first year of Chongzhen. In November of the fourth year of Chongzhen, because of his meritorious service to the rescue of the capital, he was promoted to the right governor of Nanjing (Zhengyipin).

Zhang Keda was originally going to leave Dengzhou to go to Nanjing after the New Year, but a sudden change disrupted his schedule, and he received the news that the Liao soldiers under his command led by Kong Youde, the general of Denglai, had a rebellion, and burned and looted along the way, so the matter of going to Nanjing to take up his post was only postponed.

Kong Youde's rebellious soldiers belong to the Dengzhou reinforcement battalion, strictly speaking, they are also under the jurisdiction of him, the chief military officer of Denglai, and he will also be implicated in the suppression of this rebellion, and if he doesn't make the right governor of Nanjing, he will disappear!

According to the place where Kong Youde's rebellious soldiers passed, the direction of their march was Dengzhou City.

In the past few days, Governor Sun Yuanhua has convened Zhang Keda and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Zhang Tao to discuss how to deal with Kong Youde's rebellion.

In the end, it was agreed that the two commanders and the officers and men under their command should be stationed outside the city in advance, and when the rebels arrived, they would immediately send troops to resist, and kill the rebels with a two-way combined attack, so as to minimize the impact of the rebels on their own future.

The military camp of Zhang Tao, the deputy commander-in-chief of Liaodong, was originally stationed outside the south gate of Denglai City, and there was no need for additional scheduling.

And Zhang Keda's battalion is stationed in the military camp in the east of Dengzhou City, and many of the officers and soldiers of Zhang Keda's main barracks are from Zhoushan, Zhejiang, and they followed Zhang Keda to fight in Shandong, and experienced many battles such as defending the capital and exterminating the rebellion of the White Lotus Sect in Laiyang, which can be regarded as a good fighting division!

At this time, Zhang Keda had just patrolled around the barracks. Most of his soldiers are from the south, and such heavy snow is most prone to frostbite. Patrolling and inspecting will naturally win the approval of the soldiers under his command.

I just returned to the Chinese army tent and changed into civilian clothes. The Chinese army's personal guards came in to report: "Report to the military gate, Governor Sun sent someone to come." There is an urgent report. ”

Zhang Keda sat down behind the table in the big tent and said casually: "Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, what urgent matter can the Lord Inspector send someone to come, why not send someone to come to reward!" ”

The Chinese army personally guarded: "The governor is now entangled in his own lawsuits, how can he be in the mood to work the army, and he must have something tricky to observe that the person who delivered the letter is restless." ”

Zhang Keda, as the right governor of Zhengyipin, naturally has a clear understanding of what is happening in the court, and he also expects the outcome that Sun Yuanhua is about to face. Sun Yuanhua is now at the center of the political whirlpool, and if he is not careful, he will end up in pieces, and such a person will naturally be as far away as possible.

The problem is that it was not only Sun Yuanhua who was unlucky for Kong Youde's rebellion, but even he, the outgoing chief military officer, could not escape the blame! The only remedy is to gather the elite soldiers of Dengzhou to exterminate Kong Youde's chaotic army, and try to minimize the harm of the situation.

In a way, the civil and military officials in the Dengzhou system are grasshoppers on a rope, so it is the best choice to cooperate with each other to tide over difficulties!

Zhang Keda sighed and said, "No matter what, Lord Sun is still the governor of Denglai, you go and invite the messenger into the big tent." ”

The Chinese army guards promised to withdraw from the big tent. Soon the people who came to deliver the letter from the governor's office were brought to the big tent.

The messenger was Sun Yuanhua's personal entourage, and after he kowtowed to Zhang Keda, he presented the letter written by Sun Yuanhua himself.

Because these foreign craftsmen were recruited by Sun Yuanhua in his private name, when these people had problems, they could not directly order the army to take action. And he could only ask Zhang Keda to dispatch troops to search and arrest along the way in a deliberative tone.

Zhang Keda frowned and finished reading the letter, then looked up and asked the messenger standing under the tent: "Can the governor be sure that these foreign craftsmen have been robbed?" ”

The person who delivered the letter hurriedly bowed and said: "This matter is undoubted, and after verification, the four gates of Dengzhou City are open from Chenshi. There were two well-dressed cavalry teams leaving the city from the east and west gates almost at the same time, and each team of cavalry had about forty horsemen. Five or six more carriages followed. The governor concluded that these were the people who had robbed the foreign craftsmen and left the city in the morning. The governor asked Mr. Zhang to send troops to arrest these bold and reckless people and rescue the foreign craftsmen! ”

Zhang Keda knew about these foreigners. The Hongyi cannon on the Dengzhou Naval Division's warship was built by them, and after it was built, they were also responsible for training gunners for the Dengzhou Naval Division, which was indeed very important to Dengzhou in this regard.

Zhang Keda frowned slightly and thought, no matter what the intention of this group of people to kidnap these foreign craftsmen is, at least two hours have passed since this group of people left the city gate, and the other party is all cavalry, according to the usual times, this group of people has already galloped out of the boundary of Dengzhou.

It snowed heavily today, and the vehicles in the opposing team were difficult to walk in the snow, and the overall speed of the march would not be too fast, so two hundred cavalry were sent to chase after them to try to recover the foreign craftsmen.

With a decision, Zhang Keda directly said to Governor Sun Yuanhua's personal entourage: "Please return to the governor, this official will immediately send cavalry to chase after a group of cavalry that went out of the city from the east gate, and another group of cavalry from the west gate will be pursued by Deputy General Zhang." ”

This Sun Yuanhua's personal guard hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed: "Lord Xie Zongbing, the villain will go back to the city to tell the governor." ”

Most of the cavalry under Zhang Keda were recruited locals, and they had not yet gone through actual combat after training into the army. Today, I will take this opportunity to conduct a real battle, there are still 3,000 war horses in the Dengzhou military camp that have just been purchased, just take this opportunity to hand over to Sun Yuanhua, and allocate these 3,000 war horses to his command!

Soon, a group of 200 cavalry left the Miaoshan military camp in the snow and galloped towards the official road east of Dengzhou City.

Almost at the same time, a group of 100 cavalry galloped out from the battalion of Zhang Tao, the deputy commander-in-chief, a mile away, and galloped towards the direction of the official road west of Dengzhou City......

Shen Xiaoshan controlled the war horse and said to Lu Ruohan, who was tied up in the carriage: "The above is the reason why we will invite you away from Dengzhou City, you stay in Dengzhou City, once the rebels capture Dengzhou City, it will naturally be difficult for you to be alone." We're actually saving you! ”

Guo Tai interjected: "Just like you just said, you are mercenaries, as long as someone hires anywhere, there is no problem, now that our host hires you, it turns out that what treatment Governor Sun gave you, our host will still pay, and it is even higher than the treatment that Governor Sun gave you." ”

Lu Ruohan said: "You don't know about our mercenaries, from the beginning of signing the contract, there must be no violation of the contract in the middle, otherwise you will be spurned, and no one will sign an employment contract with us from now on." Staying in Dengzhou City is likely to fall into the hands of the rebels, but it will never violate the spirit of the contract, and now because you have made it impossible for us to fulfill the contract, this is absolutely not allowed, please let us go quickly! ”

Shen Xiaoshan frowned and was about to persuade a few words again, when he saw Lao Wu, a soldier of the Enemy Hunting Division who he had sent to observe the movement behind the team, galloped to Shen Xiaoshan.

He pulled the reins of the horse and Shen Xiaoshan's war horse side by side, and said in a low voice: "Boss, Jiang Yu was ordered by the commander to lead a hundred birds and soldiers of the Zhenshan Battalion to march to support us, and now we are on the official road two miles behind us." ”

Shen Xiaoshan clearly knew that the task of these bird soldiers was to cooperate with the Zhou Xun battalion to sail the Denglai Naval Division's warship out of Shuicheng safely, but now they were sent by the commander to support, needless to say that the hijacking of foreign craftsmen out of the city was already known, and the army of the Dengzhou military camp would appear at any time and pursue his party.

Now, when I heard that these birds had come to help, I immediately felt that things could change dramatically.

Shen Xiaoshan didn't care about grinding with this foreign craftsman named Lu Ruohan, he said to Guo Tai: "Don't worry about these foreign craftsmen, you lead the team to continue to walk forward, wait at the fork at the foot of Scorpion Mountain in front, and I will go to the back to meet Jiang Yu and the Zhenshan Camp Bird Soldiers." ”

Guo Tai hurriedly said: "Got it, you can go quickly!" If these foreigners want to be brainless, Lao Tzu will carry them to the back of the horse and run. ”

The moment was not big, Shen Xiaoshan and the soldiers of the Enemy Hunting Division who had just reported the news turned around and galloped towards the way they came, and after running for about a mile, they saw a team of about 100 people on the white official road in the distance moving forward quickly, and they were divided into two teams to run along the ruts on the ground, and the speed seemed to be no slower than the war horses galloping in the snow!

Jiang Yu in the team saw Shen Xiaoshan and the others from a distance, so he greeted Yang Eighty, the leader of the Bird Gun Soldiers, and Yang Eighty shouted: "Slow!" ”

The running speed of the Birdmen who were marching at a rapid pace suddenly slowed down, and soon changed to normal marching speed.

Jiang Yuyang, eighty-two people, followed the slow queue to meet Shen Xiaoshan and Lao Wu who were galloping on the opposite side.

After several people met, Jiang Yu breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank God, we arrived in time!" ”

Shen Xiaoshan first nodded to Yang Eighty, and then asked Jiang Yudao: "If you are so excited, what has happened, and what does it mean to arrive in time?" Did the Dengzhou military camp send troops to pursue us? ”

Jiang Yu nodded and said: "Shen Tou'er, according to the analysis of the intelligence we have, the officers and troops stationed outside the southern city gate of Dengzhou are likely to send troops to pursue, and the commander is worried about the safety of the enemy hunting division and foreign craftsmen, so he quickly dispatched the Zhenshan Battalion to reinforce us in two ways, and finally meet you before the arrival of the Dengzhou battalion." ”

Shen Xiaoshan said: "What we are worried about is that we will be discovered by the Dengzhou battalion sentinels, which will attract the officers and soldiers of the Dengzhou battalion, so we have not relaxed our vigilance!" ”

As he spoke, he turned his head to Yang Eighty and said, "Brother Eighty, please speed up the Bird Soldier Brothers, and let's meet with the Enemy Hunting Division Brothers in front to discuss countermeasures." ”

After more than ten miles of high-intensity marching, although the soldiers were a little tired, the team still maintained a neat queue.

Yang Eighty turned around and returned to the queue and shouted, "Get up!" The queue of bird soldiers who had just stopped began to slowly accelerate, and soon resumed their previous running speed, and as the bird soldiers galloped in stride, the snow on the official road was splashed and splashed under the feet of the soldiers of the earthquake mountain battalion.

Shen Xiaoshan said to the enemy hunter soldier beside you: "Old Wu, you still have to be vigilant in the back, and report back immediately in case of emergency." ”

Jiang Yu said: "Shen Tou'er, I will also stay behind to monitor, and when there is a dangerous situation, the two of them can cooperate with each other, and they can also be more confident in transmitting the enemy's situation." ”

Shen Xiaoshan was very satisfied with Jiang Yu's composure, and he said: "It's better for the two of you to monitor in the back, remember that everything is based on safety, we can't easily die if we hunt the enemy!" ”！！ (To be continued......)