"A few generals have misunderstood what Ben Shuai meant." Li Yan said indifferently, "This marshal is grateful to King Chuang's love and entrusted with the important task of the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, but the younger generation knows that it is difficult to be young and knowledgeable, and this time he can't raise enough military food because the younger generation is incompetent, so the younger generation decided to lead two thousand Qi County soldiers to attack Datong. ”

Lin Yangsheng couldn't help but ask: "You will go and ask us to discuss a bird?" ”

Li Yan picked up the big seal and sword on the case, and said sincerely: "The younger generation said that I invited the five generals today, and I have no other meaning, that is, I hope to choose a respected person from among you to take on the important responsibility of the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, so that the younger generation can also have an explanation for King Chuang and the hundreds of thousands of brothers of the Shaanxi Righteous Army." ”

Ma Shouying's faces changed greatly when they heard this, they never thought that Li Yan meant this! Dare Li Yan sent people to invite them, not to force them to attack Datong as the commander of the righteous army, but to choose one person from among them to succeed him as the commander of the righteous army, and then he took his 2,000 Qixian soldiers to attack Datong.

Ma Shouying and the five of them rely on their qualifications and don't take Li Yan in their eyes, but they are not people who don't know what to do, they are also people with flesh and blood and feelings, and they can also treat each other with their hearts when they meet the temperament, Guan Jian is, the five of them are all rough people, and they don't have any crooked intestines and bad intentions, they don't know that Li Yan's singing is clearly a good show of retreat and advancement.

"Brother Li Yan." Lao Hui Ma Shouying asked in disbelief, "Do you really want to take two thousand Qi County soldiers to attack Datong?" ”

Li Yan said sincerely: "Although the younger generation is young, they also know the truth of a promise. ”

Lin Chengcheng said urgently: "Only take 2,000 people to attack Datong, that is simply to send them to death." ”

"The younger generation is still the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, and it is within his duty to raise military rations for the Righteous Army." Li Yan said this, the expression on his face became more serious than ever, and then said, "As for whether to win or lose, whether to die or live, it is not up to the younger generation to decide, but the younger generation has a clear conscience." ”

"Brother Li Yan." Ma Shouying said angrily, "Don't say anything, I used to look at you by mistake, but I didn't expect your brother Li Yan to be so knowledgeable at a young age, and there is no pressure from the potential, it's rare!" You are still the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, and I can't care about others, but my men and horses will definitely go with you! ”

He Jin also said loudly: "Brother Li Yan has said everything about this, if I He Jin disagrees with you again, it will not be raised by my stepmother." ”

He Yilong, Liu Xiyao and Lin Yangcheng are also hot-blooded, and they all said that they would follow Li Yan to fight Datong.

Li Yan took the opportunity to say: "The five generals are also going to attack Datong, that is the best, after all, there are more troops, and the chance of defeating Datong will increase, but the post of commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, the younger generation is absolutely unwilling to be again, or please ask the five generals to choose another person." ”

Li Yan's repeated excuses became more and more above board, proving more and more that what he said just now was not just for show, but also proved that he was sincere in wanting to make Xian, and also made Ma Shouying and others admire his mind.

Ma Shouying shouted excitedly: "Brother Li Yan, the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army can only be you, you can rest assured, from now on, we will only look forward to you in the Fifth Battalion of the Left Wing!" If my words and deeds are inconsistent, and I don't accept the reprimands of Brother Li Yan in the future, I will be thundered by the sky, and I will not be able to die! ”

The rest of He Yilong and the four of them also swore an oath, expressing their resolute support for Li Yan as the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army.

Li Yan still excused himself: "The junior is resolutely unable to be the commander of the righteous army, since the five generals have no suitable candidates for the time being, the junior has an idea." ”

The five of them asked in unison, "What's the idea?" ”

Li Yan said: "In addition to the four gates of Datong City for ordinary people to enter and exit, there is also a small east gate for the emperor's relatives to enter and exit, that is to say, there are a total of five city gates in Datong City, so the younger generation proposed, when the time comes, the five generals will each lead the headquarters to attack the five gates, who is the first to break through the city gate is the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, what do you think?" ”

Ma Shouying and the others were silent, they did admire Li Yan's mind, but they also wanted to be the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army! The reason why he insisted on letting Li Yan be the coach just now was because none of the five of them was convinced, and they were unwilling to let others take advantage, so Suo suggested that Li Yan should continue to be the coach.

People have ambitions, and Ma Shouying and the five of them are no exception, not to mention that they are among the leaders of the thirteen rebels at the Xingyang Conference, seeing that Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng have become the climate, and they have become characters who call for wind and rain, and they can overthrow the Ming Dynasty and sit on the Dragon Court as the emperor, it is impossible for them not to be blushing, if they can take this opportunity to become the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, it is not impossible to fight against Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the future.

Seeing that the five of them were silent, Li Yan said: "Since the five generals have no opinions, then this matter is so decided, for the unity of the orders of the three armies, the current position of the commander of the righteous army is still temporarily taken by the juniors, the army will be pulled out this afternoon, how about taking Datong directly?" ”

"Yes!"

Ma Shouying and the five of them agreed to the promise and took the order.

In order to be able to justifiably become the commander of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, these five people are holding back their strength in their hearts, and they are all waiting to play their lives in the battle of attacking Datong, in short, they must rush to attack Datong before the other four.

■■■

Datong.

Without waiting for Emperor Chongzhen's holy decree to arrive, the urgent Tang newspaper of the thieves' large-scale attack had already been transmitted to Datong first, and Wei Daben, the prefect of Datong who received the news, was so frightened that he hurriedly found someone to invite Zhang Zi'an, the eunuch and supervisor of Datong Town, Zhu Chuanqi, the acting king, and Zhao Liujin, the deputy general of Datong Town, to the palace to discuss matters.

Zhang Zi'an and Zhao Liujin didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly came to the mansion.

According to the Ming law, Zhu Chuanqi, the acting king, is not allowed to meddle in local military and political affairs, otherwise he is likely to be deducted by Emperor Chongzhen with a big hat of usurpation, but he can't take care of any taboos at this time, and he hurriedly brought two princes to the palace to discuss matters.

The hall of the government office.

The people to be invited have already arrived, Wei Daben invited the acting king to sit on the throne, Zhang Zi'an and the two Zhan Shi of the palace lived on the left and right, and Wei Daben and Zhao Liujin sat at the last seat.

As soon as the person sat down, Zhu Chuanqi asked urgently, "Lord Wei, where have the thieves been beaten?" ”

"Back to the prince's words." Wei Daben wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and replied in a trembling voice, "Just now Lord Wang sent an urgent report, the army of thieves has now reached the area of Octagonal Fort, and it is more than 300 miles away from Datong City, and the army of thieves will be able to hit Datong City in three days at the latest!" ”

"You've already hit the Octagon Fort?" Zhu Chuanqi was taken aback when he heard this, and asked again, "The thieves came so quickly, which route did they kill them from, and why didn't the towns along the way, Weishobao City, try to block them, why did they let the thieves drive straight in, ah?" ”

"Lord Wang." Wei Daben said miserably, "It's really unbelievable to say that the army of thieves is killing all the way along the Great Wall, and the border soldiers of the guards, stations, and forts along the way not only did not resist and block, but most of them defected to the front of the formation, and possessed the thieves. ”

"What?" Zhu Chuanqi became more and more surprised, "How can this be done?" How to get it! ”

"Lord Wei!" Zhang Zi'an asked in a dark voice, "How do you know that the army of thieves must be here to attack Datong?" Maybe this is just a plan of thieves to attack the west, they ostensibly put on a posture of attacking Datong, but in fact they are secretly killing back the horse gun, and then turn around and go south to fight Taiyuan? ”

Wei Daben smiled bitterly: "If it is really like what Gonggong Zhang said, this is just a thief's plan to attack the west, it is really the luck of the lower officials, and it is also the luck of the adults and the prince here, and it is the luck of the people of Datong, but it is a pity that this time the thieves are not like they are playing some tricks, they are clearly coming to Datong." ”

Zhang Zi'an asked rhetorically: "How can you see it?" ”

Wei Daben smiled bitterly: "Dare to ask my father-in-law, what is the thief lacking the most now?" ”

Zhang Zi'an frowned and said, "What do thieves lack the most?" ”

"Isn't it just food?" Wei Daben said, "At present, the official warehouses of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces are almost empty, only Datong City has grain, the Wang family bought 100,000 stone grain from Beitongzhou, not to mention, the border army also recovered nearly a million cattle, sheep and livestock from Mongolia, as well as tens of thousands of horses, which are even more popular things in the eyes of thieves, father-in-law, will the thieves choose a Taiyuan City with nothing, or choose Datong City with grain and horses?" ”

"Lord Wei's analysis is not unreasonable." Zhu Chuanqi frowned and said, "It seems that the thieves are really coming to Datong this time, Gonggong Zhang, I don't know how many troops there are in Datong Town right now?" ”

When the king asked, Zhang Zi'an didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly responded: "Back to the prince's words, there are more than 18,000 cavalry troops in Datong Town at present, of which more than 8,000 are stationed in the camp in the north of the city, and the other more than 10,000 are stationed in the Datong Left Guard, Datong Right Guard, Weiyuan Guard, Zhongtun Guard, Gaoyang Guard, Tianchengwei and a large number of Socheng and Baocheng. ”

Zhu Chuanqi said: "Gonggong Zhang, you should hurry up and gather all the border troops in Datong Town, in addition to the left guard of Datong and the right guard of Datong, the acropolis, the city, and the fort city next to it do not need to be defended, anyway, this will Jiannu and the Mongols will not kill them, and the most important thing now is to hold Datong." ”

Zhang Zi'an said: "Since the prince has said so, the slave and maid will do it." ”

"Hey, don't." Zhu Chuanqi hurriedly explained, "Gonggong Zhang, this is not what this king meant, this king just made a suggestion to you, and in the end, you still have your own idea, whether to transfer all the troops of the surrounding guards, stations, and forts back to Datong to strengthen the garrison, that is also your business, and it has nothing to do with this king." ”

"Yes, yes, yes." Zhang Zi'an hurriedly responded, "The slave and maid should die, this matter has nothing to do with the prince, it is all the idea of the slave and maid alone." ”

Although Zhang Zi'an scolded Zhu Chuanqi in his heart, he couldn't help but behave respectfully on the surface, no matter what, Zhu Chuanqi is the master, he is a slave of the Zhu family, Emperor Chongzhen can clean him up, and Zhu Chuanqi, the acting king, can also clean him up.

Wang Zhan Shi of the Acting Prince's Mansion suddenly said: "Gonggong Zhang, Lord Wei, this official thinks that it is important to transfer the troops of the guards, institutes, and forts back to Datong to strengthen the garrison, but the most important thing at the moment is to quickly ask the captain of the horse to take charge of the military power of Datong Town. ”

After all, Wang Zhan is a close minister of the acting king, and Zhang Zi'an and Wei Daben can't help but listen to his words, but his words really make the two of them embarrassed, although Wang Pu's period of 100 worries has expired, but he is not the general army of Datong after all, if he really asks Wang Pu to take charge of the army, in case Emperor Chongzhen investigates it afterwards, Zhang Zi'an and Wei Daben will not be able to escape from it.

"Lord Wang." Wei Da frowned at the end of this century and said, "Please ask the master of the horse to take charge of the Datong military power, I'm afraid that it is not compliant, right?" ”

"Lord Wei." Wang Zhanshi said coldly, "When is it now, still clinging to the regulations?" ”

"Your Excellency, Lord Wang's words are wrong." Wei Daben blushed and argued, "Regulation is the foundation of the country, and it can't be let go at any time, no matter what. ”

Wang Zhan said: "Of course, the regulations must be followed, but the compliance with the regulations must also pay attention to strategy, don't forget that you are the prefect of Datong, you should know what the crime is if the Datong Mansion is lost in your hands." ”

"This ......"

Wei Daben was shocked when he heard this, if Datong Mansion was really lost in his office, it would be a serious crime to abandon the city and land, and the crime was to destroy the nine clans! If Wang Pu is really allowed to take over the military power of Datong Town and keep Datong, even if Long Live Ye investigates it afterwards, he is just a crime of negligence, and at most he will be dismissed and investigated.

……

(To be continued)