The spring is cold, the night is as cool as water, and a person falls down from the wall of the Dingbian Hou Mansion, this person is vigorous, his steps are like ghosts, and his body is like an ape.

The black shadow fell to the ground, tiptoeing about to walk, when suddenly, four or five figures galloped towards with lanterns.

The black shadow coming down from the wall no longer wanted to leave, but stood in place, holding the waist knife in his hand, his eyes full of anger.

"Mr. Zhang, please go back, Mu Shuai has instructed, no matter what, you can't take a step out of the Hou Mansion." After the leader of the people who gathered around gave his hand, he was very humble.

The person who jumped down from the wall was naturally Zhang Ru, and these people who surrounded him were sent by Mu Bin to protect and monitor his eyes.

He thought that Mu Bin would send some people who were not in the stream, but he didn't expect that the people he sent were all masters.

"What benefits Mu Bin gives you, I will double it and let me leave." Zhang Ru took off his scarf and said a little angrily.

The head Jin Yiwei smiled and pointed to his neck: "The benefit given by Mu Shuai is the head on the neck of the young general, Mr. Zhang thinks, what can impress the young general?"

Mu Shuai said, Mr. Zhang is safe and sound in the Hou Mansion, and it is not a problem for us to wait for the addition of officials to the knighthood. But Mu Shuai also said that if Mr. Zhang escaped from the Hou Mansion unknowingly, I would not be able to protect my head. ”

Zhang Ru was quite annoyed: "This Mu Bin is not active when he does things, but he is quite active when he arrests people." Okay, okay, Lao Tzu doesn't go out, you go back to rest! ”

The leader didn't speak, and after seeing Zhang Ru enter the gate of the Hou Mansion, they scattered one after another.

It can be said that the emperor's order this time is very tricky, in order to prevent Zhang Ru, a master, from escaping, Mu Bin used almost all the forces in the entire capital.

In a sense, he understands Zhang Ru, in the past, one was seriously injured and then bed, and the other did not know whether he was alive or dead, if it was him Mu Bin, he would also be in a hurry.

But now is really not the best time, not to mention what the situation is on the Datong side, even if Zhang Ru goes to Datong, he may not be able to find Jiang Wei. Let's just say that those people in the court who wish Zhang Ru would go out to send him to death are now looking at the Dingbian Marquis Mansion.

Once Zhang Ru went out, the first thing he faced was definitely not the White Lotus Sect in Datong, but the people sent by these dignitaries and nobles in the capital to hunt him down.

Indeed, Mu Bin admits that Zhang Ru's kung fu is not low, but he is only one person after all.

Even an old Jianghu like Fan Wuyi, a person with unfathomable kung fu, would not dare to say that he could face hundreds of people and retreat.

Once he encounters an ambush in an open field, and the other party has a bow and crossbow arrows, Zhang Ru will definitely die.

Zhang Ru died, the emperor was unhappy, the emperor was unhappy, and Mu Bin, who was the commander of the Jinyi Guard, was bound to suffer. If he suffers, won't the capital, which has finally calmed down, set off a bloody storm again?

Sullen back to the mansion, Zhang Ru lay on the bed tossing and turning and couldn't sleep, he was thinking about what happened to Jiang Wei now, and then wondered if the situation in Datong had really reached the point of hopelessness.

At the same time, the Yamen of the Datong prefect was attacked, and all 1730 people, including the prefect, were killed. In the end, those people also set a fire to the prefect's yamen, burning the prefect's yamen to a ruin.

Yang Rong, the commander-in-chief of Datong, sent people to rescue in time and extinguished the fire, so that the surrounding people were spared.

In front of the prefect's yamen, there was a sign with two words written on it: "Extinguish the light!" ”

Judging by the somewhat distorted handwriting, the person who wrote this sign should be literate, but definitely not a reader.

Knowing that the prefect's yamen was attacked, Yang Rong immediately sent Ma Xuan, the deputy commander-in-chief, to lead 3,000 elite soldiers into Datong City, and together with the garrison in Datong City, they defended and controlled. At the same time, write an urgent letter to the emperor for 800 miles, and tell the emperor everything that happened in Datong.

The next day, in the village of Beitu, 50 miles northwest of Datong, except for one family, which was not harmed, all the other families were in flames.

When Ma Xuan rushed to the village with people non-stop, except for the person who was trembling at the entrance of the village, there were no chickens and dogs left in the village. From afar, you can smell the smell of barbecue coming from the village.

Ma Xuan walked over and took a lot of lips and tongues to calm the male host's mood a little, and then there were thousands of questions from the master who tortured him in the army.

After a while, the master of the army walked up to Ma Xuan and whispered a few words, which made Ma Zhang's frowning brows stretch.

No one knew what the master said to Ma Xuan, and Yang Rong didn't even ask the reason afterwards. This person is the person who Ma Xuan has saved, he can tell Ma Zhang, but he will never say half a word to others.

After returning to Datong City, Wang Zhou ordered people to strictly guard against it, and he was not allowed to enter or leave, and then led the sergeants to start the investigation one by one. All those who have portraits of their mothers in their families are arrested and put in prison pending trial.

On the one hand, the Datong border army was busy rectifying internal troubles, and on the other hand, Yang Rong, the general soldier of Datong, had to guard against the Tatar army that might invade the border at any time.

These Tatar tribes didn't know what wind was pumping, as if they knew that Datong was in trouble, and under the leadership of the new little prince Batu Mengke, 200,000 steppe troops were stationed on the Datong frontier.

In the past few days, Yang Rong now needs to write three letters back to the capital, each letter is 100,000 urgent, and each letter is full of the helplessness of this Datong general soldier.

On the contrary, the deputy chief soldier Ma Xuan is like a nobody, in addition to inspecting the military camp every day, he takes a few henchmen to linger in the Qinglou restaurant in Datong City.

Yang Rong ordered Ma Xuan to solve the White Lotus bandit problem as soon as possible, but Ma Xuan refused to go out in Datong City on the grounds that the rogue was too prosperous and it was difficult to take care of each other.

On the ninth day of the third month of the fourth year of Hongzhi, the Tatar army of 200,000 launched a small-scale attack and took the 36 fortresses of Datong within ten days.

Yang Rong was about to be angry, but he didn't dare to rush into the army.

There were hundreds of thousands of defenders in the entire defense line of Datong, but the defenders he could command were less than 30,000 horses. The others are basically Ma Zhang's henchmen cultivated over the years as the main generals. Take Yajiao Mountain as an example, this place once had thousands of soldiers killed in battle, so the border army of Datong had a unique affection for this place.

After the Battle of Datong a few years ago, many soldiers asked to be transferred to Yajiao Mountain.

Well, from generals to soldiers in this place, no one in this place has been able to become the defender of Yajiao Mountain without Ma Xuan's nod.

When Zhang Ru was still a border marquis of the imperial court, the position given to Yang Rong was a general soldier who was elevated. After all these years, Ma Xuan, who only knew that he was following Yang Rong's ass to flatter, was fledgling. Don't say that Yang Rong wants to do something, even if he wants to say something, it won't work without Ma Zhang's consent.

In the fold, he also mentioned this more or less, but the emperor didn't know whether he couldn't understand it or didn't want to understand it, so he didn't pay attention to his meaning at all.

On the twenty-first day of March in the fourth year of Hongzhi, in the Taihe Hall of the capital, Emperor Zhu Youzhu sat on the dragon chair with a gloomy face, and his eyes kept wandering over a group of important officials of the imperial court.

All the courtiers below, including several scholars in the cabinet, kept their heads down and remained silent.

The changes that happened in Datong were beyond everyone's imagination, and for a while, no one could think of a practical way to solve all this in front of them.

The White Lotus Rebellion, which had been dormant, seemed to have appeared out of thin air, first setting a trap and almost destroying a thousand Jinyi guards, and then destroying a prefect's yamen.

Then, without waiting for the Datong border army and the imperial court to react, the steppe tartars on the Datong side immediately pounced like jackals that smelled blood.

These days, all the ministers are hungry and can't sleep at night. Datong is not far from the capital, and if the enemy fights, they will only have to be slaves to the country.

"Say! Aren't you usually quite able to talk about it? Zhu Youzhu said in a suppressed voice.

After asking several times in a row, the courtiers below did not dare to stand up and speak.

In the end, it was Qiu Jun who took the initiative to come out and said: "The minister has a reluctant request, but I am afraid that His Majesty will not agree." ”

Zhu Youzhu was overjoyed: "My Mr. Qiu, you have a way to say it cleanly!" It's all burning eyebrows, and you can still control whether I'm happy or not. ”

Qiu Jun said slowly: "The people and horses on the nine sides can't move, if they move, it may cause a chain reaction, so to deal with the changes in Datong, the only possibility is to transfer troops from Xuanfu." However, Zhang An, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, was unruly, and the first emperor ordered him to guard Xuanfu, and he would not move easily until the point of last resort.

Now there are only two or three people in the capital who can make them obey orders, so I ask Your Majesty to canonize Zhu Yong, the Duke of Baoguo, as a general and lead the twelve regiments and battalions to the battle. ”

After saying that, the first person to stand up against it was not the emperor, but Zhu Yong himself.

He replied: "Old minister, if you force the expedition, I am afraid that it will mess up the morale of the army." ”

Zhu Youzhu glanced at Zhu Yong with some embarrassment, and asked tentatively, "Why don't you appoint another pioneer general to Aiqing?" ”

Zhu Yong shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, the old minister is over sixty years old, and he is no longer the Baoguo Gong who can fight well back then." The matter of Datong is related to the Ming Dynasty, and the ministers dare not take the lead. ”

Just kidding, the border army is brave, when he was young, the Baoguo Gong may be able to use his bravery to deter the border soldiers, and the current Baoguo Gong Zhu Yong is pampered and pampered, and he has long lost the courage of the year.

Zhu Youzhang's face that had just improved darkened again, Zhu Yong was indeed old, and he fought in his early years, and he had a lot of injuries on his body, and there were also many dark diseases. He is a benevolent monarch, and he can't selfishly force Zhu Yong to go on the expedition.

Just when Zhu Youzhang's heart had fallen to the bottom, Zhu Yong said again: "Although the old minister can't go on the expedition, the old minister has a very suitable candidate." ”

Zhu Youzhu seemed to grasp the last straw: "Say it quickly!" ”

Zhu Yong said word by word: "The former Dingbian Hou, Zhang Ru and Zhang Wenxuan." ”