Is it true that the Ming army is just playing tricks, is it really just to lure the Horqin people into being fooled?

Of course, the answer is no, Wang Pu is not playing tricks, he is setting up suspicions, creating conditions and opportunities for the safe escape of the Ming army, just wait for God to cooperate with him and make another heavy snowfall, they can leave here!

Three days passed quickly.

It was a difficult three days, and in the past three days, everyone, including Wang Pu, could only eat dry food on the ice and snow, and could only huddle together wrapped in blankets to keep warm, but even so, they were still shivering from the cold, and a secret sentinel sent out was directly frozen to death because they fell asleep in the snow.

Mongolia in winter is too cold to make a fire, this is too hard, but no matter how hard it is, they have to survive, and they have to stay up until it snows again!

■■■

Datong.

Zhang Zi'an finally triumphed with the army.

The dispatch of troops to Mongolia this time can be described as a complete victory, and a total of more than 800,000 head of livestock were recovered, including more than 600,000 sheep and goats, more than 50,000 horses, more than 100,000 cattle, and nearly 10,000 camels.

Of course, the cattle, sheep and livestock were counted separately in several batches, and this number was only known to Zhang Zi'an, and the soldiers of the border army only knew that a lot of cattle, sheep and livestock were recovered from outside the Saiwai, but no one knew what the specific number was, and Zhang Zi'an was not prepared to tell anyone this number.

I dreamed back several times at midnight, and Zhang Zi'an couldn't believe that it was true!

Before these animals turned into silver, Zhang Zi'an had already begun to think about what to do with this huge amount of silver.

After winning a big battle and plundering so many cattle, sheep and livestock, Long Live Lord and the ancestor must have to pay a lot of filial piety, Zhang Zi'an summed it up, and at least 500,000 taels of silver had to be sent! There are also border army officers and soldiers who go to Mongolia to inevitably give a few taels of silver each, and those lieutenant generals, guerrillas, and staff generals also have to pay a few more taels, and they will spend about 100,000 taels, so that there are nearly 800,000 taels left.

What should we do with the 800,000 taels of silver? Is it a land property or a property?

Just as Zhang Zi'an was thinking about how to spend the 800,000 taels of silver, the little eunuch came into the tent and said, "Godfather, all the guests invited by your old man are here, and they are all waiting in the living room." ”

"Really?" Zhang Zi'an was so happy that his eyes narrowed, and he said happily, "Are they all here?" ”

The little eunuch nodded and smiled: "It's all here." ”

Zhang Zi'an said: "The Wang family doesn't know about this, right?" ”

Zhang Zi'an wanted to sell this batch of cattle, sheep and livestock to other big Shanxi households without telling the Wang family, the reason was very simple, he didn't want the people of the Wang family to know the specific number of these cattle, sheep and livestock, especially he didn't want Wang Pu to know, because this time to send troops to Mongolia, the biggest credit is actually Wang Pu, in case Wang Pu knew that this army made so many profits, and asked Zhang Zi'an for dividends, Zhang Zi'an really couldn't find a reason to refuse.

So, simply bypass the Wang family.

"I don't know." The little eunuch said, "My son repeatedly told those rich families not to leak the news to the Wang family. ”

"Hmm." Zhang Zi'an nodded and said, "Well done." ”

The little eunuch hurriedly said, "Thank you godfather for the compliment." ”

"Go ahead." Zhang Zi'an said, "Invite all the guests to the warm pavilion, and our family will discuss with you here today." ”

"Okay."

The little eunuch answered and took the order.

Soon, the five middle-aged men entered the warm pavilion under the guidance of the little eunuch, although these five middle-aged men were only wearing coarse cloth clothes and looked dirty, but they were actually rich businessmen in Shanxi, all because of the rules set by Emperor Hongwu, merchants can only wear cloth clothes, not silk and satin!

Although the family assets of these five wealthy businessmen in Shanxi are not as good as those of the Wang family, they can each take out hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Zhang Zi'an sat down and didn't get up, stretched out his finger and pointed to a few chairs by the fire, and said indifferently: "Sit down." ”

"Thank you, father-in-law."

Five wealthy businessmen from Shanxi hugged their fists and thanked Zhang Zi'an, and sat down on the chair with half of their buttocks.

Zhang Zi'an pulled out the charcoal fire in the stove with tongs, and said in a non-yin and non-yang manner: "I invited a few of you here today, our family has something important to discuss with you." ”

The five wealthy Shanxi businessmen looked at each other, and the eldest of them said respectfully: "If there is anything, my father-in-law just orders." ”

Zhang Zi'an cleared his throat and said, "I guess you have all heard about the use of troops against Mongolia a while ago, right?" ”

The five wealthy businessmen nodded hurriedly, of course they had heard about such a big thing, but they didn't know Zhang Zi'an's intention to talk about this for a while, so they didn't dare to answer, but they thought in their hearts, if this old eunuch wanted to spread the consumption of the troops on their heads, there would be no door.

"That's right." Zhang Zi'an continued, "This time we won a big battle, and we also brought back a large number of livestock from Mongolia, and our family wants to sell these cattle into silver to make up for the arrears of the border soldiers, of course, our family will not let you lose money, we can guarantee that we will trade at the market price." ”

"Oh, I see."

"It turned out that they wanted us to buy cattle and sheep."

"It's not a problem, the villain was originally slaughtered to make a fortune, this is the old business."

Several Shanxi merchants were relieved, and the eldest Shanxi merchant asked, "Dare to ask my father-in-law, how much is this batch of livestock, and how much silver do we probably have to prepare?" ”

"Not much." Zhang Zi'an said indifferently, "The total is about two million taels." ”

"Huh!?"

"Two ...... Two million taels!? ”

The five Shanxi businessmen gasped when they heard this, and they were all stunned.

"How?" Zhang Zi'an pulled his face down and said in a dark voice, "Each of your family's assets is more than one million, is it still difficult to let each of your families contribute 400,000 taels of silver?" ”

Several Shanxi businessmen complained bitterly: "Father-in-law, if you sell our cattle and sheep half a month earlier, we can afford 500,000 taels or 600,000 taels per family, but now we can't do it." ”

Zhang Zi'an asked in a dark voice: "Why not now?" ”

The eldest Shanxi businessman responded: "A while ago, the Wang family suddenly sold their property in Shanxi on a large scale, and the five of us made a total of two million taels of silver, and all the Wang family's industries in Shanxi were taken down. ”

"What?" Zhang Zi'an was stunned and said, "There is still such a thing?" ”

"Not really."

"Father-in-law, it's not that the villain doesn't want to buy it, but he really doesn't have so much silver in his hand for the time being."

"Two million is really not enough for a while, why don't the five of us scrape together 200,000 taels of silver first and buy some of the cattle and sheep in my father-in-law's hands first?"

Zhang Zi'an was still a little unconvinced: "You really took all the properties of the Wang family? ”

"Of course it's true." The five businessmen replied in unison, "Except for the Wang family's compound, all the Wang family's industries in Shanxi have been given to us." ”

"It's weird." Zhang Zi'an wondered, "What kind of reputation is the Wang family doing, selling all the properties, they are just talking?" ”

Five Shanxi businessmen asked in a low voice, "Father-in-law, do you see the ......matter of buying livestock?"

Zhang Zi'an came back to his senses and said angrily: "You go back to collect money first, and make up as much as you want." ”

"Yes."

The five Shanxi merchants responded respectfully and turned to go.

■■■

Sanbu Ragawa.

In a blink of an eye, two days have passed, God still hasn't snowed, the Horqin people are very honest, and they didn't send people up the mountain to sneak attack, it seems that they were afraid of being blown up by the Dragon King Cannon, and put on a posture of defending Nanshan, and they were determined to trap the Ming army in the mountain!

Of course, the Horqin people will still send patrols around the mountains from time to time to prevent the Ming army from really climbing the cliff and escaping.

As time passed, the situation on the mountain was getting worse and worse.

Because they couldn't eat hot food for a long time, the soldiers could only gnaw dry food on the ice and snow, and many of the soldiers' bodies had already appeared in condition, and restlessness and restlessness began to permeate in the tents.

It's really an inhuman thing to endure in such a cold and snowy place!

There was no entertainment, no sound, no heating, nothing, and the soldiers could only huddle into the low, dark tents with their eyes wide open, nibbling on dry food when they were hungry, and shaving snow to eat when they were thirsty! The whole world seemed to stand still, and what's worse was that everyone except Wang Pu didn't know why they were doing this? How long will it continue?

If someone else had been replaced to lead the troops, these people would have mutinied long ago!

This is a test of endurance, this is a tempering of spiritual strength, the enemy of the Ming soldiers is not others, or themselves, they must overcome unimaginable difficulties with superhuman perseverance, they must endure this cold, lonely, boring, even more terrible than death world...... On the fifth day, the Horqin people couldn't bear it again, they sent 500 people again, trying to sneak up the mountain overnight, but they were once again bombarded indiscriminately by the Ming army's dragon king cannons, and the Ming soldiers who finally seized the opportunity vented all their grievances on the heads of this group of unlucky Horqin people.

The Korqin people again threw more than two hundred corpses on the mountain, and then they were honest again.

However, on the sixth night, things finally took a turn for the better, and it finally snowed again, and the opportunity finally came...... It was night, and the sky was particularly dark.

Wang Pu asked his soldiers to wake up the brothers who were sleeping in the tents one by one, and then quietly touched the edge of the cliff in the north, and sixty hemp ropes that had been fixed hung down from the cliff.

As for the war horses on the mountain, they will be thrown away, as long as the brothers can go back alive, there are not many war horses?

Originally, Wang Pu didn't want to leave these nearly 10,000 war horses to the Horqin people, but first, killing the horses would inevitably make a move, which would arouse suspicion, and secondly, this heavy snow would fall, and the time was too tight, and it would take a lot of time to kill all the nearly 10,000 war horses, so he could only give up.

In less than two hours, more than 2,700 soldiers all descended to the bottom of the cliff.

As Wang Pu expected, the Horqin people didn't think that the Ming army would climb the cliff and escape, so the patrols sent were very disrespectful, except for two circles during the day, they would not come out at night.

In fact, the people of Horqin wish that the Ming army would climb the cliff and escape, and the escape from the cliff means that the Ming army has to abandon all the war horses, and then march on foot in the ice and snow, if the Ming army really does this, then there is only the share of being slaughtered, in the grassland, the two legs of people can never outrun the four legs of the horse!

However, the cunning Wang Pu obviously would not give the Horqin people such an opportunity, he had already calculated everything!

Scarface and Beard, who fell at the end, took all the fifty-nine ropes back up the mountain, and the remaining rope was cut in half at the mouth of the cliff, and when the two of them went down to the foot of the mountain, a dozen brothers pulled the last rope off with a single pull, so that even if the Korqin patrol cavalry turned to the north of the mountain tomorrow, no trace could be found.

As for the footprints left on the ground, Wang Pu was also prepared, and specially arranged for the bearded man to take fifty people to break off, and after the large group of people and horses went away, he came from nearby to cover up the footprints and traces on the ground as much as possible, smoothing out, and it was still snowing heavily in the sky, so that by tomorrow morning, all the traces would be completely covered!

However, this is not the most powerful, the most powerful thing is that the suffering suffered by the soldiers of the Ming Army in the previous six days finally has a price!

In the previous six days, the Ming army on the mountain had neither a fire nor a noise, they had been hiding in the tent and did not come out, and the whole mountain looked like no one, so even if the Ming soldiers on the mountain were really gone, the Horqin people under the mountain still knew nothing!

What's more, the Korqin people had just sent troops to test last night, and they would not send people up to death in a short period of time.

Four hours later, the eastern sky has revealed a trace of fish belly white, at this time the heavy snow is falling tightly, the traces left by the Ming army soldiers under the north cliff have only been a shallow point, if the Horqin patrol can come out to patrol at this time, maybe they can still find some clues.

If the Horqin patrols really found the clues, then Wang Pu and them would definitely be finished!

24,000 Horqin cavalry chased and killed more than 2,700 Ming cavalry who had lost their horses on the ice and snow, and you can know what the result will be if you think about it with your toes.

Yes, Li Ling in history once repelled 100,000 Hun cavalry with 5,000 infantry, and the disparity in strength at that time seemed to be even greater, but there were prerequisites, Li Ling's 5,000 troops were real infantry, with sword and shield hands, pikemen, and archers, as well as sufficient baggage, and enough arrows, so that the 5,000 Han army could repel the attacks of the Hun cavalry again and again, so that the invincible Huns sighed in the sky.

But Wang Pu's more than 2,700 people are not real infantry, they are light cavalry dismounted, they don't have any baggage, although they have muskets that are more powerful than bows and arrows, but there is no ammunition left, and there is not much left of the dragon king cannon, and Wang Pu The climatic conditions they face are even worse than unimaginable!

In short, if the Horqin people were allowed to find traces, Wang Pu would never be spared.

Fortunately, the Korqin patrols did not appear until noon, when all traces were completely covered by heavy snow, and Wang Pu and his more than 2,700 men had already disappeared into the vast snowfield, but what was puzzling was that Wang Pu and his men did not flee south, but went northwest.

After another five days, when the Horqin people sent a small group of men and horses to launch a tentative attack on the mountain, they were shocked to find that there was no longer a single figure on the mountain!

And at this time, Wang Pu's men and horses were already more than two hundred miles away!

Of course, the Horqin people were not willing to let the fat fly again, and sent a large number of scouts to try to find some clues from the ice and snow, but this was in vain, because after the Ming army left, it then fell three heavy snows in a row, and the Horqin people could not find any subtle clues, helplessly, they could only divide more than 20,000 cavalry into three teams, respectively, to search and advance in the three directions of Qi'er Sea, Xianzhu Sea and Chahan Sea.

Wang Pu's cunning once again saved the fate of this army.

The Horqin people thought that the Ming army would definitely flee to the south, but they never thought that they would turn around and flee to the northwest, and in the next ten days, the three teams of Horqin cavalry chased to the border of the Ming Dynasty, and they did not dare to go south, so they had to return to the Sanbula River empty-handed, and then dispersed into their own tribes.

At this time, Wang Pu and his army had crossed the Xilamulun River and walked to the foot of Yin Mountain.

The fifteen-day march was a very arduous march, and many of the valiant veterans did not die on the battlefield, did not die under the Mongols' scimitars, but were frozen to death, because they did not dare to raise the fire for fear of being discovered, and the few tents that were only used to shelter the wounded soldiers who needed warmth the most, and many more could only huddle together to keep warm with their body heat.

As a result, when someone wakes up in the morning, someone reaches out to push their companion, only to find that he has already frozen into an ice sculpture!

The cold was not their only enemy, and hunger was coming at them after the cold.

Wang Pu originally asked people to prepare dry food for half a month, but they waited on the mountain for five days, so when they set off, there were only ten days of dry food left, no matter how much they saved to eat, it was only enough to eat for five more days, and now, the dry food was almost exhausted, and then everyone could only pick up snow to satisfy their hunger.

Along the way, Wang Pu and they did not encounter a Mongolian camp, robbing the Mongols by the way to fight the tooth sacrifice naturally became wishful thinking, this is not all because of their bad luck, because of this ice and snow, the Mongolians have long driven the cattle and sheep to hide in the winter camp, and the Mongolian winter camp is mostly located in the mountains on the edge of the grassland, because the valley there can be sheltered from the wind, but also from the invasion of the blizzard.

As he walked, Wang Pu felt hungry again, reached out and took off the dry food bag from his shoulder, took out a hard and cold steamed bun from it, thought about it, only petaled a small piece, stuffed the remaining half of the piece back into the dry food bag, and then grabbed a handful of snow from the ground and stuffed the small half of the bun into his mouth.

Suddenly a handful of ice and snow was stuffed into his mouth, Wang Pu was so cold that he inhaled, but he had to endure it, he had to use his body temperature to turn the snow into water, and then turn the bun into water, so that he could swallow it.

But even if it's such a cold and hard bun, some people can't eat it.

As soon as Wang Pu turned around, he happened to see Lu Liu turning his head, so he asked vaguely, "Six, are you hungry too?" ”

"Not hungry." Lu Liu hurriedly shook his head and said, "The villain just ate the steamed bun." ”

"Really?" Wang Pu asked suspiciously, "You haven't finished your dry food yet?" ”

"Nope." Lu Liu patted his dry food bag and said, "General, look, it's bulging." ”

Wang Pu saw that half of Lu Liu's dry food bag was really bulging, and then reached out and touched his dry food bag, and there was still a small half left, so he believed it, frowned and swallowed the hard and astringent steamed bun into his stomach, and just turned his head to continue walking, the corner of his eye seemed to find that Lu Liu fell straight down.

When Wang Pu hurriedly turned around, he saw that Lu Liu had fallen to the ground, and in just a moment, the young man who looked alive just now was already unconscious, and Zhao Xin, who happened to be walking next to him, squatted down and opened Lu Liu's eyelids and looked at it, shook his head and sighed: "This brother is hungry, and he is dying." ”

"Hungry?" Wang Pu's eyes widened in surprise and exclaimed, "Can't you?" ”

Zhao Xin said gloomily: "General, he is really hungry." ”

Wang Pu's eyes fell on the dry food bag that still had half a drum on Lu Liu's body, and then looked at the other brothers, only to see that the dry food bags had already deflated, and then reached out and touched the small half of the dry food bag left on his shoulder, Wang Pu suddenly understood something, and quickly squatted down and untied the dry food bag from Lu Liu.

Wang Pu opened Lu Liu's dry food bag and saw what dry food was in it? It was all rocks and lumps of mud.

Wang Pu felt that his eyes were hot, and he turned his head suddenly, he knew everything! No wonder these days when Wang Pu is asleep, Lu Liu often gropes for his dry food bag in the dark, Wang Pu thought that this kid didn't fight hunger and wanted to fight the autumn wind from him, but the fact is the opposite, these days, Lu Liu has been secretly stuffing his limited rations into Wang Pu's dry food bag, and he himself picks up snow every day to satisfy his hunger, so he is hungry like this!

"Someone!" Wang Pu bent down to pick up Lu Liu, who had fallen into a deep coma, and yelled bitterly, "Come on." ”

The brothers who were marching hard soon surrounded them in twos and threes, and Tang Sheng and Monk Zhang squeezed in front of Wang Pu and asked loudly, "General, what do you command?" ”

"Dig!" Wang Pu pointed to his feet and roared, "Dig out the hay under the snow, the more the better, and immediately start the fire!" ”

"General." Zhao Xin reminded in a low voice, "The target of the fire in broad daylight is too big, what if the Mongolian cavalry is attracted?" ”

"I can't care so much." Wang Pu shouted loudly, "Anyway, if you go on, you will freeze to death and starve to death, and you will die on the left and right, why don't you warm up before you die?" Quick, dig for General Ben, dig out the hay and raise the fire! ”

Fortunately, the snow near Yinshan Mountain does not seem to fall very much, and the hay is only covered with a thin layer of snow, and it doesn't take long for the brothers to cut down a large amount of hay, piled up into dozens of piles, and then ignited the fire and threw it on the haystack, and the fire burned brightly, and the long-lost warmth finally tolerated these Ming soldiers who were frozen half to death.

Wang Pu and Zhao Xin carried Lu Liu to the fire, and took out a nest head from the dry food bag and roasted it in the fire, and then wet it in the burned snow water, and carefully sent it into Lu Liu's mouth, the careful Zhao Xin also grabbed a few handfuls of snow and put it in his iron helmet, and then used a waist knife to carry the iron helmet on the fire, and only took it out when the water was warm, poured a few mouthfuls into Lu Liu's mouth, a few mouthfuls of warm water and a small piece of nest and belly, Lu Liu slowly opened his eyes and recovered some of his spirits a little.

Lu Liu saw the nest head in Wang Pu's hand, struggled to sit up, and said, "General, this ......"

"Don't move." Wang Pu gently pressed Lu Liu and said, "You kid, you have played General Ben miserably this time." ”

"General." Lu Liu said softly, but very sincerely, "This army can do without Lu Liu, but it can't do without you, the general, if you are hungry, all the brothers will have no hope." ”

Wang Pu's heart was sour, and he almost shed tears again.

Wang Pu's current mood is both happy and sad, happy that he has finally won the recognition of the soldiers, they would rather give up their surnames and lives to protect him desperately, Wang Pu believes that there will never be only one soldier like Lu Liu, isn't this exactly the absolute allegiance to his army that Wang Pu dreams of?

But what makes Wang Pu feel sad is that such a good brother, Wang Pu can't bring them all back to Datong, they are really hungry and cold, and they are at the end of their rope, unless there is a miracle, otherwise half of the remaining more than 2,000 people can return to Datong alive.

If you are unlucky enough to meet a large group of Mongol cavalry, it will be the end of the destruction of the whole army.

■■■

Datong, the royal compound.

Chen Yuanyuan was sitting in the ambiguous pavilion looking at the snow outside through the window in a daze, in a blink of an eye, Wang Pu led the troops to go out for almost a month, Xiao Qi and Mr. Zhen had come back more than half a month ago, but Wang Pu has not heard from him until now, Chen Yuanyuan was very affectionate, and couldn't help but lean against the window and gaze through the autumn water.

The side door of the warm pavilion squeaked open, and the young lady walked in with a bowl of ginseng soup, and when she saw Chen Yuanyuan sitting in front of the window again, she couldn't help but be anxious, and hurriedly grabbed the window and closed it, complaining: "Madam, you are a pregnant person now, you can't care about your body like this, Zhang's mother and they all said, if you catch a cold, you will have to move the fetus." ”

"Is that so serious? It's been less than two months. ”

A faint flush appeared on Chen Yuanyuan's white and tender face, but his hands involuntarily stroked his lower abdomen, his beautiful big eyes slowly became soft, and the corners of his delicate and charming mouth already had a hint of smile, with two points of joy, three points of intoxication, and even more happiness.

The young lady put the bowl of ginseng soup on the pit table, and reached out to help Chen Yuanyuan.

Chen Yuanyuan gently opened the young girl's little hand and said angrily: "Don't, I'll come by myself." ”

"Ma'am." Seeing Chen Yuanyuan taking small sips of ginseng soup, the young lady suddenly said happily, "If the general comes back and knows that you are pregnant, I don't know how happy I will be?" ”

"Ugh." As soon as Wang Pu was mentioned, all the happiness and joy on Chen Yuanyuan's face turned into melancholy, put the ginseng soup on the table, sighed softly, leaned on the pit table with his hand on the cheeks, and said tastelessly, "He, I don't know when I will come back?" ”

(To be continued)