[***], located in the east of Datong eighty miles, there are dozens of families surnamed Xu living in Tunli.

There is a small courtyard under the old locust tree at the east end of Tundong, the small courtyard is old, but the three caves have just been repaired, the yard is also very clean, and there are a few rows of green shallots planted in the corner.

When the day was about to dawn, a fast horse galloped into [***], and went straight to the small courtyard at the east end of Tun before he stopped his horse, turned over from the horse and jumped down a strong man, the strong man tied the horse on the old locust tree, and untied a bag of rice from the saddle, and a few catties of meat went straight to the courtyard gate.

The courtyard door was unframed, and it opened with a slight push, and a smile appeared on the strong man's face.

Entered the courtyard, framed the courtyard door, the strong man hummed a small tune and went straight to the middle of the cave, these three caves are opened from the inside, the middle of the cave is equivalent to the living room, the strong man stretched out his hand and gently pushed, the door opened, and the smile on the strong man's face became more and more ambiguous.

However, the strong man soon realized that something was wrong.

He had just stepped into the cave with his front feet, and suddenly there was a flash of fire inside, and the fire fold lit a mutton fat torch, and under the red firelight, the strong man had a clear view of the situation in the cave, and saw a chair placed in the middle of the cave, and a young man in a brocade robe sat upright on the chair.

Behind the young man in the brocade robe stood two strong men, one strong man with a full beard, the other with a striking scar on his face, but the two of them were only wearing a thin straight jacket in winter, with bare arm muscles knotted, and the neck was so thick that it gave people a feeling that it was difficult to break, and they knew that they were ruthless characters at a glance.

"It's you!?"

The strong man was taken aback, turned around and left.

Before the strong man exited the door, two figures flashed out of the door like ghosts, both of them were holding a crossbow in their hands, and the black arrow cluster was already aimed at the throat of the strong man, and almost at the same time, two figures flashed out of the door leading to the caves on both sides, with crossbows in their hands.

All the ways were blocked, and the six-handled crossbow had been aimed at the strong man's whole body at the same time, and no matter how strong his martial arts were, he would not dare to act rashly.

"Where you come, you are safe." The young man in the brocade robe sitting on the chair smiled and said, "Since the foot has already come, why rush to leave?" ”

The strong man slowly turned around and asked in a deep voice, "Who are you?" ”

The young man in the brocade robe shook his head and said: "This is a bit unreasonable, since everyone is an acquaintance, why pretend to be strangers?" ”

The strong man's expression froze, and he was silent.

The young man in the brocade robe smiled and said: "Leader Zhang, it's only been a few days since Fu Tuyu was farewell, but I didn't expect you and I to meet again, and what I didn't expect was that you and I would meet here." ”

"I really didn't expect it." The strong man said coldly, "It turns out that the world-famous Wang Zongbing Wang is just a rooster and a dog thief!" ”

Now that he has been recognized, the strong man asked for his surname and admitted his identity.

"Shut up!"

"Presumptuous!"

The scarface and bearded man standing behind Wang Pu shouted in unison.

Wang Pu stretched out his hand to stop the two of them, and asked indifferently, "What do you mean by this?" ”

"What do you mean?" The strong man said in a deep voice, "Then I want to ask you, Chief Soldier, what did you do to Feng'er?" ”

Wang Pu smiled silently, just made a gesture of his hand, and the two housekeepers who were blocking the passage on the right side turned sideways to get out of the way, and when the curtain was lifted, a woman in cloth clothes walked out of it with two children, one big and one young, and the two children ran over with cheers when they saw the strong man, and the woman in cloth also called out to the master.

The strong man looked at the cloth-clothed woman and the two young children with concern, and asked, "Feng, they didn't treat you mothers and daughters, did they?" ”

"Nope." The cloth-clothed woman shook her head and said, "Mr. Wang just sent some food and charcoal to our family. ”

"Dad, and sugar."

"And the red head rope, it's beautiful."

The little boy and the little girl who were gathered around the strong man continued.

The strong man's expression finally eased, the hostility in the air seemed to fade a little, and Wang Pu smiled and said, "Leader Zhang, now we can sit down and have a good talk, right?" ”

The strong man touched the little heads of the two children and said, "Mr. Wang, what do you mean?" ”

Wang Pu looked at the beautiful woman in cloth who walked to the strong man's side and the pair of children with pink makeup and jade peck, and asked instead of answering: "Leader Zhang, you really plan to live like this forever, haven't you thought about giving Feng'er a name, so that their mothers and sisters can live a better, safer and more comfortable life?" ”

The strong man was silent, and the beautiful woman in cloth looked at him with a look of resentment.

Wang Pu said: "It is certainly happy to be a horse thief and rob a house, and you don't need to be angry with the government, but after all, this is an unsightly act, and the government can't let you go, the officials and the army are always thinking about exterminating you, can you bear to let Feng'er be afraid of you all the time?" ”

The beautiful woman in cloth looked at the strong man's eyes and became more and more resentful, and Wang Pu's words simply went to her heart.

Wang Pu got up slowly, and his tone suddenly became stern: "Although you are fighting the slogan of killing the rich and helping the poor, but the people who die under your knife are not all rich and unkind, but more are innocent old and young women and children. ”

The strong man Huo Ran's color changed, and his nervousness suddenly tensed.

Wang Pu's tone became more and more severe, and then said: "In normal times, it is absolutely impossible for this general soldier to lead troops to kill all of you thieves, but now it is a troubled time and the imperial court needs to employ people, this general soldier will make an exception to give you a chance to change your mind and be a new person!" ”

The strong man's tense nerves suddenly relaxed, but a few beads of sweat the size of beans appeared on the forehead of the cold sky.

Wang Pu said again: "This general soldier came this time neither in armor nor with soldiers, and only brought a few henchmen and his entourage, just because I don't want too many people to know about this, just to give you a chance to be a new person!" If you are willing to be a new person, you will find me in the camp in the north of the city in three days! If you don't want to, then wait for the general army to lead the troops to destroy you. ”

After that, Wang Pu waved his hand and said loudly: "Let's go!" ”

Scarface and bearded man escorted Wang Pu out, when he passed by the strong man, Scarface suddenly stretched out his right hand, and there were two walnuts in his palm, when the strong man was not clear, Scarface suddenly tightened his five fingers and clenched them into a fist, and then there was a terrifying cracking sound, and when Scarface spread his palm again, the two hard walnuts had become a piece of crumbs.

The strong man Huo Ran's color changed, thinking that this person's martial arts were by no means below him, if other entourages also had the same martial arts as him, it would be easy for Wang Zongbing to arrest him today!

Seeing that Wang Pu was about to walk out of the cave, the strong man suddenly said, "General Wang! ”

Wang Pu paused and asked without looking back, "What does Leader Zhang have to say?" ”

The strong man clenched his fists and said: "The stakes are very high, the villain has to discuss with the other thirteen leaders, but no matter what the final result is, the villain will definitely go to the camp in the north of the city to find you after three days!" ”

Wang Puhuo Ran turned his head and said in a deep voice: "Then see you in the camp in three days!" ”

■■■

Datong, the town guards the eunuch's mansion.

Zhen Youcai greeted Zhang Zi'an, the two sat down separately, Zhen Youcai said: "I came to report to your father-in-law on the order of the general, the mutiny in the camp north of the city has been temporarily controlled, but father-in-law, you also know that this is only temporary, if you can't effectively solve the problem of arrears, they will still mutiny again." ”

"We know that." Zhang Zi'an hurriedly said, "So I have to trouble Mr. Zhen to give a word to our family to the master of the horse, and then I have to trouble him to help our family get through this difficulty." ”

"Since the general has agreed, he will definitely help." Zhen Youcai said, "But there is one thing that you must hurry up and do it father-in-law, otherwise, even if my general has great ability, I am afraid that he will not be able to defeat naturalization, and he will not be able to snatch back the gold and silver treasures that his father-in-law needs." ”

Zhang Zi'an hurriedly said: "Mr. Zhen, please speak." ”

Zhen Youcai said: "I have discussed with the general that the time to send troops to Mongolia is set on New Year's Day, because after New Year's Day is the first month in our Han customs, the first month is a festive month, only suitable for visiting relatives and friends, not for swords, the Mongolians never thought that we would send troops at this time!" ”

Zhang Zi'an smiled and said, "Gao, Mr. Zhen is really tall!" ”

Zhen Youcai said in a low voice: "There is still more than a month before New Year's Day, father-in-law, you must urge the three weapons workshops to hurry up and build the two firearms that my general confessed, and in this more than a month, at least five hundred new muskets and five thousand dragon king cannons must be created!" ”

Zhang Zi'an hurriedly said: "Mr. Zhen, rest assured, our family will urge them to do their best, if the three weapons workshops in Datong are not enough, our family will ask the other four weapons workshops in Shanxi Town to help, no matter what, we will make 500 new muskets and 5,000 dragon king cannons before New Year's Day." ”

Zhen Youcai hugged his fists and said: "Then there is Father-in-law Lao." ”

"Mr. Zhen, what are these words?" Zhang Zi'an hurriedly said, "Now that Master Ma and you are helping our family, our family is not helping you if you are not helping yourself, why thank you?" ”

Zhen Youcai said: "Then I'll leave next." ”

Zhang Zi'an said: "Mr. go slowly." ”

"Father-in-law stays."

Zhen Youcai clenched his fists again, turned around and walked away.

Seeing Zhen Youcai's figure go away, Zhang Zi'an's face turned gloomy, and he turned around and said sharply: "Someone's coming." ”

A little eunuch came in response, bent over to Zhang Zi'an, and said with a smile: "What does the godfather command?" ”

Zhang Zi'an took out a fire paint letter from his sleeve and confessed: "There is a six-hundred-mile urgent letter here, you immediately arrange for people to be sent to the palace, remember to present the ancestor!" ”

"Yes, son, I'll do it."

The little eunuch answered, turned around and left.

"Come back." Zhang Zi'an frowned and said, "We haven't finished talking yet." ”

The little eunuch hurriedly said, "Godfather, you say." ”

Zhang Zi'an said: "When the letter is sent, you can go to the weapons workshop to spread a word, and ask a few stewards to come to our house tonight." ”

"Hey." The little eunuch replied and said, "Then the son went?" ”

Zhang Zi'an waved his hand and said, "Go ahead." ”

■■■

Mountainside, mountain temple.

Because of its disrepair, the mountain temple has long been dilapidated.

The fire in the temple was blazing, thirteen men were warming up around the fire, Monk Zhang, who had just met Wang Pu in the morning, was among them, thirteen people gathered in a group but didn't talk much, it seemed that they were waiting for someone, at this time, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves outside the temple.

Monk Zhang Huo Ran got up and said loudly: "Leader Cheng is here." ”

The other twelve men also stood up one after another, followed Monk Zhang to the temple to welcome, everyone just out of the temple gate, they saw a man leading a black horse along the path is walking towards the mountain, the man is thin and tall, wearing a black suit, wearing a bear skin coat, and a bracer inlaid with copper nails on his wrist, giving people an extremely fierce feeling.

"I'm sorry." The man greeted Monk Zhang and the others, clasped his fists and said, "I've kept you waiting." ”

Monk Zhang said: "Now that the leader is also here, and the people have arrived, let's talk in the temple." ”

Everyone responded, followed Monk Zhang into the mountain temple, and sat down around the fire, Monk Zhang said: "The monk summoned everyone to the mountain temple with the flying feather pass this time, because he wanted to discuss something with everyone. ”

"What's the matter?" Someone asked, "Is there another sale?" ”

Immediately, someone objected: "Didn't we already promise General Wang in Futuyu that we would not rob the people of the Ming Dynasty from now on?" A manly man should be a man of his word, and we can't do anything that goes back on his word! We don't care what to do with other locks, but our fourteen families are only allowed to rob the Mongols in the future. ”

"Yes, we won't rob the people of Daming in the future." Someone chimed in, "Who let us be planted under the hands of General Wang?" ”

(To be continued)