The longitudinal sound of the piano is like flowing water floating above the night, immersing the listeners in the room.

Light clouds like yarn, stars and moon looming, in the hazy light and shadow, Jiang Youli plucked the strings at will, the tune was not in tune, but it had a unique charm.

Shao Ruyan snuggled up to Shao Haitang's side, dispelled the idea of performing later, and watched Jiang Youli's eyes pass over everyone like autumn water, but it still fell on Xu Ruyu's body, and her heart was a little gloomy.

The sound of the piano stopped abruptly, Jiang Youli put the piano into the piano box, Ying Ying stood up, walked into the flickering candle flame, greeted Xu Ruyu's eyes, smiled lightly, sat on the rusty pier next to Xu Ruyu, and said lightly: "It's clumsy." ”

Xu Boying said with a smile: "Our minds haven't eased up yet, Brother Seng Xiang, Madame's piano sound is comparable to the waterfall after the rain in Huaiyu Mountain?" ”

"Oh, that's of course, although the waterfall in the sunny sun after the rain is beautiful, it is also the scenery of the world, and it is never as good as the fairy sound of the lady." The middle-aged Confucian on the opposite side was slow, his narrow face was gloomy, and he obviously had other thoughts.

After the battle to suppress the bandits, the remnants of the Twelve Kou Leagues were blocked in the hilly area between the Dark Village, Beiling Fort and Tiankui Village, and the Qingjiang water bandit forces were also blocked in the Hongjiang waterway, a tributary of the Qingjiang River.

In the spring of the 54th year of the New Dynasty, the Qingyan Army adopted different strategies for the Twelve Kou League and the three water bandits. For the Twelve Kou League, it is required that the first evil will be punished, and the coercion will not be prosecuted; As for the Qingjiang water bandits, they are required to accept a unified adaptation. The reason why the Blue Flame Army claimed to be different from one strict and one lenient was because of the consideration, and the harm caused by the Twelve Kou Alliances was even greater. The world has spread that this is the result of Xu Boying's persistence. The various forces of the Twelve Kou Leagues have accumulated considerable wealth in Qingjiang and even Yuejun for decades of looting and plundering. At the beginning of the attack on the dark village, and the two months of suppression of bandits, the profits obtained made Xu Boying, who was in charge of household taxes and finance, smile. In particular, Xu Ruyu decided to use all the war profits obtained from the suppression of bandits for civil affairs, and Zhang Ji, Gu Mingchen and others immediately supported the complete extermination of the Twelve Kou League together with Xu Boying, and proposed that they must get rid of the twelve people including Hao Ziming, who committed the most heinous crimes, and did not accept their surrender. Because he coveted the more than 100 warships of the Qingjiang bandits, Xu Boying suggested avoiding a decisive battle as much as possible.

The battles promoted by the Qingyan Army in the Lishui River Valley and north of the Lishui River Valley did not coincide with the Qingyan Army's external claims.

The remnants of the Twelve Kou League have not launched an offensive, but only imposed a strict blockade on them, and the total number of garrisons in the Dark Village, Tiankui Village, and Beiling Fort has been maintained at 2,000 people.

Under the leadership of Wei Yu and Ji Ziheng, most of the Qingjiang water battalion frequently dispatched to constantly compress the activity space of the Qingjiang water bandits on the Hongjiang River and seek opportunities for decisive battles. Under the leadership of Liang Bao, Feng Yuanyuan and others, the Xuancheng Buying Battalion blocked the activity space of the Qingjiang water bandits on the land on the west bank of the Qingjiang River.

Xu Ruyu transferred the three battalions of nearly 5,000 foot soldiers and the eight sentry water battalion warships into the west bank of the Qingjiang River, although the spearhead was directly aimed at the water bandit forces in the Hongjiang waterway, but how could the cottage forces in Huaiyushan not worry?

In order to show their sincerity, the six villages of Huaiyu Mountain, led by the Lin family, handed over the four forts under the mountain to the Qingyan Army to take over, and the forces of the six villages completely retreated to the mountain. Xu Ruyu did not explicitly accept the annexation of the six villages of Huaiyushan, and ordered Feng Yuanyuan to lead the newly formed fourth battalion of the camp to the west bank.

Lin Seng Xiang went to Huaiyu Mountain the day before yesterday and rushed to Xuancheng to discuss the attachment of the six cottages in Huaiyu.

Bounded by the natural watershed, the western foot of Huaiyu Mountain has always belonged to the jurisdiction of Qingjiang Prefecture. Huaiyu Mountain is a natural barrier between Jing County and Qingjiang Prefecture, and several Shenguan channels are controlled by six families.

Xu Ruyu did not deal with the remnants of the Twelve Kou Alliances first, but sent a large army into the west bank, although the water bandits intended in the flood channel were not a deterrent to the six villages on Huaiyu Mountain?

Lin Seng Xiang stayed in Xuancheng for three days, and waited until Xu Ruyu returned from the Beilingbao army today. Xu Ruyu ruled the family banquet, drank and listened to the piano, but avoided talking about Huaiyu.

Seeing Lin Seng Xiang accompanied by Xu Boying to the post house full of thoughts, Xu Ruyu smiled slightly, and said to Shao Haitang: "Lin Seng Rui sent Wen Jian a few years ago, saying something to control the channel of Hong Cheng for us, and several other families are afraid that they will also fight this idea." Now he sent Lin Seng Xiang down the mountain, probably to find out our details. ”

Shao Haitang said: "The cottages on Huaiyu Mountain are all small and medium-sized families that were defeated in the battle for hegemony of the Yue County family in Jing County, with abundant financial resources, and the private soldiers of each village are composed of the children of the clan, which is not easy to differentiate, if you want to send troops to attack, it will be several hard battles." Xu Ruyu nodded, if the five hundred well-trained private soldiers who occupied the dangerous cottage were to attack, the price would be quite amazing, but he didn't speak, and listened to Shao Haitang continue, "The situation in Fuzhou is unpredictable, and the strength of the Fuzhou village has only been revealed after months of integration, no wonder they will sit on the wall and watch." The nominal annexation of Liuzhai can only be eased for a while, and the Shenguan channel on Huaiyu Mountain is in the hands of others, and the threat from Jingjun can never be lifted. ”

"Yanwutang has calculated various ways to attack the villages, and attacked these cottages with an absolute superiority of troops, and defeated the six villages one by one, at least more than 3,000 soldiers must be sacrificed. They are also proud of themselves, and they will not have a good attitude until the situation in Fuzhou is fundamentally improved. Xu Ruyu sighed and continued, "Ziyang Qiu casually mentioned to Uncle Sun that his sister Yalan has reached the age of talking about marriage, who do you think is appropriate?" ”

Shao Haitang looked happy and said: "If Baiyi really intends to take a step closer to us, it can form more pressure on Huai Yushan, this person has to think about it." From this point of view, the matter of Huaiyu Mountain will be put aside for the time being, and Lin Seng Xiang will be driven back to the mountains in the future. ”

After a while, Shao Haitang said goodbye and left, and Xu Ruyu and Youli walked towards the inner hall together.

The moon shifts the shadow of the tree, the early spring night is cold, Youli is wearing a cardigan jacket, the long hair of the bright and connoisseur is tied in a bun, a hosta is inserted obliquely, and a wisp of green silk jumps out is attached to the beautiful flower, gently leaning on Xu Ruyu's left shoulder, and his eyes are staring at his thin side face. Xu Ru read the dossier without distraction, and occasionally tapped his fingers on the table, and Youli would poke his head over and follow his fingers to see if something had attracted his special attention.

Xu Ruyu picked up a silk book and said: "Mr. Shao is proficient in criminal law and political system, and such a complicated matter also makes him think thoroughly. But now we have to follow the example of Fenjun, so that the families will not point the finger at us. With that, he lay down, pillowed on Youli's lap, and read the silk book with one hand. Youli hugged his head, reached out to brush his hair, and said softly: "You have made up your mind about the marriage?" ”

"What's wrong?" Xu Ruyu looked up at Youli and asked.

"Marriage will not lower the vigilance of the Baiyi people, if it is only beneficial to the affairs of Huaiyu Mountain, it is better to consider Yalan's feelings more. She came to me yesterday to learn from me, and she looked depressed and hid a lot of things. Today, I found out that it was because Zi Yangqiu hinted at the marriage. I see that she has given up thinking about herself for the sake of the interests of her people. ”

Xu Ruyu sat up and said, "I didn't think about this matter well, but Mr. Shao didn't think about it at all. But ignoring it will cause Mr. Ziyang's groundless conjecture, why don't you deal with this matter? Ming Xi, Wei Yu, Wei Yan, and Liang Bao are all older than me, but they are still single, Liang Bao needless to say, he originally wanted to choose one of the other three and push it to Yalan, but fortunately he didn't have time to mention it to them. ”

"How can you figure out the thoughts of a girl's family? When Yalan said that she was looking for me yesterday, she applied fat powder to her face, although she usually said that she would carry a gun into battle, the girl still had her thoughts. Maybe she had something in mind, but now she couldn't show it. ”

Xu Ruyu closed her eyes and thought for a while, she couldn't think of who the person she liked would be, shook her head, and said with a smile: "I can't think of who it is, or she can't know if she has a lover in the mountains." After a pause, he found a dossier, opened it and pointed to a certain place, and said: "When Mr. Shao talked about granting fields, he said that many brave soldiers in battle have no family members, and if they die in battle, the system of granting land to military households and accumulating military merits cannot give them the slightest compensation, and it is recommended that the officers and soldiers in the army should be able to get married at the right age." He said: "In a few days, I will go to Fuzhou again, and I will have to work hard for you again." ”

In the early morning of 19 February, at the northeast foot of Taishan, Xu Ruyu led more than 150 people to drill out of the dense forest. Wei Yan shook his dew-soaked clothes, frowned, and casually cut off the branch next to his ear.

Tu Wenyong watched Wei Yan use the edge of his palm like a sharp blade to cut off the flexible branches inadvertently, his eyes showed a fascinated light, and said: "General Wei, martial arts are really amazing. ”

Wei Yan was originally annoyed that his clothes were wet with dew, but when he heard Tu Wenyong's praise, the slightest unhappiness immediately disappeared, laughed, put his arm around his shoulder, and said: "You joined the gang at the age of twenty, and you only killed people and practiced martial arts at that time, and you have a fart to use, so you can join the army." But your dog cub is good, then I saw him chasing two teenage children on the street and fighting, with a nosebleed, one day I was in a good mood, and I took him under the door, so that you can slaughter the family and glorify your ancestors. ”

Tu Wenyong laughed, there was no interface, and thought: The dog cub is very troublesome now, and when he enters your door, I don't know if I, the father, can cure him, so forget it, although he is a rare master in the Qingyan Army. glanced back at Xu Ruyu, who fell at the end, and sighed secretly. In the battle of the secret war, Tu Wenyong, who was originally a prisoner of war, had several lives and deaths, and had no intention of going to the army, but he was originally the head of the secret village, how could he live in the countryside with his wife and children in peace? Even if the local officials in Lishui and Xuancheng did not dare to make things difficult for themselves under Xu Ruyu's strict orders, how could they get an life outside of Xu Ruyu's vision? After thinking about it again, Tu Wenyong still decided to stay in the army and join the army as a left lieutenant. This time, Xu Ruyu led 100 elites of the Qingjiang cavalry battalion and 50 middle and high-level soldiers of the Yanwutang to infiltrate the territory of Fuzhou, and Tu Wenyong accompanied him.

On the horizon on the other side of Yunxi, a group of people were revealed. Looking at Xu Ruyu's calm appearance, Tu Wenyong thought to himself: It should be a person from Fuzhou Minzhai.

After more than half a year of operation, the northwest of Fuzhou is completely the power of Fuzhou people's villages, Xu Ruyu entered this area, and the scouts were not sent, waiting for people from Fuzhou to respond.

When they got closer, Tu Wenyong recognized the back of a middle-aged man who was wearing leather armor behind Ban Zhaolin. Five months ago, Ban Zhaolin and 400 outstanding soldiers of Fuzhou Minzhai entered the Lishui River Valley with Xu Ruyu, practiced in Yanwutang, and also participated in the large and small battles against bandits in the Lishui River Valley, until a month ago, he and 270 of the remaining 320 soldiers returned to Fuzhou, and became the backbone of the Fuzhou infantry battalion in the formation with the 200 outstanding soldiers who entered Fuzhou in advance.

Tu Wenyong met him a few times, and when he got closer, he saw his frowning brows stretched, knowing that the situation in Fuzhou was not optimistic, otherwise Xu Ruyu would not have led the team to Fuzhou as soon as the situation in the Lishui River Valley stabilized.

Xu Ruyu saw that Ban Biao was thinner than five months ago, his eyes were sour, he held his hands and prevented him from kneeling, and said: "In the past few months, you have worked hard, you can't help but resist the 20,000 Liukou in Fuzhou and Chongyi, and also contain the offensive of 10,000 Puji bandits in Fuzhou against Yueqing. Fuzhou maintained the situation today, making it possible for the Qingyan Army to calmly clean up the Twelve Kou League and the Qingjiang Water Bandits. ”

Ban Biao said with a smile: "The news that the lord was besieged and secretly said that the village was passed by the Liukou of Chongyi, Zhang Yi and I can't wait to personally lead the first battalion of the newly formed Fuzhou infantry battalion to the rescue, Zhang Xu and Gu Mingshan both said: The lord's strategy seems to be a dangerous plan, but in fact it is very stable, we can't see through the mystery, wait a few days to know." Ten days later, the news of the breaking of the Twelve Kou Alliances really came. In the past few months, we have followed the order of the lord and scattered the secret training of troops in various villages, and used the rogues of Chongyi to sharpen the combat strength of the soldiers, but the problem of lack of generals was not alleviated until the return of the neighbors. Now that the lord has imported so many people into our Fuzhou infantry battalion, the combat strength of the Fuzhou infantry battalion will definitely increase a lot. ”

Wei Yan said loudly: "Not as many as you think, there are only fifty Yanwutang students, or your generals from Fuzhou, and the remaining one hundred are my subordinates." ”

Xu Ruyu smiled and introduced Wei Yan to the people in Fuzhou: "This is the commander of the Qingjiang Cavalry Battalion, and this is Tu Wenyong, who joined the army. The Fuzhou infantry battalion lacks intermediate generals, and the Xuancheng infantry battalion also faces this problem, and only the Suwei battalion is better. ”

Historically, qualified sentry officers with rich combat experience have been the backbone of the army, and the victory or defeat of a battle depends to a great extent on their quality. For the first time, Ban Biao saw that the strength of the hundred people behind Wei Yan was amazing, and he thought that Xu Ruyu had brought over the middle and low-level generals from the Lishui River Valley, and it turned out to be a good hand in the Qingjiang Cavalry Battalion.

Ban Zhaolin said with a smile: "The Qingjiang cavalry battalion under the commander of the lieutenant is the strongest part of our army. ”

Although Tu Wenyong joined the army as a left lieutenant, he was able to stay near Xu Ruyu, and his influence was greater than that of an ordinary left lieutenant, just like when Feng Yuanyuan first surrendered, he also joined the army as a left lieutenant, and after the battle, the fourth battalion of the Suwei battalion was expanded on the basis of the original black warrior battalion, and Feng Yuanyuan served as the battalion captain.

Ban Zhaolin knew that Tu Wenyongkou was born, and he was disgusted and unwilling to deal with him.

Xu Ruyu said: "Wei Yan led the Qingjiang cavalry battalion to infiltrate the southeast of Fuzhou to investigate the situation of the Puji bandits, ten days ago, go to Yantan Mountain to standby, Wen Yong and I rushed to Yantan Mountain today, and the fifty people behind him will be handed over to Zibiao and Zhaolin, and one month later, the second and third battalions of the newly formed Fuzhou infantry battalion need to assemble in the area of the old man's peak. This is the appointment letter of the second and third battalion of the Fuzhou infantry battalion as a lieutenant, a left lieutenant, and a sentry lieutenant. Xu Ruyu took a stack of silk books from Tu Wenyong's hand and handed them to Ban Zhaolin.

Yantan Mountain is in the right hostile situation, and Ban Biao was not surprised when he heard that Xu Ruyu was going to rush today. The Tianshi Village, to which the Fan family forces belonged twenty miles southeast of Yantan Mountain, was broken by the Puji bandits a few years ago, and the connection between Yueqing City and Jinhua City could only be maintained through Yantan Village, which suddenly pushed Yantan Mountain to the front line.

Zhang Xu led 2,000 soldiers of the first battalion of the Suwei Battalion to garrison the front line of Yantan Mountain, and in the past two months, they have been under considerable pressure.

On the battlefield of the three cities of Jinhua, Yueqing, and Fuzhou, the Puji bandits invested 80,000 troops, 40,000 outside Jinhua City, 30,000 in the east of Yueqing City, and 10,000 in Fuzhou. Since the passage between Fuzhou and Yueqing was opened, the material use of the Puji bandits in Fuzhou has been fully replenished, and there is also spare strength to reorganize these rogue forces. Quite a half year ago the integration failed, and Gongliang Xiaotian took a more cautious attitude.

The Fan family invested 40,000 troops, 25,000 in Jinhua, and 15,000 trapped in the lonely city of Yueqing. The Fan family had already prepared sufficient supplies in Yueqing City for siege warfare. Yuhang Mansion in the north of Jinhua is where the Fan family's base camp is located, and there are nearly 30,000 troops. However, these 30,000 troops could not be counted on to prevent the invasion of the powerful Puji Water Battalion on all parts of Yuhang. The Zhu family, which owns the two prefectures of Liyang and Wuzhou, has a total strength of only 40,000 and can only provide material support.

The Qingyan Army had only 2,000 garrisons in Yantan Mountain. The reason why the Fan family formed an alliance with Xu Ruyu was mainly to use Xu Ruyu's reputation for defeating Gongliang Youqin and boost the morale of the soldiers defending the land, but it did not refer to how much help Xu Ruyu provided in terms of combat strength.

The Puji bandits did not send a special army to clear the defenders stationed in Yantan Mountain, so I am afraid that they also have this consideration. If an army of 10,000 people was sent to conquer the 2,000 garrison composed of the people's village forces, it would undoubtedly be in the eyes of the world that the Puji bandits were deeply afraid of Xu Ruyu's suspicions.

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