It's night.

Datong, the general army marches.

Lu Liu hurriedly walked in and said to Wang Pu: "General, the sentry on the watchtower reported that the horses that Jiannu went out to graze in the morning have not returned yet. ”

"Huh?" Wang Pu asked, "It's so dark, and you haven't come back yet?" The horses of the four camps have not returned? ”

"That's right." Lu Liudao, "This morning, the four camps of Jiannu went out to herd horses, and the horses in the east and north of the city did not come back, but the horses in the west and south of the city returned to the camp. ”

"The horses in the east of the city and the north camp of the city have not returned?" Wang Pu groaned, "So something really happened to Jiannu's horses. ”

"General, letter!"

When Wang Pu was pondering this, Monk Zhang suddenly broke in, holding an arrow in his hand, and a letter was stuck in the arrow.

"Letter?" Wang Pu asked, "Monk, who shot this letter in?" ”

Monk Zhang said: "It was too dark to see clearly. ”

Wang Pu stretched out his hand: "Take it to me and take a look." ”

Monk Zhang hurriedly took down the letter and handed it to Wang Pu, Wang Pu unfolded the letterhead and looked at the signature first, it was "Li Yan", and then looked at the content:

Mr. Wang:

The previous two times Mengzu and the Datong officers and soldiers helped, Yan and all the soldiers of the righteous army were deeply grateful, but every time they thought about repaying it, they suffered from having no long things, and there was no shortage of things in Datong City, so they had to give up; Today, the rock has made a slight gain, and a new batch of Jiannu war horses is willing to give away two thousand good horses, and talk about the heart.

However, there is a shortage of saddles on the mountain, and I hope that my brother will buy 8,000 sets of saddles, which is grateful...... Li Yan bowed.

Seeing that Wang Pu looked strange after reading the letter and didn't speak for a long time, Monk Zhang couldn't help but ask cautiously: "General, whose letter is this?" ”

Wang Pu smiled bitterly: "Li Yan's." ”

"Li Yan's?" Monk Zhang was stunned and said, "What...... What's the matter? ”

Wang Pu said: "He said that he would give us 2,000 good horses, and asked us to order 8,000 sets of saddles for him." ”

"You want to give us 2,000 good horses? That's a good thing. Monk Zhang scratched his bald head and asked puzzledly, "But why is the general still a little unhappy?" ”

"Can I be happy?" Wang Pu threw the letter in his hand on the table and said with a wry smile, "General Ben has calculated that the horses of Jiannu are not a day or two, they are a batch of excellent war horses, which are much stronger than the bantam horses that we stole from the Tumuts last time and can only be used as pack horses!" ”

Indeed, in order to calculate Jiannu's war horses, Wang Pu did carefully prepare a trap, and he was about to put it into practice, but he didn't expect Li Yan's gang to take the lead, and he took away nearly half of the war horses at once, can Wang Pu be happy? Can this breath be smooth?

"It's good now, General Ben hasn't done it yet, Li Yan got 10,000 horses in one go, and said that he would give General Ben 2,000 horses to sell well, and return me a favor, hey, this deal is a big loss."

"Hey, I said how the thieves suddenly had so many good horses." Monk Zhang said, "Dare to get it from Jiannu?" ”

Lu Liu said suddenly: "No wonder the war horses of the two camps of Jiannu did not return to the camp, and they dared to let the thieves rob them?" What method did this Li Yan use to snatch the horses from Jiannu? ”

Wang Pu shook his head and said, "I don't know." ”

Monk Zhang said: "General, do we want these two thousand good horses?" ”

"Yes, of course." Wang Pu said, "Why not? ”

Lu Liudao: "Do the eight thousand sets of saddles help the thieves order?" ”

"Gotta help." Wang Pu said helplessly, "Li Yan's abacus is fine, if we don't help him order these 8,000 sets of saddles, he won't give us 2,000 good horses, and besides, the thieves buy saddles to deal with Jiannu, now Jiannu is our common enemy, and helping the thieves is helping themselves." ”

"Yes." Lu Liu and Monk Zhang responded in unison, "You have to help." ”

Wang Pu said again: "Liu'er, you go to Lord Wei immediately, and ask him to immediately gather all the craftsmen and leather craftsmen in Datong City to make saddles, if there are ready-made ones, buy them at a high price, don't be afraid that the price is too expensive, anyway, the wool is out of the sheep, and the silver will have to be paid by the thieves with horses in the end." ”

"Yes." Lu Liu replied respectfully, "The villain will go to Lord Wei now." ”

Lu Liu turned around and went.

When Monk Zhang also wanted to leave, Wang Pu suddenly shouted, "Monk, wait a minute." ”

Monk Zhang turned back to Wang Pu and asked, "General, what else do you command?" ”

Wang Pu touched his chin and said thoughtfully: "I heard that there is a general under Li Yan, named Jing Maocheng, this person used to be the king of mountains in Shaanxi, and I heard that he is a man!" When the saddle is ready, you take someone to escort the saddle to Lei Gongshan to change the thief's war horse, and then take the opportunity to approach that Jing Maocheng, this guy has been a bandit, and you kid has also been a horse thief, it can be said that half a catty is against eight taels, and there must be a lot to say when you get together. ”

Monk Zhang scratched his bald head and asked, "General, did you let the lowly rebel against that Jing Maocheng?" ”

"No, it's not for you to rebel against Jing Maocheng, it's just for you to make friends with him." The corners of Wang Pu's mouth suddenly showed a faint smile, and then said, "If he talks to you about being a bandit, you can tell him about being a ringing horse, and if he wants to say something else, you don't say this, just say that it is happy, if he persuades you to be a thief, don't agree or refuse, understand?" ”

"Understood." Monk Zhang said without thinking, "Anyway, in addition to talking about the ringing horse, other things can not be said about the lowly position, if the guy asks tightly, the lowly position will say that he will not say these unpleasant things today, and then he also said that when the ringing horse, in addition to the matter of the ringing horse, the lowly position will not mention a word." ”

"That's right." Wang Pu said with a smile, "This matter...... Only you monk can do it, do it like that! ”

"Then ......," Monk Zhang scratched his head and said, "If you have nothing else to do, you will leave." ”

"Let's go." Wang Pu waved his hand, and suddenly said again, "Oh, by the way, I almost forgot about it, Yuanyuan said to let your daughter-in-law Xiaofeng take the two children and go to live in the Wang family's compound for a while." ”

"Whoa." Monk Zhang responded, "I'll tell Feng'er when I turn around." ”

■■■

Lei Gongshan, Li Yan Xingyuan.

Li Hu asked with a dark face: "Big brother, do you really want to give two thousand good horses to Wang Pu for nothing?" ”

"That's right." Li Yan said, "The grace of the ancients should be reciprocated by a spring, but Wang Pu saved the fate of our rebel army twice, shouldn't he send him two thousand war horses?" ”

Li Hu said: "That's right, Wang Pu saved our rebels on the battlefield and gave us some food and bacon, but we will also save him on the battlefield in the future, and then return the grain and bacon to him?" Why do you have to give him a war horse? Big brother, this is a good war horse, not a mule horse! ”

"Big brother knows." Li Yan said indifferently, "But these two thousand war horses must be sent." ”

Li Hu squatted on the ground with his head in his hands and muttered, "I can't figure it out." ”

"Huzi." The red lady standing behind Li Yan couldn't help but say, "If we don't send two thousand war horses to Wang Pu, he won't help us order a saddle, if there is no saddle, what is the use of these ten thousand war horses?" You can't let the soldiers ride naked horses to fight Jiannu, right? ”

"Why do you want to fight Jiannu?" Li Hu shouted, "We will take the grain, bacon and 10,000 war horses from the mountain back to Shaanxi, with this batch of grain, we will not starve to death, with this batch of war horses, we can train an elite cavalry, or in less than two years, we will be able to conquer the entire Shaanxi, and finally defeat Xi'an City, big brother, you can sit on the ground and be the king, and the king of Chuang will be on an equal footing, and fight against each other!" ”

"Shut up!" Li Yan said angrily, "If you dare to talk nonsense again, don't blame me for not thinking about brotherhood." ”

"Big brother." Li Hu looked at Li Yan with some surprise, and said in a startled voice, "I'm all thinking about you." ”

"You're hurting me!" Li Yan took the case and said angrily, "Let me tell you, no matter what the Shaanxi Righteous Army has become, and what kind of strength it has become? We will always have only one king, and that is King Chuang! I, Li Yan, look up to the sky, bow down to the ground, and will never do anything to be sorry for the king! ”

The red lady persuaded softly: "Xianggong, in fact, what Huzi said is not unreasonable. ”

"Even you're confused?" Li Yan frowned and said, "If it weren't for King Chuang, you and I would have been killed by the government a long time ago, not to mention that King Chuang still has the grace of knowing me, I, Li Yan, am just a scholar who has no power to tie the chicken, but I was entrusted with a heavy task by King Chuang, leading an army in Shaanxi alone, King Chuang trusts me so much, how can I take revenge?" ”

"It's not." The red lady hurriedly said, "That's not what the slave family meant, the slave family is saying, we can not be entangled with Jiannu, just return to Mizhi with food and war horses, as for the Jiannu outside Datong City, leave it to Wang Pu and the dog official army to deal with it, they will kill both sides." ”

"Confused." Li Yan shook his head and said, "Let me ask you, what is the most lacking Jiannu now?" ”

The red lady said: "Grain." ”

Li Hu said: "Forage! ”

"That's it." Li Yan said, "Lei Gong Mountain is only a few dozen miles away from Datong, if we want to leave Datong and return to Mizhi with a large amount of grain, do you think it is possible?" Wouldn't Jiannu send troops to intercept it? What's more, now that we have robbed them of 10,000 war horses, they will not let us go. ”

Li Hu said: "But Jiannu is restrained by the officials and soldiers in Datong City, they don't dare to act rashly, last time we transported nitrate to the city, didn't Jiannu dare to send troops to intercept it?" ”

Li Yan shook his head, with a look of hatred on his face, and said angrily: "Huzi, when will you grow a little?" You won't think about it with your brain, if we take the grain and war horses to the rice fat this time, can it be the same as last time? ”

Li Hu said: "What's the difference? ”

"Ugh." Li Yan sighed and patiently explained, "The reason why we were able to send the nitrate into Datong City smoothly last time was because of the containment of the officials and troops in the city, but the main reason was that we didn't carry grain and grass baggage, and the purpose of building slaves was just to trap Datong, so they didn't want to do much." ”

"But what about this time? This time, not only did we bring a large amount of food that Jiannu urgently needed, but also the 10,000 war horses that we had stolen from them, could they ignore them? ”

"Also, don't expect the officials and soldiers in the city to help us contain Jiannu, the officials and soldiers are not fools, Wang Pu is not a good stubble, if we are willing to stay in Datong and fight against Jiannu with the officials and soldiers, he will be polite, he will give us what we want, but if we don't want to stay in Datong and want to take the grain he gave us back to the rice fat, he will immediately turn his face, and then he will only watch us and Jiannu fight to lose, and will never help again like last time."

Li Hu had nothing to say.

Li Yan said this thing, if he still can't figure it out, it will be really a pig's brain.

Li Yan took a long breath, and then said: "The most important thing at the moment is to cooperate with Wang Pu and kill the Jiannu outside Datong City first!" ”

Li Hu was puzzled: "Big brother, even if it's not the time to withdraw Mizhi, we can completely watch from the wall, wouldn't it be better for the officials and soldiers and Jiannu to lose both?" ”

"Nope." Li Yan shook his head and said, "This war can't drag on any longer, and the people of Datong will end if it drags on any longer!" Huzi, you have to remember that the purpose of our rebellion is to let the people of the whole world have food to eat and live a good life, not to let the people of the world suffer with it. ”

"Big brother." Li Hu breathed a sigh of relief and said in a low voice, "Little brother understands." ”

"It's good to understand." Li Yan nodded and said, "From now on, you should be open-minded and have a long-term vision, that's right, Wang Pu is an official army, and we are a righteous army, there will be a fierce battle between us and Wang Pu sooner or later, and it will be an endless vicious war, but not now, now we still have to cooperate with Wang Pu." ”

Li Hu replied respectfully: "Yes." ”

"Alright." Li Yan waved his hand and said, "Then you go down first." ”

■■■

Datong, the general army marches.

Zhao Liujin stepped on the wheel, hugged his fist at Wang Pu and said, "See the general." ”

"Hmm." Wang Pu looked at Zhao Liujin steadily, and suddenly said, "Zhao Liujin, if General Ben is not mistaken, it seems that you have been a guerrilla general for three years, right?" ”

Zhao Liujin replied respectfully: "General Hui, it has been three years and six months. ”

"Oh." Wang Pu nodded and said, "It's time to move the land." ”

Zhao Liujin's heart jumped, and he suddenly pricked up his ears, and asked in a condensed voice: "......What does the general mean?"

Wang Pudao: "You see, since Zhao Santai committed suicide in fear of crime, there has been no deputy general soldier in Datong Town, although this general now has the rank of general in Datong Town, but one day he will return to Beijing." ”

"That's it." Zhao Liujin hurriedly smiled and said, "General, you are a concubine, and you have to go back to Beijing to marry Her Royal Highness the Princess." ”

"Who's to say it's not." Wang Pu said, "But you also know that Datong Town is an important border town, and the safety of Datong is directly related to the safety of the Beijing Division. ”

Zhao Liujin was exquisite, and faintly heard the meaning of Wang Pu's words, which seemed to mean that he, Wang Pu, had the authority to decide who to let be the deputy chief soldier of Datong? And this deputy chief soldier is quite likely to succeed Wang Pu as the chief soldier of Datong Town!

This score is a bit big, but Zhao Liujin thought that Wang Pu was the captain of the horse, and he was also a close associate of the first assistant of the cabinet and the secretary of the military department, and he felt that it was a little reliable.

"This ...... I hope that the general will give you more support. ”

Zhao Liujin quickly made a decision, no matter what, he hugged Wang Pu's thigh first.

"Ahem." Wang Pu coughed lightly and said, "General Ben has already checked the booklet, among the two generals, three guerrillas and six garrisons in Datong Town, your qualifications are not high, and your military achievements are not much, but you are the best at doing things!" This is what this general values is yours. ”

Zhao Liujin hurriedly said: "For the sake of the general, I am willing to go to the soup and fire." ”

Wang Pu said indifferently: "There is indeed such a difficult thing right now, but it is not a rush to the soup. ”

Zhao Liujin said: "Humble but sent by the general." ”

Wang Pu said: "The last time I used troops against Mongolia, I snatched back tens of thousands of horses from the Tumuts, sold some, and ate some, and now there are more than 20,000 left, so many horses, and the forage consumed by each is quite amazing, and the forage in the city is almost exhausted. ”

Zhao Liujin said: "General, can't you take the firearms battalion to escort the forage?" ”

"Nope." Wang Pu said categorically, "Datong cannot afford to lose, the firearms battalion must stay to defend the city, but this general will give you a token, and the more than 10,000 troops gathered in the left guard of Datong will all obey your command, except for leaving the necessary men and horses to defend the city, you can take all the troops to escort the forage." ”

Zhao Liujin calculated, the border army assembled in the left guard of Datong added up to at least 14,000 people, and when the time came, at most 2,000 people were left to defend the city, and he could return to Datong with the remaining 12,000 people to escort the forage, although the Datong border army was poorly equipped and lacked training, but after all, this was more than 10,000 troops!

Zhao Liujin didn't believe that Jiannu really dared to intercept it, and immediately responded: "Humble and orderly." ”

"Okay." Wang Pu took off the token of the Datong general soldier from his waist, shook his hand and threw it to Zhao Liujin, and said, "You will go out of the city, rush to Datong Zuowei overnight, and escort the forage back to Datong within two days. ”

"Thank you, General." Zhao Liushou stretched out his hand to take the token, clenched his fists and said, "Let's set off." ”

With that, Zhao Liujin turned around and strode away.

Looking at the figure of Zhao Liujin walking away, Wang Pu's eyebrows gradually floated a faint trace of green energy.

Wang Pu has already decided to sacrifice more than 10,000 Datong border troops, but fortunately, these 10,000 more than 10,000 troops are just a rabble, and they are not Wang Pu's descendants, and the military discipline of these sides is extremely poor, it is more appropriate to say that it is not so much an official army as a bandit army, and there is at least no psychological obstacle to sacrificing such an army.

However, as long as there is still room for things to turn around, Wang Pu will not sacrifice this army.

But now, Wang Pu has no choice, this is all caused by Li Yan's house, the Jiannu outside the city have already been fooled once, and they have suffered a loss, and it will be difficult for them to be fooled and suffer again, if they don't play enough and put enough money into it, they will never be fooled again.

■■■

Bauhinia Pass, the wall has been planted with the banner of Jiannu.

Just before nightfall, the Jiannu army led by Dolgon had successfully captured the Bauhinia Pass, but in fact, it could not be regarded as an capture, because before the arrival of the Jiannu army, the Bauhinia Pass garrison had already fled with the army, and the Jiannu could be said to have entered the Bauhinia Pass without bloodshed.

Dolgon.

Dolgon is with Fan Wencheng, and I'd rather finish my discussion.

Fan Wencheng said: "Master, judging from the Tang newspaper found in the Bauhinia Pass, although Chongzhen Xiao'er issued the edict of King Qin more than half a month ago, there are not many Ming troops who came to King Qin in Yanjing by order, especially Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou, these three don't seem to have come. ”

"Really?" Dolgon laughed and said, "The hearts of the people of the Ming Dynasty are scattered, and the qi is exhausted. ”

(To be continued)