On the night of Wang Er's wedding, Xu Renjie rushed back to Baishui overnight, because of the night walking mountain road, the rice merchant also fell in the mountain, and almost broke his leg, but fortunately he walked out of the mountain safely in the end.

As soon as he returned to Baishui, Xu Renjie immediately changed his clothes, buried the burlap clothes he wore when he was a "generalissimo" in the mountains, put on a silk hanging embroidered with copper coins, covered a small round silk hat, tied a piece of warm jade around his waist, and pedaled a pair of thick-soled cloth shoes on his feet.

He was followed by a delicate wife and a few beautiful concubines, these women thought that their master was going out to run a business a few days ago, how did they know what Xu Renjie was doing in the mountains? It's rare that my eldest lord has returned home, of course, I want to use some [***] means on Xu Renjie, so that I can let the lord come to my room to give favors that night.

Xu Renjie's appearance can change back to the appearance of a businessman, but his heart is already wild, and he wants to be an honest rice merchant again, thinking about copper coins every day, and rolling the quilt with his wife and concubine at night, it might as well take his life. His current ambition is to command thousands of troops and horses, break through the mountains of swords, and flow in the oil pot......

So this guy couldn't sit still when he came back, so he rushed to Baishui City the next day to go to Cao Baoxiang, the county lord, to drink tea and chat. However, Xu Renjie's trip was in vain, although there was news from Xi'an Mansion that the officers and soldiers were assembled in Baishui, but in fact, the marching speed of the officers and soldiers was several days slower than that of the messenger, so the county town was empty, and it was the same as before.

That confused county Venerable Cao Baoxiang didn't know anything about it, and he didn't even know Xu Renjie's news.

Xu Renjie was looking forward to the army of the imperial court coming as soon as possible, so that he could have something to do, but he was afraid that the army of the imperial court would come too quickly and would not be able to last for three months, which was really contradictory.

But he didn't wait long, four days later, a few scouts on fast horses appeared and circled around the city twice, and then ran back, and after half an hour, a team of officers and soldiers in bright armor, lined up in a long snake formation, appeared on the official road in the southeast.

The continuous spring rain of the past few days has stopped, and it has not rained for several days, and the ground has returned to dryness, so the appearance of this officer and soldier unit is accompanied by high dust. Xu Renjie frowned, carefully observed for a while, and came to a judgment that the number of officers and soldiers should be more than 5,000.

"More than 5,000 people...... Tsk, it will be very difficult to deal with, even if our village relies on the terrain defense and finally wins this battle, it will be a miserable victory. After Xu Renjie stayed in the cottage for a long time, he slowly understood the true strength of the cottage.

Now there are less than 2,000 elite veterans in Huanglong Cottage, and there are about 1,500 recruits in training, and the overall strength is just over 3,000.

The officers and soldiers are still far apart, Xu Renjie aimed at a big flag, which is embroidered with gold silk with a big "Du" character, this is the flag of Du Wenhuan, the general soldier of Yansui, he is not a simple character, since he participated in the suppression of bandits, he has made great contributions many times, first surrendered Wang Zuohang, and then killed Wang Zuohang. Next, he joined forces with Hong Chengchou to defeat Wang Jiayin's 36th battalion, and drove Wang Jiayin and others out of Shaanxi * West and drove them to Shanxi. Not long ago, he made a great contribution to the matter of recruiting Shen Yikui, and this time the imperial court sent him to deal with Huanglong Cottage, which is obviously also determined to win.

Of course, Hong Chengchou's command ability is higher than Du Wenhuan's, and it stands to reason that it would be more prudent to send Hong Chengchou, but because Hong Chengchou has made great contributions repeatedly, he has now been summoned to the capital by the emperor, and it is estimated that it is a sure thing to go to the capital to get promoted and make a fortune this time.

Seeing Du Wenhuan's army getting closer and closer, Xu Renjie's eyes widened and he carefully observed everything about this army.

This officer and soldier are obviously elite soldiers, and the mandarin duck jackets they wear are not too old, which does not mean that they are new soldiers, but that their logistics are very secure. In terms of weapons, every soldier had a spear, the iron tip of which was sharpened, and many soldiers not only had spears, but also knives at their waists, a bow on their backs, and a bag of twenty arrows. This level of armor equipment made Xu Renjie feel a little numb in his scalp.

Of course, the most terrifying thing is not these, but in this officer and soldier unit, there are hundreds of soldiers who use firearms. There are not many soldiers of this kind, only less than 200 people, and some of them are holding three-eyed god guns, which is a kind of fire gun that the Ming army border army likes to use, because it is made of three iron pipes kneaded together, so after putting the gun, this thing can also be used as an iron rod.

The other part holds the bird gun, this is a relatively ordinary firearm, because of the slow rate of fire, poor accuracy, and not as heavy and thick as the three-eyed eye, after firing the bullet can not be used as an iron rod, so this firearm is not popular with soldiers, but it is a firearm after all, not to mention the power, just say that holding this firearm is a symbol of identity and strength.

"Where are the people coming here? Actually equipped with firearms? Xu Renjie was slightly surprised.

However, it didn't take long for Xu Renjie to understand that this firearms unit came from afar from the capital, and in their layers of sanitation, two carts transporting silver drove slowly, and a flag was planted on the car, with the word "Wu" written on it, this must be the imperial history Wu Fu.

Wu Fu took Emperor Chongzhen's 100,000 taels of internal money from the capital all the way away, how could he do it without the protection of the army? Chongzhen dares to rest assured that there is no one to escort 100,000 taels of silver? These two hundred firearms troops must be an elite division like the Son of Heaven's army, and it is very likely that they are from the Shenji Battalion.

This time, it was really something very powerful, Xu Renjie was a little worried.

When the army arrived at the city, the county commander Cao Baoxiang had already greeted him with a fart, and he was just a seven-grade county order, and when he saw the imperial history, he was really scared and sweated. You must know that the official of the imperial history is not of great grade, and it is the same as Cao Baoxiang's seventh grade, but the responsibility of the imperial history is to supervise hundreds of officials, which belongs to the type of low quality.

Supervise the hundred officials, this Cao Baoxiang happens to belong to the list of "hundred officials", and he is the object of supervision by the imperial history, plus Wu Yushi came to replace the emperor in charge of silver this time, which is equivalent to Qincha, do you say that Cao Baoxiang dares not to break out in a cold sweat?

This kind of scene of local officials greeting Qincha, the practice is to bring a group of local squires, which is an old practice in officialdom, so Xu Renjie naturally followed behind Cao Baoxiang and went out of the city.

The two sides first greeted each other and made a lot of boring red tape, but fortunately, Xu Renjie was very handy in doing this, and he dealt with them one by one, and after the politeness was over, he began to talk about business.

Wu Yushi spoke, this person is in his thirties, not a lot old, and he already has hair on his mouth, so he is reliable. He pointed to the silver chariot and the army behind him, and said seriously: "Lord Cao, this imperial history came to Baishui this time specifically to appease Baishui Zhu Ba. ”

"Oooh!" When Cao Baoxiang heard this, he was immediately overjoyed, although Zhu Ba rarely caused trouble for him, but there was a group of bandits in his jurisdiction, which was not a pleasant thing, and now that Shangguan came to solve Zhu Ba's gang, he was naturally overjoyed.

"Let's talk about it, how is this Baishui Zhu Ba's surname? Is there a possible surname for appeasement? ”

Cao Baoxiang's spirits perked up, and he opened his mouth to talk nonsense: "Baishui Zhu Ba, hey, a mere thief, bullying the soft and afraid of the hard, full of straw bales, with the righteous demeanor of Lord Yushi, as long as he stands in front of that Zhu Ba, he will be taught to be ashamed of himself, and he will be cared ......for immediately."

Before he finished speaking, a general suddenly jumped down from the ground next to him, it was Du Wenhuan, the chief soldier of Yansui, who waved his big fist and punched Cao Baoxiang in the face, causing Cao Baoxiang's body to fly out sideways, and he spun two times in mid-air before falling to the ground with a pop. The bright red nosebleed was sprinkled all the way, and it was very beautiful.

"Silly Bird County Order." Du Wenhuan scolded: "Full of nonsense, I only know how to pat on the back, it's all fucking nonsense......"

He didn't look at Cao Baoxiang, who was rolling on the ground in pain, and turned his head to Wu Fu and said: "Lord Yushi, this Zhu Ba is not a simple ......" Speaking of this, he remembered the last time he was in Luochuan, he was played by Zhu Ba with a fake scout net, and he hated so much that his two fists clenched and crackled.

"In the opinion of the last general, it is necessary to use troops against him first, hurt him, beat him, and let him know that the power of the imperial court is not something that a group of bandits can resist, and then make people say surrender, so that it can be effective, if you directly send people into the mountain to say surrender, it will not have any effect."

When Xu Renjie heard this, his brows furrowed slightly.

I saw that Wu Yushi also frowned, as if he was thinking about whether what Du Wenhuan said was feasible.

Xu Renjie's heart flashed, no, if Du Wenhuan directly uses troops against the cottage, then we will have to fight immediately, even if we can really survive three months, we will suffer huge losses, I have to think of something to buy some extra time for the cottage.

He boldly took a step forward and said to Wu Yushi and Du Wenhuan: "Two adults, Xiaomin...... Xiaomin has something to say. ”

Two court officials were talking there, when was it the turn of a commoner to interject? Xu Renjie came out, and the people around him were shocked, what was this person going to do when he jumped out?

Du Wenhuan's face suddenly became ugly, and he wanted to hit someone.

Wu Fu is different, his official position is the imperial history, and he usually has to travel to investigate, belonging to the kind of civil officials who pretend to be high, although he looks down on the civilians, but he often deliberately keeps himself close to the image of the Qingtian lord, so he said kindly: "Who are you?" What do you have to say? ”

Xu Renjie saw that he had spoken boldly, and he really got the opportunity to speak, so he hurriedly said: "Xiaomin Xu Renjie is a rice merchant in Baishui, and the villain has a few words, and he wants to report a few things to a few officials. ”