Yang Hao asked with a wry smile: "The more I listen to it now, the more confused I become, what is going on." Lord Zeng is the sword general sent from above to coordinate the uprising, and now he is the Tiande Army left behind, you and my top boss, why do you suddenly say that he doesn't care whether he lives or dies? I'm really confused by you, no, no, I'm not confused now, I've been confused since I overthrew Wang Shoucheng on the polo field in October, Brother Meng, General Meng, my own brother, no matter how much you look down on your brother, but I am the only one you can trust here, can you make an exception, do a good job, and tell my brother about the twists and turns? ”

Meng Bochang's face sank and shouted, "What are you impatient? I'll naturally say what I need to say. ”

Yang Hao didn't dare to argue with him anymore. The soldier brought in a basin of cold water with ice cream, Meng Bochang leaned over and dipped his face in the ice water, and was silent for a moment before taking a towel to wipe his face, Yang Hao was stunned by his strange behavior. Meng Bochang soaked his hands in ice water for a while, rubbed his wrists to dry the water, and then sat down in front of the brazier to roast the fire.

On top of the brazier was a round-necked sand jar, and inside was half a jar of thick white mutton fat offal soup. The sergeant brought a plate of buckwheat cakes and a plate of beef in sauce. Meng Bochang greeted Yang Hao: "Let's talk while eating." ”

Yang Hao knew that it was useless to be anxious with him, so he had to sit down patiently and eat. Meng Bochang ate very quickly, Yang Hao hadn't finished half a buckwheat cake yet, he had already eaten and drunk enough to rinse his mouth.

Meng Bochang leaned on the soft couch, squinted at Yang Hao and said calmly: "Originally, I shouldn't have told you these words, after all, you are just a halberd, and you are not qualified to know this." But you're right, I can only trust you here, so I'll make an exception and make it clear to you. Besides, it's not necessarily a good thing to always make you confused. ”

Meng Bochang sighed slowly, and said slowly: "I was imprisoned by the prince of the country and entered the stabbing horse camp a few years before you, and now I am a four-grade horizontal sword, you and I both belong to the Baoli Society that is not popular, in other words, you and I are under the orders of a big manager." ”

Yang Hao took a sip of mutton fat soup and felt that his throat was a little crooked, so he begged for a cup of tea and asked, "We are Baoli Society?" So there are a lot of factions in the Stinger Horse camp? ”

Meng Bochang replied: "It's not much, and it is divided into four factions in total: Yuanhe Society, Changqing Society, Baoli Society, and Yamato Society." The Yuanhe Society has the largest number of people, the Yamato Society is the strongest, and the Changqing Society is sandwiched in the middle, only our Baoli Society is too short because Emperor Jingzong's time in the sea is too short, and his old man is busy with pleasure, and now he is almost to the point of begging for food. ”

Yang Hao smiled bitterly: "It's really a son of heaven and a courtier, it seems that the four societies are not harmonious." Lord Zeng shouldn't be from our Baoli Society. ”

Meng Bochang nodded: "He is from the Yamato Society, the real Son of Heaven's personal guard." The failure of this palace change greatly damaged the vitality of Yamato. Otherwise, how would they be with us? Yang Hao suddenly understood why Zeng Chongyang had always relied on Meng Bochang, it turned out that this Tiande Army's uprising was actually a joint action of the two families, although his qualifications and status were higher than Meng Bochang, but after all, they were not a family, and they still had to maintain dignity between each other.

"What about Brother Han? He doesn't seem to be in the same vein as Zeng, and he's not in the same vein as us. ”

"He is from the Yuanhe Society, the Yuanhe Society has a large number of people and talents, but he is too heavily impregnated by Xiaoqingyi, and they are divided into gangs and factions, although they are big but not strong. Do you know? Zheng Note is the sword of the Yuanhe Society, our General Han was originally also the Yuanhe Society, and later switched to Baoli, this time Baoli and Yamato cooperated, it was he and Li Xun who made trouble. ”

"In this way, Li Xun also has a relationship with our Baoli Society. I always cite this person as flashy, too scheming, but not a great talent. I don't know why His Majesty trusts him. ”

Meng Bochang snorted and said helplessly: "Your Majesty is also in a hurry. The Yamato Society soldiers are strong and strong, but the dragons have no leader, and it is not that there is no dragon head, but this dragon head is too big and strong, and His Majesty already has a grudge against him. Li Xun saw this opportunity and resolutely abandoned Baoli to join Yamato and gain His Majesty's trust. Before the palace change, his power as a sword was greater than that of the chief manager of Yamato, and if the palace change was successful, he would be the chief manager of the Yamato Society! ”

Yang Hao hurriedly said worriedly: "In the past, I only heard that 'the four major governors rule the world, and the sword generals are not high', so it turns out that they are all busy with their own work. The Thorn Horse Battalion is so scattered, when will it be able to sweep away the eunuchs? Reorganizing the dynasty? ”

Meng Bochang yawned and said: "The major events of sweeping away the world are naturally not in a hurry, let's gain a firm foothold in Yongfeng first, and use this as the basis for Xu Tu's development." When the wings are full, then mention a strong team to the south of the king, at that time the righteous people from all over the country will respond, and the big thing will definitely be done! Yang Hao saw that he said it easily, and it was just a joke.

After a slight pause, Meng Bochang stood up and lowered his voice and said: "In March this spring, the chief manager will convene a faceless meeting of the Baoli Society in Yongfeng, and then you will be more diligent and happy, and if you please him, you may be able to promote you to a horizontal knife." As the saying goes, 'the sword never leaves Beijing', and outside the capital, there are all horizontal swords. ”

There is a saying in the stabbing horse camp that "the sword does not go out of Beijing, and the horizontal sword travels the world", the sword has a high status, except for the occasional inspection, it generally stays in the capital to assist the general manager to control the world, and all the prefectures and counties outside Beijing are in charge of the horizontal sword. As for the halberd, because of his low status, he can only be subordinate and cannot stand alone.

Speaking of this, Meng Bochang actually yawned for days, "Sleep and recuperate, let's go to the Meishan Coal Mine at noon and rescue your good brothers." ”

Only then did Yang Hao understand that Meng Bochang came to Yongfeng late at night, originally to attack the Meishan Coal Mine, and it seemed that he had already made a bamboo in his chest. Yang Hao was still a little uneasy, so he asked, "Do you want me to go back to the city to transfer troops to assist?" ”

"No need," Meng Bochang snorted with his eyes closed, "Your barracks are full of their spies, and I called you out to hide people's eyes." After Meng Bochang said this, he pulled the blanket over his body, and a slight snoring sounded in a moment.

At the beginning of noon, the battalions of the right army were assembled, and without an impassioned pre-war mobilization speech, the armies left the ghost town in turn according to the plan that had been set up and marched to the Meishan coal mine in four directions. This was the first time Yang Hao had participated in the war with the army, and he was both excited and nervous. He asked Meng Bochang to lead an army to attack the east gate of the coal mine from the flank, but Meng Bochang categorically refused. Meng Bochang squinted his eyes and mocked: "Your ability is just to take a few people to rush to the mansion to catch people, and command hundreds of people to attack the field battle, can you?" ”

Yang Hao's face was red with shame, he didn't argue with Meng Bochang, and he couldn't help but uphold Meng Bochang's authority in front of the generals. Meng Bochang may also feel that his words are too hurtful, so he breathed a sigh of relief and said: "In the future, if there is a battle, you will follow and observe it first." He lowered his voice and said, "Actually, I don't know much about it, let's see how they fight." ”

The "they" Meng Bochang said referred to Ling Tong and Li Tong, the two lieutenants of the Right Army, both of whom were promoted from non-commissioned officers to deputy generals by virtue of their military merits, who had been guarding the frontier for many years and were accustomed to fighting, and it was really a piece of cake to attack the Meishan Coal Mine, which was defended by only a few hundred guards.

Before the war, Meng Bochang summoned the generals above the eighth rank and let them discuss around the sand table for a whole day, which was a good learning opportunity. When the discussion ended, Meng Bochang, who had been watching from the sidelines, was full of confidence that he would win. He didn't let Yang Hao lead the troops, first, he was afraid that the sword and gun would kill him for no reason, and secondly, it was also so that Yang Hao could learn the mystery of using soldiers with the mentality of a bystander. Yang Hao quickly understood Meng Bochang's hard work, and couldn't help but feel closer to this cold-faced and arrogant boss and brother.

The horn of the attack sounded at three o'clock in the afternoon.

The long-distance iron horseman, when they arrived at Meishan, a layer of fine sweat oozed from everyone's forehead, and the war horse became very excited and aggressive with white gas in his mouth. The guards of the mountain pass sounded the gong to sound the alarm, and the archers hurriedly climbed the earthen wall to release arrows. I have to admit that the guards of Meishan Coal Mine are still very capable, and the fortifications are also very cleverly built. The first charge of the right army was thwarted, but these were within the range of pre-war expectations.

Ling Tong and Li Tong adjusted their tactics in time, they set up a fire bull array, and a hundred bulls with fire ropes tied to their tails frantically rushed towards the main entrance, and they easily rushed away from the rejection horses, crashed into the earth wall and the lookout. The guards fled in fear. Li Tong led the horse team to take the opportunity to attack the mining area.

A wooden wall suddenly appeared about a mile from the gate, which was not expected in advance, there were hundreds of shooting holes left on the wooden wall, and when the men and horses approached, it was actually ten thousand arrows fired together, and the soldiers of the right army who attacked the hard crossbow shot fell one after another, and the snow in front of the wooden wall was suddenly stained red with blood. Li Tong hurriedly ordered the soldiers to abandon their horses and fight on foot, and the sergeants in groups of seven or eight slowly advanced in a formation with small wooden shields, and after paying the price of dozens of casualties, the forward arrived under the wooden wall. The soldiers untied their skins and poured fire oil on the wooden walls.

Flames raged, and the wooden wall turned into a wall of fire.

Ling Tongdu led the rear army and horse team to forcibly break through the wall of fire and leap into the core area of the coal mine. As soon as the main gate was broken, the other three gates were also lost under the internal and external attacks, and the coal mine guards saw that the general trend had gone, so they surrendered en masse. When Yang Hao and Meng Bochang rushed to the open space under Meishan, Wang Rentong, the owner of the mine, Zhao Yu, the chief housekeeper, and Man Dahai, the commander of the guards, had been bound by the soldiers and escorted over.

The battle lasted less than half an hour, and the right army suffered 130 casualties, which was slightly shorter than expected, and the casualties were heavier. When the mine owner Wang Rentong was escorted to Meng Bochang's horse, he refused to kneel, and said in a vicious voice: "I am friends with your uncle Meng Chu for eight worships, and I am your elder in terms of seniority, and the younger generation beats the elders, and you will be punished." Meng Bochang said: "Whether I have retribution or not, it doesn't count, whether you have retribution, I don't count." Wang Rentong was shocked: "What do you mean?" Meng Bochang pointed to the miners who came from behind Meishan and said: "I handed you over to them, if they remember your kindness and let you go, I have nothing to say, if they think of the old evil and want your life, I will be happy to see it happen." ”

When Wang Rentong heard this, his face suddenly turned like ashes, and he fell to the ground with a plop, and begged bitterly: "I beg you, as long as you let me live, I am willing to give away my life savings." Meng Bochang reprimanded: "Do you think I am greedy for your few taels of silver? Wang Rentong hurriedly changed his words: "No, no, the general has great ambitions, so he naturally doesn't look down on these." You say, whatever you want, as long as Wang has it, Wang will give it. ”

Meng Bochang glanced at Yang Hao and asked with a smile: "What do you think we want?" Yang Hao was about to answer, when he suddenly heard a cry, and saw a group of female dependents crying and crying from the manor on the west side of Meishan. The soldiers formed a wall to stop the women, and Li Tong danced with a knife and shouted: "If you dare to be distressed, you will be killed!" When the women heard this, they were silent.