Chen Xin helplessly watched Liu Zhilun's army go out of the city, all the officials present knew that Liu Zhilun was more than lucky, but they all pretended to appreciate it, just praised, although Chen Xin couldn't bear it in his heart, but he would not accompany him to die.

After Liu Zhilun's army went out of the city, he slowly walked to Tongzhou, the general soldier of Tongzhou was Chen Xin's old leader Yang Guodong, he had excellent activity ability, paved the road in Beijing, just Jiannu entered the customs, and the court proposed to set up Tongzhou General Army, he had qualifications and favors, and naturally took up this position, and he was very good at things, and constantly told the Beijing division in an emergency, so that the military department did not dare to transfer the Tongzhou soldier Qin Wang, and he stayed in Tongzhou City in An Ansheng, and then went on some painless performances, which seemed to be considered by the imperial court, but in fact, they were all his private goods, He even built one hundred and eight beacon towers along the canal in Tongzhou, so that the next time Jiannu came, he would know where they had crossed the river from. He planned to copy the blockhouse tactics of western Liaoning to Tongzhou, and he ate some money for the project by the way, and then he proposed to increase the number of troops in Tongzhou to 20,000, and it must be Yiwu Dongyang soldiers.

Naturally, it was impossible for the military department to ignore him, Yang Guodong was also asking for a price, since he didn't bargain, he continued to stay in Tongzhou, and watched the Houjin soldiers capture Zhangjiawan, and then swaggered through the city, in short, he didn't come out, this time Liu Zhilun came, he still closed the door, and didn't let Liu Zhilun come in.

Yang Guodong knows the officials in Beijing very well, this Liu Zhilun is a nerd type, and he was promoted temporarily, without any background, he dared to throw his face at Liu Zhilun, and said that if he didn't open the door, he wouldn't open the door. Liu Zhilun had to camp outside the city, just encountered rain and snow, many old fritters took the opportunity and fled, others did not want to rush at this time, so they stopped for two days, and immediately some imperial history impeached him for staying in fear, Liu Zhilun angrily defended himself, and after getting Chongzhen's encouragement, he bypassed Tongzhou and continued to march eastward, he had already held the heart of death at this time.

Liu Zhilun said that he would touch a bag when he went out, but he hit the south wall and did not look back, and continued to move forward to Jizhou, this time he met Ma Shilong, Ma Shilong asked him to go first, promising to cover him behind, so Liu Zhilun took 10,000 troops to Zunhua through Jizhou.

They swallowed slowly all the way, just after Jizhou was discovered by the Houjin sentinel detectives, Daishan personally led the troops to rescue Zunhua, Liu Zhilun camped in Zunhua outside the city of Niangniangmiao Mountain, after seeing the Jin soldiers came, they sent artillery to hit, as a result, the wooden cannon did not hit the enemy, they blew up, Liu Zhilun led the army was untrained, and there was no experience in the battle formation, was frightened by this moment, the camp was in chaos, the Houjin army took the opportunity to attack the mountain, and finally shot Liu Zhilun to death behind a boulder, Liu Zhilun's 10,000 army was divided into eight battalions, only one battalion ran away, Ma Shilong, who promised to take cover, also did not appear.

Since then, no large Ming army dared to provoke, the rebellious city near Xifengkou found that after the main force of the Houjin returned, they abandoned the city and fled, and were occupied by the Houjin army again, Huang Taiji regarded this place as his own territory, and even issued a notice to let the villagers who fled go back to farming.

Huang Taiji held extreme contempt for the Ming army, not only wanted to keep this enclave, but also wanted to go back to Shenyang to rest, leaving only part of the troops to defend the four cities, and the rest of the Houjin army began to go out of the customs in mid-February, taking away a large number of Han people who had been plundered in addition to the property they had looted.

Sandwiched between Shanhaiguan and Jizhou, there are four main cities, namely Zunhua, Qian'an, Yongping, and Luanzhou. The northwest is Zunhua, the middle is Qian'an, the south is Luanzhou, the east is Yongping, and the north is the Jizhen border wall from Da'ankou to Lengkou, and the pass has been conquered by Houjin. Except for the north, all three sides of the enclave were surrounded by the Ming forces, forming a typical salient.

The Ming Dynasty at this time did not rise in turmoil, although Gyeonggi was broken, but the national strength was still there, the Qinwang army gathered more and more, except for a battalion in Gansu and mutinied, the others arrived in Beijing, Chongzhen completely relieved, the situation slowly stabilized, and the Ming army began to accumulate strength, preparing to expel Houjin from the customs.

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At the beginning of March of the third year of Chongzhen, the spring flowers in the north are blooming, Tianjin Wei seems to have woken up from hibernation, after the canal is opened, the city will resume the hustle and bustle of the past, but this year half of the shops by the canal have not opened, part of them are going south to avoid military disasters, and part of them are not optimistic about the ruins of Beizhili, so they want to see the limelight.

A sea boat docked at the small wharf of Weihe, Liu Minyou walked off the gangplank with a tired face, Chen Xin ran to Beizhili Qinwang without greeting him in advance, Mrs. Zhao washed her face with tears every day at home, almost determined that Chen Xin could not come back, Liu Minyou had to send someone to Tianjin to inquire about the news, who knew that the person came back and said that Lord Chen left a suicide note and went to Beijing, Liu Minyou did not dare to tell the Zhao family, he carefully checked Dong Yu's list in the previous months, gunpowder was twice as much as the normal month, Chen Xin himself also advanced 20,000 taels of silver, In addition, the copper coins that Song Wenxian transported to Tianjin did not return the money, and they should have been used as Chen Xin's military expenses and operating expenses, and his affairs were complicated, and it was only at this time that he found out that Chen Xin had premeditated.

The news of King Chen Xinqin spread quickly, and Yang Yunnong also heard about it, after he heard about the Jiannu troops, he basically decided that Chen Xin would not return, and sent Wang Yuanzheng to come over twice in three days to find out the news, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

Finally, in mid-December, a ship of the Dengzhou Navy Division came from Tianjin, Chen Xin sent someone to bring the news of the victory in Gu'an, and there was jubilation in the fort, and Mrs. Zhao stopped crying for the time being, but she couldn't be completely relieved, and sent someone to find Liu Min several times, asking him to ask someone to bring a letter to Jingshi, so that Chen Xin would not rush to the front. After Yang Yunnong found out, he also changed his attitude, and took the initiative to ask Liu Min if he was short of supplies, and his face became faster than Wu Mengda.

Liu Minyou is also very worried about Chen Xin and Wendeng camp, but Weihai and Wendeng are a big mess of things, he ran at both ends, and finally arranged the spring ploughing at the end of February, although Chen Xin sent someone to send a letter back, saying that he had arrived in Beijing and was very safe in the city, but Mrs. Zhao and Zhao Xiang still couldn't rest assured, after all, Jiannu was still in Beizhili, and Liu Minyou was asked to persuade him personally, Liu Minyou took a Dengzhou cargo ship bought last year to Tianjin, and only brought a Zhang Erhui with him.

After two years, Liu Min has a feeling of being close to his hometown outside Zhenhai Gate, and the familiar scenery of Zhenhaimen Street after entering the city brings many memories. Liu Minyou couldn't help but have some smiles on his face.

Zhang Erhui said behind him: "Brother Liu, who is living in our yard now, if it is not cleaned, let's stay in the guest house." ”

"We have a yard, Zhou Laifu helps take care of it, why do you want to live in a guest house, you are now a rich man for one or two or five dollars a month."

Zhang Erhui is only sixteen this year, he has been exercising in the workshop for two years, he is very good at literacy and arithmetic, and he slowly began to do some workshop management, which is the key training object of Liu Minyou, and now the dunn households in the dunker know that Zhang Erhui has been following Lord Chen for a long time, and politely calls him Mr. Zhang, and many families are looking forward to marrying him. But Zhang Erhui himself was not satisfied with the position of scribe in this workshop, he always wanted to go to the Wendeng camp to be a soldier, Liu Min had a shortage of people, so he didn't let him go at all.

Zhang Erhui is still the same child in front of Liu Minyou, and he came out with Liu Minyou this time, and he also wanted to meet his brother Zhang Dahui. After listening to Liu Minyou's reprimand, Zhang Erhui smiled innocently and said, "Then I'll clean up." ”

Liu Minyou stretched out his hand, originally wanted to pat him on the head as before, but suddenly found that this Zhang Erhui had also grown quite tall, and he was no longer the original child, so he quickly withdrew his hand again.

Zhang Erhui didn't know that he had escaped, and pointed to the orchid signboard in front of him and said, "Brother Liu, look at our clothing store." ”

Liu Min felt nervous for no reason, and said to Zhang Erhui: "Let's not go first, let's go back to the courtyard and settle down first." ”

Zhang Erhui said: "It's still early in the evening, Aunt Zhou is very happy with me and Dai, or let's go to the clothing store to meet them first." ”

Zhang Erhui knew a little about the Shen family's lady, and grabbed his head and looked at Liu Minyou with a smirk.

Liu Minyou resisted the urge to pat Zhang Erhui's head, scolded him for a few sentences, walked across the street to the door of the clothing store, glanced at it when he passed, and just saw Shen Li's slender back who was busy, as if he was sorting out the skirts on the hanger.

Zhang Erhui was also watching, Liu Min was afraid that he would notice him, so he quickly turned his head, hurriedly walked through this section, and turned into Jingdongfang. A street is still stinking, since the number of pockmarked Erdun has increased, it is also dirty and messy, and later a group of wounded soldiers who suppressed bandits were withdrawn, and these people were taught to queue up to learn hygiene with sticks, and the effect was better than the original fine.

Opened the door and went in to see, it was very clean, the two of them turned out the bedding and sheets from the cabinet, which were also cleaned, and the bed was cleaned up, and it was almost time for dinner, Liu Minyou sent Zhang Erhui to the clothing store to call Lao Cai over.

Liu Minyou explained to him: "Just ask Lao Cai is, and ask him where the people left in the Wendeng camp are." For the business of the clothing store, you will let Zhou Laifu come here at night to report, and I will not go to the clothing store. ”

Zhang Erhui went after agreeing, and in less than a quarter of an hour, Lao Cai rushed in with a roar, bowed and saluted again and again, Liu Minyou couldn't help but laugh and said: "Lao Cai, what are you doing, just come slowly." ”

Lao Cai said excitedly: "Liu Dongjia, Lord Chen came from Tianjin a few days ago, so he didn't come to the store, but he sent someone to ask us to hire a sea boat to send letters to Dengzhou and Weihai at any time. A few days ago, I sent a letter to say that I had arrived in Tongzhou again, and I was in a hurry to tell Liu Dongjia about it, so I was in a hurry. ”

Liu Min saw that Lao Cai was quite a little sincere, and he could see that he was sincerely concerned about Chen Xin, and suddenly his impression of Lao Cai changed greatly.

"Lao Cai, I just came to Tianjin this time, and I'm about to go to Wendeng Camp, did Lord Chen leave Tangma or anything like that in Tianjin?"

"No, it's just that there are two people left at the dock outside the city, and Tangma will leave when he comes back and says the news."

Liu Min pondered for a moment and said, "Then I will buy two horses tomorrow and go to Tongzhou......"

Lao Cai hurriedly persuaded: "The owner can't help it, Tongzhou is now full of Qiu Ba, you go over like this, I'm afraid that if you haven't found Lord Chen, you will be robbed by those Qiu Ba, especially riding horses, Qiu Ba likes to grab horses the most, I heard that there are people who kill people." ”

Liu Minyou was surprised and said: "The battalion soldiers are still doing this? ”

"Those Qiu Ba can't eat enough, so they specialize in doing some evil things, which is like Lord Chen's soldiers. Lord Chen has been made by the emperor as 'my relative Shaobao', tsk, it's really amazing. Lao Cai's face was adoring, Liu Minyou estimated that he didn't expect that Mr. Accounts, who entered the door to apply for a job that day, would have such a status two years later.

When Liu Minyou heard this, he was also a little hesitant, and he asked Lao Cai: "Then how can I find Master Chen?" ”

"Otherwise, we will go together when there is a grain official in Tianjin, and now as long as it is said that it is Lord Chen's business, they will all help. With them there, those Qiu Ba didn't dare to make trouble. ”

Liu Minyou was about to agree, but there was a commotion outside the courtyard, and Liu Minyou seemed to hear the voices of Shen Lou and Shen Li again. Shen Lou scolded loudly: "Take it!" ”

Shen Li cried and said: "You have taken it all, there are still more than ten days in this month, what are you going to eat at home." ”

Some neighbors persuaded on the side, Shen Lou seemed to ignore it, dragged Shen Li away, knocked on the bluestone slab with crutches and made an aggressive sound, and went to the courtyard of Deng Keshan where they rented, Liu Min opened his mouth and pointed outside, Lao Cai looked at Liu Minyou's demeanor carefully, and hurriedly reported: "Liu Dongjia, this Shen Lou is really not like it, every time he sends a monthly money, he robs the game, and the shopkeeper Zhou later simply changed it to send it to Shen Niangzi once every half a month, and also deducted some in the store, so that Shen Niangzi can still have a place to take it when she is in a hurry, I just sent the first half of the month's monthly money today, I'm afraid it's ......"

Before Liu Minyou could ask in detail, there was a scream outside, Liu Minyou hurriedly followed out, the two of the Shen family had already entered Deng Keshan's courtyard, Lao Cai followed Liu Minyou over, the gate was closed, and the sound of sticks and pain sounded inside.

Liu Minyou looked at the gate, gasped for a few breaths, and Lao Cai said cautiously: "The owner, do you want me to persuade you, that Shenlou is also an old neighborhood, maybe give a favor." Not really...... Let's find a few green skins to clean up that Shen Lou, after all, Shen Niangzi is an employee of the Dongjia clothing store, how can he let Shen Lou be so tormented. ”

Liu Minyou stared at the door for a long time, gritted his teeth, and looked ruthless, Lao Cai thought he was going to kick the door, but he saw Liu Minyou suddenly deflated and said: "Forget it, let's go, you go and inquire when those grain officials will leave?" The sooner the better. ”