The official road to the west of the Jingshi was bleak, and all they saw along the way were dilapidated and abandoned villages, and Li Xin and others walked to Changping and the sky was covered with goose feathers and heavy snow. The lights flickered ahead, and there seemed to be an inn with flags.

Li Xin secretly wondered how the Tartar had only retreated for a few days, and the business of this inn had been back up. There are two ways for them to go west to Datong Mansion this time, one is in the south, take Fangshan, pass through Bauhinia Pass, and enter Datong Mansion from Guangchang. The other is in the north, take Changping out of Juyongguan, pass through Huailaiwei, Xuanfu Sanwei, Wanquan Zuowei clinging to the side wall and enter the town guard. Li Xin chose this route to the north, although it is dangerous but it is better than the road, and he can investigate the destruction of the border wall of the Ming Dynasty on the spot.

When the group got closer, they found that the so-called banner was open in a courtyard similar to a big car shop, which was used by the western merchants to rest and spend the night. Although the lights are on, according to Li Xin's observation, there should not be many people to stay. This is exactly what he wants, the hundred and ten brothers can just go into the house to bake the fire and sleep well, and when they are full of energy, they can travel hundreds of miles a day.

The door of the courtyard was not locked, but it was hidden, and as soon as Li Xin and Lu Jiu got off the horse and pushed the door in, they listened to the movement in the house, and a teenage boy came out, smiling with a smile on his face.

"How many masters live in the hotel?"

Before he finished speaking, he was frightened by the battle behind Li Xin and retracted the second half of his words, hundreds of ironclad cavalry, violent, people who didn't know the truth thought that they had encountered bandits and horse thieves.

"Okay, good guys? Our shop has just opened, and the Tartars have snatched everything they can rob, and the small shop is really nothing ......."

Li Xin couldn't cry or laugh, and was actually regarded by the young man as a horse thief and bandit who robbed the house. It's no wonder that the young man misunderstood, the iron armor on the brothers' bodies was still looted in the Dolgon camp, after months of hard fighting, it had long been mottled and dilapidated, and because of the hurry, the general flag of Li Xin's three guards was also rolled up, and it was not surprising that such a group of men and horses without a banner were mistaken for horse thieves.

Lu Jiu laughed dryly, and said softly: "Little brother, don't be afraid, our master is the ...... of the Ming Dynasty" Suddenly felt that Li Xin stabbed him in the back, and hurriedly changed his words, "The Ming officers and soldiers, I'm so afraid!" "Let's just point to the cavalry in black holes and ironclad caves.

"One hundred and ten people live in the hotel together, is there enough space?"

I heard that it was the Ming official army, and the young man's face eased a little, and he didn't smile, and stammered and replied: "Enough, enough is enough, you have to squeeze it!" ”

It's no problem to squeeze it, but the important thing is that now that it's snowing heavily, there is a place to shelter from the wind and rain, and it is only right to bake the fire and keep warm.

The young man led Li Xin and Lu Jiu to see the guest room, the so-called guest room is just a rectangular room with two large kang shops in the north and south, Li Xin looked up and down, and even the kang with the ground sleeping 100 people although crowded, but also stuffed down. So he nodded and said to the young man, "Yes, I live here." ”

Hearing Li Xin's decision to live here, the young man's eyes lit up, when this war was in chaos, business was already bleak, and it was not common for a hundred and ten people to live in a hotel at the same time overnight, and his attitude immediately made a 180-degree turn.

"Heroes, ah no, the military masters want water and carbon, although they tell the small ones, by the way, the military masters plan to live for a few days......"

The young man chattered endlessly, Lu Jiu was annoyed, and said: "Although there are hot meals, even if they are served, money is not a problem!" "The brothers braved the wind and snow to hurry overnight, and they were already hungry and cold, and they ate a few bites of hot food just enough to slowly freeze their bodies. Although the 100,000 taels of silver allocated by the inner government were robbed by Li Shiwen of the household department, their transport team for the southern expedition to the north and the north also robbed it, and they also accumulated a lot of gold and silver, which is now coming in handy.

Lu Jiu made a lot of requests one after another, and the young man accepted it all. In the end, Li Xin stopped the young man, "It's late, you don't have to prepare anything else, just prepare enough coal for heating." ”

The young man nodded and went out of the room, Li Xin carefully looked at this house with two large kangs, according to the standards of his previous life, it should be at least two hundred square meters, and it was barely enough to squeeze down one hundred and ten people. Just wanted to arrange for people to line up to enter the house, but Lu Jiu on the side said dissatisfiedly: "How can Brother Thirteen only let him prepare charcoal?" Are you afraid that we can't afford to spend money, or are you afraid that the young man won't be able to cook for so many people? Drink hot soup in the evening on a snowy and cold day to relieve the fatigue of the brothers! ”

The smile on Li Xin's face suddenly disappeared.

"The army is outside, we have to be careful, not to mention that we still brought the freshly cooked mutton, just a few bites of the steamed bun pad. You go and inform the brothers outside, use the forage we brought ourselves, and after feeding the war horses, we will line up and enter the city, and arrange three shifts of guard posts to be on duty at night! ”

"Brother Thirteen is also too careful, but he is only a half-old child, what kind of moth can he toss? Besides, there is a fence outside the courtyard, and there are all our brothers inside, if there are thieves who want to sneak attack, they will never take advantage of it! ”

After a while, an old couple carried a stoneware brazier and a basket of charcoal into the house, and the old man was thin and weak, and when he saw two iron-clad men with sideburns and beards, he was so frightened that the small shovel in his hand shoveled coal fell to the ground with a bang. The old woman on the side was calm and tight, whispering that the old man was useless and timid, and faced Li Xin and Lu Jiu to make amends.

The stoneware pot was placed on the innermost wall, and there was a small hole in the wall that was an inch square. The two men skillfully shoveled the coal into the large stoneware basin, led it with ordinary firewood, and sucked it out of the small hole that led to the outside of the wall.

The old couple withdrew after the fire, and the old woman was close to Li Xin for a while before leaving, so that he needed to speak directly, and talked about his current difficulties and past glory. His family was originally quite wealthy here, but it was not until the Chongzhen Dynasty and the Beijing Division were in chaos that it went downhill. The eldest son was recruited, and he never came back when he went to Liaodong the year before last, and the second son was lost again this time when the Tartar entered the Kou, and there is no news until now, and there was originally a daughter who was taken away by the Tartar who killed the heavens, and now only the old couple and the younger son are left to rely on each other.

Li Xin sighed for a while, and the soldiers were in a hurry, and the first unlucky people were always the people, so he promised to give more money when he left. The old woman got Li Xin's promise, so she went happily.

Taking advantage of the soldiers' efforts to feed the horses, Li Xin took out the steamed buns and cooked mutton that had long been cold and hard from the package he carried with him, and ate a few bites of it. Lu Jiu also nibbled on a few bites of cold steamed buns and cooked mutton, while still complaining that Li Xin was thinking too much, but he just got some hot soup to warm his body, so what was the big deal.

Li Xin didn't bother to argue, just silently nibbled on steamed buns and cooked mutton, Lu Jiu's temper he knew very well, he was a typical person who was cold on the outside and hot on the inside, don't look at him who looks fierce with everyone in his life, and he kills people on the battlefield without blinking, in fact, he also has his amiable and innocent side, but he rarely shows it! Just like the complaint in front of him, he is not suspicious that there is a problem with this big car shop, but wants them to develop a habit of being cautious in everything, and not to suffer a big loss because of poor consideration of details, once the wood is already in the boat, it will be too late to regret it.

"Eat quickly, go on a night patrol after eating!"

When Lu Jiu followed Li Xin to appear in front of the soldiers, his face had already regained his usual coldness. Everyone lined up to enter the house to rest in order, and Li Xin and Lu Jiu led more than a dozen people to be in charge of the night guard.

As the night deepened, the snow became lighter and lighter, and finally stopped. Li Xin divided more than a dozen people into two groups of light and dark guards according to the topography of the entire courtyard, the bright sentry is the sentry placed in the bright place on the inside of the fence, and the dark sentry is the sentry that hides behind the bright sentry and hides its figure, which is difficult for outsiders to detect. The advantage of this is that if someone wants to sneak up on the barracks, even if they kill the sentry inside the fence, the sentry hidden in the dark will still be the first to warn.

After about a watch, Li Xin began his fifth patrol of the camp, and walked straight to the east side of the courtyard, when suddenly a sound of Suo Suo caught his attention, and his heart of vigilance suddenly rose.

A closer look revealed that it was a fat hare. Li Xin immediately had the heart to shoot it to improve his food, and gnawing on the fishy cooked mutton all day long had already made him extremely appetizing. Since he was not in the habit of carrying a bow and arrows with him, he only had a goose feather knife by his side, but if he drew the knife out of its sheath, he was afraid that he would scare the hare away, so he tiptoed forward little by little, preparing to capture it alive.

The hare was very alert, and immediately noticed that there was danger nearby, and jumped out of the fence, but the newly accumulated cedar on the ground made it difficult to move, and it did not run fast.

I saw that the hare came to the fence and drilled out after a few ups and downs, and Li Xin found that there was a hole in the inconspicuous part of the fence that could be drilled out by one person. Li Xin didn't think about it, so he also drilled out, how could the rabbit meat in his mouth let him run.

Dozens of steps out of the yard is the official road, whether you can catch the rabbit is between these dozens of steps, Li Xin ran wildly, and the last one pounced, and a pair of fat rabbit ears were pulled in his hands.

Unconsciously smiled: "Master Rabbit, don't be surprised, it is your blessing to enter the Li Xin Five Organs Temple!" ”

Suddenly, there was a sound of horses' hooves in the distance of the official road, and two fast horses, one in front and one behind, turned through the woods in front of them and appeared in front of Li Xin, but it was too late to hide.

The people on the horse were all holding torches, and Li Xin suddenly felt that one of them was very familiar, and it was actually the little brother Huang who suddenly disappeared in Beijing. The little brother Huang obviously recognized Li Xin, strangled the big green horse under his crotch, and exclaimed, "Why is Brother Li here?" ”

Li Xin met this little brother Huang several times, and he already faintly felt that there was something strange in his heart, especially this meeting, as if he had expected himself to be here early in the morning, but he may not have malicious intentions. Laughed:

"The world is so small, we meet again!"

The little brother Huang was anxious, and blurted out: "This is a black shop, Brother Li leave here as soon as possible!" ”

Then the horsewhip was raised, and he went away with his retinue!