After Li Xin left Huai'an Mansion and Mi Yan received a face-to-face instruction, he became more and more sure about the development of the war situation. The army continued to advance northward, and the county towns along the canal, Taoyuan, Suqian, and Pizhou, all seemed to be undefended, and the rogues who were originally stationed there had fled without a trace, and the officers and troops on the Shandong side did not know where they were.

Originally, Mi Yan thought that Yang Sichang could not come in time to wave the army because he was in charge of Shandong at the beginning, but he didn't know that it was so unbearable. He was no longer responsible, and immediately rushed to Xuzhou with the main force of his department, Xuzhou is connected to Henan Province in the northwest and Shandong Province in the northeast, and both places can send troops to the north.

When he arrived in Xuzhou, the battalion officer of a certain battalion of the New Army suddenly reported to him that he had waved an entire team of people who had gone missing during this rapid march and had not been seen yet. After hearing this, Mi Yan frowned, and first asked if it was possible that something happened on the road, or that he might be trapped by some walks?

The battalion officer was extremely depressed and said that most of the Liukou of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo in Huai'an Prefecture had been annihilated or dispersed. Although the Three Guards may break the formation when marching in a hurry, they will divide their troops and advance in small road columns to achieve the speed of the march they had done before.

However, this method of marching is not without its drawbacks, and the assembly of the whole army after arriving at the destination may become one of the unexpected links. And the control of the soldiers of the Three Guards has always been accurate to everyone, and this situation of the disappearance of the whole team has never occurred.

The battalion officer initially tried to find and make contact, but the group that had been missing for a whole day was still nowhere to be heard. As time passed, the team officer felt that he could no longer hide it, so he could only ask Mi Yan for guilt after the team arrived in Xuzhou.

It was a grave dereliction of duty to lose a team of fifty men without any reason.

Mi Yan did not deal with the team officer first, but analyzed the possible situation with him, and the battalion officer said that he could not rule out the possibility of a whole team of people becoming deserters, but the team officer Sun Ah Si performed bravely in the process of marching north this time, and he was very eye-catching in the entire battalion, if this person was a deserter, it was difficult for him to accept.

After pondering for a while, Miyan made his decision.

"The disappearance of the soldiers is likely to have happened to an accident, and we cannot splash dirty water on them without any evidence, even if it is reasonable suspicion! Now what you should do is to send competent people to find your subordinates, if they are trapped on the road by the rogues, you are responsible for rescuing them, one less person, I will try to ask! ”

Although this warning was a sharp word, it stopped in the ears of the battalion officer, but it immediately brought tears to his eyes.

It is said that the prison army is cold-faced and cold-hearted, and today's move is enough to prove that the prison army is a cold-faced and warm-hearted person, otherwise it would be impossible for him to put the reputation and safety of the soldiers in the first place.

In the evening, news soon came from the direction of Fengyang. Hongxian, Lingbi, Suzhou and other places have been recovered one after another, and the people and horses in these places may be the missing Sun Ah Si team.

After hearing the news, Mi Yan shouted that it was impossible, but soon, more shocking news was transmitted.

"The supervising army, our team captured alive the king of the troubled times of the fifth battalion of the left of the revolution, and the old Hui is also in the rout, but he is as cunning as a fox, and he still let this old thing slip away!"

Mi Yan looked at the soldier in front of him, excited and excited, to be able to talk face-to-face with the right-hand man beside the Marquis of Zhenyu, that glory was enough for him to go back to his hometown and boast for half his life. How is this possible, only fifty people regained three or five county towns in a row, and almost captured the five battalions of the left of the revolution alive against the old man, although he almost caught the king of the troubled times Lin Chengcheng, but this person is also one of the big leaders of the five battalions of the left of the revolution, and his status is not much lower than that of the old Hui Ma Shouying.

This is really a strange phenomenon, if you don't see it with your own eyes, who can believe it?

Now that Lin Chengcheng has been escorted to Xuzhou, the iron-clad facts are in front of him, which makes Mi Yan, who has always been calm, sigh with emotion.

"Sun Ah Si is really a blessed general, in the future, I will definitely ask the general for his credit, the first merit of this battle belongs to him, no, it must be your team!"

With the promise of the Mijian army, the messenger was so excited that he withdrew after thanking him.

After a long time, Mi Yan didn't come back to his senses, he didn't expect that the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo had rotted into this virtue until now, thinking about how many times they were forced by the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo when they went south, they almost reached a desperate situation, but now they were actually destroyed and beaten again. After this battle, the fifth battalion of Gezuo can no longer be called the fifth battalion of Gezuo, among which He Yilong has long been captured alive and tied up in Beijing, and Liu Xiyao was killed by the rebels in the internal strife, and now Lin Chengcheng has become a prisoner again, seeing the collapse of the fifth battalion of Gezuo, he knows that since then, it will be difficult for the fifth battalion of Gezuo to turn over. Even if he gets out of danger this time, he has no choice but to cling to Li Zicheng.

Now it only depends on Yang Sichang's performance, if he can smoothly Xiaomi Li Zicheng's power in Henan, the Three Guards will have no possibility of going north, but if he can't even protect himself, he will have to rely on the Three Guards to relieve him from the siege.

Mi Yan was even ready to threaten Li Zicheng's hinterland from Guide Mansion in order to gain a fighter for Yang Sichang.

After the recovery of Xuzhou, the entire Grand Canal was actually dredged from north to south, and Zhang Yingxuan, the head of the household department, came to resign to Mi Yan, and now his task has ended, and there is no point in staying in the army.

Mi Yan looked at Zhang Yingxuan with some pity, this person is only fifty years old, but these days he seems to be ten years old, like a little old man.

"It's not that Mi Yan is alarmist, the prince is going north today, and there is more than luck!"

Zhang Yingxuan's beard shook stubbornly, "The old man has always done the right thing, even if Yang Sichang wants to use the old man to ask for the guilt, although his knife is fast, it can't kill the innocent!" ”

Seeing the resoluteness of the people in front of him, Mi Yan knew that it was useless to say more, so he could only issue an official document with him and send a team of men and horses to escort him north by boat.

It wasn't until several large ships disappeared at the northern end that Mi Yan withdrew his gaze and couldn't help but sigh on the dock.

"Who says a quick knife can't kill an innocent person?"

Maybe Zhang Yingxuan is really so naïve, and he is sure that Yang Sichang has no way to deal with him. It may also be that Zhang Yingxuan knew that he would encounter accidents on this trip, but he still insisted on going back, and was loyal to his court and his emperor.

In the eyes of the world, this is indeed a typical example of a loyal monarch who disregards himself, but what if the court and the emperor fail this rare loyal minister in the last days?

Mi Yan didn't think about Zhang Yingxuan, his fate was already doomed, and the future of the Three Guards was also full of uncertainty. The Marquis of Zhenyu insisted on helping the imperial court to open up the north-south traffic of the Grand Canal, which admittedly won him an unprecedented good reputation in the officialdom of the Great Ming Shilin. can succeed and Xiao He, and defeat will also be Xiao He, and this good reputation will also become his shackles and burden.

If the imperial court forcibly transferred him out of Nanjing, at that time, would the Marquis of Zhenyu and the Three Guards be edicted or not?

In the face of changes in the overall situation, even if he can influence Mi Yan in Huaibei, he can only sigh. All he could do now was wait.

About a few days later, hundreds of large ships headed south along the Grand Canal. These hundreds of ships had not reported to the Three Guards stationed in Xuzhou before, and it was not until Mi Yan heard the words that he went to negotiate and found out that this was the 8,000 grain soldiers sent by Yang Sichang to Nanjing to escort grain and grass.

After hearing that this was the result, Mi Yan immediately became angry. He never expected that Yang Sichang would be so shameless and so unscrupulous in picking peaches.

He really wanted to order these 8,000 men to be disarmed on the spot and sent back to Shandong. However, since he had already been instructed by Li Xin, as long as Yang Sichang did not openly attack the Three Guards, everything could be convenient.

Mi Yan judged again and again, and felt that although this was not a blatant attack on the Three Guards, such an act was tantamount to burying a knife behind the Three Guards. said that he went to escort the grain and grass, and the ghost would believe it, and besides, Yang Sichang was so good at his calculations that he would not give him a grain of grain from the Nanjing household.

Therefore, Mi Yan sent a whole battalion of troops to accompany these 8,000 people south on land in the name of escorting guidance, in fact, this is to monitor the nearest people to prevent these people from doing any wrongdoing. At the same time, he sent a letter to Nanjing to inform Li Xin that Yang Sichang had done it.

At this moment, Li Xin, who was in Nanjing, was full of sorrow.

Just last night, Sun Jie, the governor of Nanzhili, who had been bedridden for nearly two years, died of illness. The second son, who had fought side by side with him, used all his strength to stare at Li Xin when he was dying, and his originally dull and godless eyes burst out with scorching sparks, leaving his last words in this world.

"Help, Ming ......"

Everyone present was moved to tears, and the will he left with all his might was a desperate cry from the son of the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps it was precisely because he saw through that the Ming Dynasty had rotted to the bone that this pain made him feel tormented. There was an indescribable sense of loss in Li Xinxin, because he saw the blame and disappointment in Sun Ji's eyes that burst out at the end.

Perhaps in Sun Jie's eyes, Li Xin can no longer be regarded as a courtier of the Ming Dynasty, and he is no different from Cao Cao in the Han Dynasty and Zhu Wen in the Tang Dynasty.

But Li Xin is a man from the 21st century, and he has never had in his bones the idea of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism. He does have feelings for the Ming Dynasty, and as a Ming fan, he can't tolerate any slander of the Ming Dynasty, but now he finds that the truth is cruel. Whether it is the emperor or the ministers, they all have ulterior motives, and the flag of the Ming Dynasty, which has been riddled with holes, has been corrupted again and again in their hands, and he must not allow this tragedy to continue.

The current general trend of the world has changed from the history that Li Xin is familiar with, the situation in the Central Plains is even more sinister and corrupt, and although the Tartars outside the Northeast Pass have been hit hard by internal strife before, after two years of recovery, their strength has gradually recovered, and their ambitions may also swell again.