The mysterious man who had always maintained restraint and calmness was still a little excited when it came to Li Xin, the marquis of Zhenju, but soon he regained his previous calmness and bowed his hand, "Zheng Junmen, the urgent matter is here, and I will retire first." ”

Zheng Hongkui stood up, personally delivered it to the door of the room, and asked the old housekeeper to lead the two of them out of the house along the hidden door, and then returned to his study.

Suddenly, the candle on the candlestick flickered a few times and went out, because it was a secret meeting just now, in order to prevent people's eyes, even in his own study, Zheng Hongkui only lit a candle. It's just that this sudden darkness didn't make him panic, on the contrary, surrounded by darkness, the fourth master of the Zheng family, who had been fighting fiercely and secretly for a long time, felt very safe and comfortable.

Zheng Hongkui changed his fat body to a comfortable position on the Taishi chair, and then closed his eyes again, enjoying this rare moment.

Suddenly, those eyes opened suddenly, and they shouted, "Someone!

The housekeeper pushed the door open, bypassed the screen and came inside, bowing down in the dark.

"Commander, what do you command?

"You immediately go to Shaowu and contact ......

Zheng Hongkui's voice became lower and lower, but the family nodded frequently. In the darkness, the facial expressions of the two people were dim, but there were two pairs of eyes that reflected the moonlight outside the window, exuding a faint glow and faintly flickering.

In Hangzhou Prefecture, it has been seven days since the news of Zhang Shi's entire army was wiped back, and Li Xinru sat on pins and needles but had no way, pinched the time to calculate, and sent people from all sides to inquire about the news should also have a reply. Sure enough, from Nanjing to Jiangxi, secret letters were sent to Hangzhou one after another, but the secret letters brought back were vague speculations, or news from other places. And what Zhang Shi's life and death are, no one can say clearly.

On this day, Niu Jinsong suddenly rushed to Li Xin's study where he usually disposed of official documents, "General, general, there is news, there is news!"

Niu Jinsong has rarely been so reckless and rude since he went south, and today his temperament has changed drastically, Li Xin frowned slightly, and asked, "Why are you so alarmed?"

"General, Officer Zhang Yingguan has news!

In fact, the current Zhang Shi has long been ranked as a deputy general and has the name of a general, but out of cordiality and nostalgia within the Three Guards, some old people are still commensurate with the military positions of the Three Guards when they were founded.

After Li Xin noticed this kind of sign that it was very easy to intensify the contradictions in the army and make the mountains stand out, he put a stop to this extremely non-standard naming rule, and with reference to the general rules of this era, in the future, all those who were called to positions would be called the highest official rank in each position, and those who violated it would be punished with ten military sticks in public.

Obviously, Niu Jinsong violated this military order in excitement, Li Xingang wanted him to go to the military justice department to receive his own punishment, but he heard Niu Jinsong say movingly: "Zhang Yingguan sent someone back, he didn't die, and our elite was not wiped out!" ”

There has been too much news about Zhang Shi in the past few days, but most of them are not true, either relaying other people's descriptions, or subjective speculation, and they are not accurate at all, so when Niu Jinsong first said that Zhang Shi had news, he didn't care, but now he suddenly heard that Zhang Shi sent someone back, and Li Xin didn't feel that his heart beat a few times.

"You, you say it again, Zhang Shi sent someone back?"

"yes, I've sent someone back! The grenadier battalion was not completely wiped out......"

"What's the grind then? Why don't you bring someone to me? ”

Soon, Niu Jinsong's excited expression was mixed with sadness.

"It was Zheng Laiyong who was sent back by Zhang Yingguan, he made a lot of sins along the way, and he fainted after seeing our people, and now he is ......"

Saying this, Li Xin immediately interrupted Niu Jinsong.

"I know, take me to see Zheng Laiyong immediately!"

This Zheng Laiyong, Li Xin knows, when he was in Datong, he was a very columsy person, at that time he was not called Zheng Laiyong, but Zheng Sijiu, who mistakenly made a traitor and lost friends, and was also cuckolded by the other party, which can be said to have become a laughing stock in the world. But it is such a cowardly and humble little person, after joining the Three Guards Army, he dared to go into battle to kill the enemy, and after several major battles in Mongolia and Liaoxi, he grew up rapidly, not only officially transferred from the auxiliary army to the infantry battalion, and finally with an extremely good reputation, he was promoted by several battalion officers and joined the elite and grenadier battalions in the Three Guards Army.

It is said that one of the leaders of the Huangmei bandits, General Tianpeng was captured alive by him with his team.

Under the guidance of Niu Jinsong, Li Xin came to the wounded and sick camp of the Three Guards. The wounded battalion in the Three Guards was different from all the other Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers in that as long as they entered the wounded and sick battalion, they were treated favorably. In addition to receiving double salaries during this period, there was also meat for the meal, but all the wounded and sick soldiers who entered this camp would be cared for in a way that they had never done before, and even when they were in Shanxi, the Three Guards had never had a wounded and sick battalion of this size.

This is also a kind of logistical support that Li Xin formulated after he arrived in Nanjing, because of his deep pockets. And for the Three Guards, this is undoubtedly a rare welfare measure. But this also played a positive role in promoting the soldiers of the Three Guards to dare to die and dare to fight.

Therefore, Niu Jinsong's arrangement of Zheng Laiyong into this injury camp is really a preferential treatment.

When Li Xin arrived at the camp, Zheng Laiyong had already awakened and quickly regained his consciousness. At this moment, with the assistance of the relevant escorts in the wounded and sick camp, he was eating the steaming rice porridge that had just been boiled.

Seeing Li Xin suddenly appear, Zheng Laiyong hurriedly went down to the ground to salute after being stunned at first. Li Xin stopped him, sat on the edge of his couch, and motioned for him to finish the bowl of rice porridge before anything else.

It's just that Zheng Laiyong was excited when he saw Li Xin at first sight, how could he be in the mood to finish eating this bowl of rice porridge, so he poured a big bowl of rice porridge into his stomach without caring about the rice porridge being hot. Then he shook his head, fell on the couch, and raised his head again and burst into tears.

"Zhang Junmen asked the villain to come and report safety to the Hou of Zhenyu in person, we did not disgrace the reputation of the Three Guards, and the grenadier battalion was not defeated, but was forced to move to the mountainous area in northwest Fujian due to the situation."

And what is the situation that makes the elite grenadier battalion of the Three Guards, which has always been able to fight well, retreat? Of course, its opponent is not the Zheng family's people, nor the rebels of King Huai, but the word dysentery.

No matter how fierce the strong man is, he can't help the torture of dysentery, so in the crisis situation of frequent attrition and low combat effectiveness, Zhang Shi ordered to hide in the mountains to avoid fighting hard with the Zheng family and horses who came to attack, causing unnecessary casualties. In fact, this was originally just an expedient measure, but who would have thought that the shock caused by the fiasco of Shi Kefa's department and the annihilation of the whole army was too serious, so the rumors and news of the annihilation of the grenadier battalion of the Three Guards Army also came at this time. And that Zheng Sen, for some reason, did not stop this, but used it to win his father.

As a result, the news of the annihilation of the Three Guards spread throughout the provinces south of the Yangtze River.

"You mean, dysentery is still prevalent in the army?"

Zheng Laiyong said a lot in one breath, looked a little weak, and took two breaths before answering Li Xin's question.

"It was already early winter, and there would be no epidemic of these epidemics, but Fujian is located in the south, and it is not as timely as the north, and it rained heavily a few days ago. It is not surprising that dysentery is prevalent, and even Zhang Junmen himself is not in human shape because of dysentery, and he has half his life left. ”

Niu Jinsong asked: "Then why don't you withdraw your troops?" Wouldn't it be enough to withdraw to Jiangxi? ”

Zheng Laiyong smiled bitterly: "This suggestion has not been put forward by no one in the army, and after several studies, everyone thinks that even if the army is withdrawn, dysentery is not necessarily good, and more importantly, our army will lose control and grasp of the war situation. ”

In Zheng Laiyong's narration, these two groups of men and horses, who were both officials and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, were also fighting openly and secretly when they surrounded and suppressed the rebels of King Huai. Li Xin shook his head secretly, it seems that this is really a common disease of the Chinese, it is the same in ancient and modern times.

Li Xin's face suddenly changed, "Can Zhang Shi implement the latest promulgated health regulations in the army?" ”

Zheng Laiyong was pouring bitter water, he didn't expect the Marquis of Zhenyu to mention this at all, his eyes couldn't help but be a little dazed, but he still replied truthfully: "The grenadier battalion has been riddled with war, and Zhang Junmen thinks that it is too much of a waste of soldiers' physical strength to engage in those dung pits, so ......."

This so-called health regulation was formulated after the Three Guards came to Jiangnan. Because the south is hot and humid, mosquitoes can breed easily. In particular, where the army passed, there was no specific place to dispose of the excrement of the buried soldiers, and the soldiers were left to dispose of it as they normally would. One can imagine how many mosquitoes would be attracted by the excrement of tens of thousands of armies.

And these mosquitoes are also carriers and spreaders of various bacteria and viruses. Once a virus or bacteria appears in a person's excrement, the epidemic will spread faster than ordinary people think. Although Li Xin was not sure, the epidemic of dysentery in the grenadier barracks must have been due to the lack of strict implementation of sanitary regulations, and the construction of special fecal disposal sites, which were buried on the spot and isolated from the open air.

However, it is conceivable that this has contributed to the spread of dysentery.

At this time, it is not the time to divide this responsibility, after Li Xin has a general understanding of the basic situation of the grenadier battalion, he already has the most basic method for dealing with the next situation.

In the evening of the same day, news came from Taizhou, Wenzhou and other places in southern Zhejiang that a large-scale raid was carried out by Japanese robbers along the coasts of the two provinces. Li Xin convened a meeting of senior military officers overnight to study the disposal plan, but he got shocking news the next morning.

The Zheng Jiashui Division announced that he would go north to clear the Japanese invaders, intending to clear up the chaos on the southeast coast.