As soon as Liu Jiye's words came out, Yang Xin and the others were naturally secretly glad that they had really met the famous "Golden Sword Linggong". But Chang Shengjun's reaction was greater than that of several of them, he hurriedly got up from his seat when he heard this, bowed to Liu Jiye and said: "When the villain was in the army, he had already heard of General Liu's prestige, and it was really a blessing to see him today. ”

Seeing this, Liu Jiye hurriedly helped Chang Shengjun up, and said strangely: "Listening to what Chang Zhuangshi said, did you ever serve as a soldier in my Han army?" ”

"Exactly" Chang Shengjun straightened up and told Liu Jiye about his military experience in the Northern Han Dynasty, and then told how he was exiled from the Han State to the Liao State and how he followed the process of the "Qingyuan" brothers. Of course, the passage about Zhou Yuan's descent to plunder was omitted by him.

After listening to Chang Shengjun's introduction, Liu Jiye was also emotional. On the one hand, he lamented Chang Shengjun's experience, and felt that it was a pity that an experienced and capable person like him could no longer serve the court due to injury. On the other hand, he also lamented the embarrassment of the current situation of the Han Kingdom, and even such a veteran who had served the country for many years had to go to other countries to make a living in order to survive. However, in front of outsiders, Liu Jiye did not want to show too much of his worries about the future of the Han Kingdom. Therefore, he quickly returned to his normal mood and started talking with Yang Xin and the others again.

Yang Xin and others introduced to Liu Jiye that they were from the Youdu Mansion of Liao, and their family had both land and industry, so they could be regarded as worry-free about food and clothing, and this time they came to Han mainly to purchase some ores.

Liu Jiye listened to the introduction of Yang Xin and others as usual, and at the same time calculated the true identities of these people opposite in his heart. In fact, as soon as Chang Shengjun entered the door of this tavern, he attracted Liu Jiye's attention. Although Chang Shengjun has a disability in his leg, his temperament and behavior as a soldier have not changed much. And the two soldiers of the Ranger squad who came in with him happened to be veterans of the original Flying Dragon Pioneer Battalion, trained by Qian Yuanshan, Zeng Zhilin and others in accordance with the combination of ancient and modern methods, whether it was behavior or temperament and the general caravan guards, it was a huge difference, in Liu Jiye's eyes, these two soldiers were more like soldiers than Chang Shengjun.

You must know that this small mountain village is located in the border area of Han and Liao, although Han and Liao are now allies, but the Liao army often comes to the Han State to fight the grass valley, Liu Jiye, as a general of the Northern Han Dynasty, can not but be vigilant against this group of caravans from the Liao State and protected by guards with military temperament. If it weren't for Chang Shengjun's authentic Taiyuan accent and lame left leg, Liu Jiye was a little puzzled - he didn't quite believe that the Khitans would let a cripple lead the team to fight the grass valley - I was afraid that after seeing Chang Shengjun and others, he would have sent his entourage to the nearby military village to transfer troops to monitor.

Later, he found that Yang Xin and the others were secretly watching him, so he decided to take the opportunity to say hello and chat with them in order to learn more about these people. Moreover, he felt that he was just a general who had just joined the army, and the average Khitan soldier should not know about it, so he reported his real name. As a result, what he didn't expect was that the lame man actually served in the Han army and knew his identity. In this way, it will be very difficult for you to find out the details of the other party or to spy on the other party.

However, what reassured him a little was that the lame man had obviously served in the Han army, and the number of the troops and generals he said were all right. If these people were really Khitan soldiers with makeup and fighting grass valleys, there was no need to risk being found out to tell them about these things. In addition, he also saw that two of the four leaders of this caravan were definitely not soldiers, and one of them was indeed very similar to a businessman, so the identity reported by the other party was not necessarily fake, maybe the leader of this caravan had been a soldier in the Liao army before, and he liked to use the rules of the army to train guards.

Therefore, Liu Jiye decided not to entangle the other party's purpose of coming to the Han Kingdom, but to try to get closer to these people, and strive to make friends with the other party, and then in the name of friends, he followed this caravan all the way in the following time, so that it was possible to find out their details, and to monitor the other party very justifiably. Therefore, after listening to the introduction of Yang Xin and others, Liu Jiye first explained that he was just traveling on vacation this time, going to Yanmen to see the scenery, and taking it with him to see the situation of each pass here. After saying these innocuous words, Liu Jiye deliberately introduced the topic to "more friends are easier to do", hoping that the other party could climb up the pole and take the initiative to make friends with him. ,

As a result, everything is exactly as Liu Jiye wants, Yang Xin and others are still immersed in the joy of encountering the "Golden Sword Linggong", Chang Shengjun is in a state of looking up to Liu Jiye in his heart, and he will not think that there are other intentions in the other party's words, so everyone has no doubts about Liu Jiye's deliberate guidance, especially Yu Wende and Song Feiyang, as the main person in charge of finding and purchasing pyrite, they naturally hope that there are locals, especially those with shili who can help.

Therefore, after a short time, Song Feiyang took the initiative to ask Liu Jiye if he could help inquire about pyrite in Yanmen or other places in the Han Kingdom if the other party had no military affairs to do. Song Feiyang's request was in Liu Jiye's hands, and Liu Jiye naturally agreed immediately. In this regard, all the traversers, including Yang Xin and Zeng Zhilin, were very happy and expressed their gratitude to Liu Jiye.

Seeing this, Liu Jiye waved his hand again and again, and said: "You don't have to be polite, everyone can meet in such a wilderness village, which is a kind of fate in itself. Anyway, the young general is going to return to Taiyuan, just along the way with you, and helping you complete the deal is just a gesture. Moreover, the young general feels that you are all temperamental, and he is very good for the temper of the young general, and I hope to make friends with you. Come, the young general will give you a drink. ”

After speaking, Liu Jiye raised his glass to invite, everyone saw that he was so bold, so approachable, and a famous person in history, so naturally they were also willing to make this friend with him in their hearts, so everyone raised their glasses, "Dang!" They collided with each other, and then drank it all. After a few glasses of wine, the atmosphere in the tavern slowly became warmer, the topics of conversation became more and more extensive, and the distance between the two sides became closer and closer, and people who didn't know would think that they were old friends for many years.

While they were talking, the tavern owner and several soldiers came back to report that they had negotiated with many villagers, and that they were willing to vacate their houses for the team to shelter from the rain or even spend the night. Although these houses are enough to shelter from the rain and there is still some shortage for accommodation, the big problem has been solved. The few remaining soldiers who could not live in the tent could live in tents, after all, there were still many chariots and horses to take care of, and even if there were enough houses to live, some soldiers would have to live outside to take care of them.

After solving the problem of shelter from the rain and accommodation, Yang Xin and Zeng Zhilin were relieved, praised the tavern owner very much, and said that they would reward him well. The tavern owner was naturally very grateful, and went to Zhang Luo to add food for these generous guests. It's just that Chang Shengjun was still a little worried, and after he confessed to Liu Jiye, Yang Xin and others, he took the soldiers who came to report out of the tavern to check the arrangements in person.

Before Chang Shengjun left, Zeng Zhilin stopped him and ordered: "Chang Guard, you have to warn all the guards and subordinates that they must get along well with the villagers, and they must not make mistakes, otherwise they will be severely punished." In addition, you go and ask the proprietress for some wine and meat to share with everyone. Ask for some ginger, and let the guards and subordinates borrow the villagers' pots to boil some ginger soup to drink to drive away the cold. You tell the villagers that if you use their things, we will give them the money. ”

"Yes" Chang Shengjun promised to go to the proprietress and ask for something, and then left the tavern.

After Chang Shengjun went out, the others continued to drink and chat, and it didn't end until more than two o'clock in the afternoon. Although the rain was lighter than in the morning, it showed no signs of stopping immediately, which meant that it was impossible for the prospecting team to continue on their way today. So, Zeng Zhilin called Chang Shengjun again and asked him to arrange for all the guards and subordinates to prepare to spend the night here. Because this place is only a small village, and it is far away from the surrounding large forts, Zeng Zhilin particularly emphasized that all soldiers must maintain a certain degree of vigilance, and there must be no shortage of sentry posts at night to prevent bandits and robbers from harassing them.

Chang Shengjun took the order, and after a while, a clearing in the middle of the village became lively, and the soldiers who had no houses to live in began to set up tents in the light rain. Soldiers who had houses began to place their horses and vehicles around their tents as windbreakers and defensive walls.

At about five or six o'clock, the rain finally stopped, after almost a day's work. The soldiers lit a bonfire with firewood borrowed from the villagers' homes and prepared dinner. Zeng Zhilin, Yang Xin and others took advantage of the time before dark to go around the village, not only to inspect the preparations for the soldiers to camp, but also to observe the situation around the village, which was a habit that everyone developed along the way. ,

After nightfall, Zeng Zhilin, Yang Xin and other traversers returned to the tavern with their respective personal guards, and rested here after dinner. Due to the limited number of rooms that the tavern could provide, and Liu Jiye and his two retinue also lived here, only the four traversers lived in the regular guest rooms, and the guards could only lay out in the hall of the tavern. As for Chang Shengjun, he lived with the guards as usual, which was also his habit since he traveled.

After dinner, except for Yang Xin and Zeng Zhilin, who were dragged by Liu Jiye to their rooms to continue chatting, everyone else went back to their rooms to rest. Because they drank some wine at dinner and were tired from traveling in the rain in the morning, everyone quickly fell asleep. Although Yang Xin and Zeng Zhilin also traveled for a long time, they had martial arts, and their physique was much stronger after crossing, so they didn't feel very tired when they talked to Liu Jiye at night.

Although the content of the three of them at this time is still broad and wide, and there are all aspects, but because Yang and Zeng are still soldiers in nature, the topic gradually moved closer to the military. In particular, Yang Xin is more interested in military history and ancient city defense techniques and tactics, so most of the content he talks about is related to this.

As Yang Xin spoke, the more surprised Liu Jiye became, he didn't expect that this seemingly ordinary Liao businessman in front of him would know so much about city defense and tactics. Although it is still only on paper, and I don't know if some of his ideas can really be as effective as he said, many of his insights are very innovative and inspiring. If it is placed in the hands of a well-guarded general, it is likely to exert great power. This made Liu Jiye even begin to doubt the true identity of this so-called caravan again, more precisely, the true identity of Yang Xin and Zeng Zhilin.

Just when Liu Jiye was pondering whether he should find an opportunity to find out the true identities of Yang and Zeng in a more tactful language, a voice suddenly came from a distance and asked, "Who is it?" Password? ”。 Although it didn't sound very loud, it seemed to come from the direction of the village near the official road. But because the night in the small mountain village is very quiet, even though it is a little far away, you can still hear it clearly.

The sound of questioning aroused the vigilance of the three people in the room, especially Zeng and Yang, who immediately reacted that this was their own sentry questioning an unknown person. Just as the two of them were about to go to the front hall to call their soldiers out to check, there was a loud "bang" from a distance, followed by a man's terrible scream.

Whether it was Zeng Zhilin or Yang Xin, they could hear the sound of flintlock guns firing, and at the same time, they also judged that there must be a foreign invasion. So, the two didn't bother to explain to Liu Jiye, so they rushed out of the room. At the same time, the entire small mountain village was already boiling like a boiling pot.

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