When Xu Ping saw the order, he was very dissatisfied, and complained to the left and right: "Where is this where they cover us, obviously they want us to cover them." ”

Today, Zhu Yuanhong's ministry came in a hurry, and Cheng Yijun's department heard that he had not crossed the river yet, which made Xu Ping even more annoyed. For two days, a gap of dozens of miles had been open on the right front, but fortunately the rebels did not attack. Watching the Lu army walk in front of him, Xu Ping once again complained to Zhou Dongtian beside him: "In case the rebels attack them, I hope they can at least hold out until our troops arrive." ”

No matter what Xu Ping's grievances were with these friendly forces, he still had to admit that they did share a lot of pressure. Wu Zhong's army, which had been defending in the direction of the Horse Mountain, had shifted from pointing south to east, and now the camp of Wu Zhong's army was only five miles away from Xu Ping, and the strength of the Changqing battalion was able to regather. From the 20th, Xu Ping's daily work was to constantly strengthen his camp and build outposts along the west bank of the Shahe River. During this period, the rebels never launched even a tentative attack on Xu Ping's troops, and they were trying their best to strengthen their defenses, and the Ming army and the rebels were separated by several miles.

On the 24th, this peaceful day was finally broken. The scouts reported that the rebels on the opposite side became active. When Xu Ping arrived at the bridgehead on the east bank, the rebels' scouts approached to within a few hundred meters, waving flags and shouting something to the Ming army. After observing for a long time, Xu Ping put down his binoculars suspiciously, and watched a rebel cavalry running straight towards his position.

"Do you want to shoot?"

When the knight came into range of the gunner, the officer next to him asked Xu Ping questions. Xu Ping shook his head, silently watched as the rebels ran all the way to the wall, jumped off his horse, drew his bow and pointed into the air, and shot an arrow tied to something. The arrow drew an arc-like trajectory in the air, and the rebel cavalry saw the arrow disappear behind the fort wall, and yelled at the Ming army vigorously before turning over and leaving.

The knight ran farther and farther under Xu Ping's gaze, beyond the range of the firebolt, and at this time, a soldier had already given Xu Ping the arrow. Under the watchful eye of the left and right? came back together. The visitor told Xu Ping that Wu Zhongbu's defensive line had received a similar challenge. Zhang Chengye's order soon arrived in the camp, but it was not high-minded, just repeated the vigilance order that Xu Ping had already issued.

On the 26th, Xu Ping received a new challenge. The rebels sent a battle flag of the standard battalion to the bridgehead on the east bank, Xu Ping stroked the flag and groaned silently, and the faces of the officers around him were also shocked.

"It is impossible for the thieves to defeat the new army of the eighth battalion," Xu Ping felt that he was in a mess, and he couldn't figure it out at all: "But the standard battalion will not be the first to attack, how did this flag fall into the hands of the rebels?" ”

"If the new army is really defeated, the thieves will send their flag," Zhou Dongtian agreed with Xu Ping's judgment of the new army, but he couldn't explain the origin of the flag in front of him: "My lord, send this flag to the battalion headquarters first." ”

"Hmm." Xu Ping asked people to send the flag to Zhang Chengye. Today, the officers and men in the battalion were in a state of panic, and everyone was privately talking about the strange things that had happened in the past two days. A staff officer once suggested that it was strictly forbidden to discuss this topic in the camp, but he could not come up with a reasonable explanation, so Xu Ping decided to pretend not to hear the whispers below.

Zhang Chengye's order arrived in the evening, ordering Xu Ping to meet him at the battalion headquarters immediately. After Xu Ping and the envoys rushed to the camp headquarters together, they saw Wu Zhong sweating profusely when they stepped into the tent door. He also received a flag for the battalion today, and before he could send it back to the battalion headquarters, he was summoned by Zhang Chengye's messenger. As soon as Xu Ping entered the door, Zhang Chengye drove all the guards out, leaving only three commanders in the tent.

"An urgent order from the Inspector," Zhang Chengye handed Xu Ping an official document: "Order our battalion to gather at once, enter the highest alert, and wait for further orders at any time." ”

Xu Ping carefully looked at the Supervisor Seal Letter on it, and after confirming it repeatedly, he handed it to Wu Zhong, who also checked it repeatedly, and finally sighed: "It is indeed the real Supervisor Seal." ”

"The letter was not sent by the guards of the Inspector Standard Battalion, but by a direct guard of the new army." Zhang Chengye's words made Xu Ping and Wu Zhong look at each other again, both of them from each other? He also took out gold and silver and begged bitterly. Reluctantly suppressing the contempt in his heart, Xu Ping made an official tone to Zhu Yuanhong: "General Zhu is going back to the superintendent camp, so that's the case, dare to ask General Zhu if he has a warrant from the superintendent?" ”

"Hurry up with power." If Zhu Yuanhong had a warrant, he would have taken it out a long time ago, where would he still have to wait for Xu Ping to ask. He begged: "General Xu, this rescue is like fighting a fire." ”

"If the last general is not mistaken, General Zhu's headquarters should be stationed in Jiema Mountain. Without a warrant from the Overseer, I can't let your ministry go. Xu Ping looked at Zhu Yuanhong coldly, and asked again: "I don't know who is in charge of the camp of the Horse Mountain now?" ”

"I have arranged for a henchman general to continue to command." Zhu Yuanhong was still pleading: "Lord Xu, raise your noble hand." ”

"Since there is no warrant from the superintendent, then your troops retreat north on their own like deserters." Xu Ping waved his hand, and the hundreds of soldiers of the Changqing Battalion behind the barricade immediately put on a fighting posture, and the firecrackers also leveled their firearms and aimed at Zhu Yuanhong and his officers and soldiers, and Xu Ping's guards all pressed the hilt of their swords with their hands and stared at Zhu Yuanhong and several guards behind him with full attention. This posture made Zhu Yuanhong's face pale, and he couldn't help but take a few steps back. Xu Ping said to Zhu Yuanhong with a stiff face: "Please General Zhu return the same way immediately, otherwise don't blame Ben for being ruthless." ”

Under the threat of the muzzle and spear of the black hole, Zhu Yuanhong was like a defeated rooster, and he was about to turn around and leave in frustration.

"Wait!" Xu Ping drank Zhu Yuanhong, turned around and called Cao Yun: "Take fifty cavalry and escort General Zhu back to Jiema Mountain." ”

Cao Yun shouted yes. Xu Ping smiled at Zhu Yuanhong again: "General Zhu, now that the enemy situation is unknown, it is better to be careful." Although there are not many of these 50 soldiers, they are all the elite of our battalion, and everyone treats one as ten, and they should be responsible for ensuring the safety of General Zhu all the way. ”

In the afternoon, Cao Yun returned with 50 people and reported to Xu Ping that he had "escorted" Zhu Yuanhong back to his defense area. Xu Ping sneered and ordered the battalion soldiers to strengthen their vigilance and closely monitor both sides of the official road.

In the evening, Wu Zhong, who took over, rushed over angrily and pulled Xu Ping, who was sleeping in the camp, up: "Keqin, come quickly, there is already a big chaos ahead, and the adults have rushed to maintain order in person." ”

Before he could reach the outpost, Xu Ping heard the earth-shattering cry. The white-haired Zhang Chengye stood in the middle of the official road, kneeling in the south with hundreds of Ming troops, filling the road to the brim. The dense soldiers shouted loudly, bemoaning the Changqing camp to let them live.

Xu Ping walked behind Zhang Chengye and saw that the chief's face was full of melancholy, and he turned a deaf ear to Xu Ping's whispered greetings, and did not give Xu Ping a return gift. Fu Tianjun, who was maintaining order, ran over to introduce the situation to Xu Ping, and it turned out that these soldiers in front of him were all Zhu Yuanhong's troops of the Lu army. Although the three battalions of the Ming army stationed around the mountain were very short, there were several thousand people. According to what these soldiers said, they woke up early this morning to find that Zhu Yuanhong had fled overnight with all his henchmen and officers, and the morale of the army was in great confusion at that time. At noon, Zhu Yuanhong was escorted back to Jiema Mountain by Cao Yun. But before Cao Yun left, Zhu Yuanhong fled again and headed west in the direction of Dongchang Mansion. As soon as the news spread, the three battalions of the Ming army immediately bombed the camp, and everyone fled in all directions.

In front of the large number of Ming officers and soldiers, almost none of them carried weapons, let alone armor, most of them carried several large and small burdens, and some had already changed into civilian clothes. A soldier kneeling in front of the guards of the Evergreen Battalion and wailing had a small cart behind him, and Xu Ping took a closer look at it, which contained several bags of rice. Another soldier's cart was loaded with two quilts and a few clothes and bags, and women's floral jackets could be seen exposed. Xu Ping asked the guards to search the bodies of several soldiers with a cold face, and the bulging gunpowder pockets contained a large number of peanuts, and various peasant bits and pieces were tied around his waist, one of whom was wearing a five-layer jacket, and a dozen pairs of socks and eight pairs of cloth shoes were stuffed in his arms.

Huge numbers of soldiers continued to pour in from the south, paving both sides of the road. Zhang Chengye and Xu Ping were both hesitant for a while, and a herald came on a flying horse, with a direct guard officer behind him: "My lord, the urgent order of the superintendent." ”

Zhang Chengye hurriedly grabbed the official document and opened it, and ordered Zhang Chengye to first respond to the Shanlan Battalion and the Zhu Yuanhong Department of the Lu Army, withdraw to the existing camp of the Changqing Battalion, and then retreat to Changqing County together, and then retreat to Dong'e or Yucheng according to the situation. The order said that Cheng Yijun would stick to Changqing and wait for them to arrive.

"Lord Zhang should act as soon as possible," the direct guard officer who delivered the letter was still going to give orders to the Jima Mountain and Shanlan Camp, and he told Zhang Chengye before leaving: "When the humble post arrived in Changqing County, General Cheng had disappeared, and the headquarters had already collapsed, and now there was no cover behind you. ”

……

Wolf's Lair

"What's going on? Are you blackmailing adults? Yang Zhiyuan shouted at Jin Qiude: "Because the adults want to deal with Hou Sui, you have to let the adults cast a rat trap." ”

"How is that possible?" Jin Qiude categorically retorted: "I didn't say I disagreed, I just said that there was no need to kill, let him go to the edict to squat for two months, and let him come out to work for us secretly before the next expedition." The new army must be firmly in our hands, give me time to consolidate the morale of the army, and we must make the imperial court feel that only Hou Sui can control the new army, and let the imperial court expand the new army, which is ...... great cause of the adults."

Seeing Yang Zhiyuan open his mouth to speak, Jin Qiude shouted: "I haven't finished talking yet!" Although the adults didn't tell me a word, Brother Yang, you haven't been hanging out in Jiangnan for more than ten years, right? Hugh is going to tell me all this nonsense about farm tools and grain seeds. In order to pretend to be idle, the lord pretends not to know what factories and schools the marquis has, so I won't ask, but the big rebellious and strange theories that have emerged in Jiangnan - just hide it from others, I have followed the adults for thirty years! Don't look at it and don't write names, if those books weren't written by adults, if they weren't secretly issued by Brother Yang, I would have crashed to death! ”

Jin Qiude's words made Yang Zhiyuan silent for a moment, and when he spoke again, his tone became heavy: "This time, that time, what happened fifteen years ago, I still have to say that again, but I am also for the good of adults." ”

"Of course, of course, we are all loyal to our lords. But I'm still saying that, everything is false, only the army is real, and the things you do - whatever it is are purely asking for trouble, and you don't have to wait so many years to listen to me. ”

"I won't fight with you, but this time!" Yang Zhiyuan's voice suddenly raised again: "You are just blackmailing the adult, you know that the adult wants to kill him to avenge Brother Lin." ”

"Brother Lin is dead, we can't try to be fast. But no matter what I think, we're never going to make up our minds behind our backs. ”

"We?"

"Yes, I don't believe you to ask Zhao Slowxiong, we have never done anything behind the adult's back, and we don't know about this matter like the adult. Brother Yang, Shibei for three days, when you are impressed, you haven't seen each other for more than ten years, can't you believe me once? ”

Author's note: Tiger Wolf has been serialized for a long time, and through readers' feedback, I have summarized some of the shortcomings of this book, and there are probably two very serious problems, which cannot be all rolled out at the moment, because it will involve the follow-up plot. But after yesterday's session, I think there is another part of the design problem.

The case of Hou Sui, Lin Chongyue, and Xu Ping is an incident in the early stage of the Tiger Wolf book, and it has a profound impact on the later plot. When I described the process of this case, I borrowed the penmanship of Huangshi Prancing Horse Liaoyang in the book "Stealing Ming".

Many readers should be my old friends.,I guess I still have an impression of the Huangshi Prancing Horse Liaoyang.,That plot I designed a table reason that was placed on the bright side for readers to see.、A reason hidden under the plot.。 The apparent reason is Huang Taiji's rumor offensive, and the internal reason is that Huangshi knows that Nurhachi is going to die. The idea of my design is to mislead the reader into thinking that it is the table cause that is influencing Yellowstone's behavior, and that it is the inner cause in the dark that actually works. The more the reader looks, the more he feels that something is wrong, and he finds that the results of Yellowstone's actions are very different from the goals that the apparent reasons want to achieve, until the apparent reasons have completely failed, and I will uncover the internal reasons.

At the beginning, I tried my best to highlight the power of Hou Sui, squeezing Huangshi aside, and his identity as an old man in Donglin, implying to the reader that his loyalty to the emperor and the court was incompatible with the military attaché's. Then, under the influence of this apparent reason, he began to interfere in personnel, kill people, and meddle in military affairs. Attentive readers soon felt that something was wrong, and decided that Hou Sui's move would inevitably fail to achieve his goal, and contradicted many episodes such as Xu Ping's seizure of the seal - so I was scolded.

I didn't learn the lessons I learned when I wrote the story of the Prancing Horse Liaoyang - in the days before the reason was revealed, Huangshi and I were scolded as brain-dead and idiots by angry readers. Fortunately, the time to unveil was fast enough, and there were no black tickets at that time, and the tiger wolf, the interval was too long. Actually, I've made some changes to the online version, and if any readers buy the physical version of Tiger Wolf in the future, you'll find that the online version has a little more to say - I've added some hints in these sections, implying that readers have hidden "internal reasons" behind the plot that have not been revealed, while in the physical version, these hints are not. Well, it's because I really can't hold on to the pressure, and the entity keeps hinting that "there's a conspiracy behind this" in a short period of time is not interesting - Zhao Jin has a few words that were added later, and it is also hinting at the reasons and contradictions that have not surfaced, originally I also thought that these were too straightforward, not quite in line with the characters of the two people and the tacit understanding between them, which can slowly unfold with the plot. But the online version is a few thousand words a day, and if I don't make this kind of hint, I will have to eat more black tickets, and now it is no longer an anti-dog.

This is a minor problem, but the main problem is the shaping of Xu Ping, which is by far the most serious problem, and at the end of the second chapter, I will carefully write two lessons from the description of Xu Ping's character and discuss it with all readers.

In the Internet era, unlike in the past, the communication between readers and authors is relatively rapid, and it is a friend relationship. When I received bad comments, I would inevitably be emotionally fluctuating and say some counterattacks and hurtful words. However, it is very important to me that my friends forgive me and continue to treat me as a friend, and not hesitate to point out problems and criticize me.

[Remember the URL . 三五Chinese网]