"Impartiality?"

"Yes, justice." Yellowstone didn't go any further.

Seeing that Huangshi didn't talk more about sex, Zhao Slowxiong didn't ask any more questions, but talked about another question: "Fujian's council said that it won't give more money to adults next year." ”

"I know about this," after Yang Zhiyuan's death, some liaison work was handed over by Huangshi to Zhao Slowxiong and Zhang Zaidi, yesterday Huangshi had read the letter from the council, they claimed that the huge financial support needed by the new army was already overwhelmed by Fujian, and they hoped that Huangshi would make the imperial court pay for the weapons ordered by the new army in Fujian, instead of being subsidized by the various councils in the south: "They have a point, there have been no new schools in Fujian in the past two years, The subsidy for the weapons of the Forces nouvelles is several times greater than the alimony for the widowed and widowed. The north is too far away, the war here has nothing to do with them, and I promised to ask them for money for only two years, but now that it has been three years, the war is far from over, and I broke my promise. ”

"My lord, but the new army needs this money." The amount of financial subsidies given by the south was very huge, although the imperial court bore part of the ordnance expenses, but it was probably enough for two to three percent of the new army's needs, and the rest of the difference had to be apportioned to Huangshi's power groups in the south. Moreover, Zhao was very sure that if Huangshi insisted, the council would eventually compromise, and they did not have the courage to cause confrontation, nor did they have the strength to do so.

"No more, we will go to the south next year," Huang Shi's tone was unquestionable: "When the new army arrives in the south, they will be willing to pay, because it is to defend their homeland." ”

"My lord, there is something I've always wanted to ask," Zhao Slow-Xiong used to think that the council was just a money-making tool used by Huangshi to raise money, and later thought that it was a tool used by Huangshi to expand its influence, but if it was a tool, then Huangshi should not be so conniving with the council's resistance. Although Zhao Slowxiong didn't know all of Huangshi's deployments, judging from the records of this part of the work he took over, he felt that Huangshi was simply encouraging the council to confront him, damage his interests, and rebel against his authority: "What do you want to turn the council into a ...... What did it become? ”

"You'll know, and now I'll think I'm whimsical, and when you get to the south and see it for yourself, you'll understand at once."

……

It was already a cold October, Xu Ping was marching towards Tongguan with his army, and the first army to catch up with him was the armored battalion of Commander Li Laiheng.

"General Li, what's going on in the battle in Jiangxi?" After seeing Li Laiheng, Xu Ping immediately asked this question that puzzled him, judging from Li Zicheng's letter, the tentative attack of the Chuang army on Jiangxi was not smooth, so that the whole camp lost the determination to continue the attack: "The people of Jiangxi are fierce? No, I've heard of the fierce folk customs of Xiangxi. ”

"General, have you seen it with your own eyes," Li Laiheng said that the Ming army in Huguang did not put up any strong resistance, and Zuo Liangyu fled all the way, and when he fled to the border of Jiangxi, he was blocked by the Funing army and the Jiangxi soldiers and did not allow him to enter, so he turned around and fled to the north. When Ji Huisi and Li Dingguo arrived at the border between Huguang and Jiangxi, they launched a tentative attack: "The Funing army is resisting head-on, they are holding on to various fortresses and towns, their performance in Jiangxi has completely changed, the forward has no gaps, and there is strong resistance in every town with walls. And the countryside ......"

Speaking of this, Li Laiheng's face had a confused look, the armored battalion did not go into the attack, in fact, after the tentative attack, the battalion did not plan to gnaw on the hard bone of Jiangxi: "The men of Jiangxi, father and son go into battle together, they have a large number of muskets, and they are familiar with the terrain, our strikers encounter endless guerrilla harassment, and when the Jiangxi men shoot, their women do not hide, but the mother and daughter-in-law together behind their father, brother and husband to fill them." ”

"Well, doesn't the imperial court collect taxes in Jiangxi?" Xu Ping felt a little incredible, in the past, whether it was in Henan or Shandong, the peasants who broke into the camp were happy, not to mention helping the officers and soldiers to resist the invasion army, there would be many people joining the army or serving as guides for the invasion army: "I haven't heard of such a thing?" ”

"I don't know, King Chuang and Niu Junshi both think that the people of Jiangxi are too deeply bewitched by the imperial court, and since this is the case, King Chuang is not willing to fight hard." Compared with the operations in the Central Plains and Shandong, the losses of the battalion strikers in this kind of guerrilla warfare were not small, but the absolute losses were not too great, and they were far from exceeding the tolerance range: "Our army is not adapted to this kind of fighting, and most of our soldiers are poor peasants, and the guerrilla attacks of the people of Jiangxi have a great impact on the morale of our army. ”

"It seems that the people of Jiangnan are still much better off than the Central Plains, but it doesn't matter, we do a good job ourselves, and the rumors of the court will be self-defeating." Xu Ping was not very worried about this problem, on the contrary, he breathed a sigh of relief, if the forces that broke into the camp did not invade Jiangxi, they would not break the agreement between Li Zicheng and Zhendonghou: "How about Huguang? ”

"It was ransacked by Zuo Liangyu, and it is not suitable for winter." Li Laiheng and Xu Ping thought about the same, he felt that the people in the south still regarded the camp as thieves, and when the righteousness of the Ming court was in hand, this fear and distrust would naturally subside: "Our army is withdrawing from Huguang." ”

"It's good to come back, if our army invades Guanzhong, the territory will be doubled, and maybe we may attack Shanxi and Zhili later, these places need troops to be garrisoned, and now my troops are already feeling stretched." Even with the addition of Li Zicheng's headquarters, there are only about 50,000 field troops in total, and there are actually dangers lurking in such a vast occupied area.

"How does the general plan to attack Guanzhong?" When Li Laiheng saw Xu Ping's troops marching straight towards Tongguan, he asked him about his plans.

"Attack Tongguan!" Xu Ping replied in a natural tone: "That's what King Chuang gave me. ”

"Frontal attack on Tongguan?" Although Li Laiheng knew Li Zicheng's order, he still thought that Xu Ping would have another plan: "I'm afraid it's not appropriate to attack Tongguan head-on, right?" ”

"There's nothing wrong with it, Sun Chuanting went out of the customs this time and brought out all the Tongguan guards." During this period, Xu Ping had already received Chen Zhe's report that Sun Chuanting had withdrawn all the garrisons from all over the country, including the troops that should have been stationed in Tongguan.

"Who is guarding Tongguan now?"

"Sun Chuanting probably organized some civilian exercises," Xu Ping told Li Laiheng everything he knew about the military situation, and after escaping back to Tongguan, Sun Chuanting and Yang Wenyue collected all the troops around Tongguan to gather in Tongguan, but there were no troops to loot, and Xi'anwei, who was originally responsible for defending Xi'an and the King of Qin, had to send troops to support Tongguan, and in addition to that, the militia: "Now there are all kinds of officers and soldiers in Tongguan, many of whom are unfamiliar with the place, and have neither training nor fighting spirit. ”

"Even so, Tongguan will still not be easy to fight."

"Yes, but the officers and soldiers of Tongguan categorically have no field combat ability, if they can't hold out, I plan to lead the troops to bypass directly in front of Tongguan City, enter Guanzhong to cut off the retreat and grain route of the Tongguan defenders." Under normal circumstances, the existence of the fortress of Tongguan is a great threat to the attackers, and the defenders of Tongguan can use the fortress to prevent the attackers from using the road in front of the city. Even if the defenders of Tongguan were too weak to leave the city, the attackers would have to use several times their strength to surround the fortress to protect their non-combat troops and food routes; Not to mention that if you don't take Tongguan, once you lose the battle, you will be shut down and beaten up: "Now Sun Chuanting is already taking care of one thing and losing the other, and the troops in his hands are even a problem to defend Tongguan, in order to concentrate these troops, he has emptied the defenders of other towns in Guanzhong - Guanzhong is already a no-man's land, and after entering Guanzhong, not only will we not become a lonely army, but Tongguan will become an isolated city." ”

"Hopefully, as the general expected."

……

October 6, in front of Tongguan City.

Xu Ping and the guards have come to the city of Tongguan, behind him is the Tongguan Valley Road connecting Shaanxi and Henan, the guard battalion is stretched into a long snake formation, and the vanguard is slowly marching out of the valley road.

"It seems that Sun Chuanting also expected my plan," Xu Ping pointed to the two wooden fences in front of Tongguan City, behind which were dense Ming army flags: "He doesn't plan to let our army enter the customs." ”

"Guanzhong is already empty, if you can't block our army here, then what else will Sun Chuanting fight? He could only die in a lonely city. Chen Zhe, who was accompanying Xu Ping, said that these two wooden fences and Tongguan were combined to form a complete defense system, blocking the way into the pass in front of the army: "However, the defenders of Tongguan are already extremely weak, if they have a little spare strength, they should hold the valley road and prevent our army from approaching in front of Tongguan." ”

"The rabble, the servants and the people who have just arrived, with their backs to Tongguan and these wooden fences, can still have the courage to fight, you are Sun Chuanting, do you dare to let them guard the valley road in the wild?" Xu Ping looked back at the slow-moving guards battalion, his face showed some melancholy, the favorable terrain in front of Tongguan was in the hands of the Ming army, and there was not enough space for the breaking army to deploy its troops, and there was not even enough space for the army to set up camp.

"Maybe it's really not a good idea to attack Tongguan head-on," Xu Ping muttered to himself, he was also the first time he had seen Tongguan, and he didn't expect the terrain here to be so favorable to the defenders: "I take it for granted. ”

Although he was looking forward to the telescope, Xu Ping still couldn't see the specific deployment of the Qingming army, so he turned around and waved his hand: "Let's get closer." ”

Running all the way to the defense system of the Ming army with the guards, Xu Ping's mount raised the telescope again and carefully observed, looking for the weak links in the defense of the Ming army.

"This is really a hammer deal," Xu Ping looked at it seriously, and said with emotion: "In such a narrow place, if we fail to break through the fence of the officers and soldiers at once, our front army will have no place to retreat, and the rear army will not be able to go up." ”

"So we will definitely be able to break the fence of the officers and soldiers," Chen Zhe said when he heard this, "otherwise the army will have to spend the night in the valley road." ”

"If artillery is deployed...... Xu Ping and Chen Zhe discussed carefully, the places available for the deployment of the invading army are too limited, if too much artillery is deployed, there will be no place for commandos and infantry, if there is no artillery deployment, you can only hope that the infantry will break through smoothly, otherwise the army will be crowded together and beaten in vain.

……

The Ming army behind the fence had been watching nervously at the small group of cavalry in front of them, and when they saw these people running up to them and observing themselves unscrupulously, the Ming army became even more restless.

Seeing these twenty or so black-clothed camp knights gathering together to discuss for a moment, and then turning around and pointing at themselves in a big way, finally a Shaanxi militia shouted: "Lao Tzu is gone." ”

After this Ming soldier who had been a farmer in the neighborhood a few days ago suddenly let out this shout, the extremely nervous companions around him all turned their heads to look at him, and many of them trembled at the sudden shout.

"I'm gone!" The Ming soldier shouted again: "Pay rent and rent every year, you can't leave a pound or two of grain, hundreds of thousands of troops have been beaten to the ground, and you have to let Lao Tzu come to death!" ”

After saying this, the soldier threw down his weapon, but although he said this, he did not dare to flee immediately.

But this complaint caused a chord:

"Damn, that's a good point!"

"I'm not doing it anymore."

These soldiers of the Ming army, who rushed to the army, came to know that on the opposite side was a powerful enemy who swept hundreds of thousands of officers and troops clean again and again; They also know that most of their own side are vigilante groups that have not even touched a few thousand guns; They also knew that if they died on the battlefield, the imperial court's taxes next year would not be less than a penny.

"Lao Tzu still has an old lady to raise."

"Lao Tzu is gone."

Finally, after someone threw down his weapon, he began to turn around and leave, and after the leader appeared, the complaint turned into chaos, and more and more Ming troops began to take up their posts immediately, and the crowd that poured in front of the second fence started to overturn it, and a large number of Ming soldiers took the way from the gap.

……

"What's going on?" Chen Zhe watched in amazement as the Ming army formed a surging crowd and receded in front of his eyes like a flood of falling tide.

Xu Ping also stood for a while, until he saw that the gates of Tongguan had been opened, and a large number of Ming soldiers poured out of the city, chasing the footsteps of people outside the city and rushing to the interior.

"Let the Guards Battalion move at full speed, leave the artillery alone, run and march!" Xu Ping turned around and shouted to a guard, then drew his saber and drank as he rode forward: "Officers and soldiers are bombing the camp, follow me to seize the door." ”

More than two dozen black-clothed cavalrymen rushed towards Tongguan like a whirlwind, Xu Ping rushed to the first fence first, jumped through a low position, and followed him by Chen Zhe and other henchmen officers and guards.

As he ran, Xu Ping stared closely at the gate of Tongguan, for fear that it would suddenly close in front of his eyes.

One hundred steps,

Fifty steps,

Twenty steps,

Ten Steps,

It's here!

Xu Ping rushed into the city gate cave like a gust of wind, his sword held high in the air, ready to slash at any resistance.

However, Xu Ping did not encounter the expected resistance, after seeing this group of black-clothed knights rushing forward, the Ming army that had escaped from the city gate fled frantically at a faster speed, and the Ming army that had not yet rushed out of the city gate fled to the city.

"The city is broken!"

"The city is broken!"

The Ming soldiers who fled back to the city let out desperate shouts, and some Ming soldiers who had not had time to flee saw the cavalry that appeared in the city like divine soldiers, and they knelt on the ground, or raised their free hands to the sky, or held their heads.

The sound of pleading sounded around Xu Ping, and hundreds of Ming troops who were soft on the ground surrounded him in the middle of the open space behind the city gate hole, who had just rushed into Tongguan:

"Spare your life, spare your life."

"The villain has surrendered."

"Be merciful!"

Xu Pingchi returned to the door and glanced in the direction of the valley road, the infantry at the forefront of the Guards Battalion had already pushed to the first fence and was running towards their positions, and behind them was the banner of the First Cavalry Team. The cavalry of the Guards Battalion, which had already rushed out of the valley, had caught up with their infantry companions and were trying to overtake them from the flank.

At the same time, the sound of artillery came from afar, Xu Ping knew that some of the Ming troops on the city wall had not fled, and some of the elite of the Ming army had recovered from the shock and began to resist, and after the cannon sound, Xu Ping saw a cloud of dust rising next to the infantry of the Guards Battalion who had just passed through the wooden fence.

"Take control of this gate and receive the army into the city."

Xu Ping quickly gave another order, and once again rode his horse back into the city, Chen Zhe and the others had already driven the surrendered Ming soldiers to the wall. After jumping onto the avenue leading to the center of Tongguan, the guards behind Xu Ping also jumped on their horses and whipped their whips, and followed closely behind Xu Ping again.

Running straight along the avenue to the front of the Tongguan Yamen, a group of Ming troops here had already heard the sound of artillery and the shouts of the chaotic Ming army, and saw the black clothes of the intruding army suddenly appear in front of them, and almost all of them were stunned at once.

When Xu Ping rushed to the gate of the Yamen, a Ming soldier who was the first to react suddenly raised his gun and put on a posture of battle, and at this time Xu Ping had already swung his saber heavily, and the Ming army fell to the ground with a scream.

"Those who sit are spared death!"

The guards who rushed over with Xu Ping shouted in unison, and at the same time, they all raised their swords and cut down those Ming troops who showed a posture of resistance.

Riding a horse into the yamen, Xu Ping galloped to the gate of the yamen before slamming the horse, and the mount suddenly stood up, and then Xu Ping let go of the reins, and a pair of front hooves of the mount fell heavily on the gate, making a sound like thunder - the gate of the Tongguan Yamen was slammed open.

Sun Chuanting was angrily asking a standard camp guard who was out of breath in the lobby, and after hearing the uproar in the city just now, this standard camp guard rushed to report the big thing before Sun Chuanting sent someone out to find out the news. Yang Wenyue, Bai Guangen and other civil and military officials in the lobby also didn't care about the etiquette at this time, and gathered around Sun Chuanting to listen to the report anxiously.

A loud noise from the gate interrupted their questioning, and Sun Chuanting saw a knight in a black military uniform, wrapped in a tight black cloak, and wearing a felt hat with a certain black feather on his head, riding slowly in. The horse's hooves stomped on the stone slabs of the lobby with a heavy thumping sound.

The knight didn't seem to see the dense and brilliant armor of the Ming officers and soldiers in the lobby, and walked leisurely until the middle of the hall, at this time, Bai Guangen and other Ming generals and standard camp guards all unsheathed their swords, as if facing a great enemy, they used them to compare with this knight, and everyone involuntarily moved their feet, forming an arc centered on this knight. The knight turned a blind eye to the swords and swords in the room, and rode a horse to Sun Chuanting to look at him condescendingly.

Then Sun Chuanting heard a question:

"Sun Chuanting, Sun Inspector? Under Xu Ping. ”

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