"I really didn't expect Huang Xiaohou's swordsmanship to be so powerful," in the past two years, Xu Ping has not only practiced swordsmanship hard, but also swords and swords on the way from Jingshi to Luoyang to King Chuang, in the early days of the Guards Battalion, there were too few subordinates who had been trained or participated in actual combat, Xu Ping had also personally gone into battle many times, and even personally infiltrated the enemy city to face to face with officers and soldiers, that is, he no longer needed to participate in hand-to-hand combat after breaking through the Xuzhou army. Xu Ping thought that he had fought for the enemy's life many times, and with hard work, he should be able to fight with his opponent: "I have been so successful in the past two years, as long as I work hard, there is nothing I can't do." ”

"My lord, the people you have fought before are ordinary soldiers, and they are family members who are dead, and the children of the generals are so desperate that they either run away or simply surrender." Yu Shenhe never considered the practice of swordsmanship, at most it was used as exercise: "Huang Xiaohou Ye, these generals, all started to practice swordsmanship at a young age, we are just chasing after a lifetime, and we don't want to catch up with these children of generals, we are not necessarily the opponents of those half-hundred generals, my lord, you will die of this heart." ”

"After Hou Ye created the Immortal Army, General He once commented: Once this army is successful, there is no more General Zhang in the world. Indeed, as General He said, whether we or the new army, victory no longer depends on the bravery of one or two generals. Even if the first-class swordsmen such as General He, Huang Xiaohou and Jin Shentong are leading the new army on the other side, I am confident that I will fight them, because it is the training of soldiers and the experience of officers and non-commissioned officers that determine the outcome of the battle. But ...... "The wound is not too painful, every time he participated in a fierce battle in person before, Xu Ping would feel a sense of excitement that could not be brought by commanding in the battalion, and this time just now was no exception - this feeling has not been felt for a long time as Xu Ping's position is getting higher and higher, and he reached out to hold the hilt of his sword again: "But I am always a martial artist, when someone humiliates me, I still hope to use the sword to make the enemy pay back, after all, I still hope to be like my predecessors, and capture the flag on the battlefield." ”

"Do you know why you can't command your troops as much as possible?" Xu Ping's emotion made Zhou Dongtian disagree, the new army's requirements for staff swordsmanship are also passable, as long as they are better than the farmers who have not been trained at all: "The adults put too much energy on swordsmanship, if the soldiers and immortals thought like adults when they encountered the humiliation of their crotches, then what would happen?" ”

"Not necessarily." Xu Ping felt that with the background of Han Xinshi, it was estimated that he would be able to kill a little rascal with ease.

"That's a small can't bear it, then it's a big plan, anyway, my lord, you have the weight of an army, and in the past, this is the prince," Zhou Dongtian played the old tune, and he saw that Xu Ping had no further instructions for a long time, so he asked: "General Huang Xiao, do you really want to let him go?" ”

When Xu Ping put forward the challenge, he did have murderous intentions, and several subordinates around him knew about it, and Xu Ping's secret sword practice was also strictly kept secret from the outside world.

As soon as Zhou Dongtian saw Xu Ping draw his sword and make a move just now, it was very clear that he would never let Huang Xiwen get out of this camp alive again, but Xu Ping finally asked the dying Huang Xiwen to be sent to the military doctor for treatment. If Huang Xiwen is let go alive, then there is no need to expect Xu Ping's swordsmanship to keep the secret.

"I really planned to kill him just now," Xu Ping admitted frankly without concealment, but when he saw Huang Xiwen fall to the ground, Xu Ping found that he still couldn't do it after all: "If he dies in my hands in a fair sword fight, it will be fine, but today I am invincible, what kind of hero is it to kill a person who is seriously injured and has no strength to fight back?" ”

Zhou Dongtian looked at Xu Ping as if he was looking at a stranger, and he found that he couldn't understand more and more that this adult who was not much older than himself and was at least a prince of one side in theory. "Maybe the princes are so strange," Zhou Dongtian thought in his heart, he was only in his early twenties, and he had never heard of a prince using such a young man as his chief staff: "Maybe it's such a fickle person who can be a prince." ”

"My lord, the guy surnamed Huang also scolded the last general just now, my lord is magnanimous, but the last general doesn't have such a measure as an adult," Shen Yuncong heard that Xu Ping didn't plan to give an order, and saw Zhou Dongtian and Yu Shenhe looking at each other, so he said coldly.

"No way!" Xu Ping waved his hand: "Absolutely not!" After seeing Huang Xiwen fall to the ground just now, Xu Ping found that he still couldn't kill Huang Zijun's brother, and he couldn't kill Zhendonghou's son ruthlessly.

"My lord, are you here for Master Hou?" Zhou Dongtian asked, "What about your secret?" ”

"As Brother Yu said, Jin Shentong's swordsmanship, I probably can't catch up in my life, if I meet him on the battlefield in the future, I remember to hug my head and run away." Xu Ping laughed: "It's useless to keep this secret, so why break my own rules?" ”

……

Struggling to leave the barracks of the invading army, Huang Xiwen embarked on the journey home with other released prisoners of war, and after the battle with Xu Ping, Huang Xiwen never said a word, and did not mention the duel to anyone.

"A man in the market, he hasn't held the hilt of a sword for a few years in total," Huang Xiwen felt his chest breath suffocating every time he thought of that duel. As the son of the Marquis of Zhendong, he was defeated on the battlefield by a person from a civilian background, and was almost wiped out by a person from such a background when the number of troops was equal, which made Huang Xiwen's chest feel as if it was about to explode, and the failure of the duel added fuel to the fire: "I started learning swords at the age of five, not to mention the peasant market, even the general generals are far from being my opponents...... My father's martial arts are unparalleled, but a halfway monk, not only did I fail to take off his head with three swords, but let him and I dismantle so many moves......" Huang Xiwen still remembers his sarcastic words to Xu Ping at the time: "He can't even beat my sister, my sister can beat him all over the ground with five swords, and I was beaten by a person who can't beat a woman......"

The day after leaving the camp, the resentful Huang Xiwen fell ill in the army, He Feibao was broken in this battle, fainted in pain and was captured, is the only remaining commander of the Chizhuo camp, and is now the most senior general in the army except Huang Xiwen.

He Feibao had the same beard as his father, and he hugged Huang Xiwen, who was coughing up blood, and cried: "Brother Huang, Brother Huang, you have to hold on." ”

That night, Huang Xiwen died in the army with a stomach full of chagrin and wounds, and he still didn't say a word until he died.

……

Jingshi, Zhendong Hou Mansion

Laughter kept coming from the study, last month Lin Dan Khan's vanguard and the new army met in Shanxi, and they were broken three times in one day, and countless were killed, and the Mongolian army was angry. After Lin Dan Khan learned that the new army had entered Jin for reinforcements, he withdrew from the border overnight, and the news was transmitted back to Beijing, and the Son of Heaven was greatly pleased, and there were many rewards. However, this is not the reason why the Hou Mansion in Zhendong is so happy today, but because the eldest lady of the Hou Mansion took the children home to save relatives, and Li Yunrui also brought his wife and children to the door as guests.

Seeing the smile on Zhendonghou's face, the people in the study were secretly happy in their hearts. Over the years, Zhendonghou has exercised every day and maintained the law, unlike ordinary people who are nearly half a hundred years old and have an old dragon clock, Zhendonghou is still a prime of life, not to mention ordinary people, even He Baodao and others are also very envious of Zhendonghou's appearance. However, every time he asked about the way of health, Zhendonghou kept it a secret, and he also found a very far-fetched reason: what to say is because he had good nutrition when he was a child, so he looks young, don't say outsiders, even Zhendonghou's wife doesn't believe it - the guy who was so poor that he begged for food on the street when he was young, could he have eaten enough when he was young? He Baodao, a disciple of the general, has eaten meat every New Year's festival since he was a child, and a person who can eat two dry meals a day does not seem to be as young as Zhendonghou.

But since learning of Yang Zhiyuan's death, Zhendonghou seems to have aged ten years overnight, and he has not come out of the shadows until today.

"Master Hou, urgent."

An internal guard reported outside the door, and the room suddenly became silent, and now it was getting late, and there was no doubt that there must be an emergency military situation in the city, and the youngest son of Zhendong Hou walked outside the door to retrieve the letter for his father.

There were two letters, and the marquis of Zhendong didn't say a word, took the letter from his son's hand, and opened the one on it.

"The new army was defeated, more than half of the Taishan Battalion and the Xiliu Battalion were lost, and the Tianyi Battalion, the Chizhuo Battalion, and the military flag escaped from the ......" Zhendong Hou Nianxin's voice was quite calm, as if he was talking about inconsequential daily trivialities.

There was already a deathly silence in the study, and after Zhendonghou put down the letter, Mrs. Huang's voice trembled and asked, "What about Wen'er?" ”

Just now Zhendonghou read the names of some soldiers who were confirmed to have died, Huang Xiwen was not among them, and when he heard his wife's question, Zhendonghou coughed: "I was captured, but I am sure that I am still alive, and I specially sent a messenger to break into the camp." ”

The report given by the Taishan battalion was not sent immediately after the defeat, they delayed for almost ten hours, and waited until Huang Xiwen's whereabouts were found out before sending an urgent letter to the Beijing division.

There were a few small exhalations in the room.

Madame Huang folded her hands and looked up at the roof as if to thank the gods and Buddhas, while her daughter's pale cheeks regained a hint of blood, squeezing out a smile and making the same gesture behind her mother.

Li Yunrui hurriedly said: "Master Hou, Wenwen will be fine, Xu Ping...... He always has some incense with Hou Ye, you have some incense. ”

Zhendonghou nodded slightly, and then tore open the second letter, and without looking at a few lines, he heard Zhendonghou say in a low voice: "Wen'er has news, this is Xiaohe's handwritten letter." ”

The eyes of everyone in the room were focused on Zhendonghou's face, and he didn't speak, but held it and fell silent, Li Yunrui waited for a while, stretched out his hand across the chessboard, and asked Zhendonghou for the letter in his hand. Zhendonghou swallowed a mouthful of saliva and handed it to Li Yunrui, who looked at the solemn expression on Huang Shi's face, and his little thumb couldn't help but tremble slightly when he took the letter.

After reading the letter, Li Yunrui gently put it on the chessboard, and Mrs. Li asked softly, "What's wrong with Wenwen?" ”

Li Yunrui did not answer his wife's words, but looked up at Huang Shi: "Master Hou, mourn." ”

After hearing this, Huang Zijun, who was sitting behind Mrs. Huang and was already colorless, stood up and covered his face suddenly. As the footsteps and sobs faded away, silence returned to the house, and Zhendonghou finally sighed: "I want ***, enter the palace to face the saint." ”

……

"What can we learn from the victory this time?" Xu Ping convened all the commanders to deliberate: "I mean, what can we learn from not winning a big victory and letting the Taishan Battalion and the Xiliu Battalion escape?" ”

"We are going to strengthen the cavalry, and the cavalry wing of each battalion must be replenished as soon as possible."

Many commanders responded in agreement with this reply, and now theoretically each battalion should be equipped with a cavalry wing of about 1,500 men, but in fact it would be good to have 400 cavalry, and the most elite Guards Battalion and the Western Head Battalion had only 600 and 500 cavalry respectively.

This number is about the same as the number of cavalry belonging to the new army battalion, and in this pursuit of the Taishan battalion and the Xiliu battalion, the cavalry that broke into the camp was repeatedly repulsed by the more well-equipped cavalry of the new army, and it was never possible to completely slow down the retreat of the new army. In the end, the two isolated new military camps actually fled in an organized manner under the noses of the camp army.

Although a large part of this was due to the lack of baggage and the difficulty of continuous pursuit, many officers of the camp pointed out that if the cavalry that broke into the camp had an advantage, the two battalions of the New Army would not have been able to escape the pursuit range of the infantry in the camp, at least most of them would not have been able to escape the battlefield safely.

"Replenish the cavalry?" Xu Ping asked rhetorically, Sun Kewang had already rushed back to deal with government affairs, and none of the generals present participated in government affairs, and he had no understanding of the situation in the rear except for extorting supplies from Xu Ping on weekdays: "Gentlemen, even if we absorb the prisoners of the new army, we have to turn the Xuzhou battalion upside down, so that we can replenish the infantry of the seventh battalion at the end of November." ”

Xu Ping planned to wait for the Yellow River to freeze and immediately go north to attack the Beijing Division, he didn't know if the Xuzhou battalion had seen his order at this moment, but he believed that these supplementary requirements would definitely make Xuzhou complain again: "Cavalry, it is possible to replenish some, each battalion is full of wings, that is not to be thought of!" ”

"Then will we still have to watch the officers and soldiers escape?" Li Dingguo felt that a battalion of several hundred cavalry was not enough, and when he and Sun Kewang attacked the Taishan battalion before, it was also because of the serious shortage of cavalry, so it was impossible to force the new army to fight with the superior army under unfavorable circumstances; Further, the Forces nouvelles were always able to buy time for their infantry by delaying and disrupting the camp with well-equipped cavalry.

[Remember the URL . 三五Chinese网]