The night is deep, there is a porcelain oil lamp burned in the upper left corner of the study, imitating the style of the stacked porcelain lamp of the old Xishu, the lamp can be filled with water in the lip hole, and it is the most suitable to save fuel.

The young man sat alone at the table, reading a secret letter that he was already familiar with.

He has been to the rich Jiangnan Road, where the rich and noble courtyards, every household, the long canopy is high and shining on the pearl and green, quietly showing the peaceful atmosphere of the prosperous era. He has also been to the world's best Tai'an City, every festival, every tile ridge in the capital is placed lotus lanterns, the lights are extended, the candlelight is brilliant, as if the army marches at night, the most spectacular. He had seen the stars of the town at night, and the lights were faintly lit. Passing through large and small villages again and again, it is an unexpected joy to occasionally see a very faint light.

He put down the letter, got up and bypassed the bookcase, came to the window, and gently pushed open the window, the letter was not an important military document, but Li Yanchao handed over a private secret letter to Beicheng, but did not handle the Beicheng military room, but sent it directly to the desk of his young vassal king's study.

The first lieutenant of the Right Cavalry Army used a very heavy pen, and the ink stains penetrated the back of the paper.

Li Yanchao did not put trivial words into writing, only two simple sentences, "Lu Dayuan should not be damned! No one in Beiliang should regard the annihilation of the entire Left Cavalry Army as a disgrace to the border army!"

In fact, Li Yanchao doesn't need to write this letter at all, how Lu Dayuan uses his troops and behaves, he Xu Fengnian is far more familiar with Li Yanchao, a military general who can make Xu Xiao still mention it many times in the Qingliangshan Council Hall when he is old, how can he be an ordinary person? Xu Xiao from 800 old soldiers out of Liaodong, 40 years of horse career, to the end of the 300,000 Beiliang iron cavalry, once served his command of the military generals how many, died a lot of people on the battlefield, and finally survived a lot of people, Lu Dayuan, the root of the Miao Hong, the Manchurian battalion cavalry general, the older generation of Xu family generals almost everyone knows, from Yan Wenluan Chen Yunchui to Zhou Kang Yuan Nanting to Liu Jinu Li Mofan, all of them have been quite sorry for Lu Dayuan who suddenly left the Beiliang Border Army, that regret is not inferior to the departure of Wu Qi and Xu Pu two meritorious generals。

Before Lu Dayuan left the mansion and rushed to the battlefield, Lu Dayuan privately visited the study and found Xu Fengnian, and had a heart-wrenching conversation. After all, re-serving as the commander of the First Army, Lu Dayuan is not as relaxed and casual as he seems, on the contrary, Lu Dayuan, who grew up with the Xu family iron cavalry, compared to Li Yanchao and Ning Emei, a new generation of young and strong generals who rose outside the Liangzhou Pass, and compared with these young generals who are accustomed to the saying "Northern Liang Iron Cavalry Armor World", Lu Dayuan is more familiar with hard fighting, and it can even be said that the pain and suffering of the year are engraved in his bones. Therefore, Lu Dayuan must make all his words clear in front of the young vassal king, and Lu Dayuan must reassure Xu Fengnian and reassure himself.

In that face-to-face long talk, Lu Dayuan thought that the two cavalry armies, with more than 60,000 cavalry, would definitely not be able to safely roam in the increasingly cramped area outside the pass, unless the left cavalry retreated to the north of Qingyuan Military Town, and the right cavalry army went straight to the east of Chongzuka Military Town, in the northeast and southwest, completely stretching out the battle line, there would be real breathing room.

Although the left and right cavalry armies can still contain a certain number of Beimang cavalry, to put it mildly, the Beimang barbarians don't need to dispatch the main force, and they can just throw it to our two low-end cavalry armies as long as the number of people is sufficient, and then we will have to lie on horseback and watch the excitement? I Lu Dayuan is a big old man, how to lead troops to fight, I learned from the generals little by little, but I also consulted with Xu Pu Wu Qi or Yuan Zuozong Chen Zhibao, but I always feel that in the end it is not as easy as a donkey and not like a horse, it is not as easy as my original set, and in the end I only believe that once the cavalry is put into the battlefield, it is necessary to defeat the enemy's most elite field main force in one go, and it must not be a small loss because of a big loss, and retain strength for the sake of the so-called overall situation, otherwise in a difficult war with a huge disparity in strength, the more the battle drags on, you will find that it can only be more and more difficult to fight, and you will lose inexplicably, and you will be more unwilling。 Someone has to fight a difficult battle, otherwise everyone will retreat again and again, and they can really only wait for death, what is the difference between the old fox and wolf cubs in the Yamen of the Liyang Military Department in the early years?

Xu Fengnian stood at the window, the autumn air was full of lonely lights, and after opening the window, the coolness was even heavier.

Xu Fengnian turned around, the man was sitting on the chair in front of the bookcase, his appearance was mediocre, if he hadn't appeared in this study, but stood on the field in Guannei, he would probably be regarded as a cropper facing the loess with his back to the sky.

"Lord Wang, when I and the right cavalry army send troops at the same time, I will take the lead in accelerating the northern assault after the two armies stagger the distance, attracting Murong Baoding's troops to gather the main force, if nothing else, Murong Baoding will definitely hear the news and ask Wang Yong for reinforcements from the Aquarius Prefecture, and it is even very likely that the Rouran Iron Cavalry will be temporarily dispatched in order to respond to the Winter Thunder private cavalry, please rest assured, even if my left cavalry is under siege, it will still kill at least 45,000 elite horsemen!"

"Lord Wang, bother you with one thing, go back and help me tell He Laoshuai that I'm sorry, tens of thousands of border soldiers entrust me, but I can only take them to death, my conscience is uneasy, but I have to do this, Lu Dayuan is waiting for Lao Shuai and his old man underground, and when the time comes, he will be beaten and scolded! However, it is best to let me wait for another ten or eight years, haha, when the time comes, Lao Shuai estimates that he will not have much strength to beat people, and after a few strokes, I will be reincarnated. ”

After the man got up, he looked at the young vassal king who was also standing up at that time, and said in a deep voice: "If it turns out that I Lu Dayuan did something wrong in the future, no one will have to bring wine to the grave in the future, and I won't be able to drink that bad wine...... Provided, of course, if I still have a grave. ”

The two walked to the door of the study together, and Lu Dayuan suddenly asked, "Lord Wang, do you say that in a few decades, will anyone remember us?"

Xu Fengnian shook his head at the time and said, "Not necessarily." ”

"What the fuck...... Haha, forgive me, I'm just a rough man, and a dog can't spit out ivory in his mouth. ”

"It's okay, Xu Xiao too, I'm used to it for a long time. ”

Everything is vivid, and those words still seem to be echoing in my ears for a long time.

Xu Fengnian pressed his hands on the window, leaned forward, and rushed to the battlefield with a mortal heart Lu Dayuan, did not confess his last words, if he said that there was, he would be too familiar, His Royal Highness the Prince of the World when he was young, he could often hear it, but he just changed his name.

Xu Fengnian slowly turned his head and looked at the door of the study.

The man named Lu Dayuan finally clenched his fists and said: "The last general, Lu Dayuan, the former cavalry general of the Manjia Battalion, and the current deputy commander of the Left Cavalry Army, ask the general for battle!"

Xu Fengnian's lips moved slightly at that time, and those two words came to his mouth, but he never said them.

Quasi-Battle!

Xu Fengnian's hands suddenly pressed down, and the masonry along the window under his ten fingers shattered.

Xu Fengnian took a deep breath and waved his hand to the dim place outside the window, signaling that the dead man in the water room over there should not pay attention to it.

He walked back to the bookcase and pulled out a piece of paper from a yellowed soldier's book.

The content written on the paper is a man who participated in the construction of the North City outside the Guan, and some broken words to his wife and children who have left his hometown in Lingzhou, this letter said that after the autumn here, the weather is not cold, the sewn mille-feuille shoes are enough, and the wear is not bad, and the clothes brought to the North City at that time are also warm enough, and they also met two fellow villagers of Longqing County, Lingzhou, and they will go to the town outside the city to drink two sips of wine, and the price is cheaper than that in the Guannei. I heard that we won the battle in Liuzhou, and the city wall of Beicheng is very high, and the northern barbarians will definitely not be able to fight for a year and a half, so she and her two sons can relax, as long as they receive the wages sent every month in the future, it means that the side outside the border is very peaceful and there is no war. In the end, the man asked his daughter-in-law not to worry about money, and not to feel distressed, the most important thing for the child to study.

The letter was sent to a certain place in the Central Plains, which is the ancestral home of men.

This piece of paper was just copied, and the real family letter was naturally sent long ago.

After the man arrived outside the customs, he was illiterate, so he couldn't write family letters, so he asked a poor scholar with no name in the bazaar to help write it.

Xu Fengnian looked down at the thin piece of paper spread on the bookcase by means of the dim light.

When the last letter was sent, it was just after Lu Dayuan left Beicheng.

On the first day of Lu Dayuan's re-entry into the border army, Beiliang Fushuifang had already investigated the situation of this man in the small town of Longqing County, Lingzhou for more than ten years, and sent it to the Beicheng Mansion one after another, and then summarized it and placed it on the desk of this study. After that, Lu Dayuan's every move in the rejection of Beicheng or the Left Cavalry Army, and the spies in the water room were recorded and archived in detail, Xu Fengnian did not stop this, it was by relying on these seemingly impersonal dark rules that Bei Liang died a lot less on the battlefield. However, on the matter of Lu Dayuan asking someone to write a letter to his family, Xu Fengnian made a special trip to the execution room and asked the leader in charge of related matters in the water room not to interfere.

Only this letter, Xu Fengnian repented and let the spies in the water room intercept the family letter, but it is a pity that the elderly scholar who is in the family letter business has also left the border with the team. If you really want to find it, you can find it with the power of the water house outside the gate, but Xu Fengnian thought about it and gave up, feeling that since he had the handwriting of the family letter in his hand, it was not difficult to forge a letter every month with his calligraphy attainments and skills.

But Xu Fengnian regretted it again at this moment.

Because he found that he couldn't lift the pen at all, even if he picked up the pen again and again, he fell behind, and he didn't know how to write the content of the family letter after a month.

Xu Fengnian stood up, walked out of the study, and came to the courtyard.

Still unable to completely calm down, Xu Fengnian's figure rose from the ground, swept to the horse path on the south wall of the North City, jumped lightly, and sat cross-legged on the wall.

Soon there was a sound of iron armor shaking in the distance of the road, and when the armor soldiers found that it was actually the young vassal king who had come to the city, they quickly and silently retreated, although there was no exchange of ears, but each found the heat in the other's eyes.

Xu Fengnian clenched his fists, propped himself on his legs, sat north and faced south, looking at the night in the distance.

Sitting all night.

Before dawn, he quietly returned to the mansion, and not long after he sat down in the study, a spy in charge of the torture room came to report that Mao Shulang, Cheng Baishuang, Ji Liu'an, and the three masters of southern Xinjiang were about to jointly arrive at the sparsely populated town market in the south of the city.

Xu Fengnian asked him to prepare a horse, and after spending most of the hour dealing with the military and political affairs that had gradually accumulated on his desk last night, he went out of the city alone.

It's not that he made a special trip to greet the three Central Plains Grandmasters, Xu Fengnian mainly wanted to see the bazaar, and there wasn't much reason for him.

Xu Fengnian rode to the town, turned over and dismounted, led the horse to move forward slowly, wine shops, teahouses, inns, and those scattered shops of all colors, of course, they couldn't leave without long feet, but the business was extremely cold, and some shops simply closed their doors, which was also reasonable, and three or four thousand people were evacuated in just half a decade, not to mention that a large number of people who participated in the construction of the city also began to return to their hometowns in Guannei in batches under the escort of the local garrison. Xu Fengnian walked all the way, and there were sleepy-eyed shopkeepers squatting under the eaves yawning, and his business plummeted, and he was so busy that he was busy. There were merchants who shouted loudly for the servants to move their goods to the south, looking worried. There is a woman in the Qinglou who lies on the railing and looks up at the red lantern when she has nothing to do, it is rare to get up so early. There are sturdy darts who escort Lingzhou's rare objects here, and they only need to walk the darts safely, so they ignore the sad face of the shopkeeper.

Xu Fengnian suddenly saw an elderly Taoist priest pushing a cart to the south at the end of the street, skinny as wood, weak arm strength, and a linen sign for business was obliquely inserted on the tricycle, from top to bottom, meticulously written with two lines of italics, "Ziwei Doushu, Bagua Liuyao, Acceptable", "Face to face, Qimen Dunjia, okay". Xu Fengnian smiled knowingly, this fortune teller was really honest enough, leading the horse forward quickly, bending down to help push the car.

The white-washed robe on the old man's body is nondescript, anyway, Xu Fengnian has traveled to Liyang Beimang, and he has never seen it, which is not surprising, the Taoist temple that can get the degree from the imperial court and the official government, the style of the Taoist robe made is quite exquisite, and it is forged and sold without authorization. The person in front of him is obviously the same as His Royal Highness the Prince of the World, who was extremely down-and-out back then.

The fortune teller, who was barely called a Taoist priest, squinted his eyes and said: "This son must be from a rich and noble family, if the poor Taoist is expected to be good, he is still the seed brother of his father who has real power outside the customs." ”

Xu Fengnian said a word, and said with a smile: "Sir, I saw that my mount was able to follow the master by himself after loosening the reins, it should be the Beiliang war horse, and the big war is imminent, I dare to take the horse to hang out here, so I deduce that I am the seed brother, right?"

The fortune teller suddenly smiled far-fetched, and the little fairy demeanor that he had managed to squeeze out disappeared and was beaten back to his original form.

Xu Fengnian sighed with emotion: "It's not a secret, in my early years, I was similar to my husband, in order to make a living, I pretended to be a ghost, set up a stall and became a fortune teller, my husband is stronger than my will, and I have a tricycle." ”

Xu Fengnian quipped: "But to be honest, Mr. is really good enough to stand out from the crowd, can he have a business?"

The old man laughed, "Actually, it doesn't matter, the main way to make money here is to write letters to others, or sell some small peace charms folded on yellow paper, three pennies a piece, and the business is okay, when those Beiliang outsiders didn't leave, it was enough for me to eat meat and drink wine twice a day." Ordinary people like me, that is, ordinary people, when we ask the Buddha to worship the gods and Bodhisattvas and kneel down, we must first seek peace and stability. Then ask for marriage and ask for time. In the end, they will seek fame and wealth. Childe, do you think it's this rough reason?"

Xu Fengnian nodded and said softly: "The common people are actually using three pennies to ask for peace of mind, and Mr. is doing a good deed." ”

It seemed to remember those happy times of drinking wine and eating meat, the old man smiled, but soon couldn't help but indignantly said: "If our prince is more powerful, my business will still be good for a month, where did I think that so early to the northern barbarians to reject the northern city, blind I smashed the pot and sold iron to get this business, a big loss, this time back in the pass, life is difficult." ”

Xu Fengnian said with a smile: "That vassal king should really be scolded, what kind of martial arts evaluation of the great grandmaster, not to use fart." ”

Probably realized that the boy brother next to him is also a seed brother, and the rise and fall of the Xu family in Beiliang is closely related, walking the rivers and lakes, it is reasonable to say too much, and it is also a taboo to talk shallowly, so the old man quickly changed his tone and said by himself: "I can't say that, it's not easy for our prince, to support such a big pair of belongings, and the luck is not too good, and soon the Beimang barbarians will come over, and they won't even give a chance to fart, the prince and the border army are still ...... It's still not easy. ”

The old man probably couldn't make it up anymore, and he became more and more embarrassed, looking constrained, and the strength of the cart was a little weaker.

Xu Fengnian lightly increased his strength and said with a smile: "Sir, what he said is a bit against his will, don't worry, although I am the seed brother of Beiliang General, I can also listen to other people's words, and I don't care about good or bad words." Of course, it's happier to hear good things. ”

The old man and Xu Fengnian pushed the cart southward together, and soon they were about to cross the bridge and cross the river, the old man looked back and took a deep look at the majestic city wall, and suddenly stomped his feet and said: "Some words, it is really uncomfortable, that is, Gongzi, you take me to refuse Beicheng to ask for guilt, and the little old man has to vomit quickly!"

Xu Fengnian smiled bitterly: "Well, it's not a good thing to keep accurate." Even though the gentleman said, I didn't hear anything. ”

The old man smiled, straightened his waist, turned to the north, and stretched out his finger to point to the city that rejected the north, "Childe, I have heard a lot of rumors recently, all of them say that our prince is too bold, and there are so many veterans who don't need it, but we want to use those little dolls whose hair has not grown, how to fight this battle? Who won the first Liangmang battle? Who won the first Liangmang battle? Not General Liu Jinu Liu of Liangzhou Hutou City? Not General Wang Lingbao of the Liuzhou Dragon Elephant Army? Isn't it relying on the Youzhou gourd mouth lying bow crane Luan Xiaguang, so many captains in the three cities who died in battle? Doesn't it rely on our greatest snow dragon cavalry army in Beiliang and the two heavy cavalry armies that have been built for many years? If you want me to say, don't look at how many victories Liuzhou has fought before, but it's really at a critical juncture, young man, it's unreliable!"

The old man turned his head to look at the young man's side face and asked, "Childe, what do you think?"

Xu Fengnian looked into the distance, "The old gentleman has some truth, but the world is wonderful, and there are some things that make sense, but they don't necessarily make sense." ”

The old man's eyes widened, "Childe, are you a scholar or a seed brother? Why can't you understand what you say?"

Xu Fengnian sighed, "I can't afford the title of scholar." It should be true to say that I am a seed brother, I just grew up drinking wind and sand, smelling horse manure and listening to drums. ”

After daring to express his heart, the old man seemed to be in a much more relaxed mood, and rarely joked: "In addition to not being very clear about the reason, the son is actually quite easy to talk and reasonable." ”

Xu Fengnian said helplessly: "Old man, is this a compliment or belittlement?"

The old man laughed and said, "Childe just pick good words and listen to them, it's definitely right." ”

Xu Fengnian was also a little lighter, the haze between his eyebrows gradually faded, and he smiled knowingly: "I have been taught." ”

The old man didn't let Xu Fengnian help push the car onto the bridge, pushed the cart to the south alone, lowered his voice and said to himself: "If the general is still alive, it would be good, where do the Northern Barbarians dare to come to our side, Beiliang will not fight at all, and now that he has won the battle, it is not that so many people will die." I heard that there are 300,000 stone tablets behind Qingliang Mountain, all of them are vain things, how can it be better to live than to leave a name after death, right?"

Xu Fengnian stood in place, silent.

The old man would definitely not guess the identity of the young man, and he would not think that a martial arts master would help him push the cart, so he continued to babble and complain: " If you want me to see, since the Central Plains Imperial Court is not a good thing, instead of our Beiliang border army Erlang died outside the pass, and not have a good reputation, it is better to open the door directly and let the Beimang barbarians enter the customs, as long as the two sides are said in advance not to bump inside and outside the Beiliang Dao Pass, everything will be fine, let the group of white-eyed wolves in the Central Plains suffer hardships, and our Beiliang people will live our stable life, save more worry and effort. I just can't see the young vassal king, otherwise I must persuade him not to be rash, listen to the old man's advice, and stop fooling around with heroes. ”

Xu Fengnian squinted and raised his head, and the autumn wind ruffled the young man's sideburns and hair.

Maybe it was bitterness, maybe it was a guilty conscience, maybe it was both, so from beginning to end, the young feudal king never spoke.

On the south side of the bridge, the back of the old man with the cart is getting farther and farther away.

Xu Fengnian seemed to remember something, and shouted at the top of his throat: "Old man, don't be in a hurry to go south, and don't forget that within twenty years, the three post roads leading from Beicheng to Liangzhou Pass can be borrowed by the people, and there is no need to take a long detour!"

The old fortune teller, as if he had really heard the shout, paused slightly, presumably signaled to the young man that he understood, and then continued south.

After the completion of the feudal mansion, the study will receive confidential spy reports from inside and outside the customs every day, the water room and the eagle room are all there, the Beiliang spy has always been divided into three classes according to priority, the spy that was originally qualified to be sent to the desk of the study is only the A-word espionage, but the young feudal king wants a little more, not the second-class B-word, but the last C-word espionage, in fact, the military and political significance is not great, but this new Liang King is used to relieve tension, although the two rooms must have been screened to a certain extent, it is impossible to really send all of them to the study of the domain, but the number is still large, mostly involving the situation of the Kannai Academy or the public opinion of the scholars。 The content is varied, and there are many radical remarks by some young readers, and the young feudal lord has never just browsed and not criticized it.

There is a comment in it, which was copied by the young feudal prince himself, as a daily opening for self-reflection.

"Virtue is thin and respectful, wisdom is small and big, strength is small and heavy responsibility, such a mediocre vassal king sits on the border, and the Beiliang border army will be defeated!"

The army is pressing, the father's last wishes, the bitter cold hometown, the imperial court is constrained, the splendid Central Plains, the innocent people, and the way of heaven is overwhelming.

It's all a burden, layered on top of each other.

On the north side of the bridge, the young man, who had actually been taking the word for the crown for less than four years, slowly squatted down, squatted by the river, dusted off a piece of licorice, and put it in his mouth to chew gently.

Mouthful of sweetness.