On the road after dawn, Yang Qian'er insisted that Song Nan did not want to send someone to Yansui Town to hire a carriage to ride, Song Nan actually did not want to expose his whereabouts, so he asked Wen Songzhang, the small flag official of the Thousand Households Office of Ningxia Town, to lead the way, and asked a personal guard to follow them to inform Jiang Feng of the Thousand Households of Jinyi Wei Thousand Households in Ningxia Town, and the rest of the people slowed down along the official road.

At this time, it has entered the territory of Shaanxi Dusi, within the jurisdiction of the border town, and the border guards of each town are particularly heavily guarded, and two hundred Jinyi guards have crossed the border, and it is indeed difficult not to expose their whereabouts. But fortunately, the border army generally did not interrogate the Jinyi Guard's whereabouts, and when it was reported to the Chief of the Wei Bureau, these people also turned a blind eye with an attitude of not wanting to provoke. However, along the way, there were people from the Jinyi Guard Yamen who heard that there were Jingzhong Tiqi passing by and rushed to meet, and they were prevaricated by a personal guard Baihu on the grounds of chasing important criminals, but Song Nan, Wang Yong and Hou Dabiao did not even show their faces.

After four days of slow travel, the group arrived in the east of Lingzhou through Ningxia Houzhen, and Dong Dacheng, the yamen of Lingzhou Jinyi Wei Qianhu, who had been notified in advance, secretly went out to greet him, and met with Song Nan and others in a small town named Chongxing with dozens of families in the east of Lingzhou.

Lingzhou Jinyi Wei Thousand Households is the old Jinyi Wei Yamen, and the Thousand Households Office of Ningxia Town in the north of Lingzhou is the newly opened Thousand Households Office after Song Nan took over the Yamen, and Jiang Feng of the Thousand Households of Ningxia Town was also transferred from Lingzhou, which was originally a hundred households under Dong Dacheng. But Dong Dacheng knew about Jiang Feng's report to the general office, in fact, Jiang Feng had discussed the matter with Dong Dacheng before the report, but it was only because the incident occurred in Ningxia Town that Jiang Feng came forward to report.

Dong Dacheng is a man with a short stature but a strong force, he and Song Nan have only met once, but Song Nan has a good impression of him, when he cleaned up the black sheep in the yamen at the beginning of his tenure, the thousands of households in five thousand households in Shaanxi were transferred and dismissed four, only this Dong Dacheng remained unmoved, and he was very competent.

After the greetings were over, Song Nan asked straight to the point: "Has Lord Yang Yiqing, the general system of the three sides, returned to Lingzhou?" ”

Because the trilateral general government is located in Guyuan City, but recently moved to Lingzhou City to deal with the affairs of Ningxia Town, so Song Nan has this question.

"Back to the commander, Lord Yang is still in Ningxia Town, Lord Yang's temper is tough, even if he is not doing well in Ningxia Town, his net worth has been threatened several times, but he still insists on staying in Ningxia Town and not returning. A few days ago, when the incident occurred in Ningxia Town, he went to Ningxia Town and persuaded Jiang Qianhu bitterly, but Lord Yang just didn't listen. ”

Song Nan nodded and said: "Lord Yang is this temper, otherwise he would not be so hated by some people, since Lord Yang is not in Lingzhou, I don't have to go to this Lingzhou City, so as not to disturb the local officials, we can set off and rush directly to Ningxia Town." ”

Dong Dacheng nodded and said: "The boats at the West Cliff Ferry have been prepared, and I have ordered someone to block the left passage, so that adults can cross the river at any time." ”

Song Nan secretly praised in his heart, this Dong Dacheng is not obvious, but things are very slippery, he knew that he would not stay in Lingzhou, and he made arrangements in advance, with such subordinates, it is much more convenient to act.

Without further ado, Song Nan ordered to go north immediately, go around Lingzhou to the northwest, arrive at the Xiya Ferry at dusk, cross the Xiya Ferry at night, and camp in the hills on the opposite bank to rest.

After dawn, everyone climbed down the high cliff beside the West Cliff Ferry Port, what is surprising is that in front of them is an endless Pingchuan Wanli, although the sky is gloomy, but you can see the majestic mountains in the northwest across the sky, the top of the mountain is snow-capped, like a giant covered in white veil, Song Nan knows that it is the northwest barrier Helan Mountain.

There is no big city in the past, in addition to villages and small towns, it is in the Ningxia town in the southeast of Helan Mountain, from the geographical location, Ningxia is called the first fortress in the northwest is not an exaggeration, the town has Helan Mountain in the northwest as a barrier, and the Yellow River in the southeast is a moat, like a nail nailed in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, blocking the footsteps of the Tartars to the south.

Although there are many Helan mountain passes, relying on the Helan peaks to extend the city and relying on the mountain pass to establish the pass fortress to make it an impregnable fortress, and the battle of the pass is the strength of the Ming army, which is nothing less than a nightmare for the Mongolian soldiers, and even if it breaks through the pass, there is also the Yellow River moat, it is even more difficult to break through.

But even so, the Tartars' attack on Ningxia Town almost never stopped, and the pressure on defense was also very large, the reason is very simple, since the Chenghua years of the northwest war situation was unfavorable, after the loss of the Hetao Plain, Ningxia Town became a horn into the Hetao Plain, and the Gansu Town in the west, the two horns are like the two horns of a bull inserted into the north, becoming the thorn of the Tartars who want to get rid of it quickly.

In recent decades, Ningxia Town has experienced dozens of battles every year, which is a testament to this.

In view of this, the Ming Dynasty invested manpower, material and financial resources in this area of Ningxia Town is also a huge one, just the construction of the Great Wall, Ningxia is surrounded by three Great Walls in the northeast and west, the two Great Walls in the northwest rely on the peaks of Shizui Mountain and Helan Mountain, and the east stretches for hundreds of miles from Dingbian to Yanchi.

The Great Wall defense line surrounded on three sides also shows that the pressure on Ningxia Town is huge, and the Tartars will attack Ningxia Town from any of these three sides.

In the military force is also invested in a large number of soldiers and horses stationed, the northwest of the current pattern is a general system of three governors and nine general army pattern, in the Ningxia town area gathered Ningxia three guards nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses, and not far away from the Lingzhou Wei and Ning Wuwei two guards can be reinforced at any time, if the end of the war, there will be five guards and 30,000 horses into the battle overnight, it can not be said that it is not important.

Such an important border town, there is no room for the slightest mistake, and now the occurrence of a qiē in Ningxia Town makes Song Nan feel very uneasy, as the chief officer of the three sides, Yang Yiqing, is the absolute boss of Jiang Han, the chief soldier of Ningxia Town, but he has been repeatedly attacked in Ningxia Town, although there is no evidence to prove that Jiang Han did it, but to say that it has nothing to do with him, it is absolutely impossible.

Moreover, the eighteen Jinyi guards under the jurisdiction of the Jinyi Wei Thousand Households in Ningxia Town died unexpectedly, which is also unimaginable, what happened here?

On the night of the tenth day of the Lunar New Year, after nine days, Song Nan and his entourage finally arrived outside Ningxia Town, under the black night sky, the tall and majestic city wall of Ningxia Town lay in front of them, the torches on the city head were bright, and the soldiers patrolling the city came and went, which was very strict and tense.

After going through layers of checkpoints, Song Nan and others entered the city, Jiang Feng was already waiting in the city gate, and hundreds of Jinyi Guard Banner School surrounded Song Nan and Hou Dabiao and others to go to the Jinyi Guard Yamen on the west side of the Drum Tower in the north of the city.

The news of Song Nan, the commander of the Jinyi Guard in the capital and the commander of the Shenshu Battalion, entering Ningxia Town, also entered Jiang Han's ears for the first time, but Jiang Han was not in a hurry to meet Song Nan, he had not dealt with Song Nan, in his opinion, Song Nan was just a milky child, and he had no intention of paying tribute to Song Nan at all.

Ningxia Town's Jinyi Wei Thousand Households actually has only 500 people, because it is a newly built health center, it was originally only a hundred households, so the manpower expansion is not in place for a while. Although like all the yamen in the city, they have a foothold in the south of the drum tower without the north gate, but it is obvious that the yamen here are much shabby. The place is cramped, and the Yakou is only in a narrow alley, and there is not even a decent military camp.

Fortunately, most of the Jinyi guards under the jurisdiction of the yamen are locals, who are on duty during the day and go home to sleep at night, but they can't help but look casual.

Song Nan also knew that this was a helpless move, although the Jinyi Wei Yamen was a strong yamen, but in Ningxia Town, the military was greater than a qiē, and the general military office here and the subordinate guard yamen were the bosses here, and the other yamen were all foils, and the special geographical location led to the particularity of power, which was a common problem in almost all border towns.

Yang Yiqing also knew the news of Song Nan's arrival for the first time, and when everyone had just entered the yamen to rest and was busy arranging accommodation in the narrow back hall, the flag school came to say that Yang Yiqing, the chief official of the three sides, had come to visit in person. Song Nan hurriedly greeted him at the entrance of the yamen, standing at the entrance of the yakou, only to see that in the dark streets and alleys, several lanterns were swaying, and the footsteps of more than a dozen people made the residual snow in the alley creak, and under the light, Yang Yiqing appeared under the lights at the entrance of the yamen wearing a simple cotton robe.

Song Nan looked at Yang Yiqing at first glance, and sighed in his heart, Yang Yiqing was thin and simply not human, when Song Nan met him in the capital, although Yang Yiqing was also thin, but his cheeks were full of energy, how could he be like this now, his black cheeks and thin body were like a pair of bones with a cotton robe, which looked sympathetic. In less than two years since he came to the northwest, Yang Yiqing seemed to be seriously ill, and he seemed to be ten years old.

Before Song Nan could speak, one of the people next to him burst into tears, Yang Yiqing was startled when he heard the voice, opened his eyes and stopped and asked, "Is it Kou'er?" ”

Yang Ko'er jumped out from behind Song Nan, threw herself into Yang Yiqing's arms, hugged Yang Yiqing tightly and shouted, "Daddy, daddy, it's me, I'm Kou'er." ”

Yang Yiqing looked excited, looked down at Yang Qian'er's face, two lines of turbid tears flowed down, and he couldn't cry.