The development of the war situation in the northwest was in full swing, and under the guiding ideology of advocating an active offensive to drive out the invading enemy, Chang Ning, the newly appointed general of Pingyu, led the five guards of Gansu and the two guards of Yongchang Shandan to pour out of the nest on 28 April and launched a fierce attack on the invading Tartar soldiers.

The Tartar soldiers had never been afraid of the Ming army on the front, and the two sides fought a fierce battle at Huangshagang, 80 miles northwest of Gansu, and the number of troops invested in this battle was as high as 100,000, and the two sides invested more than 200 artillery pieces and more than 3,000 guns. Locally, it's almost a hot battle. The contest of instruments. However, what really worked was the fight of cold weapons, and after a short exchange of shots, the ten-mile radius around Huangshagang became a Shura field where the two sides fought face-to-face.

Chang Ning knew the importance of this battle, and before the war, he wrote a suicide note and read it in public, vowing to die on the battlefield and never back down.

The attitude of the commander determines the attitude of the army, when all the Ming troops who participated in the war knew that the battle was either victory or death, and there was no retreat, their combat effectiveness was staggering, the number of both sides was equal, the Ming army was slightly disadvantaged, after a day and a night of hard fighting, the number of dead and wounded on both sides had exceeded 10,000 people, and when it was stalemate, the Tartar soldiers took the initiative to withdraw their troops and fled in disgrace.

In view of the fact that Wan'an County, west of Huangshagang, was a city occupied by the Tartars, it was unwise to pursue and attack the city after a series of fierce battles, Chang Ning ordered to stop the pursuit, clean up the battlefield and count the results, and sent the victorious soldiers to the capital overnight.

Two days later, the battle report of the Battle of Huangshagang was rushed to the capital for 800 miles, day and night, and the Manchu civil and military forces were thunderous. In the early dynasty, the crowd was excited, and they congratulated Lu Wan, the secretary of the military department; Because it is said that when Lu Shangshu advocated taking the initiative to fight, some people said that the Tartars had tricks and opposed the war, but now it turns out that the Tartars have no follow-up soldiers and horses, and some people's worries are completely groundless.

Zhengde accepted the congratulations of the ministers, and saw Song Nan standing alone on the side thoughtfully, and couldn't help but sigh for Song Nan in his heart, Song Nan was almost perfect in his mind, and everything seemed to be smooth with him, and his construction was always to the point; And this time, Song Nan's judgment was wrong, if it was according to Song Nan's proposition, where would this big victory come about?

"The decree was passed on, and Changning was crowned as a second-class prisoner, and the military department of the meritorious personnel in this battle immediately gave commendations and promotions, and the dead in the war were given generous mercy. Ordered Chang Ning to drive the Tartars out of my Ming Dynasty in one go. Be sure not to be soft-hearted. Zhengde retracted his gaze and looked at the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military beaming.

"The minister obeys the order, the minister has ordered Chang Ning to eliminate the evil, and he can't let the Tartar soldiers and horses in the territory recuperate, and he must rectify the soldiers and horses to chase and fight, I believe that the Tartars will be driven out in the near future, and the area around Jiayuguan in Suzhou will be recovered, please wait for the good news." Lu Wan's voice was loud, full of energy, and his chest was high, but this time he showed his face for a while.

Song Nan stood aside, sighing secretly in his heart, this group of people was completely in the dark and unaware, it has been two days since the victory in Huangshagang, and the news of the imperial court is far from being as fast as the Jinyiwei intelligence transmission system set up by himself; Jinyiwei has already set up a special intelligence transmission agency two years ago, and asked a special person to raise harrier eagle carrier pigeons and other fast channels to transmit news.

Song Nan is now carrying a small bamboo tube in his pocket, and there are only a few words on it, but if these words are read out by Song Nan in the hall, the custody of this court will immediately turn into a pot of porridge.

These words are: Gansu Town has been lost, and Changning died in battle.

Song Nan didn't want to say the news at this moment, because the news from the Ministry of War should arrive in the afternoon or night, before that, let Zhengde and the ministers be happy, because what they have to face next is this bad news. Of course, this move will not affect the battle on the front line, because the Ming army in the area of Liangzhou, Fanzhen, which is adjacent to Gansu Town, has already learned the news, and the generals of the border army naturally know what to do at this time, and they will immediately make a defensive posture without an order from the imperial court.

When he went down to the court, Lu Wan also deliberately walked in front of Song Nan and said with a mocking tone that he couldn't hide: "Song Hou Ye, it's not necessarily a good thing to be too smart, this time I fortunately didn't listen to you, otherwise this big victory would have been in vain, don't you say, Song Hou Ye." ”

Song Nan looked at him silently, and suddenly felt that he was very pitiful, so he couldn't bear to tell him the news secretly, and only said lightly: "Lord Lu is wise, this time Lord Lu has an overview of the overall situation, and the emperor and the cabinet scholars must be impressed by Lord Lu." Congratulations to Lord Lu for finally proving himself. ”

Lu Wan laughed: "Do I still have to prove myself?" I was originally born in the army, and fighting wars is my old profession at all. Unlike some people, who rely on good luck and win a few battles without knowing how many pounds and taels they have, this kind of person needs to use facts to hit him back and teach him to shut up. ”

Song Nan stood still and smiled, as if he didn't understand what Lu Wan meant by Sang scolding Huai; When Lu Wan strode away, Zhang Lun, who was silently paying attention to Song Nan on the side, stepped forward and patted Song Nan on the shoulder and said, "Song Nan, you don't need to be as knowledgeable as him, you have the face of a villain." But then again, what's been wrong with you lately? I've always wanted to talk to you, what the hell is going on? ”

Song Nan sighed, looked at Zhang Lun and said with a smile: "Uncle, don't you have confidence in me anymore?" There are inevitably some times like this in life, as the saying goes, the tiger falls in Pingyang and is bullied by dogs, even if I am bullied by dogs, I am also a tiger. As soon as I opened my mouth, all these croak dogs were going to fart. It's just that I don't want to scare them right now. ”

Zhang Lun sighed: "If you don't want to say, I won't ask; It is said that you once opposed taking the initiative, saying that the Tartars had a conspiracy and tricks, and now it is no wonder that Lu Wan is presumptuous, and when your judgment is also wrong, you tell me that in the current situation, you should pretend to be dumb. ”

Seeing Zhang Lun's sincere concern, Song Nan couldn't bear to keep him in the dark, reached into his arms, took out the bamboo tube and stuffed it into Zhang Lun's hand, and said in a low voice: "Uncle, I'll give you an exclusive message, but after reading it, destroy it immediately, I want to make everyone happy for a few more hours, because the fast horse that delivered this news is probably already halfway through." ”

Song Nan stepped out of the hall and walked down the steps, Zhang Lun opened the bamboo tube suspiciously, took out the small pieces of paper rolled together and only glanced at it, and suddenly his expression changed drastically, and he almost screamed.

"How so, how so?" Zhang Lun muttered to himself: "Song Nan, Song Nan, wait for me." ”

Zhang Lun waved his hand and chased out, and went down the steps outside the hall, but when he saw the crowd retreating from the court, Song Nan's back was always alone, and in the twilight of spring, he pulled out a long shadow, and his steps were firm and powerful.

"If you are really right, how many secrets do you still have in your heart, and what kind of person are you?"

Zhang Lun frowned, leaning on the stone fence at the entrance of the hall and muttering to himself, and the heavy gate of the Fengtian Hall behind him was slowly closing with a rumbling under the impetus of several little eunuchs.

……

At the time of the third watch, a fast horse went straight into the city from Fuchengmen, and immediately the soldiers ran wildly with tokens in their hands, and went straight to the Yamen of the military department outside the Daming Gate. During the war, the yamen of the military department also rotated day and night, and after Lu finished standing on the high case, there were a large stack of documents and maps on the table, and he was very busy.

"Lord Lu, Northwest Emergency." The officials rushed in from outside the hall and reported loudly.

"Bring it in." Lu Wan looked up from the pile of old papers, and saw a cavalryman who was following behind the official to deliver the letter, covered in dust and with a depressed face, and looked crumbling, when he saw the soldier's eyes, Lu Wan felt that something was not quite right for no reason. It was a kind of frightened look when reporting bad news, and Lu Wan could often see this kind of flickering look in the eyes of the officials under him.

The soldier took out a sweaty half-wet piece of letterhead from his personal armor and presented it, Lu Wan frowned and said, "Since it is a male. text, why is there no sealed fire sign? Is there a rule? ”

The soldier knelt on the ground and kowtowed, "Lord Yushangshu, the villain doesn't know." This letter was personally ordered by General Changning Chang to deliver the villain to the capital, and the villain galloped halfway for a day and two nights, and did not check carefully at all on the way, and the official post along the way only changed horses to drink water, I don't know the reason. ”

Lu Wan snorted coldly, shook the letterhead and unfolded it under the candlelight, squinted his eyes and watched carefully, only a few lines of it, then he screamed, suddenly stood up, and almost fell down with a stumbling foot. The guards on the side quickly stepped forward to grab his armpit and hold him up, and shouted in their mouths: "My lord, my lord, what's wrong with you?" ”

In a panic, one of the candlesticks fell, and the flame of the candle burned a pile of males on the desk. Wen, several scribes slapped and beat to extinguish the fire, Rao is so, the case is already a mess.

Lu Wan came to his senses, held up the letterhead in his hand and trembled and shouted, "This ...... What the hell is going on? What really happened in Gansu Town? What is Chang Ning doing? ”

The guard fell to his knees, and suddenly whimpered: "It's over, Gansu Town is over, General Chang is also finished, when the villain left, there were already Tartars everywhere; It's over, it's all over. ”