"Brother, go with peace of mind, brother knows that you are very bitter in your heart, although you killed the unchaste mother-in-law with your own hands, but you have always thought that you are a dwarf in your heart. You often drink alone and are often in a daze inexplicably, I know all this, I just can't bear to say it. Brother, you are not ashamed, you have been innocent all your life, although there is no vigor, but you are a downright man......"

The man by the moat was chattering, and at the same time, he wiped the corpse with a cloth towel dipped in the water of the river, and carefully wiped the corpse's face and body clean, moving slowly and reverently.

"Who said Brother Ling wasn't vigorous enough?"

The sudden voice of a person behind him startled the man, and when he looked back, he was startled, and stammered and pointed at Song Nan and said, "You...... You're not...... Not the ...... Song ......"

"It's me, after a long time, how is Brother Zhu?" Song Nan nodded.

This man is Zhu Changping, after the end of the war, he looked for the body of his brother Zhu Changshun under the city, because there were too many corpses, it was late, and he did not find it for a while, early this morning, when everyone came to clean up the corpse on both sides of the city wall, Zhu Changshun found the body that fell down with a Tartar in his arms, and Zhu Changping carried the body out of the city, intending to clean it by the moat and find a place to bury it.

Song Nan respectfully bowed to Zhu Changshun's corpse lying on the ground, reached out and picked up a wet cloth on the ground and squatted down to wipe Zhu Changshun's corpse, Zhu Changping hurriedly said: "Lord Song, how can you work to wipe my brother's body." ”

Song Nan didn't raise his head, carefully wiped Zhu Changshun's face, and said in a low voice: "Why can't you?" Brother Ling died for Lingzhou, and he is a loyal and righteous person admired by everyone. Just now you said that Brother Ling has not been vigorous in his life, but in fact, Brother Ling has already done vigorous things. This alone is enough to draw a happy end to his life. ”

Zhu Changping crossed his hands and said silently, and said for a while: "What my lord said is also true, yesterday on the city wall, I have seen the most glorious time for my brother." The elder brother was stabbed seven or eight times, and still jumped off the city wall with a Tartar soldier in his arms. When I found his body in the morning, he was still clinging to the corpse of the Tartar soldier with both hands, and his fingers were clasped into the flesh. It took me a lot of effort to break it up. ”

Zhu Changping's voice choked. Song Nan nodded slightly, kept his hands on it, sorted out Zhu Changshun's corpse, and then got up and untied the cloak behind him, and slowly wrapped it around Zhu Changshun's corpse.

"My lord, how can I use your cloak?" Zhu Changping shouted.

Song Nan waved his hand to stop it, got up and said to Wang Yong who was standing aside: "Get a coffin to bury Zhu Yishi, set up a monument in my name, and when the battle is over, the names of all the people who participated in this battle will be engraved on the stone tablet and set up outside Lingzhou City to offer incense." ”

Wang Yong nodded and said yes, in this chaotic time, if the dead body is either burned or buried hastily, it is already a luxury to have a coffin, Song Nan wants to give this Zhu Changshun a coffin, and he has to set up a monument to bury it, which is already a great honor.

"Thank you, my lord, the villain thanked Lord Song for his great kindness on behalf of his brother." Zhu Changping knelt down and kowtowed, tears rolling in his eyes.

Song Nan helped him up and said softly, "I heard that you initiated the matter of the people assisting in defending the city this time. Although you are a scholar, it is very good to have such courage. Anyway, what do you want? I can help you. ”

Zhu Changping thought for a while and said: "My lord, the villain has always regarded the adult as a role model, the adult used to write from Rong, and now the world is powerful, and the villain also wants to follow the example of the adult to make meritorious contributions in the army, and I don't read this book." I wonder if adults can make it happen? ”

Song Nan smiled and said, "Don't you read?" Don't you hear that 'everything is inferior, but reading is high'? Don't you want to be an official, but in the future, you will be a squire and a scholar, and you will be a scholar in the cabinet? ”

Zhu Changping shook his head and said, "I just want to be an adult." ”

Song Nan smiled and nodded: "Okay, you deal with your brother's aftermath first, if you still have such thoughts in the future, come to me." ”

Zhu Changping knelt down and kowtowed to thank him, and when he raised his head, Song Nan had already led the generals into the city.

In the battle of Lingzhou, the losses on both sides were huge, more than 13,000 soldiers and civilians in Lingzhou were killed and wounded, and nearly 40,000 Tartar troops lost more than half. Originally, the loss of the Tartar soldiers and horses was not large, but it was a pity that the 4,000 soldiers and horses were left behind in the city when the bald man could escape, and he was annihilated by the soldiers and horses of Jiang Bin and Xu Tai who rushed over, and the prisoners were all alive, and 4,000 people were lost in vain at once.

The bald man who escaped from the east gate of Lingzhou led the army to run dozens of miles away, and after dark, he walked north all night, and only rested in a ravine when people were sleepy and tired. After counting the soldiers and horses, there were only 16,000 people left, and the supplies and grain and grass had been exhausted.

He now has no fighting spirit to go east, originally out of Lingzhou to the east, he has two directions to choose, he can go east to attack the nearest town for supplies, or he can go north to the bank of the Yellow River to wait for the opportunity to cross the Yellow River; But in fact, he can only choose the latter, his soldiers and horses are getting fewer and fewer, and staying in the territory of the Ming Dynasty for one more day is more dangerous for destruction; Now he didn't think about anything, he thought that he could hurry back to the territory of the Tatar State north of the Helan Mountains, and return to the Hetao steppe. He had already sent someone to cross Helan Mountain to report to his second son, asking him to collect the last soldiers and horses to gather in the north of Ningxia Town to break through the siege by himself, so crossing the river and attacking Ningxia was his last choice.

But the 16,000 soldiers and horses at hand have no fighting spirit, how to cross the Yellow River is another problem, the current problem to be solved is the problem of the stomach, there is no time to collect supplies in Lingzhou City, after a hasty escape, to this uninhabited hills and valleys, there is no chance to loot supplies. Besides, he didn't want the Ming army to find out. If the problem of this stomach is not solved, everyone has no strength to walk, so how can we talk about crossing the river to fight?

Looking at the soldiers lying on the ground lying crookedly, there was no reason to scold them for maintaining the appearance of Tatar warriors, a group of people who had experienced many fierce battles and fled all night hungry, no matter how brave they were, they could not keep their military appearance neat. For the first time, Bald Meng Ke regretted his action of waving his army to attack Daming. He came with more than 100,000 troops in his hands, and no one could stop him for two months, how did he become like this in just half a month, and the soldiers and horses in his hands were less than 20%, and he was facing the encirclement and suppression of the Ming army.

His own strategy, tactics, equipment, etc. have not been considered meticulously, and the preparations made for this in the past few years can be said to be insufficient, but he still got such a result; When the Ming army was stabbed in the battle of Tumubao, hundreds of thousands of Ming troops were like scattered sand, compared with the first of the year, their own troops, wisdom and equipment are not only a step higher, why is it such a result?

"Song Nan, this is Song Nan, are you the little rabbit cub on the grassland my nemesis of baldness? When I met you, I couldn't cast a spell on the baldness? Eternal life, sue me, is that so? "The bald man screamed silently.

The bald man finally agreed to kill the horses to satisfy his hunger under the advice of his generals, and these horses were the closest companions of the Tatars and their comrades on the battlefield, but at this time, their comrades could only be regarded as things in the womb; The horses were put down on the grass, the snorting of knives stabbing into the belly of the horses, and the mournful screams of the horses before they died, made the entire Tatar army silent. These horses never thought that the people who usually treated them like brothers would stab their knives into their bodies, did they forget that they carried them on their backs and waded through mountains and rivers to charge, and used their bodies to cover their swords at critical times? If the war horse has thoughts, he will definitely sigh: People are not trustworthy at all.

The movement of the Tartars has always been under the control of the scout cavalry of the Ming army, in fact, Song Nan wants to know only one point, whether the Tartars are going east or north, if they go east, they will fight to the death to harass the interior, until they are encircled and annihilated, and if they go north, they will still have to make a fuss about Ningxia Town. Even if the Tartars were hit hard, after the decisive retreat of the bald and fierce Ke, they still had 16,000 soldiers and horses, which was not a small number, and the soldiers and horses of the current two guards in Ningxia Town still could not resist.

Jiang Bin's Zhenwei battalion had already left for the Xiya Ferry, which was the only crossing of the river, and the Tartar soldiers and horses had to seize the Xiya Ferry if they wanted to cross the Yellow River, and the first thing to do was to increase the troops at the Xiya Ferry. Song Nan could not order the pursuit immediately, all the soldiers and horses were in a state of fatigue, and the rapid march of six or seven days would make the Ming army who arrived first tired enough, and it was unwise to chase the four-legged Tartar soldiers and horses; Song Nan's intention was that since the target of the Tartars was still Ningxia, he would increase his troops in Ningxia Town and wait for work. If you want to run back to Tatar, you must make a break in Ningxia Town.

In view of this, Song Nan ordered the Shenshu battalion and several guards and horses in the northwest who were still on the way to speed up to Lingzhou, and at the same time sent Xu Tai to lead his troops across the West Cliff to Ningxia Town for reinforcements, and sent Jiang Bin to strictly guard both sides of the West Cliff. A large number of cavalry sentries were sent to investigate along the Yellow River.

Song Nan had a worry in his heart, although the Yellow River is wide, but this is the middle of summer, and it is not the middle of winter, if the Tartars want to cross the river, maybe find a place where the water is gentle to swim across, a well-trained soldier and horse can never be stopped by a river, not to mention the soldiers and horses who escaped for their lives, their creative power is infinite.