Shanxi Datong Mansion City, outside a house.

Chongzhen stood outside the door alone, grabbed the head of the shop on the door and buckled it.

After a while, the door opened lightly, and a head wearing a guara hat poked out of the crack in the door, and asked impatiently, "What is the matter with the door?" ”

Chongzhen handed over a letter and replied, "I'm sorry, it was Mr. Song who asked me to come here." ”

The man looked Chongzhen up and down, took the letter suspiciously and read it. After confirming that it was the master's handwriting, he immediately opened the door and put on a smiling face, "If you have eyes and don't know Mount Tai, please come in quickly!" ”

Chongzhen walked into the house indifferently, the courtyard of the house in Sanjin was deep, and the strange rocks and small rivers in the courtyard flowed, it seemed that this Song Xiance did not reap the benefits in the army.

Led Chongzhen into the main hall and sat down, poured tea and water, and the person wearing the guara hat introduced himself.

His name is Song Xiancai, and he is Song Xiance's younger brother, who stayed in Datong to look after the house for his brother's housekeeper and do some business along the way.

Chongzhen took a sip of tea and asked knowingly, "I wonder how Mr. Song plans to arrange it?" ”

Song Xiancai poured the tea in Chongzhen's cup and said: "The general said that he was laughing, how can I arrange it, the general has a request, and we will do our best to help." ”

It turned out that Song Xiance was prepared for danger in times of peace, knowing that he was a weak literati who was unable to protect himself in the troubled times. rescued Gu Ying, sold his favor, and wanted to arrange him in his own house as a way back. So in the letter, he solemnly told his younger brother that he must properly settle the person who came and meet all his requirements.

No one could have imagined that Gu Ying was killed by Chongzhen by mistake on the road, Song Xiancai didn't know Gu Ying's appearance, so Chongzhen naturally replaced Gu Ying.

Chongzhen is also gambling, betting that there is a poor information between the two brothers of the Song family. Seeing the other party's reaction at this moment, he said generously: "Then thank you Mr. Song for your kindness, I took in a few maids along the way, can I settle them together?" ”

"It's a trivial matter, I'm alone in the house and a few miscellaneous servants, and the room is up to the general to pick."

"I was in a hurry to leave Beijing, and I didn't bring any belongings...."

"This is five hundred taels, and I hope the general will laugh at it, if it's not enough, I'll take some more."

"The dry food I ate all the way has faded out of a bird...."

"The general comes with me, and I will greet the guys, and good wine and food will catch the wind for the general."

......

Thirty-five miles away to the west of Datong Mansion City, there are Yungang Ten Temples, which were built in the Later Wei Dynasty.

Its temple, together with the rise, two Lingguang, three towns, four protectors, five Chongfu, six boys, seven Nengren, eight Huayan, nine heavenly palaces, ten Doushi, so called ten temples. There are 20 stone Buddha niches repaired by Yuan Zai in the temple, and the central sitting statue of the third Buddha in the open air of the fifth cave is the most conspicuous.

It was originally a holy place for Buddhism, but there were no monks, only a group of red-clothed cavalry standing in front of the Buddha.

The leader is a wicked man, seven feet tall, with a leopard's head and ringed eyes, and a swallow's jaw and tiger whiskers. I saw him turn over and dismount, walk to the Big Buddha, and urinate in front of the Big Buddha.

While urinating, he jokingly said: "Amitabha, pee, pee." ”

The crowd behind him burst into laughter and cheers.

"The big boss is so stylish!"

"The Heavenly Star is mighty!"

The wicked man shook his body and said with a smile: "Brothers, smash these bald donkey statues for Lao Tzu, and leave no one behind!" ”

Not far from this group of people was a towering tree, and under the tree stood a few other people, dressed as Shunjun, but not in red, but in blue.

Several of them watched the red-clothed soldiers smash the Buddha statue, but they did not participate.

"Lord Jiang, this Tianxing is full of food and leisure, what are you doing smashing the Buddha statue." One of them asked.

The one who was called to be Master Jiang clasped his hands around his chest and replied with a look of disdain: "Yellow dog peeing." ”

As soon as these words came out, as if he had a sense in his heart, the evil man looked under the tree and shouted with a smile: "Ouch, we have left our Ming Chief Soldier Jiang behind, come on, come on, and be happy together." ”

The adult surnamed Jiang didn't move an inch, annoyed the evil man, strode forward, and asked, "Jiang Xuan, don't you want grandpa to give face?" ”

Jiang Hao gritted his teeth, the muscles on his cheeks were horizontal, and then he returned to normal, and replied: "I am the king of Chuang, but not you Zhang Tianlin." ”

"Ho, swing the king out and scare Lao Tzu? Do you really think of yourself as the commander of Datong? ”

The soldiers beside Jiang Hao couldn't stand the humiliation of the officials, and wanted to draw their swords.

A man with a plate axe in both hands walked up to Zhang Tianlin and said to the soldier, "Want to do it?" After speaking, he raised the big axe and was about to cut it, but was stopped by Zhang Tianlin.

Zhang Tianlin just wanted to humiliate and humiliate Jiang Hao in private, but he still wanted to give face to King Chuang, and said: "Zhang Heihu is messing around, Jiang Zongbing is our colleague, and he will cut it when he says it?" ”

"Fuck his colleague, the dog officer, if it weren't for King Chuang to keep him alive, Lao Tzu would have to chop him up."

"Hahahaha!" Zhang Tianlin laughed and led Zhang Heihu away and continued to smash the statue.

Jiang Hao raised his hand and signaled the indignant soldiers beside him not to say more, and stared at Zhang Tianlin's back for a long time.

Chongzhen finished the matter at hand, walked out of the Song Mansion and wanted to walk around, but Song Xiancai followed closely behind him and said that he would lead the way for him.

Chongzhen, who was attracted by enthusiasm, was amused, and after a lot of excuses, he got out.

Datong Mansion is one of the four towns in the border pass, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It has jurisdiction over four states and seven counties, thirteen guards, more than 800 forts, and more than 300 piers. Its place is the south of the Great Wall outside Shanxi, east from the border of Hebei and Jin provinces, and west to the northwest of Datong Fucheng. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was in Tuntian, which was the northwest barrier of Beijing.

Up to now, the guard military system exists in name only, and most of the fields are annexed by the gentry.

Since Chongzhen and his entourage arrived in Datong Fucheng, it was mid-April, turning from winter to spring.

This road is more than 500 miles, and all along the way are ruined scenery, fields are abandoned, and villages are abandoned.

Living people are rare, and dead bodies are everywhere.

Wild dogs are common in the road with red eyes, gnawing on human corpses, and dead babies often floating in the river, which shows the image of the end times.

At present, there are two serious problems, one is that it is estimated that Jianyu may or has already entered the customs according to time, and Datong is about to face Jianyu. Second, corpses are thrown everywhere without proper burial, and I am afraid that there will be another big epidemic when winter goes to spring.

Chongzhen was worried, thinking about countermeasures in his heart, and unconsciously walked to the door of the acting king's mansion.

"Captain, look at your face, but you just came to Datong?" There was a scholar who had just come out of the palace, saw Chongzhen, and asked.

Chongzhen's heart was interrupted, and he looked up to see that the plaque was actually the house of Zhu Chuan, the acting king, and replied to the comer: "Exactly." ”

The scholar had a friendly face, saluted Chongzhen, and said: "I am a clerk under King Zuojin, and I am doing things in this mansion, I don't know where Lord Duwei is?" ”

"A certain person is doing things for Lord Song in Beijing."

"But Song Junshi?" The man was amazed.

"Exactly."

"No wonder you are from Beijing. Since he is doing things for Mr. Song, he must be from the back camp, I have a friend who is also from the back camp, named Ke Tianxiang, can you know my brother? ”

As soon as Chongzhen heard this, he knew that this person wanted to test himself, and immediately replied: "A certain was originally a Jinyi guard of the East Factory, and he was fortunate to worship under the military master not long ago, so you don't know what Your Excellency said. ”

The scholar smiled and hurriedly apologized to Chongzhen, "It's a presumptuous, brother forgive." ”

"It's okay, there is still something important to do, and it is inconvenient, why don't you talk about it another day?"

"As it should be."

The scholar rubbed the wrench on his hand and watched Chongzhen leave.

After thinking about it, he casually summoned the soldiers guarding the gate of the palace and said something in his ear. The soldier nodded, changed his uniform, and followed in the direction Chongzhen had left.