Zhou Bowen listened to Tang Mu's vivid learning of his hometown accent, and was a little stunned for a while, he had been away from his hometown for more than two years, and his accent had changed, but it was not as authentic as Tang Mu's hometown dialect, Zhou Bowen's eyes were red: "My lord, have you been to the villain's hometown?" ”

Tang Mu smiled: "Before going north, I set off from you, Yuntai Mountain." ”

Zhou Bowen immediately replied: "The little ones are from Yuntai Mountain." ”

Tang Mu asked a few of the local features and towns he remembered, and found that Zhou Bowen could answer most of them, and he also felt that this guy was captured by the Tartars, and he could still live until now.

Wu Guogui rested for a while, the dizziness had disappeared, he ate something again, and soothed a lot, so he said to Zhou Bowen: "Listen, we are on the order of the general to come to Liaodong to catch the Tartars." You have to catch a few real captives and go back to the errand, is the Zhuangzi where you were originally far away from here? ”

Li Laiheng also said: "You were captured from your hometown by the Dongjiao, and you have been bullied for a few years, you must hate them, you take us to arrest them, not only to help us with the errand, but also to take revenge, wouldn't it be the best of both worlds." When we retreat, we will take you with us, and now there are ships coming and going between Yuntai Mountain and Liaozhen, and when the time comes, can we send you home? ”

As soon as Zhou Bowen heard these three people say this, he immediately agreed, but after the excitement, Zhou Bowen's eyes were a little more embarrassed.

"What's the matter, being enslaved by the East and raising a servile nature? If you do not obey, cut off your head. "Wu Guogui has a lot of contact with Dongyu, and knows that many Han people have been slaves for several generations and already have servility.

Zhou Bowen immediately shook his head and said, "No, no, no, the villain doesn't."

It's just that it's not the time to catch the real captives, the adults don't know, and now the real captives in Zhuangzi have all been transferred to Shengjing from above, and some have gone to Jinzhou. The villain escaped because the supervision was not strict, and you want to catch the real captive, I'm afraid you can only catch some women and children. ”

Li Laiheng and Wu Guogui looked at each other, and what they said in their hearts was completely consistent with the information provided by the Oriental Trading Company. But they can't believe it because of Zhou Bowen's few words, even if the two believe it, they can't make a difference when they return to Shanhaiguan.

"You just lead the way, you don't have to care about what we catch!" Wu Guogui said sternly.

Next, Zhou Bowen was asked questions by Wu Guogui and others in a row, from the shape, distance and population of Zhuangzi.

In the end, Wu Guogui left five people in the cave, responsible for monitoring the surroundings, and also at night to contact the receiving ships for light signals, in the early morning began to march, more than 100 people walked for two hours, when the sky was bright, hid in the mountains and forests to rest, and continued to march in the evening, and arrived outside Zhuangzi on the same day.

The location of this Zhuangzi is somewhat special, it is located in the south of Fuzhou more than 20 miles, between the white flag and the blue flag station, from this Zhuangzi to the south, all the way to Lushunkou, are the cantonment of the Manchurian blue flag, north of Fuzhou and Gaizhou, is the cantonment of the Manchurian white flag, since the Nurhachi era, has been set the regulations, although in the Huang Taiji era, repeatedly to the west of Liaoxi to the immigrants stationed, but the general distribution is has been formed.

After arriving in Zhuangzi, Wu Guogui put the brigade outside, and only brought thirty elites into it, most of these people were Han Chinese, and there were a few Mongols, many of whom knew Manchu, and it was more convenient to act, and the elites who entered did not bring firearms, each with a knife, a bone or an axe, and wrapped their heads in black cloth, which was the dress of the fugitive slaves from Liaodong.

Because the Manchu Qing Dynasty practiced serfdom in Liaodong, they often sent troops to crusade against the surrounding areas, and they enslaved the grassroots too much, so there were many fugitive slaves, and some fugitive slaves gathered together to form an organization, which was dressed like this.

Zhuangzi is located on the side of the Fuzhou River, according to Zhou Bowen, there are more than 40 Manchurian households in this Zhuangzi, all of them belong to the blue flag, Niu Lu's real name is Erjin, but his home is not in Zhuangzi, only in the autumn harvest, conscription and other times to come, Zhuangzi has a management of Zhuangzi, but the largest courtyard belongs to Niu Lu in the distribution of the pool, that is, to lead the urging.

These forty or so Manchurian families had no less than 700 slaves, some of whom had already formed families, some of whom had not. Most of them were Han Chinese who were taken captive from Guannei, and some were from the dynasty and Xian.

"Don't enter through the main entrance of Zhuangzi, where several families have dogs." Zhou Bowen pointed to the gate in the distance and said in a low voice, he beckoned the people behind him, spared a bush, climbed over a ridge, entered the village, walked slowly, and arrived in front of the largest mansion.

As soon as Wu Guogui gave the order, someone climbed over the wall to enter, and then opened the courtyard door. Tang Mu and the others walked in, and they heard a voice from the low house on one side: "Who?" ”

One of Wu Guogui's subordinates scolded a few words, and said in Manchu: "Masters do things, what are you shouting about, go back to sleep, come out and cut your tongue." ”

There was no sound inside, and the oil lamp on the other side was immediately extinguished, this is a two-entry courtyard, leading the family to live in the inner courtyard, and someone climbed over the wall to enter and opened the door of the inner courtyard, but whenever someone woke up, he scolded in Manchu.

Therefore, until he controlled the various rooms and controlled the backyard to lead the family of nine, he did not disturb the others.

Wu Guogui had no intention of interrogating at all, and both men and women gagged their mouths with cloth and tied them up. There is also a man in the family, who is the brother of the leader, who broke an arm, Rao is resisted, injured one of Wu Guogui's subordinates, and was also captured.

All the way back to the hiding place, Wu Guogui and the other three found that among the captured people, they were all old and weak women and children, except for the disabled, the only man, who was also the age of the sixtieth birthday, had been tossed and had no breath.

The three of them discussed, so it was not easy to go back like this, so they went back to the cave first, and after nightfall, they rushed into a village in Zhengbaiqi, regardless of Manchuria and Baoyi, and arrested more than a dozen people, and then left by boat.

The captured prisoners were divided into two groups, half of which were handed over to Li Laiheng to take to the Shun military camp, and the other half were taken to Shanhaiguan for interrogation by Liaozhen and Dongfang Trading Company.

Li Laiheng and the prisoners were transported into the camp by carriage, and the return trip was by boat, and he fainted again, but the results of the interrogation on the road were all in line with the westward march of the troops of the whole country, so Li Laiheng did not dare to delay, and let people help him to meet Li Zicheng and the generals.

"Zhuangzi in Liaodong can no longer see men, some are also clothed slaves, all the Eight Banners have been drawn, they have also taken away armor, war horses and weapons, the Fuzhou area we attacked, in mid-March, people were transferred to the north, and the news was all yes, heading to Shenyang.

Manchurian women said that this was different from the past, and they used to go to Jinzhou mostly. Li Laiheng sat on a sheepskin cushion and reported to Li Zicheng and others, Li Zicheng gave him a pot of wine to press the tumultuous river and sea in his stomach, but it was of little use, and finally gave him a wooden basin, which he could vomit when he wanted to vomit.

In this way, the information provided by Li Zhaoji is correct, but the Dongyu is attacking with all his troops. It's just that we don't know where they're coming from. Li Zicheng said.

Li Guo replied: "There is no movement on the side wall of Jizhen, and the scouts who went out of the grassland to reconnoiter did not find anything unusual. But........ But I don't believe that much in their returns. ”

"Why?" Liu Zongmin asked: "Didn't you send your own brothers, can't you believe their words, you have to believe the words of a few Dongyu women." ”

Li Guo replied: "Ruhou, our brothers are all from the Central Plains, where have they been out of the border wall, they have seen Tartars, many people panicked as soon as they entered the grassland, and they couldn't see the road or the village community. Many people came back hungry, and besides, they didn't know much about the steppe tartars.

They don't know what the Tartars are like when they are ready to move. When we move troops in the Central Plains, we want to recruit strong men to transport grain and grass, is it possible that the Tartars are riding horses to drive the sheep to gather?

In my opinion, it may not be, the grain is dead, and when it arrives, it can be stored, and the cattle and sheep are living creatures, so many gather together and eat up the grass, will they not starve to death and rot? A group of people who don't know the steppe go to scout the steppe, and even if they see the signs of the Tartar movement, they may not know that it is.

They thought that the signs of a mobilization might not always appear. ”

"Did you send the Ming army scouts out?" Liu Zongmin said in his heart that he was in a hurry, and what Li Guo said was indeed reasonable, so he asked.

Li Guo said: "The elites in Jizhen and Xuanfu have been brought to the capital, and now they are all in the camp, and they are not included in their own camps, where can I send them." And those who are left behind, old, weak, sick and disabled, it is difficult to live, how can they go out of the border wall to investigate?

I can only mobilize troops and horses to occupy those key passes as soon as possible, and take precautions. ”

Li Zicheng immediately ordered the scouts who had dealt with the Tartars from the battalions to go out of the border wall to reconnoitre, and then said: "What I am worried about now is that Dongyu and Wu Sangui cooperate and rush in from Shanhaiguan. ”

Li Laiheng wiped his mouth, pressed the taste in his mouth with wine, and said, "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that it is more likely that Dongyu will come in around the grassland. ”

"Where do you start, but there is evidence?" Li Zicheng immediately asked.

Li Laiheng said: "Take the leader of the family as an example, the woman who led the urging and his brother said that the family had more than 40 large cattle, horses, camels, mules, and six carts, but this expedition only brought two carts.

But the big cattle brought more than twenty heads, and as instructed, they took three months' rations, and the people with the white flag said that they had prepared seventy days' worth of rations.

Imagine, if you go to Liaoxi and Shanhaiguan, you should use more cars and less livestock, after all, livestock can eat, and the roads along are official roads, and the cars are pulled by livestock, and there is a lot of baggage. On the contrary, the leader urges the family, which uses less cars and more livestock, which seems to be more in line with the line of walking the grassland.

Moreover, if you go from Liaoxi, you should go to Jinzhou to assemble, especially the baggage, but go directly to Shengjing to assemble, if you go to Liaoxi again, go back and forth, and walk hundreds of miles more. Moreover, when you go to the border wall in western Liaoning and arrive at the capital, you will be rich along the way, so do you need to prepare so much food?

So all kinds of signs show that Dongyu may be detouring the grassland, the grassland lacks roads, so the livestock load is more suitable than vehicle transportation, and it is the rainy season, the vehicle can not walk on the grassland, and because of the grassland, so the preparation of more food, and look at the map, into the grassland, from Shengjing is also reasonable. ”

Although Li Laiheng is young, he is reasonable and well-founded to convince everyone.

Li Zicheng was even more happy and said: "Lai Heng, you are young, not only are you bold and able to fight, but your brain is also very smart, what you said is very important." ”

Li Laiheng scratched his head, and was praised in public with a hot face, in fact, the interrogation was on the boat, he was seasick and dizzy, he didn't have the strength at all, it was Tang Mu who was interrogating, he was just listening from the sidelines, Tang Mu asked clearly, he listened carefully, and what he said was so reasonable.

"Ruhou, what do you think?" Li Zicheng looked at Liu Zongmin and asked.

Liu Zongmin thought about it carefully and said: "As Lai Heng said, it is indeed more likely to take the grassland all the way, as far as I know, the side wall of Jizhen is still guarded by the remnants of the Ming army, and the Dongyu broke the wall and came in several times, and the guard could not be defended, so it could only be fought by entering the pass."

But it takes a large army to appease Wu Sangui here, and soldiers and horses are needed to deal with the Dongyu over there, so we are a little lacking in skills. ”

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