Besides, the East Route Army led by Lu Wan stayed overnight, and entered the Jingzhou territory within a day.

At noon on this day, the soldiers and horses marched to a place not far from Jingzhou City, and Lu Wan ordered to stop advancing and bury the pot to make rice. After the meal, he summoned the promotion officer, the general officer, and the general officer of the third rank, and said to everyone:

"The marshal once explained that after the four-way army entered the boundary of Jingzhou, it was necessary to contact each other, agree on a time, and enter their respective designated places at the same time. I have sent out a horse lookout to make contact, and there should be information from all walks of life in the evening. Tonight they will set up camp here, and when they will be opened, they will wait for orders. ”

As soon as the generals heard that there was a long day of leisure, they hurriedly assigned their subordinates to bury pots in pots, those who set up tents, those who put sentry posts, and the rest of the people.

Lu Wan asked his own soldiers to send the promotion officer Dou Yong and asked him to be on duty in the military tent instead of him. He took three of his own soldiers, mounted fast horses, and galloped north.

Before sunset, Lu Wan returned to the camp alone. As soon as he entered the military tent, he ordered his own soldiers to pass on the officers above the general level to come to discuss the matter.

The generals were having dinner, and as soon as they heard the rumors, they put down the dishes and chopsticks and quickly came to Lu Wan's Zhongjun tent.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the horses sent out are about to return. In order not to disturb everyone's good dreams, I would like to set a time for tomorrow's opening before going to bed. So please stay here for a moment. Lu Wan succinctly stated his intentions.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a burst of footsteps outside the tent, and one of the pro-soldiers who went north with Lu Wan in the afternoon walked quickly into the Chinese army tent and reported breathlessly: "Report to the general, the small one has been in contact with General Qin Sen, and the Western Route Army has entered the boundary of Jingzhou, this is General Qin Sen's letter." ”

"Well, let's go down. Lu Wan took Chen Wenqi's letter, unfolded it and quickly skimmed it, and then put it in his arms.

"Report, the small one has been contacted by General Qin, and this is General Qin's receipt. "Another pro-soldier returned.

Lu Wan stretched out his hand to take the receipt, glanced at it, and put it in his arms.

After touching a stick of incense, the last soldier also returned to the tent, panting and saying, "Report to the general, the little one waited in the designated place for a few hours before waiting for General Chen Wenqi." Due to the inconvenience of the four treasures of the study, General Chen Wenqi ordered a small message to the general, saying that he would enter the south gate of Jingzhou City on time according to the time agreed by the general and would never miss something. ”

"Okay, let's go down and rest. Lu Wan glanced at everyone and said to everyone: "The four-way army has entered Jingzhou, and it will enter the designated place at the same time tomorrow to complete the encirclement of Jingzhou City." Now I order that all departments make food tomorrow on the fifth watch, and that they will be pulled out at dawn, and there shall be no mistakes. ”

"Yes. Everyone agreed in unison, quickly left the Chinese military tent, and went back to the camp to make arrangements.

After the generals left, Lu Wan told his soldiers to guard the entrance of the Chinese military tent and did not allow anyone to enter or leave. Then he quickly took off his battle robe, changed into a night suit, and quietly left the Chinese military tent and disappeared into the night.

In the middle of nowhere, a figure crept into a grove far away from the camp, saw that there was no one around, reached out and grabbed a gray-white carrier pigeon from his arms, and threw it upward, the carrier pigeon spread its wings, and in a blink of an eye it disappeared into the vast night sky.

Lu Wan hurried back to the Chinese military tent, and while changing his clothes, he ordered his own soldiers to rush to the Chinese military tent to discuss matters.

At this time, most of the officers had already fallen asleep, and they were all shocked when they heard the order, and they had just been discussing the matter for less than an hour, so why did they suddenly have to discuss it again? Could it be that they had discovered the enemy's situation? The officers did not dare to slack off and ran to the tent of the Chinese army. I saw Lu Wan holding the tent, although his expression was a little solemn, but he was not nervous at all.

Everyone was inexplicable and waited for Lu Wan to speak.

Seeing that all the people had arrived, Lu Wan took everyone outside the tent, pointed to the northeast, and asked everyone quietly: "Everyone, look, what is in the northeast?"

Everyone looked up to the northeast and saw a white wolf smoke, faintly rising in the air.

"Isn't this a signal from the marshal? Isn't it the Tatar army attacking Phoenix?" said Qian General Lu Zheng with concern.

Lu Zheng's words shocked the generals present, and everyone prayed that Phoenix City was safe and sound.

The promoter, Dou Yong, said angrily: "This must be something in Phoenix." Our four-way army gathered in Jingzhou City, Phoenix City was extremely empty, and the Tartars didn't take the opportunity to sneak attack? It is said that Marshal Xia Yaoxia is like a god in his army, and it seems that he is not worthy of his name. General Gan admonished him with his life, but he was not alert and blindly submitted to Lord Qincha. This is good, don't worry about the small, it will become a big problem. ”

"Dou Yong, don't slander Marshal Xia and General Chen in private. Lu Wan warned.

"If something really happens in Phoenix, it's not going to be good. In this way, not only will the three guards not be recovered, but Phoenix City may fall into the hands of the enemy again. Someone whispered.

Lu Wan laughed secretly, led everyone back to the Zhongjun tent, and saw that everyone was worried and worried, for fear of affecting morale, so he was relieved:

"Don't be nervous, the marshal didn't say anything about the beacon smoke warning before leaving, this beacon smoke must be a signal for the enemy to mobilize troops and horses, but no matter how the situation changes, I guarantee that Phoenix City is safe and sound. I have summoned you tonight to change the original deployment. ”

As soon as everyone heard that Lu Wan guaranteed that Phoenix City was fine, and saw that he looked calm, Fang Shi fell into a hanging heart.

"Dou Yong, Zhang Dong, tomorrow you two will lead the men and horses of your headquarters to continue to enter the east gate of Jingzhou City, cooperate with the friendly army to complete the encirclement of Jingzhou City, and when you hear the sound of friendly artillery, you can launch an attack on the city. Do you understand?"

"General Lu, aren't you going to the East Gate?" Dou Yong didn't answer the rhetorical question.

Lu Wan nodded and said, "I'll take the rest of the soldiers and horses around to the north gate." ”

"Isn't General Qin Zong at the North Gate?" asked Dou Yong in surprise.

"No, General Qin Zong has already returned to Phoenix City. ”

"No, didn't Tanma get in touch with General Qin Zong in the evening? General Qin Zong's reply is still in your arms. ”

Lu Wan smiled, took out the letter from his arms, handed it to Dou Yong, and motioned for him to read it for himself.

Dou Yong took out the letterhead suspiciously, unfolded it and took a look, where was there any reply? It was clearly a blank piece of paper.

"This ...... This ...... "Not only Dou Yong, but the other generals are all confused, and they don't know what medicine is sold in Lu Wan's gourd."

Seeing that everyone was looking at him with an inquiring eye, Lu Wan pursed his lips and smiled, and said: "Let's tell you the truth, the so-called General Qinzong has arrived at the boundary of Jingzhou, that is what I told Tanma to say, and this wordless letter was also prepared in advance." Not only that, General Chen did not come to Jingzhou, but went south to Lingzhou. The men and horses surrounding Jingzhou City were only our troops and General Qin Sen's Western Route Army. ”

"I see, no wonder the general dared to hit the Phoenix City package ticket, it turned out that the marshal had already arranged it. However, why do you want to be so mysterious?" Zhang Dong also interjected at this time, he was relieved and puzzled.

Lu Wan raised two fingers and said, "Suspicious soldiers." ”

"Suspicious soldiers, who are you suspicious?" Zhang Dong asked curiously.

"Of course, it's suspicious. However, in order to convince Abahai of his doubts, and to keep you 'suspicious' for a few days, the marshal asked me to apologize to you on his behalf. ”

The generals hurriedly shook their hands and said, "Don't dare to be, don't dare to be." ”

Qian General Lu Zheng was thoughtful, and then interjected and asked: "Didn't the marshal order to strictly seal the news? Phoenix City is not even allowed to fly a fly, how can Abahai know about the deployment of our army?"

"Flies fly low and are easy to spot, pigeons fly high, and you can't prevent them. Lu Wan said incomprehensibly.

"Pigeons, do you mean that someone used carrier pigeons to deliver information to Abahai?" the crowd asked.

"It's not impossible. Lu Wan's words made people feel ambiguous.

"Who could that be?"

"Yes......" Before Lu finished speaking, he suddenly shouted at a person: "Wei Jian, what's wrong with you?"

Everyone turned their heads to look, only to see that Wei Jian, the general manager, was sweating profusely and looked uneasy. In front of everyone's eyes, he pressed his hand to his abdomen and said with a painful expression: "I...... I suddenly had some pain in my stomach and needed to go out for a while. After speaking, without waiting for Lu Wan to agree, he ran towards the exit of the tent.

The figure flashed, and the two pro-soldiers outside the tent blocked Wei Jian's way.

"You ......" Wei Jian was furious.

"Wei Jian, it's not 'convenient' outside, let's go back. Lu Wan made a pun.

"General, I don't understand what you mean. Wei Jian was a little dazed.

"Don't understand? Then I'll make it clearer: You secretly sent news about our army to the enemy, but what you sent was false information, and you helped our army successfully carry out a suspicious plan, but you are a spy of foreign countries. You are now 'Zhu Bajie looking in the mirror - there are not people on both sides', think about it, where is there still a place for you to 'convenient'?" Speaking of this, Lu Wan shouted angrily: "Bold Wei Jian, how did you spread the message for the enemy, and who was the one who rebelled?

When the generals heard this, everyone was shocked, this Wei Jian was secretly collaborating with the enemy? Thinking that he had been sleeping with him for several months, and there was a spy hiding beside him, he couldn't help but feel palpitations.

"What message, what rebellion......? The last general will not understand. Wei Jian pretended not to understand.

"Hmph, you don't cry when you don't see the coffin. Come on, tie up Wei Jian. ”

Several wolf-like guards swarmed up and tied Wei Jian up like a rice dumpling.

"What is the evidence for saying that I am the enemy?" Wei Jian still stiffened his mouth.

Lu Wan took out a thin silk from his bosom, sent it to Wei Jian's eyes, pointed to the two seal characters of "Jingong" on the thin silk, and asked, "Have you ever known these two words?"

"No...... I don't know. Wei Jian's expression was a little unnatural.

"One night, I was in a hurry to get up, and I saw you standing for a long time in a remote place outside the camp looking up at the sky. I thought you were far away from your hometown, homesick, and waiting to be comforted, when suddenly I saw a carrier pigeon falling from the sky and landing in front of you. You catch the pigeon with both hands, remove the bamboo pipe from the pigeon's feet, put in the thin silk that you have prepared, tie it back to the pigeon's feet, and release the pigeon before you go back to the camp to rest. Is that the case?"

"That's ...... It was I who delivered letters to my friends. Seeing that Lu Wan had made the matter clear, Wei Jian couldn't deny it, so he lied.

"At that time, I really hoped that you were sending letters to relatives or friends back home, but I suspected that you were being plotted against the enemy. That night I tossed and turned, and I stayed up all night. After arriving in Ningxia, I was afraid of misleading the country and the people, so I found Lord Chen and told him the truth, which led to the scene when the school field ordered soldiers. Who knows...... Who knew that night you released the carrier pigeon again, tied to the thin silk on the pigeon's feet, didn't you have the word 'brocade arch'?"

"How can there be such a thing? The general should not wronged the villain. ”

"Hmph. After the pigeon was released that night, you heard someone nearby coughing and footsteps coming towards you, what did you say?"

“......”

"That's a noise I deliberately made to scare you away and cover General Chen's capture of the carrier pigeon before it was flying. We know the content of the information clearly, are you still quibbling?"

Wei Jian knew that the matter had been leaked, and it was useless to distinguish it. So he rolled his eyes and said no more.

Dou Yong was indignant, stepped forward and kicked Wei Jian's abdomen, and said hatefully: "What a traitor and thief who has access to foreign countries, you take the Ming Dynasty's Yulu, but you go to be a Tatar lackey, you are really innocent." General Lu, if you see through the face of this dog thief that day, you should have killed him immediately, why did you keep his dog's life?"

Lu Wan nodded and said, "Good question." Abahai is cunning and suspicious, although he has obtained the 'intelligence' of our army, he will not fully believe it, and he will definitely confirm it, so he must keep this thief to play his 'role'. Sure enough, after the thief heard the news that the four route armies in the southeast, northwest and southeast had all arrived in Jingzhou, just a moment earlier, he sent out the 'intelligence' of our army again in the low woods. After speaking, he turned his head to Wei Jian and shouted: "Wei Jian, your intelligence has sent Abahai into the abyss, whether it is the Tatars or those who rebel against you, you will die without a place to be buried." Although you have been in contact with foreign countries and treason to the enemy, it has not yet caused serious consequences, if you can honestly confess your crimes, Marshal Xia and General Chen said, they can go to the court and spare you from death. ”

Wei Jian thought that he would definitely die, but when he heard that there was still a glimmer of life, he suddenly knelt on the ground with a "poof", and said repeatedly: "I confess, I confess." ”

"Well, you say, who is the person who asked you to report to Abahai?"

"This man...... I do not know. ”

"Who are you in contact with along the way?"

"This ...... I don't know. ”

"Looks like you don't want to live?"

"No, no, I don't know. I swear, the villain is telling the truth. Wei Jian pointed to the sky and said.

"You don't know both, so what do you know?"

Wei Jian gritted his teeth and said openly: "Now that the matter has come to this, I have nothing to hide. I'll tell you all I know, and if you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do. I'll start fifteen years ago......"

During the Chenghua period, the promotion of the temple was popular in the government and the opposition, and some people entered the temple by donating money and materials or attaching wings to climb the scales. Wei Jian, a son of a broken household who lives in the capital, sees it in his eyes and itches in his heart, and he thinks about it day and night to "preach" an official and a half-job, and enjoy the kind of life of worry-free food and clothing. But others lack physical clothing, and their families have no overnight food, so where can they find money and materials to open up their joints? In short, "passing on the promotion" is for him, it is an old birthday star riding a crane - there is no way (deer). It stands to reason that since it is a short man sitting on a high stool - out of reach, Wei Jian should die. But he didn't, he still ran around looking for cracks, and he was determined not to stop until he reached his goal. His father and mother were forced by him, and searched hard among the relatives of the seven aunts and eight aunts of his eight generations of ancestors, and finally found that the cousin of a cousin's cousin was on an errand in the palace. Wei Jian was overjoyed, and hurriedly found this "cousin" with several layers of relationships, and explained his intention to him. This "cousin" is a low-level eunuch who does miscellaneous work in the palace, and he originally had no position and no power. Maybe it was driven by long-term enslavement, but now someone asked him to "help", which stimulated his "pride" for a while, and at that time, he slapped his chest with a "bang" sound, and let him go home and wait for the good news.

Just when Wei Jian was about to despair, the "cousin" suddenly came and brought him "good news", saying that there was a "nobleman" in the palace who was willing to help, and there was only one condition: there was money to contribute, and there was no money to contribute.

"What kind of strength?" asked Wei Jian at that time.

"Do one thing for this 'nobleman'. "Uncle Cousin" said.

"What are you doing?" asked Wei Jian nervously.

"The 'nobleman' hasn't figured out when there will be something and when you will be asked to do it. ”

"I don't dare to do murder and arson, and I can't do anything I won't do. Although Wei Jian is eager to be an "official", he can still grasp the measure.

"Of course. The 'nobleman' said that you will not be allowed to do things such as killing people and setting fires, stealing chickens and touching dogs, let alone doing things that you are unable to do. In short, it's something you can easily do. ”

Wei Jian breathed a sigh of relief, promised with his mouth, and then asked, "When will this matter be done?"

"That's not good. Maybe ten days and a half months, maybe three years and five years. ”

Wei Jian was deflated when he heard this, and said, "Then wait until the Year of the Monkey and the Horse Moon?"

"Uncle Cousin" smiled and said, "Are you in a hurry to do things or are you in a hurry to pass on the service?" The 'noble' said, when will the matter be done, let it go, this will be promoted...... You can do it right away. ”

"Really?" Wei Jian was overjoyed when he heard this.

"Uncle Cousin" nodded affirmatively, and said to him again: "You find a 'token' to bring to the 'noble', no matter who you want to do in the future, as long as you take out the 'token' and ask you to do something, it is the meaning of 'noble'." ”

Wei Jian immediately rummaged through the cabinets, found a copper "longevity lock" and handed it to "Uncle Cousin", who took the "longevity lock" and told him to wait patiently, and there would be "good news" in a few days.

"Uncle Cousin" did not lose his trust, and after a few days, he let Wei Jian go to the forbidden soldiers under the command of the Imperial Horse Supervisor - Teng Xiang Zuowei to be a general flag officer.

Although Wei Jian's wish had been fulfilled, he was a little uneasy when he remembered what the "nobleman" wanted him to do. However, as the years passed, this matter gradually faded into his mind, and even completely forgot about it after more than ten years, until the evening of three days before the expeditionary force started......

Wei Jian finished dinner and was about to go back to his room to make tea and eat. At this time, I suddenly heard a sound of "tuk" outside the door, and the hidden door was pushed open, and a person wearing a night robe and a black scarf appeared in front of Wei Jian.

Wei Jian was startled, and shouted boldly: "Who are you? Do you know that it is illegal to break into a private house at night?"

The masked man didn't answer, walked straight to Wei Jian's side, poured a cup of fragrant tea by himself, put it to his mouth and took a sip, and then said, "Good tea." The days of honoring the driver are so pleasant. ”

"Who are you, what are you going to do?" Wei Jin suppressed fear, but his voice trembled visibly.

The masked man took out an object from his bosom, put it on the table casually, and said to Wei Jian, "You should know this object, right?"

Wei Jian looked down, and the memory that had been sealed for more than ten years was instantly opened, and the object was the token that was handed over to the "uncle" to the "nobleman" back then-the copper longevity lock.

Wei Jian grabbed his "pounding" chest with his hand, swallowed it with difficulty, and asked, "What does the 'noble' ...... want to do?"

"Zunjia has been in the capital for a long time and doesn't want to go out and walk around?" asked the masked man.

"Where's it going?" asked Wei Jian anxiously.

"The imperial court is about to send troops to Ningxia, how about you follow it?" the masked man seemed to ask for his opinion, but his tone was unquestionable.

"This expeditionary force is all transferred from the Yulin Army, and it is under the ...... I didn't give it a tune. Wei Jian replied timidly.

The masked man smiled "hehe" and said with confidence: "You don't have to worry about this, we have our own arrangements." ”

Although Wei Jian was extremely reluctant, he knew that he couldn't shirk it, so he had to reply stubbornly: "The small ones are arranged by the 'nobles'. But—what are you going to Ningxia for?"

The masked man took out more than ten thin silks and a carrier pigeon from his arms, handed them to Wei Jian, and said in a low voice: "It's very simple, on the night of the first camp, you write down the location of your camp on the thin silk, stuff it into the bamboo pipe on the pigeon's feet, and then release the carrier pigeon. As for the future, just follow the instructions brought back by the carrier pigeon. ”

"Who wants this information? Who is contacting me? Can you tell me?" Wei Jian is not stupid although he is "muddy", he must figure out what is at stake.

The masked man pondered for a long time, and said slowly: "Since you want to know, I will tell you clearly, these news are all passed on to the head of the Mongolian Abahai Wanhu, and it doesn't matter who contacted you. ”

Hearing this, Wei Jian was extremely frightened, this was a serious crime of communicating with foreign countries and stealing his family and exterminating his family, he flatly refused: "No, I must not do this." ”

The masked man seemed to anticipate his reaction, and said unhurriedly, "It's okay not to do it." The new emperor is vigorously purging the officials who were promoted by the previous dynasty, so you don't have to go west with the army, just wait at home for dismissal. ”

This hit Wei Jian's soft underbelly, and he finally "served" a general banner from the common people, and then slowly promoted to the current general manager, and if he was really about to be dismissed, wouldn't he return to the past? As the saying goes, it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift. For more than ten years, not to mention the fragrant and spicy food, there are still people under his hands who are shouting and calling by themselves, how comfortable people live their lives. Once these things are gone, how will the rest of the days be? But I promised to send a secret message to the Tartars, if the East Window incident happened, I am afraid that I will not even have the life of a civilian. This is a dwarf riding a big horse - up and down dilemma.

Seeing that Wei Jian was silent, the masked man knew that he was afraid of killing his head and that he would not be able to give up his wealth, so he smiled secretly and added a fire to him: "In fact, it is to pass on some of the movements of our army to them, even if you don't pass it on, their probe horses will not still be able to find out." Besides, the two armies fight for strength, and winning or defeating has little to do with your message. Instead of waiting to be dismissed, it is better to do this quietly, as long as you and I don't say it, the gods don't know. ”

Wei Jian was moved by what he said, and in the end, greed prevailed, and he said to the masked man: "This thing must not be endless, otherwise it will be difficult to obey your fate." ”

When the masked man saw him relieved, he was secretly happy, and hurriedly picked up the copper longevity lock on the table and said, "That's." When this is done, it will be returned to Zhao. Since then, we have forgotten each other in the rivers and lakes and met each other like strangers. However," the masked man turned his words, his eyes flashed coldly, and he said viciously: "If you accept it on the surface, you are secretly making trouble, be careful of your head." After speaking, he slashed his palm and smashed the corner of the table.

In this way, Wei Jian agreed to the masked man's request with a fluke mentality.

"As for who the masked man is, who is on the other side of the dove and who contacted me, the villain really doesn't know, please find out to the general. At the end, Wei Jian said almost pleadingly.

Lu Wan was noncommittal, and said coldly: "What you said is true or false, we will naturally investigate it in detail." You have to think about it, what else is there that you haven't explained clearly, it's very important for your life, you know?"

"Understood, villain understood. Wei Jian replied repeatedly.

Lu Wan slowed down his tone and said to Lu Zheng: "You send a few soldiers to watch this guy, and early tomorrow morning, send a small banner to escort him to Phoenix City and hand him over to Marshal Xia." He shouted at Wei Jian again: "For you, the prison of the General Military Mansion is the safest. If you try to escape, you are killing yourself. ”

"The villain doesn't dare. ”

"Hold it down. ”

After escorting Wei Jian away, Lu Wan said to the generals:

"Ladies and gentlemen, the traitor has been eliminated, and the enemy of Pingluo must be on their way to attack Phoenix City. In order to ensure that Gan Tian and Qin Zong led their troops to annihilate the enemy who attacked Phoenix City, it is now ordered that all troops and horses quickly enter their respective positions tomorrow according to the original deployment, surround Jingzhou City, and prevent Abahai from sending reinforcements to Phoenix City. ”

"Yes. ”