Zong Zheng saved Zhang Xi, and the generals were grateful.

Kublai Khan thought that Zong Zheng first saved himself, and then planned for himself to solve the dilemma, and now he spared no effort to save Zhang Xi, and then thought about his suspicion of Zongzheng, and couldn't help but feel a little ashamed.

According to Zongzheng's strategy, the first step was to storm Ezhou and create a false impression for the discussion, but the strategy was unfavorable at the beginning, and almost broke Zhang Xi, Kublai Khan felt that Zhang Xi's serious injury might be an ominous omen, and felt a little worried about the follow-up plan.

Although Liu Bingzhong was saddened by Zhang Xi's injury, he did not see it as an ominous omen, as Kublai Khan thought, on the contrary, Liu Bingzhong saw it as an opportunity to help the peace talks proceed.

Kublai Khan was amazed by Liu Bingzhong's thoughts, and couldn't help but wonder,

"This king almost lost a tiger general, how can Liu Lao say that this is an opportunity?"

Liu Bingzhong explained to Kublai Khan: "The so-called misfortune and blessing are relied on, blessing and misfortune are lurking, everything has good and bad sides, every setback must mean a new opportunity, General Zhang Xi was seriously injured by the Song army, we propose peace at this time, isn't it the best time?"

Kublai Khan was awakened by Liu Bingzhong's rhetorical question, and General Zhang Xi was seriously injured by the Song army, which shows that the Song army resisted stubbornly.

On the other hand, the Song army also saw that our army was attacking fiercely, and the pressure was also extremely great, and our army took the opportunity of General Zhang Xi's serious injury, so that Jia Rudao thought that the strength of the two armies had been balanced at the moment, which was conducive to peace talks, after all, if the Song army did not accept the peace proposal, then the next thing was to take revenge on General Zhang Xi for revenge.

After Kublai Khan figured it out, his heart sank, and he immediately ordered Liu Bingzhong to secretly contact Jia Nidao to prepare for peace talks.

Liu Bingzhong had already made preparations, and when he saw that Kublai Khan had given the order, he carried it out with peace of mind.

When Jia Yidao secretly received the document of the request for peace, he had already planned to seek peace, and he was even more overjoyed when he looked at the bribe money sent by Mongolia, which was more straightforward than Zong Zheng expected, without any suspicion.

In addition to receiving bribes and peace documents, Liu Bingzhong also wrote a letter, in which he explained that Zhang Rou was a traitor to the king of Mobei, and asked Jia Nidao to help clean up the traitor, and added a reward afterwards.

Jia Yidao seemed to know a little about Kublai Khan's predicament, so naturally he didn't doubt it too much, looking at the several large boxes of gold in front of him, his cloudy eyes immediately glowed.

Liu Bingzhong deliberately postponed the time of Jia Rudao's appointment by a stick of incense, and this morning he ordered Zhang Hongyan to lead a small team of soldiers and horses to secretly lurk in Fenghua Temple, planted explosives around the entire temple, and dug two tunnels in different directions in the temple.

Zhang Rou and Dong Wenbing also began to reorganize the troops and horses in the army, and the treasurer had already ordered people to prepare the coffin of mourning clothes. Therefore, Zhang Rou and Dong Wenbing did not dare to slack off at all, and they have been busy today.

Zong Zheng looked at the situation in the camp, knowing that Kublai Khan was already executing the strategy vigorously and quickly, and suddenly thought about one thing in his heart, that is, to get in touch with the Zhongshan Eight Wolves as soon as possible, if the Zhongshan Eight Wolves did not know and destroyed the strategy in order to protect Kublai Khan, it would be bad.

In addition, Zong Zheng still has a major matter to ask the Zhongshan Eight Wolves, if the strategy of the Central Plains martial arts masters is not feasible without the assistance of the Zhongshan Eight Wolves, first, if there is no Zhongshan Eight Wolves to assist him in the implementation of the diversion plan, it is difficult to lead away most of the martial arts people; second, once Kublai Khan divides the army, then the remaining forces are seriously weakened, and he runs to lure away the martial arts people, in case those killers see through the plan, then Kublai Khan will have no one around him to protect him, for this reason, Zong Zheng wants to let the Zhongshan Eight Wolves be divided into two groups, one group will follow his own implementation of the sub-introduction strategy, and the other group will stay behind secretly to protect Kublai Khan。

In the past few days, Zong Zheng has not found the figure of the Zhongshan Eight Wolves, and he can't help but be a little anxious, the implementation of the strategy here is vigorous and resolute, if he does not get in touch with the Zhongshan Eight Wolves in time, he is afraid that something will go wrong, disrupt all the strategies, and ruin Kublai Khan's major affairs.

Zong Zheng thought about the situation of the last time he received a hollow arrow, and guessed that the eight wolves of Zhongshan must have planted someone in the army to spy on him and secretly protect Kublai Khan, so he planned to wander around the military camp to see if there were any suspicious people secretly spying on him.

In order to avoid the Mongolian sergeants and give the Zhongshan Eight Wolves a chance to appear, Zong Zheng deliberately went to a place where there were few people in the army, secretly paying attention to the movements beside him along the way.

As he walked, he suddenly heard the neighing of horses, and the sound was very sad.

Zong Zheng was curious for a moment, so he followed the voice.

After bypassing a few camps, we came to the horse farm behind the Mongolian military camp, where the war horses of the Mongolian army were raised, and thousands of war horses were tied here.

The sound of horses neighing came again, and Zong Zheng followed the sound to the left.

I saw hundreds of horses tied to wooden stakes, and most of those horses were lying on the ground, listless.

A smell of blood accompanied by a breeze hit Zong Zheng, and Zong Zheng smelled the smell and walked forward.

Zong Zheng approached and saw more than a dozen horses lying on the ground not far away, their bodies were stiff, and blood was oozing on the ground, Zhang Honggang led a few soldiers to stand there, the soldiers were holding butcher knives in their hands, and there were bright red blood stains on the surface of the knives.

Zong Zheng stepped forward to say hello to Zhang Honggang, and when Zhang Honggang saw that it was Zong Zheng, he hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "Mei Shaoxia, why did you come here?"

Zong Zheng replied: "I was bored in the barracks, and I came out for a walk casually. Fu pointed to the butcher's knife in the hands of the soldiers behind Zhang Honggang and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Zhang Honggang replied: "Oh, I came to kill the horse on the order of the prince. ”

Zong Zheng was surprised: "Kill the horse?"

Zhang Honggang explained: "Well, kill horses, some injured war horses cannot be cured, and they are killed here for military rations when they are useless. ”

Zong Zheng felt very uncomfortable when he saw the horses lying on the ground, oozing blood, and couldn't help but feel pity and sympathy for these dead horses.

With Zhang Honggang's military rank, he naturally did not know Kublai Khan's plan to divide his troops in the north, so he only knew how to act on orders, but Zongzheng's heart was like a mirror, the army moved, and the food consumption was even worse.

The Mongolian army is a nation on horseback, with the cavalry being the most powerful, and the horse is the most powerful tool, although dealing with the wounded horse is a common thing in the army, but today's public killing of horses is obviously to make a show for the people outside, and to cover the side for the cavalry to go north.

As he spoke, three soldiers each brought a horse and passed in front of Zong Zheng, who glanced at the horses and accidentally saw the black horse in the middle with blood and tears oozing from his eyes.

Zong Zheng was greatly touched, and immediately stepped forward excitedly, stopped the soldier leading the horse, and looked at the horse carefully, but saw that the horse's face was wrinkled and the mane on its head was thick, like an old horse.

Zhang Honggang was surprised by Zongzheng's actions and asked, "What's wrong?"

Zong Zheng replied: "This horse is bleeding and crying, so pitiful. ”

Zhang Honggang immediately smiled and said: "Hahaha, Mei Shaoxia, you don't know, this horse is a sweaty horse, when sweating or shedding tears, it is very easy to make people feel bloody, this kind of horse is introduced by the Western Regions State, it is an extremely precious horse!"

"If it's a precious horse, why do you want to kill it?" Zong Zheng asked Zhang Honggang rhetorically,

Zhang Honggang sighed, and then explained: "Horses are good horses, but they are old and can no longer be used as horses for war, in fact, I don't want to see the slaughter of war horses, after all, these war horses are also considered horses with military merits, bloody horses, and they should die on the battlefield." ”

Zong Zheng looked at Zhang Honggang's complaining eyes, and also knew the helplessness in his heart, after all, which general was willing to let his soldiers ride on a war horse with no combat power to go to the battlefield.

Zhang Honggang continued: "As a war horse, dying in the war camp, turning into military food, and blessing the soldiers, as far as the war horse is concerned, it is better to have a refreshing knife than lying in the barracks and horse farms every day, doing nothing, and suffering to die, which may not be a good destination." ”

Zong Zheng savored what Zhang Honggang said, and felt that it was reasonable, so he stopped talking.

The horse looked at Zong Zheng in a daze, his eyes blinked slightly, and he kept poking his head, Zong Zheng felt strange, so he stepped forward, and the horse bowed his head obediently and neighed twice, as if pleading, but Zong Zheng was helpless, so he had to gently stroke the mane on the top of his head with his hand to show comfort.

Vaguely, Zong Zheng noticed that the horse's abdomen was obviously more protruding than the two horses around him, and he was obviously pregnant, so he asked, "Although this horse is an old horse, it is already pregnant, why do you want to kill it?"

Zhang Honggang replied: "Mei Shaoxia doesn't know, the gestation period of the horse is nearly a year, and it takes a lot of grain and grass to feed in the middle. After speaking, a trace of helplessness flashed in his eyes.

Zong Zheng wanted to bear to leave, but when he saw that the horse was pregnant, and begged him to save his life, he felt that he couldn't sit idly by, so he said to Zhang Honggang: "Zhang Gongzi, I want to ask you for a favor, I don't know if it's okay?"

When Zhang Honggang heard Zong Zheng's words, he immediately replied: "Mei Shaoxia saved the lives of the prince and my father, I have always been grateful to my heart, if you have any requests, you don't need to be so polite, it doesn't hurt to say it directly." ”

Zong Zheng said calmly: "I am short of a mount, how about giving me this horse?"

Zhang Honggang's eyes fluttered, and his face was slightly gloomy.

Zong Zheng thought that Zhang Honggang disagreed, so he asked: "What, is there any difficulty?"

Zhang Honggang replied: "It's not, a horse, I still made a proposition, it's just that if Mei Shaoxia needs a mount, we will definitely find a good horse to give away, such a bad horse dedicated to Engong, I really don't want to go." ”

Zong Zheng replied sharply: "If you give me other horses, I don't want them, I want this horse." ”

Zhang Honggang knew what Zongzheng meant, and his intention was not to mount, but to save the lives of the mother and son of the horse, so he replied cheerfully: "Since Mei Anda is so persistent, I will give this horse to you." With that, he took the horse rope from the soldier's hand and handed it to Zongzheng.

Zong Zheng showed a smile on his face, took the reins from Zhang Honggang's hand, and after thanking Zhang Honggang, he thought that the business was important, so he led the horse and left.