Before the New Year, I heard that His Majesty the Emperor will send a messenger to the border pass to condole, and it is said that this time it is the princess Chu Zhaoyang of the dynasty, the border pass has already been a sensation, but after this battle, they have already buried this matter deep in their hearts, and there is a tacit understanding not to mention it again, who knows that the envoy really came the night before the New Year's Pass, and brought a large number of material beauties, which undoubtedly made Xue Zijun, who suffered heavy losses in the last battle, a shot in the arm.

It turns out that these old brothers who died on the battlefield did not just die, some people remember, and the common people of Western Chu remember, and some Emperor of Western Chu remember, it turns out that His Majesty the Emperor is not just talking, when even if there are many soldiers who have survived the catastrophe and cry with joy, these poor soldiers who have never sweated and bled without tears in Saibei have cried for the first time, and even the battalion commander who has broken his arm has red eyes.

"Why? I didn't see that you were a too, and you actually liked to cry. ”

For the first time, Zhang Mingyue sat on the haystack with the battalion commander in such harmony and watched the ice and snow in the north.

"Stinky boy, what do you know, I have a lot of wind and sand in the north, but I was blinded by the wind and sand. ”

"yes, you'll have to wear a face mask next time you go out. ”

Zhang Mingyue put her hands behind her head and didn't want to debunk the battalion commander's serious nonsense.

"I heard that the princess and they went to another barracks first. ”

Zhang Mingyue said lightly.

"Of course, after all, we have ten border guards......"

The battalion commander habitually said the number of Xue Zijun back then, and only then stopped his mouth and muttered halfway through speaking.

"It turns out that before we know it, we still have 60,000 horses. ”

"Wrong, sixty-three thousand five hundred and eighteen. ”

"You remember clearly, it's only been half a year since your kid came. ”

"It's only been half a year, but how do I feel like it's been ten years?"

The battalion commander didn't speak anymore, he couldn't follow the example of the young man's arms and brains, he could only have one arm, and he almost fell off the haystack with such a movement, and was grabbed by Zhang Mingyue.

"Isn't it unaccustomed to missing an arm?"

"I'm really not used to it. ”

"It's okay, I'll get used to it after a while, the old man in my family has been one-armed for decades, and he still makes the world dare not underestimate him. ”

"Yes, you kid has grown up, but this habit of talking big still can't be broken. ”

"Anyway, I didn't lie to you, my old man is very powerful. ”

"Then I'd like to see what kind of powerful method the old man you talked about. ”

......

In the haystack still sleeps the young man who likes to smash tobacco like the old man back then, but this young man has become a hot figure in the border guards after the last war, but at the age of sixteen, he has two or three hundred black horses, and almost all the twenty or thirty battalions in the vicinity have been acquainted, and by the way, he has also met the recruit boy named Li Qiushu who often chats with the young man, and most of the soldiers can't help but ridicule when they hear this name, how can the guy who asks for books come to such a wild place as us to be such a barbarianBut there are also people who disagree with this, for example, the boy with two dimples who joined the army at the age of sixteen or seventeen, do you dare to say that the person is not a talented face? If he is not too immature, I am afraid that he will be pulled away for free by the old bustard of the rouge building when he walks on the streets of Bianjing City.

In addition to training, most of the soldiers used boring meat jokes to pass the time, and some soldiers quipped, what do you say every day about Bianjing Rouge Building, have you ever really been to Rouge Building? Take 10,000 steps back and say, how many of you have been to Bianjing City? Even if there are many soldiers who are speechless, thinking about it, it is indeed such a reason, even if they have the opportunity to go to Bianjing City, they may not be able to go to Rouge Building, just a little money a month, and their wives and children are not enough, but the most important thing is that it is unknown whether they can go back again in this life.

Even if you don't say it, all the soldiers smell the mountain rain coming and the wind is full of buildings.

At this juncture, the princess came to visit the border guards is definitely a sensational event on the border, when even if there are many slightly younger veterans who shave and wash their beards, they can't dress themselves up like the young man who has broken two or three hundred black horses, it would be good if the princess could look at it from afar, if so, even if she died in the border pass immediately, what regret would she have?

This is the case with younger veterans, and the veterans who survived by luck in old age are envious but no longer have the mind to take care of themselves, although they don't quite understand why they feel that they are old when they are only thirty or forty years old?

People say that there is wine today and drunk today, and tomorrow is sad and tomorrow is worried, for most people who like to chew words will say that you don't want to forge ahead, and you don't report the negative, but this sentence is not suitable everywhere, for example, this side of Xinjiang.

No matter how enterprising and negative the spirit is, in the end, it is just like an old brother buried deep under this land in the north.

When there is wine, you must drink it directly, and don't wait for the wine to be empty.

On the first day of the first lunar month, it was rare for Saibei to stop snow for a day, and the red sun was born, and Zhang Mingyue was pulled out of the haystack by Li Qiushu while still asleep.

"Come on...... Here it comes. ”

It seemed that the scholar seemed to have run a long way, out of breath, and his face was flushed.

"What's coming?"

Zhang Mingyue hastily put on her clothes, rubbed her eyes, and said sleepily.

It's not that he likes to sleep lazy, just because it's the New Year, even if it's a war, presumably Western Xia will not send troops to sneak attack, soldiers are also people, and they also need to celebrate the New Year.

"The princess is here. ”

"It's coming, it's coming, why make such a fuss. ”

"You ......"

The scholar seemed to think that he had misheard, even he, a recruit who had only recently come to the border, was rarely neatly packed today, wearing armor, but he looked decent, but his pink face was very different from those veterans who had really survived countless battles, and he didn't even have a beard.

The scholar didn't seem to expect that the young man in front of him was excited when everyone else heard that the princess was coming, but this person was not salty or light, you must know that it was the princess. It is Chu Zhaoyang, who is known as the strange woman of Western Chu.

But thinking about it carefully, it seems that he has never heard the young man in front of him talk about meat like other veterans, and he has never mentioned women, could it be that this guy is not interested in women?

"There's something strange about you. ”

Li Qiushu was finally dissatisfied with Zhang Mingyue's cold attitude and said "unkindly".

"There's nothing strange about it, the princess is also human, and it's not like I've never seen it. ”

Zhang Mingyue had no choice but to spread her hands, but she didn't expect the scholar to laugh out loud.

"Come on, you've seen the princess before, if you're the kind of person who can see the princess, why did you come to this barren land?"

"Just like you, to defend the country. ”

The scholar was immediately stunned in place, and when the young man who went to the stable to wash as usual with a pipe in his mouth left, he returned to the camp tent, and it didn't take long for the barracks to explode, and when Zhang Mingyue returned to the camp, he saw many guys pointing at him.

"Writing on my face?"

"You don't have a word on your face, but they don't believe you've seen the princess. ”

The battalion commander, who was missing his right arm, chuckled.

"If you don't believe it, don't believe it, it's boring. ”

Zhang Mingyue doesn't like to explain these many problems, so she just goes to the mountains to talk to the old man about the yellow earth after eating some steamed buns hastily, and this habit has never changed.

However, half an hour after leaving, a convoy of horses came slowly, pulling a large number of supplies, and there were many young women riding in the carriage. Zhang Mingyue somehow felt as if hundreds of years had passed, and couldn't help but lie down in front of the old pawn's grave and burst into tears.

The old fox is here, the old man is here, and the ranger is here.

He went down the mountain, and it happened that thousands of soldiers who came to gather occupied the entire barracks, on the high platform, the princess was dressed in gorgeous clothes and graceful and luxurious, and it was the most dazzling among the women who came to Bianjing this time, just this strange woman stood silently in the whole school field, even the generals who had always been regarded as national pillars stood aside as a foil, and the old man and the three were just watching from the sidelines, Zhang Mingyue saw the old man wearing a costly mink coat for the first time, but there was no sword behind him that opened the gate of heaven, Sima Yun had never lost the qin, and he was not afraid of the cold and freezing in a green shirt, but the ranger's body couldn't stop shivering, Zhang Mingyue was like looking for a needle in a haystack in the army of thousands of people, and she couldn't see it at all, and I don't know when the scholar actually groped his way over.

"Look, you also said that you have seen the princess, and now the princess has never mentioned you here, and then look at your eyes as if you are going to eat the princess, I have to admit that you are indeed very powerful, but for our princess, except for General Xue, no one else is qualified. ”

Zhang Mingyue didn't want to defend anything, his eyes were burning and he wasn't looking at the princess, he was just looking at the old fox and the old man who were looking at him on the high platform.

Although he had not said a word, the young man was already in tears.

originally thought that he had become cold-blooded enough, downsizing life and death enough, and really to the point of bleeding without tears, but now when he saw the three old men, he was so angry, like a lost child finally seeing his relatives.

Zhang Mingyue wiped a handful of crystal clear tears.

The scholar probably didn't expect that such a half-joking sentence would make the young man in front of him cry, and he suddenly felt a little apologetic.

"Look at you, I'm just talking, you don't have to take it so seriously. ”

It's just that before the young man in front of him could explain anything, he saw Chu Zhaoyang, the princess on the high platform who was regarded as the lover of her dreams by countless Xichu men and was above 10,000 people under one person, covering her mouth and laughing.

"Some people have been soldiers for half a year, why are they still so immature, and they shed tears in front of so many people, even if they are too homesick, they don't have to be like this, aren't your families here now?"

The audience was in an uproar, and the scholars were in an uproar, looking at the young man in front of them in disbelief.

I saw that the young man who had killed two or three hundred black horsemen didn't necessarily blink his eyes, but it was clear that he was crying a little just now, and he staggered up and walked towards the high platform.

"The wind and sand in the north of the country are big, and I lose my eyes. ”

The jaw of the battalion commander, who was missing his right arm, fell to the ground.

"Boy, you seem to have lost weight. ”

On the high platform, it is now the man in the green shirt of the second-class master, slowly walked down the high platform, and wiped the tears from the corners of the young man's eyes with his brand-new sleeves.

"Is it bitter?" he asked softly.

The young man under the gaze of thousands of soldiers shook his head resolutely, holding back his tears and not falling again, making people laugh.

"It's not bitter, it's not bitter at all compared to the rivers and lakes we walked together, it's just that I miss you a little bit, I miss the old man. ”

"Could it be that you don't want to be a little Zhangzi, you don't want Lao Tzu?"

The ranger came out with a thud and hugged the young man's shoulder.

"You said you guy, half a year ago, Lao Tzu slept in the Rouge Building all night, and the next day when he went home, there was no one, you said that you had to bring Lao Tzu with you to join the army, it's a big deal, Lao Tzu's red jade is not wanted, isn't it? What feelings are more important than Lao Tzu's brotherly feelings?"

"You didn't even do it as the number one swordsman in the world?"

Ranger blushed on the spot.

The four of them didn't watch the singer sing and dance, nor did they listen to the princess's impassioned condolences, and went to the mass grave where countless soldiers were buried in the border in the distance, and also went to the grave of the old soldier Xu Weiguan.

Sima Yun poured wine for him, the old man stood on the top of the mountain to look at the rivers and mountains, the ranger and Zhang Mingyue were drunk, he told them about the customs of the Tiger and Wolf Pass, the spring, summer, autumn and winter in the north, how the border bandits were rampant, and how the battle not long ago was shocking and crying ghosts and gods.

He also said that he practiced knives, that his knife was snatched away by a very impolite fellow, and that if the fellow was not embarrassed to enter the camp now, he would have to pull him in and pour wine, and he said that he was used to eating the old man's food, not the current one, and that he was used to falling in love with smashing two puffs of dry tobacco every day at dusk.

This said, from morning to late night, as if to exhaust all the ups and downs of the past six months.

Outside the tent, singing and dancing, the soldiers were in full swing.

In the tent, Princess Zhaoyang quietly arrived.

"Want to go back?"

"Not going back. ”

Zhang Mingyue shook her head resolutely.

There are five people in the camp, the ranger has slept peacefully, and from time to time he dreams of a sentence or two, and they are all the number one swordsman in the world, the red jade girl, etc., the old man did not say a word, but his face was a little dignified, and Sima Yun was as calm and light as ever.

"Are you going back or are you reluctant to go back?"

Princess Zhaoyang asked with a smile.

"Neither. ”

The young man, who had drunk an unknown amount of wine, breathed a sigh of relief.

"There's no going back. ”

I can't go back, and the simple four words are like a hammer hitting my chest.

"Speaking of which, you don't believe it, I'm used to sometimes sleeping until I'm dazed and get up to kill with a knife, I'm used to the horn sounding, the beacon tower is lit and instinctively stepping on the war horse and charging into battle, if a person moves for too long, it is difficult to calm down, and if you can't calm down, you will kill. ”

"What kind of martial arts are you doing now?"

"Second grade. ”

"Second grade?"

Sima Yun spoke softly.

"Erpin is already a few masters in this army, but for the border eyeing the Western Xia army, it is still too bad, the Western Xia has reached an alliance with the Western Regions, this time the troops are nothing more than 10,000 horses to explore the way, the more sad it is to go to the back, and now the Western Chu has transferred the remaining half of the army to the Northern Wei Dynasty Liangjie Mountain, and the army that can be transferred to the border pass is only 50,000, 50,000, which is really not enough. ”

"If it's just Western Xia, it's okay, but Western Xia has already annexed all the small countries around it, as well as various mountains, and so many financial and material resources can be given up in the Western Regions, it seems that the war will not be too far away. ”

"You can't just let the Tiger Wolf Pass out, the Two Realms Mountain and the Tiger Wolf Pass are both the gates of my Central Plains, and they can't be opened, even if they fight to the last person, they can't let the barbarians enter the pass. ”

Zhang Mingyue said coldly.

"You're talking more and more like a military now. Tiger Wolf Pass and the Two Realms Mountain are definitely not allowed to let go, but now the remaining more than 60,000 defenders of the border pass are almost not regular troops, although their combat effectiveness far exceeds the regular army, but you should also know that the army is a place of cooperation, not personal bravery, Xue Zijun has been accustomed to stragglers, and cannot fight against the well-trained and proficient mecha battle array of the Western Xia regular army. In the final analysis, it is strange that the incident happened too suddenly, no one would have thought that the Western Xia, who was listed as the three kingdoms of the Central Plains, would actually collude with the Western Regions to compete for the Central Plains. Or maybe I thought of it, but it was only treated as a possible event. ”

Sima Yun meant something.

Princess Zhaoyang has long been accustomed to the insight of the man in front of her, and she does not hide it, but only honestly.

"You're right, my father took over the Western Chu River from my grandfather, and on the first day of his succession, he ordered disarmament, reduced military and political expenditures, and reduced the burden on the common people. ”

"Mr. Ning doesn't stop you?"

"At that time, my uncle hadn't come down the mountain yet, and even if he did, he wouldn't necessarily stop him. ”

Princess Zhaoyang said softly.

"As long as it is my father's decision, my uncle will always obey it, and even if there is a different opinion, it will only be improved after the fact. ”

"That's why Mr. Ning will become a scholar of Western Chu? ”

Sima Yun shook his head.

The old man didn't seem to like to listen to this state affair, and after a while, he was dragged out by the drunken general who had been drunk for the first time to talk about the past and the present. There were only three people left in the camp except for the sleeping rangers.

"So what do you want to say after all that?"

Zhang Mingyue couldn't help but ask.

"What I want to say is that the only solution to this dilemma is to transfer the southern army to the north. ”

"How is the Southern Army transferred to the north?"

Princess Zhaoyang was also attracted by this sentence.

"To put it simply, it is to transfer the iron cavalry under the command of Xuanyuan Hongtu, who is good at positional warfare, to the Tiger Wolf Pass to confront the Western Xia, of course, there is no need to transfer all of them, only 50,000 can be done, Xuanyuan Hongtu's iron cavalry guards the border all the year round, and its combat effectiveness is not trivial, 50,000 should be 100,000 soldiers and horses, and there are 50,000 horses to guard the Tiger and Wolf Pass, and the Tiger and Wolf Pass is unbreakable. ”

"What's more, if you want the Xue Zi Army to completely change the previous tradition, the iron cavalry of Xuanyuan Hongtu can't do it, even if it is the only remaining 50,000 regular troops in Western Chu, the combat effectiveness is still far inferior to the army under Xuanyuan Hongtu, so that the two armies can join together and learn from each other's strengths to create an invincible army. ”

"I don't think so. ”

Princess Zhaoyang said.

"Let's not talk about whether Xuanyuan Hongtu agrees or not, even if he agrees, who will call the shots if the two armies are integrated? I have only heard of the combat effectiveness of the miscellaneous army greatly reduced, and I have never heard of learning from each other's strong points to make up for each other's weaknesses. ”

"This princess doesn't need to worry, Sima Yun has her own way, and Xuanyuan Hongtu will definitely agree. ”