The mount was still not good enough, even though Chen Yingliang spent more than half of the copper coins he got from selling the engagement jade pendant to buy this horse, but by the time the flying cavalry drove the horse to the city of Dongdu at the risk of losing the horse, the time had already come At noon on June 11th, martial law had already been imposed in Dongdu Xincheng, and the inner and outer city gates were closed tightly, preventing Chen Yingliang from entering the city to join the army.
After finally coming here, Chen Yingliang was of course unwilling to give up. After thinking about it for a while, Chen Yingliang circled the Dongdu for a small half circle and turned to the Anxi Gate in the northeast corner of the Dongdu. Judging from the buildings outside the city, the Anxi Gate should be The city gate where the common people can enter and exit, just dismounted and walked, led the horse and slowly approached the city gate, but just approached the moat, and before they had time to walk on the stone bridge over the moat, there was already a shouting sound above the city gate, " Stop! Are you blind? Didn’t see that the city gate is closed, what do you want to do on the bridge?”
Chen Yingliang followed the sound, and saw that the person shouting to him on the city wall was a general of the Sui Army wearing bright armor, and at the same time, a row of bows and arrows ready to be fired appeared behind the arrow piles on the city wall. Chen Yingliang was still somewhat flustered, deeply After taking a breath, he shouted: "General, don't misunderstand, Xiaosheng is from Daxing. He heard that the traitor Yang Xuangan rebelled and threatened Dongdu, so he came here to serve the country and kill the traitor Yang Xuangan. General please accept it!"
"Join the army?" Chen Yingliang's answer stunned the general of the Sui army. He looked down at Chen Yingliang for a few times, and then asked loudly, "How old are you this year? Are you twenty-one years old?"
"Xiaosheng is seventeen years old this year." Chen Yingliang answered truthfully, but at the same time he was a little puzzled, asking me why I am old
"Bastard boy, are you entertaining me?" The general of the Sui army was furious, and roared: "The law of this dynasty, the government soldiers must be at least 21 years old, a 17-year-old boy, what are you doing here? Get out! If you want to join me, Youwuwei, let’s talk about it when you reach the age of 21!"
"There are still such regulations for being a soldier in the Sui Dynasty?" This time it was Chen Yingliang's turn to be dumbfounded, because Chen Yingliang really didn't know that the Sui Dynasty army had such regulations.
"Get out! Otherwise, let's shoot the arrows!" The Sui army general was impatient, and urged: "If you want to be an auxiliary soldier of the township, go to the old city of Luoyang. This is the imperial city of the eastern capital. If you don't accept township soldiers, get out immediately!"
"Master Jun, can you let me come forward and talk?" Chen Yingliang begged, wanting to come forward and show Fang Xuanling's recommendation letter to see if there is anyone in the Eastern Capital who knows what to do.
"Stop talking nonsense! Get lost!" The general of the Sui army ignored Chen Yingliang and shouted: "The eastern capital is under martial law, and no one is allowed to enter or leave. If you want to serve as a soldier and eat food, go to the old city in the west, or to Bai Sima Ban. There is a war going on there, maybe you will be accepted!"
"Bai Sima Ban is fighting?" Chen Yingliang was overjoyed, and hurriedly asked: "General, how can Bai Sima Ban go? Xiaosheng is willing to serve in the front line!"
"Hahahaha! You really are a kid who is not afraid of death!" The general of the Sui army laughed loudly, and the generals of the Sui army beside him also roared with laughter. —I can’t help but laugh, you know, when Fan Zigai, who stayed behind in the Eastern Capital yesterday, decided to send troops to meet the enemy, all the generals and soldiers in the Eastern Capital were afraid of being picked out of their own team, but they were not picked out of the city to meet the enemy Everyone who was selected was crying and wiping their tears, but now Chen Yingliang asked in a daze where there was a battlefield going there, and the Dongdu defenders who were lucky enough not to be sent to the battlefield really didn't want to laugh. There is a way.
After laughing out loud, the general of the Sui army really showed Chen Yingliang the way to the Bai Sima Ban battlefield with the intention of watching a good show, and kindly told Chen Yingliang that the main general who led the army to suppress the rebellion was Henan Zanzhi Pei Hongce. Chen Yingliang was overjoyed Thanks again and again, I really got on my horse and rushed to the east battlefield immediately. Looking at the back of Chen Yingliang leaving happily, the generals and soldiers of the Sui Army on the city wall all leaned forward and back, laughing loudly, but the joy turned into sadness. Just when they were laughing very happily, a majestic shout came from behind them, "What are you laughing at? Guarding the city wall Seriously, why did you lose your composure?!"
Hearing the scolding sound, everyone turned their heads and looked back. They were scared out of their wits and quickly stopped their voices and stood at attention to salute. It turned out that the person who appeared in front of them was Dongdu who stayed behind with a large team of supervisors and is now the highest military and civil affairs officer in Dongdu city. —Fan Zigai!
Fan Zigai, who was nearly seventy years old, had gray hair all over his head, but he was still wearing bright light armor weighing several tens of catties. The armor was neat, his old body stood up straight as a pine, his expression was extremely majestic and overwhelming, and he asked: " What happened? Why are you all laughing like this?"
"I'm here to stay here. Just now there was a kid who wanted to join the army. He said he wanted to serve the country and kill the traitor Yang Xuangan." The general of the Sui Army said truthfully: "Because he was only seventeen years old, the last general didn't take him in. He said that if he wanted to be an auxiliary soldier in the village, he could go to the front line of Bai Sima Ban, but the kid really went to the front line in a daze, and the brothers thought it was strange, so they all laughed."
"What's so ridiculous?" Fan Zigai was furious, and said angrily, "Look at his ambition. He wanted to serve the country at the age of seventeen, and he wanted to kill the traitor Yang Xuangan. Then look at yourselves. Who is more ridiculous?!"
All the soldiers of the Sui Army present were speechless, but Fan Zigai shouted again: "Also, don't think that he is only seventeen years old, so he is destined to be unable to accomplish great things! Let me tell you, Zhang Xutuo, Zanzhi of Qi County, will A new young general named Luo Shixin, who is only fourteen years old! Do you know how many enemies this fourteen-year-old young general has killed on the Weishui battlefield? Speaking out will scare you to death! After the first battle in Weishui, he alone There were three rebel generals and twenty-five rebel soldiers who were beheaded by others!"
"A fourteen-year-old kid, so crazy?!"
Hearing this, the generals of the Sui army gasped, and some people screamed, but Fan Zigai snorted heavily and said, "Although I didn't see that seventeen-year-old boy just now, His person, but with his ambition, I dare to say that you have missed a talent! You will regret it in the future!"
"Your Majesty, do you want the last general to send someone to chase him back?" said the former general of the Sui Army timidly, "He just left, there is still time to chase him now."
"No need." Fan Zigai shook his head, and said, "Since he has gone to Bai Sima Ban, he must go to Pei Hongce. Pei Hongce is there to fight against the rebel Yang Xuanting, which just gives him a chance to show his strength. This kid is really talented, I will definitely see him again in the future."
The general of the Sui army obediently agreed, and retreated to the side, but Fan Zigai turned his gaze to the direction of the battlefield to the east, and murmured in his heart, "It should be the stage of fierce battle, Pei Hongce, Daxi kindly, you must not let the old man down." what."
…
Let's go back and look at Chen Yingliang's situation. After bidding farewell to the generals of the Sui army who showed the way, Chen Yingliang originally wanted to rush straight to the battlefield, but after running for two or three miles, Chen Yingliang, who had been running for several days, felt a little bit like a sluggish horse. He couldn't bear it any longer, his speed was getting slower and slower, and he started to foam at the mouth. Chen Yingliang had no choice but to stop the poor horse from exhausting himself, so Chen Yingliang had to dismount again and led the horse for a walk to save horsepower. Fortunately, Bai Sima Saka is not too far away, and it can be reached on foot before dark.
Thinking about how to flatter Pei Hongce who led the army to put down the rebellion, Chen Yingliang had already walked seven or eight miles without knowing it, and seeing that his horse had recovered a certain amount of strength, Chen Yingliang mounted his horse again, ready to continue riding eastward However, not long after he got on his horse and trotted, Chen Yingliang suddenly heard a loud commotion in front of him. A knight wearing bright armor but no helmet rushed over on his horse, followed by a dozen or so cavalrymen with weapons. He yelled, "Chasing! Chasing! Grab him! Grab this official!"
"What happened?" Chen Yingliang was taken aback, subconsciously reined in his mount, and quickly drew his saber in his hand.
"Hey!" When he was only ten steps away from Chen Yingliang, the horse of the helmetless knight suddenly hissed miserably, and fell to the ground with a bang. Injury, horse blood has already dyed one leg red. At the same time, after the horse fell down, it also pressed the helmetless knight with disheveled hair under the horse.
"Hahaha!" The cavalry chasing the helmetless knight laughed wildly, scrambling to be the first to shout, "Catch alive! Catch alive!"
"Little brother, save me!" The helmetless knight also yelled, begging in a crying voice: "Help me, save me!"
"What should I do?!" Unaware of the situation at all, Chen Yingliang made a choice to determine the direction of his life, "I would rather give charcoal in the snow than add icing on the cake! Saving people! It is more rewarding than helping the winner!"
After making up his mind, Chen Yingliang immediately patted his horse and rushed up. When he got to the side of the helmetless knight, he jumped off the horse and pulled him out of the horse, and then pushed him onto his own mount. You are courting death! Stop! Stop! Don't run!"
There were more than a dozen pursuers behind, and of course Chen Yingliang would not stop running, so he climbed onto his mount without saying a word, sat behind the helmetless knight, and fled westward with his horse on his horse. Hot on the heels.
Logically speaking, the expensive dead horse that Chen Yingliang rode would be difficult to run too fast after carrying two people, but fortunately, the horses that pursued the soldiers behind might also have consumed a lot of physical strength in the previous battle, so Chen Yingliang After galloping with the helmetless knight for more than two miles, a pursuer managed to catch up to Chen Yingliang's side and slashed at Chen Yingliang with a knife. Fa, collided with the pursuer's horizontal saber, and swung away the pursuer's saber with all his strength, the pursuer let out a cry, and slashed at him again without saying a word.
"Damn it! Fight it!" In the troubled times, Chen Yingliang didn't want to cut people down, but he didn't want to be cut down either. Seeing that the pursuer wanted his own life twice in a row, and the pursuers were getting closer, Chen Yingliang also He went all out, neither dodged nor dodged, roared and swung his knife directly to chop off the pursuer's head, using the rogue style of killing both.
"You shit!" The pursuer was taken aback by Chen Yingliang's rogue attack, and since victory was in sight, he didn't want to die with Chen Yingliang, so he could only stand sideways on the horse, avoiding Chen Yingliang's deadly knife, and at the same time he slashed Chen Yingliang's knife Naturally, it also failed, and the helmetless knight who was controlling the mount for Chen Yingliang took the opportunity to kick the horse's belly, forcing Chen Yingliang's deadly expensive horse to speed up, and opened the distance from the pursuers again.
"Stop!" Another pursuer approached and stabbed Chen Yingliang's back with a spear. Chen Yingliang had no way to avoid it, so he could only turn around and slash the spear with his knife, shouting, "Death!"
With a bang, Chen Yingliang was quite surprised that when he slashed on the spear, his tanned steel horizontal knife, which can only be regarded as an ordinary good knife, cut off the handle of the spear at once. It was found that the spear shaft was quite rough, it was a spear shaft cut from ordinary miscellaneous wood, the quality was very poor, naturally Chen Yingliang couldn't stop Chen Yingliang from using all his strength to chop the knife.
"Good job!" The helmetless knight saw it out of the corner of his eye, and couldn't help shouting, "Little brother, if all my soldiers were like you, I wouldn't lose so badly today!"
Chen Yingliang didn't understand the words of the helmetless knight at all, and just shouted towards a small forest beside the road, "Brothers, come out quickly! I have attracted people, come out to kill people and steal horses! Quick! Come out to kill people and steal horses!" Come on, brethren!"
"There's an ambush?!" The pursuers were startled, they subconsciously turned their heads to look at the grove, unknowingly slowed down their horses, and were careful to guard against the ambushes coming out of the grove, while Chen Yingliang took the opportunity to use a knife The handle slammed on the horse's buttocks, and the mount hissed in pain and ran wildly, regaining the distance from the dozen or so pursuers.
I don't know if it was because of Chen Yingliang's deception, or because the city walls and towers of the Eastern Capital were already in sight. After seeing Chen Yingliang running far away, the dozen or so pursuers finally stopped chasing him again. They cursed and chose to turn around and go back. At this situation, Chen Yingliang and the helmetless knight both heaved a sigh of relief, but they still didn't dare to stop, they still continued to gallop their horses, and together they fled desperately to Dongdu.
Probably it was fate, the helmetless knight controlled the mount, and brought Chen Yingliang back to the Anxi Gate where he was rejected from joining the army. When he was less than a mile away from the city gate, Chen Yingliang's dead horse Finally, he couldn't bear such a violent load and ran wildly, he hissed and fell to the road with foam, bringing Chen Yingliang and the helmetless knight to the ground together, but luckily the pursuers had gone away and the danger had been eliminated , so the helmetless knight and Chen Yingliang not only did not scream and fear, but also lay on the ground and laughed together.
After laughing enough, Chen Yingliang pulled his leg out from under the horse, stood up with his hands, and helped the helmetless knight in heavy armor to stand up again. It was only at this time that Chen Yingliang realized that the helmetless knight The knight was a middle-aged man in his early forties, with blood on his face besides sweat and mud, and the bright light armor was also stained with blood, as if he had just gone through a fierce battle. In addition, Chen Yingliang also carefully discovered that the helmetless knight only had a scabbard on his body, but the sword was missing.
"Little brother, thank you very much today. If it weren't for you, I would have died today." The helmetless knight first cupped his hands in thanks, and then asked, "By the way, I haven't asked you for your name yet."
"I don't dare to thank you for the effort." Chen Yingliang pretended to be modest, and replied: "Xiaosheng Chen Yingliang is from Daxing."
"So it's Brother Chen." The helmetless knight nodded and asked curiously, "Brother Chen, why did you go to Bai Sima Ban just now? Didn't you know there was a war there?"
"I know, I went to Baisi Maban because I knew it." Chen Yingliang replied truthfully: "Xiaosheng was recommended by someone, and he wanted to go to Liaodong to join the army and serve the country, but when he arrived in Mianchi, he heard that the traitor Yang Xuangan rebelled. However, I was so angry that I decided to go to the army to participate in the suppression of the rebellion. I found out that Bai Simaban was the front line of the battle, so I planned to join the army there, but I didn’t expect that I happened to meet the general and you were unfortunate enough to help the general.”
"You are going to Bai Sima Ban, are you planning to join the army? Are you not afraid of death?" The helmetless knight was full of astonishment.
"Serving the country and being loyal to the emperor, what is there to be afraid of?" Chen Yingliang replied shamelessly.
"Then who are you going to go to?" asked the helmetless knight.
"Henan Zanzhi, Mr. Pei Hongce." Chen Yingliang continued to answer truthfully, "Xiaosheng heard that he was the commander of the anti-rebellion army sent by the imperial court, so he wanted to join him, serve under his command, and participate in the anti-rebellion war."
After saying that, Chen Yingliang had an idea, and hurriedly bowed his hands to the helmetless knight and said: "My lord, Xiaosheng and Mr. Pei have never met each other, and they come from humble backgrounds. Even if we go to join him, I'm afraid it will be very difficult to get him to meet you in person. I don't know if my lord can be gracious and introduce one or two to Xiaosheng?"
"No need to introduce, I'm Pei Hongce." The helmetless knight replied with a wry smile, "It's a pity that you came a step late. My eight thousand troops have already been wiped out, and I'm the only general left."
"Ah!" Chen Yingliang was really surprised this time, not because he was surprised that Pei Hongce's entire army was wiped out, but because he was so lucky to join the army and save the target army's commander!
After being shocked, Chen Yingliang hurriedly knelt down to Pei Hongce, saluted respectfully and said: "Xiaosheng Chen Yingliang, I have met Mr. Zanzhi Pei, and I have no skills. I only have one wish to serve the court, and I am willing to serve my lord. I dare to beg my lord to take you in, and I will go through fire and water." , I will be smashed to pieces, I will not hesitate!"