In the night, a convoy quietly entered Liangzhou City and passed through the city gates that were strictly guarded against night without hindrance. Qingliang Mountain then opened its gates. .
Three horse-drawn carriages, a family of three monks in white clothes, plus the young monk from the north and south, four people ride in the front carriage, Bai Yu, Mr. Bailian of Longhu Mountain, and Han Guiqingxin, master and apprentice of Qingshan Temple in Wudang Mountain, ride in the next carriage , the last car sat in the Shangyin Academy Chang Sui Xu Huang and others.
On Qingliang Mountain, a large group of people led by Xu Weixiong went out to welcome the distinguished guests. Behind Song Dongming, the deputy governor of Beiliang Road, stood a group of curious aides and assistants. Song Dongming's official residence in the middle of the mountain is known as the Longmen of Beiliang, and the Wutong Courtyard where Xu Fengnian lived was called Fengge, which shows the detached status of Song Dongming in the officialdom of Beiliang.
Only Li Dongxi and the little monk from the north and south could be regarded as revisiting the old place. Li Dongxi had sharp eyes and immediately saw Song Yu, the housekeeper of the palace. The little girl was also very happy from the bottom of her heart. This old man with a cold face Yan Luo, whom the officials of Liangzhou had privately described, managed to squeeze out a smiling face for the first time, probably because he was really not used to greeting people with a smiling face, so he seemed a little stiff, but The old man still smiled and explained that he would personally accompany Miss Li to visit the makeup shop, which made the little girl very happy. Neither Lu Chengyan nor Wang Chudong showed their faces in public. After all, as the two queen concubines, it is not proper to go out to greet guests.
Xu Weixiong first greeted the monk in white and Mr. Bai Lian, and walked up to Chang Sui and the others. Chang Sui shook the empty wine gourd and said with a smile, "Green ant wine, no more, no less, one pot a day, junior sister Your family has a big business, so it’s no problem, right?”
Xu Weixiong nodded and said: "It's okay to drink, but brother remember not to go to Chaohu Lake to drink in the middle of the night, when you fall into the water, just wait to feed the fish."
Jin Baoshi called out to Senior Sister with red eyes, a little choked up.
Xu Weixiong smiled softly and said, "I haven't seen you for a few years, and you've become a big girl. Do you want me to be a matchmaker for you? Our men here in Beiliang are all rough and drunk with the northwest wind and the yellow sand of the desert." A man is not as good as a scholar in the Central Plains who has read poetry and books, but after dealing with him for a long time, he will know that he can take on more burdens than a scholar who writes like a god. Especially the man over there, who rides the best horse and wears the most A good knife, drinking the strongest wine, and killing the barbarians in Beimang must be to the taste of my younger sister."
Jin Baoshi grabbed Xu Weixiong's hand and hugged it in his arms, and smiled like a baby, "Senior sister, you are not married yet, so why am I so anxious!"
Xu Weixiong turned his head to say hello to Xu Huang, Sima Can and Liu Duanmao, but he didn't have any extra words, just called him senior brother.
The monk in white stood beside his daughter-in-law, watching Bai Yu and Song Dongming hit it off. One was a Daoist Daoist who was highly regarded by the late emperor, and the other was a scribe who was expected to be an excellent minister in the temple. These two belonged to the entire Liyang Dynasty. There are only a handful of scholars who have a good chat. But Li Danxin recalled the secret conversation about Zhao Gou's leader in Wudang Mountain earlier, the monk in white felt a little tired, sighed softly, ignored the conversation between Bai Yu and Song Dongming, and walked into the palace to look at himself Looking at the surrounding scenery, there was a saying in Liyang in the early years that "millions of households are suffering, and one family is rich", that is to say, the Xu family, who is king of the mountain and sits on the Chaohu Lake, wantonly extorts the people's fat and anointment in Beiliang Road. It is truly the wealth of an incomparably rich country.
Soon there were aides who worked in "Longmen" queuing up to Li Danxin's side, probably because the Deputy Economic and Strategic Envoy had told him beforehand that these Beiliang officials who had long admired the monk in white didn't dare to open the chatterbox. They all respectfully signed up for their families, adding at most one or two compliments, and the white-clothed monks smiled and nodded one by one, and everyone in the latter did not think that the abbot of the Liangchan Temple was showing off. Who doesn't know that when the monk in white traveled thousands of miles west and returned to Tai'an City, even when he saw the emperor personally leading the horse, he only clasped his hands together and saluted, and didn't even get off the horse! The group of officials who jumped over the Longmen Gate of Beiliang are already people in the officialdom who have cultivated a certain Taoism in Gongmen, so they will not neglect the famous Wudang Mountain Daoist Han Gui, and sincerely asked for some Taoist health-preserving techniques , among other things, Han Gui, who is very hopeful to become the next head teacher of Wudang, can't be regarded as cold.
Except for the white-clothed monk and his daughter-in-law who led the housekeeper Song Yu to stay in a house, the girl from Dongxi and the young monk from the north and the south left the big team early, and wandered around familiarly. Add a name and an older sister, and the clever maids in Qingliang Mountain still remember this little girl freshly. She was a person who could make His Royal Highness like a younger sister. The little girl has a good temper. If you want to like it or not are difficult. Bai Yu, Chang Sui and his group all followed Xu Weixiong and Song Dongming to the unique mansion on the hillside. It was said to be the residence of the Vice-Commissioner, but it was actually a small continuous courtyard. More than ten auxiliary officials deal with government affairs and basic necessities of life here. Those Longmen civil servants who were like Huang Menlang in the Liyang court dispersed their knowledge and interest, and went back to their homes, continuing to be busy with the affairs gathered from the Governor's Office of the Sanzhou in Beiliang.
In the last room, apart from Xu Weixiong who was sitting in a wheelchair, Song Dongming, a second-rank frontier minister who had to be admitted by the Liyang court, and Bai Yu and Chang Sui who had entered Qingliangshan as the first-class guests of the palace for the time being, were about to go to Huai Xu Huang, a master of military art who works in Yangguan Duhufu, actually already has Sima Can, a strategist who is the prefect of Tieyou County in Lingzhou, Liu Duanmao, who is about to enter Lingzhou Governor's Mansion as Xu Beizhi's staff, and Wutongyuan who wants to enter In the Jinbao Room, sit down separately.
Xu Weixiong cut to the chase and said, "Sure enough, as Mr. Bai Lian expected, the situation on the western front is extremely unfavorable to us in Beiliang. The prince has already personally gone to Liuzhou. Judging from the latest intelligence that came in during the day, all the cavalry troops stationed in Liangzhou have been killed. After receiving the military order, they began to dispatch urgently, but apart from the two soldiers and horses in the west of Liangzhou who had to wait in place and did not need to travel long distances, the soldiers and horses who were already following behind the prince and the eight hundred white horses, Except for Luo Hongcai, who was close to Wudang Mountain at that time, led a thousand-horned eagle cavalry army, and two school lieutenants who passed by later, with a total of 2,300 cavalry. The rest of the Liangzhou cavalry, the fastest one, would arrive a day later than the prince. The border between the Liangliu and Liangzhou states takes four days at the slowest time. This is based on the premise that the physical strength of the horses is completely ignored, because the scale of Beiliang Road is second only to the Tianjing Racecourse of the Xianli Racecourse, which happens to be not far from the gathering place where the prince is. It is probably the only good news for us to be able to draw 600 first-class war horses and 4,000 second-class war horses."
Xu Weixiong paused for a moment, and said solemnly: "To tell you the truth, Wang Sui has easily captured the two cities of Jibei and Hengshui with 50,000 cavalry. The purpose of rushing to the east gate of Youzhou is to cooperate with Yang Yuanzan's army in Hulukou and try to destroy half of Youzhou in one go."
Xu Huang asked slowly: "Even if part of the Youzhou Infantry of General Yan Wenluan is sent north to support Xiaguang City, on the premise that Youzhou itself has 30,000 cavalry troops, at the same time defend the last line of defense at Hulukou and The eastern frontier, isn't it difficult?"
Xu Weixiong smiled wryly and said: "It was originally like this, but we put together two whimsical principals, and under the insistence of the two of them, not only did thirty thousand Youqi troops go northward from Hezhou to the outside of Hulukou, but also Even the 10,000 Snow Dragon Cavalry Army and the two heavy cavalry troops left their respective camps and rushed to Hulukou. So now not only is the situation in Liangzhou Hutou City in critical condition, but the rear of the two major military towns of Huaiyangguan and Liuya Fuling In addition, the cavalry troops in Liangzhou are now rushing to Liuzhou to fight the fire. Once Hutou City falls, Liangzhou will be in an unimaginable and terrible situation. The two cavalry lieutenants at the border of Liangzhou Commanders He Zhonghu and Zhou Kang, as well as the deputy commander of the infantry, Gu Dazu, the current strength of the three of them is obviously not enough to support the situation created by the loss of Hutou City. Therefore, another deputy commander of the infantry, Chen Yunchui, has led three Thousands of elite infantry will go to Liangzhou."
Xu Huang's expression moved slightly, and he began to quickly calculate the gains and losses in his heart.
Chang Sui's wine gourd was already full of green ant wine, and he drank it alone to get carried away.
Song Dongming was sitting upright, and Bai Yu squinted, not knowing what he was thinking.
Xu Weixiong said in a deep voice: "Now we can only hope that Liuzhou will not lose, and at the same time, Huaiyang Pass will not be lost, so that I, Beiliang, can successfully fight an unprecedented scale of encirclement and annihilation in Hulukou, otherwise it will be considered Hulukou. The fall of Yangguan, even with the strength of Beiliang Liuzhou and Beimang Hulukou, we can't afford to exchange them. After all, Beiliang is only fighting with the power of one country, and Beimang can afford it. , we can't afford it."
Xu Huang said softly: "In this way, whether the prince's Liangzhou reinforcements can change the battle situation in Liuzhou is very important, and whether Chu Duhu can keep the front line of the Northern Liang border formed by Hutou City and Huaiyangguan Liuya Fuling Town , is very important, whether Commander Yuan can block the Youzhou cavalry army and eat up the more than 200,000 troops in the mouth of the gourd is very important."
Xu Huang repeated three crucial points.
This means that Beiliang wants to win this shocking gamble, one link after another, and there must be no major mistakes in each link, otherwise it will lose everything.
Chang Sui wiped his drink from the corner of his mouth, and asked with a smile: "Then I only ask about the most confident battlefield in Beiliang, that Hulukou, Yuan Zuozong's big snow dragon cavalry, plus those two dragons who have been seeing each other for twenty years." The heavy cavalry army, plus the Youzhou cavalry army with Tian Heng Yuluan Saber, how sure are they that they can catch that old turtle Yang Yuanzan in the urn?"
Xu Weixiong smiled and stretched out a hand.
Chang Sui rubbed his chin, and said regretfully: "It's only 50%, so it's hanging. I have to think about finding a way out for myself, or I might be able to get out of this chair under the Qingliangshan buttocks before it's warmed up." I heard the hooves of the Northern Mang barbarians."
Xu Weixiong turned his palm slowly again.
The corners of Bai Yu's mouth curled up.
Chang Sui stared and said, "Junior Sister Xu, are you kidding me?!"
Xu Weixiong smiled and said: "Although there are not many soldiers and horses blocking the mouth of the gourd, they are almost half of my family's wealth that my father has accumulated for most of his life. If we still can't win this battle, how can Beiliang have the confidence to compete with the millions of troops in Beimang?" Confrontation?"
Chang Sui suddenly laughed and said, "Otherwise I'll go to Xiaguang City, Youzhou, junior sister, can you let me lead a heavy cavalry army?"
Xu Weixiong sneered and said, "Brother, if you can quit drinking, I will agree."
Chang Sui resentfully said, "That's fine."
Xu Huang suddenly frowned and said, "I heard that Beimang spared no effort to build two heavy cavalry named after the two surnames of Yelu Murong."
Xu Weixiong said softly: "It has nothing to do with Hulukou. According to the border spy information just obtained, one of them has already rushed to the border of Liuzhou. This is where Liu Gui's real confidence lies in wanting to annihilate the entire army of 30,000 dragon elephant riders."
The whole room fell silent.
Bai Yu, who hadn't interrupted, smiled wryly and shook his head slightly.
Jin Baoshi was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help asking: "The reinforcements of the cavalry in Liangzhou, even if they can reach the battlefield in time, are they still useful?"
Xu Weixiong said helplessly: "If you want me to say it, it's just doing your best and obeying the destiny."
Everyone in the house fell silent again.
Xu Weixiong smiled happily for some reason, without any sign of depression, "But if it were someone else, he would definitely not think so, and he would just say, 'It's better to lose than to admit defeat, okay? Let's talk!'"
…
Hutou City in Liangzhou, inside Hulukou, outside Qingcang City in Liuzhou, on the eastern border.
Beiliang is fighting on all four fronts.