In the dark night, there is a porcelain oil lamp burning in the upper left corner of the study, imitating the style of stacked porcelain lamps in the old Western Shu.
The young man sat alone behind the table and browsed through a secret letter whose contents he was already familiar with.
He has been to the affluent Jiangnan Road, where the rich and noble families, every household, the tall trees and pearls, quietly show the prosperous and peaceful atmosphere. He has also been to Tai'an City, the most virtuous city in the world. During festive seasons, lotus lanterns are placed on every tile in the capital. He has also seen the little stars and dim lights of the town after nightfall. Passing by small and large villages again and again, it is an unexpected joy to see a tiny light occasionally.
He put down the letter, got up, bypassed the desk, came to the window, and gently pushed the window open. The letter was not an important military document, but a private letter that Li Yanchao handed over to Ju Beicheng. He didn't reject the North City military room, but sent it directly to the study desk of his young feudal lord.
The first deputy commander of the Right Cavalry Army used the pen so heavily that the ink stains penetrated to the back of the paper.
Li Yanchao didn't put any trivial words into writing, only two simple sentences, "Lu Dayuan shouldn't die! Anyone in Beiliang must never annihilate the entire army of the Zuo Cavalry Army, and regard it as a disgrace to the frontier army!"
In fact, Li Yanchao didn't need to write this letter at all. How Lu Dayuan used his troops and how he behaved, Xu Fengnian was far more familiar than Li Yanchao. How can a general who can be mentioned many times by Xu Xiao in the Qingliangshan Council Hall after his old age be an ordinary person? Xu Xiao came out of Liaodong with 800 veterans. He had a military career for 40 years. At the end, he held 300,000 Beiliang cavalry. There were so many generals who served under his command. Many people died on the battlefield, and finally survived. There are also quite a few people, Lu Dayuan, a full-armed cavalry general with a strong root, almost everyone knows the generals of the older generation of the Xu family, from Yan Wenluan and Chen Yunchui to Zhou Kang and Yuan Nanting to Liu Jinu and Li Mofan. He once regretted Lu Dayuan's sudden departure from the Beiliang Frontier Army, and that regret was not at all inferior to the departure of the two meritorious generals Wu Qi and Xu Pu.
Before Lu Dayuan left the mansion to go to the battlefield, Lu Dayuan visited Xu Fengnian privately in the study and had a heart-to-heart conversation. After all, Lu Dayuan was not as relaxed and casual as the commander-in-chief of the first army again. On the contrary, Lu Dayuan, who grew up with the Xu family cavalry, compared with Li Yanchao and Ning Emei, a new generation of young generals who rose outside the Liangzhou Pass. Lu Dayuan, a younger generation of military generals who are used to the saying that "Northern Liang's iron cavalry is the best in the world", is more familiar with hard and tough battles. It can even be said that the pain and suffering of the year were engraved in his bones. Therefore, Lu Dayuan had to say everything in front of the young feudal lord. Lu Dayuan wanted to reassure Xu Fengnian and himself.
In that face-to-face long conversation, Lu Dayuan believed that the two cavalry troops with more than 60,000 cavalry would never be able to roam safely in the increasingly narrow gap outside the customs, unless the left cavalry retreated to the north of Qingyuan Army Town, and the right cavalry Go straight to the east of Chongzuka Army Town, and in the northeast and southwest, completely stretch the front line, so that there is a real room for breathing.
But in this way, although the 60,000 cavalry troops are barely surviving, what should they do if they reject Beicheng? Although the left and right cavalry can still contain a certain number of Beimang cavalry, but to put it bluntly, the northern mang barbarians don't need to send out the main force, just throw us two low-level cavalry as long as they have enough numbers, and then we will have to lie down. Watching the fun on horseback? I, Lu Dayuan, are a rough man. How to lead troops to fight, I learned little by little from the generals back then. I also consulted Xu Pu, Wu Qi or Yuan Zuozong, Chen Zhibao, etc., but I always felt that I didn’t look like a donkey or a horse in the end. In the end, I only believed in one truth. Once the cavalry enters the battlefield, they must destroy the enemy's most elite field force in one go. They must not lose the big because of small things. For the sake of the so-called overall situation To preserve strength, otherwise in a difficult battle with disparity in strength, the more the battle is delayed, the more difficult it will be to fight, and the loss will be inexplicable and even more unwilling. Someone has to fight a difficult battle, otherwise everyone will retreat again and again, and they will really have to wait to die. How is it different from the nest of old foxes and wolves in the yamen of Liyang Military Department in the early years
Xu Fengnian stood at the window, the autumn air filled the room and the lamp was cold. After opening the window, the chill became even heavier.
Xu Fengnian turned around, the man was sitting on the chair in front of the desk, with an ordinary appearance, if he hadn't appeared in this study, but stood on the Tian Yin in Guannei, he would probably have been regarded as a man with his face facing the loess and his back facing the sky. peasant.
"My lord, when I and the right cavalry army send out troops at the same time, I will take the lead in speeding up the northern assault one day after the distance between the two armies is staggered, so as to attract Murong Baoding's troops to gather the main force. If there is no accident, Murong Baoding will definitely hear the news And move, ask for reinforcements from Wang Yong, the governor of Aquarius State, and it is very possible to temporarily deploy the Rouran cavalry to support Donglei's private cavalry. Please rest assured, my left cavalry army will still kill the enemy's elite even if they are in a tight siege Forty-five thousand riders!"
"My lord, I would like to trouble you, please help me to say sorry to Mr. He later, I have entrusted tens of thousands of military men to my hands, but I can only take them to die. I have a bad conscience, but I have to do it." For this matter, Lu Dayuan is waiting for the old man underground, and he will be beaten and scolded at that time! However, it is best to let me wait another ten or eight years, haha, by then the old man probably won’t have the energy to beat people , After thinking about it for a while, I will be reincarnated easily."
After the man got up, he looked at the young vassal who stood up at the same time, and said in a deep voice: "If it turns out that I, Lu Dayuan, did something wrong in the future, no one will have to bring wine to the grave in the future, and even if I think about it, I won't be able to drink that guilty wine...Of course, The premise is if I still have a grave."
The two walked towards the door of the study together, and Lu Dayuan suddenly asked: "My lord, do you think that after decades, will anyone remember us? Remember the war that happened here?"
Xu Fengnian shook his head and said, "Not necessarily."
"Damn... Haha, forgive me, my lord, I'm just a rough man, I can't spit ivory out of a dog's mouth."
"It's okay, so is Xu Xiao, I've been used to it for a long time."
Everything is vivid in my mind, and those words seem to still echo in my ears, lingering for a long time.
Xu Fengnian pressed his hands on the window and leaned forward. Lu Dayuan, who rushed to the battlefield with the heart of death, did not confess his last words. Just a name.
Xu Fengnian turned his head slowly and looked at the door of the study.
The man named Lu Dayuan clasped his fists at the end and said, "The last general, Lu Dayuan! He used to be the cavalry general of the Manjia Battalion, and is now the deputy commander of the left cavalry army! Please fight the general!"
Xu Fengnian's lips moved slightly at that time, and those two words reached his lips, but he still couldn't say them out.
Ready to fight!
Xu Fengnian suddenly pressed his hands down heavily, and the bricks and stones on the window sill under his fingers shattered.
Xu Fengnian took a deep breath, waved his hand to the dark place outside the window, and signaled the dead men in the Fushui room over there to ignore it.
He walked back to the desk and took out a piece of paper from a yellowed military book.
What was written on the paper was a man who participated in the construction of Jubei City far outside the pass, and he spoke to his wife and children who had left their hometown in Lingzhou. The cloth shoes made of thousand-ply soles are enough, and the wear is not too bad. The clothes I brought to Jubei City at that time were enough to keep me warm. I also ran into two fellow villagers from Longqing County, Lingzhou. When I had time, I would go to a small town outside the city for a drink or two. Small wine, the price is cheaper than Guannei. I heard that we won the battle in Liuzhou, and the walls of Jubei City are so high that the barbarians in Beimang will definitely not be able to fight in a year or so. Let her and her two sons rest assured that as long as they still receive mail every month The salary means that the outside of the customs is very peaceful and there is no war. In the end, the man told his daughter-in-law not to worry about money, and don't feel distressed. The most important thing is for children to study.
The family letter was sent to a certain place in the Central Plains, which was the man's ancestral home.
This piece of paper is just a copy, and the real letter from home has already been sent out.
After the man arrived outside the customs, he was illiterate, so he couldn't write the family letter, so he found an unknown poor scholar in the market to help him write it.
Xu Fengnian looked down at the thin piece of paper laid out on the desk by the dim light.
When the last letter from home was sent, it was just after Lu Dayuan left Jubei City.
On the first day Lu Dayuan re-entered the frontier army, Beiliang Fushuifang had already investigated the situation of this man in the small town of Longqing County, Lingzhou for more than ten years, and sent them to the mansion of Jubei City one after another. , and then summarize the desks placed in this study. Afterwards, when Lu Dayuan rejected every move of Beicheng or the Zuoqi Army, the Fushuifang spies recorded and archived everything in detail. Xu Fengnian did not stop him from doing so. Many, many people died in the world. However, Xu Fengnian made a special trip to the execution room when Lu Dayuan asked someone to write his family letter, and asked the head of the Fushui room who was in charge of related matters not to intervene.
Only for this letter, Xu Fengnian went back on his word and let Fushuifang spies intercept the family letter, but unfortunately the elderly scholar who was in the business of writing family letters had already left the border with the team. If I really want to find it, I can find it with the power of Fushuifang outside the pass, but Xu Fengnian thought about it and gave up, thinking that since he has the family letter in his hand, with his calligraphy attainments and skills, it is not necessary to forge a letter every month. Disaster.
But at this moment, Xu Fengnian regretted it again.
Because he found that he seemed to be unable to pick up the pen at all, even if he picked up the pen again and again, it fell down again, and he didn't know how to write the content of the letter from home one month later.
Xu Fengnian stood up, walked out of the study, and came to the courtyard.
Still unable to completely calm down, Xu Fengnian stood up straight from the ground, swept to the horse path on the south wall of Jubei City, jumped lightly, and sat cross-legged on the top of the wall.
Soon there was a sound of iron armor shaking from the distance of the horse path. When the soldiers realized that it was the young feudal lord who had come to the city in person, they quickly retreated silently. Although there was no exchange of words, each of them noticed the heat in each other's eyes.
Xu Fengnian clenched his fists and propped them on his legs. He sat facing south and looked at the night in the distance.
Sitting all night.
Before dawn, he quietly returned to the mansion, and not long after he sat down in the study, a prison spy chief came to report that Mao Shulang, Cheng Baishuang, and Ji Liu'an, three southern Xinjiang masters, were about to arrive at the suddenly sparsely populated town in the south of the city market.
Xu Fengnian asked him to prepare a horse, and after spending more than half an hour dealing with the military and political affairs that gradually piled up on his desk last night, he went out of the city alone.
It's not that he made a special trip to welcome the three Central Plains masters, Xu Fengnian mainly wanted to take a look at the market, without much reason.
Xu Fengnian came to the town on horseback, got off his horse, and led the horse forward slowly. Restaurants, teahouses, inns, and scattered shops of various colors, of course, could not go without long legs, but the business was extremely deserted, and some shops simply It is reasonable to close the door, and three or four thousand people were evacuated in just half a decade, not to mention that a large number of civilians who participated in the construction of the city also began to return to their hometowns in Guannei in batches under the escort of the local garrison. Xu Fengnian walked all the way, and there were sleepy shop assistants squatting under the eaves and yawning. The business plummeted, and he was happy to take a break from his busy schedule. There were merchants who yelled at their servants to move their goods and set off to move south, with worried expressions on their faces. It is rare for a brothel woman who is lying on the railing and looking up at the red lanterns to get up so early when she has nothing to do. There are strong bodyguards escorting Lingzhou's rare objects here, and they just ignore the shopkeeper's frown as long as they walk safely.
Xu Fengnian suddenly saw an old Taoist priest pushing a cart to the south at the end of the street. He was skinny and had weak arms. Doushu, gossip and six lines, it's okay", "face and palmistry, it's okay." Xu Fengnian smiled knowingly, this fortune teller was really sincere, he led the horse and walked quickly, bent over to help push the car.
The white Taoist robe worn by the old man was neither fish nor fowl. Anyway, Xu Fengnian had never seen it before when he traveled to Liyang Beimang. Forgery and sale in the market without authorization, once discovered by the county government, the crime is definitely not small. The Taoist robe that Xu Fengchu rented from others when he first traveled around the rivers and lakes was also a robe that was not of good origin and could never be found. , It is difficult to convict if you get to the bottom of it. The person in front of him obviously belongs to the same path as His Royal Highness, who was extremely down and out back then.
The fortune teller, who was barely called a Taoist priest, squinted his eyes and said: "This son must have come from a wealthy family. If the poor Taoist's predictions are correct, he is still the younger brother of a general whose father's generation has great power outside the pass."
Xu Fengnian said with a smile, "Sir, I saw that my horse was able to follow its master by itself after letting go of the rein. It should be the same horse in Beiliang. In addition, the battle is imminent, so I dared to take the horse for a stroll here. So it can be deduced that I am the general seed brother?"
The fortune teller suddenly smiled far-fetchedly, and the fairy demeanor he managed to squeeze out disappeared, and he was beaten back to his original shape.
Xu Fengnian said with emotion: "To be honest, I was similar to my husband in the early years. In order to make a living, I pretended to be a ghost and set up a stall to become a fortune teller. My husband is better than me. At least I have a tricycle."
Xu Fengnian jokingly said: "But to be honest, Mr.'s banner is really outstanding, can there be business?"
The old man laughed, "Actually, it doesn't matter. The main source of income here is to write family letters for others, or to sell some small safety charms folded in yellow paper. The business is not bad. Those foreigners from Beiliang didn't leave. It is enough for me to eat meat and drink twice a day. People like me, that is, ordinary people, when we pray to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, we must first seek peace and stability. Then we seek marriage. , Seeking the right time. The last is to seek fame and wealth. My son, do you think this is a rough idea?"
Xu Fengnian nodded and said in a soft voice: "The common people are actually using three Wen coins for peace of mind, sir is doing a good deed."
As if remembering those happy times of drinking and eating meat, the old man smiled, but soon he couldn't help but angrily said: "If our prince is more powerful, my business will still be good for a month or so, how can I expect that?" The barbarians from Beimang hit Jubei City so early, and I wasted my money to get this job, and I lost a lot of money, and this time I returned to the pass, life will be difficult."
Xu Fengnian smiled and said: "That feudal lord should indeed be scolded, what kind of martial arts master is not worth it."
Probably because he realized that the young man next to him was also a seed brother, who was closely related to the rise and fall of the Xu family in Beiliang. When walking in the rivers and lakes, it is reasonable to talk too much, and it is a big taboo to talk too much, so the old man quickly changed his tone. He smoothed things over and said: "You can't say that, it's not easy for our lord, it's not very good luck to support such a big family, soon the barbarians from Beimang will call, and they won't even give a chance to fart, The prince and the frontier army are still... quite difficult."
Perhaps the old man really couldn't make it up anymore, he became more and more embarrassed, his hands and feet seemed to be restrained, and the strength of pushing the cart was a little weak.
Xu Fengnian slightly increased his strength, and said with a smile: "Sir, what you said is a bit against your will. Don't worry, although I am the seed brother of Beiliang General, I can still listen to other people's words. I don't care about good or bad. Of course, It makes me happier when I hear good things.”
The old man and Xu Fengnian were pushing the cart south together, and they were about to cross the bridge and cross the river soon. The old man turned his head and took a deep look at the majestic city wall, then stomped his feet suddenly and said, "Some words, I really feel uncomfortable, you are the son, you want me to go to Beicheng to question you, The little old man has to spit it out!"
Xu Fengnian said with a wry smile: "Come on, I'm sure it's not a good word. No matter what you say, sir, I'll pretend you didn't hear anything."
The old man smiled, straightened his waist, turned to the north, and pointed to the city of Jubei, "My lord, I have heard a lot of rumors recently, saying that our prince is too courageous to leave so many veterans unused, How do you fight this battle? Who won the first reckless battle? Wasn’t it Liu Jinu, General Liu from Hutou City, Liangzhou? General Wang Lingbao of the Dragon Elephant Army of Zhouzhou? Didn’t it rely on so many lieutenants who died in battle in the three cities in Youzhou’s gourd mouth? It didn’t rely on the most amazing Daxue Dragon Cavalry Army in Beiliang and the two teams that have been built for many years Heavy Cavalry Army? How many young foreigners are there? Yu Luan Dao barely counts as one. Let me tell you, regardless of how many victories Liuzhou has won in the past, when it is really critical, young people are unreliable of!"
The old man turned his head to look at the young man's profile and asked, "Young Master, what do you think?"
Xu Fengnian looked into the distance, "The old man's words make some sense, but the world is wonderful, and something that makes sense doesn't necessarily make sense."
The old man's eyes widened, "Young master, are you a scholar or a general seed brother? Why can't the little old man understand what you say?"
Xu Fengnian sighed, "I can't afford to be called a scholar. It should be true to say that I am a general seed brother. I grew up drinking wind and sand, smelling horse manure and listening to beating drums."
After boldly expressing his thoughts, the old man seemed to be in a much more relaxed mood, and he rarely joked: "Young Master, apart from not being able to explain the truth clearly, is actually quite easy to speak and quite reasonable."
Xu Fengnian said helplessly: "Mr., is this a compliment or a belittling?"
The old man laughed and said, "My lord, just listen to what sounds nice, and it's sure to be right."
Xu Fengnian also felt a little lighter, the haze between his brows gradually faded, and he smiled knowingly: "I have been taught."
The old man did not ask Xu Fengnian to help push the car up the bridge, but pushed the car south alone, and said to himself in a low voice: "If the general is still alive, it will be fine. How dare the barbarians of Beimang come to our side? Beiliang They don't know how to fight at all, so what if they win the battle now, so many people will die. I heard that there are 300,000 stone monuments behind Qingliang Mountain, which are all empty-headed things. Being alive is better than dying Do you want to leave a name?"
Xu Fengnian stood where he was, silent.
The old man would definitely not have guessed the identity of the young man, and he would not think that a great master of martial arts would help him push the cart, so he continued to complain: "Let me see, since the Central Plains court is not a good thing, Rather than gaining a good reputation when Jun Erlang of Beiliang died in battle outside the Pass, it is better to just open the gate and let the barbarians of Beimang enter the Pass. Those white-eyed wolves in the Central Plains are going to suffer, and we Beiliang people can live our peaceful lives with less worry and effort. I just can't see the young feudal lord, otherwise I must persuade him not to act rashly and listen to the old man. Advice, stop fooling around and pretend to be a hero."
Xu Fengnian squinted his eyes and raised his head, the autumn wind ruffled the young man's temple hair.
Maybe it was suffering, maybe it was a guilty conscience, maybe it was a combination of both, so from the beginning to the end, the young feudal lord never spoke.
On the south side of the bridge, the back of the old man pushing the cart is getting further and further away.
Xu Fengnian seemed to remember something, and he opened his voice and shouted: "Old man, don't be in a hurry to go south, and don't forget that within twenty days, all the people can use the three post roads from Beicheng to Liangzhou Pass. Take a long way!"
The old fortune-teller seemed to have really heard the call, and paused for a while, as if to signal to the young man that he understood, and then continued southward.
After the feudal mansion was completed, the study would receive confidential intelligence from inside and outside the pass every day. Fushui House had an eagle house, and Beiliang intelligence had always been divided into three classes according to the priority. A word spy, but the young vassal king asked for an extra class, not the second class B word, but the last class C word spy, in fact, the military and political significance is not very important, it is just used by the king of Xinliang to relieve tension, although the two rooms must After a certain degree of screening, it is impossible to send all of them to the study of the mansion, but the number is still relatively large, and most of them are related to the situation of the Guannei Academy or the public opinion of scholars. The content is varied, among which there are many radical remarks of some young scholars. The young feudal lords have always just browsed but not criticized.
There is a comment in it, which the young feudal lord himself transcribed as a daily self-examination.
"The virtue is weak but the status is high, the wisdom is small but the plan is big, the power is small but the responsibility is heavy, if such a fatuous vassal king sits on the frontier, the Beiliang frontier army will undoubtedly be defeated!"
The army is overwhelming, the father's last wish, the hometown is bitter and cold, the imperial court is holding back, the beautiful Central Plains, innocent people, the way of heaven is overwhelming.
They are all heavy burdens, layer upon layer.
On the north side of the bridge, the young man who had not been able to read the word for four years, squatted down slowly by the river, dusted off a licorice root, and chewed it gently in his mouth.
Mouth full of sweetness.