What Wei Zheng and Song Qingtang didn't know was that their worries were actually unnecessary.
These six thousand soldiers and horses were the urgent message sent by Ouyang Jun that night when Emperor Xuan Yan left the capital.
It was one thing to expect that the capital city would undergo great changes, but another thing. He was pleasantly surprised that Duke Dingguo actually had descendants.
What Ouyang Jun did not tell Song Qingtang was that these six thousand soldiers and horses were nominally the old troops left behind by his father Ouyang Anfeng after his death. In fact, three thousand of them were the Xia family army left by Xia Wenshan, the original Duke of Ding.
When there was great chaos in the north, there were two large armies that went on an expedition to the north. One was Weng Ying's Dading Army, and the other was the Northern Expedition Army led by Xia Wenshan.
After Xia Wenshan and Xia Zhaode were killed in the Huangze Valley, the Northern Army had to be without a commander. Ouyang Anfeng was ordered to do so at the critical moment, and the remaining soldiers and horses of the Xia family came under his command and participated in the months-long war.
In the Battle of Shaoguang, both Beiyuan and Daqian were seriously injured. The battle dragged on to the end. Beiyuan suddenly sent eight thousand charging light cavalry through the narrow mountain road to the north of Zhitu, known as the Tianqi. He bravely rushed away from the south side of Yangmen Pass, where the main defenders had just been transferred to support Shiguang, and went straight to Pingyang Road, forcing Qian's army to turn around and defend their rear. It was at that time that Ouyang Anfeng died in the battle. .
When the Shaoguang War was finally over, Ouyang Jun wanted to return these elite soldiers of the Xia family who were bent on avenging Duke Ding to the Duke Ding's mansion, but something happened to the Duke Ding's mansion.
In order to protect these Xia family troops from being implicated, Ouyang Jun did not inform them of the Xia family's incident in time and kept them privately. But who would have thought that there are still descendants of Dingguo Duke's mansion.
For more than a year, Ouyang Jun has been feeling guilty. Now faced with the only remaining descendant, he had to take care of him. Therefore, he sent someone to Zitu that night.
If the world is really going to be in chaos, the only people in the world who can truly and sincerely protect the little orphan girl are these three thousand old men who have been born and died with Duke Dingguo for many years.
However, within the past half month, the girl disappeared again.
The morning light began to rise from the end of the sky. Ouyang Jun stayed up all night, sitting on the towering Yongdingmen city wall, looking at the horizon in the distance.
The guards have called him several times, but to no avail.
When the morning light lights up the sky, the huge mess under the city wall is also revealed from the darkness.
Ouyang Jun then stood up. When he walked down the city wall, he turned back to the guards behind him and said, "Ask Vice General Xi to go to Zhibei Yamen to find me."
The energy of these refugees has been exhausted. There is no need to spend so much manpower here anymore, and the deployment needs to be rearranged.
"Yes." The guard accepted the order.
Ouyang Jun took people back to Zhibei Yamen. As soon as he turned from the Changjie intersection, he saw Song Qingtang leaving on horseback.
Ouyang Jun looked at the back of the young general and shook his head slightly, feeling helpless. It was obvious that this guy had to stay up all night again last night.
But I don't want him to know about Xia Jiajun for the time being.
Song Qingtang went straight to Huaizhou Street. When he passed Dongping Academy, he went straight to Guo Mansion without stopping.
The servant was almost waiting for him at the door. As soon as he knocked for the first time, the door was opened, and the servant welcomed him with a smile: "Mr. Song will be in the morning!"
Song Qingtang's hand was still raised in the air. When she saw his appearance, she said, "What a coincidence, you want to go out?"
"No," the servant said with a smile, "My young master asked me to wait here for General Song. Come, General Song, please come inside."
The Guo Mansion was very clean, the frost and snow had been cleared away, the water on the lake bridge was gurgling, and several women at the bridge were doing needlework. When they heard the noise, they looked up and said hello to Song Qingtang.
The expressions of the servants and wives of the Guo Mansion were not as peaceful as Song Qingtang expected, and there were worries in the corners of their eyes and eyebrows.
When he arrived at Wendaoju, Dai Yu was wearing a thin martial arts uniform and was practicing his sword skills. He looked up and saw Song Qingtang. Dai Yu's eyes lit up. He stopped his moves and came over. He raised his hand and said, "General Song!"
During the battle in front of the gate of Dongping Academy, Dai Yu especially admired him now.
"Where is Shen Lie?" Song Qingtang asked directly.
"My young master just got up," Dai Yu said, "Du Xuan and Feng Ze are giving him medicine."
"Apply medicine?" Song Qingtang raised his eyebrows, "Du Xuan and Feng Ze, do you need two people?"
Mentioning this, Dai Yu sighed, nodded and said, "Well, the young master is seriously injured."
"I'll go take a look." Song Qingtang said, walking towards the master bedroom.
"Hey! General Song!" Dai Yu hurriedly stopped him, "Don't go, the young master doesn't like having his body looked at, and Du Xuan and Feng Ze are also trying to do it."
"What?" Song Qingtang frowned, "He is not a girl, and I am not a girl either!"
"Young master just doesn't like it, just wait and it will be fine soon!" Dai Yu said.
"What a mess," Song Qingtang walked to the stone table and sat down to wait, "When I was in the military camp, there were a lot of men taking a shower together with their buttocks bare."
"No way, I often go to the bathhouse to soak. The key is that the young master just doesn't like it," Dai Yu said, "Mr. Song, please wait for me. I'll go and tell my young master."
Inside the room, Shen Lie, who had just woken up, was sitting at the table. On the table were a pile of bottles, cans, and gauze.
The most serious injury was the stab wound on the left arm. The wound was extremely deep and long, and had the potential to fester. Du Xuan and Feng Ze felt pain just looking at it.
This wound was caused on the day of the accident at Dongping Academy. Shen Lie, who was supposed to go to Dongping Academy to find Song Qingtang, has not gone. Even his men could not find him. Afterwards, they found out that he had been attacked. .
There were a total of twenty people who injured him, their origins were unknown, they were skilled, and they also carried crossbows.
Those crossbows and arrows were no stranger to Shen Lie. It was the assassination of Yan Yunwei that took place at the entrance of Huaizhou Street not long after he came to the capital.
In addition to crossbows, Shen Lie also found several daggers with copper wires on the blades from the corpses he killed. These copper wires are detachable and have barbs on them. Once pierced into the body, these barbs will It will also embed into the flesh and tear the flesh apart.
Fortunately, there is no dagger with such high craftsmanship on top of the broadsword that injured him.
But he did not rest after being injured. He went to Lianfei Pavilion to apply some medicine, and then rode a horse to Da'an Road. After that, he ran all the way, getting injured along the way. The wounds on his body seemed to have fallen into a dye vat, green, red, purple, There are all kinds of things.
This time, Shen Lie had no choice but to let Feng Ze and Du Xuan apply medicine for him.
The two guards handled it very carefully, fearing to hurt him.
The key is that even if it hurts him, he never utters a sound. Standing behind him, I don't know whether his expression hurts or not.
Just seeing that he remained silent, Feng Ze and Du Xuan felt more and more sad and distressed.
It's not that the young master is stupid and doesn't know pain, but in his early years when he was still in the Shen family, being beaten was a common occurrence. Whether it was Shen Shuangcheng beating him or Guo Hanyue beating him, once his cry of pain was heard, he would only suffer more cruel punishment. of beating.
