Hearing Li Xu's request, Lai Hu'er couldn't help but froze. The reason why he was willing to come to a young man's home for a banquet today, and repeatedly praised the host's bravery during the dinner, was that he was interested in the other's future development prospects and wanted to get together.
The relationship between them will be closer so that their family and descendants can provide more help when needed in the future.
Judging from the current status and situation of the other party, this is really a kindness that comes in time of need, which no one else can even dream of asking for. Unexpectedly, Li Xu not only did not know how to be grateful, but also took the opportunity to make such an unreasonable request.
Although the Sui Dynasty did not prohibit civilians from owning short blades and armors, how could the ordinary things in the market be as sophisticated as those made under the unified supervision of the late emperor during his lifetime? In recent years, the national power has been declining, so the Ministry of War has very tight control over armor, weapons and staffs.
, all the incoming and outgoing of more than a hundred weapons are recorded and can be checked. If a military general gives away weapons privately, he will definitely be impeached by the officials. It is an important weapon of the country, how can it be given to generals privately?
Lai Huer had the intention to refuse this unreasonable request, but what he just said was too full. Just after patting his chest, the other party took out his hand and immediately shrank his head, which would have been a bit embarrassing.
"Isn't this very embarrassing for the old general Lai? If so, it's just a drunken remark made by a senior!" Li Xu saw Lai Hu'er speechless for a long time, smiled, and raised a glass to apologize.
Lai Hu'er's hesitation made him puzzled. Xuzi clearly remembered that when Xiongwuying went to Liaodong to meet Yu Wenshu, Yu Wenshu easily obtained thousands of long branches and tens of thousands of war horses. Lai Hu'er was here
Although the forces in the army are not as strong as Yuwenshu's, he is more generous than Yuwenshi and his face when he takes action! How can he be so irresponsible?
"This matter is not difficult to say, but it involves too many relationships and is too complicated!" Lai Huer put down his wine cup and answered solemnly. He is a sophisticated man. After thinking about it carefully, he understood why Xu Zi, who has always been cautious,
Suddenly it became so difficult to clean up. "I will tell you all, if Li Lang still leads the Xiongwu Camp, let alone hundreds of sets of armors and weapons, I can do this job even if he re-arms tens of thousands of soldiers.
Son. But the Xiongwu camp is a government soldier, but the county soldiers belong to the local area..."
"So, I was really rude. Don't be surprised, General Lai. General Li Lang and I were also worried about the current situation. We didn't expect that there was such a relationship!" Zhang Xutuo was full of expectations, but when he heard what Lai Huer said,
Quickly take the responsibility on yourself,
It was he who had brought up the bad idea of begging for armor for Hu'er to Xuzi. Qi County did not have enough good craftsmen and materials, and it was indeed impossible to build equipment for 20,000 soldiers. And the imperial court refused to allocate it to the local area, so it was impossible.
That's why he made this decision.
"What did those bastards in the Ministry of War do? They were trying to help the country, but they forced you and me to prepare in private! Hi!" Feng Ciming, deputy chief of the Navy, pretended to be angry and put the wine glass on the table.
, there is a sound of "dong dong".
The best choice at this moment is to change the subject. Everyone took advantage of the drunkenness to curse the civil servants of the Ministry of War. It was not a big mistake and it avoided the embarrassment of both the host and the guest.
However, Li Xu could not appreciate the kindness of the old general. He stood up, drank a glass of wine, and said with a red face: "It's the junior who didn't think well and caused you trouble! You deserve to be punished, you deserve to be punished!" After that,
, he drank another large cup of wine. At this moment, his heart was full of apologies. He originally wanted to do something for the place, but who knew that his power was so weak that he couldn't even get any benefits.
Seeing Li Xucheng sincerely apologizing, Lai Huer and others were also very bored. Everyone was having a great time drinking today, but they actually disturbed the situation for something that had nothing to do with personal interests! After pondering for a while, Lai General said tentatively
: "This commander-in-chief captured a batch of Goguryeo armored staffs during this cross-sea expedition. Although they are a bit broken, they can be used if they are repaired. However, Chief Shi Cui Junsu has been keeping a close eye on them..."
"Master Cui and several civil servants who accompanied the army were invited by Prefect Pei to go mountain climbing to enjoy the autumn. Once they are scholars who are so interested in drinking and writing poems, they must not care about anything else!" Zhang Xutuo heard the guard's words and immediately tightened his grip.
Keep up.
Both the host and the guest had a tacit understanding of what kind of atmosphere was involved in drinking wine and making poems. With Pei Caozhi’s ability, if he wanted Cui Junsu and other saints’ disciples to turn a blind eye to what would happen next in Qijun
, there are countless good ways to do it. At least, those who enjoy the autumn today will get a generous brush when they come down from the mountain, although everyone may not have written a word on the mountain!
"Well, when the army breaks camp the day after tomorrow, I will put down the captured burdens and let you Qijun handle it. There are also some damaged weapons and armors. If Zhang Tongshou and Li Lang don't mind, they will collect them together.
I'm leaving it in your hands for the time being, and will return it when the court needs it!" Seeing that everyone in Qi County had done everything right, Lai Huer nodded and made the final decision.
"Thank you so much, General Chengzhong!" Zhang Xutuo, Li Xu, and Luo Shixin raised their glasses again to express their gratitude to the generous guests.
The guests and hosts laughed at the same time and drank the wine in one gulp. Li Xu took the opportunity to order three "small gifts" to be given to celebrate the triumph of the three old friends. The guardian did not even look at them and handed them directly to the guards behind him.
Received.
Taking advantage of the drunkenness, Lai Huer asked about Li Xu's situation after arriving in Qijun. Zhang Xutuo truthfully described the process of several fierce battles after Xu Zi's arrival. He didn't like to add words, but he was calm and sincere.
Bring a sense of reality. The three distinguished guests here are all military generals. After hearing the general situation of the enemy and ourselves at that time, you can guess what the scene was like. When I heard that Li Xu, Qin Shubao, Luo Shixin and Dugu Lin only brought
When he dared to attack a hundred thousand rebels with only a thousand cavalry, he couldn't help but admire the courage of the four men.
"That Captain Dugu, is he the brother of General Dugu Xin of the Zhu Kingdom?" Feng Ciming asked in surprise when he heard Zhang Xutuo mention a name he was familiar with.
"Exactly, when he volunteered to join the army, I almost drove him away because of his delicate face!" Zhang Xutuo replied with a smile, "I also almost drove Luo Shixin out of the camp. Fortunately, I almost drove him away.
The two of them are stubborn and have lost their confidence even with my few words!"
That was a story several years ago. At that time, the bandits had just emerged in the wild like dots of flames. Each county was ordered to reorganize the county soldiers, and Zhang Xutuo also posted a notice recruiting heroes with the mentality of giving it a try.
As a result, a handsome young man came on the first day. He was well-dressed and spoke unruly. Zhang Xutuo was unwilling to accept it, so he tested him with military skills and martial arts. Unexpectedly, the other party was actually good at both civil and military skills. Not only did he answer all the questions clearly, but he also jumped on the horse.
He met Qin Shubao twenty times. Zhang Xutuo was overjoyed and held a banquet to celebrate. He thought his good luck was over, but the next day another fourteen-year-old kid came to join the army.
With the experience of the first day, the old general did not dare to treat him lightly, but smiled and persuaded him to go home because of his young age. The little boy refused, saying that his surname was Luo Mingshixin, and he was proficient in martial arts and could be a general. Zhang Xu
Seeing what he said was interesting, Tuo ordered someone to bring two stone locks, one heavy and one light, for him to carry. If he could carry any of them and walk half a circle around the school grounds, he could join the army. Luo Shixin, one in each hand, took the fifty kilograms and three stone locks used for training soldiers.
The ten-pound stone lock was lifted at the same time, and the two hammers were swung around the school field.
"Sure enough, a hero comes from a young age! Even if I am twenty years younger, I still don't have such physical strength!" Lai Hu'er commented with a smile. Then he looked at Li Xu and asked, "Li Lang will not be there until he is about to join the army."
Fifteen years old, right?"
"The junior is more than ten months older than Captain Luo! He was already fifteen that year. He and Captain Dugu are both younger than the junior, but their abilities are much higher than the junior!" Li Xu smiled and answered very humbly.
.
"Don't say that. When it comes to military skills and riding and shooting skills, the two of us together may not be able to beat you!" Luo Shixin heard that Li Xu was so self-effacing and quickly denied it. When Xu Zi first arrived in Qi County,
At that time, several of their local generals did have the idea of competing with them. They were all young people and well-known, so it was inevitable that they would be dissatisfied with each other. But after experiencing several battles side by side, this competitiveness gradually turned into
They have mutual admiration. Everyone has their own strengths, and it is impossible to be better than others in everything. Being able to see the strengths of others and learn from each other is a truly strong person.
"They are pretty much the same. It's just me, an old man with no abilities, who still clings on to his position as a Tongshou with a shy face!" Zhang Xutuo said with a smile. The young people under his command can respect and love each other, which makes him such a
Being a Tongshou is very honorable in front of guests.
"Master Tongshou is too modest! The right way is to recommend the wise to the wise. Not only can Master Tongshou discover so many outstanding talents in this world, but he can also know how to make good use of people. How can he be a mediocre person?" Lai Hu'er smiled and said
He raised his lamp to Zhang Xutuo.
"Yes, Master Tongshou has so many good generals under his command, why worry about banditry and injustice!" Zhou Shaoji also persuaded with a smile.
"If there is only one Qi County, I won't worry. Your Majesty allows me to have soldiers from Qi County cross the border to attack bandits, but there is no county without bandits in all directions!" When mentioning banditry, Zhang Xutuo shook his head slightly, with an expression on his face.
A little helpless.
Several of the guests were from Dongdu, and they had heard a little bit about the local banditry situation, but they did not expect that it had become so intense that it made Zhang Xutuo, a famous general, worried. Putting down his wine cup and asking carefully, Zhang Xutuo picked up Wang Bo with his fingers.
The strength of thieves such as Huo Xiaohan, Lu Mingxing, Shuai Rentai, Zuo Xiaoyou and others are revealed one by one. Each of these giant bandits has more than 100,000 people under his command. Recently, there has been a faint tendency to collude with each other. This makes it difficult for the county soldiers to take care of both the head and tail.
, if you attack any one of them, you have to be wary of someone taking the opportunity to attack your home base.
"What's even more powerful is the Wagang Army. Although their numbers are small, their combat effectiveness is very strong!" Luo Shixin added loudly from the side.
"Don't the Wagang Army only have more than 10,000 soldiers?" veteran general Feng Ciming asked in surprise. He had heard of this team known as righteous thieves. The whistle-stopping horse was active in Dongping County, not far from Luoyang, and often sent troops
They robbed the official ships transporting supplies to the east on the Yongji Canal. They always made a profit and escaped. The imperial court sent troops to suppress them several times, but could not catch up with them every time.
"In my humble opinion, although the number of bandits in various places is large at present, they are all a mob. As long as the court is willing to suppress them with their heart, they will be wiped out sooner or later. Only the Wagang Army has strict military discipline and orderly orders. In the future, it may be
Our fierce rival!" Seeing the lively chatter among the people, Li Xu also put down his glass of wine and joined the discussion.
"General Li Lang admires the Wagang Army so much. Could it be that he has already fought against the bandit army?" Lai Hu'er did not expect that there was a bandit army that even Li Xu admired. He asked with wide eyes.
"We had a fight at the foot of Mount Tai more than two months ago. At that time, we had a thousand cavalry, including two hundred heavy armor. The Wagang army had four thousand infantry and more than a hundred light cavalry." Li Xu nodded, very solemnly.
Answer. He hoped that his words would attract the attention of Hu'er and others and report the situation to the court truthfully. With Xu Maogong's ability, if the court took it lightly and sent a mediocre person who didn't know how to fight to deal with him, it would probably be in vain.
Send armor and equipment to the Wagang Army.
"What was the result?" Old General Feng Ciming asked with concern. "You once led a thousand cavalry to defeat a hundred thousand thieves, and faced a four thousand Wagang army. How could you lose?"
He couldn't believe this inference. If this was really the case, the imperial court would indeed need to send heavy troops to deal with it. Dongjun was only more than three hundred miles away from Luoyang. If the Wagang army had evil intentions, they could kill the Dongdu city in a matter of seconds.
"The result is a tie." Li Xu shook his head and sighed. "Our army lost nearly 400 cavalry, killing the enemy, and the enemy was probably killed by the same number!"
Four hundred cavalry were exchanged for only 400 infantry of the opponent. This result was actually a huge defeat. Moreover, among this group of cavalry were four famous generals: Li Xu, Luo Shixin, Qin Shubao and Dugu Lin. The Dugu Lin
How they were able to protect the children was not clear to the others, but both Luo Shixin and Qin Shubao were portraits painted by His Majesty himself and passed on to the ministers.
Thinking of this, several guests asked in unison: "Who is leading the army on the other side? Does General Li Lang know?"
"There are several good fighters. One is named Cheng Zhijie, and his martial arts skills are not inferior to those of Qin Duwei. One is named Shan Xiongxin, and he is tied with me!" Before Li Xu could speak, Luo Shixin answered first. "But neither of them is the most powerful among them.
The guy who is in the middle and controls the overall situation is called Xu Maogong. He has good command, rigorous use of troops, and is vicious and vicious. He dares to use any tricks to achieve his goals!"
Is Xu Maogong such a person? Li Xu raised his head and saw Luo Shixin's face filled with indignation. He understood that Luo Shixin was avenging himself, so he smiled and took a big sip of wine.
Mentioning the intensifying banditry in the local area, Zhang Xutuo took the opportunity to ask Qijun to send His Majesty the congratulatory team back to the east capital with the navy. Compared with what Li Xu had just asked for, this small task was already a small effort. Come and protect him.
There was no reason for me to bother with trivial matters after giving the other person a huge favor, so I smiled and accepted the favor.
So the hospitable hosts raised their glasses again to thank the distinguished guests for their generosity. The guests also raised their glasses in return to thank the hosts for their enthusiasm. For the Sui Dynasty, for the emperor, for the conquest of Liao, for the early quelling of the bandits, and for the restoration of peace in the world, as long as
Everyone can find enough reasons to drink, until everyone's eyes are blurred and their steps are unsteady.
That night, Li Xu didn't know how much he drank. He found that it became difficult for him to get drunk again, and his usually ineffective speech became very clear after he was drunk. No matter what the other party said, he could speak smoothly.
He can add a few words and win a lot of laughs. "Actually, this is not bad!" He secretly warned himself. Life is like this. When you carefully hide your edge, it will not be exposed to you easily.
Fangs.
When others give you a smile, try to smile back to them. Even if there were many unclear grievances and grievances between each other at the moment, it is always safer to look forward than to look back at this moment or that moment.
During the chat, he found that he had indeed lived a comfortable life in the past six months, and he didn't know that there were so many interesting things happening outside.
In March of this year, when he led his troops to Beihai, Tang Bi, the commander of the Fufeng bandits, made Li Hongzhi the emperor with a crowd of 100,000, calling himself the King of Tang. In early April, Yulin Governor Cheng Ji Dongchun defeated the Pengcheng bandits and beheaded nearly 10,000 people. In May
, General Qu Tutong defeated the Yan'an thief Liu Jialun, and defeated tens of thousands of Hu soldiers and horses attracted by Liu Jialun.
The Great Sui Dynasty continued its glory, although this glory seemed to have faded. In addition to the victory news that these generals talked about, Xuzi also heard about the marriage between the Li family and the Chai family. The wedding was held last year.
In the winter, when he came to Licheng to take office. "The Chai family and the Li family were both famous families in the Sui Dynasty. On the day of the wedding, there were more than two thousand guests who came to watch the ceremony, and the whole of Chang'an was shocked." Zhou Shaoji, a good friend, attended in person.
Chai Shao's wedding, when I mention the grandeur of the wedding that day, I feel envious.
Li Xu, who was toasting everyone, staggered a step, his eyes drowsy with drunkenness. "Congratulations on the great luck of the Sui Dynasty!" He raised his head and gave everyone a happy smile.
"Congratulations on the great luck of the country in the Sui Dynasty!" Everyone raised their glasses in response and quickly forgot the topic they were talking about.
After drinking and seeing the guests off, Lai Huer walked back to Xu Zi, patted Xu Zi on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Boy, you always impress people!"
"Really? Thank you for the compliment, senior!" Li Xu smiled back, his face full of frankness.
Two days later, the navy and Qijun's gift-giving teams returned westward at the same time. Xuzi took five thousand Junjun soldiers to take over the camp abandoned by the army. The navy chief Lai Huer and the commander Shi Cuijunsu jointly decided to leave it to Qi.
The county agent handled a batch of baggage seized from Goguryeo and a batch of damaged armor staffs. Xuzi ordered people to make a rough inventory and found that there were about 3,000 complete sets of thick armor for the soldiers and more than 5,000 sets of armor used by the Goguryeo people.
Leather armor, more than 5,000 shields, and more than 2,000 infantry spears.
The combat effectiveness of the county soldiers immediately increased to a higher level. In September, Huo Xiaohan committed a crime against Langxie. Li Xu and Luo Shixin led 5,000 troops across the border to attack him. They defeated his army and captured more than 15,000 people.
In October, Qin Shubao defeated Lu Mingxing and captured nearly ten thousand enemies.
In November, just when everyone was happy about the strength of the county soldiers, bad news came from Dongdu. General Feng Ciming took the initiative to ask Ying to go to Dongjun to quell the rebellion. He was defeated and died. All 20,000 of his elite troops were wiped out.
