The sun sets in the west and the mountains open up.
The rebel soldiers and horses were advancing at a tired and heavy pace. Ten miles ahead was the Ningxia Zhendong ferry called Hetandu. It was more than a hundred miles away from Ningxia City and was a ferry where He Jinyi was preparing to cross the river.
After He Jinyi killed dozens of soldiers, no one dared to dawdle anymore. Even though they were extremely tired and extremely reluctant, the soldiers gritted their teeth and moved forward. Under He Jinyi's ferocious power, no one dared to
Resist.
He Jinyi was very satisfied with this. At this speed, he would definitely be able to reach the ferry before the sun went down. He could start crossing the river before dark. Perhaps it would take less than one night for the army to reach the east bank of the Yellow River and completely escape from Ningxia Town.
This area made him feel dangerous.
However, at this moment, there was some commotion in the team in front, and the speed of the team slowed down.
"What's going on? Why don't you leave?" He Jinyi asked loudly.
The soldiers nearby were silent, and no one answered. He Jinyi waved his hand and ordered his bodyguards to check the situation, but saw several cavalry galloping in front of him, and Ding Guang and several former army generals came in panic.
"Why don't you leave?" He Jinyi shouted and asked.
Ding Guang came closer and said in a trembling voice: "General, there is news from the ferry. There are soldiers and horses from the imperial court attacking the ferry."
He Jinyi was shocked and said: "What? Where did the imperial troops come from? How many people? Where did the news come from?"
Ding Guang swallowed his breath nervously and said: "Reporting to the general, it was the ferry guard Wang Shisan who ordered people to come and report. He said that they were attacked by thousands of imperial troops and asked us to come for reinforcements."
He Jinyi looked angrily and said: "How could there be imperial troops? Where did they come from?"
Ding Guang smiled bitterly and said: "General, Wang Shisan said that the imperial soldiers and horses came down the river in a big boat. They should... arrived from Lingzhou Ferry. Going down the river, there was another southwest wind.
Their speed is much faster than ours."
He Jinyi opened his mouth and didn't close it for a long time.
After all the calculations, I didn’t even consider that the imperial army could chase down the river. Yes, they had big ships, and there were quite a few of them. They did burn a lot of their ships that day, but there were only a dozen of them, and the rest
All ten ships have fled back. Once the imperial troops cross the river, they will find that their troops have evacuated, and they will soon find out the direction in which their army fled.
I was so stupid that I missed this move. I didn't realize that the other party could use the ship to arrive first and rush ahead of me, arriving at the ferry at the last moment.
I was indeed too stupid. If I had known this, I should have listened to Ding Guang's advice and led the army west across the Helan Mountains to reach the Tengger Gobi Desert. In that case, it would be further and further away from the Yellow River, and it would be impossible for the imperial troops to pursue him.
Came up.
It's too late to say anything now, and it's too late to regret.
"General, what should we... do?" Ding Guang and others looked at He Jinyi anxiously and asked.
He Jinyi breathed a sigh of relief to calm down, thought quickly for a moment, and said in a deep voice: "Don't panic. If the imperial court takes a boat down the river, there shouldn't be too many troops. Such a long way, there are rapids and dangerous shoals along the way.
, the river is steep and it is impossible for a small boat to do it. The only way is to take a big boat. Their number of big boats is limited, about thirty or so. So what are you afraid of? "
Ding Guang said in astonishment: "What does General mean? I didn't understand."
He Jinyi said coldly: "Don't you understand? Such a big ship can't carry too many people, and it will kill more than a hundred people. In other words, the number of soldiers and horses they are chasing is more than 3,000 people at most. Our soldiers and horses belong to them
Six or seven times, why are we afraid of them? Not only can they not stop us, but they also sent us a big boat for us to cross the river. We should thank them."
Ding Guang and others finally understood, and smiles appeared on the faces of several generals. The previous panic was gone. What the general said was reasonable, the opponent could have more than 3,000 people at most, and there were more than 18,000 here.
The soldiers and horses, plus the more than a thousand people at the ferry, far outnumbered them, so why should we be afraid of them?
"General Ding, send the order, march quickly, reinforce the ferry, and kill all the imperial soldiers and horses who are overestimating their capabilities. Just in time. We are short of some certificates of surrender, so we will use their heads to give to the little Tatar prince as a gift.
"He Jinyi shouted in a deep voice.
"General, please obey your order!" Ding Guang and others promised loudly, galloping on their horses to deliver the order, urging the soldiers to march faster.
The rebel soldiers had to cheer up and speed up. The generals at all levels used whips to shout and urge. The whips crackled and the shouting and urging were extremely noisy, as if they were driving a herd of livestock. They had no control at all.
They are human beings.
The team accelerated forward for several miles in the chaos. The sun had lost its light and turned into a pale red. The dusk was closing in the mountains and fields, and rising smoke and dust could be seen in the distance, as well as the faint sound of
The sound of the horn. That is the direction of the ferry.
He Jinyi was extremely anxious. He hit the soldiers like raindrops with the whip in his hand, scolding them to speed up the staggering steps. Seeing the fireworks rising, this was not a good sign, because if the other party's soldiers set fire to the ship, they would block the way in this way.
Crossing the river with an army would be very troublesome.
Even if they can be annihilated in the end, there is no boat at the ferry, so they will not be able to cross the river. In the end, they will be forced to stay. And more soldiers and horses of the opponent are bound to be on the way to pursue them.
He Jinyi must not let this happen.
"Faster, faster. Damn it, I'm going to kill you, don't dawdle. Get up and walk quickly." He Jinyi yelled and cursed loudly, whipping the soldiers. He galloped back and forth on his horse, driving the soldiers away.
Let's move forward.
At this moment, he heard a sound in his ears. It seemed like the sound of muffled thunder rolling in the sky.
He Jinyi was a little surprised and looked up at the sky. Although dusk was gradually rising, the sky turned into a deep blue, which looked a bit mysterious and scary. But there were no clouds in the sky, and it was obviously a sunny day.
But since the sky is clear, where is the sound of rolling thunder?
The rumbling sound was still echoing in their ears. This time He Jinyi was not the only one to hear the sound, many soldiers also heard the sound. At first they thought it was the sound of people walking, but after they stopped, they found that it was not at all. They again
I thought it was the roar of the Yellow River not far away, but it was obviously not the sound of water flow. Not only was there a rumbling sound in my ears, but the ground also began to shake.
He Jinyi was riding on the horse, with a horrified expression on his face. He had already heard that the rumbling sound was not thunder, not an earthquake, not the roar of running water, but... the sound of a large group of cavalry galloping in. It was the stamping of countless horse hooves.
The sound of the ground.
A moment later, in the direction of the setting sun in the west, countless black shadows came carrying the last light of the setting sun. The smoke they raised blocked the last light, making the world darker and the twilight even darker.
strong.
The muscles on He Jinyi's face began to twitch, the corners of his mouth trembled, beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, and he was speechless for a moment.
…
In the military office of Ningxia City, Zhang Yanling had just gotten up after dark.
After finding the treasures of the Anhua Palace in the early hours of this morning, Zhang Yanling ordered his guards to find carriages, horses and wooden boxes to start transporting them. They worked until noon before transporting all the gold and silver treasures to a safe place.
It is strictly guarded by a team of trusted personal guards.
Zhang Yanling cannot estimate the value of this batch of treasures for the time being. He can estimate the gold and silver ingots, which are about 190,000 taels. What is difficult to estimate are the jewelry, a box of calligraphy and paintings found, and some jade vessels. These things Zhang Yanling is not
Experts don’t know the market conditions and prices. But it’s obvious that they made a fortune this time.
Zhang Yanling came back to wash and change clothes, change wound medicine, and had lunch. After lunch, she finally couldn't stand it anymore and fell asleep. She slept until dark before getting up.
At this moment, Zhang Yanling, who was wearing a loose robe and her hair in a bun, was sitting in the small hall at the back of the military office.
The candlelight in front of me danced, illuminating a few stacks of side dishes on the table, a can of millet porridge and a plate of hot fried pancakes with golden brown sides.
Standing beside the table was Zhu Qingyi's maid Caiyun. It was she who, on Zhu Qingyi's order, delivered this dinner to the military office.
"Oh, how can you deserve this? The princess is too polite. Miss Caiyun, please convey my gratitude. Tell your princess, I am so happy." Zhang Yanling smelled the aroma of the food and her eyes lit up.
road.
"Master Zhang, thank you for what? My princess learned that you didn't fall asleep until noon, so she was worried about your injury. No, she knew you would sleep until night, so she ordered the maid to bring this meal. This is our city in Ningxia
A famous delicacy, corn porridge with beef patties, it tastes very delicious. I don’t know if it suits Mr. Hou’s taste. Mr. Hou will try it and see.” Caiyun said with a smile.
Zhang Yanling had already moved his index finger. The smell of porridge and pancakes had already made his stomach growl, and he couldn't wait to eat it.
This was the dinner sent by Zhu Qingyi. Knowing that Zhang Yanling stayed up all night and took a break until noon, Zhu Qingyi ordered someone to bring this dinner in a food box in the evening.
"Then I won't be polite." Zhang Yanling said with a smile.
Caiyun pursed her lips and smiled: "Family, why are you so polite?"
Zhang Yanling was stunned for a moment, then raised his head and glanced at Caiyun. Caiyun didn't take it seriously and came forward with a small bowl to fill a bowl of golden porridge from the earthen pot for Zhang Yanling and placed it in front of Zhang Yanling.
"The Marquis is eating pancakes with this millet porridge. This pot of porridge is stewed with wolfberry, Codonopsis pilosula, red dates and other things. It was stewed by my princess herself to replenish the body of the Marquis." Caiyun said with a smile.
Zhang Yanling felt grateful and took a spoonful of it into his mouth. The porridge was soft and delicate, sweet and waxy, and tasted very delicious. He couldn't help but praise it.
Then, I took another beef patty and took a big bite. It was soft, delicious and delicious. So I praised it again and said it was delicious.
Once I started eating, I couldn't stop. One bite of porridge and one bite of pancake. It's a delicious side dish. In less than a while, five beef patties and a large jar of porridge were all eaten.
"It's delicious, it's delicious, it's so delicious. This is the sweetest meal I've had in a while." Zhang Yanling was sweating profusely after eating, and praised while wiping away the sweat.
Caiyun chuckled and said, "As long as Mr. Hou is satisfied with the meal, Caiyun will pack up and go back. By the way, does Mr. Hou still want to eat? If so, I will bring it to you tomorrow morning."
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "Why are you so embarrassed? I asked you to run back and forth."
Caiyun said with a smile: "Why don't you let the Marquis live in our house? It will save you the trouble of running back and forth. You can eat whatever you want at any time. There is nothing good in this yamen. Why does the Marquis want to live here?"
"
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "Miss Caiyun, it's not that I don't want to live in Prince Qing's Mansion. It's just that it's a bit inconvenient."
Caiyun frowned and said, "What's the inconvenience? Didn't the Marquis hide in my princess's room for several days before? Why is it said to be inconvenient now?"
Zhang Yanling was speechless for a moment, then thought for a moment and asked, "Does your princess want me to move to Prince Qing's Mansion?"
Caiyun shook her head and said: "That's not true, it's what I said. The princess shouldn't object to it."
Zhang Yanling lowered his head and thought for a while and said: "Besides, I'm very busy these days, and I still have a lot of official duties to deal with. Thank you to the princess for me, and I will visit her in a few days."
Caiyun frowned for a while, then sighed and said, "What's wrong with you guys? Weren't you all fine before? When we came here, the princess asked me not to mention the matter of moving you to the palace, and the Marquis had no intention of going either. You guys
What happened?"
Zhang Yanling was stunned after listening to her words, and sighed softly. Just as he was about to speak, Qiu Yue's voice came from outside.
"Is the Marquis awake?"
The guard outside replied: "I'm awake and eating. Is something okay, General Qiu?"
Zhang Yanling said loudly: "General Qiu? Please come in and talk."
Caiyun sighed, quickly put the dishes and chopsticks into the food box, bowed and left.