Asking hexagram 20 taels

(37)

Solid North City.

The cold wind was fierce, and the long flag was blown by the wind, and the red-bottomed "Yuan" flag fluttered high above the north wall of Gubei City.A muffled horn flute sounded, and the armored guard standing on the city wall stood still, took a deep breath of dry and cold air, and shouted in a deep voice: "Open the city gate!"

"Kala Kala", the iron cables of the suspension bridge were gradually let down and put on the moat in front of the city gate.The group of horses neighed, and with the sound of hoofbeats, a general on a tall black horse led thousands of cavalry straight into Gubei City without even letting go of the reins.

Under the suspension bridge is the frozen ice of the moat, and the thatched grass on both sides of the river is dry, swaying with the cold wind.

The general on horseback went straight into Gubei City, and went straight to the camp in the city. When he arrived at the city lord's mansion, he let go of the horse's reins and raised his hand. Thousands of well-trained cavalry were divided into two teams.The group with more people did not stop, and went straight to the original camp, leaving behind a group of more than ten guards, standing in two rows behind the general.

The young general took off his cold helmet, revealing a face with sharp brows, which looked extraordinarily cold in the cold wind.The person immediately was Yuan Xiao who had just arrived in Gubei City.

When Yuan Xiao first arrived in Gubei City, he was not familiar with the place where he was born. Although he had the experience of fighting in Gubei City before, the emperor was furious after that stop and removed the then city lord of Gubei City and replaced him with the current city lord of Gubei City.When the current city lord came to Gubei City, in order to highlight his achievements, he built a large number of construction projects, not to mention the small streets and alleys, even the most important city lord's mansion and the camp of Gubei City have changed drastically. Now Yuan Xiao can only remember one main street. I guarantee that I won't get lost in Gubei City.

In the first few days, he trained soldiers in the camp of Gubei City. He personally recruited [-] elite soldiers from Yuan's army. These soldiers have a close relationship with him, so don't worry too much.But in addition to this, there are one thousand government soldiers and one thousand Gubeicheng frontier troops. The government soldiers joined Yuan's army on the road, and they only need to practice together a few times.But the frontier army of Gubei City did not know what was going on. Yuan Xiao came to Gubei City for seven days, and the Fubing and Yuan Jiajun had been training together for three days, but the frontier army of Gubei City looked like a young lady raised in a deep boudoir. one side.

The residents of Gubei City still remembered Yuan Xiao, the god of war who saved them from fire and water a few years ago. They told Yuan Xiao that the new city lord had taken the frontier army for his own use.

Yuan Xiao didn't really believe it. There were more than a thousand soldiers on the frontier. No matter how rich and powerful the new city lord was, he might not be able to support a thousand private soldiers. Army pay.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to build such a luxurious City Lord's Mansion.Yuan Xiao glanced around the City Lord's Mansion, looking at the City Lord's Mansion, which is not a carved beam and painted building, but is also very delicately thought out in its details, secretly thinking in his heart.

Gubei City has been threatened by Dawan looting all the year round, and the houses in the city have always been as simple as possible. There are really few people who have exposed their wealth like this city lord. Compared with this, this city lord's mansion is almost the imperial palace in Gubei City.

Yuan Xiao jumped off the horse, handed the whip to the guards, and nodded his chin towards the door of the City Lord's Mansion: "Call the door."

A leading soldier in the row on the left immediately jumped off his horse, and ran up the three steps of the Santo's Mansion with a "噗噗咒" with a large "Yuan" character embroidered on the back of his clothes.He cleared his throat, put his hands on the iron ring on the door panel, shouted "open the door", and slammed on the door "bang bang bang".

There were about five or six calls, and finally there was movement inside the door. A porter opened the door with a yawn, rubbed his eyes with one hand, and removed the board blocking the door with the other, muttering: "Here we come... "The porter poked his head out, looked at Yuan Xiao's group of soldiers whose murderous intent was still there, stuttered a bit before asking: "Who, who?"

The soldier who knocked on the door looked vicious, but his temper was one of the best in Yuan's army. He asked, "Where is your city lord?"

Seeing his good attitude, the concierge didn't blame himself, but thought that some family came to find fault, and the courage that didn't know where he was just now returned, and he squinted at him and said: "The city lord is resting, who are you? "

Yuan Jiajun has a better temper, but he is not a bit of a soldier. The soldier who knocked on the door saw that he didn't know what to do, and pulled his face down. Coupled with his ferocious face, it really seemed to be able to stop a child from crying at night: " Presumptuous! Yuan Jiajun is here, who dares to disrespect General Yuan?"

The concierge was startled by him at first, then his legs trembled a little when he heard Yuan Jiajun's name, and he just said: "Yuan, General Yuan, you have eyes but don't know Mount Tai, you adults don't care about villains..."

Yuan Xiao didn't bother to care too much about a small person like him who was stalking others, so he directly stepped over him and walked into the city lord's mansion first.

The city lord's mansion is full of caves, and you can see blue bricks and white tiles outside. When you walk in, you will be greeted by the aura of gold and jade.In the cold winter season, there are actually blooming flowers in the city lord's mansion. When I got closer, I found that it was a tree made of gold and jade.Yuan Xiao had seen this kind of tree before, with golden branches and jade leaves, most of them belonged to the dignitaries' homes in Beijing. It was not only used to decorate the cold winter season but also to show off their wealth and life, so it was nicknamed "Fire Tree and Silver Flower".

Yuan Xiao only thought that the powerful and rich in Beijing had money and leisure, so it was okay to buy a plaything, but he never thought that there would be such extravagant items in this desolate Gubei City.

"My lord, General Yuan Xiao is here." As early as Yuan Xiao stepped into the gate of the city lord's mansion, someone had notified the city lord.

"What? What is that evil spirit Yuan Xiao coming to my mansion for? Hurry up, find my official uniform, I have to welcome our Zhen Guo general." The city lord is lying on the kang with a low table in front of him. There was a huge oily elbow. When the reporter didn't enter the door, he was lying on the table and chewing on the elbow. His face and neck were covered with oil.

The city lord had a greasy face like this, and he was wearing an official uniform that he hadn't worn for an unknown amount of time. As soon as he stepped out of the room, he saw Yuan Xiao's eyes staring straight at the glittering golden "fire trees and silver flowers" in the yard.

He thought to himself: "Sure enough, people love money. What kind of general Zhen Guo, doesn't he also stare at my baby?" He greeted Yuan Xiao: "Hahaha, isn't this General Yuan? What wind brought you here?"

Yuan Xiao turned around, saw the new city lord, and saw his oily face, he was stunned for a moment, and then said: "The city lord looks good."

"Oh, General Yuan has won the prize. Come on, it's cold outside, come in." The city lord let Yuan Xiao into the house, and shouted at the servant, "Let the kitchen add two dishes, and treat the general well. Then go to the house Add two pieces of charcoal to the stove inside."

Yuan Xiao didn't give in. After he entered the room, it seemed like he had entered a warm room, and he smiled: "There is no need to add more charcoal, it is already warm enough. Besides, the amount of silver charcoal from the city lord is hard to imagine." Not much."

"Don't worry about it, the little one will keep you close even if you don't burn yourself. ——May I ask why you came to the city lord's mansion?"

"You can't talk about being expensive." Yuan Xiao raised his hand and stopped him from pinching his elbow in his teacup. "I just came to ask the city lord. The imperial court allocated me a thousand frontier troops, but Yuan has been in Gubei City for seven days. Haven't seen it yet, may I ask where the city lord's thousand frontier troops are now?"

"This..." The city lord's chopsticks stopped, "This..., you don't know, Dawan has often come to fight the autumn wind in recent years, and there are not a thousand frontier troops now."

"Not one thousand, eight hundred is fine."

"This……"

"What? Could it be that the city lord can't even hand over the [-] frontier troops?"

"Hey," the city lord's face changed again and again, much better than the secret technique of changing faces in the Sichuan and Sichuan regions, and finally sat down on the kang, "I won't hide this from the general."

"The city lord said nothing." Yuan Xiao watched him act, but did not expose him.

"Hey, to tell you the truth, General, ever since I took over the position of the city lord of Gubei City, Dawan has been battling autumn winds every year, and the number of frontier soldiers has been decreasing day by day, from one thousand to eight hundred. In the end, the frontier soldiers are unwilling to fight any more. , All of them retired from the army and went home to farm.”

"So the frontier soldiers themselves don't want to be soldiers anymore?"

"Exactly."

"Then why didn't the city lord explain this to the emperor? I believe the city lord should have received the imperial edict from the emperor, right? If the city lord can't hand over the thousand frontier troops, it will be a crime of deceiving the emperor."

"This..." The city lord began to sweat on his forehead. He couldn't find the handkerchief and could only wipe the sweat from his forehead with the corner of his clothes. "This... I really can't do it."

"What's the matter? The city lord is sweating. It's too hot in the room?" Yuan Xiao leaned forward, asked with concern, and then called out to the people outside, "Come on! Get the stove out of the room." .”

"Yes." Hearing a crisp answer, two soldiers lifted the door curtain and came in, one on the left and one on the right, and put the still burning stove out. The stove was moved to the camp in Gubei City.

"City Lord?"

"Oh, this... the general will give it to you if he likes it."

"anything else?"

"Anything else?" The city lord couldn't search for this and what else was there for a while, so he could only nod in agreement, "You can take whatever you like, the general, just take it..."

Yuan Xiao smiled, and said loudly to the outside: "Did you hear that? Take whatever you like."

There was a cheer outside the door first, followed by several people chanting "hey yo hey yo". The city lord knew that he had made a slip of the tongue and tried to redeem himself: "General, you can't do this."

"What's wrong?" Yuan Xiao stood up, looked back at him, and said to him, "Don't forget, the city lord, if the thousand frontier troops can't be brought out, Yuan will have to sue the emperor." Just lift your legs and leave.

The city lord knelt down behind him, and when Yuan's army finished looting, the servant came over and asked him, "Master, are you alright?"

He was silent for a while, and then suddenly became angry: "Hurry up and get those thousand frontier soldiers back!"

The servant said aggrievedly: "The more than 1000 people have been dismissed by you long ago. Where can I find them now?"

"If you can't find it, go to the city to recruit, and recruit at a high price!"