Reincarnation of the powerful minister

After Altan went back, he discussed with the Wala men for a long time, and decided to break it up into a whole.Each of them took a dozen horses and used the two days of delay to quietly leave the Qingshuihe pasture. This narrowed down the target and allowed them to mix among the merchants entering and leaving the city without being easily noticed by the defenders.

And Altan himself led five or six people to stay in the same place, and together with the remaining small number of horses, they acted as a blindfold.

When the market opens two days later, if the horse recruiting officer still wants to forcefully buy at a low price, he can only buy the remaining ten or twenty horses. Lost more leg strength.

If the price can be negotiated at that time, the transferred horses can be brought back.

Everyone felt that although this method was more troublesome, they couldn't find a better one at present, so they all agreed to transfer in batches.

On the first day, nearly half of the people went smoothly.On the second day, a Wala man driving a horse accidentally knocked down a shelf at the gate of the city. The defenders found something strange and reported it to the garrison camp.

At that time, Huo Dun, who joined the army in Lingzhou, was drinking tea with Yan Chengxue, the minister of Shaanxi Xingtaipusi.After hearing the report from the defenders, Yan Chengxue reacted first, put the teacup down heavily, and said angrily: "This is an escape! This officer is already polite and tolerant enough to these Tartars. They discussed it, but they didn't expect them to deceive my officials, and moved all the horses out while trying to slow down the troops. They said that the barbarians have no faith, and it is true!"

Huo Dun poured him another cup of tea and persuaded him with a smile: "A few uncivilized savages are so angry with Yan Dasheng, they are simply flattering them. Since they are not benevolent, don't blame us for being unrighteous, let me personally Lead troops to capture these savages, and bring them here for you to dispose of as you please."

Yan Chengxue's face improved a lot when he heard the words, and when he saw Huo Dun standing up, he said again: "Wait! Just send troops to arrest people like this. The Wala tribe will find out about it afterwards, and they may come forward to ask for an explanation. I heard that the leader of Wala has recently met with the court. There are quite a lot of contacts, and the Holy Majesty seems to have the intention of soliciting, if someone reads a book of 'bullying vassals' at that time, it will not be good for your reputation and official career. You must have a famous teacher."

Huo Dun listened, and the smile on his face deepened: "Master Yan has considered me thoroughly, which shows his love and love."

Yan Chengxue glared at him: "I'm afraid that you will implicate me if you act recklessly!"

"That's right, that's right! Then, Master Yan, please give me an idea?"

Yan Chengxue took a sip of tea slowly and said, "Baihutang."

Huo Dun and him have been friends for more than ten years, and they are familiar with each other's temperament and preferences. He knows that he likes to read the Water Margin.

And the west city of Qingshuiying also has such an important place for military aircraft, which is the deliberation office set up by the Ministry of War.As the command center of the border affairs of the Great Wall in Hedong, officials from the three sides of the general system discuss matters here. If unrelated people break in with troops, according to the law, they can be punished in court.

Yan Chengxue stood up, brushed off his sleeves, "I'll send a horse recruiting officer to invite 'Instructor Lin'. This man is dressed in gold and jade, and he must be a nobleman from Wala. I not only want to eat the good food he brought. Ji, I still want to use him as a meat ticket, and let the Wala tribe hand over horses to redeem people—the ransom doesn’t need to be too much, and [-] horses are enough.”

Huo Dun laughed loudly and praised: "Master Yan is really a bully."

The two had a close relationship, so she didn't take it seriously when she teased Yan Chengxue, and asked instead, "Do you have an opinion?"

"Absolutely not. I don't dare to." Horton shook his cold fingers and said, "I'll arrange the manpower right now, and I'll just listen to your order."

In the pasture of Qingshui River, Altan saw a group of soldiers galloping towards them on horseback from a distance, and guessed that the secret transfer had been revealed.

After the other party approached, the horse officer dismounted, and his face was a little better than before. Although he still had a bad face, he lacked the arrogance of bossing around.He said to Al Tan: "It is said that there is no righteousness in buying and selling. Why do you have to do it so embarrassingly? Besides, it's not to prevent you from negotiating the price. You might as well sit down and talk slowly."

Seeing his change of attitude, Altan felt a little suspicious, and said, "The market price is one hundred catties of tea, and I didn't pay too much. If there is still a price of seventy or eighty catties, there is no need to talk about it. I am very happy." It’s hard to explain to the tribe.”

The horse conscript officer sighed and said, "It's hard for you, and it's hard for me. The imperial court has quotas for buying horses and recruiting horses every year, but the amount of money allocated is only so little, and I can't wait for a copper coin to be broken in half. Besides, we errands You have to eat too, right? Let’s take a step back, everything is easy to discuss.”

A man next to Altan said in Oarat language: "The public silver is not enough to buy horses, but it is enough for them to embezzle and get kickbacks? These people from Mingguo are all hypocritical, and they don't have a word of truth in their mouths. You can't believe it. Why don't you just let me cut it off?" kill them!"

Altan stopped him with his eyes, turned to the horse conscript officer and said, "Then please sit in the tent."

The horse officer smiled bitterly: "I can't make the decision this time. The authority in my hand is only sixty catties. If you want to raise the price further, you have to talk to my Shangguan. Follow me into the city to see the Shangguan." .”

"It's so troublesome to buy a stallion, so I won't sell it to the public, but only to merchants, can't I?"

"No. Before the equestrian quota is completed, all the horse markets in Lingzhou have to be given priority to the imperial court."

Altan frowned and thought for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll talk to your superiors again. If we can't agree this time, forget it, we'll just leave Lingzhou."

The horse officer breathed a sigh of relief, and bowed to him for the first time: "Life is not easy, everyone should be considerate of each other."

Altan settled the horses and the remaining personnel, took seven Oirat men, followed the horse recruiter into the Qingshui camp, and came to the gate of a camp in the west city.He saw that the fortress was vast, strong and heavily guarded, like a garrison, and he became more suspicious, so he asked, "Which sir is your superior?"

The magistrate replied: "It's the Si Cheng of Xingtaipu Temple in Shaanxi."

Altan has a little knowledge of official positions in the Ming Kingdom, and knows that Xingtai Pusi Sicheng is the sixth rank. For a commoner horse dealer, the official rank is not low. If it is not for his identity of the Wala tribe, the other party may not be willing to come forward to meet him. .

And the meeting place was chosen at the garrison camp, probably because they were worried about their identities as Beimo people, and they were afraid that their personal safety would not be guaranteed.

——It’s like treating them like a scourge.Altan was upset, but in order to complete the training task, he held back his anger and said, "Please lead the way."

Officer Zhengma led them around a few corridors, passed the triple gate, stopped under the eaves of the hall, and said: "Shangguan is in the inner hall, everyone, please come in."

Altan looked around and saw that the layout of the house was precise.Along the way, there are three steps, one post and five steps and one post on the corridor. There are many soldiers on duty. It stands to reason that the inner hall should be more heavily guarded. Why are there no guards?

Although he was straightforward in normal times, he was a rough and subtle person, and this time he had a vague premonition, so he planned to wait outside the hall and figure out the situation before talking.

The horse officer urged again: "Go in, don't make Shangguan wait for a long time."

Altan was about to speak, when suddenly there was a curse in the hall, speaking in Oarat language: "Too much deception, I will fight with you!"

Everyone outside the hall immediately recognized that it was the voice of one of the companions. It was his turn to leave the city with his horse an hour ago, and he was probably caught by the defenders and escorted here.

The tribes of the Northern Desert are brave by nature, fearless of death, and they value their fellow tribes very much.Everyone in Wala was furious immediately, and they drew their swords one after another: "Stop! Who dares to touch our brothers?"

Before Altan could give the order to stop them, two of the impatient Wala men slashed the curtain and rushed into the hall.

At this point, he couldn't disregard the lives of his clansmen, even if he had to go through the mountains of swords and seas of fire, he strode forward and said to the hall official: "Since you invited us to discuss business, why use swords and guns? Your country is known as etiquette. Zhibang, is this your etiquette?"

The hall official was surprised at first, and then shouted angrily: "Who invited you! What kind of business are you talking about! Nonsense! I am the garrison of Lingzhou, and this is the meeting office under the Ministry of War. Start a war between the two countries? Come, take them down, if they resist, shoot them to death!"

The defense slammed a teacup heavily, and many elite soldiers in armor poured in from outside the hall, wanting to disarm them.

Altan knew he was in the middle of the trick, but he thought that soldiers would stop him when they came, and a man would take one step at a time, so there was nothing to hesitate. Even if he faced these hundreds of elite soldiers alone, he would be fearless.So he pulled out his long and narrow scimitar, and went straight to the hall official: "If you want to fight, fight, what kind of conspiracy and tricks are used, it is disgusting! Take you down first, and then find the people who lied to us to settle accounts!"

Not far away, on the second-floor veranda, Yan Chengxue was wearing a scarlet round-neck shirt embroidered with peacock patches from the third grade, and Huo Dun, who was wearing a silver leopard head pattern and iron armor, stood side by side. Birds and beasts.

There were constant roars and fighting sounds in the meeting hall, and the sound of weapons hitting was as loud as cracking stones, Yan Chengxue raised his chin: "The barbarians have not been captured for a quarter of an hour, your soldiers should practice. "

Huo Dun was slightly embarrassed: "I didn't expect that the leader of the Tartars is so skilled. This person is definitely not an ordinary horse dealer."

Yan Chengxue said: "A northern desert nobleman disguised himself as a horse dealer to enter the border town, and he possessed such skills. He must have other plans. Whether he is from the Wala tribe or not is another question. It seems that we hit him by mistake this time. By accident, a spy was found."

While speaking, a big hole was smashed in the earthen wall of the meeting hall, and two blood-vomiting soldiers flew out of the hole and landed on the ground in front of the hall.

Altan stepped out on bricks, his braids covered in sawdust.He shook his head like a lion, shook off the debris on his body, and looked up in the direction of the two of them.The sharp eyes pierced the void, like an iron whip full of thorns, whipping at the two people's faces.

Huo Dun felt a killing intent with anger, subconsciously took a step forward, blocked Yan Chengxue's figure, and shouted down: "Good skill! I'll meet you!" Yan Chengxue turned to the back, stepped on the railing, and jumped down from the second floor.

The personal soldier threw a long gun, and he grabbed it in mid-air. The tip of the gun flashed a piercing cold light, and cut straight at Altan's waist.

A small falcon with gray and white spots flew down from the sky and landed on the man's finger in a sheepskin knuckle.

The man's figure under the black cloth robe is thin and tall, like a withered and branched Populus euphratica tree trunk.The robe covered the feet, and the sleeves, chest, and back were decorated with many cloth belts with copper buckles, which hung down long, like countless gifts to worship gods wrapped around the trunk.

His eyebrows were also hidden in the shadow of the hood, and only the tip of his hooked nose could be seen vaguely.

After looking at each other with Falcon's pupils for a moment, he smiled hoarsely as if he had received a spiritual message from somewhere.

A short, round-faced boy standing behind him asked, "Big Wu, what did you see?"

The man's throat seemed to be scalded with copper juice, and he made a hoarse voice: "The prince is in trouble."

"Ah!" The servant boy exclaimed in a small voice, "Then shall we..."

The man didn't answer, and took out a piece of raw meat to feed the falcon.He curled his skinny fingers and caressed the falcon's feathers, and after it finished eating, he raised his hand to make it soar into the sky.Looking at the falcon flying away, he murmured: "There is a smell of blood in the wind, and the wrath of the gods is accumulating... The opportunity I have been waiting for for a long time is about to come."

In the dark, on the desolate official road, a large group of cavalry galloped northward, and the smoke and dust rolled up by the horseshoes lingered for a long time.

Before the sky was about to disappear, the gate of Qingshui Camp finally appeared in front of the cavalrymen.Chu Yuan wiped the dust and sweat off his face, and shouted at the guard who was closing the city gate: "Wait to close the gate, we are going to enter the city!"

He galloped forward and showed the guards his identification badge and the troop transfer document with the seal of the Commander of Shaanxi Capital to the defenders.A general of the defending army came after hearing the news, and after checking the seal, he was in awe: "Master Jin Yiwei personally led the troops to our Qingshui camp. Is there any order from the imperial court? I wonder if the lord can remind me a little bit so that I can be patient." Are you ready?"

Chu Yuan said: "We are here to find someone. This adult was traveling with us, but he was attacked by Tartar cavalry halfway and lost his whereabouts. I guessed that he might come to Qingshui Camp, so I rushed over to look for it."

As he spoke, he opened a small portrait of a new painting, on which was Su Yan's appearance.The painting skill of the small portrait is good, and it is seven or eight points similar to myself.

The defending general blurted out: "This lord is really young."

Gao Shuo continued: "Don't look at the young, the first-class status is very precious. The superior has issued a strict order, you must find the person, and it must be alive, otherwise—" He made a quick gesture of wiping his neck with a knife.

The defending general was taken aback, "How big an official must be! How many 'uppers' are there?"

"Not a big official, a seventh-rank censor. As for the 'superior'," Gao Shuo cupped his hands towards the sky, "you better not ask. Just know that if you find him in Qingshuiying, and he is safe and sound, the superior will be happy, and everyone will be happy." There are rewards. If you can’t find it, or if you find someone who is injured, disabled or even dead—everything involved in this matter, from top to bottom, from officials to soldiers, will have no good fruit to eat!”

The generals of the defending army were so frightened by him that they hurriedly gathered all the guards at the city gate, lit the torches, circulated the portraits one by one, and asked them if they had seen the young man in the painting during the inspection of entering and leaving the city.

After hearing the order, a defender muttered: "There are so many people coming and going in and out of the city gate every day, who can remember what one of them looks like, and they don't have the ability to have a photographic memory!"

He didn't shut up until he took the portrait and took a closer look at it——with such an appearance, it is enough to leave a deep impression on people, even if it can't be called memorable.At least if I saw him within a few days, I could still recall it now.

He shook his head as he recalled, and passed the portrait on to the next person.

The next person squinted his eyes for a while, then suddenly slapped his thigh: "Hey, I remember this face! I've seen it before!"

Chu Yuan and Gao Shuo were overjoyed, and seven or eight Jinyi guards came up and asked, "When?" "Where?" "Are you entering or leaving the city?"

The defender became the focus of everyone's attention for the first time, and said awkwardly: "I, I... I don't remember when, but I must have seen it..."

"Think quickly!" "Think hard!" "Tell the truth, or I'll ask you!"

The guard was sweating profusely, trying to remember, and chattering: "It's at the east gate where I was on duty, I forgot whether to enter the city or leave the city... Time, time, two or three days ago, or three or four days ago , I really can’t remember.”

"Then what do you remember?" a Jin Yiwei asked dissatisfied.

The defender smiled innocently: "That man is really zun. I was dumbfounded when I took off the bamboo hat. I still remember that scene clearly."

All Jin Yiwei: "..."

"Well, at least Mr. Su has been in and out of Qingshui Camp a few days ago. As for whether he is still in the city right now, you can know by raking the ground three feet." Chu Yuan finally made a decision.

The general of the defending army said: "This matter has to be reported to Mr. Joining the Army. The cavalry led by the adults also need to find a place to settle down. Why don't you follow me to the garrison fortress in the west city. After the adults have discussed it with Mr. Joining the Army, do you make any plans?"

Chu Yuan also knew that a strong dragon would not overwhelm a local snake, and if he wanted to find someone in Qingshuiying, he had to rely on the strength of local officials and generals, so he nodded in agreement.

At the same time, in the Baiyun Inn, Su Yan pushed open the window, looked at the flames soaring into the sky in the west, and said to himself: "Looking at the direction and distance, it should be the garrison camp... Could something have happened?"

He knocked on the wallboard between the adjacent guest room, and called "Azhui" twice.

After a few seconds, Jing Hong pushed the door open and came in, asking, "What are your orders?"

"You come to see, I always feel that something is wrong. And tomorrow Qingshuiying will open the horse market. This is a grand event involving the most extensive and complicated personnel at the border this year, and it is also a grand event with the largest circulation of materials and currency. I am worried that someone will take the opportunity to make trouble .”

Jing Hong has been chasing Su Yan for a long time, and has learned to understand the meaning from the slightly weird words, knowing that Su Da has a worry about preparing for a rainy day.

He looked at the fire light carefully, closed his eyes and listened to his ears, and with superhuman hearing power, he heard the faint sound of golden arms clashing in the wind, and it sounded like there were a lot of people fighting.

"I heard the sound of fighting. My lord is right. I'm afraid something really happened. It has already happened now."

Su Yan patted the back of his hand pressed against the edge of the window: "Come on, let's follow the sound and have a look."