Ascension

The Jianghuai line is not a beautiful place.

There is no round sunset, no lonely smoke clouds, and no river that has long dried up in the name.Yes, only blood, iron, and men.

The big-bodied cooking soldier held a wooden spoon in one hand, and took out a wooden bowl from under the cart with the other. In front of him was a large iron bucket full of brown rice.As soon as the spoon was dug, it buckled on the wooden bowl, and the brown rice just leveled the edge of the bowl. Soon, a big rough hand took the wooden bowl and walked to the next vat of vegetables.

Suddenly, a different hand caught the wooden bowl.This hand has thick joints and rough skin. You can vaguely see the thick calluses on the palm of the hand that have been worn out from holding weapons all year round.But the cooking soldier still saw the difference, this hand was too clean.The five big and three rough soldiers hurried over to line up when they heard that the meal was ready, with some dirt or sweat stains on their hands.

The cooking soldier raised his head and saw a resolute face.

"General Wen?!" He whispered, staring at Wen Liang with wide eyes, "You, why do you come here to eat?"

Wen Liang smiled, grabbed the bowl in his hand, and joked: "I'm just a lieutenant general, don't give me a blind promotion."

After finishing speaking, before the cooking soldier came back to his senses, he walked to the next vat.

Today's dinner is roasted pork with potatoes. There is only a little minced meat, not much bigger than an ant.Wen Liang sat down at an empty table, and soon two men came and sat down with bowls.

One was tall and thin, with sparse hair tied up in a bun on his head without a helmet, and his scorched face looked as if he hadn't lived a few years.

He was as strong as a bear, with shiny dark skin, a pair of black and white bull's eyes, and a young face full of youthful stubbornness and vigor.

"General, you're in a much better mood!" The young man hurriedly said as soon as he sat down.

Wen Liang thought of the marked map in his tent, and couldn't hide the smile on his face.He coughed twice, curled the corner of his mouth and said, "Eat, eat."

The yellow-skinned man came from all corners of the country, and serving the country in the army can't change his bad mouth. Qiao Kan said: "Beauties are like flowers separated by clouds, isn't it possible that the general can't hold back?"

"Cough, cough, cough!" It wasn't Wen Liang who coughed this time, but the young man: "Huang Buding, be careful with your mouth, that's a princess! A princess!"

"Dou Shabao is just a country bumpkin like you who thinks the princess is like a fairy in the sky. The princess is also a human being, and she can drink a lot and eat meat! I was fooled by her handsome appearance back then, but my boss stumbled. "Huang Buding said that he was quite proud of being stumbled, and slapped the table loudly. This is his big capital for talking nonsense with others.

Dou Shabao's eyes widened and he emphasized, "That's the princess!"

In his mind, a man who has defeated foreign enemies, expanded his territory, and slept with a princess will be complete in his life.

"I don't ask for such a big map, I just ask the princess to sew a stitch on my clothes," he stretched out his index finger, not knowing whether he was comparing "one" or "needle", panting. , "I will go up the mountain of swords and down the sea of ​​fire for her!"

"Look at your virtue! Do you know how to read when I give you a map?" Huang Buding said, "And you think it's a princess? It's far from it! Hundreds of princesses combined can't compare with one Xiang'an princess."

Wen Liang'an ate quietly and listened to the bragging of the two soldiers, but his face couldn't show the usual coldness, even if he didn't smile, he couldn't help showing a touch of warmth.

A map made by Princess Xiang'an herself.It would be a lie to say that I am not moved.

Such a busy person, such a cold-hearted person, will write down those cumbersome annotations in soybean-sized characters against the records in the book.

"Should I return the gift?" He suddenly asked.

The two soldiers were having a good fight, and they couldn't help but be taken aback when they heard this.

Huang may not be mature, but not as straightforward as young people.Dou Shabao scratched his head and said, "Princess Xiang'an has everything, we don't have any good things to give in this remote village."

These words were on point, and the three of them fell silent for a while.

Huang Buding said: "Why don't you make something for her by the general himself?"

The lines on Wen Liang's forehead that had finally disappeared gradually bulged up again, and he said stiffly: "I don't know how to do it."

Dou Sha stormed: "Then you also write something?"

Wen Liang's brows became tighter, and he said: "I write letters every day. And I don't have time to get things that take too much time. Xilu is calling soldiers and horses. If I send him things that take too much time, he will immediately order a big board to beat me up." .”

The three discussed for a long time, but there was no result until the end of dinner time.

How can you see your heart without effort?When Huang Buding was young, he did the bastard thing of courtship in public to a Jianghu girl, but firstly, his gentle personality did this thing, but it turned out to be fake; Curse to death; three times, Wen Liang is still Princess Yanqing's son-in-law.

Dou Shabao felt that one letter a day was enough for the general to remember, and he didn't really remember anything.Look at Huang Buding's mother-in-law, she married Huang Buding because of that momentary heartbeat, and now she is a widow every day, and she hasn't seen her husband for several years.

Wen Liang is a lieutenant general in the Jianghuai Army, so he can go directly to his room to rest after dinner.Usually he would walk around the barracks, but today he was so dazzled by the beauty of the map that he thought about His Highness in Beijing all the time, so he simply went back to his room to rest.

He is an honest man who is strict with self-discipline, and he cannot be found second in the Jianghuai Army.Even Dou Shabao, who originally served as his messenger in the Huainan Army and later came to the Jianghuai Army, couldn't help but buy some wine from the town every few days. Notoriously taken advantage of.Seeing that they were getting along well with the lieutenant soldiers, Wen Liang couldn't say anything, after all, the Jianghuai Army was different from the Huainan Army.

So his room was simpler than most soldiers, really a place to sleep.The biggest difference is probably the huge map on the wall and the good pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the table.

Wen Liang looked up at this picture, thinking about asking the gentleman in the town to make a copy someday.He likes to make marks on the map, and he scribbles everywhere with His Highness's own handwriting.

The border of this dynasty is a palm-length black line on the map. The Jianghuai Army and the Huainan Army are about the second knuckle of the middle finger of the palm, and the two are closely adjacent.The Jiangbei Army is on the northern border of the dynasty. Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses are more than enough to resist aliens, but not many soldiers and horses can be transferred to the southern border. After all, the two places are too far apart.

Any point on this boundary line could be a breakthrough for Xilu's offense.

If Gut's brain hadn't been burned out after the mild assassination, he would definitely not have chosen the Jianghuai and Huainan areas. There are not enough defenders in the towns in the east and west, and it is difficult to hold out until reinforcements arrive.

His Highness didn't mean to defend those small cities, he even asked Wen Liang to deliberately slow down the marching speed, and let Xilu occupy a few more cities to disperse their forces.

The Xilu outside the border is a plain, and there are only a small number of cities for the people of the dynasty to trade with the Xilu people. Once the Xilu army flees back to their hometown, no amount of elite soldiers and good generals will be able to do anything to them.Wen Wen didn't kill Gu Te on the spot at the beginning, but just waited for him to invade, so as to catch the turtle in the urn and attack head-on. Chang Pei's lineage can also take this opportunity to firmly hold the military power in their hands.

Jiangbei Lin Song is old, birth, old age, sickness and death cannot be violated, while Wen Liang is in his prime, what he lacks is only an imperial decree.

But the people in the towns and cities captured by Xilu are afraid that they will suffer because of it.

He sighed.Before entering Beijing, the border he guarded had never lost a single city. After entering Beijing, Yan Siyu smiled lightly when he asked him to give up those common people. Live human life is not as good as cold power.

The soldiers joined the army to defend their homes and the country, but he will abandon the people in order to preserve his troops in the future, which has to be said to be a kind of irony.

Wen Liang's fingers stroked the black dot marked with the capital city on the map, thinking of the city that eats people without spit out bones, a sense of sadness welled up in his heart.

The deposed emperor is not a good emperor.Back then he kept saying that he followed Yan Siyu for Jiangshan Sheji, but he didn't dare to say that he didn't covet Conglong's achievements.General Huainan was already the highest position among the generals with real power. At that time, he wanted to be named a Marquis, and being a Marquis required a great effort.But when he actually led troops into the capital, Yan Siyu asked him whether he wanted to be a marquis or be his guest of honor, and he chose the less-than-glamorous guest of honor.

Since then, he has been tired of the capital.The faces of the dignitaries disgusted him, and the procrastinating bureaucrats made him intolerable.Yan Siyu is his only crush in the capital.

When Emperor Qi came to the throne, Wen Liang discovered that Yan Siyu was a very contradictory person.While not caring about human life, he worked hard to maintain the peace of the country and the people.If he regards the world as his own, he will take good care of it; if he finds out that this country has been "stolen" by his father and brother at some point, he will not hesitate to give away all the happiness he has worked so hard to create. destroyed.

And when Wen Liang began to doubt whether Yan Siyu would be a good emperor, Yan Siyu pointed to the Palace of Political Affairs and persuaded him with only one sentence—there is no one more suitable than Gu.

In terms of seeing through people's hearts, Yan Siyu is as clever as a monster.

Maybe Yan Ye doesn't have Yan Siyu's talent, but he is stable enough.Wen Liang considered disarming from now on and being Yan Siyu's guest of honor at ease. It doesn't matter whoever becomes the emperor. Anyway, no matter whether Yan Siyu is defeated or dies in the end or soars to the sky, he will accompany him.

As soon as he had this thought, Yan Siyu asked him in such a strange way, can you just watch me work hard and watch me die?

Wen Liang couldn't, so he began to miss the frontier in the capital.

If he didn't know that Yan Siyu would study his mind so hard, he would definitely use him. Even Wen Liang wasn't sure if he could maintain his spirit from the big dye vat in the capital.

While thinking about it, remind myself that I will come back sooner or later.

But, after all, something has changed, he has become a sword in Yan Siyu's hands, not a general who is loyal to the country.

Thinking of this, Wen Liang couldn't help but smile wryly.He forced himself to move his thoughts elsewhere, thinking about the return gift to Yan Siyu again.

He can't do anything, but someone in town sure can.He can find someone to learn from and make a unisex personal item for His Highness.

The author has something to say: Huang Buding——Yellow Pudding

Dou Sandstorm – Red Bean Paste Buns

What should I give you?This is a problem.