stubborn thief

Chen Qiyu never considered whether he could really buy Ren Quan'er.

He had met Ren Quan'er a few times when he was the governor of Yansui. Although the commander of the Yan'an Guard was very young, he fully recognized his talent in both civil and military affairs.

The affairs of Yan'an Wei are not generally difficult. Since Liu Chengzong made a big fuss in that place, there have been no soldiers, no military equipment, and severe drought. Dead end.

But after Yang Yanchang and Ren Quan'er served as two commanders, Yan'an Weijin can defend against the enemy for thousands of miles, retreat can support military households, and this deadlock is revived.

Chen Qiyu is not a person who can't get sand in his eyes. In the final analysis, if there is sand in his eyes, rub it away. There is no need to be serious about the sand. Yang Yanchang and Ren Quan'er are both innocuous sand in Chen Qiyu's eyes.

What he really cares about is the Yan'an camp, which is the one with the most outstanding military appearance and military discipline among the local battalions he can mobilize, and the weapons and equipment are outstanding.

Looking at the world, there are troops who can march without staying in the homes of the common people; there are troops with three to four thousand horses and mules in the whole battalion; , also have.

But apart from the Yan'an Camp, none of the battalions could meet the above conditions at the same time, often due to poor military discipline and poor military discipline.

They sent troops from Yan'an Mansion and even brought their own dry food.

The biggest problem with this Yan'an camp, which is well-equipped and well-equipped, is not Yang Yanchang or Ren Quaner, but from top to bottom, there is no one who can be trusted by the imperial court.

In the past, the Yan'an Camp could not be transferred outside, so no one ever looked into it. Last year, Chen Qiyu had a plan to keep this army by his side, so he dedicated a lot of hard work.

Although the Yan'an camp's personnel appointments were all given by the imperial court, Chen Qiyu was very sure that changing someone to be a general or commander, let alone commanding this gang of arrogant soldiers, would be regarded as being in the same rank if they could live for three months.

Because this is not a problem of Yang Yanchang or Ren Quan'er, but that officers at all levels followed Yang Yanchang and started as soldiers, and most of them came from unknown sources.

In Yan'an Camp and Yan'an Guard, there are six people who are really in power.

The first is the general Yang Yanchang, the second is the commanding envoy Ren Quan'er, the third is Lu Bin, who is a thousand households of the Saimen Institute, and the three thousand generals of the Yan'an Camp.

There was nothing wrong with Lu Bin. A native of Fushi County, the whole family was slaughtered by thieves, and only the two brothers were left to join the army. There are traces of this.

But the three Qianzong are different. One is Shi Wanzhong, who was born as a refugee in Suide; Yan'an Guard has been continuously promoted by virtue of military exploits.

The remaining one, Mr. Qian, knew everything about him, and his name was Liu Xiangshan. According to his military registration, he was from Yanchuan, but the county, township, and Baojia household registration yellow books on the other side of Yanchuan were all lost due to the thieves in the early years. History before joining the military.

This man's military history is very strange. He was awarded the general banner when he came up, and his resume is a hero. He brought three sons and Yang Yanchang to Jingqin King, died in Luanzhou City. The head of the surrendered soldiers.

The name is also very problematic. Liu is not a common surname in Yan'an. Now Liu Xiangshan is the general manager of the Yan'an camp. His only surviving son is the general manager of the Yan'an camp. The general manager's name is Liu Chengguang.

Chen Qiyu also sent someone to look for the list of Shaanxi soldiers who died in the Luanzhou city. There was one surnamed Liu Xiang and three Cheng. Two of them were Liu Xiangshan's sons.

In the west, there is a generation named Liu Xiangyu, who is named Xiangshan. Xiangyu gave birth to two sons named Chengzu Chengzong, and a nephew named Chengyun. There are Chengshun and Chengguang from the Cheng family here.

Chen Qiyu had a cerebral hemorrhage when he saw these names. The damn Yunshun family, Chang Guangzong and Yaozu, almost got together. Could there be no connection?
Happily, there is no connection.

The place in Yanchuan was too dangerous. Chen Qiyu went to northern Shaanxi last year to drive sheep away. He didn't dare to go anywhere. He sent his cronies to Yanchuan to inquire about Liu Xiangshan and Liu Chengguang in various villages with the intention of being stunned by land mines.

This confidant is also a fierce man, he ran through landmines twice in a row, and his aggressiveness was enough to make Li Zicheng bow down and Gao Yingxiang abdicate.

But he also failed to bring back any useful information. Although the people in Yan'an Mansion hated Hong Chengchou very much, they were very enthusiastic about Chen Qiyu's people.

Often when the cronies entered the village and just opened their mouths, the old man with a disability rushed to tell them where Master Xiangshan had fallen and where Master Chengguang had peed on the kang when he was a child.

The confidant risked his life to go to the minefields, and when he came back, he turned all kinds of doubts into helplessness, and reported truthfully: "General Chengguang is easy to move when he was young, and his footprints are all over the nine villages and eighteen villages in Yanchuan."

Chen Qiyu said in his heart that he was very restless, but he finally felt relieved.

But it was all because the cronies didn't want to cause trouble, so I didn't explain it in detail. The whole Yanchuan County experienced the initial drought, soldiers and bandits, and now there are only nine villages and eighteen villages, and all of them are in dangerous places on the mountain.

There were two villages that were so barren that they didn't even have a land temple, but Master Chengguang had urinated there. It wasn't Liu Xiangshan and Liu Chengguang who offered sacrifices in the Yanchuan Town God's Temple, Chen Qiyu's cronies were not convinced from the bottom of their hearts.

Because of the high concentration of power in the Yan'an Camp and the support of the Yan'an Guards, the source of generals in power is simple and difficult to control, so Chen Qiyu turned his attention to Ren Quan'er.

This is not only to guard against Yang Yanchang's backup, but also Chen Qiyu's plan to split up the Yan'an camp.

Chen Qiyu didn't care who Ren Quan'er belonged to, nor did he care whether he had served Yang Yanchang as a banner soldier since he was a child. The status of the governor of five provinces was enough for him to ignore any affiliation in the world.

In front of practicing state affairs, he set out his own conditions for Ren Quan'er.

The requirement is to recapture Lanzhou and defend Lanzhou, and the promise is to be promoted to the command of the capital, lead an army alone, and serve as the deputy general of the supervision.

Superintendent is the standard battalion directly under the governor of the five provinces Chen Qiyu; deputy general is the chief general of the governor's standard battalion, with the rank of deputy commander;

Chen Qiyu, as the world's number one governor in charge of military power in five provinces, offered the world's number one deputy general to Ren Quan'er, a poor military family of seven generations who was five years old and held a sword for Yang Yanchang, and it was impossible to be rejected. .

In addition to this extremely attractive condition, before leaving, Chen Qiyu also showed Ren Quan'er the recent battle reports submitted by various places, which was extremely tragic.

Since the generals followed the rogues into Henan for two months, every unit has been reporting their merits non-stop. More than [-] rogues have been killed in the battle within two months.

But no one can be happy with these battle reports, because in contrast, cities have been destroyed one after another, and officials are vying to die.

First, the counties of Xunyang were destroyed, and then Xingshan County of Jingzhou Prefecture, which was built in the mountains, was attacked and Liu Dingguo, the county magistrate, was killed.

Then the group of thieves broke Xunxi, Pofang County, Pobaokang, Weinanzhang, and Dangyang, and went straight up the river, entering Guizhou and Badong, where thousands of mountains are thick and thin, and the government and the public were shaken.

The court proposed to transfer [-] soldiers from the Zhendang Battalion in western Hunan to suppress the rebellion, but the Zhendui Battalion had only [-] soldiers. Yang Zhengfang, the deputy general of Huguang who was born in Zhendang Miaozi, was the first to return to Dangyang, and Xu Chengming, the general of Huguang, recruited another [-] soldiers. One hundred as a backup.

Liu Chengying, the promotion official in Jingzhou, felt that the disaster had come and the troops were insufficient, so he rode alone to the leader of the three chieftains of Shinan.

However, in the front, the Kuizhou Mansion was unprepared against the thieves, and suddenly approached the enemy. The judges and officials all fled. The only one who knew He Chengguang was in charge of the government affairs. He led the officials and the people to guard the city. Sitting in the hall with clothes and crowns, the thieves were killed and thrown into the river.

Then Daning was besieged, and Gao Rilin, the magistrate of the county, failed to respond to his request for help, so he could only lead the militia to defend at the north gate.

Going to die with him were the Confucian teacher Gao Xi and the inspector Chen Guojun. Their wife and daughter died together, followed by the commander Wang Yongnian and the inspector Guo Zuanhua in Wushan.

Chen Qiyu handed these battle reports to Ren Quan'er, saying: "General Ren has seen it, the Yan'an camp must take back Lanzhou City to block Liu Chengzong, the hope of annihilating the gang of thieves lies in you."

Ren Quan'er straightened her spine: "Please rest assured, sir, the humble position will definitely live up to your expectations!"

Chen Qiyu was completely relieved. The young man in front of him was a very traditional feudal general. Unlike battalion generals, guard generals under the hereditary system were real feudal generals.

On the one hand, it is the interests of being promoted to rank, and on the other hand, it is the ideal of defending the family and the country. No matter how many generals spend their lives, they will not be able to get such an opportunity. There is no general who will not accept this.

"Take the battle report back and show it to General Yang. The safety of the country is in the hands of the two of you, and you are the commander." Chen Qiyu looked at Ren Quan'er's bearded face, patted him on the shoulder and said: "Your time has come."

Looking at the back of Ren Quan'er resigning and leaving, Lian Guoshi asked: "Does the military sect really want Yan'an camp to be the supervision camp?"

He seemed to see an elite battalion that might be under his command moving away from him.

"Aren't they worthy of Bendu's standard battalion?"

Chen Qiyu was in a good mood, smiled playfully, and finally restrained his smile and said: "It's half of the Yan'an camp, and I also agreed to the general Yang Yanchang. As long as he regains Lanzhou City, I will recommend him a Lintao general."

It wasn't until this time that Lian Guoshi was surprised and said, "Junmen wants to dismantle the Yan'an camp?"

"Otherwise, seeing them monolithic, returning to the out-of-control Yan'an Mansion after the war, they will fight against themselves at every turn, will they listen to the tune or not?"

Chen Qiyu's face was very cold, and his tone was very low: "Brother Junyu, don't forget that there was a locust outbreak last year, and all the places were busy fighting and did not kill the locusts. The locust eggs in the field became insects this summer, and they can fly from Taiyuan Going to Jiayuguan, the north will have to eat each other this year."

Lian Guoshi wants to say that he let people exterminate locusts last year, but it doesn’t make much sense to say it or not. Last year, troops from all over the country gathered in Shanxi and smashed it. No single plot can do such a thing as extermination of locusts. decisive role.

What's more, there are too many places where no one has been fighting for years.

This situation made Lian Guoshi, the governor, sigh like the most ignorant farmer in the field: "This is God who wants to hire people."

He no longer believed that this war could be ended by relying on their strength. In the end, enough people must die before the disaster would subside.

"Man conquers nature."

Chen Qiyu said something decisively, and then returned to the main topic, saying: "When you go back to the Yan'an camp, you will inevitably become a thief. It's better to dismantle it on the spot. While these soldiers can still fight, do something for the court and the people."

He looked at Lian Guoshi and said, "So in the battle to regain Lanzhou, we still have to rely on Brother Jun Yu's two battalions of troops as support, and show our skills to let Yang Yanchang who was pushed to the front know that he has fallen for the bandits and defected to Liu Bandit. What are you going to face!"

"Liu Chengzong couldn't give him the Lintao Commander-in-Chief. He was both intimidating and tempting. We worked both ways to make him serve the court wholeheartedly."

Chen Qiyu stopped talking to Lian Guoshi, turned around and went out of the tent, looked up at the Huoshaoyun hanging low in the sky, and remained silent for a long time.

God clearly has the virtue of being good at life, but everything that people need will deteriorate.

Ren Quan'er returned to the Yan'an army's big camp in Anding County, and all the generals in the camp gathered in the general's tent. People just learned from Yang Yanchang that if you defend Lanzhou City, you will be recommended by the governors of the five provinces to be the general soldier of Lintao. The excitement is beyond words.

Whether it is Shi Wanzhong, Chen Ruji or Liu Xiangshan, they never thought that Yang Yanchang could be the commander-in-chief. If this automatic general can be the commander-in-chief, does it mean that they will also be the commander-in-chief one day?
People were eagerly discussing the future, but it came to an abrupt end because of the arrival of the commander Ren Quaner. People's smiles froze in embarrassment, and they dared not speak when they saw Ren Quaner.

Liu Xiangshan, the most senior and prestigious general manager, asked: "As a commander, the governor summoned me, what happened?"

"Sir, the battle report was shown to General Yang by the governor. The strong are rampant in the front, and the weak are filling the ditch behind. Nearly ten thousand people have died."

Ren Quan'er put down the battle report, looked around the crowd and said, "Taking back Lanzhou, he wants me to be the deputy general of the Supervision Battalion."

Everyone applauded immediately, and the joyous congratulations resounded through the tent.

It's just that Ren Quan'er waved his hand to give up. He said: "For this battle, I have recruited three scapegoats to practice state affairs, He Renlong and Zhang Yingchang will lead troops to help us attack the city. If Yan'an camp turns against the city, we can kill them all." gone."

As soon as these words came out, everyone was stunned, and the atmosphere in the camp froze visibly to the naked eye.

Times have changed, and now the poor men in northern Shaanxi have sealed their wives and sons, and they have become big men who will shake the entire Yan'an Mansion. Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents.

Liu Xiangshan looked at Yang Yanchang. They had cultivated a deep friendship on Qinwang Road, and they were the backbone of Liu's clan in the army. At this time, his hand had already touched the handle of the knife, and he was only waiting for Yang Yanchang to say something.

Shi Wanzhong didn't want to draw his sword, but there was a look of sullenness on his face. Lintao Town was almost emptied. round to get one.

"Do you dare to kill me?"

Facing the tense sword, Ren Quan'er smiled easily, slipped out a short knife from his sleeve, raised his hand and pointed at Liu Xiangshan lightly: "Grandpa Shan let go of your hand, let alone killing me is not so easy, killing me will end the future At the end of the road, go to the chief's way."

"What's more, the governors of the five provinces trust me because they don't trust you."

Yang Yanchang had never seen such a situation in the camp, so he quickly jumped out to smooth things over: "Oh, no, Brother Liu, we haven't come to this point yet, listen to me, why do we want to turn our backs on the good position? In my opinion, it is better to discuss with the commander-in-chief and give us Lanzhou."

"The imperial court treats us well, and treats you well as a commander." Yang Yanchang comforted Liu Xiangshan first, then turned to Ren Quan'er and said, "Both the commander-in-chief are brothers of our own family, so what can't be discussed?"

"There is no way to discuss it." Ren Quan'er looked at Yang Yanchang and said with a smile: "There can only be one commander-in-chief between you and me. If there are two, I can't keep an eye on you."

"If you defect to the handsome man, I will send you your family members. I think Grandpa Shan can also serve as the commander-in-chief of Lintao; if you want to be a loyal minister of the court, I want your head today."

Yang Yanchang was confused: "Well, why, Ren Quan'er, why do you have trouble with me?"

"In this world, Zhang Nian is good at serving hundreds of households, Yang He is good at serving thousands of households at Saimen, and Chen Qiyu is also very generous at serving as a commander. Only you owe me something. You have ordered me for 14 years before I was placed under house arrest. For four years, Yang Yanchang, you still owe me ten years!"

Yang Yanchang had never noticed that Ren Quan'er held grudges so much, he spread his hands and said, "No, I didn't hurt you, we are all going to be the chief soldier, brothers have a way out, okay?"

Ren Quan'er snorted suddenly, glanced first at Yang Yanchang, then at Liu Xiangshan, Shi Wanzhong, and Chen Ruji in the tent, and said: "It's better for people to treat a hundred households, a thousand households, and a commander. What about Ren Quaner?"

"Only Chief Liu treats Ren Quan'er well, heals Ren Quan'er's wounds, and feeds Ren Quan'er. He only asks me to watch over Yang Yanchang. If I can't watch over him, I'll kill you."

After finishing speaking, with a bang, the dagger was thrown on the table, Ren Quan'er suddenly sprang up and stepped forward, pressing Yang Yanchang's head to the blade: "I just want to ask you, don't turn back!"