In a dense forest cave about fifteen miles away from Li Jing's camp, a middle-aged man in Confucian attire was staring at the marching map on the table with a solemn expression, and his slender index finger kept gesticulating back and forth.
At this time, there was a sudden rush of footsteps outside the tent, and then a rough voice was heard saying: "Mr. Zou Da, why did you withdraw the wolf soldiers who sneaked up on Li Jing?"
When the words fell, a strong man dressed as an Orion broke in and looked at Mr. Zou Da with an annoyed look.
Mr. Zou Da ignored the visitor and continued to draw on the marching map.
When the strong man saw this, his face became even more angry, and he shouted loudly: "I am asking you something, what are you looking at..."
As he spoke, he quickly stepped forward to grab the marching map on the table.
Just as he stretched out his hand, his wrist was grabbed by a white hand, followed by a sharp pain.
He instinctively wanted to scream, but when he saw Mr. Zou Da's cold eyes, his body immediately trembled slightly, and he even forgot about the pain.
Mr. Zou Da glanced at him again, then shook off his hand, stood up straight slowly, and said in a low and majestic voice: "Cen Hangui, what did your father say to you when you came here this time?"
When Cen Hangui heard this, his body trembled again, but there was still a trace of violence hidden in his eyes.
However, when he saw a smile on Mr. Zou Da's lips, his heart skipped a beat and he hurriedly lowered his head and said, "I finally realized my mistake!"
"Because I was anxious, I was confused for a moment. I didn't mean to offend you, sir. Please forgive me!"
Mr. Zou Da looked at Cen Hangui coldly and said in a deep voice: "Cen Hangui, I have no intention of meddling in your family affairs!"
"So when your father recalled your eldest brother, I didn't object, but if you don't know how to advance or retreat..."
As Mr. Zou Da spoke, he stopped again and stared at Cen Hangui closely with his triangular eyes. ..
It turns out that Cen Tingduo, the chieftain of Tianzhou, Guangxi, had six sons, among whom Cen Hangui, the second son, was his favorite.
He originally intended to let Cen Hangui take over as chieftain, but because his eldest son Cen Hansheng was quite popular, when Mr. Zou Da went to Tianzhou to mobilize troops, Cen Tingduo wanted Cen Hangui to accompany him to gain experience and prepare for the future.
However, Cen Hangui has always been pampered and felt that this trip was too dangerous. Although he agreed on the surface, he cried to his mother Liu behind the scenes and suggested that Cen Hansheng should go there, hoping to take the opportunity to get rid of him.
Mrs. Liu was originally an ignorant woman who only loved to dote on her. After learning about this, she immediately went to find Cen Tingduo to make trouble.
Cen Tingduo was quite insistent at first and scolded Liu for his lack of knowledge.
But after spending the night in Liu's room, he changed his mind and asked Cen Hansheng to go on the expedition with Mr. Zou Da.
Not long after Cen Hansheng set out, he was assassinated.
Fortunately, his skills were not bad, and Mr. Zou Da rescued him in time, so he did not suffer any injuries.
He wanted to cover up the matter because his family scandal could not be publicized.
What surprised him was that Mr. Zou Da seemed to have known about this for a long time. In just one night, he eradicated all Cen Hangui's assassins lurking in the army and sent their heads back to Tianzhou.
After this incident, the always fierce wolf soldiers all showed respect to Mr. Zou Da.
In the subsequent battle, Cen Hansheng was also impressed by Mr. Zou Da's methods. He not only cooperated fully, but also treated him as a disciple.
With the help of Cen Hansheng, Mr. Zou Da became more comfortable in using the wolf soldiers, so he made many achievements, and Cen Hansheng's reputation among the wolf soldiers also increased day by day.
This situation was not what Cen Hangui wanted to see, so he asked Liu to find Cen Tingduo and recall Cen Hansheng.
However, although Cen Tingduo agreed, Mr. Zou Da refused because of the war.
When Cen Hangui learned about it, he was furious. While he asked Liu to continue to give Cen Tingduo the magic soup, he went to Zhu Hengjia and asked him to put pressure on Mr. Zou Da.
After several efforts, he finally replaced Cen Hansheng in this trip north.
But when he arrived, he found that many wolf soldiers were somewhat dissatisfied with him.
Fortunately, his bodyguard is a wolf
He was quite prestigious among the soldiers, and because of his deliberate win over, everyone's attitude towards him changed.
Just when Cen Hangui took control of the military and was about to flex his muscles and make great achievements, Mr. Zou Da vetoed his proposals several times, which made him feel very humiliated.
Later, he was reprimanded in public because he did not follow Mr. Zou Da's instructions when he was encircling and suppressing Brother Yang.
Cen Hangui was unhappy and wanted the wolf soldiers to give Mr. Zou Da some trouble. Unexpectedly, all the wolf soldiers shook their heads when they heard that they were going to deal with Mr. Zou Da.
In desperation, he had to let his personal guards take action.
It's just that after his personal guards left, they never came back.
Cen Hangui wanted to make trouble again, but his captain of the bodyguard quietly told him that he saw three world-famous masters beside Mr. Zou Da.
In addition, Mr. Zou Da's ten personal bodyguards are also important criminals wanted by the government, and each of them carries dozens or hundreds of lives on his body.
Some of them even broke into government offices alone and killed corrupt officials in public.
When Cen Hangui received this news, he knew that using force to teach Mr. Zou Da a lesson was no longer feasible.
So when he was preparing to attack Shen Zhanran, he deliberately leaked his whereabouts, hoping that Mr. Zou Da would fail in the attack and then he could justifiably accuse the other party.
But what he didn't expect was that Mr. Zou Da suddenly changed his plan and led his army to Jizhou.
So Cen Hangui repeated his old tricks, but he was almost captured alive by Li Jing this time.
Just when he fled back in a hurry and before he could take a breath, Mr. Zou Da came to his camp and asked him why he acted without authorization.
Cen Hangui refused to admit it, and he never thought that Mr. Zou Da did not argue with him. He just smiled and killed his captain of the bodyguard, and no one in the army objected.
Cen Hangui was shocked when he saw this, so he stayed honest for two days, but the resentment in his heart became even stronger.
Later, when he saw that Mr. Zou Da was treating him as before, he returned to his old ways and prepared to have someone sabotage the ambush of the Ming soldiers so as to attack Mr. Zou Da.
So when he learned that Mr. Zou Da had canceled the ambush, he immediately came to question him angrily.
After listening to Mr. Zou Da's words and seeing that cold smile, his heart trembled, and then he admitted his mistake again and again.
Mr. Zou Da nodded and said calmly: "I don't mean to scold you, but when marching and fighting, the most important thing is to follow the orders and prohibitions."
"If everyone were like you, there would be no need to fight this battle, and you wouldn't have to expect to achieve anything, let alone defeat your elder brother, you..."
Hearing this, Cen Hangui nodded and said, "Mr. Zou Da, I understand. I will definitely not do it again in the future."
As he spoke, he glanced at Mr. Zou Da again. Seeing that his expression had softened, he asked tentatively: "Why did you cancel the ambush? You know we have been preparing for this for a long time."
"And only by defeating Li Jing can our plan..."
Mr. Zou Da snorted coldly and said, "I canceled the plan for two reasons. You should know the first reason even if I didn't say it, and the second reason is that we don't have enough troops."
"If what I have predicted is true, Chongzhen will definitely split his troops when he absconds, and we only have 4,000 troops in hand. If we don't make a choice, we may not get a good deal from both sides."
Cen Hansheng's eyelids twitched for a while, and then he forced himself to be calm and said: "Before Zhu Jilin left, he vowed that he could kill Chongzhen."
"Even if he doesn't succeed, he should know where Chongzhen is going. We only need to send an elite force to chase him."
"And before we came, you also asked Mr. Song (Song Xiance) to lead a thousand wolf soldiers to guard the only way back to Beijing..."
Before he finished speaking, a sentry rider hurried in and reported, "Mr. Zou Da, it's bad, Zhu Ji has been arrested!"
When Mr. Zou Da heard this, he immediately frowned.
