"Ah! You're crazy..." Everyone exclaimed, and Shen Heigou even jumped up from his chair in fright.
The briquettes stove used to cook the medicinal soup was burning brightly at the moment, and the red flames burned through the insulating mud inside. The bright red color was piercing to the eyes.
God knows how Tie Bangmai could hold back. He actually smiled without changing his expression and pinched out two red-hot briquettes from the furnace, spinning them back and forth in the palm of his hand.
This is not the kind of spin that is so hot that you can't catch it, but a little bit of spin like rolling an iron ball.
"Haha... They say that people play with walnuts and martial arts play with iron balls! I have never been to Sijiucheng, but I heard that the princes and ministers there like to play with these two things. The iron balls in Baoding and the walnuts in West Beijing are both. The best..."
"Today we brothers don't play with walnuts or iron balls. We play with coal briquettes...hehehe...brother, you can also pinch two. Let's see who can play the game the longest. Do you dare to make a bet..."
ah! Shen Heigou took two steps back in fright, "You, you, you...are you crazy? Or you don't know it hurts!"
How could it not hurt? The iron stick hurt his forehead, and beads of sweat as big as soybeans rolled down like rain. However, he calmed himself down with a ruthless energy, and he must not lose this momentum.
"Bet! It's better not to bet!"
"End? Or admit defeat?"
The iron stick mallet's whole right arm was shaking with pain, but he still resisted turning the two burning coal briquettes. The air was full of the smell of burning flesh, and the hissing sound of burning meat in his ears was like a poisonous snake. Like crawling on your neck.
These people had never seen this kind of posture before, and they were all frightened. After all, we were all soldiers. How could we follow the despicable way of bandits to seize territory and negotiate.
But let's not say that this move was cruel enough, and it suppressed everyone at once, especially Shen Heigou's men. Some of the younger ones almost fainted.
"Why! Why are you doing this! What's going on?" Shen Heigou was so anxious that he almost cried.
Te Bangchui endured the pain and said, "I... you should know who I am... don't ask, I will only tell you one thing, I am saving all of your lives!"
Shen Heigou couldn't hold on any longer. He slapped away the iron mallet with his right hand and knocked the black and smoking coal briquettes to the ground. Then he held his hand tightly and pressed it into the water tank. For a moment, people seemed to hear the sound of stabbing.
Lowering his voice, Shen Heigou asked, "Brother, tell me the truth, what's going on? You're not such a cruel person normally!"
"Haha...you should admit defeat this time! Whether you are ruthless or not depends on how hard you push me. If I don't come here personally, I'm afraid the people who see you will be the cavalry, the group of murderers who have killed Rakshasa ghosts. We won’t reason with you, I don’t want anyone to die here!”
"Hurry up, you heard me right, hurry back to Yitong, don't waste your time... Do you dare to fight or what? As far as I know, General Shengjing has not given you a clear order yet, I I heard from people above that the imperial court has lost its claws now and doesn’t know how to deal with General Hunchun..."
"To be honest, even if the cavalry on the opposite side fires off you, as long as you don't take the initiative to attack Yitong City, you will die in vain!"
Hiss... Shen Heigou understood immediately. If the imperial court chose to appease Hunchun, it really didn't dare to provoke him openly. As long as Hunchun didn't raise the flag and openly declared independence, as long as he paid the imperial court food and obeyed the imperial court's orders in name. , as long as he sieges the city without fire, the court will not intensify the situation.
It doesn't matter if one or two sentinels die. This kind of trivial matter and blood will be swallowed. Has the imperial court not tolerated enough anger in these years?
"Thank you, brother. I'll withdraw now, I'll withdraw now... But you have to tell me clearly, will you attack Yitong City?"
"What the fuck, there's something wrong with your mind! Is Hunchun a rebel? Let me tell you openly. If it weren't for the secret order of Long Live Lord, would you really dare to detain Tepuxin?"
"It's not a rebellion from beginning to end. To put it bluntly, Hunchun is just trying to grab territory for the emperor! What we want is this bridge. What do we want from Yitong City?"
withdraw! Without saying a word, Shen Heigou didn't even want weapons. He led his men to retreat to Yitong City. He was cursing in his heart, "What a bunch of bastards! You officials haven't decided whether to fight or not. Just Do you want me to die? Grandma...I won’t go!"
But it's not a problem to go back like this. You have to find an excuse to stop him. Thinking of it, Shen Heigou gritted his teeth, stamped his feet, clenched his fist and punched himself on the bridge of the nose.
Nosebleeds spurted out, and the surrounding soldiers were shocked, "Boss, what are you doing?"
"Stop talking nonsense, hit me twice and punch me twice. When you turned back into the city, you said it was the cavalry from the opposite side who hit you. We didn't receive the order to fire, so we didn't dare to resist desperately. We finally retreated when we were outnumbered..."
"Let me tell you the same story! You must not say that we withdrew it ourselves. We must say that there was a fight, and a fierce fight!"
People suddenly realized that a few soldiers rounded up their fists and hit Shen Heigou, which made him dizzy. However, when he thought about it, the commander alone couldn't do it, and the hundreds of people under his command couldn't be justified.
"Let's fight now!" the crowd shouted, and the soldiers beat each other away on the post road.
Good guy, this scared the people. They screamed and fled into the woods. They thought to themselves, what's going on? Is this something that cannot be digested? Is it because I am obsessed with it, or is it because horse dung is stuffed in my brain?
Killing each other! What happened to the Qing Dynasty?
The farce under Yitong City was not isolated. Hunchun chose an aggressive offensive before the court could react.
He didn't really want to attack. He just deployed heavy troops at the important post road checkpoints at the junction of the three provinces. In fact, he was putting pressure on the imperial court.
Important bridges, mountain passes where two mountains intersect, local commanding heights on the edge of post roads... all the favorable geographical locations that could be used in the war were occupied by Hunchun's soldiers.
This is not a harbinger of an attack, it is like a tiger about to descend from the mountain, ready to accumulate momentum, leaving the entire Shengjing completely surrounded by an atmosphere of terror.
This is also an expression of determination to the court, a will that will never compromise.
Fifth Master Yi Pei's domestic slaves quickly received urgent military information from various places, and they did not dare to neglect these slaves to report to the city of Beijing quickly, not to mention that Yi Pei actually had his own set of telegraph codes.
These telegrams were hidden in the telegrams of big merchants and sneaked into the capital, and finally flew into Yan Zhihu's private residence, which was the secret stronghold of the Fifth Master.
These days, Li Tuo and Yang Zhi had been discussing the court strategy with the prince. When they saw the latest information, they actually said it in unison.
"Your Majesty! Hurry up and expand your army, prepare for big changes in the future! This Hunchun is determined not to go to Beijing! The imperial court's second set of tactics is completely dead!"
