"Husband, how does a live-fire exercise work? How many soldiers and horses need to be mobilized to participate?" To be honest, Su Xingran has become increasingly confused about her husband recently, and every time some confusing words come out of his mouth. , but this time I seemed to understand a little bit, and thought it was just like before, the troops were divided into two groups in an open space, and the two sides attacked with swords and guns, mainly to show the strength of the army.
Chen Xiaomu smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you don't need to deploy many troops and horses. For live-fire exercises, a maximum of one hundred people is enough. Plus the soldiers responsible for guarding, there are about four to five hundred people."
There were not as many soldiers participating in the drill as there were soldiers on guard, and the two together only numbered four to five hundred. What kind of drill is this? Zheng Guo had also held so-called drills in the past, but they were called drills or drills. A small-scale drill would cost Thousands of soldiers and horses are mobilized to participate, let alone large-scale drills, with as few as 10,000 soldiers and horses, and as many as 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers and horses participating. Tens of thousands of people gather together to shout, and the momentum can be said to be shocking. , people’s legs and feet feel weak after listening to it.
"Oh! By the way, Your Majesty." Chen Xiaomu said as if he suddenly remembered: "Please find a larger place for the Taiwei Mansion, preferably with a river or a pond, no less than ten miles in radius, and a sparsely populated place!" Yes, the notices of the Taiwei Mansion must be posted all over the city, including the four city gates. I estimate that there must be a lot of spies from various countries in the new capital. After seeing the notices, they will definitely try to go to the scene to watch."
Su Xingran heard the murmur in her heart and couldn't help but ask: "Husband, there are only more than a hundred people participating in the exercise. What do you want in such a big place? It's ten miles in radius. I'm afraid tens of thousands of soldiers and horses can't participate in the exercise." Is it such a big place?”
Chen Xiaomu chuckled and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry. Although I only sent out a hundred people to participate in the exercise, when the time comes, you can see that the momentum will definitely be much greater than the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses!"
Su Xingran thought for a while, then finally nodded and said: "Okay, today happens to be the court meeting. When we get to the court hall, I will tell Lieutenant Zhuge to take care of it."
Seeing that the two of them had almost finished talking about business, Zhao Yiqiu came out to meet Chen Xiaomu. As soon as they met, she said to Chen Xiaomu something that shocked him, "Brother Xiaodai, my sister has decided to stay in the Kingdom of Zheng and serve as His Majesty's palace maid. "
"What!" Chen Xiaomu said in surprise: "Sister Yiqiu, are you not going back to Chen Country?"
Zhao Yiqiu nodded and said calmly: "Last night, His Majesty and I talked about each other in the middle of the night. His Majesty said that the current situation of Zheng State is more dangerous than that of Chen State. After all, Qi State is larger than Wu State and Zhou State combined. Big, and Zheng Guogang had a great battle with the Chu State. Although he won a tragic victory, the entire army was almost wiped out. It would be difficult to restore the previous military strength! His Majesty also said, I will stay to help her, In fact, I’m helping you.”
Chen Xiaomu asked in confusion: "Sister Yiqiu, can uncle agree with you doing this?"
Zhao Yiqiu smiled, took out a letter from his sleeve, and handed it to Chen Xiaomu, "Brother Xiaodai, look, this is the handwritten letter I just received this morning from Sun Chao, the bodyguard of the prime minister's palace sent by my father. , Dad said in the letter that when he learned that the State of Qi was preparing to send troops to attack the State of Zheng, he specifically asked Wang Baozhong and I to stay to protect you. Also, due to the cold weather, General Guan, who was stationed in Jiangling City, resorted to pouring water from the river outside. The methods on the city wall caused a thick layer of ice to form on the outside of the city wall. The siege ladders of Wu and Zhou slid down on their own as soon as they reached the city wall. As a last resort, the two countries' coalition forces have suspended their siege and are expected to wait until the beginning of next spring. , the thick ice outside the city wall will melt before the siege can be launched again. In this way, we will have a few more months to wait until the Qi people are defeated before rescuing our Chen country."
Chen Xiaomu took the letter and read it briefly. Generally speaking, it was similar to what Zhao Yiqiu said, and he felt relieved.
After handing the letter back to Zhao Yiqiu, Chen Xiaomu suddenly remembered that he had agreed with Zhuo Yihe to continue handling the Wu Guanglu case, so he quickly took this opportunity to report this matter to Su Xingran.
As expected, Su Xingran nodded without saying a word, but specifically told Chen Xiaomu to try not to kill Wu Guanglu as long as he did not commit any heinous crime. After all, he was the uncle of Zhuge Cheng, the first-rank Taiwei at the time, and his beloved concubine. If you don’t look at the monk’s face and look at the Buddha’s face, you have to keep your net open.
After discussing the countermeasures for Qi's troops to suppress the border, Su Xingran took Zhao Yiqiu back to the Political Palace to preside over the court meeting. Chen Xiaomu sent someone to call Yifang and began to arrange a search of Wu Guanglu's hiding place at night. As a result, he sat down without saying a word. The guards came in and reported that there was a large group of homeless-looking people outside who wanted to see Mr. Chen but could not be driven away. When Chen Xiaomu heard this, he immediately knew that it was the group of people who were looking for something to do in front of the Xinjingfu Yamen last night. He called Li Gui and Mao Su and told them to register the names, ages, specialties and tools of the future people one by one, and then asked them to come over tomorrow to officially start work.
When Chen Xiaomu was woken up by Yi Fang, it was already so dark outside that he couldn't see his fingers. It turned out that after he and Yi Fang had agreed to arrest Wu Guanglu tonight, Chen Xiaomu took Lian'er, who had also stayed up all night, to catch up on his sleep. Unexpectedly, this When he opened his eyes, it was completely dark, "What time is it?" Chen Xiaomu got up from the bed and asked while getting dressed. At the same time, he stretched out his foot and gently kicked Lian'er's buttocks, who was sleeping at his feet.
Yi Fang looked nervous and said: "Sir, it's almost the third watch."
"Oh!" Chen Xiaomu agreed, shuffling his shoes and getting out of bed. At this time, Lian'er sat up from the bed with sleepy eyes and muttered: "It will be dawn so soon?"
Chen Xiaomu urged: "Quick, get up, don't you want to avenge your godmother?"
"What? Revenge for your godmother!" Lian'er's whole body stirred up when he heard this, and he immediately rolled out of bed and said, "Hey, hey, I said you kid, why don't you put on some clothes?" Chen Xiaomu shouted.
Lian'er smiled playfully, "Clothes? A big official, this is what I'm wearing!"
"Oh!" Chen Xiaomu suddenly remembered that before going to bed, he wanted Lian'er to take off the dirty clothes on his body, but Lian'er refused to do so, so he had no choice but to let him go. It was now midnight, The temperature outside was much lower than during the day, and she had just crawled out of the hot bed. Due to the contrast between the temperature inside and outside, Lian'er couldn't help but sneeze.
Chen Xiaomu called the maid who was staying at the princess's house and asked her to find a thick coat for Lian'er to wear. However, after searching for a long time, the maid only found a light green silk jacket worn by women and handed it to him.
Chen Xiaomu opened the silk jacket and smiled at Lian'er: "Lian'er is quite thick, put it on." He thought Lian'er would resist this woman's dress, but he took it over and put it on without saying a word. He put it on his body and fastened the buttons of the diagonal placket skillfully, as if this jacket originally belonged to him.
In the front yard of the princess mansion, Wei Yuxin and Zhou Huanhuan were already waiting in the courtyard. Yi Fang had also divided the soldiers into two rows to stand. At this time, they were just waiting for Chen Xiaomu's order. In the front row were fifty archers holding bows and arrows. In the back row were fifty soldiers armed with swords, responsible for the arrest. As Chen Xiaomu shouted "Let's go", the two rows of soldiers turned around and followed Lian'er, who was responsible for leading the way, towards the door of the princess's house.
After walking on the road for nearly half an hour, Lian'er finally stopped in front of the door of a wealthy family. He turned to Chen Xiaomu, who was following him closely, and whispered, "Master, this is it."
Chen Xiaomu looked at the large mansion in front of him, bent down, and whispered: "Lian'er, are you sure this is here? You remember correctly?"
Lian'er affirmed: "Guan Ye, those in our profession usually have very good memories. This is the place, you can't go wrong!"
Chen Xiaomu nodded and walked up to Yi Fang, "General Yi, order the archers to surround the entire courtyard. Anyone who runs out and fails to comply with the code will be shot."
Yi Fang raised his hand and said, "I obey." Then he waved to the team of archers around him and shouted: "Archers, come with me to surround this courtyard."
The fifty archers immediately dispersed upon hearing the sound. Each eleven archers was led by a pawn leader, who held their bows and arrows and was responsible for one side of the yard. The remaining six archery masters formed a team of their own, and there was also a pawn. Led by the commander, they found the commanding heights near the courtyard, climbed up using ladders, and pointed arrows at the courtyard from a high position to prevent any fish from slipping through the net.
After the fifty archers were all in place, Chen Xiaomu walked slowly to the door of the house, picked up the door knocker hanging in the mouth of the beast's head, and knocked on the door with a "bang bang".
In this quiet cold night, the sound of banging on the door seemed extremely harsh, but even so, no matter how numb the handle was, no one made a sound in the yard. Chen Xiaomu put his ear to the crack of the door, faintly Hearing the sound of light footsteps inside, he immediately shouted loudly: "Open the door, we are night patrolmen from the City Patrol Department, and we are chasing a fugitive. If you don't open the door, we will break down the door!"
"Hey, sir, don't knock on the door, the little old man is here." At this time, an old voice sounded in the door, followed by the sound of "pat, pat, pat" footsteps.
After a while, the footsteps stopped behind the door, and the sound of pulling the door bolt was heard again. Then the two doors creaked, and a hole was opened in the middle, and a man with white hair protruded from the inside. Fa's head raised his head, and he happened to meet Chen Xiaomu's eyes. He quickly squeezed out a smile from his wrinkled face and said humbly: "Master, we are all good citizens, and we will never harbor fugitives from the government!"
Chen Xiaomu said calmly: "Well, are you a good citizen? Who can prove it to you?"
"This...!" The old man was speechless and then smiled: "The official is joking. The little old man thinks that he has never violated the official law and is a good citizen."
Chen Xiaomu nodded, and then asked: "Who are still living in the house?"
The old man said slowly: "My lord, there is only one young man living in this house now. The owner went out to escape the war a few months ago and if he did not come back, he hired the young man to guard the house for him before leaving."
Chen Xiaomu frowned and asked: "You just clearly said that we are all good citizens. The word "we" means that in your subconscious mind, there are others living in this house."
When the old man heard this, he couldn't help but secretly complain, and said to himself: "This guy is too shrewd. It seems that I have to be very careful about what I say next!" Thinking of this, he hurriedly said: "Guan Ye, what I just said was just a moment. It goes without saying that no one else lives in this house."
