At the beginning of the day after the rain, all things grow toward the sun. After several days of silence, Jinzhou's markets and commercial ports finally became lively.
It was the morning market at this time, and the streets were full of vendors and pedestrians.
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!" The sound of horse hooves hitting the floor tiles came from far away.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" A war horse galloped through the crowd, knocking down many stalls and scaring many pedestrians, but it kept moving forward. "Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" The soldier on the horse shouted loudly, with obvious weeping in his cry.
"Bang!" The horse stopped at the door of the Yanyun Government Office under the force of the force. I saw the soldiers on top of it half-jumping and half-falling down from their horses, taking out something from their waists, rushing to the front soldiers and flashing it, and then they were led inside by the front soldiers.
"Sir! Urgent report! The post soldiers from Anxian Post are here!" Fu Chu hurried to Mei Siyuan's study and reported loudly.
Mei Siyuan was reading the list of salt production for the first half of the blind mountain salt field sent by Yunhu and Fu Su. When he heard that it was the post soldiers from the outpost who came to report, he hurriedly put down the book and said hurriedly: "Where is the person? Take me there quickly. !" According to the Dahua garrison order, the outposts monitor foreign enemies, and the garrison troops monitor internal strife. Now that the Anxian post has come to report, something must have happened at the border. Mei Siyuan is the chief officer of Anxian, how can he not be anxious!
"The post soldiers are waiting in the right hall." Fu Zhen replied in a deep voice. After saying this, he walked forward, but in his mind, he was thinking, "Hey, one wave has not subsided, and another wave has arisen. When will the master get a moment of peace?" ?”
Mei Siyuan followed hurriedly to the right side hall. The two of them walked to the right side hall and saw a soldier standing in the middle who was dirty and with blood on his face. He hurriedly walked forward and asked, "What happened at Anxian Post?"
When the postman at the outpost saw Mei Siyuan arriving, he immediately knelt down on one knee and cried: "Sir, on the 16th, the Shatuo Kingdom suddenly led troops across the border and killed two teams of border guards at our outpost. Then they came all the way east. The momentum is huge, and Tianmen City and Yanzhou have been captured!"
"What!" Mei Siyuan was really surprised by this. His eyes widened, his beard trembled slightly with his lips and teeth, and he shouted loudly, "Where is Xu Ding'an, the post general? It's nineteen today, why did you come to report now? ? Did you miss the military plane?"
The postman at the post also knelt down on his other leg, his body almost limp, and cried: "The post received the news on the 17th. On that day, General Xu broke camp and marched westward to intercept Shatuo's army. Before leaving, he sent a small team and others. A group of post soldiers sent messages and asked for help in several directions. The little one had already set off, but the heavy rain for several days had blocked deep water all the way. It was really impossible to move forward, and it was definitely not an intentional delay. The water had only subsided a little, and the little one had to wait. We drove horses all the way and came in a hurry."
After hearing this, Mei Siyuan knew that what the postman said was definitely true. The anger in his heart gradually subsided, and he asked again: "How many people did Shatuo draw when he crossed the border this time?"
"The exact number is not known yet. The rough estimate is that it is no less than 200,000!" the postman replied tremblingly.
After hearing this, Mei Siyuan's heart tightened and he could no longer hold it in. He slumped down on his chair with a look of disbelief on his face and murmured: "Two hundred and two hundred thousand, the number of troops stationed at Anxian Post is only 28,000." That’s all, how can Xu Ding’an with twenty-eight thousand withstand eight times the enemy?”
"General Xu said, 'It takes a thousand days to raise an army, but it can be used in a moment.' There are 28,000 strong men on the outpost. Everyone must defend the border with a certain death intention to defend the enemy. If he dies in battle, the deputy general will lead the army; if the deputy general dies in battle, No matter how difficult the road ahead for the general is, he must stop the enemy before reinforcements arrive, and must not allow Shatuo's army to enter our hinterland." The postman lay on the ground and cried.
When Mei Siyuan heard this, he felt excited and finally came back to his senses. After thinking about it, he hurriedly said to Fu Zhen who was standing aside: "You quickly send someone to the Government Secretary's Mansion and the General's Mansion to invite Chief Secretary He and General Guo to come here! Just say that we have an extremely important matter to discuss!" Fu Zhen agreed. He said "yes" and retreated hastily.
Seeing that Fu Pun had been ordered to retreat, Mei Siyuan turned around and asked the postman, "Where did the postman at the post ask for help?"
"My lord, we have asked for help from eight places: the North Post, the Shengjun Post, the Gongyang Palace of Cangsheng County, the Zhuge Palace of Limin County, the Panjun Post, the Fuyang Post, the Fanxi Post and the capital. General Xu has made it clear that he If you want to lead troops to stop Shatuo's army in Mianzhou, just ask the reinforcements to break out of camp and rush directly to Mianzhou for reinforcements." the sentry replied.
"Mianzhou? The terrain of Mianzhou is high in the east and low in the west. As Shatuo moves eastward, it goes from low to high. We are indeed occupying the advantageous location. However, the city wall of Mianzhou is low and dilapidated and in disrepair. It is really difficult to defend the city. Yes, among the seven Anxian states, except for Yanzhou, which has been captured, Mianzhou has the sparsest population. Xu Ding'an did not want to lead the war to a densely populated area, so he intercepted Shatuo's army here. Mei Siyuan lowered his head and thought, then murmured, "Mianzhou? That's only four hundred miles away from Huangzhou where Limin County has troops stationed! Prince Zhuge's armored army has 140,000 troops. If they are willing to rush for reinforcements, they will arrive in two days at most!" "Thinking of this, I couldn't help but sigh: "Xu Ding'an is worthy of being a famous general in the world. He is full of loyalty, courage, benevolence and wisdom in his actions and deeds. He is truly a model of Siyuan!"
Mei Siyuan asked the postman again in detail and then sent him down to rest. He is the only one left here, so he can prepare for the situation. I saw him stand up for a while, then suddenly sit down, and repeated this countless times.
Nine riders and one horse sedan stopped in front of the gate of the Salt Administration Bureau. A young Taoist priest jumped off his horse and walked to the gate of the mansion. He smiled and asked the guards: "Two soldiers, this is the official residence of Mr. Mei Siyuan, the Secretary of the Salt Administration of Anxian. ?”
The soldier scolded: "You little Taoist priest can't see? You still have to ask! It's written clearly on the plaque!"
Zhi Tuan didn't lose his temper, smiled and held his hand and replied: "That's it. That's good! We are Master Mei's sect and family members, and we are here to protect Master Mei on the order of the master's sect. Please go and inform us. One sound."
Mei Yuanchen and his entourage arrived in the middle of the night that day. These four soldiers were on day duty and did not know that a group of Taoists had already arrived in the mansion. At this time, a Taoist priest came to ask, and he thought Zhi Tuan was just having fun, so he was not polite at all. But since he heard that this group of people was here to protect their master Mei Siyuan, he was very happy and said with a smile on his face: "Is it true? Then wait a moment, I will ask Mr. Mei to ask." "After that, he walked quickly to the inside.
Mei Yuanchen was sitting at the stone table in the courtyard of the west wing, discussing martial arts with his three senior brothers Zhan Tong, Zhan Jue and Zhan Xu. Zhan Tong and the other three are all in their fifties. Although their martial arts skills are not as strong as Mei Yuanchen's, they have far more experience and knowledge than Mei Yuanchen. Mei Yuanchen also benefited from discussions with them.
"Young Master, someone is coming from the front door of the mansion. He claims to be a member of your family. The younger one doesn't recognize him and doesn't dare to let him in. Do you want to go and take a look?" A soldier from the mansion hurried over and walked to the stone table to ask Mei Yuanchen. Report.
The four of them were overjoyed after hearing this. "Junior Brother Zhankong and his party must have arrived!" Zhan Tong laughed. Although he didn't believe that Zhan Kong and his party were in danger on the road, he still felt a little uneasy after waiting here for a long time.
Mei Yuanchen said happily: "Yes! It's my senior brothers and nephews who are here!" Without waiting for the soldiers to lead the way, he walked towards the gate like the wind with "Twenty-three Dou Zhuan and Diagonal Steps". The soldiers were really frightened when they saw this. They were stunned for a long time and could not speak.
"Junior brother's talent is so high that he even learned the Qing Kung Fu that his uncle is most proud of!" Seeing this, Zhan Jue couldn't help but sigh.
