The warship went up the Baihe River, turned into the Turbulent River, and finally anchored at the moat north of Dengzhou City.

The militiaman standing at the bow of the ship and manning the ship had a very common name, Zhang Shun.

He is still very young, about eighteen or nineteen years old, and is short in stature, hence his nickname "Short Zhang".

He is from Junzhou. When he was young, his family was slaughtered by the Mongols. Only he and his brother Zhang Gui, who was two years younger than him, escaped by chance. Therefore, the two brothers had always wanted to join the army to fight against the Mongols, but they were not tall and only became militiamen.

At this time, a boatload of grain arrived. Zhang Shun looked up and saw that Dengzhou was not closed. The soldiers were strengthening the city defenses and digging ditches. It was a lively scene.

It is always a joy to regain lost territory, and the militiamen on this ship quickly moved food and grass into the city.

"Ai Zhang, you'd better tell General Chang to ask a gentleman to come and take stock, and then ask where we camp."

"good!"

Zhang Shun was a bold man, so he jumped off the grain cart, raised his hand, greeted his brother Zhang Gui, and walked towards where General Chang's flag was.

All these soldiers and horses have just taken over the defense of Dengzhou today. They are not familiar with the city and are busy and chaotic everywhere.

Zhang Shun first asked General Chang's guard to raise his hand and walked into the courtyard where he was stationed. However, he did not see the general. Instead, he heard the quarrel coming from the other side through the wall.

He didn't have many rules, and he didn't know how to avoid it. Instead, he made a silencing gesture towards Zhang Gui and leaned in to listen.

"Li Ni and the Mongolian captives were both close friends of the Song Dynasty, so we should take the opportunity to eliminate them."

"Mr. Fang, if there is no order from the general, it is useless to talk to me. I will only act according to the order."

"General Chang is unwise! Do you only know General Lu's orders but not the Taiwei's thoughts?"

Across the wall, Fang took two steps back, with a look of concern for the country and the people on his face.

He was very talented in literature. He used "A Hundred Odes of Plum Blossoms" to flatter Jia Sidao, but he failed to get a high-ranking official as expected. Instead, he went to see Li Xia, but because of his arrogant words, he almost died under his sword.

Later, he and Lu Wende scolded Li Xia, which finally made Lu Wende favor him.

Among the generals of the Lu family, Lu Wenhuan was the most talented in literature and the most capable in guarding Xiangyang. When he returned, he asked Lu Wende to send him to serve under Lu Wenhuan.

And the "Taiwei" they kept saying at this time naturally referred to Lu Wende.

In the early years, some people called Lu Wende this way. At that time, it was still a presumptuous name, but now it is a real name.

Tonight, Fang Hui made up his mind to perform meritorious service for Lu Wende.

"How much the Taiwei hates Li Ni, General Chang should know. General Fan who was unjustly killed by Li Ni was the Taiwei's son-in-law... I would like to think that the Taiwei will devote his life to serving the country, but he will have to watch his grandson grow up when he is old.

You suffered the loss of your father at a young age?"

"But since General Lu said that the national affairs should be given priority at the moment, and Li Xia had just recovered Dengzhou and handed it over to the general, how could I dare to send someone to contact the Mongols privately? Isn't this a serious crime of collaborating with the enemy?"

"That's ridiculous, what is collaborating with the enemy? Selling one's country is collaborating with the enemy. Now I am trying to drive the tiger to devour the wolf... If we let Li Ni escape this time, Shi Tianze will definitely attack our army. On the contrary, if we lure Shi Tianze to attack Li Ni, our army will have

It is an opportunity to achieve great achievements. Furthermore, although General Lu did not give any orders, the imperial court had secretly ordered Xiangfan to prepare for Li Ni's rebellion and to eliminate Li Ni. This was exactly what the imperial court ordered."

When Fang Hui said this, he lowered his voice and said: "General Chang, I know that you occasionally traffic salt and iron with the Mongolian lieutenant general. It is not difficult to do this. After Li Ni is eliminated and the Mongolian captives are driven out, we can recover."

Nanyang, I will report your merits to Taiwei and Pingzhang on your behalf..."

Finally, after hearing "Okay", Fang smiled back, stroking his beard.

He was very sure that this was a great success.

Because even Lu Wenhuan, who opposed this matter, was not so determined. As for Lu Wende, he often said that he must find an opportunity to kill Li Xia no matter what.

Soon, they arranged for two soldiers to go north to make contact before dawn.

In fact, it is such a simple thing.

Fang Hui smiled, turned around and walked out.

Dengzhou City is not big. More than 7,000 people have settled in the city and they are still arranging defenses, which makes it very busy.

Fang Huan turned around and took a look and saw a militiaman coming out of the alley.

He didn't care.

"Mr. Fang."

It wasn't until the other party called out that Fang Hui looked at the militiaman.

He was short in stature and had no armor. He only wore a worn-out military uniform with rolled-up trouser legs and a pair of boots... not boots, but dried plaster.

The mortar was stained on the militiaman's tattered straw sandals and covered his calves. Looking at them at night, he thought they were a pair of boots.

Fang Hui shook his head, laughing at himself because he was dazzled.

Then he asked: "What's the matter?"

Vaguely, he saw grievance and anger in the eyes of the oncoming militiamen.

Who must have swallowed their military pay?

The accumulated shortcomings in the military make people angry.

Fang Hui also felt the same way as them and was going to compose a poem about it...

Suddenly, the militiaman strode forward and pulled out a single sword from his waist.

"puff!"

"ah!"

Before Fang Hui could react, he was stabbed in the back.

He fell to the ground and shouted in fear, and saw another militiaman coming behind him with a knife.

"You... if you want to rebel... don't kill me... don't..."

"ah!"

This time it was the two militiamen who roared, their faces full of anger...

"What did you say? I'll go over and take a look."

Lu Wenhuan stood up, put on his clothes, and strode outside.

When they arrived in the hall, they saw two men being tied up and pinned down with big flowers, their hands covered with blood.

Lu Wenhuan rubbed his face helplessly, looking a little upset.

After a while, he finally said: "Tell me, what's going on?!"

"..."

"For this reason, you dare to swing a knife at Mr. Fang?!" After hearing this, Lu Wenhuan shouted: "Even I respect Mr. Fang's talent, but you are so presumptuous! You can't rebel?!"

He didn't want to kill the soldiers, but in front of him, Zhang Gui had committed such a serious crime and had no choice but to kill them.

Without killing, military discipline cannot be corrected.

Zhang Shun, on the other hand, remained calm and responded: "If the general wants to kill or behead him, I will not say a word, but it is not okay to say that we are rebelling! That party has collaborated with the enemy and betrayed the country and should be killed!"

He also couldn't explain any big truth. After all, he could only say four words.

Right and wrong are clear.

"Shut up! Ignorant pawn, talking nonsense! Drag him down and behead him in public..."

"My brother is not afraid of death, but if the general does not punish Fang Hui, my brother will not accept it!"

"Stop their mouths!"

"I'm not convinced! If Fang Hui colludes with the enemy and commits treason, then he is a bandit. My two brothers want to kill a bandit. What crime do they have?!"

"Not convinced!"

"Kill the prisoners..."

Zhang Shun and Zhang Gui were finally gagged and taken away.

Lu Wenhuan knew it was time to go see Fang Hui, who was seriously injured.

But I don't want to go.

He couldn't blame Fang Hui. The other party was recommended by his eldest brother and had friendship with Ping Zhanggong. Although he acted on his own initiative, the things he did were indeed more in line with the wishes of his eldest brother and Ping Zhanggong...

Thinking about it this way, although Lu Wenhuan considers himself a famous general, compared with the two militiamen, how fierce is this so-called famous general?

Being in charge of the lives and deaths of tens of thousands of people, one should be strong-willed and decisive... Lu Wenhuan understood the truth.

But in practice, it's really not as good as two militiamen.

He thought about it and finally waved his hand and gave another instruction.

It's still dark.

"puff."

Zhang Gui untied the rope from his hand, took the rag from his mouth, took a sip, and immediately went to untie Zhang Shun's rope.

"You can't even look at us carefully. Brother, let's run away. At daybreak, the general will chop off our heads in public."

"If I don't run away, if I'm afraid of death, I won't do this. Even if I chop off my head, I'll let the brothers know that Fang Hui is not a good person. Otherwise, if he betrayed Prince Li this time, he will do so next time

Our brothers."
To be continued...