At this moment, a little head poked its head outside the door. After seeing a strange man in the room, it quickly retracted its head.
After a long time, the little head stuck out from behind the door again and whispered to the young man in yellow: "Have you seen Brother Lin'er?"
It was a girl with two pigtails, about seven or eight years old, a little thin, wearing a gold collar on her wrist with three small bells hanging on it.
The young man in yellow didn't say anything, he just pointed in the direction of the bottom of the table.
The little girl was Xu's daughter Xiaoqi. She smiled knowingly and shouted to the table: "Brother Lin'er, come out quickly, I see you!"
"I'm not coming out!" Han Lin'er's voice came from under the table.
Xiao Qi said: "Aunt Yang will definitely test your homework tomorrow. If you don't memorize it today, you will be beaten again tomorrow!"
After a long while, Han Lin'er finally reluctantly got out from under the table and said angrily: "Why don't you have to memorize the homework and only let me do it alone!"
Xiao Qi said: "Because I am a woman, Brother Xiaobao is not the same as you, I have to do my homework!"
Han Lin'er muttered: "It's really unfair. Why shouldn't women have to do their homework? If I had known this, I would have been a woman when I was still in the womb!"
With that said, the two children held hands and left the room together.
The young man in yellow sighed and murmured to himself: "Mrs. Ming Wang may be right to let this child live an ordinary life. I hope Mr. Zhang will not be persuaded by the military advisor!"
Two quarters of an hour later, footsteps sounded outside the door again.
This time the footsteps were low and powerful. The young man in yellow stood up slowly and looked at the door quietly.
Not long after, a burly man appeared at the door.
Li Er stopped at the door and looked at the man in yellow in disbelief. There was a trace of tears in his eyes, and he said in a voiceless voice: "Fu Youde! Brother Fu! It's you! You...are you still alive?!"<
/p>
Fu Youde also shed tears in his eyes and said with a smile: "When the city was destroyed that day, I fell into the water and was lucky enough to save my life."
Li Er couldn't help being happy and ran over to hug Fu Youde.
After a long time, he let go of his hand, pulled Fu Youde, and laughed and said: "Let's go have a drink! Haha, you are still alive. It seems that God has finally shown mercy to me!"
Fu Youde was also filled with emotion and silently followed Li Er to the study room.
Li Er ordered the housekeeper to take out the good wine stored in the wine cellar, and set up a stove in the study. The two of them were heating the wine. You drank one cup at a time and I drank several cups at a time, feeling as if you were in another world.
Although Li Er gradually cheered up after being massacred in Xuzhou, he still couldn't bear to think about the red scarf brothers and people who were massacred because of him.
Now that I have met Fu Youde, who is lucky enough to be alive, I can no longer bear the guilt and self-blame hidden in my heart.
"Brother Fu, it was my incompetence that killed so many good brothers who followed me. I really deserve to die!"
Fu Youde sighed: "The commander-in-chief does not need to blame himself. How can he drive away the Mongols without bloodshed?"
Li Er punished himself with three drinks and slowly calmed down, saying: "Tell me quickly, where did you go after the Battle of Xuzhou? Why didn't you come to me earlier?"
Fu Youde said: "After I fell into the water, I floated all the way to Zaozhuang and was rescued by a woman. She was the daughter of a wealthy family in Zaozhuang. I was depressed at the time, so I married into their family."
Li Er was silent. He could best understand Fu Youde's despair at that time. If it weren't for Li Jiu, he himself would have become a monk long ago!
Fu Youde continued: "I lived in Zaozhuang for a few months and gradually recovered. I heard that Li Xixi was recruiting troops in Suzhou under the banner of the Red Scarf Army, so I went over to join him. He knew that I was your subordinate and promoted me to the rank of Qianfu
Long."
Li Xixi is the leader of the Hebei Uprising Army. Like Li Er, he was one of the Red Turbans who responded to Liu Futong's uprising.
However, he only occupies one or two small county towns, so he is not very famous. Many people have not even heard of him.
Fu Youde said: "Later, after Liu Futong occupied Anfeng, he sent people to recruit the leaders of the Red Scarf Army and gathered in Anfeng to discuss the plan. I followed Li Xixi to Anfeng."
Li Er said with emotion: "According to what you say, Liu Futong was not trapped by Chahan Timur in Anfeng, but was quietly expanding his strength?"
Fu Youde said: "Yes. This is Du Zundao's plan. He said that the Yuan army should focus on Xu Shouhui in the south, while the Northern army took the opportunity to accumulate strength!"
Li Er laughed and said: "Okay! I knew Liu Futong would not lose to Chahan Timur so easily!"
Fu Youde solemnly said: "Having said that, Chahan Timur is indeed a strong enemy. He was the first to notice the purpose of the Northern Army and repeatedly requested the court to increase troops. Unfortunately, it was not taken seriously."
Li Er quickly asked: "How many people does Liu Futong have now?"
Fu Youde said: "In the past year, he has merged more than a dozen Red Scarf Army forces, such as Li Xixi, Guan Duo, Bai Buxin, etc., and it has expanded to 150,000 troops. If it were not for the shortage of food and grass, it would not be difficult to exceed 200,000.
”
Li Eryi slapped the table and said: "Great! Xu Shouhui's capital Qizhou has been captured. Does the Northern Army plan to take action?"
Fu Youde shook his head and said: "The Northern Army currently has two problems that need to be solved urgently!"
"What two questions?"
"The first is Chahan Timur and Li Siqi. These two people are always on guard against the Northern Army, and they have been expanding their army and building fortifications. They currently have 100,000 troops, blocking all the advancing routes of the Northern Army!"<
/p>
Li Er smiled and said: "I heard that Chahan Timur has been transferred to Xuzhou!"
Fu Youde smiled slightly and said: "Yes, so the first problem has been solved, Liu Futong sent Du Zundao to Jiangdu to deal with the second problem!"
Li Er frowned and said: "Is the second question related to Jiang Dujun?"
Fu Youde nodded and said silently: "You should know what Liu Futong and Du Zundao want most!"
Li Er's expression changed slightly and he said: "They want to take away Yang Ying and Lin'er!"
Fu Youde said: "As the saying goes, if the name is not correct, the words will not be correct. Although the Jiangbei Red Scarf Army is powerful, it has no leader. Although Liu Futong has prestige, he is not the Ming King after all, and there are still many people who are dissatisfied with him!"
Li Er took a deep breath and said: "So they want to welcome Lin'er as the emperor?"
"This is the best way at the moment!" Fu Youde said: "Only when Han Lin'er becomes the emperor, can we unify the orders. At that time, the Northern Army will attack from multiple sides and completely defeat Yuan Ting!"
Li Er was silent for a while and said: "Yang Ying is the wife of a senior general of our Jiangdu Army. Even if Liu Futong and Du Zundao want to take her mother and son away, the manager will not agree."
Fu Youde said seriously: "They also know that without Manager Zhang's nod, they can't take Han Lin'er away, so Liu Futong asked Du Zundao to personally go out and persuade Manager Zhang!"
Li Er fell into silence.
Fu Youde said: "Do you think Manager Zhang will be persuaded by Du Zundao?"
Li Er silently drank a bowl of wine, wiped the corners of his mouth, and said with a wry smile: "The person I can't understand the most in this world is Mr. Zhang. His thoughts and actions are always beyond people's imagination. I really don't want to guess him."
Thoughts!"
Fu Youde laughed and said: "When you say that, I am very curious about Manager Zhang. Is it because of this reason that you are willing to work for him?"
Li Er touched his temples and said with a smile: "The reason is more complicated, but it can be considered part of it. Many of Jiangdu's novelty gadgets were created by Manager Zhang. You will understand after you stay for a while!" p>
Fu Youde smiled and said: "For example, the amazingly powerful gunpowder?"
Li Er was stunned and said: "You know?"
Fu Youde smiled and said: "This is no longer a secret. The Battle of Tongzhou shocked the world. Which rebel army would not send someone to understand the situation?"
Li Er said solemnly: "No wonder so many rebel leaders sent envoys to congratulate the general manager on his wedding. It seems that they all came for the gunpowder!"
That night, Li Er and Fu Youde were very drunk. When they got up the next day, they only felt a splitting headache. They drank a cup of sobering tea and felt better.
Li Er wanted to lure Fu Youde to see Zhang Yangquan. Fu Youde smiled and said: "Today is the wedding day of Manager Zhang. How can I bother you? I'd better go tomorrow!"
Li Er also thought it was reasonable and asked Fu Youde to stay at home.
Because today is a wedding, the military camp will have a day off.
The marriage process was jointly formulated by Guo Niansheng, He Taigong and Wang Meng, and the three were also appointed as ambassadors for the wedding.
The three people originally wanted to hold this wedding according to the standards of princes, princes and ministers. Under Zhang Yangquan's instruction, many tedious processes were simplified a lot.
The rituals of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, accepting gifts, asking for names, accepting gifts, collecting taxes, and reporting have all been completed a month ago, and the ritual of reporting to the temple has also been completed.
According to the procedure, Guo Niansheng and the others will go to Longtan Village this morning with jewelry and phoenix crowns and harems to read out the inscription on the canonization of the wife of the general manager. Then they will take Qin Lingjun to the general manager's mansion and accept the salutations from the officials of the general manager's mansion together with Zhang Yangquan.
Judging from the time, Qin Lingjun is expected to arrive at the General Manager's Mansion in the afternoon. Guo Niansheng's order to the civil and military officials is that they must wait at the General Manager's Mansion before that time.
So throughout the morning, Li Er didn't have anything to do.
So, he decided to accompany Fu Youde for a morning stroll in the city. Unexpectedly, as soon as he left the house, news came from thousands of households under his command that Zhao Desheng was back.
Li Er was concerned about the war situation in Haozhou, so he asked Fu Youde to wait for him at home and headed towards the military camp.