() The Xixia officers and soldiers had no choice but to surrender unconditionally as Su Jin said. Seeing that His Highness the Crown Prince, who had vowed to take five bloody steps and die generously, took the initiative to dismount and accept the surrender, the soldiers did not have any morale.
But Mingming had some courage, so he suddenly hit his horse and ran away to the wilderness under the official road. The leader of the dynasty took it back without any effort. Su Jintie had a livid face and ordered his men to kill him in front of the surrendering troops.
Zang Ming chopped off his head to show the fate of the Xixia soldiers who tried to escape.
Everyone stood and waited for the arrival of the large group of people on the opposite side. It was said to be a large group of people, but in fact it was only a group of more than a thousand people, and most of them were infantry. Under the leader's banner with the word "Fan", an old man sat on a black horse.
The man's face is dark and thin, with sunken cheeks. His face is covered with wrinkles like knives and axes. The temples exposed under the iron helmet are also white with snow and frost. He looks like he is overworked.
But his eyes were sparkling, looking smart and capable.
Di Qing hurriedly pulled Su Jin forward to greet him. Su Jin knew that this was the famous Fan Zhongyan. At this time, Fan Zhongyan had been promoted to the post of Yongxing Military Road Manager to appease the border recruiters. In fact, Yongxing Military Road was already in
After the defeat of Haoshuichuan in October last year, it was divided into two branches: Huanqing and Fuyan. Fan Zhongyan originally knew Qingzhou, but after Yanzhou Pang was transferred to the capital later that year, Fan Zhongyan was actually the Huanqing and Fuyan branches.
He became the top military and administrative leader of the two routes.
"Your Majesty, Su Jin, would like to say hello to Mr. Fan." Su Jin bowed and stood in front of Fan Zhongyan's horse and saluted with his hands raised. Su Jin respected Fan Zhongyan very much. Although he had never met Fan Zhongyan, since he read his sentence in later generations,
After the famous saying "worry before the world's worries, and rejoice after the world's happiness", Su Jin had a feeling of admiration for Fan Zhongyan.
Fan Zhongyan turned over and dismounted, stepped forward quickly, raised his hands in return, and said with a smile: "Is this Master Su Jinsu? He has been famous for a long time. When I saw him today, he turned out to be a handsome young man. I didn't believe it when I heard the rumors, but now I completely believe it.
Already."
Su Jin hurriedly said: "How dare you? Su Jin is young and is not very mature in words and deeds. I hope you will be given more support by adults."
Fan Zhongyan laughed loudly and said: "What a clever mouth. He deserves to be the top scholar in his undergraduate degree. This is the strength of both internal and external cultivation."
Su Jin smiled and said: "Fan Gong praised me so much that I feel ashamed to deserve it."
Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Why don't you dare to take it? Just seeing you come to the northwest for the first battle, you have already shocked everyone. Speaking of this battle, I also want to apologize to Mr. Su. It was originally agreed that we would lead the army within an hour.
We rushed for help, but things changed and the rescue came late, which really shouldn't have happened."
Su Jin smiled and said: "Why did Mr. Fan say this? There must be something that has to delay the delay, so I can save it." Fan Zhongyan said: "Yes, when I came with five thousand troops to respond, I suddenly received an urgent report from Qingzhou.
, there are more than 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Western bandits who seem to be trying to attack Mulangzhai in the north of Gyeongju. Mulangzhai is a fortress in the north of Gyeongju. There are only 2,000 troops stationed there. Gyeongju’s soldiers and horses cannot all go to help to prevent the enemy.
The army planned to mobilize the tigers from the mountains to attack Qingzhou, so they could only send three thousand troops from Qingzhou to rescue them. Seeing that the situation was critical, I had no choice but to take five thousand soldiers and horses along the way to reinforce Mulangzhai. Fortunately, I led the people to where they were, and the Western Thieves
More than 10,000 troops were indeed preparing to attack Mulang Village, but they retreated when reinforcements arrived."
Su Jin said: "I see, but your Excellency can only leave more than 3,000 soldiers and horses to prevent the Western bandits from attacking again, so I personally led more than 1,000 soldiers and horses to rescue Xianguan."
Fan Zhongyan laughed loudly and said: "That's right. I was worried that you wouldn't be able to stop me along the way. If something goes wrong, I'll be the one to blame. But I didn't expect that you actually defeated the enemy with 1,500 horse infantry."
There are three thousand elite cavalry, which is simply unbelievable."
Su Jin smiled and said nothing, and Di Qing was the first to tell the story of the battle. Di Qing never added any exaggeration to his words, but even so, the splendor and intensity of the panchang battle throughout the morning still made Fan Zhongyan click his tongue and stare.
After listening, Fan Zhongyan's eyes changed when he looked at Su Jin, especially when Su Jin lured and killed two hundred enemy soldiers and used the mad cow and mad mule formation to fight against the enemy's Crazy Horse formation. It was a classic, and in such a short time
Being able to come up with a way to deal with this shows that this person has real skills.
Originally, Fan Zhongyan looked down upon Su Jin. After receiving Yan Shu's private letter to him, Fan Zhongyan became even more dissatisfied with Su Jin. He believed that Su Jin's purpose in marrying the daughter of the Yan family must be to gain wealth. As for the title of No. 1 Scholar, Fan Zhongyan believed that Su Jin would definitely win the title of No. 1 Scholar.
It was Yan Shu who exerted influence in front of the emperor, but after the real battle, his view of Su Jin completely changed. Even if he personally commanded it, he might not be able to fight such a beautiful battle.
When he learned that the leader of the enemy army was Li Ningming, the son of Li Yuanhao, the rebel leader of the Western Bandits, Fan Zhongyan laughed loudly and said repeatedly: "Master Su is a blessed general. He has fought against the Western Bandits for three or four years. This
He is the biggest official captured, the Prince of Xixia, hahaha, if this matter is reported to the capital, the whole court will be extremely happy, and Li Yuanhao will be furious in Xingqing Mansion."
Everyone burst out laughing, and Fan Zhongyan ordered them to stay where they were and rest. The soldiers were busy chasing and rushing, and they didn't even eat lunch. They were cooking pots on the official road, eating, drinking and resting. Fan Zhongyan made an exception and allowed everyone to drink some rice wine at noon.
, to celebrate this great victory.
At the dinner table, Fan Zhongyan raised a glass to congratulate Su Jin, and claimed that he would escort the battle and the captured Li Ningming to Qunjing City as soon as possible to report the victory and ask for credit for Su Jin.
Su Jin hurriedly said: "Xiaguan came to the northwest for the first time, and he didn't even enter Weizhou City. He hasn't settled down yet. I don't know how many things need to be taken care of in the future, but I didn't expect the reward.
If there is any deviation, if there is any merit, please ask Mr. Fan to keep it there first, so that if there is any fault in the future, I can use the merit to offset it."
Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Interesting, interesting, nip in the bud. This is the handiwork of the old fox. Did your uncle teach you? When you first entered officialdom, you knew how to leave a way out for yourself."
Su Jin smiled and said, "It's not easy to get around in this place in the northwest. I heard that even Mr. Fan and Han Shuai almost fell into trouble, let alone a mere one."
Fan Zhongyan laughed dumbly and sighed: "That's not necessarily the case. The wonders of the world are sometimes unbelievable. Those who want to do real things have a hard time getting along, while those who do things perfunctorily get along well. Don't you think it's strange?"
Su Jin chuckled and refused to point it out. Of course he understood what Fan Zhongyan meant. Xia Song Pangji made his fortune in the northwest. He lost a lot of money in the battle, but it did not affect his promotion and wealth, and he went straight to the central government. He heard the bitterness in Fan Zhongyan's tone.
In a rage, Su Jin also felt deeply sorry for Fan Zhongyan. It's not that some people don't understand how to get promoted, they actually know it better than anyone else, but asking them to do that is killing them because there is a level they can't pass.
, that is your own conscience.
Taking advantage of Fan Zhongyan's happiness, Su Jin quickly proposed to take the captured war horses as his own, and complained loudly: "Mr. Fan, I lost nearly 500 soldiers in this battle, and almost all the livestock were gone. Before heading to Yingying,
I left two hundred soldiers and most of the supplies piled up outside the mountain pass before heading to the mouth of the cliff. These mules and horses were all pulling empty carts to the Eagle's Mouth Cliff, and they were covered with linoleum to hide their eyes from others. These grains and supplies still had to be transported.
When we arrived at the destination, all the livestock were dead and many carts were destroyed. How can I transport these supplies? I would like to ask Mr. Fan to deliver the 800 captured war horses to Xia Guan, but I don’t know what Mr. Fan will do.”
Fan Zhongyan looked at Su Jin and said with a smile: "Master Su, some people say that you like to take advantage of others, but I still don't believe it. It seems that Master Su is going to share the spoils with me."
Su Jin blushed and said: "That's the truth. Otherwise, if the official goes to take office with his own bodyguards, how about waiting for the imperial court to send carriages and horses to pick up and transport these supplies? Anyway, this matter is not the official's.
When it comes to errands, the subordinates are just helping out on a voluntary basis."
Fan Zhongyan said: "You asked for 800 horses in one breath. Do you know how much these 800 horses are worth? Let me tell you, our northwest army has more than 100,000 people, but the number of cavalry with horses is less than 8,000, and most of them are
They are dwarf southern horses. These 800 war horses are good horses in the Western Bandit territory. After being captured, they will be used to expand the cavalry army, but you are going to carry food and supplies, you can't think of it."
Su Jin rolled his eyes and said, "When I get to Weizhou, I can also organize my war horses into the army. What's the contradiction in this?"
Fan Zhongyan said solemnly: "Mr. Su, isn't your five hundred horse army five hundred cavalry? To be honest, the emperor has treated you very well. The five hundred horse army was given to you with such a big deal, did you know that it was given to you?
Did the emperor give me anything when I first became emperor?"
Su Jin said: "What?"
"It's just three bad horses and two green mules!" Fan Zhongyan was quite aggrieved. He was so angry when compared with others. He didn't think anything of it at first, but when he compared with Su Jin, he felt a little uneasy.
"Six hundred, I only want six hundred."
"No, I can give you five hundred soldiers to help you transport supplies, but you must return when you arrive at the location."
"five hundred!"
"No need to talk!"
"Four hundred!"
"no."
Su Jin stood up slowly and said: "Otherwise, Mr. Fan can just give Li Ningming to me, but I won't want any war horses or anything like that."
Fan Zhongyan said: "What do you want to do with Li Ningming? Are you afraid that I will take away your credit? Don't worry, I will report the truth to the court. I want to interrogate Li Ningming to see if I can find out the army deployment and the behavior of the Western bandits.
Plan, and then send someone to escort him to the capital."
Su Jin smiled and said: "Fan Gong misunderstood, I am not afraid that you will take my credit, what is credit? I just do a lot of it, and I haven't seen any benefit from the emperor; I want to use Li Ningming to help me transport
It’s just supplies.”
Fan Zhongyan laughed and scolded: "Nonsense, how can the Prince of Xixia help you transport supplies?"
Su Jin winked and said: "Since you don't give me some horses to pull the cart, I will exchange this Li Ningming with Xixia for war horses. A prince can exchange it for a thousand or eight hundred horses. What do you think, Mr. Fan?"
"
Fan Zhongyan shouted with a stern face: "What nonsense, for such an important person, you actually want to exchange it for a war horse."
Su Jin spread his hands and said: "The prisoner I captured will naturally be dealt with by me. Otherwise, I will escort him to the capital and ask the emperor to allocate several hundred more troops to me. The emperor will definitely agree and I won't have to spend time with Mr. Fan."
This gossiping hurts the harmony."
Fan Zhongyan was so angry and funny, no wonder Yan Shu said in the letter: This guy has a stubborn character, you can tolerate it as much as possible, and don't go against him, lest he do shocking things and make it difficult for everyone to deal with. Now Fan Zhongyan learned the lesson.
Fan Zhongyan suddenly burst into laughter. What kind of war horse was he fighting with this guy? He originally won this battle. He just felt that the cavalry forces of the Fuyan and Huanqing groups were too weak, so he wanted to keep these 800 horses. In fact,
Giving Su Jin doesn't mean that the entire northwest cavalry has 800 more troops, so what's the difference?
The only blame is that the Xia and Liao people regarded horses as forbidden items and would never sell them to the Song Dynasty, which caused a serious shortage of horses in the Song Dynasty. I was deeply worried about this, so I felt that horses were particularly precious.
Thinking of this, Fan Zhongyan laughed and said: "Forget it, I'll give you the eight hundred war horses. Mr. Su, the new official has taken office, and he really has a bad temper."
Su Jin smiled and said: "How dare you have any temper in front of Mr. Fan? Isn't this just a discussion with you? People respect me as much as I respect others. Mr. Fan is open-minded and generous, and even the lower officials have to respect Mr. Fan."
Face; I only need four hundred war horses, and the remaining four hundred can be regarded as a meeting gift for Mr. Fan. All the armor, materials and equipment captured in this battle will be given to Mr. Fan as a gift, and I will not use them next time."
Fan Zhongyan chuckled and said: "Thank you so much. In order to repay Mr. Su's generosity, I have ordered people to help you send food to Qinzhou. As for the food supplies on the Yanyan and Huanqing roads, I have ordered Di Qing to pick them up with you. Now
It saves you from taking a detour to Qingzhou, so just go east and go straight to Qinzhou."
Su Jin quickly thanked him. It seems that the outside world has spread that Fan Zhongyan is upright and does not know how to adapt. Now it seems that Fan Zhongyan knows how to adapt. The rumors from the outside are really not credible.