Hearing Ximen Qing's words, Hu Cheng's face darkened. His sister had been away from home for many days, and there was no news. He was worried about her safety every day. He now regrets his engagement with Ximen Qing.
Ximen Qing has been urging him to meet Hu Sanniang. Generally speaking, in the homes of those officials and scholar-bureaucrats, men and women must not meet before they get married. However, Ximen Qing is only a wealthy man in Yanggu County, and his Hu family is not.
He's just a landlord in Dulonggang. A family like theirs doesn't pay much attention to it. If the man keeps asking, then it's not impossible for the man and woman to meet before marriage.
But Hu Sanniang had already run away from home, so Hu Cheng had no choice but to refuse every time. Today he said again: "My little sister is feeling unwell and has fallen asleep."
Ximen Qing was a little suspicious and said: "Brother Hu, every time I come here and want to see my sister, my brother always says that she is unwell... Could it be that there is something wrong with your sister's health? But she has tuberculosis or other diseases.
?”
Hu Cheng was taken aback and said: "How is this possible? My little sister is indeed fine, don't worry."
Ximen Qing said: "In that case, I will come to deliver the betrothal gift next month and we will set the wedding date. What do you think?"
Hu Cheng had a troubled look on his face, but when Ximen Qing stared at him, he finally gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! Let's do it then!"
While he agreed, his mind was racing, thinking about how to deal with it. In a moment, there was a layer of sweat on his forehead.
Ximen Qing looked at Hu Cheng with strange eyes and said, "Brother, what's wrong? Are you sweating so much?"
Hu Cheng casually said: "It's hot."
After saying this, Hu Cheng realized something was wrong. It was still early February, and the weather was still cold. He would have been sweating due to the heat, and the way Ximen Qing looked at Hu Cheng was even more strange.
Hu Cheng hurriedly explained: "I just ran around with General Han, and I sweated a lot."
Ximen Qing stopped asking questions, but his suspicions became more and more intense.
At this moment, Hu Cheng suddenly felt something in his heart and said: "Yes!"
Ximen Qing asked: "What's the matter?"
Hu Chengdao: "Well..."
In fact, he has a way to deal with Ximen Qing. When the time comes, he will just accept Ximen Qing's betrothal gift and then discuss the wedding date. It would be best if the younger sister comes back before the wedding date. If the younger sister doesn't come back, then he can just find someone from a poor family.
A strange woman, whom she recognized as her adopted sister, was married to Ximen Qing. Anyway, Ximen Qing had never met Hu Sanniang and would not recognize her when the time came.
He was overjoyed, but Ximen Qing felt that everything about Hu Cheng was weird. That night, Ximen Qing stayed at Hujiazhuang, secretly inquiring about the situation in Hujiazhuang.
******
Wu Dong had already left Hedong at this moment, heading east and arriving in Hebei.
Hu Sanniang, Cao Zheng, Dai Zong, Li Jun and others all followed Wu Dong. They pretended to be a caravan, holding forged road guides in their hands. They used money to clear the way without encountering any obstacles.
Everyone was riding on their horses. Hu Sanniang was riding one of those Zhaoye Jade Lion Horses. She tilted her head and looked at Wu Dong and said, "Husband, what are you thinking about?"
Wu Dong said: "I'm wondering why the Western Army is so strong."
After hearing this, everyone couldn't help but become interested, and they all listened to Wu Dong's words.
Wu Dong said: "The reason why the Western Army is strong is probably because of nepotism."
"Ah!" Hu Sanniang said in disbelief: "Nepotism? Can this also make an army strong?"
Wu Dong smiled and said: "If it were in other dynasties, of course it wouldn't work. But in my Song Dynasty, this can actually cultivate a strong army."
Since contacting the northwest troops and horses last winter, Wu Dong has been thinking about the reason why the northwest troops and horses are so powerful. The Western Army was the only army capable of fighting in the late Northern Song Dynasty. Later, whether it was Square La, the alliance with Jin to conquer Liao, or
To deal with the Jin people, all Western troops were used.
In Wu Dong's opinion, "nepotism" is a major reason why the Western Army is strong.
I only heard Wu Dong say: "Our dynasty has become corrupt, and the rest of the army has soldiers who don't know the generals, and the generals don't know the soldiers. But this is not the case for the Western Army. The generals of the Western Army are passed down from father to son, generation after generation, and so do their soldiers and horses.
The father passes it on to his son, and the son passes it on to his grandson. As time goes by, the army becomes the general's private army. Naturally, there is no problem of soldiers not knowing the general, and generals not knowing the soldiers."
In a sense, the Western Army belonged to the warlords of the Song Dynasty. The army was the private property of the generals, and the generals naturally managed it carefully, which was naturally different from other places.
The most famous one in the Western Army now is the Zhong family. Starting from Zhong Shiheng and ending with Zhongshi Dao, this generation of Zhongshi has been around for hundreds of years. In addition to the Zhong family, there are also famous generals from the Zhe family.
The inheritance of the family goes back even further, almost throughout the entire history of the Song Dynasty. In addition to the Zhong family and the Zhe family, the Yang family, which is more famous in history, actually belongs to the Western Army system. The Yang family was originally from Hedong, and later guarded the northwest.
It has been passed down from generation to generation. However, the Yang family has declined, and in Yang Zhi's generation, he was only a minor official. Later generations only called Yang Zhi a "Kansai Swordsman".
In addition to these senior generals, mid-level generals are also passed down from generation to generation, and lower-level soldiers are also passed down from generation to generation.
For example, in the Zhong family, maybe the father was a soldier under the old Zhong Jinglue Xianggong, and when the son was born, he became a soldier under the small Zhong Jinglue Xianggong, and when the grandson was born, he was a soldier under the little Xiaozhong.
Although such a private army system cannot create a truly strong army, the strength of the army cannot be too weak.
Li Jundao: "The Governor is right. This is indeed one of the reasons why the Western Army is strong. However, although the Western Army is strong, it bullies and humiliates the people, which is much more hated than the army in the mainland."
"Oh?" Wu Dong was stunned. This was the first time he heard this statement and said, "Is there anything else?"
At this time, Dai Zong, Zhang Heng, Tong Wei, Tong Meng and others nodded, indicating that Li Jun was right.
These people have stayed in Shaohua Mountain for a period of time and have a strong understanding of the style of the Western Army and what their virtues are.
Historically, the Western Army was ordered to attack Fang La. Because of the disorder, the people's fear of the Western Army was far greater than the fear of Fang La's rebellious army.
In fact, this is far from a drawback of the ancient private army system. In order to maintain the enthusiasm of soldiers, looting to a certain extent must be allowed, otherwise the soldiers will have no morale. In the late Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan formed a private army to quell the rebellion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The same principle applies to allowing his soldiers to loot and rape women after every war. Wherever Zeng Guofan went, "the Zhizhi religion was wiped out without any survivors, and corpses flooded the Yangtze River without flowing away." Everyone, men, women, old and young, was killed.
Killing was regarded as a military achievement. At that time, the people's fear of Zeng Guofan's army was far greater than their fear of the Taiping rebellion.
Wu Dong discussed the Western Army with everyone. He felt more and more that the military system of the Song Dynasty was a "wonder". The Central Army stationed in Bianliang was vulnerable. On the contrary, the private army passed down from father to son like Northwest became the most powerful in the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, the Western Army in Ping La was okay, and it was indeed effective in resisting Xixia. It seemed to be very powerful. But in the end, the Song Dynasty allied with the Jin Dynasty to fight against the Liao Dynasty, and Tong Guan led the Western Army to conquer the Liao Dynasty. The Western Army was vulnerable to the Liao people. Again
Later, when the Jin people came, the Western Army was vulnerable to the Jin people. It can be seen that this strength is fake.
Everyone pointed out the country all the way, and soon they came to Shandong. That day, they were eating in a tavern. A waiter said a few words in Cao Zheng's ear and handed a piece of paper to Cao Zheng. Cao Zheng handed the piece of paper to Cao Zheng.
The paper was handed over to Wu Dong.
After Wu Dong saw this piece of paper, he was stunned for a moment, and then he couldn't help laughing.
"Grand Governor, what's going on?" Cao Zheng asked.
In fact, Cao is the highest intelligence leader in the mainland, and this tavern is also part of the intelligence department. But now that Wu Dong is here, he can only hand over the intelligence to Wu Dong, and naturally he does not dare to read it in advance.
Wu Dong said: "It's like this. There is a northwest general named Han Shizhong who intercepts and kills us in Yanggu County ahead."
"Han Shizhong?" Everyone was stunned. They had never heard of this man.
Li Jun said: "Grand Governor, how many troops does he have?"
Wu Dong said: "There are about a thousand people."
Li Jun said: "How about we go around from Yanggu County?"
Wu Dong smiled and said: "No, we will pass through Yanggu County!"
The more he thought about it, the funnier he became. Han Shizhong was actually stationed in Dulonggang! If it were in other places, Wu Dong would really have to take a detour to be on the safe side. But in Dulonggang, that was Liang Shanbo's territory, and he had to deal with Han Shizhong
It couldn't be simpler.
He could capture Han Shizhong without even using a single soldier.
"Han Shizhong, this is a famous general in future generations. Even his wife Liang Hongyu is a famous general. Now I have to deal with the Koreans, and in the future I will also deal with the Liao and Jin people. I am short of generals. This is really sleepy. Someone sent me.
Pillow, such a famous general sent it to me by himself, I can't let it go!" Wu Dong laughed again.