: Extremely Hard

The Ming army is really just making a fool of himself, is it really just to lure Korqin people into being deceived?

The answer is of course no. Wang Pu is not making a fool of himself, he is setting up a suspicion array to create conditions and opportunities for the safe escape of the Ming army. They can leave here just by waiting for God to cooperate with him and there will be another heavy snow!

Three days passed quickly.

This was a difficult three days. For the past three days, everyone, including Wang Pu, could only eat dry food on the ice and snow, and could only wrap a blanket to squeeze together to keep warm. But even so, they were still trembling with cold. A secret whistle sent out fell asleep in the snow and ended up being frozen to death.

Mongolia is too cold in winter and cannot make fire. This day is really hard, but no matter how hard they are, they have to endure. Before God snows again, they have to endure it!

Datong.

Zhang Zian finally returned triumphantly with his army.

This time, the dispatch of troops to Mongolia was a great victory. A total of more than 800,000 animals were recovered, including more than 600,000 sheep and goats, more than 50,000 horses, more than 100,000 cattle, and nearly 100,000 camels. If the market price is based on the market price, these animals can be sold for nearly 2 million taels of silver. The owed pay and pensions of the border soldiers and soldiers was deducted, and there was a surplus of more than 1.3 million taels!

Of course, cattle and sheep were counted separately in several batches. Only Zhang Zian knew this number. The soldiers of the border army only knew that they had snatched back many cattle and sheep from outside the border, but none of them knew what the specific number was. Zhang Zian was not going to tell anyone about this number.

After several dreams at midnight, Zhang Zian couldn't believe that this was true!

Before these animals were turned into silver, Zhang Zian began to think about how to deal with this huge amount of silver.

After winning a great victory and looting so many cattle, sheep and animals, the Lord and the ancestors must have a large amount of silver. Zhang Zi'an made a calculation and had to give at least 500,000 taels of silver! There are also border soldiers who went to Mongolia to expedition to Mongolia and each person would have to reward each of them with a few taels of silver. Those deputy generals, guerrillas and generals also had to manage some of them, and they would have to spend about 100,000 taels, which would have left nearly 800,000 taels.

How should I deal with this 800,000 taels of silver be purchased? Should I buy land or buy real estate?

Just as Zhang Zi was happily thinking about spending the 800,000 taels of silver, the little eunuch came in and reported, "Godfather, all the guests you invited were here, waiting in the living room."

"Is that true?" Zhang Zian's eyes narrowed into slits with joy. He said happily, "Are you all here?"

The little eunuch nodded and smiled charmingly: "It's all here."

Zhang Zi'an said: "Don't the Wang family know about this?"

Zhang Zi'an wanted to sell this batch of cattle and sheep to other Shanxi wealthy families without telling the Wang family. The reason was very simple. He didn't want the Wang family to know the specific numbers of the cattle and sheep, especially Wang Pu, because the most contribution of this time was Wang Pu. If Wang Pu knew that he had made so much profit from sending troops to Zhang Zi'an, Zhang Zi'an really couldn't find a reason to refuse.

So, just bypass the Wang family.

"I don't know." said the little eunuch, "My son repeatedly reminded those rich families not to reveal the news to the Wang family."

"Yes." Zhang Zi'an nodded and said, "Well done."

The little eunuch quickly said, "Thank you, godfather for the praise."

"Go." Zhang Zi'an said, "Please invite all the guests to the warm room, and our family will discuss matters with you today."

"Okay."

The little eunuch responded and took the order.

Soon, five middle-aged men entered the warm-up hall under the guidance of the little eunuch. Although these five middle-aged men only wore coarse cloth clothes and looked rustic, they were actually wealthy businessmen in Shanxi. This was all because of the rules set by Emperor Hongwu that merchants could only wear cloth clothes, not silk and satin!

Although the family wealth of these five wealthy Shanxi businessmen is not as good as that of the Wang family, each of them is not a problem to take out hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Zhang Zi'an sat down without getting up, pointed to the chairs beside the stove, and said calmly: "Sit all."

"Thank you, my father-in-law."

Five wealthy Shanxi businessmen thanked Zhang Zi'an with their fists and sat down on the chair with half of their butt.

Zhang Zi'an used fire tongs to pull out the charcoal fire from the stove and said unevenly: "I'll invite you guys today. We have something important to discuss with you."

Five wealthy businessmen from Shanxi looked at each other, and the oldest one said respectfully: "If you have anything, just give me some instructions."

Zhang Zian cleared his throat and said, "I guess you have heard of the military affairs of Mongolia a while ago, right?"

The five wealthy businessmen nodded quickly. Of course they heard about such a big thing. However, they were still unable to figure out the intention of Zhang Zi'an to talk about it for a while, and they didn't dare to answer the words. However, they thought to themselves that if this old castrated man wanted to spread the consumption of the troops on them, there would be no door.

"That's right." Zhang Zi'an continued, "This time he won a big victory and he also captured a large number of animals from Mongolia. Our family wants to sell these animals into silver to reimburse the owed wages to the soldiers of the border. Of course, our family will not let you lose money. Our family can guarantee that they will trade at the market price."

"Oh, so that's it."

"So we want to buy cattle and sheep."

"This is not a problem. The villain was originally a slaughter and made a fortune. This is his old job."

Several Shanxi merchants were relieved. The oldest Shanxi merchant asked: "Dare you ask me, how many animals are there in this batch, how much money do we have to prepare?"

"Not much." Zhang Zian said calmly, "It's about two million taels in total."

"ah!?"

"Two...two million taels!?"

Five Shanxi businessmen took a breath when they heard this, and they were all stunned.

"What?" Zhang Zi'an pulled his face down and said in a dark voice, "Each of your family has assets of more than one million. If you each pays 400,000 taels of silver, is there still a difficulty?"

Several Shanxi merchants complained: "Father-in-law, if you sold our cattle and sheep half a month earlier, each family would be 500,000 taels. We could afford 600,000 taels, but now it's not done."

Zhang Zian asked in a dark voice: "Why can't it be done now?"

The oldest Shanxi businessman replied: "Sometimes ago, the Wang family suddenly sold their real estate in Shanxi. Once our five families gathered a total of 2 million taels of cash and sold all the Wang family's industries in Shanxi. Now the whole of Shanxi is in the Wang family's bank warehouse, and our families have not much cash."

"What?" Zhang Zi'an said in surprise, "There is still this?"

"Not that."

"Father-in-law. It's not that villains don't want to buy it. I really don't have so much money in my hand for the time being."

"It's really impossible to get two million at a time. Otherwise, our five families will raise 200,000 taels of silver first and buy some of the cattle and sheep in the land of my father-in-law first?"

Zhang Zian was a little disbelief: "Did you really take over all the industries of the Wang family?"

"Of course it's true." The five merchants responded in unison, "Except for the Wang family's courtyard, we have taken over all the industries in Shanxi."

"It's weird." Zhang Zi'an wondered, "What's the matter with the Wang family? They've sold all their industries, are they going to live?"

Five Shanxi businessmen asked in a low voice: "Father-in-law, you see the matter of buying animals..."

Zhang Zian came back to his senses and said angrily: "You go back and get the money first, and you can get as much as you can."

"yes."

Five Shanxi merchants responded and turned around and left.

Sanbulachuan.

In a blink of an eye, two more days passed, and it was still not snowing. The people of Korqin were very honest and did not send anyone to go up the mountain to attack. It seemed that they were afraid of being bombed by the Dragon King Cannon, so they acted like they were defending the Nanshan Mountain to the death, and were determined to trap the Ming army on the mountain!

Of course, the people of Korqin would send patrol soldiers from time to time to prevent the Ming army from actually climbing the cliff and running away.

As time goes by, the situation on the mountain is getting worse and worse.

Because they could not eat hot food for a long time, the soldiers could only eat dry food on ice and snow. Many soldiers' bodies were already in trouble. Uneasiness and restlessness began to spread in various tents. Wang Pu also gnawed dry food on ice and snow like the soldiers. He felt that both physically and mentally were approaching the limit.

It is really an inhuman thing to hold on to such a snowy place!

There is no entertainment, no sound, no heating, nothing, the soldiers can only squeeze in the low and dark tent, stare at each other, eat dry food when hungry, and dig snow when thirsty! The whole world seems to be stagnant, and what's worse is that everyone except Wang Pu, no one knows why they are like this? When will they continue?

If someone else had been to lead the troops, these people would have been mutiny long ago!

This is a test of endurance, this is a tempering of spiritual power. The enemies of the Ming soldiers are either others or themselves. They must overcome difficulties that ordinary people cannot imagine with superhuman perseverance. They must endure this cold, lonely, boring, and even more terrifying than death...

On the fifth day, the people of Korqin could not help it anymore. They sent five hundred people again to try to go up the mountain overnight to attack, but were bombarded by the Ming army's Dragon King's cannon. The Ming soldiers who finally caught the opportunity vented all their resentment on the heads of this group of unlucky Korqin people.

The Korqin people threw down more than 200 bodies on the mountain again, and then became honest again.

However, on the sixth night, things finally turned around. Damn God finally snowed again, and the opportunity finally came...

It was night, and the sky was particularly dark.

Wang Pu asked his personal soldiers to wake up the brothers who were sleeping in various tents one by one, and then quietly touched the edge of the cliff in the north. Sixty fixed hemp ropes hung down from the cliff. Wang Pu gave the order, and the soldiers who dreamed of leaving here climbed down the cliff along the hemp ropes.

As for the war horses on the mountain, they would throw them away as soon as they were told. As long as the brothers can go back alive, aren’t there still many war horses?

Originally, Wang Pu didn't want to leave these nearly 10,000 war horses to the Korqin people, but first, killing horses will inevitably cause noise and make people suspicious. Secondly, the heavy snow falls as soon as possible, and time is too tight, so it takes a lot of time to kill all of these nearly 10,000 war horses, so I have to give up.

In less than two hours, more than 2,700 soldiers all got down the cliff.

As Wang Pu expected, the people of Korqin did not think that the Ming army would climb the cliff and escape, so the patrol soldiers sent were very unemployed. Except for going around twice during the day, they would not come out at night.

In fact, the people of Korqin hope that the Ming army would climb the cliff and escape. Climbing and running means that the Ming army had to abandon all war horses. Then they marched in the snow and ice. If the Ming army really did this, they would only be left to slaughter. On the grassland, the legs of people and land will never run away from the four legs of horse land!

However, the cunning Wang Pu obviously would not leave such an opportunity to the Korqin people. He had already calculated everything!

The scar face and bearded man who fell on the last, took back all the fifty-nine ropes on the mountain, and the remaining rope was cut in half at the cliff entrance. After the two of them reached the foot of the mountain, more than a dozen brothers pulled the last rope off with all their strength. In this way, even if the patrol cavalry of the Korqin people turned to the north of the mountain tomorrow, they would not find any traces.

As for the footprints left on the ground, Wang Pu was prepared for a long time and specially arranged for a bearded man to lead fifty people to break the back. After the team of people left, they carried snow from nearby to cover up the footprints and marks on the ground as much as possible. It was still snowing heavily in the sky. In this way, by tomorrow morning, all the marks would be covered up completely!

However, this is not the most powerful thing. The most powerful thing is that the suffering suffered by the soldiers of the Ming army six days ago finally came at a price!

In the past six days, the Ming army on the mountain had neither fire nor noise. They had been hiding in the tent and not coming out. The whole mountain looked like no one, so even if the Ming soldiers on the mountain had really been exposed, the Korqin people at the foot of the mountain still knew nothing!

What's more, the Korqin people had just sent troops to test last night, and they would not send people to die in a short period of time.

Four hours later, a trace of white fish belly appeared in the eastern sky. At this time, the heavy snow was falling tightly. Only a little shallow trace of the Ming army soldiers left under the cliff in the north. If the patrol soldiers of the Korqin people could come out to patrol at this time, they might find some clues.

If the patrol soldiers of the Korqin people really found clues, then Wang Pu and the others would definitely be finished!

Twenty-four thousand Korchin cavalry chased over 2,700 Ming cavalry without war horses on the ice and snow. You can think of it with your toes and you can tell what the result will be.

Yes. In history, Li Ling once repelled more than 100,000 Hun cavalry with 5,000 infantry. The military strength at that time seemed even more disparate, but there were prerequisites. Li Ling's five,000 army was real infantry, with swords, shields, spearmen, archers, sufficient supplies, and enough arrows. Therefore, the five,000 Han troops could attack the Hun cavalry again and again, making the arrogant Hun Chanyu sigh to the sky.

But the more than 2,700 people under Wang Pu were not real infantrymen. They were light cavalry who had dismounted horses. They had no supplies. Although they had muskets that were more powerful than bows and arrows, there was nothing left in ammunition and the Dragon King cannons left. Moreover, the climatic conditions facing Wang Pu and others were even more harsh and unimaginable!

In short, if the Korqin people were allowed to discover traces, Wang Pu and the others would definitely not be spared.

Fortunately, the Korqin people and patrol soldiers did not appear until noon. At this time, all traces of the land had been completely covered by heavy snow, and Wang Pu and his more than 2,700 people had already disappeared from the vast snowfield. However, what is puzzling is that Wang Pu and the others did not flee south, but instead headed northwest.

Five days later, when the Korqin people sent a team of troops to launch a tentative attack on the mountain, they were shocked to find that there was no one on the mountain!

At this time, Wang Pu's men were already more than 200 miles away!

Of course, the Korqin people were unwilling to give up the fat meat that had reached their mouths and sent a large number of scouts to try to find some clues from the snow and ice, but this was futile, because after the Ming army left, there were three heavy snowfalls in a row. The Korqin people could no longer find any subtle clues. Helplessly, they could only divide more than 20,000 cavalry into three teams and searched and advanced towards the three directions of Juerhai, Yanyehai and Chahanhai.

Wang Pu's cunning saved the fate of this army again.

The people of Korqin thought that the Ming army would definitely flee to the south, but they never expected that they would turn around and flee to the northwest. In the next ten days, three teams of Korqin cavalry chased the border of the Ming Dynasty one after another, but did not dare to go south again, so they had to return to Sanbulachuan empty-handed and then scattered into their own tribes.

At this time, Wang Pu and his army had crossed the Syramulun River and walked to the foot of Yinshan Mountain.

The 15-day march was an arduous march. Many brave veterans did not die on the battlefield or under the Mongol scimitar, but were frozen to death because they were afraid of being discovered, so they did not dare to raise fire. The only few tents could only be used to protect the wounded soldiers who needed the most from the cold, and more people could only squeeze together to keep warm with their body temperature.

As a result, when someone wakes up in the morning, when someone reaches out to push his companion, he finds that he has already frozen into an ice sculpture!

The cold is not the only enemy of Wang Pu and others. Following the cold, hunger is also attacking them.

Wang Pu originally asked someone to prepare dry food for half a month, but he waited in the mountain for five days, so he had only ten days left when he set off. No matter how much he saved, he only had enough to eat five days. Now, the dry food is almost gone, and everyone will have to eat it in the future to fill their hunger.

Along the way, Wang Pu and the others did not encounter a Mongolian camp. Robbing the Mongolians and sacrificing tooth sacrifices became a delusion. This was not entirely because they were unlucky, because of the snow and ice. The Mongolians had long driven cattle, sheep and livestock to winter camps to hide. Most of the Mongolian winter camps were located in the mountains on the edge of the grassland, because the valleys there could shelter and avoid the invasion of blizzards.

As he walked, Wang Pu felt hungry again. He reached out and untied the dry food bag from his shoulder. He took out a piece of hard and cold steamed bun. After thinking about it, he only put a small piece of the petals and stuffed the remaining half into the dry food bag. Then he grabbed a handful of snow and the small half of the steamed bun and stuffed it into his mouth.

A handful of ice and snow suddenly stuffed into his mouth. Wang Pu was so cold that he took a breath, but he had to endure it. He had to use his body temperature to turn the snow into water, and then melt the buns before he could swallow it.

But even if it is such a cold and hard bun, some people can't eat it.

When Wang Pu turned around, he happened to see Lu Liu turn his head and asked vaguely: "Liu. Are you hungry too?"

"Not hungry." Lu Liu quickly shook his head. "The villain just ate steamed buns."

"Is that true?" Wang Pu asked suspiciously, "Your dry food has not been finished yet?"

"No." Lu Liu patted his dry food bag and said, "General, look, it's bulging."

When Wang Pu saw that Lu Liu's dry food bag was indeed half of it, he reached out and touched his dry food bag, and there was still half left. He believed it. He frowned and swallowed the hard and astringent steamed buns into his stomach. When he turned his head to continue on the road, he seemed to notice that Lu Liu fell down straight from the corner of his eyes.

When Wang Pu turned around quickly, he saw that Lu Liu had fallen to the ground. In just a moment, the young man who looked alive just now was already unconscious. Zhao Xin, who happened to be walking beside him, squatted down and pulled Lu Liu's eyelids away, shook his head and sighed: "This brother is so hungry, he's almost out of reach."

"Hungry?" Wang Pu widened his eyes in surprise and shouted, "Can't you?"

Zhao Xin said sadly: "General, he is really hungry."

Wang Pu's eyes fell on the half-piercing dry food bag on Lu Liu's body, and looked at other brothers. They saw that the dry food bags had already been shrunken. Then they reached out and touched the half-piercing dry food bag on his shoulder. Wang Pu suddenly understood something, and quickly squatted down and untied the dry food bag from Lu Liu.

Wang Pu opened Lu Liu's dry food bag and saw where there was any dry food inside? It was clearly all of them were stones and mud lumps.

Wang Pu felt his eyes heat up and turned his head suddenly. He knew everything! No wonder these days, while Wang Pu was sleeping, Lu Liu often fumbled his dry food bag in the dark. Wang Pu thought that this kid was not hungry and wanted to fight the autumn wind from him, but the fact was the opposite. These days, Lu Liu had been secretly stuffing his limited food into Wang Pu's dry food bag, but he himself took the snow to fill his hunger every day, so he was so hungry!

"Come!" Wang Pu bent down and picked up Lu Liu, who had fallen into a deep coma, and shouted shrillly, "Come."

The brothers who were marching hard quickly surrounded each other in groups. Tang Sheng and Monk Zhang squeezed into Wang Pu and asked loudly: "General, what are your instructions?"

"Dig!" Wang Pu pointed at his feet and shouted loudly. "Dig out the hay under the snow, the more the better, and the fire will rise immediately!"

"General." Zhao Xin reminded in a low voice, "The target of raising fire in the sky and earth is too big. What if it attracts Mongolian cavalry?"

"I can't care about that much." Wang Pu shouted loudly, "Anyway, if you go on, you will freeze and starve to death. The left and right sides will die. Why not be warm before you die? Hurry. Dig for this general, dig out the hay and immediately raise the fire!"

The soldiers who had been so cold that they cheered one after another, cheered up one by one, and began to peel off the snow and cut the hay under the snow one by one. Fortunately, the snow near Yinshan seemed to be not heavy. The hay was covered with only a thin layer of snow. Not long after, the brothers cut down a large amount of hay. They piled it into dozens of piles, and then ignited the fire and threw it on the hay pile. The fire burned. The long-lost warmth finally tolerated the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who were half frozen to death.

Wang Pu and Zhao Xin carried Lu Liu to the side of the fire, then took out a steamed bun from the dry food bag and roasted it in the fire. Then wet the boiled snow water and carefully put it into Lu Liu's mouth. The careful Zhao Xin also grabbed a few handfuls of snow and put it in his subway helmet, and then carried the iron helmet on the fire with a waist knife. He took it out before he took it out, poured a few mouthfuls into Lu Liu's mouth, and took a few mouthfuls of warm water and a small piece of steamed bun to his stomach. Lu Liu slowly opened his eyes and recovered a little.

Lu Liu saw the steamed bun in Wang Pu's hand, struggled to sit up, and said, "General, this..."

"Don't move." Wang Pu gently pressed Lu Liu and said, "You guy, this time I've been so bad for this general."

"General." Lu Liu said softly but sincerely, "This army can be without Lu Liu, but it cannot be without you. If you are hungry, all the brothers will have no hope."

Wang Pu felt sad and almost burst into tears again.

Wang Pu is both happy and sad now. What is happy is that he has finally won the recognition of the soldiers. They would rather give up their lives than protect him. Wang Pu believes that there will be no one soldier like Lu Liu. Isn’t this exactly the absolute loyalty to his army that Wang Pu dreams of?

But what made Wang Pu feel sad was that Wang Pu could not bring all of such good brothers back to Datong. They were really hungry and cold and had a desperate end. Unless a miracle happened, it would be good that half of the remaining two thousand people could return to Datong alive.

If you are unlucky and meet a large group of Mongolian cavalry, it will be the end of the destruction of the entire army.

Datong, Wang Family Courtyard.

Chen Yuanyuan was sitting in the aquarium and staring at the white snow outside through the window. In a blink of an eye, Wang Pu had been leading his troops to fight for almost a month. Xiaoqi and Mr. Zhen had already returned more than half a month ago, but Wang Pu had no news yet. Chen Yuanyuan was in love with her and couldn't help but leaning against the window every day, staring at the autumn water.

The side door of the warm pavilion opened silence, and the young lady walked in with a bowl of ginseng soup. When she saw Chen Yuanyuan sitting in front of the window again, she set up the window and couldn't help but feel anxious. She quickly snatched over and closed the window, complaining: "Madam, you are pregnant now, so you can't care about your body like this. Zhang and the others said that if you catch a cold, you will get angry."

"Is that serious? It's less than two months."

A faint blush appeared on Chen Yuanyuan's white and tender face, but his hands were involuntarily stroking them on his lower abdomen. His beautiful big eyes slowly became gentle, and a smile appeared on the corners of his mouth in a pretty and charming way, with two points of joy, three points of intoxication, and even more profound happiness.

The young lady put the bowl of ginseng soup on the pit table and reached out to support Chen Yuanyuan.

Chen Yuanyuan gently opened the young lady's little hand and said angrily: "No, I'll do it myself."

"Madam." Looking at Chen Yuanyuan sipping ginseng soup in small mouthfuls, the young lady suddenly said happily, "If the general comes back, I don't know how happy you will be?"
Chapter completed!