After the Jin army besieged the city, the gates of Jinan City were naturally closed and strictly prohibited from entering and leaving. I saw an army approaching from afar. Although it was under the banner of the Song army, it still made the defenders of Jinan City very busy. Until that army was separated by the distance.

The city stopped moving three miles away, and a man in green robe came to the city, claiming to be the commander of the Yingtian Prefecture. At the same time, he put his official seal into a hanging basket hanging from the city with his letter, and then waited happily.

The defenders confirmed that the visitor was a friend but not an enemy, and gradually became quiet.

After about half an hour, it was almost dusk that a personal soldier climbed to the top of the city, asking the horse to sit on the hanging basket and go to the city wall to confirm it at the prefect's office.

When the troops were at the city, during an extraordinary period, Ma Kuo did not think it was offended and followed the arrangements.

The Jinan Prefectural Office is located on the thoroughfare of the south of the city. The horse came from the west and went from the west gate. In addition to the personal soldier, there were four soldiers. These people looked respectful, but one of them was

The front leader led the way, and the four of them followed closely. Obviously, they were still somewhat uncertain about Ma Kuo's identity.

Ma Kuhun didn't care, but just followed with his hands behind his back, his eyes constantly looking at the surrounding situation.

Jinan Prefecture is a large prefecture on the east and west Jing Road, with a population of nearly 10,000 households. Although many families have fled to the Jianghuai River to avoid disaster due to the Jin army's invasion, at least half of the population in the city is still stranded. It is almost dusk and there are all streets.

But there were no pedestrians, and every household was closed. There were only one or two wild dogs that rushed out from time to time, staring at a group of people with red eyes. They were frightened by the soldier Zhendao, and fled into the darkness with a low voice.

The enemy sieges the city, and the people's livelihood was withered, and Ma Kuang sighed in his heart. He had raised flags to fight against the Jin Dynasty many times in Hebei, and he could not see such a scene. But he didn't expect that even the west part of the capital would look like this.

The group came to the prefect's yamen in Nancheng. A man who looked like a manager was waiting at the door. After saluting Ma Kuo, he respectfully led the way. The personal soldiers and four soldiers were guarding outside the yamen.

The yamen in the Song Dynasty usually had a "front hall and back room", that is, the front hall office, and the palace behind was the residence of officials, and the residence of this prefect Liu was no exception.

As soon as he entered the back hall, he saw the front door open, and a loud voice laughed: "It's indeed Ma Zichong, Yanyou couldn't believe it. Now I'm really overjoyed when I see you!"

As he spoke, an old man in his 50s and wearing a fourth-rank official uniform, laughed and bowed down the steps, facing Ma Kuo.

The old man is tall and fat, with a rosy complexion. His eyes are very sharp, and he has a majestic spirit in every move. If it weren't for the beard under his chin being slightly covered with a few traces of whiteness, he would almost not look like a person over fifty years old.

Oh, this person is already fifty-five.

Ma Kuo quickly returned the gift: "Yan Yougong's style is as elegant as before, and his momentum remains unchanged back then. He is worthy of being the Lord Tixing who is illegal in Hebei."

The old man laughed loudly, waved his hands repeatedly, and the light flashed in his eyes: "How can I boast about the criminals looking sideways? How can I be compared to Ma Zichong's intercourse between Liao and Jin, breaking the bucket and making the enemy chief look sideways. He respected him, "Yes, Ma Li

', Only then can you be a real man."

The two walked opposite each other, and when they approached the five steps, they stopped and saluted each other again, looking at each other and laughing.

This person is Quan Zhiji Jinan Prefecture and Liu Yu.

In the first year of Xuanhe, Liu Yu served as the founding officer in Hebei. He had a relationship with Ma Kuo, who was running for state affairs in Hebei and Yanjing at that time. Although the two had no intersection since then, they were only a few years apart and they were still together.

Can recognize each other.

After sitting in the hall to serve tea, Ma Kuo finished his politeness, without waiting for Liu Yu to ask, he revealed the reason for his trip. Of course, what he said was a half-true and half-false version. From the beginning of his five

Mashan, Yingxin, went to Yingtian Prefecture, and sought to get the new soldiers. He walked all the way to Jinan and was defeated by the Jin army's rangers. All of the above are true, only the last point: gather the remaining soldiers and dare not cross the river, for fear of being

When the Jin people attacked again, they had no choice but to hike in Jinan.

This final statement is naturally false. However, it sounds the most true. If it were any officer who was the commander, he had just been defeated by the Jin people, and only a few hundred remaining soldiers were defeated.

I believe that as long as he is not crazy, he will never dare to cross the river rashly, nor will he dare to camp in the wild. He will have to find a safe city to settle in, and he will dare to put on the mat on his back.

After hearing this, Liu Yu closed his eyes slightly, repeatedly checked and pondered it, but found no flaws - this is natural, because what Ma Kuo said was 90% of the truth, and the last thing was false, but it sounded even more than the truth.

Really, this is the most natural choice for a defeated general.

At this moment, the manager outside the door came in respectfully, saying that there was something in the mansion and asked the master to go over for a while. Liu Yu sued him and got up. However, Ma Kuo did not wait long, and soon Liu Yu turned back.

When the person didn't enter the house, laughter came: "Zi Chong traveled thousands of miles and was also a state affairs. Yu'an dared to resign from what he asked for."

Ma Kuo gently used the tea lid to remove the tea powder floating on the tea water, sipped it lightly, and smiled. He knew in his heart that Liu Yu must have listened to his subordinates' rewards just now, and he was sure that he had only more than 200 people left, and all of them were left.

It was a "defeated soldier" with a disorganized queue and a scattered decadent one. Only then did he relax and store it generously.

Ma Kuoqing let out a sigh of relief, very well, his mission has been completed. Next, it depends on the army that claims to be the Tianbo Camp of the Tianzhu Army. I hope they will not disappoint him. More importantly,

It is best not to disappoint you, this prefect Liu...

The advance camp came from the west, but at this time, there were a large number of Jin soldiers eyeing each other in the west and north directions of Jinan. Therefore, Liu Yu did not dare to let the guards open the west gate, but asked the advance camp to build a big circle, from

The relatively safe east gate enters the city.

Under normal circumstances, military troops should be arranged to the military camps north of the city. However, due to the siege of the Jin soldiers, the wing troops originally stationed outside the city such as Fengji, Licheng, Shangluokou and Pankou, the Tumen gathered into the city together.

In this way, the military camp that could only accommodate tens of thousands of people was immediately stuffed into pieces and burst. Although the number of people in advance was small, it was difficult to arrange it, and there were only two hundred people to serve as

Ma Kuo, the personal soldier in charge of the city, was just right.

So under the arrangement of Liu Yu, Ma Kuo and his team moved into a wealthy merchant house in the city that fled from the dangerous place early. The wealthy merchant house was quite vast, and there were hundreds of people who moved in. There was no congestion or inconvenience.

After settling down on all the matters in the advance camp, it was already time to take the lights. After dinner, several leaders gathered in a wing room and were discussing what to do next. However, there were soldiers coming to report to him outside the door, and one of them claimed to be.

The chief officer of the Military and Horse Capital Office joined the army and asked for a visit.

Everyone in the wing room looked at each other in surprise, Zhang Rong looked at Guan Zhongyong in surprise and said, "Is it because Brother Ling recognized you?"

Guan Zhongyong was also puzzled: "No way? It was dark when we entered the city. If it weren't for close distance, we wouldn't have recognized it. But if the distance was closer, Guan should have seen it..."

Ma Kuo laughed and said, "The person has arrived at the door. Guess He Yi more? Let's go and meet this Si Lu joining the army."

Everyone saw the military commander of the military commander of the military commander in the front hall, but they saw that he was about thirty years old and had no appearance, but his expression was very calm. He saluted everyone first, and then said he readily

The purpose of this trip is to buy a horse.

"I don't care about the horses. My Jinan Military and Horses Commander's Office has only more than fifty war horses in total, which is barely enough to form a cavalry team of 30 or 40 people. A few days ago, the commander has led the cavalry team to attack many times.

Although the Jin army has been repeatedly captured, it has suffered a lot of losses. Now there are less than forty horses in war... Today, I saw the horses under the command of the horses entering the city, and there were more than twenty excellent war horses. I wonder if some of them can be transferred...

…”

After hearing what Si Lu said to join the army, everyone understood what was going on. They exchanged glances with each other and smiled knowingly.

The advance camp came by boat, and there were no horses. After gathering the horses and their subordinates, there were dozens of mules and horses. However, these livestock could only be used as pulling forces, so they would not think about charging or stooping into battle.

Instead, the more than ten Jin army whistle cavalry were wiped out and twenty-three intact war horses were accidentally harvested. As the elite whistle cavalry spies of the Jin army, the war horses they rode were naturally well trained and fed, although they were discussed

It's not the Hequ horse. But for the Song Dynasty, which was extremely short of horses, it was already a very good war horse.

If you had not witnessed the more than 30 heavy cavalry of the Song army, Ma Kuo, Zhang Rong and others would have suspected that it was Jinan's garrison who wanted to seize their own war horses, and of course they would not think so now.

In Guan Zhongyong's face, he still respects the Song general who dared to lead thirty cavalry to attack thousands of enemy troops. It is not impossible to sell horses to the military commander's office... Well, wait, maybe this is a

Chance……

Ma Kuo and Zhang Rong thought of this key at the same time, their eyes lit up and turned their eyes to Guan Zhongyong. The latter was just a beat slower, and realized that this was an excellent opportunity. He nodded with a smile.

So Ma Kuo laughed and said, "I heard that Guan Jun is extremely brave and skillful in military tactics. Jinan Prefecture can be supported by the Jin army's encirclement and has been supported to this day. Guan Jun has made great contributions. The so-called "sword given to a hero" is also the same.

, I just don’t know how much the Chief Executive Office is looking for?”

The Silu joined the army but didn't expect that the horse would be so easy to talk to. He felt relieved and thanked him repeatedly, and then hesitated to say a number: "How about fifteen horses? Or just ten horses?"

Ma Kuo laughed and said, "We only leave three horses for transportation, and the remaining twenty horses are given to Guan Qin."

Twenty horses! When Silu was surprised to join the army, he didn't pay attention to the words in the words of Ma Kuo's words, and said, "Twenty horses are naturally the best, but I'm afraid that the Chief Executive's Office will not be able to take them out.

This is a lot of money…”

Guan Zhongyong was surprised: "There are only twenty guan per war horse, and twenty guan per 400 guan, so the chief officer could not take it out? Moreover, this is considered military expenses, and it should be paid by the treasury of the prefecture. How could the chief officer be allowed to

Do you pay for the house?”

This time, Zhang Rongxian smiled and said, "Commander Guan has been in the northwest for a long time and does not know the market conditions of the southeast horse market. Now wars are everywhere, and the horse source is very scarce. Even a seven-toothed horse must be about ten taels; it is used as a pullover.

A strong mule and horse requires fifteen stakes; while a strong military horse costs less than fifty stakes…”

Unexpectedly, there was someone who understood the market. Then Si Lu nodded embarrassedly and said yes.

Guan Zhongyong suddenly realized that at this price, twenty horses cost a thousand guan. This was really a considerable amount. No wonder the Silu complained about joining the army. However, the Chief Secretary's Office may not be able to provide the money, but

The state treasury is fine, why is it so difficult?

Si Lu just joined the army with a dissatisfaction with Guan Zhongyong's doubts, but he had to endure it.

Ma Kuo has been in the officialdom for a long time. He can see that there must be a conflict between the mansion and the generals. He smiled and changed the topic: "I'm afraid that Si Lu wouldn't hear clearly when he joined the army. What a certain family said was "Send it to the gift."

', not 'sell'."

For free?! This, this... Si Lu was so happy that he was almost out of breath when he joined the army. His tongue was knotted and he couldn't speak.

"Since you want to send it, just send it to your home. Commander Guan and Liang Dutou, two of you will personally send the war horses to the chief's mansion." Ma Kuo finally said with a smile.

When Guan Zhongyong and Liang Ashui took twenty soldiers from the advance camp, each with a war horse, heading towards the Jinan Military Commander's Mansion southwest of the city, it was already dark, and four soldiers in front and behind carried lanterns and led the way.

.

When we reached the road, a patrol army drove over the opposite side, with about thirty people. The soldiers came forward as usual to interrogate. When the Silu joined the army and found out his identity, the soldiers repeatedly sued the crime.

Waiting to be released.

"Wait." The general led the army strode forward, raised the lantern in his hand, circled around the group of military horses, and said, "It's all rare good horses! All of these are the chief officials.

I bought it? I am so willing to do it for the heavy cavalry team."

At this time, Liang Ashui slapped his chest proudly: "Thirty-fold cavalry defeated thousands of enemies. How can we not express anything about such a heroic man? These horses are all gifts from us..."

Liang Ashui said this, but Si Lu secretly complained, saying that he had to do something bad.

Sure enough, the general immediately changed his face: "What? I gave it to you? Humph, okay, very good! You bandits only know how to curry favor with the Chief Executive Office, but don't let me "Yangsheng Army" go
To be continued...