Step on a branch

Chapter 169
The next day, when Lin Fan saw Liu Ben, he was sitting outside the big tent wiping the long knife in his hand.

Liu Ben was under fifty, and in terms of age, he was younger than General Mao, General Feng, etc., but in reality, he looked about the same.

Because Lieutenant General Liu has a long scar on his face.

From the corner of the brow to the edge of the lips, it looks a little scary at first glance.

This wound also made him look much older.

Lin Fan stepped forward, cupped his hands and called "General Liu".

Liu Ben raised his head, looked at the young man in front of him, thought for a while, and said, "Oh, Lin Xuan's son, right? I heard that General Feng asked you to take the lead."

"Yes," Lin Fan squatted down next to Liu Ben, and said in a low voice, "I arrived yesterday, and I was very curious why the Xiliang people raided the four towns and set fire to the granary."

"The younger generation has many problems," Liu Ben muttered, "You want to know, if you capture a Xiliang man later, you will interrogate him?"

Lin Fan chuckled: "Old Hou asked me to ask you."

As soon as the words fell, through the shadow of the long knife, Lin Fan saw Liu Ben frowned.

Liu Ben looked sideways at Lin Fan, but didn't speak.

Lin Fan stretched out his hand, stroked something between his sleeves to his palm, and showed it to Liu Ben.

Liu Ben looked closely, it was a waist card with the word "Qin" in seal script on it.

Indeed, it is Qin Yin's waist card to his cronies.

After making sure Liu Ben finished reading it, Lin Fan put it away.

Liu Ben looked around and said in a deep voice, "I thought it would be on Qin Wei."

Lin Fan smiled and said, "General Qin also has them."

Liu Ben said "Oh".

In the last years of the previous dynasty, family members died of famine and war one after another. Liu Ben was unwilling to die like this, so he went to sign up when Qin Yin was recruiting soldiers.

He joined the army and gave him a bite to eat, but he licked blood with the tip of a knife when he fought.

Liu Ben was lucky. He survived the battles and was promoted. From an unknown soldier, he became a commander, a centurion, and later a thousand commander.

When the morale of Zhao Hui's army was high, they encountered a sneak attack.

That battle was too tragic, with countless casualties.

Liu Ben persisted until Qin Yin came back to rescue him. He took a sigh of relief and saw Qin Yin's big knife cut the enemy in front of him into two.

If it wasn't for that knife, he would not only have hurt his face, but his entire life.

Liu Ben recovered from his injury and continued to work hard with Qin Yin.

After the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, he was granted the rank of sixth-rank Zhongxian Xiaowei Sanjie, and even a reckless man in the mountains had already achieved fame.

After that, he went south with the former crown prince, and then went west with Qin Yin. A few years ago, he was promoted to the fifth rank general of martial arts.

He was used to being alone, and he didn't want to go back to the capital. To deal with the officialdom, he has been stationed at Feimen Pass, and he has seen the changes in the pass in the past few years.

As a result, it has been a long time since we fought with Xiliang people with real swords and guns.

Second, there is less training.

Qin Yin has not been here for many years, and like Liu Ben, there are fewer and fewer old people who were born in Qin Yin's army and have fought with him for decades.

General Mao used to be quite respectful to Qin Yin, but in the past few years, his words also showed some contempt.

He also fought for the late emperor, Qin Yin was awarded the title, but General Mao did not, so there was inevitably a gap in his heart.

Liu Ben did not argue with General Mao, but only did his own business.

After all, he has the task Qin Yin entrusted to him - to keep an eye on a few people.

Keeping his voice down, Liu Ben said, "Those who wear Dazhou leather armor are soldiers from Dazhou, those who wear Xiliang battle clothes are soldiers from Xiliang, and those who dress up as horse thieves are of course horse thieves. We are unlucky, who How do you know Xiliang?"

Lin Fan raised his eyebrows and understood.

That night, it was not Xiliang people who attacked the four towns and set fire to them, but a group of horse thieves.

In the dead of night, in the dark night, with swift movements and roughly the same attire, you can get away with it.

The horse thieves not only raided the four towns under Da Zhou, but before that, they also pretended to be soldiers of Da Zhou and went to several border towns in Xiliang to make a fuss.

How could Xiliang bear the loss of being attacked by Dazhou, and immediately sent troops to Feisha Pass.

This was promoted by Taishi Huang.

He set up a platform for the confrontation between the two armies.

At this time, it is impossible for the two parties who are already hostile to sit down and discuss who attacked whom.

And Liu Ben knew this by staring at a group of horse thieves.

Last night, when he learned that Pioneer was coming, he deliberately sold a loophole, and was transferred back from Yushakou to Feimenguan by General Mao.

I thought it would be Qin Wei who took the lead, but unexpectedly, it was Lin Fan.

"His old man," Liu Ben asked, "what did he explain? Is he really sick?"

Lin Fan said: "It's true that he's not in good health, but even if he can't get up, he still wants to come to Feimenguan to command the battle, even if it's to bring the sick bed."

Liu Ben clicked his tongue.

They should all be very clear about the temper of Old Hou Ye.

If you are seriously ill, you must insist on commanding, and Lin Xuan is the same.

When they talked in private, Lin Fan didn't have to express Qin Yin's position at all, so this sentence was not an attitude, but an explanation.

Liu Ben understood, and stabbed the long knife into the ground: "It's not easy, but you can try."

Just as he was talking, General Mao came over with his hands behind his back.

Seeing these two people, one sitting and the other squatting, he asked, "What are you talking about?"

Liu Ben said: "Isn't this just a newcomer? Ask me what's going on at Yushakou. It's just an old city gate, dilapidated."

General Mao nodded, and said to Lin Fan: "I told you yesterday that if you want to observe the situation in the Xiliang army, you have to enter Yushakou. If you want to go, you can have someone guide you. During this period, we will not meet Xiliang soldiers."

Lin Fan responded.

Liu Ben said again: "If you want me to say it, I'll go and call Cao Lun back."

Obviously, General Mao was very dissatisfied with Liu Ben's performance last night, so he waved his hand and did not agree.

Seeing this, Liu Ben didn't insist.

The three of them were talking, when suddenly, a long horn sounded from the city wall.

General Mao's face darkened, and he ran towards the city wall with big strides, Lin Fan and Liu Ben also hurriedly followed.

Next to the sky, overlapping with the rising sun, is a beam of wolf smoke.

Liu Ben patted his thigh: "On the north side of Yushakou, Lao Zhen and the others fought with Xiliang people?"

……

In the capital, Qin Yin is still ill.

Above the court, because of the war in the west, and because of the reinforcements from the army, he was relieved.

Occasionally, there are a few optimistic people who think that after the arrival of the army, they will be able to force the Xiliang people to retreat.

They talked loudly in the Golden Luan Hall, praised Feng Zhong's experience, and even touted the emperor's skillful use of troops.

Grand Master Huang looked solemn.

He knew too well that Xiliang would not retreat this time, and Feng Zhong led the troops there, and he did not return to the court thinking that the enemy would retreat, and there must be a big battle afterwards.

He believed that Da Zhou would win, but he was also worried about Huang Yi.

Just thinking about it, suddenly, the post soldiers outside rushed to the front of the hall.

Passing in layers, Eunuch Xu took the military report and handed it to the emperor.

The emperor opened it, and his expression quickly became gloomy.

When Grand Master Huang saw this, his heart tightened.

　It's been more than a week since I started taking thyroid medicine, and I've been very sleepy, and today I started to have a headache again...

　　Please take a leave of absence tomorrow so that I can take it easy.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)