Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 459 Time is running out
Zhao Qian's arrest did not attract the attention of the barracks. Usually, if he did not show up the next morning, people would feel something was wrong.

At night, the three knights in black rode all the way, and finally arrived at the west gate of Songcheng County. At this time, the gate was closed, and the leading knight shouted to the top of the gate: "We came from the capital, and we have urgent military affairs to report to the prefect Fan." , please open the door quickly!"

Immediately, soldiers guarding the city went to inform Gu Changwu. Gu Changwu was ordered by Fan Ning to stay at the city gate to wait for news from the capital. He estimated that people from the capital would go through the west gate, so he deliberately stayed at the west gate. Sure enough, the city gate closed soon. It's time to wait.

Gu Changwu rushed to the top of the city and asked loudly: "But to send something to the prefect of Fan?"

"Exactly, we were sent by Mr. Han."

Gu Changwu immediately turned his head and said, "Open the outer city!"

Not long after, the suspension bridge of the outer city gate was lowered, the city gate opened, and three black-clothed knights rushed into the city. Inside was the urn city, and there was another inner city gate to fully enter the city. Gu Changwu ran down the corridor and said to the leading black-clothed knight: "Please wait a moment, I have already informed Prefect Fan, he will arrive soon!"

The three black knights breathed a sigh of relief. They ran all the way, changing horses three times in a row, and they were exhausted.

Not long after, the inner city gate opened, and Fan Ning came galloping on horseback, followed by Zhu Bao, and the other three escorted Zhao Qian to the capital secretly.

Fanning dismounted and asked, "Where is the thing?"

The leader of the man in black knew Fan Ning, he stepped forward and bowed, "Han Xianggong ordered us to send this iron box to Fan Zhifu, and we don't have the key."

He took out an iron box from the package and presented it to Fanning.

Fan Ning took the iron box, and seeing that it was locked, he pulled out his dagger, and pried open the iron box. Inside was the troop transfer gold medal wrapped in yellow silk, and a letter from Han Qi.

Fan Ning put away the gold medal, read the letter again, and then said to Gu Changwu: "Take a dozen people and follow me to the Imperial Army barracks!"

Time was running out, and Fan Ning couldn't wait for dawn. After he won the gold medal, he immediately took Gu Changwu and a dozen soldiers to the Forbidden Army barracks.

The Forbidden Army Barracks is located ten miles outside the North City. The magnificent Hongqing Palace is facing Songcheng County. On the right is the Forbidden Army Barracks covering an area of ​​[-] mu. The sentry at the door can see dozens of steps away, there are patrolling soldiers in the barracks constantly patrolling back and forth. If it enters a wartime state, there will always be patrolling cavalry outside the barracks, and the enemy can be found several miles away, but there is no such thing now.

Fan Ning came galloping on horseback, and the sound of the horse's hooves alarmed the guard tower soldiers, who shouted, "Who is it?"

"We are the government of Yingtian!"

Zhu Bao shouted, and the soldiers on the sentry tower put down their crossbows. After a while, Fan Ning and others rushed to the gate of the barracks. Gu Changwu got off his horse and stepped forward to the soldiers on guard, "Please inform General Linghu, and just say Ying Tianfan The prefect has an emergency military situation."

Hearing that it was the magistrate of Yingtian who came, the officer on duty didn't dare to neglect, and rushed to the barracks.

Not long after, a tooth general rushed over and said loudly: "Prefect Fan, General Linghu is here to invite you!"

Fan Ning got off his horse and said to his followers: "General Gu and Zhu Bao can accompany me, you wait outside the barracks."

After finishing speaking, he took Gu Changwu and Zhu Bao to walk quickly into the barracks. Horses are not allowed to gallop in the barracks, and they walked all the way to the big tent of the Chinese army.

The system of the Forbidden Army is slightly different from that of the Xiang Army. The Xiang Army is headed by the pacifier of Jingdong Road, while the Forbidden Army has nine independent barracks on Jingdong Road. There is no commander in the entire Jingdong Road. The chief generals of the nine barracks belong to Sanya. And at the same time subject to the control of the Privy Council.

Although General Linghu Jin was a fourth-rank official, his status as a military commander was lower than that of a civil official, so Linghu Jin was very polite to Fan Ning and greeted him personally.

"Which fragrant wind brought Prefect Fan to this small temple of mine?"

Fan Ning said apologetically, "It happened suddenly, I hope General Linghu will forgive me!"

Linghu Jin nodded with a smile, "Prefect Fan, you are being polite. I just reported that Prefect Fan has any urgent military affairs?"

Fan Ning took out the gold medal and put it in front of Linghu Jin, "Does General Linghu know this?"

Linghu Jin recognized the gold medal for military transfer from the Imperial Army at a glance. Seeing this gold medal was like seeing the emperor, he suddenly turned pale with shock, and knelt down on one knee to salute, "See the emperor's military transfer gold medal for humble positions!"

Fan Ning asked calmly: "Is this gold medal likely to mobilize General Linghu's army?"

"The ruler of the government holds the order with the gold medal, and the humble rank and ten thousand soldiers will absolutely obey the military order, and will not hesitate to die!"

Fan Ning nodded, "I want to disarm the Three Thousand Xiang Army, General Linghu, please send troops to encircle the Xiang Army barracks immediately!"

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Linghu Jin immediately ordered: "Beat the drum and assemble!"

'Boom!Boom!Boom! '

The earth-shattering sound of gathering soldiers and drums was loud, and it spread far away in the middle of the night, which was soul-stirring.

Fan Ning didn't stop him, he couldn't wait for dawn, and Zhang Yaozuo's express letter was probably delivered soon.

At this time, Linghu Jin asked Fan Ning in a low voice: "But something happened to Zhao Qian?"

He is very shrewd, since he wants to surround the Xiang army barracks, something must have happened to Zhao Qian.

Fan Ning nodded and said: "The Son of Heaven gave me a secret decree to arrest Zhao Qian. I am afraid that Zhao Qian will be killed if he holds the military power, causing unnecessary turmoil, so we must disarm the Xiang army and remove Zhao Qian's supporters. "

Linghu Jin agreed: "Your Majesty's worry is very reasonable. The commander of the Xiang army Jiang Chenghua is Zhao Qian's son-in-law. This person is impulsive. It is indeed necessary to disarm the Xiang army."

The assembly of the imperial army was not as fast as the soldiers of the frontier army. It took a long time for all the soldiers to assemble. Many soldiers were in uniform and yawning. Although there were 9000 soldiers in name, there were actually only 1000 soldiers The shortage of [-] people is naturally the welfare of generals at all levels in the army. This is a common phenomenon in the army, and Fan Ning has to take care of it.

Following Linghu Jin's order, a team of 9000 people marched out of the camp gate and headed towards the Xiang Army's barracks three miles away.

At the same moment when the forbidden army assembled, the messengers sent by Zhang Yaozuo also arrived at the Xiang army barracks. They were led into the camp, and the commander Jiang Chenghua received them.

After all, Zhao Qian was a civil servant. Although he also served as the commander of the Xiang army, the actual leader was his son-in-law Jiang Chenghua.

Jiang Chenghua is about 30 years old. He is from Gushu County. He has a big shoulder and a round waist and a very sturdy physique. Jiang Chenghua's second daughter promised him to be his wife, and Jiang Chenghua rose to the top immediately. In just two years, he was promoted to the commander of the capital, in charge of Yingtianfu's [-]-army army.

Jiang Chenghua didn't see Zhao Qian this afternoon. He was a little strange. Usually, at dusk, even if his father-in-law Zhao Qian didn't come, he would send a soldier to deliver a letter to him, telling him whether he should continue to guard the Zhang's Grain Store tomorrow. Otherwise, it will be too late to wait until tomorrow morning to deploy.

No matter how much Jiang Chenghua waited, he couldn't wait for his father-in-law and his soldiers, so he sent someone to look for him in the mansion, saying that the master had not returned to the mansion, and went to several other possible places, but he couldn't see him anywhere. He began to feel uneasy, whether his father-in-law would What's going to happen?
You must know that the relationship between father-in-law and Fan Ning has been very tense these days, and he did not hesitate to break the rule that the Xiang army did not enter the city, and seriously violated Ying Tianfu's interests. Jiang Chenghua felt that something would happen to his father-in-law and Fan Ning sooner or later.

At this moment, the sound of drums coming from the imperial army promised to make Jiang Chenghua feel more uneasy. He couldn't bear it anymore and opened the urgent letter.

The first sentence in the letter made him jump up, and the officials ordered Fanning to secretly arrest his father-in-law.

Jiang Chenghua immediately understood why his father-in-law disappeared, he must have been secretly arrested by Fan Ning, so where would he be detained?His intuition told him that it was very likely that he would be detained in the government office.

After reading the rest of the content in a hurry, he was immediately anxious, and immediately ordered: "The commanders of each battalion will come to my tent immediately to discuss the emergency military situation."

The infantry of the Imperial Army consists of 500 people as a battalion, and the chief of the army is the commander and Jiang Chenghua's direct subordinate.

At this time, Jiang Chenghua didn't realize that the gathering of the forbidden army had something to do with him. His idea was to go to the city immediately to snatch his father-in-law back.

Not long after, six commanding envoys rushed to the tent one after another, "General, what happened?"

"The pacifier is missing and is likely to be detained by Fanning."

This sentence immediately caused a stir in the big tent, and the generals were all furious. Did the little magistrates dare to arrest the pacifier and eat the guts of a leopard?
"General, what shall we do?"

"All generals, give the order!"

Jiang Chenghua did not tell the truth to the generals. He was vague, making the generals think that the personal conflict between Fan Ning and the appeasement envoy had escalated. The leader dared to arrest the leader of the Xiang army, the general's proud self-esteem made them unacceptable.

Jiang Chenghua nodded, "I mean, go to the city to snatch the pacifier back. If it doesn't work, we will arrest Fan Ning and force him to hand over the pacifier. If we wait for dawn, it may be too late. We have to go in tonight." city."

(End of this chapter)