The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

The night was getting dark, and the horse army sent to beg for the tent had not yet returned, but Su Jin was calm. Originally, he was worried that Zhao Fang and Zhao Fang would not listen to the order, and might drop the pick halfway, so he ordered Wang Chaoma Han followed them, obviously to help, but in fact he was responsible for supervision.

Now it seems that no news is good news, otherwise Dynasty Mahan must have come back to report.

Su Jin paced slowly in the tent, carefully thinking about every detail of his plan, to ensure that no flaws were exposed. At this time, 1 precautions had to be added. Once the bandits saw through, he was going to go up the mountain alone. It's a sheep that has entered the tiger's mouth. I'm afraid his head was cut off without saying a few words.

There were soft footsteps outside the tent, and someone whispered from outside the curtain: "Special Envoy Su, can I come in?"

Su Jin was taken aback and quickly stepped forward to lift the curtain, Yan Biyun's pretty face like a flower was outside the curtain, Su Jin hurriedly said: "When did you become so estranged, what are you talking about Special Envoy Su? Are you laughing at me?"

Yan Biyun snorted and stepped into the room, Rou Niang and Xiao Xian'er followed closely and filed in. Yan Biyun took off the cloak on his body and handed it to Xiao Xianer, stretched out his white and tender hands to keep warm on the stove, and said angrily: "You are a wicked person." File a complaint first, lock yourself in the tent all afternoon, and don't talk to us, it's fine with the slave family, sister Rou Niang came so far to see you, can you bear it?"

Su Jin smiled and said: "What I said, it seems that I am a heartless person. I was just thinking about things in the tent. I am in a state of desperation at the moment, but I have indeed neglected your feelings. I am guilty and guilty."

Yan Biyun glanced at Su Jin gracefully and said, "Then what good solution can you come up with?"

Su Jin rubbed her hands together and said, "It's hard, I'm afraid this test will be difficult, and I don't even have a good rule of thumb."

Yan Biyun tilted his head and asked, "Really?"

Su Jin pointed to the sky and swore: "There is nothing to lie about, there is really no way."

Yan Biyun turned his head away, staring at the fire in a daze, Su Jin was apprehensive, and looked at her for a moment, during which Yan Biyun's long eyelashes blinked a few times, and a few pearls fell out of the black grapes.

Su Jin panicked, and rushed forward to grab Yan Biyun's hand, Yan Biyun said angrily, "You're still lying to us, County Magistrate Li told us all about your plan, and you're going to put yourself in danger again, completely ignoring our worries , you know, Xiao Xianer and Rou Niang have been crying all afternoon."

Su Jin hurriedly looked at Rou Niang and Xiao Xian'er, and saw that the circles of their eyes were red and slightly swollen, as if they had been crying. They both lowered their heads when they came in just now, but they didn't notice.

Su Jin hurriedly bowed to the three of them and said, "It's my fault, but I didn't tell you because I was afraid that you would be worried. This Li Chong, why is he so ignorant?"

Yan Biyun said angrily: "You don't know the seriousness, do you think these people from the slave family are shrews who can't reason? If you tell us, will we stop you in every possible way? That day in Yingtian Mansion, if you want to take risks, how many of us will you have?" Say a word? Life is the same as life and death is the same as death, why don't you understand our hearts."

Su Jin scratched his head and said, "It's my fault, but don't worry, I'm sure."

Yan Biyun sighed: "When will we be able to live without such fear? I really want... really want to..."

Su Jin looked at the red charcoal fire in the stove and said quietly: "I know what you want to say, who doesn't want to live a stable and happy life, but the trees are quiet and the wind is not constant, I don't know why I encountered so many obstacles , every time you want to put me to death, you want to be safe and sound, but someone refuses to let you; for me, I don't want to join forces with others, so I have to fight with them; , There will be a day when I will settle the accounts with them."

The three women quietly looked at Su Jin's resolute and confident expression, and suddenly felt that Su Jin was as calm as a mountain, and the previous worries and anxieties seemed superfluous; in front of him, it seemed that no obstacles could stop him. In half a year, this petty official has been reborn and turned into another person.

The person outside the tent called Ma Ni, and then the footsteps were chaotic, and the voices of Zhao Dutou and Fang Dutou sounded from outside: "Report to Mr. Special Envoy, I'm waiting to come back."

Su Jin hurried out of the tent and asked anxiously, "Did you get the tent?"

Zhao Dutou said proudly: "Fortunately, I didn't disgrace my life!"

After finishing speaking, he pointed to the outside of the fence, and saw a dozen or so carts piled up there parked there. Su Jin was overjoyed, and walked over there, asking, "How many are there?"

Zhao Fang and the two followed Su Jin closely, and said happily, "There are more than 600 trucks, and there is still a carload of kerosene."

Su Jin laughed loudly, raised his thumb and said, "Good job, did the old man say anything?"

Fang Du spat his head and said, "Damn it, I babbled a lot, and in the end I ended up with Lao Zhao Mao, and led Ma Jun to the warehouse, telling everyone to throw the guard's badges in the warehouse. In front of him, he was told to go to Beijing to file a complaint with the number plate, this old thing really had no choice, so he opened the warehouse door."

Su Jin laughed and said: "It's still the men and horses of your bodyguard department who are very powerful. If they were Xiangbing soldiers, they would have sent troops to surround them and arrest them a long time ago."

Zhao Dutou said: "Does he dare? He is just a transit envoy. Although he is a high-ranking official, he is only from the local area. A small shrimp in the capital will scare him half to death. How dare he make trouble?"

Su Jin flipped through the tent and said with a smile: "After all, he is a transit envoy, a senior official from the third rank, when we finish sending the tent back, say a few words of face to him, and don't let him get down too much. "

Fang Du nodded and said, "Send it back to him? He has a good idea. I think the envoy is keeping this tent as a spare. We didn't say we borrowed it."

Su Jin nodded and said: "We'll talk about it when the time comes. There are still a lot of things to do right now. Hurry up and ask someone to unload the car. After dinner, hurry up and work. This night will not be easy."

……

After the sky was completely dark, the bandits on the night watch at the Bagong Pass were extremely bored. They huddled in the small house on the cliff built of stones to warm up the fire. The north wind was blowing outside. In the weather, they are not even willing to stick their heads out.

However, the noise coming from the bottom of the mountain forced them to come out of the hot house. The bandits looked down the mountain and were stunned.

On the hillside where the officers and soldiers were stationed, people neighed and horses screamed, and people's shadows were pupils. In the distance, a long line of torches flowed into the camp in an endless stream. The bandits exchanged glances with each other.

This long line of torches seemed endless. Under the stunned gaze of the bandits, it lasted for most of the night, and I don't know how many reinforcements came. The battalion finally fell silent.

It was dawn, and Shen Yaozu and Qiu Dabao, who got the news, went down from the village and looked down from the arrow tower at the pass. The fog was so thick that they couldn't see anything clearly. When the sun rose and the fog was evaporated by the sun, it appeared The sight in front of Shen Yaozu and Qiu Dabao made them gasp.

I saw that the enemy's barracks, which was only a hundred steps away, had become a large camp that stretched for several miles. The unified military tents were neatly and orderly set up on the flat ground, surrounded by checkpoints, and groups of soldiers patrolling with guns in the camp Walk; vaguely visible, the huge military grain warehouses in the southwest corner of the camp are surrounded by wooden fences, and the surroundings are heavily guarded.

Shen Yaozu whispered to himself: "This...how is it possible?"

Qiu Dabao whispered worriedly: "Brother, it seems that the officers and soldiers are planning to get serious. There are at least tens of thousands of soldiers and horses here in such a large camp, and there are cavalry here. This... the situation is not good."

Shen Yaozu gritted his teeth and said: "I thought the officers and soldiers were timid and stood still because they were afraid, but they didn't expect that they were waiting for reinforcements."

Qiu Dabao said: "But the news from our eyeliner said that the soldiers and horses in Luzhou and Shouzhou did not move. Where did these officers and soldiers come from?"

Shen Yaozu said: "They have been stationed at the foot of the mountain for four days before the reinforcements arrive, which means that these reinforcements are definitely not from the nearby state capitals, they may be troops transferred from other places, perhaps from Jiangning Prefecture, Taizhou, Yangzhou, Changzhou and other places. , Damn, it looks like he doesn't intend to let us go."

Qiu Dabao frowned and said: "Why should they seek far away? Luzhou and Shouzhou are close at hand, why don't they use their troops?"

Shen Yaozu said: "I'm afraid that the soldiers and horses in these two prefectures have been defeated by us several times, and the imperial court no longer trusts them."

Qiu Dabao remained silent, looking at the continuous enemy army camp, it took him a long time to hold back a sentence: "Brother, can we hold it?"

Shen Yaozu looked down the mountain with complicated and indescribable eyes, fear, resentment, despair, ferocity and even a trace of regret mixed in.