At about noon, the tall gatehouse of Huangzhou Capital was already seen on the bow of the boat. Huangzhou is geographically located between Jinghu and Huaidong, and is the key to protecting the soft hinterland of Jinghu South Road. Zhoucheng is surrounded by mountains and water, and the tall mountain system in the northwest can overlook Zhoucheng from the bottom. The Yangtze River slowly flows from the south of Huangzhou and then spreads upward for several miles. It was the old battlefield where the Sun and Liu coalition forces united to defeat Cao Cao's army in one fell swoop - Chibi.

"Anyway, we must immediately notify the officials and men of Huangzhou from the news of the Mongolians." Zheng Yunming looked urgent: "If the Mongolian army really came, all the more than 100,000 people in Huangzhou would not survive."

As Shangyuan approached, there were many pedestrians on the road from the wharf to Huangzhou City. Zheng Yunming and his colleagues hurried to the city gate. When the merchants saw this formation, they could not help but avoided them.

A simple checkpoint was set up more than a mile outside the city gate. Several local soldiers wearing red cloth coats were holding hands, chatting while scanning the passers-by. When they met a vendor carrying a load and carrying a basket, they went up to investigate and question it, and took out a few cents. Seeing the girl and his wife who were rushing out, they also surrounded them and marveled and teased a few words. Passers-by were all angry and hurried past the group of gangsters, for fear of being involved in this group of guys who were making trouble.

However, seeing this group of people coming straight to the city gate, people know that they are the ones who can't afford to offend.

Zheng Yunming came to the outpost, reported his name and asked to meet the Huangzhou governor quickly.

The local soldiers led the army and smiled flatteringly: "The biggest military officer in this city is the commander of the Cavalry and Infantry Division, Marshal Meng, but the Marshal usually does not stay in the city's yamen. The officials go to the camp in the west of the city to find him."

Meng Gong? That's right, Zheng Yunming recalled that among the three strongest generals in the Song Dynasty, Meng Gong's garrison was in Huangzhou. Although Zheng Yunming's favorite among the three generals in Duanping was the little scholar who was originally scheduled to teach in Tianshui Army, but in the end he accidentally became a general in command. He tried several times to use his father's power to retrieve Cao Youwen and his troops from Sichuan and sent them to Huaixi or Jiangnan as a future pre-order.

The team was used. Unfortunately, Sichuan general Zhao Yanna is a person who is incompatible with Zheng Qingzhi in the officialdom. Whether it is the order issued by Zheng Qingzhi in the name of the Privy Council or the letters given to him in the name of private. In short, as long as it is a strategy led by Lord Zheng of the court, Zhao Yanna's usual attitude is to use the special situation in the border areas as an excuse to shirk everything. What's more, it is the secondment of Cao Youwen Zhongyijun, who is the core of Shukou's defense.

It is estimated that Cao Youwen cannot escape the ending of being destroyed. In this case, it is also a good choice to take this opportunity to establish a good relationship with Meng Puyu, the defending backbone of the Song Dynasty frontline in the next ten years and win the support of the Meng family army, who has the strongest combat effectiveness.

When Zheng Yunming thought about this, he had already seen the camp under Meng Gong, who was in charge of the Ma Jun Company.

Meng Gong's camp is two miles away from Zhoucheng. The back of the camp is facing the direction of Zhoucheng. The left wing is close to the road. The right wing is close to the river, with a simple dock made of wooden boards, and a small boat is tied to the dock for spare use. It can be seen that the camp is standing on a wide platform slightly higher than the flat ground, surrounded by a moat about a meter wide in front of the camp. The camp is surrounded by a seven-foot-high wooden fence, and it can be seen that a group of patrol soldiers are patrolling nearby. Deer antlers and horse-rejected boys are placed in front of the main gate. More than a dozen fully armed soldiers are guarding the gate with guns, watching the movements on the river and the road vigilantly.

Before Yun Ming and his party approached the military camp, they suddenly saw an old man in his forties and fifties wearing a vermilion hat and a yellow cloth shirt, holding a package in one hand and holding a bamboo stick in his hand while resting quietly on the big rock by the roadside.

This is a typical outfit in the army. Most of them are old and helpless, and they put some bribes on the recruiting officials and mingled into the military camp to earn wages. Using such an old man to deal with the strong bow and horses of the Mongols is really a joke. The elite army known as the number one in the Southern Dynasty was nothing but this.

Just kidding, let these 50 or 60-year-olds guard the lives of the country and the people. I might as well take the money early and run away early. Zheng Yunming thought so, but there was a smile on his face and sang a promise to the old man: "Do you dare to ask if your father-in-law is also a soldier under the command of Chief Meng Dutong?"

The old man raised his head slightly, and a light that was not easy to detect in his squinting eyes flashed. He smiled and asked, "Am I very young?"

Zheng Yunming scratched his head embarrassedly. People in their forties and fifties should have to carry armor, armor, clothing, and clothes in the camp, carry water and cook. If they want to stand in the first row to face the enemy's swords and guns, how can they do it with such old arms and legs? But after all, they are facing the old man, so they can't say these words in person, so they have to divert the words.

"...I am Zheng Yunming, the newly appointed official of the Jinghu Transport Department. Because I encountered a robbery outside the city, I hurried to inform Marshal Meng of military information."

"You mean...Mongolian Army?" The old man suddenly woke up and looked up and shouted, "Just outside Huangzhou City?"

Han Silang rushed to say: "Each of them has a disheveled hair, and some of them are wearing ghost-like masks. Except for the few people in the leadership who claim to be Mongolian soldiers, everyone else shouts Mongolian language that is incomprehensible. And it is a knife, a gun, an axe and a whip."

"That's true..." A playful smile appeared on Zheng Yunming's face: "If you just shout a few words that others don't understand, you want to pretend to be a Tartar. Recently, the government army has become less and less powerful."

The old man raised his eyes slightly and raised his eyebrows, "How can the officials know?"

"A careful person can see it at a glance," Zheng Yunming held his chin with his hand and recalled what he saw at that time: "Although there are some hair tied and some hair spreading, there is no one with braided hair. Although the Mongolian army has a very diverse population, there must be a real Tatar as its leader among the 100 people. Even if there are no real Tatar among these Mongolian army, it is too strange."

"The most heavy bow and arrow in the Mongolian army, each of them carried at least one large bow and one small bow, and at least several bags of arrows. Some of the "Mongols" chasing Han Silang were holding axes, some were holding spears, some were holding abs, some were holding a stick, and some were swinging wooden sticks, but there were no bows and arrows. If there were a few bows there, how could Silang get out so easily? Such equipment was not like the Hu people in the north, but like our own people."

"There were people chasing Han Silang, some were wearing cloth shirts, some were wearing cotton jackets, and some were wearing paper table hats. Although they deliberately wore all the clothes in reverse to avoid revealing the marks of the government army, all the clothes were from southerners, and they were even a Hu person dressed in a costume that could not be found."

"And the ridiculous thing is that although they claim to be Mongolian soldiers, they don't even have a horse! They pretend to be Mongolians without horses. It's really funny. The bandits who pretend to be deceased are more convincing." Zheng Yunming couldn't help laughing again when he said this.

The old man couldn't help laughing: "It seems that these people are becoming less and less polite. Even the newly appointed scholars can see through their outfits at a glance. If they don't give them a little bit of pain, they are afraid that they will openly dress up as Mongolians and come to the city to snatch them."

As the old man stood up, Zheng Yunming realized that although the old man was not majestic while sitting, he stood up half a head taller than himself, and his body was straight, his shoulders slightly fell, his eyes were like torches, and a faint aura of a tiger appeared. Compared with the idle old man sitting on the bluestone just now, it seemed like he had been transformed.

The old man yelled in the direction of the village gate: "Come on!" The sound was as loud as a bronze bell, and Zheng Yunming's ears were rustling.

A soldier covered in armor ran over quickly and crossed his hands to the old man for salutation.

"I'll inform you about the gathering of the big tent right away!"

After listening to this simple and powerful order, the soldier immediately turned around and ran towards the camp. The old man turned around and smiled at the crowd of people with big and small mouths open and looked astonished, "It's really rude to not introduce it formally. I am the chief of the Ma army, and the commander of Meng Gong."

The midwinter evening is quite cold. The stingy sun gathers the last ray of light and falls lazily under the horizon. The iron-gray night sky stretches out under the sky, and the drooping clouds cover the stars, making people feel depressed and lonely.

The traveler walking by the river quietly wrapped his little black cotton jacket tightly on his body. The biting river wind blew past him and penetrated a little along his neck, causing the traveler to tremble.

This is a team of business travelers that hurried out from Huangzhou City. Eleven people were walking along the road with eight donkeys. Each donkey was carrying heavy goods. It could be seen from the smooth and moist light exposed on the corners that this was a group of merchants who were trafficking in plain silk. Although the night was an active world of robbers, perhaps because of the delay in the trip, the group of merchants decided to take the risk of rushing to save time in order to arrive as scheduled.

Unfortunately, I might not have encountered a robber, and in the end I was most likely going against my wishes.

The grass next to the road ahead moved slightly, and a black shadow suddenly jumped out and blocked the middle of the road openly.

"Mongols! Put down your goods and get out of here!"

The leader of the leader with a soapy hat trembled and retorted: "This...... in this peaceful era, where did the Mongolians come from!"

"Ignorous rats, you dare to talk back! Brothers, come out!" As the black shadow whistled, dozens of figures suddenly jumped out of the grass on the side of the road, blocking the way of the business and travel. Everyone was holding a knife and gun, spreading their hair, and some even drew an extremely terrifying face with ink, screaming strangely. The look of fangs and claws in the dark night was like the ghosts in front of the Hall of Yama.

When Zaomian Hat saw this formation, she was already scared to the point of her legs like sieve crumbs. She shouted tremblingly: "Mongolian Grandpa, please spare your life, the young man will contribute the goods, just beg for my life!"

"Oh, that's right. We Mongolians, as long as you are willing to give money, you will be fine..." The robber said proudly, and walked over to plunder the property of the merchants.

What surprised him was that the other party's hands were not the plain silk offered, but two simple swords that were shining with cold light in the darkness.

"You, you, you, what do you mean!" The robber raised his hand and threatened: "Aren't you afraid of our Mongolian swords and guns!"

"Oh, don't you want goods? There is nothing else to hand over to you today, just swords, guns and shackles!" The man in the soapy hat turned his head and ordered the follower behind him, "Rise the torch and send a signal!"

As the three torches in the caravan were lit, countless torches were lit in the field a little further away, and the shouts of killing sounded everywhere, as if there was a shocking momentum.

"We are soldiers in charge of the Ma Junsi. We are shameless bandits who pretend to be Hu. We immediately put down our swords and guns and surrender!"
Chapter completed!