This person was deeply impressed by Zhou Shixian when he was reading Ming History.

Li Jiantai, the Grand Secretary of the Dongge, should be now in the hands of Liu Fangliang as a prisoner.

The reason why it fell into Liu Fangliang's hands was that he volunteered last month to fight the thief for Emperor Wansui, so-called on behalf of the emperor.

When the civil and military officials in the court were afraid of the enemy like tigers, someone bravely stood up. Chongzhen was naturally overjoyed and awarded the Minister of War and the Sword of Shangfang to act on behalf of the Heavenly Heaven.

Zhou Shixian knew that Shangfang Sword was actually not uncommon, because his father-in-law would give each supervisor a hand, which has become a standard configuration.

However, Li Jiantai's sword is really a bit different.

Others' Shangfang swords will be issued with notes. For civil officials, they can only be used for military supervision, military preparation, military affairs, prefectures, prefectures, counties, etc., and for military officials, they can only be used for deputy generals and below generals. For senior officials such as governors, governors, and generals, they can only participate in the report, and they cannot really use swords to cut off other people's heads.

However, because the sword given to Li Jiantai was personally expeditioned by the emperor, he could cut it as long as he wanted, without reporting.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, no minister has ever held such terrible power.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to cut down anyone. He selected 10,000 people from the Five Military Camps and Shenji Camps in the Beijing Camp to fight, claiming to be 40,000. However, when he went south to Dingxing County, the county magistrate refused to let his troops enter the city and asked him to pass by.

This was a matter of course, but in a rage, he actually sent troops to defeat the county town, hung up the county magistrate, and killed six gentry leaders who led the city to guard the city.

This was the only battle he fought after leaving Beijing, attacking a county town on his own, and then the troops of the Beijing camp collapsed here. He ran to Baoding and hid. Not long after, even the city was captured by Liu Fangliang, who was advancing north from Henan.

"You mean, this is the defeated army of the Beijing camp?" Zhou Shixian asked Wei Donglai.

"Yes," Wei Donglai replied, "Some of those who fled back to the capital, some of whom were surrounded by Liu Fangliang and some were stranded in the Baiyangdian area, most of which were done by this group."

Zhou Shixian thought for a while, and suddenly remembered what Gu Shiba said.

"Eighteen, what did you say just now?"

"Master, I said, don't be angry. I looked around. There were no young women among the dead people in the village." Gu Shiba said hesitantly, "I heard... I heard that the thief was not happy to catch women back to the camp."

Zhou Shixian understood this time. There was no young woman among the deceased, so he was naturally captured. He nodded, thinking that even his guards could not see that it was not done by the thief, but indeed, the soldiers were inferior to those of the thief.

When Gu Shiba saw him nodding, he was encouraged and said, "Take a woman and walk not far."

"Eighteen, you're right!" Zhou Shixian turned around and asked Wei Donglai: "How far is Baiyangdian from here?"

"It's always seventy or eighty miles."

"That's not right," Zhou Shixian shook his head, "it should be closer."

After saying this, I suddenly realized that I had clearly opened the map, but I saw the black flag without the enemy, so I didn't think about it anymore.

Now within one hour of the map, he opened the map panel again and looked carefully. Within a twenty-mile range, there was indeed a small red flag representing the official army.

He lit the flag and found that the number of this group of officials was about 150. The name of the Xun land was Xingning Gong Town, which was on the west side of the village, about ten miles away from here.

Strangely, there is no name of the chief.

Zhou Shixian thought about it a little more, and then he realized that there was no chief officer, which means that this was a defeated soldier. Because of the chaos of the establishment, there was no general in the ordinary sense. However, there must be a leader, but it may not be a high-level general. Sometimes, even a big-headed soldier with prestige may be.

He had already made up his mind and turned to ask Rui Chang: "You just said that the bandits retreated to the west, is that true?"

"Indeed." Rui Chang knew that this was not a joke, so he dared not be careless and replied solemnly, "Don't worry, son-in-law, we are used to not checking the traces at night. This group of bandits... officers... officers and soldiers, with horses and steps, and the number of people is not one hundred or eighty. They all come from the small path to the west and retreat to the west."

"Okay, I understand, let's go back."

After Zhou Shixian finished speaking in a simple manner, he waved his hand and took the lead in getting out of the village to get on the horse. Dozens of people followed the horse and returned to the side of the road where the convoy was located.

When Xu Yong and Zhuang Yanchao saw that they were back, they came forward with concern, and they both wanted to know what the situation was going on.

Zhou Shixian got off the horse, took off the outer robe he was wearing without saying a word, slowly folded it up, stuffed it into the side bag next to the saddle, revealing a piece of armor.

Xu Yong saw the opportunity as fast as he saw that his eyes lit up. The prince-in-law was going to chop people! Without saying a word, he took off his outer robe and held the handle of the knife and came up.

Others also recalled the smell, looked at each other and surrounded them.

"About a hundred people were killed in the village in front, and the young women were all kidnapped, but this was not done by the thieves, but by the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp." Zhou Shixian's expression had returned to calm, and he said simply, "I'm going to suppress them and rescue the women."

The words were very plain, but everyone felt the weight of it, and for a moment, no one spoke.

"Mr. Concubine," Zhuang Yanchao saw that everyone was not talking, and hesitated for a while, and still spoke, "We don't know how many people there are on the other side and where they are stationed..."

"Rui Chang has found out that they are retreating westward," Zhou Shixian interrupted Zhuang Yanchao's words and said, "Five miles west from here, there is Xingning Palace Town, which is definitely the garrison of this group of defeated soldiers. The number is not large or small, about one hundred and fifty, with horses and steps, and the latest firearms."

This time, no one asked the prince-consort how he could infer it in such detail, so as not to be mentioned by the prince-consort again that they did not study.

"Mr. Concubine, let me say something else," Zhuang Yanchao said with a tough head, "We want to protect our troops south. If such a thing is going to take action, it will be damaged. Can we hand it over to the garrison...the garrison..."

I stopped talking about this, and I don’t know how to continue.

"You can't continue to say it yourself, right?" Zhou Shixian sighed, "Where are there any garrisons?"

He knew that Zhuang Yanchao had always been meticulous, calm and down-to-earth, and dared to advise him on major matters. In fact, he was a rare and good helper. What he said made sense on the surface. The things in the village seemed insignificant compared to the plan of protecting the south. What did the lives of several women count against the fate of the Ming Dynasty?

Gripping your teeth, closing your eyes and passing by.

But in this life, you will always encounter something at some point, which will make you unable to get through like this.
Chapter completed!