After raising incense for Zhang Xianzhong, Zhu Cilang led the army to continue the southward journey.

The northern Shaanxi Plateau is very desolate, so Zhu Cilang naturally knew this a long time ago.

But when he really set foot here, he realized that this desolation was even more desolate than he had imagined.

In this area, there is only one village within a radius of dozens of miles. This is very normal. One time, the army even went there for three days before discovering the next village.

"Why is this happening?" Zhu Ciyang couldn't help but say, "I remember, aren't there many Ming military and civilians in northern Shaanxi also stationed?"

The British Duke also looked bad and sighed: "This place is a major border area on the Ming Dynasty. Not far from the north is the Hetao land occupied by the Mongols. It has always been plundered by the Mongols in the autumn and winter. After Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong launched an army, the northwest border troops here fled south and joined the two rebels. The common people could continue to survive here without the protection of the border troops?"

Zhu Cilang's face was solemn, and his heart was quite heavy after listening to the British Duke's words.

This is the importance of the army. Without a strong army, the people do not even dare to live on the border.

Even Zhu Ciyang is now two or three hundred miles away from the border, and the people still dare not live here!

Zhu Cilang snorted, and murderous intent flashed in his eyes: "The Hetao area will eventually be brought back together."

Since the establishment of the Qin Dynasty by Qin Shihuang, the Central Plains dynasty and the northern nomadic peoples fought fiercely around the Hetao region, which lasted for nearly two thousand years.

For most of the time, the Hetao area was actually controlled by nomadic peoples, which obviously made Zhu Cilang very dissatisfied.

The Hetao area belongs to the center of the Yellow River "Ji". If the Hetao area can be captured, then the entire southern bank of the Yellow River will be from the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty can use the Yellow River as a defense line.

Conversely, the Hetao area is now under the control of the northern Mongols, and the Mongols can go directly south from Hetao to northern Shaanxi at any time and reach Xi'an, which puts huge pressure on the northwest border of the Ming Dynasty.

Over the past few decades, the Mongols in Hetao have been in constant conflict, and several great khans have taken turns to dominate each other, which has made the Ming border troops in Shaanxi less difficult.

If one day these Mongols once again united under a Genghis Khan-type overlord, the existence of the Hetao region would really become a major concern for the Central Plains dynasty.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

"Damn it, why are there so many problems with the Ming Dynasty?"

There are Jiannu in the northeast, there are Japanese in the East China Sea, there are Mongolian tribes to the west and north, and there are Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish on the sea to the south.

A group of enemies are around.

What’s ridiculous is that there are still many people in the Ming Dynasty who are constantly advocating the idea of ​​closing the country!

Do you really think that if you close the door and become an ostrich, the enemies outside will not discover the existence of your Ming Dynasty?

All I can say is that he is very stupid and naive.

While speaking, the Ming army led by Zhu Cilang passed by a village in a mighty manner.

Like other villages, this village has long been abandoned, with walls of many houses collapsed, and a few crows fell on the trees, making people feel upset.

Zhu Cilang was silent for a while and took out his sniper rifle.

With a loud "bang", the crow that screamed the loudest was blown up on the spot by a bullet. Several other crows flew up in shock and fled in all directions.

Zhu Cixuan took back the sniper rifle and snorted: "The thief is a bird!"

The British Duke was stunned when he watched this scene, and then smiled and said, "It would be great if the old minister could have such a shooting technique as His Highness."

Zhu Cilang was about to speak, but his eyes suddenly stopped.

Just near the dead tree where the crows had just lived, the wooden door suddenly shaking, and a small arm stretched out from the gap, waving constantly.

Zhu Cilang's eyes sterned and said in a deep voice: "Duke of England, send a few people to see."

The British Duke looked at Zhu Cilang and was immediately surprised and hurriedly brought a few personal guards over.

"Someone!"

"It's a child."

"Open the door, open the door quickly!"

"Forget it, climb over the wall, hurry up, she can't seem to be able to withstand it."

The British Duke nimbled over the wall of the high courtyard and landed on the ground with a thump.

Zhu Cilang exclaimed: "I didn't expect that our prince is still a monkey."

The wooden door was finally opened, and the British Duke held one in one hand and took the two children out.

Zhu Cixuan couldn't calm down now and jumped out of the carriage and walked up to him: "What's going on? Lao Fang, call the doctor over!"

After some rush, Zhu Cixuan had two more children on his chariot.

These two children are siblings. The sister is about five or six years old, and the younger brother is about three or four years old. Both children look very thin and obviously have been tortured by hunger for a long time.

A military doctor whispered to Zhu Cixuan: "Your Highness, the two siblings are not seriously injured, they are just hungry for too long. Just feed some water and food and you will recover slowly."

Zhu Cilang immediately ordered someone to bring water and food. Sure enough, the two siblings looked radiant when they saw it and they started to swallow it.

"Eat slowly, don't choke, your stomach will hurt later." Zhu Cixuan winked at Fang Gongqian while comforting the two children.

Finally, when the two siblings were full, Zhu Cixuan asked, "How come you two are here, what about your parents?"

The younger brother was obviously a little scared. After hearing Zhu Cilang's question, he subconsciously hid behind his sister.

The sister protected her younger brother tightly and said timidly: "Ah, my father said he would go to the army and he hasn't come back for a long time. My mother has been taking us with her, but everyone in the village has left. My mother doesn't want to leave, so we are the only one in the village. That day, she said she would go find food for us and ask us to hide at home and not talk, but, but she... she hasn't come back for a long time. My brother has been saying that he is so hungry, so he cries, and then we didn't eat either. Me, we..."

At the end of the day, the girl's voice was already crying.

At this moment, Fang Gongqian returned, holding a small sachet in his hand, and whispered to Zhu Cilang: "I asked someone to look for it in the village. There was a corpse beside the well, which looked like a woman, who had been dead for several days. Judging from the traces, he should be too hungry and powerless. When he was fetching water, he fell and hit the stone at the wellhead and died."

Before Zhu Cixuan could speak, the girl's eyes suddenly lit up: "Sachet, it's my mother's sachet! Big brother, have you found my mother?"

There were originally hundreds of soldiers and generals next to Zhu Cixuan's chariot, but at this moment, everyone was silent.

Zhu Cilang sighed a long time, carefully blew away the dust stained on the sachet, then handed the sachet to the girl's hand and spoke gently.

"Your mother is going to find your father, and you will see him in the future. The eldest brother is your father's friend. Your father entrusts the eldest brother to take you to the city in the south, where someone will take care of you."

The girl seemed to understand but nodded slowly.

Zhu Cilang ordered people to vacate a carriage, place the two children on it, and then continue to go south.

Looking at the abandoned village gradually moving away from behind, Zhu Cilang sighed a long sigh.

"What a shitty world is this!"

Dusk has arrived, and the village after the army left has become dead silent again.

There is a new grave on the hill behind the village. A crow fell on a brand new wooden tombstone. He looked around and was very satisfied with the place where he lived, so he started to scream with confidence.

There are two lines of words on the tombstone.

"Tomb of the Anonymous Mother of the Ming Dynasty."
Chapter completed!