Chapter 244: Self-invested (Part 1)

"Big Prince, great joy, great joy!" As soon as he entered the cowhide tent with copper and gold skin, Ma Guozhu's face, which had been majestic for a long time, was filled with smiles. He tightly lifted his pants, looked down at the two birds, and rolled and crawled to Ezhe who was snuggling in the woman's arms and drinking. He beat Qian'er very casually, knelt on one knee, and shouted happily: "Congratulations to the eldest prince, congratulations to the eldest prince! I have congratulated the eldest prince--!"

"Where does the joy come from?" - Unfortunately, Ezhe's Chinese proficiency is really poor, so I couldn't ask this question intriguingly. After listening to the slow translation of the translation, Ezhe continued to snuggle in the woman's arms and said slowly: "What joy do I tell me? What joy do I have? Is my brother dead or my father dead? Or is my father Khan almost kicked his legs and sent someone to call me Chahanhot and let me inherit the Khan position?"

"Is your brother dead or your father dead?" Ma Guozhu was a little stunned. It was the first time I found that there was such a son in this world. After secretly admiring Prince Ezhe's childhood words, Ma Guozhu smiled again and said with a smile: "Big Prince, although the Khan did not send anyone to inform you to return to the Hanhot to succeed the throne, I believe that that day will not be too long - as long as the King Ti takes the Xuan Mansion and joins hands with our Dajin to destroy the Ming Kingdom, and regain the power of the Great Yuan Dynasty on the land of the Ming Kingdom, even if the Khan of the Mongolian Kingdom does not want to make you Khan, the Mongolian people will not agree."

"Oh, so you have already thought of a way to help me take down Xuan Mansion?" Ezhe became interested and sat upright from the woman's arms. Ma Guozhu took out the map that Zhang Zhongzheng secretly drew from his arms, held his hands happily and said, "Big Prince, I not only thought of a way to take down Xuan Mansion for you, but also thought of a way to break into the Great Wall at the minimum cost. After carefully interrogating Zhang Zhongzheng's inside line, I learned that in the Yinshan Mountains south of Angle Lake, there is a path that can bypass Zhangjiakou Fort and Laiyuan Fort defended by the Barbarian army, directly into the hinterland of Xuan Mansion, and can also directly take down Wanquan Right Guard behind Zhangjiakou - the Great Prince. This Wanquan City is an important granary of Xuan Mansion!"

"Really? The barbarian's granary is a good thing! Come and see it!" Ezhe was overjoyed and quickly grabbed the map from Ma Guozhu and opened it. Ezhe immediately smiled so hard that he couldn't close his mouth. On the map, in the south of the Mongolian military camp, there was indeed a small path that could bypass Zhangjiakou and directly enter the hinterland of Xuanfu, and he also avoided the garrison fortress established by the Ming army along the Great Wall. From the canyon between Yutailing and Yehuling, he rushed straight into the hinterland of Xuanfu and reached the bottom of Wanquan. But Ezhe looked carefully again and immediately cursed: "Idiot, will you look at the map? At the exit of this path through the Yinshan Mountains, there is a new opening fort of the barbarian, which just blocked the road out of the mountain. We have the easy way to get through with you?"

"Big Prince, don't worry, your Hongfu Qitian, this newly opened fort has been abandoned by the barbarian army." Ma Guozhu laughed happily and quickly explained the secret military situation between him and Zhang Zhongzheng, as well as the confidential military information explained by Zhang Zhongzheng's brothers. He had thought that Ma Guozhu had just finished speaking, and Ezhe immediately started yelling, "Come on, hurry up, I'm going to move the whole army!"

"Slow down!" Ma Guozhu was both angry and funny, and quickly grabbed Ezhe and advised: "Big Prince, don't be anxious first. Although Zhang Zhongzheng's dog barbarian has defected to us, the time is still too short. We cannot fully believe whether his words are reliable, so we cannot act impulsively and can only make plans for a long time."

"That's not nonsense?" Ezhe suddenly became angry and shouted: "Since you don't believe that barbarian Zhang Zhongzheng, why are you going to Zhangjiakou to contact him? Why did you come back with this broken map and tell me what good news? Want to fool me, let me be happy for nothing?"

"Big Prince, don't be anxious. I will listen to you slowly." Ma Guozhu had no choice but to explain quickly: "What I mean is that Zhang Zhongzheng's dog barbarian has just surrendered to us. We must not believe the information he provided. Therefore, I believe that we should send a small number of scouts first to explore the way as shown in the map. If the map is correct, the garrison of the newly opened fortress has indeed been cancelled, then we can fully believe Zhang Zhongzheng, the dog barbarian. If the map is fake, we can also make other plans." Speaking of this, Ma Guozhu carefully added, "Big Prince, you also know that although you can pick up the shortcut roads in the canyon, it is also an extremely dangerous place. If you are not careful, you may fall into a trap and be wiped out, so we have to be careful."

"Then why are you still stunned?" Ezhe roared with goldfish eyes, "Why don't you send someone to explore the way? See if this road is going to work, and if there is any ambush?"

"I obey the order." Ma Guozhu agreed with his fists, and added with concern, "The eldest prince, for the sake of caution, I want to go to explore the way myself and learn about the first-hand situation. By the way, I contacted Zhang Zhongzheng's clan brother, and asked him to open the city gate to welcome our army into the city when our army attacked Wanquancheng."

"Then why don't you go quickly? You can take how many people you want to take to do it, all of them will be arranged." Ezhe urged anxiously: "Go and come back quickly, don't waste time. If my father Khan and the barbarians reach an agreement, it will be too late." Ma Guozhu also knew that the opportunity was rare, so he was afraid that there would be troubles outside the festival. He quickly agreed and arranged twenty elite scouts to pretend to be Mongolian merchants, and then brought four followers from Liaodong. According to the map, he hurried to the canyon between Yutailing and Yehuling to explore the way.

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Angh Naoer Lake is far closer to Yutailing Canyon than to Zhangjiakou. Ma Guozhu and his team worked without stopping and successfully arrived at the entrance of the canyon after only half a day. However, when they arrived at the destination carefully, Ma Guozhu was startled first. This was not a fake map provided by Zhang Zhongzheng. The Ming army was indeed stationed here. The actual situation was exactly the same as what Zhang Zhongzheng introduced. The Xuanda Great Wall, which was cut off by the canyon on both sides was dilapidated, and even the beacon tower was

It has been completely abandoned, and it is difficult for the Ming army to discover it by the Ming army. What really scared Ma Guozhu was the dangerous terrain at the exit of the canyon! On both sides of the canyon, Yutai Ridge and Yehu Ridge towered into the clouds, with trees growing on the ridge, making it easy to ambush. At the same time, the narrowest part of the canyon is less than half a mile, and the cliffs on both sides are straight and as long as there are three thousand Ming troops ambushing here, and after the Mongolian army enters the valley, the Mongolian cavalry can't rush out of the valley even if there are 100,000 troops!

"What a dangerous terrain. No wonder the barbarians don't garrison here. I'm afraid they have predicted that the enemy will dare to take this road." After murmured for a moment, Ma Guozhu secretly thought about it, thinking that it was the Mongolian army who was taking this road, and it was not our Jin army to take risks. It would be nothing to go in and see. Thinking of this, Ma Guozhu waved his hand and shouted: "Continue to walk inside, pay attention to whether there are signs of large groups of people walking on the road, and pay attention to whether there are ambushes from the barbarian army."

After passing through the canyon between Yutai Ridge and Yehu Ridge, the terrain was slightly wider. Some places even allowed large groups of cavalry to gather and station, but the surroundings were still surrounded by mountains and dense trees, which were easy to enter and difficult to exit. At the same time, Ma Guozhu found that the water source in this place was obviously insufficient and could not be stationed for a long time. It was obvious that because of this, the Ming army of Xuanfu did not choose to build a fortress in this location and defend it for a long time. At the same time, the experienced Mongolian scouts and Jiannu scouts were also in the grass.

A path was found in the middle. The road was narrow and the ruts were old. The torn straw sandals worn by several civilians were also found, which were very consistent with the characteristics of the smuggling trail described by the brothers Zhang Zhongzheng. Moreover, the weeds on both sides of the road were piled up and thorns were growing, and there were no obvious signs of the large group of people walking. This made Ma Guozhu feel a little relieved - because this can be clearly proved that, except for a small number of small smuggling teams, even the Ming army had not walked through this remote path for a long time.

The sky gradually became dark. While sleeping on the road overnight, Ma Guozhu personally climbed up to the high ground to observe and found that there was no bonfires sleeping in the forests on both sides of the road and patrolling torches. It also proved that the Ming army scouts did not patrol and monitor this road. The next morning, Ma Guozhu and his party continued to travel south and soon discovered traces of the Lu Xiangsheng army blocking the path as introduced by Zhang Zhongzheng. However, the big stones and wood blocking the road had been cleared out of a path and allowed vehicles to pass through, which proved that Zhang Zhongzheng did not lie. This was indeed his smuggling. Ma Guozhu was secretly happy and quietly estimated the time it took to clean the road in a comprehensive manner. He felt that as long as there was enough manpower, it would be absolutely no problem to clean the road in at most two hours.

After passing the path that Zhang Zhongzheng and others secretly opened up by smugglers, they followed the not-too-narrow road and walked south for nearly two hours. A recently abandoned earth and stone fortress appeared in front of Ma Guozhu and others. The cautious Ma Guozhu sent people to investigate the fort and found that there was indeed no one in the fort. The garrison houses and horse houses and warehouses were empty, with only some broken bowls and pots, and no one could see. After walking south through the fort, the road that was not too narrow was originally

The road suddenly became wide open. As we reached the top of the mountain, Ma Guozhu and others could even see the smoke from the people in Wanquan City directly. In addition to the large areas of free farmland that had been harvested, there was no sign of the Ming army stationed at the foot of the mountain. After waiting for a long time, we finally saw a Ming army patrol team. The soldiers in the patrol team were lazily perfunctory. Before long, they found a place to make fires, cook, drink and eat meat, and completely complete the style of soldiers of the second-rate army in the rear.

Seeing this, Ma Guozhu, who had been walking on the mountain road for a day, was secretly happy. The Mongolian scouts and Jiannu entourage were all smiling and scrambling to say, "Mr. Ma, it's absolutely fine to walk this road. As long as we seize the time and bring more torches, we can definitely kill the city at most eight or nine hours." "There is less water, but our Mongolian army has never been afraid of water. As long as we carry a water bag with us, we don't have to worry about water source problems when we walk this road." "Mr. Ma, Zhang Zhongzheng's dog barbarian was not panicked. This road can indeed allow us to attack the rear of the barbarian army."

"Don't worry, let me think about it." Ma Guozhu tried hard to calm himself from his ecstasy. First, he waved his hand to shut up the scouts. After careful calculation, Ma Guozhu took out the map and ordered: "Let's do this, ten Mongolian scouts stayed in the canyon to monitor, and the other ten went back to report the message. Please ask Prince Ezhe to lead the army to attack Wanquancheng on this small road and lead the way for the eldest prince. The remaining Liaodong people will follow me to Wanquancheng and contact Zhang Zhongzheng's brother Zhang Tiechui to make preparations for opening the city to welcome him."

"Get orders." The scouts happily agreed. Ma Guozhu pulled the Mongolian scout back to report the message and instructed: "Remember to tell the eldest prince that soldiers are fast. If the barbarians are prepared, it will be bad. So please be sure to arrive at Wanquan City on the night of August 20. I will open the city gate with Zhang Tiechui in the city, but in order to prevent it, please prepare for a strong attack and attack the city directly if necessary."

"I understand, the villain remembers it." The scout ten-member captain agreed respectfully. Ma Guozhu reminded again: "Also, when the eldest prince sends troops, be sure to let the army go in three ways. The first light cavalry is leading the way to sneak attack Wanquancheng. The second central army is led by the eldest prince himself. Before the barbarian army reacts, he passes through the Yinshan Mountains and directly enters the barbarian's hinterland. The third rear team behind the back team will kill the barbarian's scout's eye line and strive to let the barbarian army know that we have taken this route and sneak attack Wanquancheng. Do you understand?"

"I understand." The Mongolian scouts agreed neatly. Ma Guozhu explained the signals of contact with each other to the Mongolian scouts, and immediately asked them to return from the same route to the shore of Angnaoer Lake to inform Ezhe. The four entourages brought by Ma Guozhu from Liaodong were all over the world. He really couldn't understand why Ma Guozhu became so brave, and he volunteered to enter Wanquan City as an inner supporter. Until the Mongolian scouts had gone away, a entourage asked in a low voice: "Master Ma, just contact the barbarian traitors, and just send a few people. Why do you want to take this risk yourself?"

"Stupid! I'm doing this, the safest way." Ma Guozhu waved his hand and said in a dark way: "The road of Yutailing can indeed bypass the main force of the barbarian attack on the barbarian's hinterland, but the road is too dangerous. If you are accidentally discovered by the barbarian, you may have dumplings made by the barbarian! Anyway, that idiot Ezhe is determined to start a war with the barbarian, so it's better to let him take this risk. We take the risk on the surface to contact the barbarian traitor, and if we encounter danger, we can escape at any time, which is safe. Otherwise, we will march with the idiot Ezhe. If we encounter danger, we may bury the idiot."

"Sir, this is the reason." The four Jiannu guards cheered together, admiring the selfless spirit of Ma Guozhu's dangerous way out. But there was also a Jiannu guard who said worriedly: "Sir, I am worried that if that idiot Ezhe is really made into dumplings by the barbarians and the 50,000 Tartar troops were wiped out by the barbarians, wouldn't we have wasted all our efforts?"

"Who said that all our previous efforts were wasted?" Ma Guozhu's expression was extremely treacherous and said with a treacherous smile: "For us, as long as we can provoke a full-scale war between the barbarians of the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian Tartars and make the barbarians turn against each other and start a war, we have already made a great contribution to the Jin Kingdom! Being able to make this idiot Ezhe succeed in a surprise attack on Wanquancheng is of course the icing on the cake, and the contribution is even greater! But if that idiot Ezhe was killed by the barbarians, or his army suffered heavy casualties, how could that old idiot Lin Dan give up? Wasn't we still completed the task?"

"Yes, that's the reason." The four Jiannu guards suddenly realized and scrambled to flatter him: "Mr. Ma is indeed a clever plan and has no choice. After returning from making merit this time, the Khan will definitely value the teacher. At that time, he will ask him to favor the slaves and others."

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say. If I really get the reward of the Great Khan, I will definitely not forget you meritorious ministers." When I thought of successfully provoking the rewards obtained after the Ming Meng war, Ma Guozhu's old face almost turned into a flower, and waved his hand and said, "Don't be stunned. Follow me into Wanquan City to contact the barbarian traitor Zhang Tiechui. Don't worry, we are holding the deadly handle of the dog barbarian Zhang Zhongzheng in our hands. He will definitely not dare to sell us. It is actually safe to enter Wanquan City."

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When he saw Ma Guozhu appear at the contact point agreed with Jiannu, Zhang Tiechui, wearing the general military uniform, was really shocked. He secretly thanked that he would come to Wanquancheng to go through the procedures for taking office after the last breakup, otherwise he might have been seen. Nervously, Zhang Tiechui asked stammeringly: "Ma...Master Ma, why did you come to Wanquancheng in person? Are you not afraid of being exposed?"

"I'm afraid, of course I'm afraid." Ma Guozhu said in a big way: "But when I think about something happening to me, someone will definitely be buried with me, so I'm not afraid."

"That's of course, that's of course. My elder brother has repeatedly told me that I must listen to Lord Ma, otherwise he will not be the first to spare me." Zhang Tiechui nodded and bowed. Ma Guozhu waved his hand and said, "Okay, let's talk less. I came to Wanquancheng to notify you and let you prepare for it. In just a few days, you will do what you promised."

"So quickly?" Zhang Tiechui was startled and asked nervously: "Sir Ma, what exactly was that night? The villain is ready."

"If you do the specific action on that day, you will naturally notify you. Just be prepared first." Ma Guozhu said arrogantly: "Anyway, in these days, you have come to contact me every day. Also, this is a deposit for you." As he said that, Ma Guozhu handed Zhang Tiecheng another silver note of 200 taels of silver and said with a smile: "After the matter is done, I will give you the remaining 800 taels of taels of beauty in the city, you can choose whatever you want."

Zhang Tiechui took the silver bill with a happy and greedy look on his face, and made an appointment with Ma Guozhu for the next meeting, so he hurried out to say goodbye. Ma Guozhu was always cautious, and then turned to a Jiannu entourage and asked him to follow Zhang Tiechui. The Jiannu guard took the order and left. After a long time, the Jiannu guard came back to report: "Master Ma, no problem. That kid went back to the army base directly. The slave monitored outside for a long time, but he didn't see any abnormalities in the barbarian military camp. It seemed that he hadn't sold us." The other two Jiannu guards who were visiting the movement outside the inn in the dark also quickly returned, saying that there was no abnormality outside the inn. Ma Guozhu then felt relieved and began to wait patiently for the agreed time to break the city. He also contacted the Mongolian scouts who stayed on the path every day to find out the specific situation.

Not to mention, Zhang Tiechui was really obedient. In the next two days, Zhang Tiechui came to the inn on time to contact Ma Guozhu every day, listened to Ma Guozhu's orders, and reported the movements of the troops in Wanquan City. On the third day, at noon on August 20th, when Zhang Tiechui came to the inn again, Ma Guozhu first carefully inquired about the military mobilization situation in Wanquan City, and found that what Zhang Tiechui introduced was exactly the same as his secret spy. Then he was completely relieved and ordered Zhang Tiechui: "Be prepared, just tonight, after midnight, you see three red lanterns rising outside the north gate, and you will immediately open the city gate. Do you understand?"

"Tonight?" Zhang Tiechui was shocked. Ma Guozhu nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, tonight-I received the news that the Mongolian army has set off. After you go back, just be prepared and there is no need to contact me again. After midnight, you open the city gate and you can accept the three beauties you want."

"After I go back, just be prepared, there is no need to contact you, Mr. Ma?" Zhang Tiechui repeated it and looked at Ma Guozhu suspiciously and asked, "Sir Ma, then, after I leave this inn, you will leave this inn? Even Wanquancheng?"

"It's not your business, don't ask more if you are smart." Ma Guozhu replied impatiently. Zhang Tiechui, who has been more obedient than his third grandson in the past few days, suddenly raised his voice and shouted angrily: "Why is it not my business? You run out of the city first, I stay in the city to open the door. If something happens, you can run away. What should I do? Stay and die?"

"Word it low, are you looking for death?" Ma Guozhu was furious and just stood up to threaten Zhang Tiechu. Unexpectedly, a smile suddenly came from the next door, "I'm afraid you are the one who seeks death?" Before he finished speaking, the walls on both sides of Ma Guozhu's room suddenly broke at the same time. Seven or eight men in various casual clothes rushed out with steel knives in their hands, and they slashed down randomly. The two Jiannu guards in Ma Guozhu's room were caught off guard and were immediately cut into blood sprays, screaming and falling into a pool of blood.

"I've been trapped!" Ma Guozhu reacted quickly and rushed to the window and was about to jump out. Unexpectedly, Zhang Tiech grabbed his belt and pulled him back and threw him to the ground. Ma Guozhu screamed wildly without giving up: "Ons outside, run away, it's a trap!"

"It's too late." A waiter with a knife stepped on Ma Guozhu's face and said with a smile: "I've been disguised as a waiter and have been monitoring you here for three days. The few people you brought have been staring at us." Sure enough, the two Jiannu guards who stayed outside to let go were soon carried up by a group of young men. One of the young men smiled at Zhang Tiechui and said: "Brother Zhang, the two dogs Jiannu want to run away, but they were killed by us! Damn, if they were asked to run away, will there be any place to put our Dongchang face?"

"Are you the hawks from the East Factory?" Ma Guozhu screamed like a pig, and roared wildly at Zhang Tiechui: "Zhang Tiechui, how dare you tell the hawks from the East Factory? Do you believe it or not, I will take you to bury them with me?" Zhang Tiechui smiled and waved his hand. Then two men stepped forward, one put it into Ma Guozhu's mouth with a rag, and the other put it on Ma Guozhu's head with a sack, then turned the handle of the knife and came hard on Ma Guozhu's head, and immediately smashed Ma Guozhu unconscious...

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When Ma Guozhu woke up from his coma, time had passed for a long time and found that he was in prison and Zhang Tiechui disappeared. There were only a few Dongchang Fans who were vaguely familiar with each other, who had once dressed as waiters, drinking while guarding himself. Seeing this scene, Ma Guozhu, who knew he was doomed, immediately shouted, "Grandpa of Dongchang, grandpa of Dongchang! I surrender myself, I want to make meritorious contributions, I want to report a big traitor among you. If you catch him, you can make great contributions--!"

"Oh, are you going to expose that traitor?" A Dongchang military servant was interested and put down his wine glass and asked Ma Guozhu. Ma Guozhu shouted wildly: "His name is Zhang Zhongzheng, the acting leader Bo around you Lu Futai. He is related to the traitor Cao Zhenyan. He once helped Jiannu and leaked the deployment of the Xuanfu army to the Mongolian Tatars. I also have a confession written by him! If you arrest him and torture him, you will definitely make great contributions!"

"Zhang Zhongzheng? Is there such a person next to Lu Futai?" Several Dongchang soldiers were a little confused. Their team hit Ma Guozhu's face in one go, and shouted: "Don't you go! Do you want to kill me if you catch Zhang Zhongzheng?"

"Tao, who is Zhang Zhongzheng?" several soldiers asked in surprise. The group of soldiers shouted: "Who else can it be? Of course, it is the son of our eldest son, Nine Thousand Sui, and the brother of the second eldest brother, Eunuch Song and the third eldest son, Lord Xiao, - Zhang Haogu, Zhang Xiantai! Zhongzheng is Zhang Xiantai's word! He was arrested for severe punishment. It would be strange if Jiu Qiansui and Eunuch Song did not peel your skin!"

"Fuck your mother! Dog traitor, do you want to kill me? Brothers, let this dog traitor taste the great punishment of our Dongchang!"
Chapter completed!