The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

In the officer-soldier camp, Li Chong, Pan Jiang, Zhao, Fang, Wei Santou and the military officers were all in the camp, and everyone passed on a note written on yellow paper, which was shot into the horse's belly by Qiu Dabao Su Jin's secret letter brought by the arrow.

The letter wrote: Wang An, my lords, the envoy is in the bandit's nest, the situation is beyond my expectation, the stronghold is dangerous, the bandit leader is tyrannical, the previous calculations have all failed, but I have found an internal response, and I need a large army to support it outside; After riri falls today, you need to make a big feint to attract the attention of the bandit army so that I can do things more easily; during the feint attack, you often use rockets to burn the mountain. As a sign, you can attack on a large scale, attack up and down and annihilate them, remember, remember.

Li Chong waited for everyone to read it, and asked, "What do you guys think?"

Wei Dutou got up abruptly and said: "I didn't say anything, fuck him nainai."

Zhao, Fang and the others also echoed, "Since the special envoy has ordered, it is natural to cooperate with the action."

Seeing that Pan Jiang seemed to be hesitant, Li Chong smiled and said, "Commander Pan, what's your opinion?"

Pan Jiang clasped his fists and said, "It's not a good opinion, but Mr. Li, I have some doubts that I need to clarify; I'm afraid it's not good to make a decision hastily."

Li Chong said: "Please tell me."

Pan Jiangdao: "Firstly, we don't know whether this letter was written by the Special Envoy. There is no signature on the letter. Even if it is signed, there is no guarantee whether it is the intention of the Special Envoy."

Li Chong said with a smile: "This is very easy. I do know Mr. Specialist's handwriting. His handwriting is different from others. He likes to simplify his strokes the most. A small part of the written words are physical and strokes." We know each other again, I discussed this matter with him when I was in Luzhou, and he changed it a lot later; but...seeing that the entire text of this note is written in this way, there should be no danger of counterfeiting."

Pan Jiang said: "Even so, is it the original intention of the special envoy? If it was written under the duress of the bandits, wouldn't it be a trap? Lure me into the mountain pass, and then ambushes, surround and attack it, We have to guard against it."

Li Zhong said seriously: "Are you doubting the integrity of the special envoy? Do you want me to tell you two old things about the special envoy? From what I know about him, the special envoy would never do such a thing. As a matter of fact, he may be a bit tricky in his actions, but he is irreproachable in the grand scheme of things."

Pan Jiang said: "I'm not skeptical, but just in case, if this is the case, wouldn't we send sheep like tigers, and all of them will be destroyed?"

Li Chong suddenly changed his color, got up and wanted to refute, suddenly heard a cold woman's voice from outside the tent, said: "The slave family will come to guarantee, is it okay?"

The curtain was lifted, and Yan Biyun walked in with a frosty mask, followed by Rou Niang and Xiao Xian'er, both of whom had unfriendly expressions.

Pan Jiang said coldly: "Women don't need to intervene in important military affairs."

Yan Biyun said: "The slave family guarantees it as the niece of Yan Shu, the third envoy. Isn't this general not at ease? Who is Su Jin? If he can be held hostage by others, how can the master uncle of the slave family recommend him like the emperor and appoint him?" With great responsibility? If General Pan can’t even trust the eyes of the third envoy, it’s better to hide behind to save your life when I advise you to attack the mountain.”

Pan Jiang was astonished at Yan Biyun's merciless berating of himself, and even more astonished at her identity. He always thought that Yan Biyun was just Su Jin's wife and concubine, but he never expected that she was the niece of the third envoy Yan Shu.

"This..." Pan Jiang was momentarily at a loss for words.

Yan Biyun didn't answer, took the pen and paper from the case, wrote down a few lines and signed his name on it, and handed it to Pan Jiang, saying: "The slave's written guarantee, if there is any discrepancy, with this evidence, you can go straight to the third division." Make it responsible."

Li Zhong said loudly: "The county also guarantees it, and I will sign it when I bring it over."

Zhao Dutou, Fang Dutou and the others didn't know Yan Biyun's real identity until today. They didn't expect Special Envoy Su to have such a background and have ties to the third envoy. What's more, even the niece and daughter of the third envoy followed him. He traveled here and there with the army, no wonder this Miss Yan kept the curtains down all the way after setting off from the capital, obviously she didn't want others to know her identity.

The two looked at each other, and their hearts were connected. If this big flatterer didn't follow suit, I'm afraid they would regret it for the rest of their lives.

"I'm willing to vouch for it too! Damn it, it's dangerous to send your lord deep into the tiger's lair, and we're still sitting here doubting him. It's really not human's job to do it." Zhao and Fang scolded Sang Huai.

Pan Jiang's face turned red, and he felt wronged in his heart. Didn't he just raise concerns?Why did it arouse public anger, is it wrong to be cautious?

"Everyone, you misunderstood me, I'm just worried..." Pan Jiang quickly explained.

Wei Dutou also said: "Commander Pan also meant to be cautious, and he didn't mean to slander the special envoy. The special envoy's matter is urgent, and we should hurry up and get down to business."

Pan Jiang hurriedly got down by the ladder, and said, "Yes, yes, this is the case. Let's discuss the details of the evening operation."

Only then did Li Chong and the others take their seats, and Li Chong asked, "If Commander Pan has any questions, just say them together."

Pan Jiang coughed, with hot sweat on his forehead, and continued: "The envoy said that we should burn the forest with rockets to attract bandit troops, but where did we get the rockets? There was only one barrel of kerosene that day, and it was already taken by Master Li yesterday. There is not a single drop left for the feint attack, how should we complete the envoy's lord's explanation."

This question hits the point. Without kerosene, arrows cannot burn. Is it possible to use trees as targets to practice shooting arrows?There is no fire, shooting into the forest is useless, and it can't attract the troops of the bandit army. Yesterday's feint attack proved that the bandits are still afraid of fire. When the rocket ignited the forest, hundreds of bandits were busy fighting the fire. Almost able to break through the pass.

Everyone was thinking hard, and suddenly heard someone say: "Actually... as long as it can help the combustion, it should be fine?"

Everyone followed the reputation, but it was the delicate and timid Rou Niang who spoke, but this unconfident words awakened the dreamer.

Li Chong patted his thigh and said: "Miss Rou Niang is right, we don't want to be powerful, we just need to be able to ignite the fire, and things that support combustion, such as vegetable oil, lard, and candle oil are all fine?"

Pan Jiang also said: "Yes, as long as it is melted and soaked with cloth strips, it will still be blazing when it is lit. As for whether it can be burned hot, then there is no need to investigate, as long as it attracts bandits to keep trying to put out the fire."

"But where do you get these things?" Wei Du spread his hands and asked.

Li Chong looked at Zhao Fang and the two, and said with a smile: "I have to work hard. The two guards have already made a fuss. You are already old acquaintances in Shouzhou City. How about borrowing some?"

Zhao and Fang laughed loudly and said, "Let's take the brothers to borrow it now. The transfer route makes the adults stingy, and you may lose face if you go."

Li Chong laughed loudly and said, "Then I'll have to thank you two. If they don't give it, you will bring all the cooking oil pots from the transfer envoy's house, and tell him to eat rice and cook cabbage every day."

Zhao and Fang laughed and said, "Don't worry, it's okay to be sensible, but if you don't, I told him not to eat oil for a year."

Li Chong cupped his hands and said: "It's not too late, go back quickly, Shen Shi must return to the camp, and bring more cotton rags from the arrows."

Zhao Fang and Zhao Fang responded loudly, they went out of the big tent, shouted five drinks and six six immediately, and summoned men; after a while, the horse army was assembled, and the hooves were rumbling, and they galloped westward.

Li Chong and the others also took active actions, arranging the bow strings and polishing the arrows, and they were extremely busy.

……

In the cell, Su Jin and Chao Mahan pretended to be bandits and sat in the stone room waiting for news.

There was a knock on the door, and Su Jin waved his hand to signal Chao Mahan not to move. Looking through the crack of the door, he saw two bandits carrying food standing at the door and slamming on the door.

Su Jin was startled, and actually forgot about this problem, and quickly reached out and wiped a handful of putty on the ground, and then wiped a few times on his face indiscriminately, and then opened the door.

The two bandits said impatiently: "Qi Lao Si, aren't you active in eating? My hands are numb from the cold."

Su Jin cupped his hands and said, "You two have worked hard."

The two bandits raised their eyes and pointed at Su Jin's face and asked in surprise, "You... who are you?"

Su Jin hurriedly said with a smile: "You two, I'm new here. The fourth brother, Fatty Huang, and the others have been transferred to the pass at the foot of the mountain by the second boss."

The two looked at Su Jin suspiciously, and murmured: "It's a shift change, why are they still there when I came last night?"

Su Jin smiled and said, "The shift changes at night."

One of them pointed to Su Jin's clothes and said, "Why is there blood on your clothes? What's going on?"

Su Jin's scalp went numb, and his fingers unconsciously put on the handle of the knife. The expressions of the two bandits were very different, and they stepped back.

Su Jin hurriedly laughed and said: "The two eldest brothers are very alert. If it wasn't for the injury at the foot of the mountain last night, would the second master have sent me to wait for such a good job? To tell you the truth, you came to us last night I didn't even wash my face, look at the dust on my face, let alone change my clothes."

Only then did the two bandits breathe a sigh of relief: "So that's the case, and if this is the case, you can rest easy."

Su Jin stretched out his hand and took out dozens of coins in his bosom, handed them to them and said, "Thank you, next time you bring more meat for the food delivery, the three of us are all injured, we need to mend our bodies."

The two bandits who delivered the food were not interested in the copper coins, so they immediately smiled and twisted their mouths, and one of them took half of it in his arms, and said with a smile: "It's easy to say, why are you so polite?"

The two smiled and left with the empty bucket they had exchanged. Su Jin bolted the door tightly, breathed a sigh of relief, and was covered in cold sweat. It was really shocking.