The oil lamp in the lantern burned quietly, and the backyard of the Thorn Mansion looked a little stuffy, but fortunately, incense was lit around, and there were no mosquito bites.

On the stone table were several plates of dishes, wine jugs, wine cups and chopsticks, and the family brought two roasted leg of mutton.

Hua Mulan picked up the wine pot and poured wine into Zhao Junsheng and her own wine cup, picked up the wine cup and said, "Brother Junsheng, come, drink a little, give you a crush!" ”

Zhao Junsheng picked up the wine cup and dried it up, and shook his head helplessly: "The title is gone, what are you afraid of!" ”

Hua Mulan put down the wine cup and said with a smile: "It's just a knighthood, isn't it a trivial matter to be knighted with the ability of Junsheng's brother?" ”

"You said it lightly, if you want to be knighted, you have to fight with your life!" Zhao Junsheng grabbed the leg of mutton, picked up the knife and cut off a large piece of head and put it in his mouth to eat, and said while eating: "Mulan, you see that my title is now gone, and I have no source of income, you will have to support me in the future!" ”

At this time, the officials of the Northern Wei Dynasty did not have a salary, and the income was given according to the class reward system, that is to say, if you do well, you will be rewarded, and if you do not do well, there will be no reward, so many officials can only be corrupt and accept bribes in order to support their families.

According to the regulations promulgated by the founding emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Wei Dynasty titles were divided into five classes, but later increased to eleven classes, which were Wang, the founding county duke, the san duke, the marquis, the san marquis, the uncle, the san bo, the son, the scattered son, the male, and the scattered man.

Among them, the Sangong, the Sanhou, the Sanbo, the Sanzi, and the Sannan are titles that do not have actual fiefdoms, but are only honorary titles.

These nobles who had the title of actual fief were able to receive the taxes in the fief. According to the regulations, the king eats half a meal, the male eats one, the Hou Bo eats one for four points, and the son eats one for five points.

That is to say, Zhao Junsheng was the Marquis of Yunzhong before, and according to the regulations, he could get a quarter of the tax of Yunzhong County, and the tax of a county for a year is not a small amount, even if he can only get a quarter, it is a huge amount of money, this is the real noble.

Mulan smiled: "Okay! As long as you're not afraid of being laughed at, I'll raise you! ”

In fact, even if Zhao Junsheng no longer had the title and could no longer enjoy the tax of the fiefdom, he still had several caravans, and there were many shops in Yunzhong and Wuchuan, and these shops and caravans could bring him a lot of wealth every month.

"I'm not afraid of people's jokes, I'll eat you!" Zhao Junsheng bit the mutton fiercely.

Hua Mulan is not polite in front of Zhao Junsheng, she also eats meat and drinks a lot, as a person who practices martial arts, the body's demand for meat is quite large, the two of them are young, and the consumption of body energy is large, in addition to breakfast, there must be meat for two meals a day, even during the march and war, you must carry dried meat with you.

Hua Mulan comforted Zhao Junsheng while eating: "Brother Junsheng, although you lost your title this time, you are fine, I think this is already a blessing in misfortune." Your general name and official position are still there, and more than eighty percent of the ministers and generals in the palace are impeaching you, and it is already very good that the emperor can withstand the pressure and only cut your title! ”

"Ha, Mulan, that's not what I said! Am I doing something wrong? I handled the case impartially, and in the end, I ended up being cut off my title! ”

Zhao Junsheng only complained, in fact, he knew very well in his heart that there was no right or wrong in politics at all, although the case he handled won the support of the people of Youzhou and won the hearts of the people, but he offended too many Xianbei nobles, especially the military nobles, these people are the pillars of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the emperor can't care about their thoughts at all, he can save his official position and life is already a great luck.

The next day, the emperor's will came down, and it was decided to pull out the camp and march eastward a day later, and when the army left the territory of Yuyang County, the logistics base in Yuyang would send a baggage team every other day to transport the baggage for the army.

On 9 August, the army set out from Jixian and arrived on the east bank of Baoqiu River four days later, on 13 August.

The leading general Hedoro had already collected ships and timber to build a pontoon bridge, there had been a bridge here before, just because the Yan army had already received the news that the Wei army was going to march westward, so the nearby Yan army destroyed the bridge, but this could only delay the Wei army's attack, and could not stop the Wei army's attack.

The soldiers and horses of the army were slowly crossing the bridge in turn, and Tuoba Jian stood on the west bank of the river on horseback, looking quite worried.

Before the army started, he had asked the national teacher Kou Qianzhi to divinate the Eastern Expedition, the result of the divination was not very good, this victory was unpredictable, and it was not possible to make the Eastern Expeditionary Army suffer heavy losses in Yan State.

In fact, Kou Qianzhi had divination when he was in Pingcheng, and the heavens were obscure.

Although Tuoba Jian has always believed that divination before the army sets out is just a means used by the emperors of previous dynasties to appease their subjects and stimulate the morale of their generals, but when he really came to him, he was also up and down in his heart, after all, Kou Qianzhi and Cui Hao had told him the results of divination twice in a row, and this battle was dangerous and unpredictable.

"Your Majesty, you can cross the bridge!" The general of the protector army, the king of Gaoliang, Tuobana, came over to report on his horse.

"Then cross the bridge!" Tuoba Jian agreed, beat his horse and walked towards the bridge, the generals, eunuchs and ministers around him followed, Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan each led the soldiers and horses to follow behind and cross the bridge in turn.

When the whole army crossed the Baoqiu water, a fast horse galloped from the front.

"Your Majesty, General Hedoro has led the army to break through the endless, the general sent a villain to report the news, Your Majesty and the army can rest assured that there is no end ahead!"

Wuzhong County is the seat of governance of the right Beiping, before the Yan State originally stationed heavy troops here, but before Tuoba Jian led the eastern army to Youzhou, Zhao Junsheng had sent Bai Jinguang to lead a thousand cavalry to wreak havoc in Beiping County, and the Yan army stationed in Wuzhong County was mobilized to turn around, and most of them left the garrison and were annihilated one by one, so the strength of the Yan army in Beiping County during this period was extremely weak, and it would be so easy to be broken by Hedoluo's 2,000 soldiers and horses.

Tuoba Jian was quite surprised when he heard this, "This Yan army is so vulnerable? With only 2,000 soldiers and horses, Hedora conquered the city of Endless? ”

No one wants to offend people, especially the Xianbei commander of the army like Hedoro, a minister next to him said with a smile: "General Hedoro is brave, it is a great joy for Your Majesty and Great Wei!" ”

Tuoba Jian called Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan and asked: "He Duoluo only relied on 2,000 soldiers and horses to break through the endless city, this endless city is also the seat of Beiping County, and He Duoluo has been building pontoon bridges here for days, it is impossible for the Yan army to be defenseless, right?" You have been in Youzhou for a while, do you know the situation in Youbeiping? ”

Hua Mulan clenched her fists and replied: "Your Majesty, under normal circumstances, if you don't sneak attack, it is impossible to conquer a county city in one fell swoop with two thousand soldiers and horses, and it is impossible for the Yan army to turn a blind eye to Hedoro's behavior in the past few days, so it is impossible for Hedoro to sneak attack at all, there is only one situation where he can capture the city without much effort, and that is that there are not a few defenders in the city at all!" ”

Tuoba Jian listened to Mulan's analysis, and then looked at the other ministers and generals, wanting to hear their thoughts.

Cui Hao said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that he should send more detectives and detectives to find out the movements and reality of the Yan army, so as not to fall for the Yan army's plan to lure the enemy into depth!" ”

After hearing this, Tuoba Jian thought so, and immediately ordered the cavalry in front to send elite outposts to make the situation in Wuzhong County clear, and then ordered the army to continue to advance and drive towards Wuzhong City.

When he arrived at the Endless City, Tuoba Jian came to Hedora and asked, the situation is as Mulan said, there are less than 300 defenders in the Endless City, this is a county city, with a boxy city wall of more than ten miles, how long can 300 people defend? Hedora concentrated his forces to storm the western city wall, attracting all the defenders in the city, and sent hundreds of people to attack the city from the east wall, and there were only a few people on the city wall, where could they stop it? In this way, Hedora easily breached the city of Endless.

On the night of the second day, Tuoba Jian convened the ministers and generals of the army in the Taishou Mansion in the city of Wuzhong, and Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan were among them.

Tuoba Jian said to everyone: "According to the results of the large-scale investigation of the reconnaissance and cavalry outposts, there are not too many Yan troops in Beiping County, and our next march cannot but guard against the fact that the Yan army may lure us into depth, so as not to be copied by the Yan army, so after careful consideration, I decided to divide the troops into two routes: all the way to the coastal road, and all the way to the Lulong Road!" ”

Since ancient times, there are two roads from Ji to Liaoxi, one is the coastal road (that is, today's so-called Liaoning West Corridor, close to the sea), and the other road is out of Lulongsai (that is, today's Xifengkou), when Cao Cao went north to Karasuma, he originally planned to take the coastal road, but it was rainy in summer at that time, and the coastal road was flooded, and the shallow water could not walk the carriages and horses, and the deep water could not go to the boats, so Cao Cao changed to the road of Lulongsai.

When the ministers and generals of the army heard that Tuoba Jian wanted to divide the troops into two routes, someone stood up and asked: "I wonder how Your Majesty plans to distribute the soldiers and horses of the two routes, and how to march?" ”

Tuoba Jian ordered: "Changshan King Tuoba Su listens to the order!" ”

Tuoba Su immediately stood up and hugged his fists and agreed: "The minister is here!" ”

"Order you to be the chief general of the Northern Route Army, and lead your headquarters of men, leaders, right wing army, Youzhou army, and Yunzhong army to open tomorrow at Foxiao, and take Xu Wu and Junmi in turn, and Lu Longsai will go out of the pass, go north to capture Baitan, Pinggang, and White Wolf, and approach Longcheng!"

"Yes!"

Tuoba Jian said again: "Zhao Junsheng listened to the order and ordered you to be the deputy general of the Northern Route Army to assist King Changshan in the battle!" ”

Zhao Junsheng stood up and agreed: "The minister obeys the order!" ”

Tuoba Jian said to the others: "The rest of the ministers, officials, and generals of the army will lead their troops along the coast to attack Dragon City!" ”

The ministers and generals agreed together: "The ministers obey the order!" ”

The next day, under the command of Tuoba Su and Zhao Junsheng, the Northern Route Army set out from Wuzhong City to the north.

Soon after departure, Tuoba Su said to Zhao Junsheng: "General Zhao, is your Youzhou army the landlord here, or will you send scouts to explore the way and find out the enemy's situation in the front?" ”

Zhao Junsheng nodded, and summoned the scout team officer to order him to send a detective horse detective post to investigate the situation of the Yan army and road traffic in Xu Wu and Junmi.