Hua Mulan felt very ashamed, when she decided to lead 20,000 troops to Yingzhou to fight against the barbarians, she didn't consider Zhao Junsheng's feelings at all, after all, the entire land of Hebei is now Zhao Junsheng is in charge, and she is doing this without Zhao Junsheng's consent is tantamount to undermining Zhao Junsheng's authority, Zhao Junsheng not only did not blame her, but also gave her the aftermath, if she changed to another husband with a strong desire for power, she would have been unable to stand her like this for a long time.

In addition to being ashamed, Hua Mulan also feels sorry for Zhao Junsheng, with her character, which man today can tolerate her fooling around? It's good for a woman to teach her husband and children at home, and after giving birth to a child after marriage, what kind of system does it become to dance knives and guns, fight and kill? But Zhao Junsheng not only did not stop her, but also supported her, how could Mulan not be ashamed and blame herself?

Hua Mulan silently put away the urgent official document, and decided to go back to Zhao Junsheng to admit her mistakes after this battle, and be a good wife and mother at home in the future.

"When will General Guo arrive?" Mulan asked.

Cui Hao said: "General Guo Lao is lightly traveling, it should be a quick horse, and he will arrive in about two or three days, but now the road is closed by heavy snow, the weather is not very good, and the general does not have to rush to Kumoxi." General Guo often went in and out of Kumoxi when he was young, and he was very familiar with the mountains and rivers where the Kumoxi people lived.

Hua Mulan sometimes feels that she is like a child who has not grown up compared to Zhao Junsheng, Zhao Junsheng always thinks about problems very comprehensively, and she is always very willful, and she makes trouble for him many times, and she feels even more guilty when she thinks of this.

Hua Mulan set up the government office in the Taishou Mansion, and Li Bao waited at the gate of the Taishou Mansion for Qi Baotian, the commander of the thousand soldiers sent by Gao Xu, and took him to the lobby.

"General Qiyu, Qi Qianfu has arrived!"

Qi Baotian walked in and bowed to Mulan: "The last general will meet the general!" ”

Hua Mulan raised her hand and counted: "General Qi is exempt from courtesy, what is the situation in Yingzhou?" How did Gao Xu know about the situation on Pinggang's side, and what was the situation in the two places when he passed through White Wolf, Yangwu and other places along the way when he came? ”

Qi Baotian replied: "Back to the general's words, the situation in Yingzhou is quite stable, the people only suffered some snow disasters, froze to death some livestock, and were not attacked by the barbarians, but Changli was attacked by the Khitans a few days ago, fortunately it was found in time and was not succeeded by their sneak attack, and at the critical moment also sent people to break out of the siege to report to Yingzhou, General Gao sent a thousand men and horses to the rescue, and now the crisis in Changli has been lifted, but the Khitans are still eyeing it!" ”

"The situation on Pinggang's side is that Yangwu City sent people to Longcheng to report, two days after the Kumo Xi people raided Pinggang, Yangwu City sent people to work and found that Pinggang was in ruins, so he quickly returned to report the news, and the news reached Longcheng as quickly as possible, and General Gao sent the last general to lead a thousand troops to take over the defense!"

"When the last general came to Pinggang with his troops, he passed through the cities of Shicheng, White Wolf and Yangwu, which did not directly border the borders of the barbarian tribes, so they were not attacked!"

After listening to Qi Baotian's introduction, Hua Mulan also had some understanding in her heart, judging from the current situation, Changli was attacked by the Khitans, Pinggang was attacked by the Kumoxi people, and Fancheng was in the north of Pinggang, so Fancheng was only afraid and was not spared, and it must have also been attacked, and the specific situation is not clear.

The strength of the garrison army in Yingzhou is not small, and there are more than 10,000 people, but they are all relatively scattered, so they are slightly insufficient in defense when they find barbarians to attack.

This is only the situation in Yingzhou, the situation in Andong Prefecture is not much better, such as Fuyu City, Xincheng, these northern towns in Andong Prefecture must have been attacked by barbarians, as for the extent of the loss is not very clear, it is estimated that Cao Jiao, the town general of Andong Prefecture, is also anxious at this time.

Hua Mulan thought for a while and asked, "General Qi, after the news of the barbarian attack on several cities in the northern part of Yingzhou reached Longcheng, what did General Gao plan?" In addition to sending two thousand-strong teams to Changli Peace City to reinforce and deploy defenses, what other measures are there? ”

Qi Baotian cautiously replied: "Because many places in our Yingzhou have been attacked, and our garrison is too scattered, General Gao intends to temporarily send troops to stabilize the situation and prevent the loss from expanding. At present, General Gao has ordered the troops of Liaodong, Liaoxi, Jiande, Xuansu, and Changli counties and their respective garrisons and forts under their jurisdiction to assemble in Longcheng, intending to send troops to Kumoxi and Khitan respectively after raising grain and grass, so as to avenge the comrades who died in the battle and were slaughtered, as well as the officials and people! ”

Hua Mulan finally felt a little more comfortable when she heard this, on the whole, after being attacked by barbarians in various places, Gao Xu's response was quite fast, and the response was quite decent, but it can also be seen from this incident that there are still problems in Yingzhou and Andong Prefecture in terms of garrisoning, otherwise there are more than 12,000 people in the entire Yingzhou garrison army, why don't they have the strength and timely counterattack after being attacked?

The reason is naturally that the forces are too scattered to be assembled in time, and the internal defense force is sufficient, but the external defense force is insufficient.

Hua Mulan knew that Gao Xu was no wonder about this, the deployment of troops in Yingzhou and Andong Prefecture was carried out in accordance with Zhao Junsheng's requirements, but was this Zhao Junsheng's fault again? Zhao Junsheng is naturally not wrong, the reason why Zhao Junsheng arranged this way was because he had just destroyed Northern Yan and Goguryeo, and he was worried that the remnants of Northern Yan and Goguryeo would resurge, so he scattered the forces of the Zhenshu Army in various counties so that he could extinguish the rebellion in time, and several years have passed in time, and the people everywhere have long since missed Beiyan and Goguryeo, and the government of the new realm has governed Yingzhou and Andong Prefecture quite well, and the people will not rebel when the time comes.

"It seems that it is necessary to suggest to Brother Junsheng that the garrisons of Yingzhou and Andong Prefecture be adjusted, and the direction of defense must be turned from the inside to the outside, reduce the garrison strength in the belly of the jurisdiction, and deploy more troops in the border areas!"

Hua Mulan thought so in her heart, and said to Qi Baotian: "Okay, General Ben knows, since you and your 1,000 soldiers and horses are here, lead the army into the city!" Li Bao, arrange the camp house for General Qi's 1,000 men! ”

Qi Baotian and Li Bao hugged their fists and agreed: "Obey!" ”

Hua Mulan then sent people to Andong Prefecture to ask Cao Jiao to report the details of the barbarian attack and the losses, and asked Gao Xu and Cao Jiao to send envoys to Pinggang City to discuss the matter of conquering the barbarians.

Hua Mulan has lived in Youzhou for a few years, and has experienced several winters, although it also feels very cold, but it is not as cold as the northeast, and the soldiers and generals she brought have not yet adapted to the extremely cold climate here, so they had to order the resumption of drills the next day, so that the soldiers can adapt to this extremely cold climate while practicing to recover their physical strength and spirit, improve their morale.

This morning, Cui Hao was shivering from the cold, came to look for Mulan, and saw that she was practicing swords and martial arts, so he had to wait on the sidelines, and it took more than half an hour to see Mulan stop.

"I've seen a general!" Cui Hao stepped forward and saluted.

Hua Mulan took the towel handed by the female soldier and wiped her sweat, put the weapon on the weapon rack and asked, "Cui Gong came so early, has something to do?" ”

Cui Hao arched his hand and said: "General, I feel that the weather is cold enough, but General Qi Baotian and the surviving people said that this is not the coldest time, and in the past two days, I found that the soldiers could not adapt to it all of a sudden, and the warmth was not enough, it was not as good as the Longcheng soldiers to wear thick clothes, and the lowly office suggested purchasing a batch of furs from the fur merchants in the surrounding cities and distributing them to the soldiers to keep out the cold!" ”

Hua Mulan thought for a while and agreed: "Yes, since you brought this matter forward, you will send someone to the fur merchants to purchase it, and the price will be ······ The military will not let them suffer, but they also don't want to treat the military as a big wrongdoer, let them send the fur first, and the general will pay if the goods are good, if they fool the military with shoddy, the general will punish them and cut off their heads! ”

Cui Haoxin said that this was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and hurriedly agreed: "Yes, the lowly will send someone to handle this matter!" ”

"Well, we need to hurry up and distribute the furs to the soldiers as soon as possible before the colder weather arrives!"

"Understood!"

After several days of training, the soldiers recovered their condition, the weather became better, and a batch of furs purchased was distributed to each soldier.

Guo Sheng rushed to Pinggang City as quickly as possible in Mulan's expectation, and Mulan showed respect and went to the city gate to greet her.

Guo Sheng saw Hua Mulan at the gate of the city with a large number of soldiers and officers to greet him, he didn't dare to hold it up, so he hurriedly dismounted and stepped forward to salute: "The last general Guo Sheng was ordered to come to report to the general, and the general went out of the city to greet him, and the general really couldn't afford it!" ”

Hua Mulan stepped forward with a smile and raised her hand and said: "Although Mulan is high and powerful, she is young and shallow, this is the first time to lead tens of thousands of horses, and she is panicked. It's cold, the general came from afar, the carriage and horses are tired, or go to the city to settle down, Mulan has ordered someone to prepare a banquet, and tonight will be the general's wind and dust! ”

"Old minister······ Thank you for your kindness! ”

At night, the Taishou Mansion is brightly lit, and the military generals and officials are divided into two sides, with a low table in front of each person, on which wine, food and snacks are placed.

Hua Mulan sat on the main seat and looked at everyone and said: "General Guo has arrived today, and the two generals, Cai Guangtong and Gao Shan, the deputy generals sent by the general of Yingzhou Town, General Gao Xu and General Andong of the Longcheng Army, and General Cao Jiao of the Pyongyang Army, have also arrived. Let's discuss while eating! Come, all of you, have a full drink together! ”

Everyone stood up and raised their glasses to Mulan, and said in unison: "I'm waiting for the general!" ”

Everyone drank a glass together, and Mulan pressed her hand: "Sit, sit, this general gets up, and then you don't have to be polite, you should eat, you should drink!" ”