The officers and soldiers of Western Xia had no choice but to surrender unconditionally according to what Su Jin said, and seeing that His Royal Highness the Prince, who had sworn to die generously in five steps with blood, took the initiative to dismount and surrender, how could the soldiers still have half of their hearts.

However, he didn't hide some courage, and he slammed the horse and fled to the wilderness under the official road, and was taken back by the dynasty without wasting his strength, Su Jintie ordered someone to cut off his head in front of the surrendered soldiers, in order to warn the Western Xia soldiers of the fate of wanting to escape.

Everyone stood on the opposite side and waited for the arrival of the brigade of men and horses, saying that it was a large group of men and horses, in fact, it was only a team of more than 1,000 people, and the infantry was the majority, under the banner of the word "fan" headed by the leader, there was an old man sitting on a black horse, this person had a black face, his cheeks were sunken, his face was full of wrinkles like knives and axes, and the temples exposed under the iron helmet were also snow-stained and frost-inflicted white, looking like an overworked look, but his eyes were shining, and he looked shrewd and capable.

Di Qing hurriedly pulled Su Jin forward to greet him, Su Jin knew that this was the famous Fan Zhongyan, at this time Fan Zhongyan had been promoted to the Yongxing Army Road to appease the edge of the border to recruit envoys, in fact, the Yongxing Military Road had been divided into Huanqing and Yanyan after the defeat of Haoshuichuan in October last year, Fan Zhongyan was originally known about Qingzhou, but after Yanzhou Pang was transferred to the capital after the year, Fan Zhongyan was actually the military administration leader of Huanqing and Yanyan.

"Xiaguan Su Jin greets Master Fan." Su Jin bowed and stood in front of Fan Zhongyan's horse and bowed, he was very respectful to Fan Zhongyan Su Jin, although he had never met Fan Zhongyan, but since he read his famous sentence of 'the worries of the world first, and the joy of the world after the world', Su Jin had a sense of worship for Fan Zhongyan.

Fan Zhongyan turned over and dismounted, walked forward quickly and bowed in return, and said with a smile: "Lord Su Jinsu, is it?" It's been famous for a long time, and when I see it today, it's really a handsome young man, and the old man didn't believe it when he heard the rumors, but now he believes it completely. ”

Su Jin hurriedly said: "How dare you, Su Jin is young, and he is not very old in words and deeds, and I hope that the adults will help him more." ”

Fan Zhongyan laughed and said: "What a clever mouth, worthy of being the champion of the undergraduate, this is the power of both internal and external cultivation." ”

Su Jin said with a smile: "Fan Gong praises falsely, I dare not be ashamed." ”

Fan Zhongyan smiled and said, "Why don't you dare to be? Speaking of this battle, the old man has to apologize to Lord Su, it was agreed that he would lead the army to help within an hour, but things have changed, and the rescue is late, it really shouldn't be. ”

Su Jin said with a smile: "Why did Fan Gong say this, there must be something that has to be delayed to obstruct it, and the lower officials can save it." Fan Zhongyan said: "Yes, when the old man led 5,000 soldiers and horses to respond, he suddenly received an urgent report from Gyeongju, and more than 10,000 soldiers and horses of the West Thieves seemed to have an attempt to attack Gyeongju North Mulang Village, which is a fortress in the north of Gyeongju, with only 2,000 troops stationed in Gyeongju, and Gyeongju soldiers and horses could not all go to help, in case the enemy army moved the tiger away from the mountain to attack Gyeongju, so he could only divide 3,000 troops from Gyeongju to rescue; Seeing that the situation was critical, I had to take 5,000 soldiers and horses to reinforce Mulang Village, but fortunately, the old man led people to where he arrived, and more than 10,000 men and horses of the West Thieves were indeed ready to attack Mulang Village, and they retreated when they saw that reinforcements arrived. ”

Su Jin said: "I see, but then the lord can only leave more than 3,000 soldiers and horses to prevent the western thieves from attacking again, and personally led more than 1,000 soldiers and horses to rescue the lower officials." ”

Fan Zhongyan laughed and said: "Exactly, along the way, the old man is afraid that you will not be able to stop it, if there is a stubble, the old man will be to blame, but I didn't expect you to defeat the enemy's elite cavalry with 1,500 horse infantry troops, this is unbelievable." ”

Su Jin smiled silently, Di Qing preemptively told the story of the battle, Di Qing never added oil and vinegar when he spoke, but even so, the excitement and intensity of the whole morning's battle still made Fan Zhongyan dumbfounded.

After listening, Fan Zhongyan's eyes when he looked at Su Jin changed, especially Su Jin's booby trapping two hundred enemy soldiers and using the mad bull and crazy mule formation to fight against the enemy's Crazy Horse Formation, which can be called a classic, and being able to come up with such a way to deal with it in such a short period of time shows that this person has real materials.

Originally, Fan Zhongyan was a little contemptuous of Su Jin, after receiving a private letter written by Yan Shu to him, Fan Zhongyan was even more dismissive of Su Jin, he thought that Su Jin's purpose in marrying the daughter of the Yan family must also be to drill the camp, as for the title of champion, Fan Zhongyan thought that Yan Shu must have exerted influence in front of the emperor, but after a real battle now, his opinion of Su Jin has completely changed, even if he personally commands it, he may not be able to fight such a beautiful battle.

When he learned that the leader of the enemy army was Li Ningming, the son of Li Yuanhao, the rebel leader of the Western Thieves, Fan Zhongyan laughed even more, and said in a loud voice: "Master Su is a good general, he has fought the Western Thieves for three or four years, this is the biggest official captured, the prince of Western Xia, hahaha, this matter is reported to Beijing, and the court is afraid that it will be happy, and Li Yuanhao will be furious in Xingqing Mansion." ”

Everyone also laughed, at the moment Fan Zhongyan ordered to stay in place to rest, the soldiers were busy chasing and hurrying, and they didn't eat lunch, so they buried the pot on the official road to eat, drink and rest, and at noon Fan Zhongyan made an exception and allowed everyone to drink some rice wine to celebrate this great victory.

At the dinner table, Fan Zhongyan raised a glass to congratulate Su Jin, and claimed that he would escort the battle and the captured Li Ningming to the capital as soon as possible to report the victory, and ask for credit for Su Jin.

Su Jin hurriedly said: "When Xia Guan first came to the northwest, he didn't even enter Weizhou City, and his ass has not yet sat firmly, and I don't know how many affairs need to be taken care of in the future, but I didn't expect to be rewarded; There are sometimes deviations in the actions of the lower officials, if there is merit, please ask the emperor to exist there first, and if there is a mistake in the future, it is better to offset it with merit. ”

Fan Zhongyan said with a smile: "Interesting, interesting, prevention is better than prevention, this is the old fox's handwriting, was it your uncle who taught you?" When you first set foot in officialdom, you know how to leave a way back for yourself. ”

Su Jin said with a smile: "This place in the northwest is not easy to mix, and the lower officials heard that even Fan Gong and Han Shuai almost fell behind, not to mention that they are only in the middle." ”

Fan Zhongyan smiled dumbly and sighed: "Not really, the strangeness of the world is sometimes incredible, it is not easy to mix those who want to really do things, but those who are perfunctory are mixed, don't you think it's strange?" ”

Su Jin said twice, not to break it, of course he understood what Fan Zhongyan meant, Xia Zhupang made his fortune in the northwest, and he lost the battle and fought a basket, and it did not affect people's promotion and wealth, and went straight to the center; Listening to the bitterness and anger in Fan Zhongyan's tone, Su Jin also felt deeply sorry for Fan Zhongyan, some people don't know how to be promoted, they actually know better than anyone else, but asking them to do that is asking them to take their lives, because there is a level they can't pass, and that is their conscience.

Taking advantage of Fan Zhongyan's happiness, Su Jin hurriedly proposed to take the captured war horses as his own, and complained greatly: "Fan Gong, I lost nearly 500 soldiers in this battle, and the livestock was almost all finished, before driving to the Eagle's Beak Cliff, I left 200 soldiers and most of the materials piled up outside the mountain pass, these mules and horses are all pulling empty carts to the Eagle's Beak Cliff, covered with linoleum to hide people's ears, these food and materials have to be transported to the destination, now the livestock are dead, and the cart has been destroyed a lot, how can I transport these materials?" I want to ask Fan Gong to deliver the 800 captured war horses to Xia Guan, but I don't know what Fan Gong wants. ”

Fan Zhongyan looked at Su Jin and said with a smile: "Master Su, some people say that you like to take advantage of it, but the old man still doesn't believe it, it seems that Lord Su is going to share the spoils with the old man." ”

Su Jin's face turned red and said: "This is the case, otherwise, the lower official will bring his own personal guards to take up his post, and how about waiting for the imperial court to send carriages and horses to pick up and transport?" Anyway, this matter is not an errand for the lower officials, and the lower officials are only voluntary help. ”

Fan Zhongyan said: "You asked for eight hundred war horses in one go, do you know how much these eight hundred war horses are worth?" Let me tell you, my northwest army is more than 100,000, and there are less than 8,000 cavalry with horses, and most of them are short southern horses. ”

Su Jin rolled his eyes and said, "When I get to Weizhou, I can also incorporate the war horse into the army, what's the contradiction?" ”

Fan Zhongyan said solemnly: "Master Su, aren't your five hundred horse army five hundred cavalry?" To be honest, the emperor is already very good to you. Five hundred horses will give you such a big hand, do you know what the old man gave when he became the emperor? ”

Su Jindao: "What? ”

"Three bad horses, two green mules!" Fan Zhongyan was a little indignant, people were more popular than people, he didn't feel anything, but compared with Su Jinyi, he was actually a little unsettled.

"Six hundred, I only need six hundred."

"No, I can give you 500 soldiers to help you carry supplies, but you must return when you get to the location."

"Five hundred!"

"No talk!"

"Four hundred!"

"Nope."

Su Jin stood up slowly and said, "Otherwise, Fan Gong will hand over Li Ningming to me, and I don't want any war horses or anything." ”

Fan Zhongyan said: "What do you want to do with Li Ningming?" Are you afraid that the old man will rob you of your credit? Don't worry, the old man will truthfully play the court, this old man Li Ningming wants to interrogate to see if he can ask about the deployment and plan of the Western Thief's army, and then send someone to escort him to the capital. ”

Su Jin smiled: "Fan Gong misunderstood, I'm not afraid that adults will be greedy for my credit, what is the credit?" It's a lot to do it casually, and I haven't seen any benefits from the emperor; I just want to use Li Ningming to help me deliver supplies. ”

Fan Zhongyan scolded with a smile: "Nonsense, how can the powerless prince of Western Xia help you transport supplies?" ”

Su Jin squeezed his eyes and said: "Since my lord doesn't give me some horses to pull the cart, I will exchange this Li Ningming with Xixia for war horses, and a prince can also exchange it for a thousand children and eight hundred horses, Fan Gong, what do you say." ”

Fan Zhongyan shouted with a calm face: "Nonsense, such an important person, you actually want to exchange it for a war horse." ”

Su Jin spread his hands and said: "The prisoner I captured will naturally be disposed of by me, otherwise, I will escort him to the capital, and ask the emperor to allocate a few more hundred horse troops to me, and the emperor will agree, and it will also hurt the peace with Lord Fan here." ”

Fan Zhongyan is angry and funny, no wonder Yan Shu said in his letter: This son has a stubborn personality, he can tolerate it as much as possible, and he must not do anything with him, lest he do earth-shattering things and make it difficult for everyone to clean up. Now Fan Zhongyan can be regarded as a teacher.

Fan Zhongyan suddenly laughed dumbly, what kind of war horse did he fight with this kid, he originally won this battle, he just felt that the cavalry strength of Yan Yan and Huanqing was too weak so he wanted to leave these eight hundred war horses, in fact, Su Jin was not the entire northwest cavalry with eight hundred, what is the difference?

It's no wonder that the Xia and Liao people regarded horses as forbidden objects and never sold them to the Great Song Dynasty, which made the Great Song Dynasty short of horses, and they were deeply worried about it, so they felt that the horses were precious.

Thinking of this, Fan Zhongyan smiled and said: "Okay, eight hundred war horses are for you, Master Su, a new official, has a really good temper." ”

Su Jin said with a smile: "What kind of temper does Gong Fan dare to have in front of him, isn't this a discussion with you?" People respect me for a foot, I respect people, Fan Gong is open-minded and generous, and the lower officials can't help but give Fan Gong face; I only need 400 war horses, and the remaining 400 can be regarded as a meeting gift to Fan Gong, and all the armor, materials and equipment captured in this battle will be given to Lord Fan as a gift, and I will not want it in the next place. ”

Fan Zhongyan said with a smile: "Thank you so much, in order to repay Lord Su's generosity, the old man ordered someone to assist you in sending the grain to Qinzhou, as for the food and materials on the two roads of Huanqing in Yanyan, the old man ordered Di Qing to go with you to get it, and now you will also detour to Qingzhou, you just go east and go straight to Qinzhou." ”

Su Jin hurriedly thanked him, it seems that the outside world has spread that Fan Zhongyan is upright and does not know how to be flexible, and now it seems that Fan Zhongyan knows how to be flexible, and the rumors from the outside world are really not credible.