More than 250 miles from Jingshi to Zunhua, one man and two horses, galloping for 2 days and nights, when Wednesday felt that he was about to lose consciousness below his buttocks, he finally saw a neat cinder avenue, and sparse earthen houses began to appear on both sides of the avenue.

As soon as he raised his head to look at the surrounding environment, he slowed down the running speed of his mount slightly, turned to the entourage behind him and said loudly: "Climb over the small hill in front of you, and you will be the west gate of Zunhua City. ”

The 5 and 60 riders who followed behind Wednesday were still silent, but there were some smiles on their faces. Sure enough, when the group climbed the hill in front of them, a blue-black city appeared in front of them.

Although this city was still a little low and dilapidated in the eyes of these knights, it was a fortress city among the cities they had seen along the way. Compared with this city, Sanhe and Jizhou are like the manors of large families, and it is okay to guard against thieves, but if they are approached by the army, those city walls can only be regarded as better than nothing.

Wednesday looked around, looking at the streets and alleys between the rows of houses on both sides of the official road within 2 miles of the city, and there were no people dragging their families around, and the streets were chaotic, and he was relieved.

He galloped all the way, and saw many people with their wives and children driving towards the direction of Jizhou, and was once worried that the people near Zunhua City had lost order, so he was a little difficult to advance and retreat when he ventured this time.

Although he is now a member of the General Staff, he looks like he has a great future. But his own background is too low, even if he was personally promoted into the General Staff by the emperor because of his excellent calculations, but when Mao Yuanyi returned to the capital, he was suppressed intentionally or unintentionally.

Wednesday Wei knew that this was mainly because he was a son of a family of officials, and for Mao Yuanyi, who was born in the court of officials and the children of the generals and gentry of the General Staff, his appearance obviously lowered the honor of the General Staff.

If it was Zhou Fulin, the little official who used to manage the granary, he would naturally not dare to collide with an official like Mao Yuanyi. But for the staff officer of the Ming Military Department, who has been renamed Zhou Wei, he is unwilling to return to the obscure life of the past officials.

A gentleman has three fears: fear of destiny, fear of adults, and fear of the words of saints. Since Zhou Fulin has changed his name to Wednesday Wei, he wants to change his family and become the home of Zhong Ming Ding Food from now on.

Since the emperor has given him a chance to stand out, being able to enter the General Staff is the dream of most cadets of the Army Military Academy. Because of this position, you can often see His Majesty the Emperor, as long as your name can be remembered by the Emperor, can't you get ahead?

Mao Yuanyi, who was both Mr. Sun's old unit and an instructor at the Army Military Academy, was in direct competition with him, and he knew that he had no chance of winning. If you want the emperor to remember him, you don't just sit in the room and draw up a few plans for the whole army, if you want to stand alone, he still needs to make a miracle after all.

After staying in the General Staff Headquarters for a long time, he found that the staff officers of the General Staff Headquarters are basically from Liaodong and Beijing, and Jizhou Town, one of the important towns on the nine borders, originally had 165,000 soldiers, although after last year's election, only 55,000 soldiers remained, but it is also the most important town near Gyeonggi.

But in addition to the fact that he still has some relationship with Jizhou Town, there is no staff officer from Jizhou Town in the General Staff. Wednesday felt that this situation should not be the case. The other border towns were not given the opportunity to be selected for the General Staff because they were far away from the capital. However, in addition to the Beijing camp, Jizhou Town is always closer to the capital than Liaoxi Town, and Jizhou Town is the rear of Liaoxi Town.

Therefore, how could Jizhou Town be willing to be suppressed by Jingying and Liaoxi all the time. The generals of Jizhou Town must want to get ahead. And if he wants to make a name for himself in the General Staff, he can only rely on Jizhou Town. It is impossible for the armies of Jingying and Liaoxi Town to support him as an outsider.

On Wednesday, Wei actively made friends with cadets from Jizhou Town in the military academy, waiting for an opportunity to make meritorious contributions. It wasn't until Huang Taiji, the Great Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty, personally led the troops to make a detour to invade the Guannei, and the place where the Later Jin chose to break through was the area where Jizhou Town was defended. Wednesday immediately realized that the opportunity he had been waiting for had arrived.

On Wednesday, he was invited to inspect the Zunhua garrison to gather information about the Houjin invasion of the army and provide information for the base camp to formulate a detailed battle plan. This is a drudgery that no one wants to take, after all, in the plan discussed by the General Staff, Zunhua City is used to consume the sharp energy of the Houjin invasion army, and the final counterattack still comes from the attack of the two armies gathered in Jizhou City and Qian'an City.

To put it simply, the Jizhou town army worked hard to block the invasion of the Houjin army, and then let the new army under the name of the Gyeonggi Governor's Office and Liaoxi Town collect the fruits of victory. If this operational plan is conveyed to the generals of Jizhou Town, it will inevitably be scolded by these generals in the army. Even Zhao Shujiao, who was transferred from Liaoxi Town to Jizhou Town, would not accept this operational plan so easily.

Therefore, Wednesday's request to serve as a special envoy to convey the operational plan and to collect information on the characteristics of Houjin's operations was quickly approved.

Wednesday Wei didn't set off alone, he quickly went to the military academy to recruit those Jizhou Town cadets who had been temporarily suspended due to the Houjin invasion. He only asked these students, who were originally just soldiers and small flags, if they were willing to risk their lives to make an immortal contribution.

These students, who were originally from Jizhou Town, came to Zunhua City as his attachés. Most of these students used to suffer at the passes of the Great Wall in Jizhou Town, and they never left the mountains until they were young and never left the mountains until they were selected to study in the military academy before they knew that people had another way to live.

After coming into contact with the prosperity of the capital, let them return to the mountains to guard the mountains and rivers that remain unchanged year after year, even if they go back to be a low-level military attaché, they feel that they can't live that kind of life. Wednesday's appearance made the students' blood boil, and they would rather take a risk than go back to the lifeless days of the past.

As cadets, they naturally knew that the emperor attached great importance to them. Therefore, as long as they make meritorious contributions, they do not have to worry that the emperor will turn a blind eye, and as a member of the General Staff, Zhou Wei is a person who can often see the emperor, so they do not have to worry about their merits being coveted.

It is based on these two points that 34 military cadets from Jizhou Town followed Wednesday to make a fortune. The guards of Dai Jingmen, west of Zunhua, saw such a group of military attaches coming from the west, and immediately trotted out of the doorway.

After Wednesday reined in his horse, he said to the general urgently: "This officer is the Zhou staff officer of the General Staff, and he is also the staff officer of the base camp of the Jizhou Defense War, and he was ordered to come to Zunhua General Army, Zunhua Governor, Zunhua Zhixian and Jizhou Town Chief of Staff, where are these three officials now?" ”

In the middle of Zunhua City is a big sorrow pavilion more than 8 zhang high, which is said to have been built in five generations. The four gates of the east, west, north and south of the Great Compassion Pavilion are the four main streets in Zunhua City.

Since Zunhua City was originally built as a military fortress, the main streets in these four cities are not only wide, but also paved with a layer of bluestone slabs. Not far from the east of the Great Compassion Pavilion, it is the governor's yamen next to the county yamen, because the internal space of Zunhua City is limited, so even the governor's yamen is only more than 4 acres old.

In the back hall of Fuya, after listening to the orders conveyed by Wednesday Wei, the faces of the governor Wang Yuanya and the general soldier Zhao Shujiao were very ugly, while Qu Neng, the chief of staff of Jizhou Town, and Xu Ze, the county governor of Zunhua, remained silent, waiting for the reply of the two officials.

Wang Yuanya was very dissatisfied in his heart, because according to the order brought by Wednesday, from now on, all military decisions in Zunhua need to be under the orders of the commander-in-chief Zhao Shujiao, and he, the governor, can only deal with some people's livelihood affairs and assist the commander-in-chief to hold Zunhua City. If there is a conflict between the orders issued between the two, the orders of Zhao Shujiao shall prevail.

Although this freed him from the heavy responsibility of defending the Zunhua region, it was undoubtedly an encroachment on the governor's power. Wang Yuanya thought for a long time, and finally spoke: "As the governor of Zunhua, this official has the responsibility of Zanli Jizhou Town's military affairs, and the cabinet has not yet ordered the decommissioning of this official, how can this official hand over the responsibility of defending the territory to General Zhao?" Is this order against the system of the national dynasty? ”

Although Wang Yuanya raised objections, everyone present could hear that the governor's opposition was not resolute, after all, it was now the Houjin army pressing the border, and Zunhua City was to be regarded as the place where the Houjin morale was consumed, and now it was undoubtedly risky to compete for the responsibility of defending the territory.

After only thinking for a moment, Zhou Wei realized that the governor wanted to save his reputation, and not really opposed the appointment of Zhao Shujiao to take on the responsibility of defending the territory.

He immediately replied: "Your Majesty has agreed with the cabinet that all decisions on the defense of Jizhou will be based on the orders of the newly formed wartime base camp and the General Staff. The reason why General Zhao was put in charge of the guard of Zunhua City was also to unify the power and avoid political overpower.

After all, once the Golden City is Houjin, General Zhao will inevitably have to make a decision on the spot, and he can't ask the adults for everything. According to the order of the General Staff, General Zhao is the first command sequence, and I am the second command sequence, Chief of Staff Qu is the third command sequence, and you are the fourth command sequence.

In other words, if all three of us are gone, the governor will have to take on the heavy responsibility. Before that, it is better for the governor to assist in the civil affairs first. ”

The corners of Wang Yuanya's mouth twitched, he felt in his heart that if this battle was really so fierce, it would be better for him to back down first, no matter how good his power was, his life was not as important.

Seeing that Wang Yuanya made a concession, Wednesday suddenly turned his head to Zhao Shujiao, who had a dark face, and said, "I don't know what General Zhao thinks about the next battle to defend the city?" ”