After wiping the water stains on his body with a dry cloth, he felt that his body finally didn't tremble, Jin Shi Xincai quickly took the still dry package from the horse's back, and began to put on his clothes, when he was tightening his belt, the companion on the side reached over and gently touched his arm, and whispered to him, "Jin Da, take a sip to warm up." ”

Jin Shixin glanced at the moonlight, and his companion was still holding a small flat pot in his outstretched hand. He didn't reply, so he took a sip and drank two or three sips, and then handed the flat pot to his colleague on the other side.

The three of them were picked out by Lin Shixian to wade across the river to get in touch with Zunhua City, and when Lin Shixian took them across the river, they found a small bridge, but when they were close to the location of Zunhua City, they found that the bridges on the Shahe River had been demolished, and further east, there were Tartar rangers.

Although the Sand River has a small amount of water in winter, it is still a river that has not been broken, Lin Shixian took them to search for a long time, and only found a shallow river beach, but the depth of the river is still enough to drown one person. According to the recent popular temperature measurement method in Beijing, the night temperature in the Zunhua field is at least minus 3-5 degrees, although the river water has not yet formed thick ice, but the surface layer of the river water is at least 0 degrees.

Crossing a river in such a situation, and not being able to light a fire to keep warm after crossing the river, can easily lead to casualties, even if it is not collected at night when it is best adapted to life in the wild.

Now, however, as one of the most well-supplied military units, the newly formed Night-Withless Unit, although it was somewhat difficult to cross the river in such a situation, did not reach the level of fear. Over the past year or so, what they have learned most is not combat skills, but how to discern directions in different environments and adopt the right way to deal with them to increase their chances of survival.

Sugar, liquor, and tobacco, which were regarded as luxuries by ordinary soldiers, were also common supplies in the army that were not collected at night. In this situation, what used to rely on talent and experience to recruit at night has now become more akin to a group of students who study special knowledge.

At least, one of the most ordinary night guards now knows that not being able to see at night is due to a lack of some kind of nutrient in the body, not innate. Fighting in cold zones, how to keep warm is the most important skill. And if the water traces on the body are not wiped dry, it will accelerate the loss of heat in the body. The best way to replenish calories in the body is to eat some high-fat and high-sugar foods and so on.

After Jin Shixin and the other three wiped the water marks on the horses, they added some sugar to the mount and himself, and then led the horse towards the direction of Zunhua Chengnanguan.

They were not worried at all about taking advantage of the darkness to enter Zunhua City, because they knew that there was no trace of the Houjin army stationed outside the southern city of Zunhua. Obviously, these Jurchen Tartars want to encircle the three and lack one and shake the belief of the soldiers and civilians in the city.

Without the camp as a barrier, the Houjin soldiers only set up guards on a few major roads at most. Thanks to the cold nights, these tartars that blocked the arteries must have been lit to warm and light the bonfires. On such a night, a bonfire stands out like the moon in the sky, and can be seen from miles away.

Jin Shixin and the other three quickly bypassed those bonfires, passed through fields, reeds, and woods, and finally appeared at the entrance of Zunhua Chengnan Avenue. After stepping onto the solid sandy road, a stone finally fell in Jin Shixin's heart. He didn't care about the silhouettes of the houses of the black crows on both sides, and sped up a few steps towards the direction of Nanguan.

However, he didn't go far before he was blocked by a barricade, Jin Shixin looked at the height of the barricade, and then looked at his mount, and said to the two colleagues helplessly: "You wait here, I'll go and call the door alone, if I can, I will return as soon as possible, and before those Tartars have found out, return to the other side before dawn, and report to the adults." ”

The two colleagues whispered yes, and took the reins from Jin Shixin's hand, and Jin Shixin took a small package from his horse, carried it on his back, and climbed up towards the barricade.

When he crossed the first barricade, nothing happened, but when he crossed the second barricade, he didn't know what he stepped on, and suddenly he heard a crisp sound.

With this sound, there was a sudden movement in the houses on both sides of the street, which had been extremely quiet, and several windows facing the street were opened, and several lighted torches were thrown from these windows, and the street suddenly became bright.

Jin Shixin also saw that in addition to these torches that were thrown out, there were also several thick pipes sticking out of the open window. He recognized at a glance that these were the three-eyed fast guns commonly used by the border army.

At such a close distance, he couldn't guarantee that he would be able to dodge the speed of the explosion, so he hurriedly spoke out and reported his name and the unit he belonged to, for fear that these people would ignore the three-eyed fast gun that would ignite the three-eyed fast gun without caring about thirty-seven twenty-one. It would be too unjust to die at the hands of one's own people.

Hearing that the person who alarmed the alarm bell was to contact his own people in the city, Zhao Shanhe dropped the weapon in his hand and walked out quickly, and checked the waist card in Jin Shixin's hand, in fact, he couldn't see anything. However, he still pretended to look at it for a long time, and then returned the waist card to Jin Shixin and said: "I think you can go with me to meet Lord Zhou first, and my companions will let people settle them..."

As a member of the General Staff, Wednesday Wei naturally understands the night not to collect troops, after verifying Jin Shixin, he checked the secret letter brought by Jin Shixin, he checked the integrity of the secret words and fire signatures outside the secret letter, and then exchanged the secret letter to Jin Shixin and said: "There is no problem with the secret language and the seal, but you just said that His Majesty personally led the army to help, and the news that Shimen Village has been captured is true?" ”

Jin Shixin replied without hesitation: "This is true, but Your Majesty's secret letter is specified to be delivered to General Zhao, Staff Officer Zhou and Governor Wang, and I hope to enter the city as soon as possible to meet the other two adults, and then deliver the task on the spot, and then return at night to avoid the Tartars starting to block the way back tomorrow." ”

Wednesday nodded timidly, gave a few words to the officers beside him, and then turned back to him and said, "It's okay, I'll accompany you into the city, and then receive Your Majesty's will with Zhao and Wang." ”

Even on Wednesday, Wei couldn't let Zunhua City open the city gate at night, but he did have a hoisting device installed on the city wall next to the west gate as a passage to enter and exit the city at night.

On Wednesday, after Wei and Jin Shixin sat on the city wall in a swaying wooden cage, they ordered someone to inform Zhao Shujiao and Wang Yuanya, and the emperor had an envoy sneak into Zunhua City and asked the two to come over together to accept the emperor's order.

Although only some soldiers knew about the arrival of Jin Shixin, the originally dull and desperate atmosphere among the Zunhua military and civilians was suddenly broken. Although the Zunhua army and civilians repelled the attacks of the Houjin army several times, for a blockaded city, it was impossible to know the news from the outside world and did not know when the reinforcements would arrive, which became the most concerned problem for the soldiers and civilians in the city.

For the soldiers and civilians in Zunhua City, what they were most worried about was whether the imperial court would simply give up on them because they couldn't receive the news of Zunhua City. Even the most ordinary civilians know that if there is no foreign aid to rescue Zunhua, even if Zunhua City can be defended for a long time, it will fall.

They have already fought to this extent outside Zunhua City with the Houjin Tartars, and I am afraid that it is impossible not to be settled by those Tartars after the city is broken. Moreover, in the two days of war, the Tartars drove the surrender of the Ming people to attack the city, and they did not care about the lives of these people at all, and set fire to the houses, which made the people of Zunhua particularly resentful of the Jurchen Tartars.

Although the Zunhua army and civilians were reluctant to surrender to Houjin, they also had little confidence in whether they would be able to hold out until reinforcements arrived. The new tactics used by the Tartars in the past two days made them feel that the northwest corner outside the city was probably untenable. Although Wednesday Wei led his subordinates to desperately intercept Houjin's offensive in the northwest corner, in the eyes of the officials and troops in the city, it was just a death struggle.

The morale of the Ming army in the city was a little low because of this, but the news that the emperor personally recruited and brought a large group of men and horses to rescue Zunhua suddenly made these originally depressed officers and soldiers excited.

This is not only another emperor of the Ming Dynasty who went into battle in person after Emperor Zhengde, but also made these Zunhua soldiers and civilians feel that they were not forgotten by the imperial court. And the emperor came to the rescue in person, obviously it was impossible to only bring thousands of soldiers to the front, as long as the army approached Zunhua City, it would naturally force those Jurchens to retreat.

Not to mention that the morale of the soldiers and civilians in Zunhua City has risen greatly because of the news of the emperor's personal conquest, several bigwigs in Zunhua City are also rubbing their red eyes to receive Jin Shixin.

Zhao Shujiao, Wang Yuanya, and a group of civil and military officials first accepted the secret letter, and while calling someone to translate, they began to seize Jin Shixin to ask about the news of the emperor's personal conquest and the specific information of the battle at Shimen.

The contents of the secret letter were quickly translated, and there were only two contents on it, one was that Chongzhen asked everyone to defend Zunhua City, at least not less than 15 days, so that he had time to mobilize troops from all over the world to gather in Jizhou, and then march east as one;

The other is to reassure the soldiers and civilians in Zunhua City, telling them that the reinforcements have arrived 60 miles away from Zunhua City, and as long as they continue to hold on, victory will inevitably belong to them.

In addition, Chongzhen also promised that the imperial court would compensate for the losses suffered by the people of Zunhua to help defend the city, so he hoped that everyone would abandon their small family at a critical moment to protect Zunhua City.

Regarding the two orders on the emperor's secret letter, neither Zhao Shujiao nor Wang Yuanya objected. It was great news to be able to sit and defend the city instead of being ordered by the emperor to go out of the city to attack the enemy army, and the two of them also recognized the validity of the secret letter.

Subsequently, Zhao Shujiao, Wang Yuanya, and Zhou Wei each wrote a note, explaining the experience of defending Zunhua City these days, and asked Jin Shixin to bring it back to the emperor. In the early morning of 12 November, Jin Shixin and the other three crossed the river again and returned to the south bank of the Shahe River and returned to the troops.

Lin Shixian took the package handed over to him by Jin Shixin, and after reading the three folds inside, he put the package away and said to everyone: "Very good, let's go back and report to Your Majesty, let Your Majesty know that Zunhua City is still in our hands..."