Jiang Qing

Pingdong Shencheng.

The torch on the cavern of the tower had been burning all night, and the black smoke exhaled its last hot breath, drifting scattered towards the whitish sky.

Steady footsteps "da da" hit the city wall, followed by a slightly heavy panting sound and a slightly dull zero walk. About a group of tall and burly soldiers walked side by side, carrying wooden barrels up the city wall.

The leader lifted the lid, and the steaming hot air mixed with the aroma of the steamed buns rushed over his face. He swayed the hot air covering his eyes a few times indiscriminately, and grabbed two steamed buns impatiently, but was so hot that he grinned and gasped. In one breath, he hurriedly used the corner of the clothes he just changed in the morning to cover the two hot pieces, and turned his head to greet the soldiers guarding the city wall.

"Brothers, just out of the pan, eat some!"

The soldiers behind each grabbed two buns from the barrel in turn, and returned to their positions.With one hand holding the hot buns through the cloth, he walked all the way along the city wall, and with the other hand, he patted the shoulder of the taxi standing twice, yelled, and pointed back, "Eat something Wake up warmly."

After looking around for a while, but couldn't find anyone, he finally couldn't hold back and grabbed a soldier who was walking down, and asked, "Where's General Ling?"

The soldier pointed away, and he looked in the direction. There was a sentry standing on the watchtower, and a man in black armor was wiping a knife beside the sentry.

A ray of light leaked from the clouds in the east, reflected on the blade, and licked the white edge.

Shi Ting ran up in three steps and two steps, and eagerly opened a slit of the corner of his clothes to show Ling Che, saying: "I'm covering it, I haven't cooled off all the way, General Ling, eat something first?"

Ling Che put down the knife, glanced at it, and pouted at the sentry behind him, motioning for Shi Ting to give him this.

Shi Ting didn't understand the look in his eyes, thinking that he disliked being unclean, he laughed twice, and said boldly: "The clothes I just changed are not dirty."

Ling Che coughed lightly, and said to the sentry on guard, "Go down and have some food first, and I'll stand for you for a while."

The sentry responded, but before Ling Che could speak, Shi Ting stuffed the two buns into his hand, walked to the place where the sentry was standing just now, and said, "General, you can eat, I will stand for him." After a while... yo, I got up early enough, and I'm eating too."

Ling Che took a bite of the steamed stuffed bun, chewed it mechanically, and looked into the distance, on a piece of scorched earth, there were a series of tents closely connected together, and the smoke from cooking fires curled upwards and dissipated in mid-air.

Shi Ting roughly scanned it, and said cheerfully: "This pot and stove must be missing more than a dozen. Let's see how long they can last!"

Before the cold wind penetrated the buns in his hand, Ling Che swallowed them whole in two mouthfuls, took two steps forward, carefully looked at the distribution of the enemy camp, and asked, "How many days has it been?"

"It's the sixteenth day."

This is the No. 16 day when they abandoned Benzhou and retreated to Shencheng.

Ling Che looked deeply at the defense in front of Shencheng. Outside the city gate, a curved wall surrounded the urn city. Outside the urn city was a slightly shorter wall of sheep and horses. Further forward, there was a moat. Outside the moat, there were four more For defense, the tunnel in front of the horse gun is used to trap horses, and staghorn wood and barbed wire are laid at the forefront.

This was arranged by him leading the army to withdraw into Shencheng.Benzhou's counterattack came unexpectedly. Fortunately, Pingdonghou was still in the city of Benzhou at that time, and retreated after the war. They decided to lead the people of Benzhou to retreat into the boundary of Pingdong and stationed in Shencheng.

The three prefectures of Pingdong are rich and stable, and it would be great to be the backup of Shencheng. The gate of Shencheng is a gateway, and the defense is extremely solid. As long as they can't defend in the city, it will not be a problem even at this time next year. .

Ling Che thought of this when he withdrew here, thinking that the food and grass of the rebel army would be exhausted before him, and they would definitely not attack Shencheng to death. Who knew that half a month had passed, and the rebel army hadn't even shown any signs of retreating. .

Standing on this easy-to-defend but hard-to-attack city, Ling Che became a little flustered.

In the past half month, the movement of the rebel army is really unreasonable.

Originally, the siege was at a disadvantage. Without a steady supply of food and grass, the rebel army shouldn't be so determined to gnaw at the hard bone in the east. After all, Ling Che retreated on his own initiative in Benzhou, and the soldiers and horses in his hands did not have much wear and tear. The impoverishment of Shencheng is just a stopgap measure.

At this time, the rebel army should take advantage of the news of Pingdong being blocked and before Pingdu received the news, voluntarily disperse and retreat, so as not to be encircled.Ling Che was also waiting for the opportunity for them to take the initiative to retreat, so that they could lead the troops to chase after the remnants and return to Benzhou.

But in the past half a month, the rebel army showed no sign of retreating, and they didn't even have a strong stance to attack the city.In the past [-] days, they have attacked the city five times, large and small, but they have not attacked the moat once, and there have been countless stone-throwing harassment.

A tough siege itself carries great risks, so the attackers and defenders are stalemate to the end, and the competition is all about food reserves and people's aspirations.However, such scenes of pulling each other mostly appeared in the borderlands, and only when the attacking party had sufficient backup supplies would it take time to endure it.

Shougucheng was the worst time, and the whole army was ready to fight to the death, so the leading general would consider it.But now that they had a choice, the rebel army chose to guard a city in Benzhou, regardless of the hidden danger of being attacked by the enemy, and fought to the death in Shencheng.

For a moment, Ling Che didn't know whether it was their leader who really didn't understand the art of war, or did they have an unknown food transportation channel?

But looking at the dwindling number of cases, it doesn't look like there is enough backup.

Although Ling Che is young, he has experienced dozens of battles, big and small, with both offensive and defensive sides. This is not the most difficult battle he has encountered in defending the city, but it is the most puzzling one.

Full of inconsistencies, split the rebels who started halfway into two extremes, laymen and veterans. Sometimes its unexpected attacks make people restrain their minds, and sometimes their looseness makes people feel that they are just rangers who are not to be feared. scattered people.

The camp over there stopped the smoke, and let a few people shout at the city gate a little closer, showing a provocative attitude.

Ling Che frowned as he listened.

"What are you listening to? You're so engrossed." A female voice came in abruptly, and Ling Che finally realized it. He glanced down, blocked it reflexively, and said, "Patriarch Jiang...it's nothing."

Jiang Xiyue glanced at his attempt to cover up his actions, and took two steps forward to listen to him, without any fluctuation in expression.

Ling Che glanced at her, seeing that the calm expression on her face did not seem fake, he was relieved.

Those who are generals are most taboo to shake their minds. The people below are clamoring for the incident of Jiang Xiyue and Sun Zhe getting married back then. Borrowing Jiang Xiyue's Dongfeng with his looks, he will never be Ping Donghou in this life.Nowadays, women are required to come out to guard the city, and they hide in the house without daring to show their heads. It is better to wear women's clothing and embroider in the boudoir.

After arranging Sun Zhe, they began to describe Jiang Xiyue as a lustful and hungry ghost. When they first saw Sun Zhe, they couldn't walk. They just grabbed him and forced the family to support Sun Zhe.

The laughter and noise from below became louder and louder. One of the rebels at the front even dangled a pink bellyband with a spear, saying that he would give this bellyband to Sun Zhe. After a burst of foul language, he unexpectedly Tie it to a crossbow and aim for the city.

The man's shooting range was extremely accurate, and the feathered arrow hit a part of the city wall, and the peach red bellyband was hanging on the gray and black wall, showing something funny.

The soldiers brought by Ling Che gritted their teeth, clenched their fists, and opened their eyes angrily. On the other hand, Ping Donghou's people were very calm. Shi Ting even squinted his eyes with interest, trying to see clearly the bellyband "Ma'am, is that a mandarin duck? Or a phoenix?"

Ling Che didn't expect him to blurt out such a sentence, he was startled secretly, and glanced at Jiang Xiyue's face.

Jiang Xiyue still had a calm expression, she couldn't see anything, she seemed to be aware of Ling Che's gaze, she turned her head, raised the corner of her mouth slightly, and said, "Master Ling also thinks my husband is a softie?"

Ling Che blurted out, "Of course not."

After finishing speaking, he opened his mouth, not knowing what else to say.

Although he and Ping Donghou are equal in status, they have been stationed in their respective fiefs for these years, and they don't know much about each other.It was also during this more than a month of discussing military affairs together that they got to know each other's temperament better.

Sun Zhe was born with heart disease, and Ling Che knew it. In his imagination, Ping Donghou was generally weak, seldom spoke, and even had a gloomy look in his eyes.But after getting along during this time, if he didn't know that Jiang Xiyue was five years younger than Sun Zhe, Ling Che would have almost misidentified their ages.

Unlike what he imagined, Sun Zhe turned out to be the one who loves to laugh, gags at every turn, and is so active that he does not match his age. On the contrary, Jiang Xiyue is more calm and quiet, not like a child raised in the world.

Hanging such a thing on the city gate is a bit indecent after all, the nearby soldiers have already pulled it off and stomped on the ground a few times.

Jiang Xiyue couldn't help following the soldier's movements from the corner of her eye, and said softly, "Shi Ting, go and put that thing away."

Such humiliating things were mostly kept to boost the morale of the army, Ling Che nodded slightly understandingly.

Jiang Xiyue pursed her lips, and said, "Don't let Lord Hou see it."

Being crushed by such humiliation, no matter how open-minded the heart is, it will be stymied, not to mention that Sun Zhe still has heart disease and can't stand the stimulation. Ling Che feels that this entrustment is just right.

"Oh——" Shi Ting sighed a long time, and muttered, "Of course you can't let Lord Hou know, otherwise he will definitely wear it, and you will have to spend half the night. How can Madam defend the city tomorrow..."

The end of the voice twirled briefly in Ling Che's ear as Shi Ting went away. Ling Che almost thought he had heard something wrong, his eyes were shocked, and he looked at Jiang Xiyue in disbelief. The tip of the ear turned red little by little, and it immediately covered the entire ear.

Jiang Xiyue also noticed that her ears were burning, so she turned around embarrassingly, and smiled awkwardly at Ling Che.

The surprise in Ling Che's heart has not dissipated. Ping Donghou's escape on weekdays is already unimaginable in the past, but he is actually more... cheerful in private?

Ling Che rolled his mind several times before he chose such a word to describe him.

Fortunately, the expression on his face was well concealed. After meeting Jiang Xiyue's eyes, Ling Che immediately pretended not to hear anything, and turned his head to look at the enemy camp in the distance.

An embarrassing atmosphere permeated the entire enemy building, and the air between the two seemed to freeze.

After a while, Jiang Xiyue seemed to feel the need to explain, took a deep breath, and considered how to explain this clearly without scaring Ling Che.

She opened her mouth a few times before she spoke, "As Ling Hou saw...my husband is extroverted, but he is really not...a frivolous person."

In Jiang Xiyue's mind, Sun Zhe's skinless and shameless image kept shaking. She really used the thickest skin in her life to say the words "not frivolous" against her will.

She didn't doubt that Sun Zhe could do what Shi Ting said, but in order to maintain his image as a marquis, Jiang Xiyue held back for a while before saying this explanation that was better than nothing.

"Well... I understand, Master Hou is straightforward..." Ling Che obviously didn't expect that she would take the initiative to delve into this topic. Such a word to make up for.

The atmosphere between the two became more and more awkward.

Jiang Xiyue thought about Sun Zhe's usual appearance, and felt that it was not convincing at all to say that he is good. After all, people have two sides, and they can't just pick the good ones to praise, so she turned her head and made it up firmly. One sentence.

"The rebel army just said that he eats soft food..."

"...Huh?" Ling Che answered boldly.

"This is true." Jiang Xiyue's expression became much more sincere, "He has indeed relied on me to support him for many years."

With this extra sentence, "not frivolous" suddenly became believable.At least, that's what Jiang Xiyue thought.

The author says:

Shi Ting: Marquis, the enemy sent you a bellyband to insult you!

Sun Zhe: Madam, do you want to see me wear it?

Shi Ting: Lord Hou, Madam said that you are a little boy who eats soft food......

Sun Zhe: (Ms. Joyue ​​thinks I look good!