darknovel Chapter 564 Returning Like Lightning
Chapter 564 Returning Like Lightning
Chapter 564 Returning Like Lightning
The twenty-first year of Yongtai, winter.
Somewhere north of Badaling, there is a border army camp.
That night, in the central army tent, a man was sitting with a candle, practicing his Qi and taking a nap.
This man, about forty-five or forty-six years old, eight feet tall, with a strong physique, dark skin, and a resolute face... His whole body is like a diamond that has been tempered a thousand times. He can be chopped with a knife or an axe, but you just don't feel like he can be hurt at all.
He is one of the four great masters of the court appointed by the current emperor, and the leader of "Wind, Cloud, Water and Moon" - Feng Manlou.
Feng Manlou's official title is very special. It is called "General Tianwei", which is undoubtedly an official title that jumps out of the normal organization of the army.
And we all know that throughout history, titles like this... are often just honorary titles, just a kind of honor outside of practical work.
But Feng Manlou's case is different. The current emperor has issued a clear decree: General Tianwei will lead all the soldiers of the nine border guards and have the power of life and death in the army. No matter what military affairs are, he can make decisions first and report later and act at his own discretion.
So what is the concept?
Let me put it this way... Given the distance between Badaling and the capital, if Feng Manlou wanted to, he could launch a blitzkrieg within three days to capture the Forbidden City, kill Zhu Qi, and establish himself as king. He could even take some time on his way back to the capital to take a detour and scatter the ashes of the Zhu family in the imperial mausoleum.
From this perspective, Feng Manlou may be the person Zhu Wei trusts most in this world. Zhu Wei would rather guard against his own son than against him.
Feng Manlou, who was trusted so much, did live up to the trust. His loyalty was unquestionable and his prestige in the army was like a stabilizing force that no one could match.
Today is the seventh day that Feng Manlou has been stationed in the central army and has been in a high-intensity confrontation with a Yuan army unit north of the Great Wall. It is also the seventh day in a row that he has not had a full night's sleep.
If it were an ordinary person, he would have collapsed long ago, but Feng Manlou relied on his profound skills and was able to stay energetic by taking a short break from practicing martial arts every day.
However, he couldn't help but worry. Even if he was really made of copper or iron, how long could he endure such a life?
Here, we will also briefly explain the border situation of Daxun during this period.
In the history of this universe, due to the strong national strength of Dazhu, its control over the territory was relatively stable (the place where Linghu Xiang and Qin Feng fought against the "Six Evils of the North" and obtained the "Two Steps to Heaven" secret book in the previous article was actually no longer under the control of the Ming Dynasty in the official history, but in Dazhu it was still under the jurisdiction of the court), resulting in the Later Jin Dynasty never appearing, so things like the Battle of Sarhu and the fall of the Liaodong Corridor never happened.
But on the other hand, the situation in the north also changed. The power of the Northern Yuan Dynasty continued until the restoration of the Tumen Borjigin regime. Even the name of the country did not change. There was no further split or internal strife after that, and there was no opportunity for Tsarist Russia to get involved. It just continued to eye the north of Dazhong covetously until the Yongtai period.
I said at the beginning of the book that, at least until the 18th year of Yongtai, there had not been any major battles on the Dazhen border for more than ten years (Volume 1, Chapter 1). Small-scale frictions certainly continued, but not to the extent that the ordinary people within the Great Wall would be greatly affected.
However, it is in the past three years that these frictions have continued to escalate, and now, it is belatedly realized that both sides are basically in a state of war.
So in the past three years, Feng Manlou can be said to be busy all the time. Apart from returning to Beijing once a year to report his work to the emperor, he basically has no time to take care of anything in the Central Plains.
After all, when it comes to national affairs, those martial arts disputes are not worth mentioning at all.
Because of this, he really had never heard of the person he was about to meet...
"Report - General, we have captured a suspicious person in front of the camp, and he is clamoring to see you!" A young general ran in and reported with a bow.
"Suspicious person? You said you wanted to see me, so you can see me?" Feng Manlou replied without even opening his eyes, and his tone was steady.
But his intimidating aura and the way he phrased himself were enough to convey his displeasure.
"General, please forgive me..." the young general quickly explained, "This man's words and deeds are strange, and his skills are extraordinary. We took a lot of effort to capture him, so I think... I should report it to you, General."
"Oh?" Feng Manlou opened his eyes. "It's so strong... How strong is it? Are there any casualties among the brothers?"
"This... this is not the case." The young general hesitated for a moment before speaking.
Feng Manlou understood what was going on. To put it bluntly, the person who came was a martial arts master but showed mercy. So his subordinates thought that this person might really have something to do, so they came to ask for instructions.
"Forget it, let him in." Feng Manlou said.
Soon, a man with a disheveled appearance and a short neck walked into the camp surrounded by several soldiers.
"You guys go out." Feng Manlou was a very efficient person. He didn't say much. He dismissed his men as soon as he opened his mouth, and then said to Huang Donglai, "May I ask..."
"I'm Huang Donglai from the Hunyuan Star Gate." Huang Donglai rarely uses the name of Shuzhong Huangmen when reporting his name to the outside world now, because it is easier to avoid risks by reporting the name of the Hunyuan Star Gate, and people who want to seek revenge will not be able to find your mountain gate.
"I haven't heard of it." Feng Manlou's answer was very direct, but the next sentence was also a face-saving one, "I see that your internal strength is not bad, I think you are also a number one figure in the martial arts world." He paused, "But I don't know... you don't walk around in the martial arts world, but come to my military camp outside the pass, what do you want to do?"
"Oh no!" Huang Donglai sighed, and without being polite to the other party, he found a place to sit down, "I didn't run away from the interior, I just escaped from the Yuan army camp."
What he said was true, because when Miao Yinzi brought him and Sun Yixie back to the Central Plains this time, he made some changes to the formation, so in the end only Miao Yinzi himself went back to the mountain gate directly, while Sun Huang was sent to the wasteland north of Badaling.
Of course, Miao Yinzi did this not only out of personal grudge that "these two guys dared to summon me without saying hello", he mainly calculated that there would be a disaster here, so he made such an "airdrop"; if it was about settling personal grudges... it was just that Miao Yinzi deliberately did not say hello to Sun Huang in advance.
As a result, as soon as Sun and Huang landed, they were discovered and surrounded by the Yuan army. Huang Donglai escaped by relying on his lightness skills, but Sun Yixie was not so lucky.
"Oh?" Feng Manlou became alert. "That's even more strange. How did you, a martial artist, get to the Yuan army camp?"
Of course, Huang Donglai had already thought of an excuse for this.
"That's a long story..." He told the lie he had made up, "My brother and I heard that there's a horse called Cayenne outside the Great Wall... This horse has a dragon head and protruding eyes, a strong spine, hooves like rice grains, ears like bamboo shoots, and can travel a thousand miles a day and eight hundred miles a night..."
"Alright, alright, I understand." Feng Manlou only listened to the beginning and interrupted, "I was wondering what you guys were doing. Turns out you were also doing business with those brokers from outside the Great Wall."
I think some readers may still remember the "brokers from outside the Great Wall" mentioned by Feng Manlou. These people are the mixed-race descendants of Tatars and people from the Central Plains. They have been doing comprador business in the border area between Northern Yuan Dynasty and Dazhen for many years. The "seven-colored glazed glue" that Xiao Zhun needed to refine the sword in the previous article was bought from these brokers from outside the Great Wall.
Feng Manlou was naturally aware of the existence of these people. It was not the first time that he had seen martial artists from the Central Plains come to do business with these people and end up dying. So he immediately scolded Huang Donglai, "Don't you see what time it is now? In the early years when it was peaceful, I would have turned a blind eye to you guys coming to do some speculative business. But now that foreign enemies are invading and the war is intense, you are a good man, but you have martial arts skills, but you don't use them to serve the country, but you are taking risks here to smuggle some money and property. Don't you feel ashamed?"
Seeing that this old man suddenly started to teach him a lesson, Huang Donglai felt relieved. He thought, since you have made up all the lies for me, I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to get out of it.
"Yes, yes, the general is right..." Before Feng Manlou finished speaking, Huang Donglai nodded like pounding garlic and said sincerely, "I'll tell you the truth... I have been wandering for half my life and have never met a wise master. Today, after listening to the general's words, I feel like I have been enlightened. I wish I could go into the battlefield and kill the enemy immediately to defend my country. If the general does not abandon me, I am willing to immediately become your disciple and follow you. Even if I am just a small soldier in front of you, holding your horse and whipping you, I will..."
"Okay, okay, okay..." Feng Manlou interrupted Huang Donglai again, mainly because Huang Donglai's words were too shameless. Feng Ge couldn't listen any more, "Don't try to play tricks on me. I've been around the world too, how could I not know what you're up to?" He paused for half a second, "Are you going to say next that your good friend was arrested by the Yuan army, and you want me to send troops to rob the camp and help you find him?"
"Uh..." Huang Donglai was speechless for a moment.
…………
At the same time, Yuan army camp.
Sun Yixie, who was tied up in front of a Yuan army general, was like a chicken with blood injected, and said calmly...
"I have been wandering for half my life, and I only regret that I have never met a wise master! Today I am so surprised to see you, General! If you don't abandon me, I am willing to follow you from now on and let you command me!"