Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 241 Disagreement
Pei Yuan has been on the road for nearly a year and has already developed an inexplicable sense of familiarity with this kind of life.

The situation of the Jinyiwei who followed him was similar.

Because the Zhenxie Qianhu Unit did not have specific defense areas and defenses, and faced people from the underworld who were prone to causing chaos, large-scale mobilization was common in order to concentrate manpower to encircle and kill them.

But what surprised Pei Yuan was that he did not expect that the soldiers stationed in Xuzhou Garrison could adapt to such a rhythm so quickly.

Apart from anything else, the soldiers' strong bodies alone make their performance during the march very eye-catching.

You should know that these soldiers are different from the Jinyiwei led by Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan and other Jinyiwei who were protecting the team could naturally throw their thick cotton armor, armor covers and weapons on the baggage carts and let the porters help transport them.

But these soldiers have clear guard responsibilities.

This means that most of the time, these soldiers have to carry weapons even if they don't have to wear armor.

Especially in this situation, with small groups of the Bazhou Army scattered and roaming around, the guards must be prepared to fight at any time.

Even in such an unfair comparison, the soldiers of Xuzhou Wei did not perform much worse throughout the march.

Not to mention Pei Yuan was surprised by this incident, even Xu Feng, who was leading the troops, was a little confused.

There is only one reason why Xu Feng could become the commander of the Hangzhou vanguard.

That is, his father is the commander of the Hangzhou vanguard.

When Zhu Yuanzhang faced the issue of rotation of military officers, his approach was simple and plain.

You should sit on the throne that you built yourself, and when I retire, my son will take over.

The Hangzhou vanguard was stationed in the richest core area of ​​the Ming Dynasty and had not fought a war for many years.

Xu Feng had been spoiled since childhood and had little experience in leading troops.

This is why, when encountering a eunuch's son who has suddenly become powerful like Xiao Yan, they feel that it is not a problem to let him be a commander with 500 regular soldiers and 500 auxiliary soldiers.

Xiao Yan even had the idea of ​​using a butcher knife to kill a chicken.

But Xu Feng himself was extremely panicked.

He barely remembered the few words and stories his ancestors had taught him, about the military discipline and the might of Xiliu.

Xu Feng wanted to perform well in front of Eunuch Xiao's nephew, which put a lot of pressure on himself.

He took over this army in a hurry and thought it would take a lot of time to get the team under control.

After a while of busying around, we found out that this army seemed to be particularly good at unity and cooperation.

Moreover, their abundant physical energy allows them to withstand particularly hardship.

It didn't take long for Xu Feng to rectify his mediocre skills and actually saw some improvement.

Wait until the troops are officially on the road.

Each of them has a neat and orderly appearance and looks very intimidating.

Xu Feng had never commanded so many soldiers in his life, but he didn't expect that he would be able to do it so smoothly right from the start.

When summarizing on the way.

Xu Feng was very sad and thought that he might have the potential to be a famous general, but was buried by the times.

——What does it mean that Xu Datou met Emperor Taizu, and what does it mean for Xu Da and Chang Yuchun?
The Hangzhou vanguard commander rode on his horse and couldn't help but gesture a few times with his hands.

It would be great if I could go back to the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty.

I kill, kill, kill...

When the sun set, the team stopped early and began to prepare to set up camp.

The soldiers in charge of the escort helped to take down the wood and felt tents from the baggage carts carried by the auxiliary soldiers and began to build the camp.

The movements were extremely agile and skillful, and it didn't take long to set up a large, neat and secure camp.

Not only Xu Feng was dumbfounded, but Xiao Yan and Xiao Tong, father and son, could not help but secretly click their tongues.

Elite, this is it!

Even many Jinyiwei soldiers felt inferior when they saw their strong muscles working.

Pei Yuan's reaction to this was quite calm.

The main business of Xuzhou Wei for many years has been shipbuilding.

In addition to heavy work such as transporting wood, there is also delicate work such as mortise and tenon joints.

It goes without saying that he is physically strong, and his ability to work in unity and cooperation is far superior to others.

Pei Yuan felt that Xu Feng had not yet fully brought out their best advantages.

If we find a great foreman, he might be able to command better than him.

Pei Yuan did not have high expectations for this group of soldiers who had not experienced much combat.

Take a simple example.

With only Pei Yuan and his group of twenty or thirty men, even though they were wearing armor and helmets, they would not be able to hold out for long against the attack from the Xuzhou guards.

After all, their physical fitness, coupled with the psychological advantage of outnumbering others, is enough to support them until the Jinyiwei soldiers collapse.

But what about another situation?

These 500 regular soldiers are likely to suffer losses when facing 200 bandits whose overall quality is far inferior to theirs.

Because when they face casualties, they don't have the psychological expectation to bear enough costs.

When numerical advantage is not enough to build their psychological moat.

When they need to rely on blood and blood to fight, their weaknesses will be exposed.

However, if Pei Yuan's twenty or thirty elite Jinyiwei faced two hundred bandits, they might be able to achieve a far greater effect than these people.

But it doesn’t matter.

These soldiers neither lag behind nor set up camp beautifully. Captain Pei was generally very satisfied with them.

I heard that only a small group of troops from the Bazhou Army fled to Shandong. The deterrent effect of such a military appearance is enough to make them dare not make any plans.

Pei Yuan commanded his men to set up tents in a corner of the camp.

Then, Eunuch Gu, who had been staggering all the way, was helped out of the carriage.

Gu Dayong had been suppressing the rebellion for more than a year and had long been accustomed to this kind of life.

After coming out, he found a dry place to stand.

The young eunuch named Wu Qing brought a brocade stool for Gu Dayong.

He sat there and rested quietly by himself.

Pei Yuan became more and more satisfied with this. It's not bad. It's not difficult to serve him.

He told people to keep an eye on Eunuch Gu and went to look for Jiao Yan'er.

When they arrived at the place, they found Song Chunniang sitting on the shaft, laughing and joking with people in the carriage.

Pei Yuan walked over angrily and scolded, "Get out of here now."

Song Chunniang jumped down from the shaft of the cart unhappily.

Perhaps because she was going back to the capital, Song Chunniang avoided Jiao Yaner and brought up the old matter again. "Do you want to reconsider the daughter of the censor?"

Pei Yuan glared at him unhappily.

What is my current status? Do I need to take over for you?

However, this time Song Chunniang's proposal had new ideas.

"She can be a concubine. Even the granddaughter of Grand Secretary Jiao Fang can be a concubine. Her reputation is not too bad now, so it's OK."

"Heh." Pei Yuan was very disgusted with Song Chunniang's behavior.

Didn't you ruin her reputation?
Captain Pei said to Song Chunniang with a cold face, "I'll count to three, get out of here now."

Although Song Chunniang's face was full of regret, she did not insist.

Pei Yuan lifted the car curtain and glanced at Jiao Yaner.

I noticed that she looked a little tired.

He immediately persuaded her, “Would you like to sit outside for a while?”

Jiao Yan'er listened to the noise outside and shook her head slightly, "It will be fine once the car stops. We'll talk later."

Pei Yuan didn't force it.

Even though he had Xu Feng's troops, he did not dare to be careless.

These rookies are OK as meat shields, but they may not be able to play a big role when they really get into trouble.

Pei Yuan asked Chen Toutie to keep an eye on his family and money, while he rode on a horse and called Cheng Leixiang and a few good men to prepare to patrol the area around the camp.

When I turned around before leaving the camp, I saw Song Chunniang sitting on the shaft of the cart again, happily talking about something.

Chen Toutie helplessly led his men to guard not too far away, and when he saw Pei Yuan looking over, he looked back at him innocently.

Pei Yuan was speechless. Okay.

Several riders hurriedly circled the camp, ran two circles, and then rushed to the nearby high ground.

Xiao Yan, along with Xiao Tong and Xu Feng, were just about to pay a courtesy greeting to Gu Dayong. When they saw the commotion made by Pei Yuan, they all looked over.

Xu Feng looked at Pei Yuan and his party with some displeasure and asked, "What are they doing?"

Xiao Yan and his son Xiao Tong also couldn't understand it.

Gu Dayong only took a quick glance and said calmly, "It's just a routine patrol."

Seeing that the three didn't seem to understand, Gu Dayong explained lazily, "It's just to run around the camp twice to see if there are any weaknesses that are convenient for attack. After he finishes his patrol, he will look for a suitable ambush nearby. You see..."

Gu Dayong pointed to a small slope that Pei Yuan was riding up on his horse.

"From where we are, the view to that location will be somewhat obstructed. If there is a three or four foot height difference behind us, more than a hundred people can hide there. If someone rushes over from there when we break camp in the morning, the consequences will be unpredictable."

Xiao Yan and Xiao Tong were fine, but Xu Feng looked a little embarrassed.

Doesn't this make him seem unprofessional?
He had no choice but to flatter, "My Lord, you are indeed a man who has led a large army. You understand the rules here."

Gu Dayong shook his head and said with his hands in his pockets, "I didn't understand it at first, but I understood it after suffering so many losses. I didn't expect that Pei Yuan, who is in the Jinyiwei, actually has some skills."

Ordinary Jinyiwei were only responsible for simple tasks such as ceremonial guards and arresting people and ransacking their homes, and rarely did they go into battle with real weapons.

I didn't expect Pei Yuan actually knew a little about military affairs.

Xiao Yan and Xiao Tong remained silent.

Xu Feng might not understand, but the two of them, together with Lu Ting, had been chasing and intercepting Pei Yuan for so long, so they knew how difficult this guy was.

If there was no VCR, Xiao Yan would have let Gu Dayong get to know Pei Yuan again, as well as Pei Yuan's transformed form when holding the door panel.

Pei Yuan felt much more at ease after finishing his inspection, and when he came back, the camp had been almost cleaned up.

Although Xiao Yan and Xu Feng invited Gu Dayong to stay with them out of duty, Eunuch Gu still felt that Pei Yuan, who was one of their own, might be more reliable.

After walking and stopping for several days, we finally arrived in Yutai County.

This place already belongs to Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong. After entering Yanzhou Prefecture, Pei Yuan obviously felt that there were fewer pedestrians on the road.

When passing by a post station, Pei Yuan went there in person to inquire.

Upon learning that Yanzhou Prefecture was particularly harassed by Bazhou bandits, they finally drove the Bazhou bandits south, but as a result, a group of defeated soldiers actually sneaked into Shandong again.

The defeated soldiers did not dare to attack the fortified city, but only looted villages along the way to obtain supplies.

Even many of the post stations that had just been restored were destroyed.

In order to facilitate the communication of military intelligence and personnel exchanges in the south, the prefect of Yanzhou had no choice but to bite the bullet, squeeze out some money and food, and temporarily set up a simple post station beside the main road.

Pei Yuan inquired about the scale of the Bazhou bandits and couldn't help but gasp.

According to the postmaster, those defeated soldiers from Bazhou robbed wherever they went, and many ordinary people had no way to survive and were forced to follow them and become bandits.

The young and strong were incorporated into the team, while the old and weak carried firewood and rice and worked like oxen and horses for them.

Whenever someone was injured, they would not provide medical treatment but would simply give them a handful of rice or salt and leave them on the roadside to fend for themselves.

As a result, the remaining troops of Bazhou swept through several counties, and after the survival of the fittest, they had more than 20,000 people and were gradually gaining momentum.

The two leaders of this rebellious army, one called "Big Tiger" and the other called "Starry Sky", have already raised the banner of "clearing the court and supporting the virtuous king".

After Pei Yuan found out the truth, he felt a little uneasy.

He is still not sure how the Bazhou Army positions him, nor does he know what these defeated troops think of him.

If I really encounter that, as soon as my famous name appears, I might be the target of maximum hatred.

The more Pei Yuan thought about it, the more uncertain he felt. After returning, he suggested to Xiao Yan and Xu Feng, who were in charge of defense, "A rebel army has sneaked into Shandong. I heard that there are at least 20,000 to 30,000 people. Should we go to Caozhou Prefecture, detour through Henan, and then go to Beijing?"

"Go through Henan?" Xiao Yan laughed. "Captain Pei is confused. Aren't the main forces of the Bazhou rebels in Henan? I heard that the White Lotus Sect is still making trouble in Henan. If we go to Henan, we will not only encounter more enemies, but also have to take a lot of detours."

As Xu Feng became more familiar with and mastered his troops, Xiao Yan also felt that his back was beginning to straighten.

Seeing that his words didn't make sense, Pei Yuan didn't even bother to explain and turned around to go see Gu Dayong.

Xiao Yan was furious when he saw this. He wanted to explode, but then he felt that this reason was not good enough, so he followed him to see Gu Dayong.

Xu Feng and Xiao Yan have been getting along very well these days.

With his deliberate flattery, he basically climbed up to Xiao Jing's backer.

This gave Xu Feng more confidence about this trip to Beijing.

His original intention this time was to expose the affair between Wang Chang and Pei Yuan. Although Lu Ting's blatant protection put him in a passive position, if he could find an opportunity to capture Pei Yuan first, he might be able to torture him to get more direct information.

Therefore, these days, Xu Feng has been instigating Xiao Yan to take action.

With the support of Xu Feng, Xiao Yan had changed his original plan of returning to Beijing and became eager to try.

When the three of them caught up with Pei Yuan, they saw him talking to Gu Dayong.

Xiao Yan interrupted immediately, "I don't agree!"

Pei Yuan glanced back at him and continued to say to Gu Dayong, "The Bazhou Army is now fleeing in panic and dare not fight at all. Moreover, the uprising of the White Lotus Sect in Henan has also severely damaged many villages and towns in Henan, making it difficult for the Bazhou Army to get enough supplies. So they will definitely speed up to Huguang."

"Besides, all the bandits in Henan, big and small, should understand that the imperial court will definitely chase the Bazhou army into Henan to quell the rebellion. The imperial court's blade is already pointing at this side, who dares to stay? They would have probably fled long ago. It is actually the safest time for us to enter Henan now."

Seeing this, Xiao Yan angrily said, "Who dares to change the route without my consent?!"

(End of this chapter)