Did he trick the young marshal into becoming sworn brothers and then go south to Huangpu Military Ac

In the inner study, a wisp of sandalwood incense wafts.

Just as Lin Qi's figure disappeared behind the heavy rosewood door, the door hinges creaked softly and fell silent.

The old marshal didn't move, nor did Zhang Hanqing. The father and son, one sitting and one standing, were like two bronze statues cast on the ground.

The old general's eyes, which had been navigating the complexities of life in the countryside and the officialdom for thirty years, were fixed on the 1:50,000 scale map of Zhili, Chahar, and Beijing-Tianjin spread out on the table.

In the lower right corner of the map, Lin Qi used a wolf-hair brush to lightly touch the ground. The ink was not yet dry. That dot was Nanyuan, the training ground where Feng Huanzhang's troops were stationed.

"..."

"..."

The old general slowly swallowed, then stretched out his calloused hand, with bullet marks from his bearded days, and pressed his fingers firmly against the map, as if he were holding down a tiger just released from its cage, or as if he were holding down half of the country that was about to be his.

The chill of late autumn in the Marshal's Mansion should have seeped in through the carved windows in wisps.

At this moment, the old general felt that his neck, temples, and palms were all sweating.

It wasn't cold sweat, it was hot sweat, the kind of hot sweat that seemed to be roasted from the very bones by a raging fire.

He looked up, the overhead light casting flickering light on his face.

"Little Six".

"father."

Zhang Hanqing was startled.

Tell me about it...

The old general's voice was extremely low, like a muffled thud from a cannon barrel: "Just now... just now, was that person really born with a copy of the 'Tui Bei Tu' (a classic Chinese prophecy book)?"

Zhang Hanqing's throat tightened. He opened his mouth but remained silent for a long time. It wasn't that he didn't want to answer, but that he couldn't.

From the three kowtows in the flower hall of the Marshal's Mansion this evening, to the duel with Yang Yuting on the sand table, and finally to the six words "Feng Huanzhang of Chahar," it felt like an ice pick piercing his heart. Then, in the inner study, he saw the complete timeline from September in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, mid-September when the Fengtian Army marched out of the pass, mid-October when Feng Huanzhang staged a military coup, and November when the Fengtian Army entered Zhongnanhai.

Throughout his life, from the age of sixteen when he entered the military academy, Zhang Hanqing had heard countless military discussions, but he had never heard of any military discussion that could make him go from sweating palms to feeling cold back and then having his blood boil within four hours.

"father."

He finally managed to catch his breath, his voice hoarse: "I...I'll say something you're not afraid to hit me for."

"speak."

"That guy, Big Brother!"

Zhang Hanqing said slowly and deliberately, "They don't seem like people from this era."

"Um?!"

The veteran coach did not refute.

"He doesn't look like he was born!"

Zhang Hanqing spoke faster and faster: "He is like... like someone from the next generation, from fifty or a hundred years in the future, walking backwards to look at us. We are like pawns on his chessboard. He knows with his eyes closed which square each pawn should move to next."

Upon hearing this, the old general gently tapped the Nanyuan area on the map with his finger.

Tap, tap, tap, three taps in a row, as if calculating something, or as if pressing something.

After a long silence, the old general spoke: "Little Six."

"exist."

"come over."

Zhang Hanqing moved to the old marshal's side, but the old marshal didn't look at him, still staring at the map: "I have a question for you."

"Please speak."

"Didn't you think tonight that your sworn brother is the best person in the world, a brother who's completely open with you, and a Zhuge Liang who'll help us rule the world?"

Zhang Hanqing was taken aback, then nodded emphatically: "Yes! Father, I guarantee it with my life..."

"Stop."

The old general finally looked up, but his eyes no longer held the fiery passion he had when looking at the map; only coldness remained.

"Little Liu, I won't hit you or scold you today. I'm going to tell you a few words from the bottom of my heart. Listen to me."

"Father, please speak."

"Lin Tuozhi!"

The old general said, slowly and deliberately, "It's a dragon in the sky, not a fish in a pond."

Zhang Hanqing's heart skipped a beat.

"You must cultivate a good relationship with him. If you do, he can support you, helping you rise from this humble kang (heated brick bed) in Fengtian all the way to the dragon throne in Zhongnanhai. If you don't cultivate a good relationship with him..."

After listening for a moment, a cold glint flashed in the old general's eyes: "He can make sure you die without a burial place."

Deathly silence filled the inner study, broken only by the soft hissing of sandalwood in the bronze incense burner.

Zhang Hanqing felt his heartbeat slow down a beat after being hit by the words "no place to be buried," but it was only a beat, just one beat.

The next second, he slapped his thigh hard, and his face glowed with an almost insane red light.

"Father! I've remembered what you said! My elder brother is not someone an ordinary person can handle! Look at those three deep kowtows he made to you today—that was genuine! He truly treats you as an elder!"

"This kind of person, you can give him mountains of gold and silver and he won't take them, you can give him a hundred thousand soldiers and he still won't take them, but as long as you give him a sincere heart, he'll be willing to risk his life for us! Tonight, I dare to swear a solemn oath: with Lin Tuozhi in the south and me in the north, with the two of us brothers in the world, you can just sit tight and hold onto this throne, Father!"

Upon hearing this, the old marshal's eyes revealed a complex expression as he stared blankly at his son, a handsome man in his early twenties who had just graduated from the military academy a few years prior.

After a long, long time, he suddenly smiled, a very soft, bitter, and helpless smile.

He reached out and patted his son's shoulder heavily: "Good! Good! Your old man is getting old, just take half of what he just said as true."

Zhang Hanqing was so overwhelmed by the slap that his blood rushed to his head, and he didn't even notice the seven parts coldness and three parts sigh in that "good".

The old general didn't say anything more. He knew that it would be useless to say anything at this time. Xiao Liu was too deeply involved, trapped in the idea that "brothers united can break gold" and the idea that "there is Lin Tuozhi in the south and Zhang Hanqing in the north," just like he himself was trapped in Zhang Jinghui's words, "Old Zhang, you are the true dragon outside the pass."

Everyone has to suffer a loss when they're young.

The old general sighed inwardly and turned his gaze back to the map.

This time, however, if he were to suffer this loss, it wouldn't just be the lives of ten or twenty thousand men, or one or two divisions of the Fengtian Army. It would be the entire Northeast, the entire North, and all the capital he had built from a bearded man to a general, and from a general to the King of the Northeast.

The old general had already made up his mind: this fierce tiger would either be brought under his control or...

Thinking of this, he glanced at his son and stopped his thoughts from going any further, knowing that there were more important things to do, which was to go to Beiping in November.

"Little Six".

"exist!"

"Go and relay the order."

The old general's voice suddenly deepened, like a sharp thud from the cast-iron bell in the courtyard.

"Call Lin Ge and the others over! Nobody's getting any sleep tonight!"

"yes!"

Zhang Hanqing was startled. His boots clattered three times on the floor tiles as he rushed out of the study.

Soon, the study fell silent again. The old general slowly withdrew his hand from the south wall and placed it on his knee, clenching it into a fist.

The second drumbeat sounded after midnight.

Yang Yuting had just recovered in the operations room and was about to leave the marshal's mansion to go home.

"Councilor Yang! Councilor Yang, please wait!"

Yang Yuting turned around and saw the old marshal's adjutant, surnamed Liu.

This usually composed and steady adjutant, Liu, had beads of sweat on his forehead at this moment.

"The old marshal issued an order summoning you to his study immediately. Commander Jiang and the rest of the troops are all on their way here."

Yang Yuting paused for a moment, then nodded and turned to walk towards the study.

In the study, the old general was resting with his eyes closed.

Tang Yulin was the first to be summoned back. As he entered, he unbuckled his belt and asked, "General, what's the rush?"

"sit."

The old coach uttered a single word and said no more.