: Extremely Hard

The Ming army is really just making a fool of himself, is it really just to lure Korqin people into being deceived?

The answer is of course no. Wang Pu is not making a fool of himself, he is setting up a suspicion array to create conditions and opportunities for the safe escape of the Ming army. They can leave here just by waiting for God to cooperate with him and there will be another heavy snow!

Three days passed quickly.

This was a difficult three days. For the past three days, everyone, including Wang Pu, could only eat dry food on the ice and snow, and could only wrap a blanket to squeeze together to keep warm. But even so, they were still trembling with cold. A secret whistle sent out fell asleep in the snow and ended up being frozen to death.

Mongolia is too cold in winter and cannot make fire. This day is really hard, but no matter how hard they are, they have to endure. Before God snows again, they have to endure it!

Datong.

Zhang Zian finally returned triumphantly with his army.

This time, the dispatch of troops to Mongolia was a great victory. A total of more than 800,000 animals were recovered, including more than 600,000 sheep and goats, more than 50,000 horses, more than 100,000 cattle, and nearly 100,000 camels. If the market price is based on the market price, these animals can be sold for nearly 2 million taels of silver. The owed pay and pensions of the border soldiers and soldiers was deducted, and there was a surplus of more than 1.3 million taels!

Of course, cattle and sheep were counted separately in several batches. Only Zhang Zian knew this number. The soldiers of the border army only knew that they had snatched back many cattle and sheep from outside the border, but none of them knew what the specific number was. Zhang Zian was not going to tell anyone about this number.

After several dreams at midnight, Zhang Zian couldn't believe that this was true!

Before these animals were turned into silver, Zhang Zian began to think about how to deal with this huge amount of silver.

After winning a great victory and looting so many cattle, sheep and animals, the Lord and the ancestors must have a large amount of silver. Zhang Zi'an made a calculation and had to give at least 500,000 taels of silver! There are also border soldiers who went to Mongolia to expedition to Mongolia and each person would have to reward each of them with a few taels of silver. Those deputy generals, guerrillas and generals also had to manage some of them, and they would have to spend about 100,000 taels, which would have left nearly 800,000 taels.

How should I deal with this 800,000 taels of silver be purchased? Should I buy land or buy real estate?

Just as Zhang Zi was happily thinking about spending the 800,000 taels of silver, the little eunuch came in and reported, "Godfather, all the guests you invited were here, waiting in the living room."

"Is that true?" Zhang Zian's eyes narrowed into slits with joy. He said happily, "Are you all here?"

The little eunuch nodded and smiled charmingly: "It's all here."

Zhang Zi'an said: "Don't the Wang family know about this?"

Zhang Zi'an wanted to sell this batch of cattle and sheep to other Shanxi wealthy families without telling the Wang family. The reason was very simple. He didn't want the Wang family to know the specific numbers of the cattle and sheep, especially Wang Pu, because the most contribution of this time was Wang Pu. If Wang Pu knew that he had made so much profit from sending troops to Zhang Zi'an, Zhang Zi'an really couldn't find a reason to refuse.

So, just bypass the Wang family.

"I don't know." said the little eunuch, "My son repeatedly reminded those rich families not to reveal the news to the Wang family."

"Yes." Zhang Zi'an nodded and said, "Well done."

The little eunuch quickly said, "Thank you, godfather for the praise."

"Go." Zhang Zi'an said, "Please invite all the guests to the warm room, and our family will discuss matters with you today."

"Okay."

The little eunuch responded and took the order.

Soon, five middle-aged men entered the warm-up hall under the guidance of the little eunuch. Although these five middle-aged men only wore coarse cloth clothes and looked rustic, they were actually wealthy businessmen in Shanxi. This was all because of the rules set by Emperor Hongwu that merchants could only wear cloth clothes, not silk and satin!

Although the family wealth of these five wealthy Shanxi businessmen is not as good as that of the Wang family, each of them is not a problem to take out hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Zhang Zi'an sat down without getting up, pointed to the chairs beside the stove, and said calmly: "Sit all."

"Thank you, my father-in-law."

Five wealthy Shanxi businessmen thanked Zhang Zi'an with their fists and sat down on the chair with half of their butt.

Zhang Zi'an used fire tongs to pull out the charcoal fire from the stove and said unevenly: "I'll invite you guys today. We have something important to discuss with you."

Five wealthy businessmen from Shanxi looked at each other, and the oldest one said respectfully: "If you have anything, just give me some instructions."

Zhang Zian cleared his throat and said, "I guess you have heard of the military affairs of Mongolia a while ago, right?"

The five wealthy businessmen nodded quickly. Of course they heard about such a big thing. However, they were still unable to figure out the intention of Zhang Zi'an to talk about it for a while, and they didn't dare to answer the words. However, they thought to themselves that if this old castrated man wanted to spread the consumption of the troops on them, there would be no door.

"That's right." Zhang Zi'an continued, "This time he won a big victory and he also captured a large number of animals from Mongolia. Our family wants to sell these animals into silver to reimburse the owed wages to the soldiers of the border. Of course, our family will not let you lose money. Our family can guarantee that they will trade at the market price."

"Oh, so that's it."

"So we want to buy cattle and sheep."

"This is not a problem. The villain was originally a slaughter and made a fortune. This is his old job."

Several Shanxi merchants were relieved. The oldest Shanxi merchant asked: "Dare you ask me, how many animals are there in this batch, how much money do we have to prepare?"

"Not much." Zhang Zian said calmly, "It's about two million taels in total."

"ah!?"

"Two...two million taels!?"

Five Shanxi businessmen took a breath when they heard this, and they were all stunned.

"What?" Zhang Zi'an pulled his face down and said in a dark voice, "Each of your family has assets of more than one million. If you each pays 400,000 taels of silver, is there still a difficulty?"

Several Shanxi merchants complained: "Father-in-law, if you sold our cattle and sheep half a month earlier, each family would be 500,000 taels. We could afford 600,000 taels, but now it's not done."

Zhang Zian asked in a dark voice: "Why can't it be done now?"

The oldest Shanxi businessman replied: "Sometimes ago, the Wang family suddenly sold their real estate in Shanxi. Once our five families gathered a total of 2 million taels of cash and sold all the Wang family's industries in Shanxi. Now the whole of Shanxi is in the Wang family's bank warehouse, and our families have not much cash."

"What?" Zhang Zi'an said in surprise, "There is still this?"

"Not that."

"Father-in-law. It's not that villains don't want to buy it. I really don't have so much money in my hand for the time being."

"It's really impossible to get two million at a time. Otherwise, our five families will raise 200,000 taels of silver first and buy some of the cattle and sheep in the land of my father-in-law first?"

Zhang Zian was a little disbelief: "Did you really take over all the industries of the Wang family?"

"Of course it's true." The five merchants responded in unison, "Except for the Wang family's courtyard, we have taken over all the industries in Shanxi."

"It's weird." Zhang Zi'an wondered, "What's the matter with the Wang family? They've sold all their industries, are they going to live?"

Five Shanxi businessmen asked in a low voice: "Father-in-law, you see the matter of buying animals..."

Zhang Zian came back to his senses and said angrily: "You go back and get the money first, and you can get as much as you can."

"yes."

Five Shanxi merchants responded and turned around and left.

Sanbulachuan.

In a blink of an eye, two more days passed, and it was still not snowing. The people of Korqin were very honest and did not send anyone to go up the mountain to attack. It seemed that they were afraid of being bombed by the Dragon King Cannon, so they acted like they were defending the Nanshan Mountain to the death, and were determined to trap the Ming army on the mountain!

Of course, the people of Korqin would send patrol soldiers from time to time to prevent the Ming army from actually climbing the cliff and running away.

As time goes by, the situation on the mountain is getting worse and worse.

Because they could not eat hot food for a long time, the soldiers could only eat dry food on ice and snow. Many soldiers' bodies were already in trouble. Uneasiness and restlessness began to spread in various tents. Wang Pu also gnawed dry food on ice and snow like the soldiers. He felt that both physically and mentally were approaching the limit.

It is really an inhuman thing to hold on to such a snowy place!

There is no entertainment, no sound, no heating, nothing, the soldiers can only squeeze in the low and dark tent, stare at each other, eat dry food when hungry, and dig snow when thirsty! The whole world seems to be stagnant, and what's worse is that everyone except Wang Pu, no one knows why they are like this? When will they continue?

If someone else had been to lead the troops, these people would have been mutiny long ago!

This is a test of endurance, this is a tempering of spiritual power. The enemies of the Ming soldiers are either others or themselves. They must overcome difficulties that ordinary people cannot imagine with superhuman perseverance. They must endure this cold, lonely, boring, and even more terrifying than death...

On the fifth day, the people of Korqin could not help it anymore. They sent five hundred people again to try to go up the mountain overnight to attack, but were bombarded by the Ming army's Dragon King's cannon. The Ming soldiers who finally caught the opportunity vented all their resentment on the heads of this group of unlucky Korqin people.

The Korqin people threw down more than 200 bodies on the mountain again, and then became honest again.

However, on the sixth night, things finally turned around. Damn God finally snowed again, and the opportunity finally came...

It was night, and the sky was particularly dark.

Wang Pu asked his personal soldiers to wake up the brothers who were sleeping in various tents one by one, and then quietly touched the edge of the cliff in the north. Sixty fixed hemp ropes hung down from the cliff. Wang Pu gave the order, and the soldiers who dreamed of leaving here climbed down the cliff along the hemp ropes.

As for the war horses on the mountain, they would throw them away as soon as they were told. As long as the brothers can go back alive, aren’t there still many war horses?

Originally, Wang Pu didn't want to leave these nearly 10,000 war horses to the Korqin people, but first, killing horses will inevitably cause noise and make people suspicious. Secondly, the heavy snow falls as soon as possible, and time is too tight, so it takes a lot of time to kill all of these nearly 10,000 war horses, so I have to give up.

In less than two hours, more than 2,700 soldiers all got down the cliff.

As Wang Pu expected, the people of Korqin did not think that the Ming army would climb the cliff and escape, so the patrol soldiers sent were very unemployed. Except for going around twice during the day, they would not come out at night.

In fact, the people of Korqin hope that the Ming army would climb the cliff and escape. Climbing and running means that the Ming army had to abandon all war horses. Then they marched in the snow and ice. If the Ming army really did this, they would only be left to slaughter. On the grassland, the legs of people and land will never run away from the four legs of horse land!

However, the cunning Wang Pu obviously would not leave such an opportunity to the Korqin people. He had already calculated everything!

The scar face and bearded man who fell on the last, took back all the fifty-nine ropes on the mountain, and the remaining rope was cut in half at the cliff entrance. After the two of them reached the foot of the mountain, more than a dozen brothers pulled the last rope off with all their strength. In this way, even if the patrol cavalry of the Korqin people turned to the north of the mountain tomorrow, they would not find any traces.

As for the footprints left on the ground, Wang Pu was prepared for a long time and specially arranged for a bearded man to lead fifty people to break the back. After the team of people left, they carried snow from nearby to cover up the footprints and marks on the ground as much as possible. It was still snowing heavily in the sky. In this way, by tomorrow morning, all the marks would be covered up completely!

However, this is not the most powerful thing. The most powerful thing is that the suffering suffered by the soldiers of the Ming army six days ago finally came at a price!

In the past six days, the Ming army on the mountain had neither fire nor noise. They had been hiding in the tent and not coming out. The whole mountain looked like no one, so even if the Ming soldiers on the mountain had really been exposed, the Korqin people at the foot of the mountain still knew nothing!

What's more, the Korqin people had just sent troops to test last night, and they would not send people to die in a short period of time.

Four hours later, a trace of white fish belly appeared in the eastern sky. At this time, the heavy snow was falling tightly. Only a little shallow trace of the Ming army soldiers left under the cliff in the north. If the patrol soldiers of the Korqin people could come out to patrol at this time, they might find some clues.

If the patrol soldiers of the Korqin people really found clues, then Wang Pu and the others would definitely be finished!

Twenty-four thousand Korchin cavalry chased over 2,700 Ming cavalry without war horses on the ice and snow. You can think of it with your toes and you can tell what the result will be.

Yes. In history, Li Ling once repelled more than 100,000 Hun cavalry with 5,000 infantry. The military strength at that time seemed even more disparate, but there were prerequisites. Li Ling's five,000 army was real infantry, with swords, shields, spearmen, archers, sufficient supplies, and enough arrows. Therefore, the five,000 Han troops could attack the Hun cavalry again and again, making the arrogant Hun Chanyu sigh to the sky.
To be continued...