The fact that human heads can be registered as military merits also shocked the surrendered troops in Tongguan. To be honest, for these people, being a soldier is just a way to earn a living, but they have never thought about being a soldier.
Soldiers can also make a fortune and change their lives!
What people fear most is not knowing their future direction, or even knowing where to go next...
Therefore, when the troops who surrendered from Tongguan expressed their willingness to fight for the great cause of General Conquering the West for the rest of his life with great enthusiasm and motivation, Li Xian had to smile bitterly, worry, and talk to several middle and high-level officials.
The non-commissioned officer was placed under house arrest in a small dark room and was in panic all day long.
The house is not big, with one door and one window, and nothing else. Well, if you insist on talking about it, the mats on the floor, the thin Gebu bedding, and the smelly toilet in the corner can be considered.
The only furniture in the house...
Because the ventilation in the house is not very good, and the toilet is only cleaned once a day, the four big men, including Li Xian, are either standing in front of the window or sitting in front of the door.
As for sleeping at night, there is no other way. I can only rely on one word of motto to block the odor.
Tolerate.
"Damn it, we surrendered soldiers, we have to kill two soldiers! Tsk tsk..." A military prince stood in front of the window, talking about the news he heard, "...it takes a soldier's head to be transformed into a soldier."
Preliminary pawn, the head of two soldiers is considered a real pawn..."
"And when fighting, we Yi Cong soldiers... aren't we just 'Yi Cong'? We still need to stand in front of the formation, with only weapons and no armor..." Another song leader also whispered in the interface.
In the past few days, the soldiers of General Zhengxi, who were stationed outside, kept shouting to the surrendering soldiers. Then it was not too difficult for someone to know the news.
Another military lord who was sitting at the door like Li Xian said lukewarmly: "What's wrong? Are you still disgusted? Do you know how many people are willing to be this 'Yi Congbing' in the past two days? They are already halfway there.
!I estimate that in two days the remaining half will be almost enough..."
"What can be done about this?" said the military lord standing in front of the window, "This is a matter of course... Our soldiers are also recruited. Now they have a better place to go and a better future..."
There is also Qian Cheng.
Military merit can be exchanged for land, money, cattle and horses, and even official positions. Some of these recruited soldiers are tenant farmers under the original gentry in Hongnong County, and most of them can no longer live in the local area.
People can only come to join the army and get food and clothing. In comparison, these most basic soldiers originally had little loyalty to the Hongnong Yang family, but they were quickly replaced by the new and more promising road.
replaced.
Li Xian was silent for a while, then slowly said: "This is an old method from the pre-Qin Dynasty. It was also used by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty before... I didn't expect that Zhengxi would use it again..."
While he was talking, suddenly the light in the corridor outside the house dimmed, and several soldiers came over. One of them was wearing leather armor and stood in front of the door of Li Xian and others' room...
After Xu Shu burned Yang Jun's troops and horses with kerosene, Yang Jun knew that it was difficult to attack. On the one hand, he had no siege equipment, and on the other hand, he had to wait for Yang Biao to make a corresponding decision and reply, so he spent the past two days on the Hangu Mountain Road.
When they set up camp on the road, they blocked the intersection tightly, and faced Xu Shu from a distance. They did not launch an offensive. They just sent people to the rear to cut down trees and make preparations.
Tongguan is still quite far away from Luoyang. Even if you use a fast horse to deliver the three hundred miles, it will take four or five days to go there and back. Hongnong's post system has been basically abolished due to Dong Zhuo's destruction.
So even if you want to use the six-hundred-mile express delivery, it’s not that you’re not good enough, it’s that you don’t have the conditions.
Along the way, there are not many inns that have been put back into use, and most of them do not have spare fast horses, so a six hundred-mile express delivery has become a luxury...
In addition, Yang Biao also needs to weigh and consider other things. If he comes to Yang Jun, even if he attacks again, it will definitely be three days later. Therefore, in the past two days, Xu Shu has been allocating resources so that Ma Yan can be more effective.
In addition to the good repair and defense of Tongguan City Wall, there is another very important thing...
"How are you thinking about it?"
Xu Shu didn't talk nonsense, but stood in front of the house and asked directly.
For a moment, the three people in the room looked at Li Xian.
As an ordinary soldier, there is no problem. You are a soldier everywhere anyway, not to mention that the treatment here in Zhengxi is better and there is more hope.
But for middle-level generals like Yu Li Xian, there is a bit of a dilemma. Because normally, most of them cannot be arranged according to their original positions, and naturally it is impossible to give them the original soldiers to lead them.
At least they will be adjusted or even downgraded.
Xu Shu, on the other hand, gave another option, one that did not require downgrading.
After Yang Tong's death, Li Xian had the highest position, so the two remaining princes and Qu Chang respected Li Xian and hoped that Li Xian could continue to take them with him.
But if you want to achieve this, you must pay a price.
And this price may be paid by oneself, or others may be paid...
Li Xian was silent for a long time, finally sighed, prostrated himself on the ground and said: "Someone... is willing to be driven..."
…………………………
In Suyi County, Zhao Wen has been somewhat uneasy these past two days.
Neither the scouts nor the messengers sent out were able to obtain the information Zhao Wen needed. Neither Chang'an nor Hongnong knew anything.
Except for the Suyi city in front of him, Zhao Wen could not see or hear anything on this battlefield. Although the sun was rising and setting around him, in fact, for Zhao Wen, it was dark. It was so unknown.
The fear is constantly engulfing Zhao Wen's heart, making him who was still very confident now start to worry about gains and losses.
Is this old guy Zhong Shao dead now?
Has Lingyi been captured?
Although Xia Mou has betrayed Zhong Shao once, and his own people are watching from the side, what if Xia Mou betrays again, and what if his own people are negligent again?
There has been no news from Tongguan for a long time. Is there anything unexpected?
What if Duke Yang is busy with Guandong affairs and doesn't have time to send troops?
All kinds of questions were endlessly tumbling in Zhao Wen's mind.
There are cavalry in the city, but the number is not large, that is, about a thousand, which is only slightly more than the front troops of General Zhengxi. In other words, unless you send them all out to open up a communication road, there will be no cavalry in the city.
Under the current situation, there is no need to know the information about Chang'an and Tongguan...
However, a thousand cavalry could only open up a road at most. If they wanted to defeat them, they would have to pay a high price, and Zhao Wen was a little reluctant to bear this price.
After all, these are the only cavalry on hand...
Therefore, we use one thousand against eight hundred, not seeking victory, but to ensure the smooth flow of communication roads, and then pull and contain the opponent's cavalry. If General Zhengxi's cavalry dares to attack, that would be even better. He can circle back and fight with the infantry.
By working together, he would have the opportunity to catch all the troublesome Zhengxi cavalry wandering around Suyi.
However, such a situation is unlikely to occur. It is more of a stalemate and then the other party retreats.
Now is the time to make a decision, otherwise once the follow-up cavalry troops of General Zhengxi arrive, even if he wants to do this, he may not be able to carry out such a strategy due to the strength of his troops.
However, whether you should go east or west in the future and focus on which direction is still a question.
As a result of the division of troops, it is very likely that nothing will be gained and losses will be in vain. After all, the combat power of General Zhengxi's cavalry was fully demonstrated in front of Zhao Wen and should not be underestimated.
Zhao Wen could more or less guess the purpose of General Zhengxi's intention to disrupt surrounding areas and cut off communications. It was simply to implicate himself and worry that he would send his soldiers to attack the part of the Suyi garrison heading east.
However, in Zhao Wen's mind, the three to four thousand defenders originally stationed in Suyi during the Western Expedition were not considered the most thorny and urgent issue at the moment. The most important issue was Chang'an.
It can only be Chang'an.
After thinking about it, Zhao Wen finally chose to protect himself first.
Although sending soldiers to Tongguan, it is possible to work in tandem with Hongnong's Yang soldiers to attack the soldiers sent to Tongguan from Zhengxi. This is certainly an absolute advantage in Tongguan, but for Zhao Wen, it is also
This means that we have lost hope of contacting Chang'an. Even if we can defeat the original force of General Zhengxi in Suyi, if we lose control of Chang'an, for Zhao Wen, his Jing Zhaoyin will be a short-term success.
Got a title?
Furthermore, since he was in contact with Chang'an's troops, even if Tongguan was lost, he could rely on the troops on hand to compete. What's more, Zhao Wen still didn't believe that Tongguan would be lost so quickly.
The reason why I am here is simply to cut off the food route of the troops headed west to Tongguan by General Fei Qian of the Expedition to the West!
Without the support of food and grass, even if the front troops of General Zhengxi can take Tongguan, what can they do?
What's more, Tongguan will never be lost.
Even if there are four thousand soldiers, how can it be so easy to attack a pass with two thousand guards?
Normally, if you don't have more than five times the force, if you want to attack the city pass, even if you can win, you will still lose miserably!
Zhao Wen still knew this.
Before he attacked Zhongshao, he had an affair with Yang Biao, and Yang Biao also said that he would send a troop of soldiers and horses to assist him in defending against General Yu Zhengxi. Calculating the time, he should have basically arrived at Tongguan.
Therefore, no matter how you calculate it, with such a superior force, it is impossible for Tongguan to be defeated!
So there is no need to rescue Tongguan by myself...
For me, Chang'an and Suyi are the two most important places!
Zhao Wen finally made up his mind and dispatched the cavalry troops on hand to drive away Zhang Ji's cavalry troops in the surrounding area and open up an information channel to Chang'an.
Thousands of rumbling cavalry rushed out of Suyi and drove away Zhang Ji's scattered cavalry. In this way, Zhang Ji could no longer disperse his troops, so he gathered his cavalry accordingly, and then slowly retreated north.
As for Zhao Wen's cavalry troops, they did not dare to pursue excessively, but just followed from a distance...
Seeing that he finally drove away the disturbing Fei Qian's front cavalry, Zhao Wen breathed a sigh of relief, and then re-sent the messenger towards Chang'an and Tongguan...
…………………………
Zhao Wen's cavalry, who came out of Suyi, ran out for more than 20 miles in fear. They saw one or two headless corpses of the messengers who had died before, lying scattered on the left and right sides of the road...
This is considered fresh.
Not even had time to be eaten...
The ones that were earlier have basically fallen into the bellies of the wild beasts on this land. After all, in winter, it is not easy to find some food, whether for humans or wild beasts. This is a lot.
It has many food sources, attracting surrounding wild dogs and wolves, as well as some scavenging birds.
Fortunately, due to human activities, there are no large-scale wolf packs in Guanzhong, and the large cats are mostly in remote mountainous areas and will not easily move on the plains of Guanzhong, so these animals were given
The wild dogs left behind these precious ingredients.
A few wild dogs who were having a dinner together heard the sound of horse hooves and raised their heads from the carcass. They stared at it with their red eyes and showed no intention of retreating. They just stood and stared.
One of the wild dogs may have felt that the large intestine in the belly of the corpse in front of him was more greasy and chewy, so he quickly gave up the desire to continue staring at the messengers galloping on the road, lowered his head and pulled out the intestines of the corpse.
Then several others quickly joined the rush, leaving only one on the periphery, still on guard.
The liver and spleen are the first ones to be eaten, while flesh, blood and limbs are the last to be eaten...
On the fork of the tree near the corpse, a dozen black crows gathered from nowhere and were cawing, as if protesting the tyrannical behavior of wild dogs, or announcing the departure of these new messengers.
Entering death...
"unlucky!"
A cavalryman who was marching cursed in a low voice. Perhaps to vent his anger at the wild dogs, or to declare his disdain for these deaths, he took off his bow and arrow from his horse and pointed at the eating wild dogs.
The dog shot an arrow straight away.
With a whoosh, the long arrow flew across the sky, but with a whoosh, it pierced a wild dog that was pulling its intestines, startling it. Immediately, the large intestine in its mouth was snatched away by another wild dog, and it suddenly
It howled angrily at the cavalry who had disturbed its meal, then turned around and continued to search for a new target in the belly of the corpse.
"Okay! Let's go! Business is important!"
The one at the front saw that the cavalry behind him who had missed his shot wanted to shoot again, so he stopped him with words.
When several cavalrymen saw this situation, they also fell silent and continued on their way to Tongguan with their heads down.
These are the prices humans pay for war.
After leaving the county seat of Suyi, they walked for another day. In the early morning of the next day, not long after the cavalry had started their journey, they discovered a plume of smoke rising far to the east...
…
Several people quickly rode up to the small slope beside the road and looked into the distance.
After a while, the sharp-eyed soldier among them shouted: "I seem to have seen Duke Yang's flag! It must be Duke Yang's soldiers and horses coming!"
The cavalryman who led the team carefully identified it for a while, and then said: "...it seems to be really Yang Gong's flag...the number is about a thousand...So, it should be the front vanguard...Xiaozi,
You can take someone to unfurl the flag and go up to have a look..."
Immediately, two people unfolded a small recognition flag, put it on their lower backs, and rode forward. Not long after, one of them ran back happily, shouting loudly, still holding a flag in his hand.
Something was shaking, "It's really Yang Gong's troops and horses! The captain leading the team is named Li! There are a thousand troops and horses at the front, and it is said that there are still three thousand troops behind! The seal is correct..."
