When Kong Zhou and Liu Wugong were in Taiyuan, they were not too panicked when they heard the news that the Tianxiong Army was defeated in Datong. They were not affiliated with the Yan Army, so they thought they could wait until they received orders from the prefect Dong Chengxin.
Returning south, no matter how badly the Yan army fought, it had nothing to do with them.
The impatient Kong Zhou was even angry that Tianxiong's army fought too badly.
Entering Lanzhou, they felt a little heavy when they saw that the roads were blocked by people fleeing south, and when they saw the defeated troops who had retreated from Datong and had not yet had time to reorganize.
The officials of Dai Viet had always been superior to the generals. They did not feel Wang Fan's indifference towards Xu Huai. They were even flattered that Wang Fan went out to entertain them with a banquet during his busy schedule. However, this did not motivate them to lead the way.
The troops are determined to defend Shuozhou.
Of course, Xu Huai then left the city to take away the 400 Tongbai Mountain soldiers who had been selected earlier with Xu Wuqi, but they did not dare to say or ask.
The four hundred soldiers of Tongbai Mountain are mainly from the Huaiyuan Township Camp.
When the bandit rebellion in Tongbai Mountain was at its most intense, the Huaiyuan military camp was likely to be engulfed by the allied forces of various villages at any time. In such a difficult situation, Xu Huai and others turned defeat into victory step by step.
This not only allowed Xu Huai to establish unparalleled prestige within the Huaiyuan Township Camp, but also gave the generals in the Huaiyuan Township Camp a strong spirit and perseverance.
Returning to fight under Xu Huai's command, they had no resistance at all.
The current situation in Shuozhou was not urgent, and Xu Huai was also worried that Wang Fan would change his mind at any time, but he did not rest overnight outside the city. Taking advantage of the smooth road, he set off to Shuozhou overnight despite the wind, snow and severe cold. More importantly, he
From this moment on, the four hundred soldiers still need to get used to the extremely difficult training and combat that may follow.
It is only twenty miles from Ningwu to Yangkou Village, and fifty miles to the north across the border wall from Yangkou Village is Shuozhou City.
It was not easy to brave the wind, snow and severe cold at night. Xu Huai and the others also marched on foot, leaving more than 60 horses to be ridden by the weak and sick, and finally arrived at Shuozhou City at noon the next day.
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"It's such a heavy snowstorm. I thought you would rest in Ningwu for two days before coming to Shuozhou!"
Liu Qiong'er felt distressed when she saw the generals and soldiers returning home despite the wind and snow at night, looking tired and exhausted. She felt distressed and reached out to help Xu Huai brush the snow off his armor.
"Someone doesn't want to see us, why don't they rush back earlier and stay there to be angry?" Yin Peng muttered from behind.
When Wang Fan and Wang Fan returned south from Shuozhou with the first group of troops, Xu Huai was worried that their personal safety would not be guaranteed, so he asked Yin Peng to lead fifty cavalry to protect them closely.
After arriving at Yangkou Village, Wang Fan immediately asked Zheng Shou and Wang Kong to select Jian Rui, who was of pure origin, from the army to form a guard camp.
This was originally nothing.
The problem is that Yin Peng and the others were thrown aside the day after they arrived at Yangkou Village. They were in Yangkou Village, and Ning Wuliu was not there, nor was he leaving. They had been sitting on the bench for eleven days, and only then did they follow Xu.
When I returned to Shuozhou together, I was full of opinions.
Pan Chenghu and Guo Junpan just laughed when they heard Yin Peng's complaints.
When Wang Fan had no one available, he asked them to keep an eye on Xu Huai. However, after Wang Fan took control of the Western Route Army, he did not reveal that he wanted to summon them to Ning on the night before leaving Shuozhou and in the twelve or three days after that.
Wu thought it meant relying heavily.
This is obviously not possible because Wang Fan has discovered that they have known each other a long time ago. It is probably because he dislikes their background as a bandit and was recruited as a thief general - even though the two of them did not have any expectations for Wang Fan.
, but this feeling of being relegated to another volume is not pleasant.
"She looks like a resentful woman," Xu Huai took off his saddle and asked everyone, "With my uncle and I gone these days, will the city of Shuozhou still be peaceful?"
"Most people are still looking forward to returning to the south, and their minds are a little uncertain..." Xu Wukun said with a frown.
"Well, I've expected this for a long time!" Xu Huai nodded.
Even though the vast majority of soldiers who came from extremely poor peasants have long been tortured and become numb by the cruel reality, they still have thoughts, concerns, worries and delusions.
Tens of thousands of Han people in Shuozhou have moved south, and the entire city is deserted. Only three or four thousand of their soldiers are left to retreat. How could any one of them not have any ideas in his heart?
What's more important is that they are still bereaved dogs who have fled. They still don't know when the Khitan cavalry, whose number is several times their number, will swarm in. How can they not be hesitant and suspicious?
However, the military system implemented since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty has not solved the problem of why the soldiers at the bottom fight.
Since the middle and late period, in order to deal with the increasingly severe public security problems caused by the increasing exploitation, the imperial court has intensified its efforts to inject a large number of refugees, thieves and prisoners into the forbidden army; in order to prevent desertions, almost all soldiers at the bottom have their cheeks tattooed and painted with gold.
.
After joining the army, he was treated as a thief and guarded against being a prisoner. How could a general become strong in spirit?
Except for the desperate poor children, almost all the good family members were ashamed to join the army, and the forbidden army fundamentally lost the basis for ensuring its combat effectiveness.
Such an army can basically only fight with the wind, or stick to the city, with almost no possibility of aggressiveness. It also has little resilience in the face of hard battles.
At the beginning of the Eastern Route Army's northern expedition against Yan, Ge Boyi and Ge Huaicong went on a killing spree in Kelan City and allowed the soldiers to plunder the Tibetan people. They really didn't know the importance of restraining military discipline, and they were really arrogant enough to think that the Khitan
Like a paper tiger that breaks when poked?
actually not.
Ge Boyi, Ge Huaicong and others were greedy and timid, but they had been leading Tianxiong's army for half their lives, and they knew the character of their opponents' generals far better than Xu Huai and others.
They indulged in military discipline in Kelan City. In fact, they wanted to use killing and looting to boost morale. They even made a promise to the army early on that they would launch a massive plunder after successfully raiding Datong.
They did not even dare to strictly enforce military discipline for fear of provoking uproar and mutiny.
When Wang Zhen persuaded Ge Boyi to enforce military discipline in Kelan City, Ge Boyi used such words to block Wang Zhen's mouth. After thinking about it seriously, it may not all be Ge Boyi's excuse.
In addition to the Tianxiong Army, General Liu Shizhong also consciously indulged military discipline in the East Route Army, which was formed by drawing elites from the Western Army.
Just looking at the surface, it can be said that the general indulged in military discipline, which led to the sharp conflict between Han and Tibetan, which was taken advantage of by the enemy. But if you look closely, you will find that this is inevitable.
And Xiao Linshi must have seen through this, so he had such a plan.
Xu Huai has now left all the soldiers of Tongbai Mountain in Shuozhou. Even if Wang Zhen, Zhu Hang and others see through it but don't reveal it, they can't hide it for long.
When Tianxiong's army is reorganized, all they have to do is create a new register of returning soldiers. Who is blind and can't see the problem?
In addition to the reorganization of the Tianxiong army and the intervention of officials from the Sanya and the Ministry of War, the imperial court will also send officials to investigate the matter in order to clarify the responsibility for the defeat of Datong. By then, the gathering of soldiers from Tongbai Mountain in Shuozhou will not be possible.
secret.
And in this world where military generals are so strictly guarded, it would be a taboo to deliberately gather the soldiers of Tongbai Mountain to control them. How could Xu Huai not know this?
But he has no other choice!
If instead of the soldiers from Tongbai Mountain, the three thousand soldiers and horses from other complex sources were left to guard Shuozhou alone, they would have returned south in a noisy manner, or fled south in twos and threes.
With only forty or fifty Zhufengtang guards, how could they possibly suppress thousands of fleeing soldiers who had no fighting spirit and no awareness of defending the frontier against the enemy?
Under such circumstances, only the soldiers of Tongbai Mountain could rely on the cohesion formed by their local concepts to unite and defend Shuozhou.
Even though this matter was a big taboo and would even cause a fuss, Xu Huai had no better choice.
Xu Huai guessed that Wang Fan's cold and wary attitude had seen something fishy at the first time. Xu Huai could only hope that Wang Zhen and Zhu Hang could share some of the pressure for them.
It will take no more than two years at the latest and less than a year at the earliest. As long as we can delay the Red Guard Cavalry to move south, all this will no longer be a problem.
However, other soldiers in the Tianxiong Army and the Han people in Shuozhou City were gradually withdrawing southward. The Tongbai Mountain soldiers who were left alone in Shuozhou were bound to have hesitations and hesitations in their minds. This was something Xu Huai and the others had to solve later.
question.
This is also the reason why Xu Huai only requested that two battalions of the Tangzhou Xiang Army be transferred to the West Route Army after he rescued Ge Boyi.
Xu Huai was interested in the 400 Tongbai Mountain soldiers from the Huaiyuan Township Camp in the two battalions of the Tangzhou Xiang Army.
Compared with the three thousand Tongbai Mountain Soldiers who were recruited as bandit soldiers, most of these 400 Tongbai Mountain Soldiers had fought side by side for nearly a year under their leadership.
In addition to being mostly strong and capable, the four hundred Tongbai Mountain soldiers had a much higher sense of identification with him and Xu Wukun, Tang Pan, Xu Xin'an, Tang Qing and others.
They first sent 400 soldiers into the camp to settle down. Tang Qing grabbed Yuan Lei's shoulders, laughed and ridiculed him and said:
"Yuan Tudui! I've told you a long time ago that there's no future in joining the army, and I told you to follow us - look, now you've fallen into our hands, right?"
The Xu family moved to Tongbai Mountain at the beginning of the dynasty. Later, due to its strong development and expansion, the relationship with other clans with big surnames has always been tense, and it is considered a relatively special existence.
As the common indigenous surnames, Yuan Zhong, Tang Jin and other surnames have a much more harmonious relationship, and they all have many in-laws with each other.
There are many martial arts practitioners in Tongbai Mountain, but except for the Xu family, which has gradually formed a line with Fu Mang Fist and Fu Mang Spear as its core in the past ten years, other inheritances have deep connections.
Tang Pan's martial arts is a family tradition, but his father had learned boxing skills and big-barreled marksmanship from Yuan Lei's cousin during his lifetime. Tang Qing and Tang Pan both learned boxing and marksmanship from Tang Pan's father, and Yuan Lei learned from him.
He learned boxing and marksmanship from his cousin, which can be said to be the same as his master.
As the direct son and grandson of the Zhong family, Zhong He liked to dance with fists and sticks since he was a child. The Zhong family relied on their wealth to invite Tang Pan's father and others to Mopanling to be boxers and teach Zhong He boxing techniques, swords and bows.
Zhong Jitang and other Zhong family's children were not qualified to become formal apprentices, but they also learned horizontal sword and boxing skills from Tang Pan's father.
In the suppression of bandits in Tongbai Mountain, Zhong He's achievements were not inferior to those of Tang Pan, but he had no intention of winning over Zhufengtang or serving as an official in the state government. After returning to Mopanling, in addition to reorganizing his family business, he also had the ambition to study hard.
, thinking about taking part in the imperial examination to gain fame.
Zhong Jitang was not as accomplished in both civil and military affairs as Zhong He, and he came from a poor family. He could find the best way out if he could join the state army as a military officer.
In addition to Yuan Lei, Zhong Jitang, the four hundred soldiers of Tongbai Mountain, there are two generals, deputy generals and more than 30 military officials. Most of them were familiar with each other before the banditry in Tongbai Mountain;
The township camp's participation in the war against bandits made their relationship even closer.
Of course, most of the Tongbai Mountain bandits who were recruited were poor children who were either bewitched or coerced into becoming bandits after the Tongbai Mountain Bandit Rebellion, and many of them were acquaintances or even related to each other before.
What Xu Huai has to do next is how to integrate the three to four thousand Tongbai Mountain soldiers and how to build a truly elite force.
