On the ninth day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Tianxuan Period, ordinary people in the snow-covered Dunqiu land of Weizhou were still immersed in the atmosphere of the New Year; an earthen village in the east of the county stood dusty in the snowfield south of a large mulberry and elm forest.
Above, the Yellow River embankment in the distance looks like a silver dragon extending to the northeast.
This is an ordinary village on the Hehuai Plain.
An earthen fence two miles long and more than ten feet high surrounded more than a hundred households. Only a village gate was opened in the north leading to the Yellow River embankment; a simple watchtower made of bamboo and wood was located on the inside of the village gate.
At dawn, the sky turned white, and a hazy blue light came out, but the village was still dark.
Several villagers carried lanterns and walked from the dirt road crowded with dilapidated thatched houses to the watchtower at the gate of the village. There was no one in the watchtower, but they saw that the people who were responsible for the night watch yesterday were huddled in the thatched pavilion under the watchtower, shouting loudly.
sleep.
"Hey, mother, what time is it? Why don't you hide down there and sleep? You won't be afraid of the soldiers coming over and cutting off your eggs!" The leading man stepped forward and kicked down the sleeping two people.
, yelling loudly.
"Who can bear to stand guard in such a cold weather?" The night watchman muttered and got up, complaining with a playful smile, "before the soldiers came to kill us, our dogs' eggs were frozen to death!
There has been a lot of talk these days about capturing soldiers, capturing soldiers. There are so many big cities and powerful towns in the north, how can they be allowed to come to our Dunqiu County? Besides, I haven’t seen the old lady Dafang and the others hiding in the city!"
The Duke of Lu conferred the title of King of Lu, and four days ago, surrounded by thousands of cavalry, he entered Weizhou and took charge.
The Yiqi were riding fast on the official roads and sent a letter of seal to the counties and counties in Hebei Province. The Xunsi Wuzhai under the counties and counties received the order to arm the rural soldiers and rebels to prepare for war and strengthen defense.
At this time, not to mention ordinary people who feel that the war is still far away, most of the rural gentry also feel that the situation is not that bad - since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, Xiongzhou, Bazhou, Mozhou and other powerful cities were built in the east of Hebei.
In the west of Hebei, along the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains, there are large cities such as Baozhou, Dingzhou, and Zhending. Between the cities, there are fortifications and heavy troops garrisoned.
At that time, the Khitan's hundreds of thousands of cavalry failed to completely tear through this line of defense, and were forced to sign an alliance under the city in Chanzhou and withdraw their troops. Now it is said that the Chihu people who have just annexed Yanji will soon tear through this line of defense and kill them.
How many people along the Yellow River would believe it?
No matter how anxious the prefectures and counties are to urge them, the countryside is still enjoying the rare leisure time of the year in an orderly manner and can do nothing.
The empire is in Hebei, the nearest enemy, and its defense system is like a dilapidated machine, slowly starting up.
The middle-aged man cursed and climbed up to the watchtower, letting the cold wind carry snow particles and hit his face, which was really painful.
He immediately understood why the watchman hid below at night.
The village guards are basically poor men, and the clothes and armor they bring are extremely thin. There is no cover on all sides of the watchtower. If you stand on it, let alone watch all night, the little warmth in your body will be blown away in half a cup of tea.
, My heart feels cold. If I really have to hold on on the watchtower, I might freeze to death at any time.
The middle-aged man was about to ask someone to find some reed mats to block the cold wind, when he noticed several black shadows coming out of the forest to the north.
It's not bright yet, so you can't see clearly from five or six miles away.
If it weren't for the stark contrast surrounded by snow, the middle-aged man might not even be able to notice the movement there.
As more and more black shadows came out of the woods, like black water flowing everywhere in the snow in front of the woods, the middle-aged man could confirm that there was a large group of cavalry even if he could no longer see clearly.
Coming from the north.
The cavalry who came out of the forest first quickly gathered together and advanced directly to the village at a very fast speed.
The sky is getting clearer and brighter. Looking at these cavalrymen, they are all wrapped in gray leather robes to keep out the cold and have fur hats on their heads. They are definitely not the cavalry troops of Vietnam stationed in Hebei!
This scene made the middle-aged strong man stand there frozen, his lips trembling and shouting: "There are captive soldiers, the captive soldiers are coming to kill us!"
The middle-aged man yelled in panic, unable to find the mallet, so he took off the knife and sheath and struck the gong hanging on the watchtower.
It's freezing cold and it's the New Year, so there's no farm work that requires getting up early and working late at night. Most people in the village are still asleep at this time.
The villagers were first awakened by the gong, and while they were sitting on the already cold kang in a daze, they heard the sound of horse hooves galloping towards the stockade, like a dense drumbeat beating the earth, and intuitively the houses were shaking slightly.
All of a sudden, there was a lot of excitement. The villagers who had participated in the drill and had the responsibility of guarding the village got up from the kang, hurriedly put on their tattered coats, picked up simple swords, bows, spears, and wooden shields, and followed the sound to the north.
When I rushed there, it was a mess.
The village wall was not thick enough for people to stand on it to defend against the enemy, so the villagers mainly gathered in the open space behind the village gate to prepare to meet the enemy there.
At this time, arrows as dense as a swarm of locusts were shot directly from outside the village. The villagers had no armor to protect themselves, so they hurriedly picked up simple wooden shields to resist, but people were still shot to the ground, screaming and bleeding.
It flows out gurglingly from the body, and soon the coat, which is in tatters and stuffed with grass, will soak through.
Basically, the rural soldiers in southern Hebei have never experienced any war. They usually laugh and laugh while training to prepare for the invaders. Where have you seen such a scene?
Hundreds of people hid in panic behind the walls of the houses. Few thought or had the courage to brave the rain of arrows and form a formation behind the village gate to meet the enemy.
Then we saw ferocious-looking captives climbing up the earthen wall one after another, leaning against the wall and firing bows and arrows, or jumping in directly.
After a while, dozens of villagers at the village gate were killed. The village gate opened, and more than a hundred captives rushed in. Bow strings vibrated frequently, and sharp blades were swung. They quickly killed the villagers and civilians who tried to join the resistance, including women and children.
No one was left, but torches were lit one after another and thrown towards the flammable thatched roof. The fire melted the snow on the roof and sent up bursts of black smoke.
In the early morning of the ninth day of the first month of the eighth year of Tianxuan Period, nearly ten villages in the east of Dunqiu were attacked at almost the same time. Almost all the civilians were slaughtered. Only about a hundred people escaped in time and fled southward in the ice and snow, crying and shouting.
, and also spread the news of the Red Cavalry's massive attack on the Southern invaders to the states and counties on the south bank of the Yellow River...
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By the Yingshui River, the remaining snow covers the shallow hills and the river is frozen.
This is the junction of Xuzhou and Chenzhou, but in the defense deployment of the Gyeonggi Province, the Xuzhou, Chenzhou and other prefectures south of the Gyeonggi Province all belong to the defense area of Caizhou's garrison camp.
Although Hu Kai was a scholar, he was currently wearing iron armor and a scarlet cloak, sitting on the saddle, looking at the open fields to the north with a solemn expression.
Xu Huai, Cao Yi, Yang Lin, Deng Gui, Yang Qiye and other generals led hundreds of cavalry and gathered behind Hu Kai.
It has been half a month since King Qin issued the edict to all roads, and it has been ten days since Hu Kai took office in Caizhou. However, except for Cao Yi, the deputy general manager of Jingnan Road, who led 3,000 infantry troops from Xiangyang Prefecture, Jinghu North Road and Jinghu South Road
, King Qin’s soldiers and horses on Chengdufu Road, Jiannan East Road, and Jiannan West Road are still missing.
Deng Gui eventually served as Cao Yi's general and entered Caizhou with the Xiangyang army to participate in the war.
Cai, Xu, Chen, Ru and other prefectures are located in the hinterland of the Central Plains. They have not experienced war for a long time, and Hu Kai had psychological expectations for the slack in military preparations. However, ten days after he arrived in Caizhou to take office, Caizhou regiment training rural soldiers made it clear to him.
There are more than 12,000 troops, but less than 3,000 are currently assembled.
The equipment of these rural soldiers was still very poor. They all held simple swords, spears, wooden shields and other weapons. Including the simplest leather armor, there were less than 300 pairs and only more than 500 horses.
The Caizhou Military and Horse Supervisor Si Tai's account records that there are more than 30,000 swords, bows and armors. When the arsenal was opened, the actual number of soldiers and armor was less than half of the account, and most of the swords and guns were rusty; more than 2,000 bows and crossbows and a large number of
The shields were in a state of decay, and few of them could be used.
Hu Kai was so angry that he also went on a killing spree. Ten days after taking office, he beheaded more than 20 officials.
Although it is difficult to suddenly improve the situation of military preparations, Hu Kai's dare to carry out killings also frightened the officials of Caizhou, large and small, as well as the generals deployed on the southwestern route of Beijing who had been accompanied by Cao Yi, the deputy governor of the capital, who led troops and horses for reinforcements.
, I dare not disobey Hu Kai's orders.
However, it was difficult to extinguish the fire near by water, so Hu Kai handed over all the rural soldiers he had gathered to General Yang Lin for training, and it was difficult to see any effect in two or three months.
The first batch of reinforcements to arrive in Caizhou with Cao Yi, even if the armor and equipment are a bit different, their combat effectiveness was tested during the banditry in Tongbai Mountain more than two years ago. It is really not worth placing high hopes on.
.
As for the reinforcements that were recruited from other routes in the southwest but have yet to arrive, one can only imagine what the situation will be like.
Faced with such a cruel reality, Hu Kai could only accept the suggestions of Xu Huai, Yang Lin and others, give up his ambition of gathering an army to cross Yingshui and join the war in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, and focus his main attention on Xu, Chen, Cai, and others.
You are waiting for the defense of the four states south of Beijing, especially the two sides of the Ying River.
Hu Kai also agreed with the judgment of the people in Tongbai Mountain on the war. The real danger was not the defense of the capital this time, but the Chihu people occupying Yanyun. They regarded the defense lines in Hedong and Hebei as nothing, and were able to enter Hehuai and massacre one after another.
Loot.
What they can do at this time is to limit the captive troops outside the four southern states of Beijing as much as possible to avoid the four southern states of Beijing from suffering heavy losses in this war, and to expedite all their efforts to rectify the four southern states of Beijing and the southern Beijing Road.
