In late autumn, the leaves of trees begin to rustle on the land of Hebei. Those villages and villages that were looted, destroyed and became dilapidated during the war have not been repaired and are even more depressed.
The rivers have not yet been frozen, but the rain has decreased since autumn, and rivers of all sizes gather from the Taihang Mountains and flow eastward into the Bohai Sea, flowing freely on the land.
Because for a long time, the central and northern areas of Hebei have been regarded as a buffer zone for the confrontation with Khitan.
The imperial court never carried out large-scale regulation of the rivers flowing through this area, causing the dams to collapse and the rivers to flow freely into shallow silts.
Without the constraints of dams, the rivers on the land of Hebei are wide and shallow, with swamps everywhere and shallow shoals that are easy for horses to cross.
As long as you are familiar with the terrain, even if there is no ice, it will no longer pose an obstacle to the cavalry troops.
Hundreds of cavalrymen, like a turbid torrent, crossed the shallow water beach and moved from north to south.
"..." The people in the dilapidated village looked at this scene and trembled, their throats seemed to be tightly grasped by invisible giant hands, and they were so scared that they couldn't scream.
It has only been four or five months since thousands of Japanese soldiers retreated north, and they are heading south again so soon?!
Weizhou also deployed a large number of scouts and reconnaissance cavalry in this area. Seeing this scene, they all whipped up their whips and marched southward, passing villages along the way and blowing horns to warn...
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"Eating this filthy thing again! I might as well become a bandit!"
In Fuyang Camp, a soldier with a scar on his face looked at a small half bowl of dark sorghum rice in his hand. Some unknown wild vegetables and weeds were mixed in and cooked together. There was a small half spoonful of smeared on the edge of the bowl.
The salty sauce went with it, but I squatted on the ground and dug some out with my hands and stuffed it into my mouth. It was dry and astringent. I cursed and cursed for a long time and couldn't swallow it. When I saw the military officer watching on the side and stared at me, I felt angry and cut the open mouth.
The coarse earthenware bowl was smashed on the ground and he yelled,
"What a piece of shit, your eyes are as wide as a pig's, this is fucking dog food too. You guys are hiding and eating hot food, you have the guts to arrest me and behead me!"
The military officers were furious and yelled that they wanted to arrest people. The soldiers on the left and right had long been resentful of the lack of food and clothing for several months. A dozen people stood up and stood in front of several military officials to prevent them from arresting people.
, the others started making noise together, banging their bowls and shouting: "Why fight when we are eating dog food? If I don't rebel, it will be fine. If you have the guts to arrest us all and behead us, we will fool you with this bullshit all day long."
People, why don’t you stop shouting?”
The soldiers of the Fuyang Camp were eating while they were stationed. The capital team was used as a unit. There were eighty or ninety soldiers making noise together in the huge courtyard, and the noise was scary.
Some people even reach for knives with evil eyes.
Several military officials who were supervising the military academy looked frightened and did not dare to arrest the soldier who complained first.
There has been a shortage of military rations for some days. The generals and soldiers can only eat half a meal every day, and they don't even have the energy to practice. I don't know how much resentment they have accumulated in their hearts. And among them, many of them are from bandits and are naughty by nature. At this time, some people took the lead in agitating.
How can it be calmed down so easily?
Some people yelled at the superiors for deducting food and wages too much. The fire-headed soldiers and the military officials supervising the military academy were all full of fat and fat, and they clamored to go to the military marquis to reason with them.
Han Shiliang heard the commotion and walked into the camp compound. He did not give any order to suppress the noisy soldiers. He walked sullenly to the rice jar that had been overturned by the troublesome soldiers. He looked at the sorghum rice scattered on the floor and closed his eyes for a long time.
, breathed out gently, squatted on the ground, picked up a broken pottery bowl, filled a bowl with sand, and swallowed it in big gulps while squatting in front of the hut.
The noisy soldiers all around stopped and said nothing as they watched Han Shiliang finish a bowl of black and high-grain rice quickly.
Han Shiliang didn't say anything. He placed the empty bowl in the mud, patted his butt and walked out of the courtyard, leaving the next matter to the military officials.
"Right now, food and fodder are in short supply, and wages have been in arrears for several months. There are people in many camps looting the countryside. Two battalions have escaped from Guantao, and there are quite a few people making trouble everywhere. If the delay continues here in Fuyang,
If we go down, I'm afraid there will be trouble. Let alone resisting the barbarians, self-protection will be a problem!" A scribe followed Han Shiliang and said with worry.
"Why don't you send more people to see His Highness? This food is really not enough. Let's ask the village to buy it with iron money. There are so few people that we can't even open the village gate." A military general followed closely and said, "There are too many people and horses.
Although it is a deterrent, if we collect and sell more food, these people will really dare to fight us!"
Han Shiliang sighed and said nothing.
What sound could he make?
He had never been in a war, and he had to tighten his belt for some time. Weizhou was also short of food. Every time King Lu sent envoys to Qizhou (Jinan), Qingzhou and other places to supervise food, they could only squeeze out 10,000 to 20,000 shi.
Food came, but after the entire Weizhou accepted the troops who retreated south from Dingzhou and Xiongzhou, the total force exceeded one hundred thousand, and the grain of 10,000 to 20,000 shi was only enough to sustain them for a few days.
"This battle cannot be fought. We should ask His Highness to send us to Qizhou as soon as possible to get food from Qingzhou..." the scribe said.
"..." Several fast horses were galloping towards the city of Fuyang. The sound of the horses' hooves trampling on the stone streets could be clearly heard two or three miles away.
"The visitor is still riding in such a hurry after entering the city. Maybe something happened?" The scribe said uncertainly, "Let's go back to the military office quickly!"
Han Shiliang led his retinue out of the camp. On the way to the military office, the reconnaissance cavalry who reported the news also came towards him. Before he could take a breath, he turned over and dismounted and said: "In the early morning, a large group of enemy tracks were found in the north of Wuyi heading south, with a scale of no less than five thousand cavalry."
, riding the horse at top speed, it is very likely that we will enter Weizhou tomorrow!"
"It's really here, the Red Guards are so cruel!" The scribe stood next to Han Shiliang, took a breath of cold air, and looked to the northeast, but he couldn't see anything except the rammed earth city wall and the clear sky...
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On the northern slope of Meihua Peak in Danzhu Mountain, the early wind blows with a bone-chilling chill, and sporadic snow particles drift down from the hazy sky.
"Secret spies have spied the day before yesterday that the Red Husband cavalry left Dingzhou in large numbers and headed south, and will enter Weizhou tomorrow at the latest. Weizhou's troops in Fuyang and other places are likely to shrink southward in advance - the elite forwards of the Red Husband's Western Route Army
, it is possible to cross Luzhou and come here at any time,"
Zhao Fan was weak and had already put on a fur coat outside his jacket. He looked at the rolling mountains under the hazy sky and advised Zheng Huaizhong,
"We can't delay any longer. The generals are short of clothes and food, and are complaining. I'm afraid they don't have to wait for the battle. They will collapse without fighting after hearing the news! Before tomorrow, we will withdraw all the troops and horses from the north of Danzhu Ridge. No matter how late it is,
I'm afraid it's too late. As long as Xu Huai can send troops from Fuzhou to raid Taiyuan, no matter whether it succeeds or not, no one in the world will criticize you, Duke Zheng, and Prince Jing..."
"I think it's for this reason that we might want to mention something about the Red Huren," the middle-aged man standing on Zheng Huaizhong's left hand said sadly, "This Xu Huai Xiao is ruthless and difficult to control, but he also has the appearance of a celestial being, the power of ghosts and gods.
This plan will probably hinder Duke Zheng from doing things in front of King Jing in the future..."
Zhao Fan remained silent and looked towards Zheng Huaizhong.
Zheng Huaizhong frowned, and after a while he said: "The Red Husband is too powerful after all. There must always be a few strong men charging into the battle to curb his edge. There are some things that should not be rushed!"
"Mr. Zheng is wise," the man saw that Zheng Huaizhong had made a decision, and said without much persuasion, "Mr. Zheng had better arrange to withdraw his troops early..."
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Baijing Village on the east side of Guangyang County, Taiyuan, and Xitianmen Pass, about five or six miles east, are the western gateway of Jingxing across the Taihang Mountains.
Taihang Bajing, Jingxing ranked fifth, mainly follows the Taohe-Yehe River valley and its tributaries that cross the Taihang Mountains from west to east, and the Baihe-Xiao River Valley flowing from the west of the Taihang Mountains into the Taiyuan Basin.
Among the eight passes in Taihang Mountain, Jingxing is the most important and the only passage through which carriages can pass.
Historical records record that "on the present Jingxing Road, vehicles cannot have square tracks, and riders cannot form a line." This shows that Jingxing Road was already drivable in the Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han Dynasty, but by the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, due to disrepair, the road became rugged again.
Since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, Jingxing has been repaired and repaired, making it a core post road connecting Hedong and central Hebei.
The western section of Jingxing belongs to Guangyang and other cities under the jurisdiction of Taiyuan Prefecture, including Baijingzhai and Xitianmen Pass, the gateway to the west of Jingxing. At this time, they were all occupied by the Chihu people and the surrendered troops.
In the cold wind blowing around his body, Yue Hailou was wearing armor, with thousands of generals standing behind him.
The main force of the East Route Army has already moved southward from Dingzhou and Xiongzhou. He will also lead a group of troops to march eastward via Jingxing, and cooperate with the main force of the East Route Army going south to attack Zhenzhou at the east entrance of Jingxing.
Jingxing is too important in connecting Hedong and Hebei. Jingxing can also be used for carriages and horses, allowing cavalry troops to pass quickly on a large scale and capture the cities along Jingxing. After the pass, the main force of the West Route Army can even ignore the south. Ignoring Luzhou and Zezhou, the main force of the cavalry took an extra three or four days from Jingxing to meet up with the main force of the West Route Army in central Hebei and headed south.
Yue Hailou didn't worry about how troublesome it would be to capture Zhenzhou.
After all, in the past year, in addition to besieging Zhenzhou City for more than half a year, they also sent troops to harass its side at other times, completely destroying its agricultural production.
There were thousands of garrison troops and tens of thousands of people in Zhenzhou, but they had few grains left. The generals and soldiers were weak and exhausted, and the generals in the city had lost their will. Some people even secretly sent letters to the city, intending to dedicate the city to the city.
In addition, after a year of preparation and operation in Youji, the East Route Army has built a lot of war equipment that can be dragged into the Zhenzhou battlefield nearby. Yue Hailou does not think that it will take much effort to capture Zhenzhou. .
Yue Hailou was sitting on the horse, but he couldn't help but look back at the direction of Taiyuan City.
He never expected that Taiyuan City, which had run out of food, would still hold on tenaciously, so that the main force of the Western Route Army had to temporarily abandon Taiyuan City and go south.
Although the soldiers and civilians of Taiyuan City, who were besieged by hunger and cold, were by no means capable of leaving the city to fight back, in the past eleven months, the tribes' vassal troops had lost nearly 30,000 people, and they were still unable to capture Taiyuan City - no The fallen Taiyuan City was like a poisonous thorn piercing his heart, making Yue Hailou couldn't help but worry about what might happen!
