The sky is clear and cloudy, and the cold wind is blowing the remaining snow.
The early morning mist is still rolling over the Mingxi River, which is as thin as a small stream in the cold winter and dry season. There is only a trickle among the rocks on the riverbed. The reeds and grass are withered and yellow. Several jackdaws with black feathers and yellow beaks stand majestically on a withered tree.
Shaotou.
Dozens of solemn-looking armored soldiers surrounded several refined iron shield vehicles and stood guard at the gap between the two long posts.
Under the biting cold wind, the soldiers' faces were sunburned and turned black, like silent black stones; some were sitting on the ground, while others were forming formations behind the shield chariots, with no intention of talking.
The bushes and miscellaneous trees on the hillside in front of the gap have been cut down, and when the field of vision is opened, many horsemen can be seen patrolling the ditch in the distance.
"Uncle Eleven, will the Hu soldiers come and kill us before the fog clears?"
The cavalry dispersed very widely, as if the mountains and valleys were full of their people. From time to time, they would form small groups and pick up speed at the foot of the slope and gallop for a while. This was a scene that a thin young man standing behind a fine iron shield car saw.
, couldn’t help but feel nervous.
On such a cold day, the young man's palms holding the spear were sweating. Unable to suppress the panic in his heart, he asked with a trembling voice.
"The bearded dogs are easy to disperse. If you count carefully, there are actually less than a hundred people. Why are you in such a panic, you young melons? This is how they use this method to scare you young melons in this cold weather.
You are sweating profusely, and your whole body is as stretched as a drowned dog. I think you will be paralyzed before the slut comes to kill you. I don’t need you to stare at me now. Sit down and save some energy.”
A strong man sat leisurely on the dirt, chewed sweet grass roots, slurped the sweet taste, and said nonchalantly,
"The bearded dogs are very smart. We are here like hedgehogs. There are not many more of them than us, so they will not join in to seek trouble. If they really dare to come over, we will kill these bearded dogs like chickens.
The dog jumps! Hu Gouzi looks ferocious, but it's not difficult to kill. They don't just look at him with brass heads and iron arms, hold the gun and poke forward. He dodges quickly, puts the gun back and pokes again. In addition,
If you think too much, remember not to think too much. Every time you thrust, control your strength. Don't use too much force. It will be released in a few times. Light thrusts and heavy thrusts, three shallow and one heavy, nine shallow and one heavy.
, no matter how familiar you are with this kind of drill in daily life, you will still panic in the battle, but if you poke it a few times on the battlefield, you will gradually master the fire. You can leave other things to Tieshuanzi and the others, but you can't be soft-hearted.
It would harm Tie Shuanzi and the others, let alone run away. I was worried that it wouldn't matter, but I couldn't run away..."
"I'm just a little timid, but how could I run away? I also want to get the first-level skill so that I can be qualified to take the township official exam!" The young man put his spear on the shield cart, squatted next to the strong man, and looked at him
With his empty left arm sleeve, he asked, "Uncle Eleven, the township department is also short of manpower now, why are you still in the army?"
The strong man glanced at his sleeve and said with a smile: "Do you think I can't kill Hu Gouzi with a knife after I told Hu Gouzi to cut off his arm? Look at my knife..." The strong man held up the saber.
After untying it, he pressed the scabbard with his severed left elbow, pulled it out to show the bright blade to his descendants, and said, "With this knife, Uncle Eleven, I can kill ten or eight more bearded dogs."
Your uncle's skill with a sword is better than his skill with a pen. Otherwise, if I leave the battlefield to you young melons, will there be no mistakes?"
"Woooo..." The horn sounded in the distance behind him.
"The north is already in action!" The strong man put his sword back into its sheath, turned around and looked northeast. Two to three thousand troops from the two armies were already clashing in front of a small mountain col on the south bank of the Mingxi River.
The place where the strong man and the young man stood was a gap called Heilanggou between two long low hills.
The front slope of Heilanggou is gentle, and the back slope is steeper, with a lot of rocks piled up.
Although the long hills on both sides are only more than ten feet high, the valley is deep and the cliffs are dangerous. It is a very typical rift terrain, which makes the Heilang Valley within ten miles from the south to the right bank of the Mingxi River.
An inevitable place to approach.
In the last few days of the first year of Jianji, the puppet Chu army rushed to build two camps on both sides of the middle reaches of the Mingxi River south of the Iron Curtain Mountain as a stronghold for the attack on Huangyangzhai.
The two camps were far away from Huangyang Village and the terrain was open. Seeing that the small-scale attack by troops and horses had no effect, the Chushan Army simply ignored them and continued to build fortifications on the south and east sides of Huangyang Village.
And in Yellow Sheep
To the northwest of the village, the supply camp has also been set up.
While digging canals, thousands of craftsmen took advantage of the fact that there had been no rain for a month and hurriedly carried soil to the open valleys on both sides of the river bed.
Thousands of wheelbarrows are constantly transporting soil into the valley, and also tripping a large amount of lime. To this end, dozens of new lime kilns were built in the mountains to the west of Huangyangzhai, and only the kiln-burning workers were requisitioned.
Two to three hundred people.
Like building a city, the soil is mixed with lime, river sand, and gravel and compacted layer by layer.
On the side facing the water, a large number of bamboo cages filled with gravel will be sunk to resist the erosion of the dam body by waves and undercurrents.
The plan is to cut off the Mingxi River before mid-January and store water on a small scale first. Then, based on the earthen dam that cuts off the river, we can continue to pile up earth and build cofferdams along the terrain of more than ten miles to the left and right.
.
If the puppet Chu army never takes action, Xingyuan plans to encircle a lake to the west of Huangyangzhai in the spring, about fourteen to five miles deep from north to south and from east to west, and about twenty feet above the middle and lower reaches of Mingxi River.
Seeing Chu Shan's posture, how could the pseudo-Chu army dare to bet that Chu Shan was just bluffing?
If it is delayed until the mountains and lakes are surrounded in the spring, and they are withdrawn in despair, how will they face the censure of Bianliang and the Zong Palace?
For this reason, the puppet Chu army could only be forced to advance upstream along the Mingxi River.
The puppet Chu army had previously built a stronghold at the southern foot of Iron Curtain Mountain, and then went south from the southern foot of Iron Curtain Mountain to build a fort in the middle reaches of the Mingxi River. The terrain there was open, and there were elite horsemen coveting one side, and Chu Mountain also responded.
faint.
However, it is impossible for Chushan to tolerate the puppet Chu army building the front camp fortification only five or six miles away from Huangyangzhai.
One wanted to advance, the other refused to give way, and the two sides finally fought in front of a mountain col, seven miles away from Huangyangzhai and only a thousand steps away from Heilanggou.
On the north side of this mountain valley is the valley on the right bank of the Mingxi River, where you can attack Huangyangzhai; on the south side, you can bypass a series of intermittent and rugged long hills and attack the Shimenling Military Village where the Shimen Inspection Department is located, and even
Cut off the connection between Shimenling Village and Huangyang Village.
The morning fog has not yet dissipated. The elite troops of the Third Battalion of Chu Mountain formed formations in the valley and on the side of the mountain. Thousands of puppet Chu troops, armed with swords, shields and spears, surrounded sidecars and shield cars, covering them like a swarm of locusts.
A hail of arrows, slowly attacking upwards.
This scene made the young man standing at the gap of Heilanggou feel a little nervous in his heart.
Chushan gathered only more than 3,000 soldiers in Huangyangzhai, while the enemy used the two forts built in the middle reaches of the Mingxi River as strongholds and gathered more than 20,000 soldiers and horses.
Thousands of captive cavalry blocked dozens of kilometers of plains on the right bank of the Mingxi River. It was obvious that they were trying to block the troops from Chushan City and Shimenling Village from reinforcing Huangyang Village, and then used their overwhelmingly superior force to attack in turn.
Huangyang Village.
At this time, a group of cavalry left Huangyang Village and galloped towards Heilanggou.
The northern slope of Heilanggou is steep. People came to protect the war horses and gathered them at the foot of the slope. They climbed up on the rocks.
Seeing the face of the incoming man clearly, the strong man shouted excitedly: "Commander Jies come here to supervise the battle, brothers, cheer me up!"
Xu Huai climbed up to Heilanggou and saw a strong man with one arm. He smiled and said: "Wei Daya, I transferred you to be the secretary of the Jiboqiao Township Division, but you stayed in the army and refused to leave. You are not giving me face!"
"
"In the past, I liked to stay behind during battles, which embarrassed the Commander, but so many brothers died on the battlefield. I really don't have the shame to stay behind again," Wei Daya said with a grin, "Why don't we drive Hu Gouzi away?"
, Commander-in-Chief, give me a bigger official position?"
"Okay, I'll find a good job for you after we drive away the wild dog!" Xu Huai said with a smile.
Wei Daya is still Pan Chenghu's old subordinate. His hometown is on the edge of Yuhuang Ridge. He is very good in fists, kicks and swordsmanship. He is an old bandit from Xiema Mountain. In the first northern expedition against Yan Yu Datong City, he led dozens of Tongbai soldiers.
He returned to Chushan. With his qualifications and skills, he was qualified to be a commander, but his personality was slippery and he had not made any outstanding military exploits until the battle of Taiyuan.
The interception battle in the north of Taiyuan City can be said to be the first head-on confrontation between the Chu army and the elite Red Husbands. Wei Daya's troops were all led by Xu Wuqi and others to participate in this battle, resulting in heavy casualties.
Wei Daya also had his left arm cut off in that battle.
In any case, Wei Daya was also an old man and was disabled in the bloody battle. The tribes returned to Tongbai Mountain, and Xu Huai set up rural bureaus in Xinyang and other places.
It was decided that Wei Daya and other grassroots military officials who had meritorious service but had to withdraw from the army would be transferred to the township department as officials.
However, Wei Daya changed his old nature and refused to quit the army, so he stayed in the army and is still only a deputy general.
The terrain of Heilanggou is high. Xu Huai looked at the situation in the north and south. He sat on a stone on the ground and saw that the young man next to Wei Daya had grown fair and looked similar to Wei Daya. He asked in surprise: "This is yours."
Nephew?"
There are many fathers, sons and brothers in Chushan who are in the army, but they arrange them in different places as much as possible. This is not because of any disadvantages of precaution. In fact, if one of the father, son and brothers is killed in the battle, they will immediately arrange for others to withdraw from the war, so that the family will not be hit too hard.
.
This arrangement will be explained clearly to the generals below, but the father and son brothers want to be together to take care of each other, and Chushan will not stop it at the moment.
"My nephew, named Wei Qi, is the only scholar from the old Wei family," Wei Daya pulled the young man to Xu Huai and said carelessly, "Come in and do some military exploits so that you can take the exam for local officials! Today is
The first time I went to the battlefield, I almost couldn’t hold it in!”
At present, there are as many as 34 township divisions (inspection departments) in the three counties of Xinyang, Chushan and Huaiyang in Chushan (Shenzhou). The township divisions have the inspection envoy (inspection envoy) as the chief officer, and there will also be
Depending on the actual situation, a number of officials ranging from a few to a dozen people will be appointed, including the secretary, the clerk, and the clerk to assist with the work.
Xu Huai's current selection criteria for officials in prefectures, counties and townships, as well as those who have previously served in various government offices, require that in addition to regular assessments, they have to go to the camp for training, and he also has requirements for the Xiang army, the work camp, and the sky.
Heroes all have different time requirements.
Simply training in a relatively safe work camp requires the longest time limit; going to the most dangerous front base garrison requires the shortest time limit; having achieved military exploits, the time limit can be more lenient.
In this way, in addition to making the prefecture, county and township officials aware of the hardships of the camp war and making their actions more pragmatic, Xu Huai also realized that a group of grassroots military officials who had to withdraw from the camp were assigned to serve as township officials.
This was due to the long-term influence and was more or less suppressed and excluded by the old official group, which was mainly composed of scholars. Xu Huai simply made entering the camp and gaining experience as a rigid criterion for selecting officials in Chushan.
Of course, those who have made military achievements as generals or are the heirs of generals or military officials are exempted.
Xu Huai did this to ensure the status of the generals in Chushan from all aspects to equal the sacrifices they made, thus fundamentally ensuring the generals' tenacious fighting will.
Otherwise, is it realistic to trample the generals under their feet and expect the generals to fight bloody battles with a high sense of honor to protect their homes and country?
"Do you think the enemy has many soldiers and generals, and are you worried that we can't win this battle?" Xu Huai had long noticed that Wei Qi looked a little depressed when he looked at the battlefield to the north, and asked with a smile.
"Wei Qi definitely didn't think so. Wei Qi thought that our army had the right time, the right place and the right people, and that our army was charismatic and brave enough to fight, frightening the enemy. Our army would definitely win this battle," Wei Qi said.
"After all, he is a scholar and knows how to speak beautiful words!"
Xu Huai sighed,
"It's normal for you to be worried and fearful when you first come to the battlefield. This is why I ask all officials in all prefectures, counties, and townships to go to the battlefield and take a second look. The battle in Huaishang may last for a long time.
If the officials are not clear about the development of the battlefield situation and the bloody battles of our generals, if they hear that the number of enemy troops in the hinterland is several times greater, and if they hear all kinds of unfavorable news coming from other battlefields, how could they not feel at ease?
Panic and doubt? But in the next few days, you will see that no matter how the enemy attacks in turn, and no matter how they use deceitful tactics, they can't bite off a piece of our flesh. And I deliberately left Yelanggou this important one.
If you don't fill a military stronghold at the node, and deliberately put only two or three thousand soldiers in Huangyang Stronghold, it will give the enemy the illusion that they can break this hard bone with more force. Only in this way, they will not
If you give up easily, you will pounce on me again and again and bite you!"
Xu Huai said to Wei Daya again: "You are a little short of manpower here. I will give you an extra team of troops to guard Ye Langgou. However, they are all sacrificed by the warriors' houses. You can use them to fight with me! Guard."
Yelanggou is under pressure, so send people to Tang Qing in time to ask for help. Only by guarding Yelanggou and minimizing the casualties of your subordinates can you be truly dignified!"
There were 400 people living in the fourth phase of the Warrior House. Xu Huai transferred them directly to Huangyangzhai to participate in the battle this time...
