After passing Yangwu, Li Xu ordered the fleet to speed up. There is about a hundred miles of waterway from here to the mouth of the Yellow River. Because it is downstream, if the fleet travels at full speed, it only takes a whole day.
You can walk the entire distance. Going westward along the mouth of the Yellow River, you will already belong to the important area of Gyeonggi Province. The water and land roads in that area are relatively peaceful at present, and merchants no longer need to worry about their own safety.
Luo Shixin did not obey Xu Zi's order to stay in Yangwu to guard the baggage, but stubbornly followed him. "Waiting in the city for a whole day will kill me. I might as well watch with you on both sides of the river.
Look at the scenery." Luo Shixin said with a smile while tapping the stirrups with the tip of his whip.
"On a hot day, if you're not afraid of getting sunstroke, just follow him!" Li Xu answered with a smile, knowing that the other party was worried about his own safety.
"Don't tell me, it's really boring today!" Luo Shixin took off his iron helmet and fanned the cool air into his neck. But it was obviously in vain. The wind in June was so hot and humid that it was almost impossible to grab a handful of air.
You can squeeze out the water.
"Damn it, it can be so hot by the river!" He adjusted his helmet helplessly and muttered.
"You didn't enjoy the blessing of sitting in the yamen to enjoy the cool air. Do you regret it now?" Li Xu replied with a smile. He raised his head and looked around, and found a few black clouds rolling in the distant horizon.
A heavy rain is brewing, and this is indeed not a good weather for marching. At this moment, the Wagang heroes who rushed over in a hurry also felt miserable. Because they had to chase the information out of the time it took to deliver the information on the road, they made interception, killing and protection measures.
After the boat cavalry made the decision, they rushed towards Yangwu almost day and night. For the Wagang Neijun trained by Xu Maogong, such an intensity of roundabouts would not tire them out. But for the Wagang Neijun who had been trained by Xu Maogong,
The foreign army battalions that lacked training, the hot weather and the rugged roads were literally killing people. In order to cover up their tracks, they could not get too close to the city. And marching quickly on the undulating country roads was more difficult than marching on a straight road.
How many times more hardships have been added to the broad official road?
"Grandma, this weather is a bitch. If we keep going like this, we won't have to fight with the army, we will heat ourselves to death!" Wang Dangren swayed on the horse while putting on the last short brown shirt.
Pulling it down. At this moment, the armor on his body and the iron helmet on his head were thrown to the soldiers marching on foot behind the horse, but he was still so hot that sweat dripped down his forehead.
"Brother, don't be too embarrassed!" Li Gongyi, who was walking next to Wang Dangren, couldn't stand it anymore, so he leaned close to his ear and lowered his voice to remind him.
"Why is it embarrassing? After all, these 20,000 brothers are all men! Who hasn't seen it yet..." Wang Dangren was unconvinced and raised his eyes to retort. Halfway through, he saw Li Gongyi, who was fully clothed and armored, twisting and turning.
Looking diagonally forward, Wang Dangren followed Li Gongyi's gaze and saw diagonally in front of him three thousand elite soldiers in the hillock who were rushing on their way. Regardless of the generals or soldiers, everyone had their leather armor neatly wrapped around their bodies.
It seems that the weather around me is not hot at all.
The three thousand soldiers marched with more force than the 20,000 soldiers and horses commanded by Wang and Li. The gap between the two sides was so obvious that if not for everyone carrying weapons on their shoulders, it would be easy to think of the small number of soldiers.
One group had just won a battle and returned home victorious, and the larger group was the prisoner they captured.
"Don't be afraid of covering up prickly heat!" After muttering in a low voice, Wang Dangren had to straighten his short brown hair again. His eyes repeatedly wandered between the leather armor and iron helmet on the back of the soldier, but he finally couldn't muster up all the armor.
Courage in full uniform. "The internal army is just different from our foreign army." After a moment, Wang Dangren had to lament in his heart, "No wonder Xu Maogong always thinks about retraining everyone. Only people like this can really achieve great things!"
At ten o'clock at noon, several fast horses approached the team. From the strong figure of the rider, everyone recognized that the person was Xie Yingden, the presidential scout leader. Under the gaze of countless pairs of eyes, Xie Yingden passed between the teams specifically to convey orders.
He went straight to the central army through the gap left by the soldiers. Immediately afterwards, a horn sounded from the central army where Li Mi was, ordering the entire army to stop and rest.
The military situation changed, and in an instant, every experienced general made the correct judgment. Following the sound of the trumpet, they rushed to the central army. When they arrived, they happened to see Fang Yanzao unfolding the sheepskin map at Li Mi's feet again.
"Rush to the mouth of the Yellow River? Did he discover our actions?" Li Mi stared at the mountains and rivers burned out on the map, with regret that was hard to hide in his words.
"Probably not. According to the news sent by our soldiers in the county at the risk of death, Zhang Xutuo is rushing to Yangwucheng at this moment. The army's baggage has also been unloaded in Yangwucheng. Various signs indicate that they were not there in the first place.
We plan to go directly to Xingyang!" Xie Yingden wiped the dirt and sweat from his face and replied panting.
The officers and soldiers had no plans to go to Xingyang! This news scared everyone and took a breath of air-conditioning. The plan of the officers and soldiers was obvious. They unloaded their baggage at Yangwu, and they must have planned to pass through Yangwu and Xucheng to attack Wagang.
The heroes dispersed back to their own strongholds, and the Wagang Army had to fight a life-and-death showdown with its more than 10,000 internal troops and the officers and soldiers who came to suppress them.
"Fortunately, we didn't disperse after our ambush failed!" Li Mi shook his head and said. This unexpected hit made him more confident in his luck, and his voice gradually became louder, "Where is Commander Xu?
, where did he and Wang Bodang reach?"
"After Commander Xu and General Wang got the news, they turned and pounced directly on Yang Wu. This is the letter he left for you!"
The soft envelope was held next to Li Mi with both hands.
In order to prevent Xu Maogong and Li Xu brothers from fighting each other, when everyone was formulating the battle plan, they deliberately asked him and Wang Bodang to take on the task of stopping Zhang Xutuo. According to the original plan, the troops and horses led by the two men should go in a roundabout way at this moment.
Between Yangwu and Putian, Zhang Xutuo was blocked on the west bank of the canal. But now the movements of the officers and soldiers have changed, and the action plan of the Wagang heroes must also be significantly modified accordingly.
"Yangwu?" Li Mi was confused and opened Xu Maogong's letter with some dissatisfaction. Although the intelligence showed that all the official and army baggage had been transported into Yangwu City, the rebels lacked the necessary equipment to attack the city.
It was impossible to capture the city quickly. Besides, Zhang Xutuo would rush over at any time. Xu Maogong and Wang Bodang were in a hurry to attack the city at this moment, and they were obviously going to die.
"The official army is escorting a group of merchant ships to the mouth of the Yellow River, and Yuanwu is the place they must pass through. When the secret official sees the letter, he can rush to Yuanwu to intercept and kill them. At present, the official army's baggage is all in Yangwu City, and our troops are pretending to attack.
Xutuo will not dare to give up and ignore it. The military situation is urgent, please forgive Maogong for making his own decisions..."
In the letter, Xu Maogong suggested to Li Mi in a very humble tone: "Send orders to the three armies to rush to Yangwu at full speed!" After putting down the letter, Li Mi made the decision without hesitation. The opportunity for revenge was so close that he felt the blood all over his body.
They all began to boil, and their voices began to tremble.
"Woo--Woo-Woo" the desperate horn sound sounded in the mountains. The soldiers who had just taken a breath had to rush to the northwest when they heard the sound of the horn. "Grandma, this is howling.
What's going on?" After running for another half an hour, some of the well-trained Waganei troops began to feel dissatisfied. As they hurried on, they complained in a low voice, "It's obvious that you don't understand shit, but you still have to compete with our Master Xu for the position of military advisor.
, snatched it away, but he doesn’t know how to command, so he has to ask Military Advisor Xu to help him make up his mind!"
"That's right, if the official starts to talk, we will break our legs!" Someone echoed breathlessly. Back then, under the command of Xu Maogong, everyone often marched in a hurry. But at that time, the purpose and rhythm were very clear, and they never
This behavior of changing course mid-stream occurs.
"Save some energy and wait for the war!" Cheng Zhijie, who was riding his horse for inspection, heard the dissatisfaction in the team and raised his eyes to scold. The brothers stuck out their tongues and tried to move their legs to keep up with the speed of the large group of people. Cheng Zhijie
After all the brothers under his command calmed down again, they mounted their horses and ran to the front of the team.
The front of the team is a place where young generals like to gather. In addition to the direct descendants of the Wagang Army, there are also many heroes who have come to defect. Their favorite is to chat while galloping on horseback. This can make
People easily forget how hot the weather is.
Seeing Cheng Zhijie coming over, everyone quickly made room for him. In the military, people with good martial arts can always easily win people's respect. Moreover, Cheng Zhijie is born with an easy-going temperament, and he is also good at telling jokes. But today
, he obviously didn’t have much interest in chatting with everyone. After casually nodding to everyone, he became silent.
"General Cheng doesn't seem very happy?" Someone noticed that Cheng Yaojin's expression was wrong and asked with concern.
"I'm thinking about what we are about to do? The officers and soldiers protect the merchant ship, and we rush to intercept and kill them. This time, the officers are officers and the thieves are thieves, so everyone has to do their duty!" Cheng Zhijie sighed and replied with a wry smile.
"Aren't we planning for the long term? Although the common people..." Ranger General Xiang Zhao explained in a nice way. Halfway through his words, he himself felt a little ashamed. He looked back at the direction of the Chinese army and whispered: "Anyway, we
The main purpose this time is not robbery. During the war, just order everyone not to kill innocent people indiscriminately!"
"When the war breaks out, will we be left alone?" Cheng Zhijie sneered a few times and continued to shake his head.
"That's true!" Xiang Zhao said sarcastically and turned his gaze to the distance. People who are jealous of killing can't tell the difference between officers and soldiers and civilians. Besides, with such a large amount of property in front of them, the Wagang Army has no reason to
Don’t take it.
"Alas!" Shan Xiongxin sighed, with a depressed face. The current Wagang Army is very different from the original Wagang Army. The original Wagang Army did not have a formal banner official system. It looked like a thief, but it was very different.
Harass ordinary people less. The current Wagang Army is more organized than the official army, and its behavior and military discipline are quickly moving closer to the official army. For new recruits such as Wang Dangren, Hao Xiaode, and Li Gongyi, the behavior of their subordinates has already changed.
It is much more restrained than before. But compared with the Wagang Army back then, the overall discipline of this army has drastically improved.
"We can't blame Mi Gong for this. The forest is big, and all kinds of birds are sure to come out. Mi Gong has to persuade everyone to change little by little, and can't force everyone away at once!" Another hero Zhang Qian came forward with a smile.
, whispered.
"Old Cheng, how dare I blame Mi Gong? Old Cheng just thinks that fighting Li Zhongjian like this is more shameful!" Cheng Zhijie shook his head with a smile.
"Mi Gong is a very generous man. He shares all his treasures with everyone and keeps nothing for himself. Unlike our Master Zhai, who likes to live guarding his treasures!" Seeing that Cheng Zhijie didn't mean what he said, Zhang Qian thought for a while and said again.
Half of the original generals of the Gang Army did not like Li Mi, but the other half believed that Li Mi was the destined emperor in the nursery rhyme and hoped to build a great career behind him. So in private, everyone talked a lot about Li Mi.
The dispute has always been fierce.
"We, Mr. Zhai, are not even willing to hand over the power to others, let alone some extraneous things!" Shan Xiongxin and Cheng Zhijie have similar views, and they don't have a good impression of Li Mi either.
"But Mi Gong can tolerate others. That day when General Cheng ridiculed him in person, he was not angry, but he also knew his mistakes and could correct them!" Zhang Qian was also very stubborn and insisted on his opinions to the end.
"Yeah, this is better than me, Old Cheng. When Old Cheng fought with others when he was young, only when he couldn't beat them would he be a good man and not suffer the consequences." Cheng Zhijie laughed again and changed the topic with irrelevant things, "It's just that Old
Cheng's humility will not last long. When one day he wins the battle, he will fall out with him immediately!"
Everyone obviously had nothing to do with this guy who was full of tongue, so they had no choice but to stop arguing. "I can't believe that someone can beat General Cheng? I wonder which hero he is?" After laughing for a while, the leader of the Puyang Battalion, Du Caigan, asked.
"I can't remember. I've been fighting with people since I was a kid. I lost ninety times if not a hundred times!" Cheng Zhijie replied. After thinking about it carefully, he changed his tone to greet everyone in a more formal tone.
"When the two armies fight later, if you encounter Li Zhongjian, none of you should confront him head-on. Leave it to me and Xiong Xin, this idea is a bit tricky."
He and Shan Xiongxin's martial arts skills were among the best in the Wagang Army. At this moment, he told other generals not to rush to make meritorious deeds. It was obvious that they were wary of the enemy generals. The generals thanked him for his kindness, but some were not convinced.
"Isn't that man named Li a disciple of a famous master? Is he really as powerful as the legend says?" Xiang Zhao turned back from the distant sky and asked.
"This person's martial arts skills have indeed never received any guidance from an expert." Cheng Zhijie took a rare serious turn and replied solemnly, "I heard from Military Master Xu that this person had never practiced martial arts before he was fourteen years old. But he has practiced martial arts since he was fourteen years old.
He was forced to use a knife to fight with others. After so many years, he fought from Liaodong to Henan, more than a hundred battles, and countless good and famous generals died in battle, but he has survived well until now!" (To be continued)
