"Three to five months is too long," Lan Zhen said.
It’s not that he couldn’t bear it for such a long time before complaining. Your Majesty is a sensible person and will not rush them because they spend too long in Duobang City. It is very inconvenient to transport food from Guangxi to Baihe without a waterway. The losses were too great and Ming could bear them; as for the comments from the outside world, he did not care. The reason why he said this was because he was worried about the consequences of delaying the process for a long time.
The reason why the early Ming Dynasty progressed smoothly was not only because the soldiers were brave and dedicated and the generals were well commanded, but also because the Annan people were afraid that the Ming Dynasty's soldiers would not be able to use 10% or 20% of their abilities in battle; at the same time, the Ming Dynasty also played the banner of revenge for the Chen Dynasty. Both the aristocratic families and the common people miss the Chen Dynasty, that's why.
But if the time delay is too long, the Annan soldiers will suddenly realize that the superior country's combat power is nothing more than this, and they are helpless when encountering places with high mountains and dense forests. Their self-confidence will be greatly enhanced; people's nostalgia for the Chen Dynasty will also As it gets weaker and weaker, the battle will become more and more difficult to fight.
At the same time, there will also be problems with the Ming army. Now is not the time when the country was just founded. The soldiers are all dragging their families with them. If they are not allowed to return home for a long time, their fighting spirit will become lower and lower, and their combat effectiveness will also become lower and lower. If they can survive until the end After being defeated by the Annan people, how could they face His Majesty?
"Besides, if we want to conquer Duobang City, we can only rely on internal support within the city to support our army." Mu Sheng also understood Lan Zhen's thoughts and added.
Lan Zhen picked up the clairvoyance and looked at Duobang City in the distance, then put it down immediately and said: "Duobang City has as many as 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers guarding it, and the guards must be Hu Jiya's confidants. Even if there are only one or two People who try to correct the situation are useless unless they can blow up the cannon." But Hu Ji Ya was not stupid. The soldier in charge of the cannon must be his most trusted person. How could he let the cannon be blown up so easily?
Having said this, the two of them were silent for a while and did not speak. In fact, in addition to counting on the internal response in the city, there is also the possibility of conquering Duobang City, but if that situation really happens, even if the two of them conquer Duobang City , it can’t be considered a credit.
However, "Even if it is not a credit, it is still better than being defeated by the Annan people." Lan Zhen said: "We have temporarily stopped thinking about capturing Duobang City and are waiting for the central and rear troops led by Uncle Zhang to arrive. Let’s wait for good news from other places.”
"He Rong's left army should have already set off."
…
…
In the early morning of the same day, Haikang Institute of Leizhou Prefecture.
It was just dawn, but a large area of houses near Haikang was already bustling with people. Countless people wearing thin clothes were walking around in the yard, queuing up to go to the toilet.
By the time it gets bright, everyone has washed up and is led by hundreds of households to prepare rice. Each person has a bowl of rice, soaked in broth, and a portion of cucumber and scrambled eggs. If it's not enough, you can add more. Although it is simple, it is a rare delicacy for these little soldiers.
However, it was precisely because today's breakfast was so rich that many people felt uneasy. When the soldiers from each household gathered together to eat after the meal, many people secretly muttered something.
"Have you heard? Today we are going to cross the sea to fight the Annamites." A tall and sturdy soldier said to the people next to him.
"I've heard about it a long time ago; and even if I haven't heard about it, I know it after seeing today's breakfast. Isn't it said in the storytelling that the soldiers should have a good meal before setting off? Today's breakfast is much better than usual, and I added it casually. As soon as I saw it, I was about to leave." A tall man said.
"Damn it, I don't know how the Annamites are doing in the war, whether they are stronger or weaker than the Mongols." The burly soldier said again.
"There's no comparison. The Mongols fight on horseback, and I heard that the Annamites fight on elephants. There are woods and rivers everywhere, so it's impossible to ride a horse," said the tall soldier.
"Elephant? What is an elephant?" the burly soldier asked curiously. They were soldiers from the Xingwu Guards in the capital. This was the first time they came to the south of the Five Ridges. He had never heard of elephants.
"I haven't seen it either, but I heard from Wei Li's predecessors who went to Yunnan to fight with Old Mu Houye and Old Liang Guogong, saying that elephants are very tall animals. One elephant is as big as four or five oxen in his hometown. , the whole earth shook when I ran." The tall soldier said.
"Are you talking nonsense? There are woods and rivers everywhere. Even horses can't run. How can such a big elephant ride on it?" said the burly soldier.
The tall soldier was stunned by this question and didn't know what to say. Just as he was about to make up a lie, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Baihu Cao Zheng squatting under a big tree nearby, so he pointed at Cao Zheng and said: "Cao Baihu must be I know, just ask Cao Qianhu."
The burly soldier looked at Cao Zheng and saw that he had no rice bowl in his hand. He thought he had finished eating, so he dared to ask questions.
After Cao Zheng finished eating, he washed the rice bowl and put it back in the package, then sat under a big tree as usual, looking up at the sky, of course, in the direction where there was no sun.
While watching, he murmured to himself: "Why can these stars hang in the sky and not fall down?"
While he was watching, he suddenly heard someone say: "Master Baihu."
He came back to his senses, turned his head to look in the direction of the sound, saw the burly soldier, and said, "Webber, what's wrong?"
The burly soldier named Weber actually regretted it as soon as he opened his mouth. 'Why did I become obsessed with it for a moment!' He regretted in his heart. Although Cao Zheng was usually very generous to them and had no airs, it was because of this that he dared He came over to ask questions; but after all, Cao Zheng was from a hundred households, and it was said that he had a great background. He had not been there for a long time when he came to their thousand households. I don’t know whether his generosity during this period was pretended or real. If you were annoyed after hearing his questions, There are ten thousand ways to deal with him.
But the words had already been spoken, and it would be worse if he said that I was teasing you and that there was nothing wrong with him, so he bit the bullet and said: "Master Baihu, I just heard Pan De say that the Annan people ride elephants when fighting, but He also said that Annan is full of woods and rivers, and elephants are much bigger than cows. The younger ones didn’t believe it. So the younger ones came to ask the adults, but Annan people really rode animals much bigger than bulls. Elephants at war?”
"The Annan people do ride elephants when fighting, but not everyone rides, only a few soldiers. The elephants are big and eat a lot. Although there are not many soldiers in Annan, there are more than 100,000 people. How can they afford to support such a large number of soldiers? Elephant." Cao Zheng was not angry, but explained to him.
Although Cao Zheng was not angry, Weibo did not dare to ask any more questions. He complimented him and returned to his original place.
As soon as he returned to his place, he grabbed the tall soldier's arm and said, "Are you trying to trick me on purpose? You actually asked me to ask Lord Baihu!"
The soldier named Pan De stretched out his hand to untie his hand from holding his arm, and shouted: "Who knew you were so brave to actually ask! I was just teasing you."
"Are you really kidding me? I think you have no good intentions," he said.
Pande immediately called out to Qu, and the other soldiers on the side also tried to persuade him. Although Weber was still a little suspicious, he couldn't hold on to him. He grabbed his arm hard for a while and then put the matter down.
At this time, another soldier said to him: "Old Wei, is our new Cao Baihu looking up at the sky as usual?"
"I'm looking up at the sky," Weber said.
"Is there something unusual about our new Cao Baihu? Is there anything good to see today? If it's okay to watch it at night, at least there are stars. Although I don't understand what's so good about the stars, it seems that it's not good to look at them at night. Allowed, but at least there is still something; you can’t see anything but the sun in broad daylight, what’s so good about it!” someone said.
"Just now I heard adults talking to themselves about why stars can hang in the sky and not fall down." Weber said.
"What's so good about this? The stars are always in the sky and won't fall down. It seems really unusual for us, a family of 100 people."
"Don't talk nonsense! Our Cao Baihu has a good background. Didn't you see that Mr. Qianhu never acted like an official to him? Whenever something is distributed in the Wei, our Baihu is the first to get it? It can be seen that Our Baihu family has a great background," Pan De said.
"You have a big background? Who is that family?"
"Anyway, he must be more powerful than Mr. Qianhu."
"Aren't you talking nonsense? If the background is smaller than Qianhu's, how could Qianhu see our Baihu as if they were brothers?"
"Why am I talking nonsense? Our Qianhu's biological father is a commander. Baihu is more powerful than his family, at least he is a commander."
"Do you know that the commander is useless? There are so many commanders in the capital, do you know which one it is?"
"..." Everyone was arguing over Cao Zheng's origin.
But Weber, who was the first to speak, did not join them in guessing. First, guessing this was completely meaningless and just nonsense; second, when he repeated Cao Zheng's words just now, he always felt like he was somewhere. I heard it before, so I keep thinking about it.
But before he could come up with a result, Master Qianhu suddenly came over and shouted loudly: "Everyone has boarded in a different way. Let's gather. Hurry up and be led by Baihu to the gathering place. You haven't finished your meal yet." , what time has this happened? You are a fucking rice cook, right? Hurry up and finish the food in your bowl and follow your hundred households to gather. What else are you doing to wash the bowls? You usually put them in the pool to rinse them. Now follow me. You're pretending to be clean, right? Hurry up and put the bowl in the package and carry it to the gathering. I'll see if I don't kill you!"
In the sound of thousands of households cursing, all the soldiers stood up quickly, picked up their packages and carried them on their backs. Cao Zheng also came to his senses, put on his coat, and rushed to the gathering place with his soldiers from hundreds of households. place.
However, the more Cao Zheng walked, the more strange he became: although his mind was not on military affairs and was only interested in astronomy, he also knew that today they would take a boat to fight with the Annan people on the opposite side. Logically speaking, they should gather near the port and wait in line. As we were trying to get on the ship, why did we get further and further away from the port?
So he quietly approached Qianhu and asked: "Ma Qianhu, where are we going? Aren't we going to take a boat to fight the Annan people?"
Before Qianhu could answer, they had already walked the path between the mountain and the sea, and their eyes suddenly became brighter.
Cao Zheng glanced around and saw that this was a valley, with mountains on three sides and the sea on the other. The mountains on the three sides were not high, only about ten feet. It would be more appropriate to call it a slope. There were people on the slope.
His eyes continued to scan, and when he suddenly saw something, his pupils shrank slightly, and he already knew roughly what he was going to do.
At this moment, Qianhu's voice also came: "Cao Baihu, I received the order while everyone was eating. We, the Xingwu Guards, are going to be brought here to listen to His Majesty's instructions."
Even though he had guessed it, Cao Zheng was still surprised; except for the time when the country was just founded, although there were emperors giving lectures to the army, they were mainly to generals, not soldiers; and this time it can be seen from the place that the lecture was for as many people as possible Your Majesty's voice needs to be heard by more people, which shows that it is for ordinary soldiers. This is a rare situation in history except for the emperor's personal expedition.
"Your Majesty is giving lectures to so many people at the same time, what exactly are you going to say?" Cao Zheng thought in his mind, and continued walking with his hundreds of households and thousands of households until he stopped at a place.
Then many more soldiers came in, until the entire valley was filled. At a rough look, there were about 30,000 to 40,000 people standing in the valley, all densely packed with human heads.
Cao Zheng saw another ship sailing to the nearby sea, and there were people on the deck.