Kumegota followed the civilians all the way to the official road behind the camp - this was the first time Kumegota came to see the transporting civilian team. He saw the mighty civilian team moving like ants, and they were all the way from the official road in front of them.
Spreading out, all the way to the end of the field of vision - the horizon where flying snow and snow fields blend together. In this white world, the black shadow of the civilian team seemed to have drawn a line of thick ink on the white paper with a brush, it was so conspicuous.
The entire official road was so crowded that there was almost no space for one person to fit in. Large and small vehicles, carts, sleds, and poles lined the entire official road.
Although there are civilians on both sides of the road constantly shoveling snow while the crowds are passing by, and although they stay up late every night and shovel the snow with torches when the civilian team is camping and resting, it is still difficult to avoid snow on the road - the snow is really too heavy
It was too big. The peasants pushed forward and pushed back, struggling to control the transportation vehicles, stumbling forward in the wind and snow on the snow. Everyone was so tired that they couldn't straighten up, and they moved one foot deeper and the other shallowly.
The sweat from exhaustion will be blown away by the sharp north wind in an instant, making your hands and feet cold.
When Kume Gota saw the situation in front of him, he couldn't help but feel guilty for his previous outburst. At this moment, he suddenly heard a commotion coming from the official road not far away. He hurriedly looked at it and saw a car on the road.
The wheel of the cart that was being transported on the right side of the official road suddenly broke, and the entire cart suddenly collapsed to the right. The cart was full, and the tall grain bags rolled down, and the white grains
When it was sprinkled into the snow, it became difficult to see clearly. Kumegota felt heartbroken when he saw it. That was a day's ration for many people. Now the food on the front line is in short supply, and both the auxiliary soldiers and civilians have not enough to eat.
"Damn! What bad luck!" The cart pushed by Wada Jiro happened to be behind the cart. When the cart in front fell over, it blocked a small part of the not-so-wide official road, and directly pushed Wada Jiro and a large number of people away.
The crowd was behind him. He wanted to push the car around to the left, but the dense crowd made it difficult for him to turn. Soon, more and more people crowded here, and there were constant complaints on the road behind.
"What are you doing, so slow!" Jiro Wada muttered a few times, put down his cart, and struggled through the knee-deep snow on the edge of the official road, intending to help the peasants in the cart in front.
.The peasants were busy rescuing the food that had fallen on the ground from the heavy snow, but after a layer of snowflakes fell, they could no longer see clearly.
"What are you still doing here!" Jiro Wada stamped his feet angrily when he saw this, "Hurry up and push the car away from the official road, otherwise everyone will have to wait for you here."
"There is a lot of food here..." A farmer knelt on the snow and kept digging at the snow, picking up the rice grains that slipped from his fingers, "What should we do..."
"If it's spilled, just spill it. You're stuck here now. If we don't transport the food up, the whole army will starve." Another civilian husband who came from the side helped, and at the same time pulled the kneeling man on the ground with his hands.
The civilian husband's sleeves said, "Hurry up, don't delay things!"
Under their shouts, dozens of peasants were called over. They borrowed several long cables, tied them to the axles of the cart, and pulled it forward and back into the snow. Everyone struggled.
After a long time, the cart was finally dragged into the snow. The heavy cart sank all of a sudden, and the splashing snow spread to the surrounding peasants. The grain bags in the cart also rolled into the snow.
The traffic on the official road finally returned to normal, but the congestion caused by the accident just now spread layer by layer, affecting the transportation of the entire civilian team. The amount of food arriving that night dropped a lot, and more
The auxiliary soldiers were forced to reduce their rations.
·
On December 2, the Red Leaf Army set out from Matsuno Castle and embarked on a 40-mile journey to Oyama Obo. On this day, the Kaga area encountered a snowstorm. The overwhelming snowflakes were carried by the strong wind and blew towards the army, leaving civilians behind.
The team and the baggage team were completely destroyed, with countless baggage losses and many casualties. Even the Uesugi Army, who is accustomed to snow battles, did not come out to harass today. This shows what kind of trouble the Hongye Army will encounter.
.Under such bad weather, Yu Qiuping could not continue to move forward with the wounded and sick, but left them all in Songren City. Because Songren City was severely damaged, Yu Qiuping had to arrange precious manpower and material resources to help them
Build a place to live.
Yu Qiuping originally planned to keep Takenaka Shigeharu, but Takenaka Shigeharu, who was suffering from a high fever and could hardly manage, firmly refused. In desperation, Yu Qiuping ordered the entire army to continue marching, hoping to find a village or town to take shelter from the wind.
.However, when the Uesugi Army withdrew, the entire Kaga was completely destroyed. There were broken walls and ruins everywhere, leaving nothing for the Red Leaf Army. For a whole day, the Red Leaf Army struggled to move around in the snowstorm.
After a pause, we only walked 15 miles.
That night, Fukuzawa Yunan found Yu Qiuping.
"Your Highness, I haven't finished what I said today." Fukuzawa Yunan's face was much more solemn than usual, "I wanted to suggest that Your Highness withdraw the army today."
"Retreat? How is it possible?" Yu Qiuping frowned when he heard this, and retorted without thinking, "Young Master, His Highness Shibata and so many soldiers are trapped in Gaogang City. Gaogang City is lost, and the North
The Rikudo Army is finished, and rescuing Takaoka Castle is a fatal order from the Lord."
"But the current situation is that the death order may kill the entire Hongye Army, and we can't save the Hokuriku Army." Fukuzawa Yunan took out a report from his arms and sent it to Yu Qiuping.
, "We are still 90 miles away from Gaogang City, and if the weather does not improve, it will take 6 days. After today's losses... Judging from the volume of our food supplies and the consumption of frontline troops, we can still hold on for 8
God." Fuze Yunan bit his lips and advised in a deep voice: "Your Highness? Do you still want to move forward?"
Yu Qiuping took the report and read it over and over again without saying a word.
"Your Highness! The Uesugi Army doesn't even need to go into battle, it just needs to be blocked in the Kurigara Gorge." Fukuzawa Yunan quickly walked to the edge of the sand table and poked at the mountains 10 miles east of Oyama Gobo——
That is the only road from Oyama Gobo to Takaoka Castle. "The Kurigara Canyon is so narrow. If the Uesugi army were to block it with all its strength, it would take us at least several days to get through it. But our food and grass can no longer support us... We are now
The number of usable iron cannons no longer supports our attack. If we continue to advance, our entire army will die in the Kurigara Gorge! Just like the Heike army hundreds of years ago, our entire army will be wiped out!"
"After all, the Heijia army went there in the summer, and we are in the winter." Yu Qiuping laughed at himself, and he also understood what Fukuzawa Yunan meant.
"But we can't withdraw." In Yu Qiuping's mind, the painful looks of the family members of the trapped soldiers appeared, Osomatsu's red eyes appeared, and Maeda Toshiie and other people who had old ties with him appeared.
The samurai take care of them on a daily basis. "So many people are trapped, and they are all waiting for us. If we refuse to save them, how will our Red Leaf Army see people in the future?"
"Your Highness, I understand your difficulties, but the current war situation is really embarrassing." Fukuzawa Yunan considered his words, but found that no matter how he said them, he couldn't express his meaning. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said directly, "
Your Highness is the governor of the Yuqiu family, and the interests of the Yuqiu family are better than others, right? If Lord Amano were here, he would definitely convince His Highness not to march!"
"It's a pity that Quan Bingwei is not here." Yu Qiuping laughed twice, walked slowly to the sand table, and stared at the long journey, "It takes half a mile to travel a hundred miles... We are almost there, just hold on a little longer. If
When the time comes and it really doesn’t work, I will withdraw. I won’t sacrifice the lives of the entire army for my own emotions, so don’t worry.”
·
On December 3, the blizzard never stopped. The Red Leaf Army marched from sunrise to sunset, but still failed to reach Oyama Gobo.
In the evening, in the camp of the auxiliary troops, the call was made.
"Damn, I'm so cold!" Taro Wada jumped into the camp, turned around and closed the tent door behind him, as if the cold air would chase him in a moment later. However, after entering the camp, he swept
After taking a look inside the tent, he was suddenly shocked and asked: "Why are there so many people?"
"The supply of firewood cannot keep up. We only have a dozen or so camps left to burn firewood, and everyone is crowding in." The old platoon leader sitting at the far end licked his lips towards Taro Wada and explained helplessly,
"Let's just huddle together and go to bed tonight. The firewood for tomorrow hasn't been picked up yet."
"Damn weather, it's so cold." Taro Wada squeezed through the crowd and finally squeezed to the side of the firewood. His teeth were still chattering due to the cold just now, and his body was trembling as he took his hands out of his pockets.
He pulled it out and held it next to the firewood, rubbing it constantly to keep warm. His ears were so cold that they lost consciousness, and they probably had a lot of frostbite, but Taro Wada was too lazy to touch them.
"Where's the food?" Wada Taro warmed his hands for a long time and finally calmed down a little, and asked casually, "Why hasn't it come yet?"
"I'm afraid there won't be any tonight." The old platoon leader laughed twice when he heard this. "The wind and snow are too heavy, so we can't transport it... It is said that the first batch of food will be delivered to us tomorrow morning. Everyone
Give it a try."
"It's so cold and we don't have enough to eat, how many people have gotten sick..." an auxiliary soldier complained in a low voice with dissatisfaction, "We have a total of 50 people in the platoon... and now 8 of them have gone to the medical tent."
"The other auxiliary soldiers are all the same, don't complain there. Compared with the civilian husband, we are still much better..." Another auxiliary soldier laughed twice, but his words were full of sarcasm, "The civilian husband is sick.
We are here, but we can’t even get to the medical tent... We don’t have enough manpower, we don’t have enough food, we don’t have enough herbs... I saw a lot of dead people on the roadside yesterday.”
"Those are all people who have died of illness, don't talk nonsense! We never abandon the wounded!" The old platoon leader sternly scolded the auxiliary soldier who complained immediately. Everyone fell silent, but they all understood in their hearts.
What's going on.
"Aren't you going to withdraw your troops yet?" Wada Taro hesitated for a long time, and finally hesitantly said this in a fair place, which had been taboo in the military for the past few days. The higher-ups issued an order strictly prohibiting soldiers from openly discussing the issue of withdrawing their troops.
"Keep your voice down, don't talk nonsense!" The platoon leader was a little angry when he saw this, "What should I do if others hear me?"
"Tell me, brothers, I really can't take it anymore..." An auxiliary soldier said in a weak voice while stroking his growling belly, "I can't take it anymore..."
"Hey, what can I, an auxiliary platoon leader, say?" The old platoon leader looked at his hungry brothers and shook his head helplessly, "I hope it will be over soon..."