The sky is dark, pressing down, swallowing up the mountains in the distance from people's sight.
The shuo wind whimpered and howled like a she-wolf that had lost its cubs, sweeping the snowflakes flying in the sky into awls, and the particles hit the face painfully.
A tooth flag embroidered with the word "Han" made a hunting sound.
Standing proudly and alone between heaven and earth, standing straight and straight with the unbent backbone of the Han family.
The base of the flagpole is tied with many hemp rope loops, and there are bamboo slips about three inches long and one inch wide.
Densely packed, layer upon layer, impossible to count.
Some are still frozen, with a thin layer of crystal covered with dried dark brown.
Such a bamboo slip, with the name of the person recorded on the front and the hometown of his hometown engraved on the back, is the identity certificate of each Han soldier.
Usually, the soldiers hang them on their waists and dare not let them leave their bodies for a moment; now they are all sleeping in the wind and snow, and they are tied to the root of the flagpole.
It's late winter in December.
The offensives of Fengxue and Niwei are becoming more and more frequent, and more and more bamboo slips are tied here.
The camp that originally housed eight thousand infantrymen now only has half of it left.
No one was injured.
A slightly injured person cannot be called a wounded soldier as long as he can fight with a sword or spear.
Those who were seriously injured, such as broken arms and legs or broken stomachs and intestines, who could not even lift their swords and spears, usually did not survive the night; and those soldiers who had lost too much blood and could recover by just resting elsewhere were unable to withstand the cold.
The harshness of the wind and frozen soil - until the next day, you will find that they have become pale and stiff.
The biting cold did not give the wounds a chance to become infected and fester, but it did not change the practice that more people were injured after a battle than died in battle.
Living people have become accustomed to this kind of farewell without saying goodbye.
In silence, they would carry the corpses and stack them behind the tooth flag. They would tear off the bamboo slips and tie them to the root of the flagpole, and then bury them after the war was over.
If by that time, the tooth flag with the word "Han" is still standing.
Therefore, occasionally, some soldiers would come and talk to themselves in front of the bamboo slips after finishing the offensive for the day or during the evening meal.
Li Mo is one of them.
He was under Zhou Tai's command. Before the war started, he was a corps commander. Now, under the wartime changes of "the chief and the dead will be replaced by the deputy, and the even dead will be replaced by the five", he is already a dubo.
Once upon a time, he was one of the disciples of a powerful family in Jianwei County.
Later, the imperial court claimed that if he moved to Hanzhong County and registered as a household, he could be granted land, so he took his family and his elders northward.
The land acquired is nearly 100 acres, which is enough for a family of four to make a living.
But he still chose to enlist in the army and lived a life of licking blood with a knife.
It was not so that the soldiers could receive more land and reduce taxes, but the sons of soldiers could attend the county academy for free. Moreover, after they died in battle, the court would also reduce or reduce taxes on their families until they became sons.
.
When you are born in a humble age, if you encounter a great opportunity, you will not be stingy with your life.
The person in the village who had the same idea as him was Zhang Le.
The difference is that Zhang Le is a field soldier under Zhang Min, and the bamboo slips on his body are now tied to the root of the tooth flag.
The fighting was too fierce.
Even though the snow in front of the camp was two feet thick, Ni Wei completely ignored the fact that the soldiers were easy targets for the Han army's crossbows because of their difficulty in walking, and would attack them every day.
There are a lot of tricks.
Such as trying to climb over the mountains behind the Han army's camp to sneak attack.
However, due to the steepness of the mountain and the thick snow, countless people slipped and fell to death.
For example, the soldiers were ordered to attack from the side on the newly frozen river at a time when the dripping water turned into ice.
However, the Han army used stone cannons to smash the ice, causing them to fall into the water and feed them all to the fish and turtles.
There is also the ingenuity of breaking down the outer fence.
The craftsmen who followed the army against the Wei Dynasty followed the method of building siege engines and built a slope-shaped step out of wood. It was one foot high and two feet long. A wooden wheel was driven at the bottom. When it was pushed under the fence, the surrounding camp was turned into a small dwarf. Qiu, a soldier with a little bit of agility can jump up by taking two or three steps.
It almost offset the Han army's advantage of having a fence to rely on.
Zhang Le died in the battle that day.
In an emergency situation, field soldiers who had never experienced war also came to block the breach in the battle line.
However, Zhang Le's death was somewhat ignominious.
He did not die in the hands of Ni Wei, but was personally killed by Zheng Pu, the central guard.
Frightened by the countless stumps and broken arms and the strong smell of blood, when the soldiers from the Wei Dynasty surged towards him, his mood suddenly collapsed. He threw down his spear and ran back, shouting. He was then killed by Zheng Hujun's personal guards. Bu Qu fell to the ground.
Then, Zheng Hujun, who had already begun to personally supervise the battle, walked over expressionlessly.
Without any hesitation, without any hesitation, he drew the blade and swung it down in silence, causing Zhang Le's body and head to separate.
This is not an isolated case.
According to legend, Jiang Wei, the bandit general who also came to supervise the battle, personally killed more than ten people.
Although those newly recruited Qiang people are proud to die in battle, their discipline is also worse, and it is inevitable that they will not fight before the battle.
Anyone who takes a step back will be killed!
This was the only general order that day.
This also made it impossible for Ni Wei to break through the Han army's defense line and attack the camp to establish victory even if he had a way to resolve the fence's advantage.
After the war, the Han troops all retreated into the inner siege, using the chariot formation as a new line of defense.
Soldiers such as Li Mo who were not injured would clean the battlefield after the battle that day.
Such as searching for the wounded and disabled, bringing back the bamboo slips of the dead, collecting arrows and crossbows, intact swords, spears and shields, etc.
Li Mo remembers where Zhang Le's defense line is.
Therefore, I rushed here as soon as possible, tore off his bamboo slip and brought it back.
It was also secretly tied to the root of the tooth flag.
Although Zhang Le did not have this qualification - he escaped from the battle and was executed, and according to military law there was no post-war pension.
But Li Mo still did it.
As for whether he would be prosecuted after being discovered, he didn't care that much.
Who knows whether his bamboo slips will be tied here in the future?
Moreover, neither Zheng Hujun nor General Jiang asked anyone to investigate these matters.
Li Mo saw that among the newly recruited Qiang soldiers who were killed by Jiang Wei, there were also new friends and old friends who did not shy away from other people's eyes and directly tied their bamboo slips here. No one held anything accountable.
Perhaps, at this time, the two generals would not care about these small details.
After entering the inner perimeter and relying on vehicle formations to defend, the soldiers' battle losses were much better.
First, the wind and snow are becoming more frequent.
Ni Wei could no longer rely on its superiority in military strength to continue its day and night attacks.
The river valley here is really too cold after nightfall. Every time the knife-like wind roars, it can make people feel as if their bones are being pricked by needles. Even in the military tent, they are shivering with cold, let alone fighting at night.
After Ni Wei's sneak attack failed once, he gave up the night attack completely.
Well, they once attacked with two thousand elite soldiers crawling on the snow under the cover of night.
However, they were discovered by the secret sentinel of the Han army who was on duty at night, and returned in vain, leaving hundreds of corpses behind.
On the other hand, the inner perimeter is easier to defend.
The horizontal train formation was set up with wooden planks and poured with melted snow water, and it became a solid ice city.
It also became a natural chasm between the Wei and Han armies.
The smooth surface makes it impossible to rely on strength for climbing, and the convenience of repairing it by just watering makes it impossible to talk about damage.
The smaller attack surface allows the soldiers to take turns fighting, reducing the possibility of being killed due to exhaustion. Moreover, the surrounding area is frozen stiff, and the corpses of both the enemy and the enemy scattered in various directions have also become an excellent roadblock.
Li Mo has been in the army for nearly three years.
I have long been accustomed to separation between life and death, so I am keenly aware of the changes in the morale of the soldiers after entering the inner siege.
First on the periphery, against Wei's strong attack regardless of casualties, the number of our own battle casualties increased day by day, making the new soldiers and field soldiers look panicky, and often secretly whispered in private - questioning the authenticity of Zheng Hujun's claim that Prime Minister Zhuge would lead the army to help.
After entering the inner circle, these sounds disappeared.
It's not that I'm numb and desperate.
But they felt that they could at least hold on to the coming spring season.
That was the morale boosted by holding on to the inner siege for half a month, with very few casualties and many kills every day.
Five hundred heavy infantrymen under Zheng Hujun participated in the battle.
Every time Ni Wei came to attack, Yamen General Liu Lin would lead an attack with five hundred heavy infantry. Those tall figures wearing heavy armor, silently wielding swords, and killing the attackers step by step were so reassuring.
Ni Wei had no solution to this problem.
The slightly sloping hillside and the two to three feet of snow made it impossible for their heavy infantry to climb up and attack.
In particular, Ni Wei's current offensive also seems to be showing signs of sluggishness.
Li Mo, who often stayed on the front line, clearly felt that when the soldiers of the Wei Dynasty came to attack with little noise, their eyes were no longer bloodthirsty and red, and their gazes no longer carried the enthusiasm of beheading for reward; even the running steps
All much slower.
The Han army with the base of the camp lost nearly 4,000 soldiers in the battle, and there were certainly more of them.
At least, there are more than 10,000 soldiers, right?
This is Li Mo's expectation.
He knew that another reason for his transformation from a corps commander to a dubo was that eight Wei soldiers were stabbed to death by him with a spear.
Even if the number of other Paozes killed was less, at least one of them could kill two.
The soldiers of the Wei Dynasty were unable to attack for a long time and suffered heavy casualties. How could their morale not be low?
On the sixth day after entering the inner siege, Ni Wei threw and picked up the surrender letter, which is the best proof.
Everyone knows that the last time Zheng Hujun held firm at Xiaoguandao, his soldiers were out of ten, and they still fought to the death against several times the Wei army.
Now that Ni Wei has no hope of breaking through the inner siege, he is still thinking of surrendering?
Such things as "those who surrender will be spared death, everyone will be rewarded with tens of thousands of coins, and all generals and subordinates will be promoted to the third rank" etc. This is simply the most ridiculous thing in the world!
Zheng Hujun is the emperor's brother-in-law, what kind of honor can he bestow upon him for rebelling against Wei?
Then Luoyang Cao Rui’s descendants all died young~~~~
Why.
If Zhang Le had not cowered in the face of battle, he might have been able to accumulate the merit of beheading and be promoted and return with honors!
Sighing in his heart, Li Mo, who was standing next to the tooth flag, lowered his body and reached out to gently wipe the ice off Zhang Le's bamboo slips. Then he sat on the ground and rambled on about today's offensive and defensive situation and trivial matters to the dead souls and the cold wind.
"Today's breakfast, everyone got three slices of meat! What I got was very plump and fragrant!"
"I heard that during the evening meal, the general will also drink with us!"
"It's just wine that's only given to people on night watch! Now we can also have a good time."
"Hey, Mr. Zhang, you go first, and those of us who are alive will divide your share~~~~"
"By the way, I shot another thief to death with a crossbow today! Sima has recorded his merits, and I can receive some more rewards after I return! Boy Zhang, tell me, I exchanged these rewards for food for your family.
Or cloth?"
"Forget it, let's not give it to you for now. Your mother-in-law is young and should remarry. When your son is taken by that clan, I will give it to whomever."
The sky is gradually getting darker.
Li Mo, who was still unfinished, got up and went back to rest in the military tent.
The fang flag that kept chattering made him feel that he was not talking to himself.
Zheng Pu, who silently watched this scene from a distance, also began his daily patrol of the camp.
He looked very haggard.
The sideburns and beard that had not been taken care of for months were already in disarray, and the bags under the eyes were heavy, making the bloodshot eyes look unusually cruel.
In other words, he and Jiang Wei have been very tired recently.
Jiang Wei urged the soldiers day and night to prepare for the incoming Wei attack, and he racked his brains every day to boost the morale of the soldiers.
It has been three months since we were trapped and attacked.
Half of the casualties were dead and wounded, and not every soldier was an old pawn like Li Mo.
Despair can be passed on, and fear can be contagious. After three months of passive defense, not to mention the depressed mood of the new soldiers and field soldiers, even he himself was a little restless.
Because the situation in the army is not as good as Li Mo imagined.
Thanks to Ni Wei's attack regardless of casualties, the arrows in the camp were about to be exhausted, more and more swords and spears were broken, and even the stone cannons and Yuan Rong crossbows were damaged to pieces.
Only food and fodder, ironically, gradually became abundant due to the casualties of soldiers.
In any case, in the original baggage and material reserves, I did not expect that nearly 60,000 troops would attack the Wei Dynasty.
Also, he no longer wanted to answer questions from the soldiers, such as "How long will it take before Prime Minister Zhuge comes to help?" and "Can the right general come to help from Ayang City?"
After all, Wu Ban was unable to come to the rescue after being cut off by the cavalry of the Xiongnu Zuoxian King Liu Bao.
In addition, Zheng Pu did not want Prime Minister Zhuge's main force to come to the rescue too early.
Because the longer we hold on here, the greater the chance of victory for the Prime Minister's side.
He discussed with Jiang Wei privately that the prime minister could not sit back and watch Xiaoguandao being attacked by the anti-Wei army and remain indifferent.
Moreover, the two thousand Qiang cavalry belonging to the Qiang Protecting Battalion were sent by Jiang Wei to obey orders and the Prime Minister before the siege by Wei. In the confrontation between Han and Wei in the Wushui branch valley, the Prime Minister's troops were already more powerful than Cao Zhen!
Therefore, the Prime Minister has been slow to take action, so he must be planning something.
The plan was, as expected, to defeat the 40,000 troops of Cao Zhen's headquarters.
What they could do was try their best to pin down the two troops of Ni Wei Fei Yao and Wei Ping here, so that they would not have time to rush to the battlefield on the Prime Minister's side.
Originally, according to Ni Wei's increasingly weak offensive, he and Jiang Wei felt that they could still hold on for a month or two without losing.
Even if the wind and snow continue for a longer time, maybe we can still hold on until spring and March.
But sometimes, things don't go as planned.
The secret of the Han army's heavy baggage consumption was actually discovered by Ni Wei.
