The waning moon is like a hook, enchanting the soul.
The stars in the sky are so fascinated that they all shine happily on the night sky, vying for favors and flattery.
It is also very sultry, making those who are far away from home unable to help but miss their hometown and relatives in their eyes.
By the waterside surrounded by strange rocks, Zheng Pu lay fully clothed on a boulder, resting his hands on the back of his head, looking at the crescent moon, and thinking about the people and things in Shifang Mulberry Garden.
Without realizing it, it has been almost half a year since I came to Nanjing University.
During this period, I wrote a few scattered letters and entrusted the military courier to take them to the post office in Qianwei County and return them home.
But Shifang Mulberry Garden was unable to entrust Nanzhong military officials with messengers, and the caravans had stopped traveling for a long time, so there was no news.
It made him feel very concerned.
Although, I already knew that my brother Zheng Yan would definitely settle down his family well.
However, the family love that is thicker than water, and the warmth that has been tempered by long-term relationship, will always make the longing in his heart, like the waves washing up on the beach, one wave after another.
Tireless, never stopping.
But I don’t know how my mother is doing lately?
Also, this star flashes quickly, just like Xiao Yan'er's eyes when she is naughty~~~~
Just as he was lost in his thoughts, the sound of slight footsteps faintly reached his ears.
He turned his head slightly and looked around, it turned out to be Ju Fu.
At this moment, he was bare-chested, kicking and picking up his shoes, twirling his wet hair with his hands. When he saw Zheng Pu looking over, he grinned, "Zijin, you are thinking about Brother Xiuran's news."
evil?"
As he asked, he stepped to the side and sat cross-legged.
Zheng Pu was also used to this.
After traveling around Pingyi County for nearly 20 days, and within a few days of settling down here, Jufu and the Banzhen barbarians completely let go of their tempers, as if they had returned to the village of Badi.
In addition to daily vigilance, during the rest of the time, either 20 or 30 people were fishing in the pool with simple vine nets made of vines, or groups of three to five were holding sticks and going into the forest to look for worms or other prey, as if their purpose here was to
Camp out in the mountains and have a picnic instead of sneaking behind enemy lines to ambush.
Well, this place is a swamp that winds out of the Beipan River.
Walking eastward, you will reach the Zanggao River about three miles away.
Since there is almost no human habitation, there are many and very large fish here, and there is also no shortage of prey such as longworms and shrubs. Jufu asked his Banzhen barbarians to find some prey and return them to relieve the boredom of eating dry food.
"The army does not carry much food and fodder, and the athletes are good at fishing and hunting, and there are no outsiders out this time, so we don't strictly abide by military regulations. Let them stretch their muscles."
This is how he explained it to Zheng Pu.
Zheng Pu is not incompetent.
This is a dangerous trip. I don’t know how many people will be able to go back after the battle. Let’s just let them play.
As for what Jufu asked, it was that Liu Yin took some of his followers to the north to find out the whereabouts of the traitor Zhu Bao a few days ago.
Whether Zhu Bao retreated or not, and the choice of the dangerous march south were all related to the change of the ambush location.
This is also the reason why Zheng Pu and others did not start building ambush fortifications.
"Not really."
After hearing Gofu's question, Zheng Pu also smiled and said, "It's up to people to plan things, and it's up to God to make things happen. Here comes an ambush. Let's do our part well. Whether we can succeed or not depends on God's will. It's useless to think too much."
"Ha, Zijin is really free and easy!"
After praising him, he raised his head and shook his hair, his voice a little anxious, "I am not as determined as Zijin. Brother Xiuran has been going north for five days, and I am very worried, lest the traitor Zhu Bao will not come south.
.To be honest with Zijin, I still want to kill the thief chief and consolidate my merits for the position of Yamen General!"
At this point, he made a movement with his hands, flipped his hair to the other side, looked over and said softly, "I forgot to tell you about Zijin. When I was guarding the siege in Yingshan, my father asked a small official to have the military courier deliver a letter home.
Come. The letter stated that he has found a match for me. After the war in Nanzhong, he will ask me to take leave and go back to get married. By then, I will also have to build a house in Chengdu. Zijin, are there any other places around your small house?
Are other people selling their houses?”
"Are you getting married?!"
Zheng Pu, who straightened his back and sat up, made a sound of surprise.
After he finished speaking, he smiled again, "Well, Xiaoxing is now twenty-three and has reached the age of getting married. What a joy! What a joy!"
"Haha~~~~"
Jufu also smiled, and just when he was about to say something, he heard someone shouting and shouting not far away, so he turned his head and looked away.
When he saw several torches swinging towards him, he stood up suddenly, with a solemn look on his face, and put his hand on the sword at his waist. He was a man who had been in the army for a long time and was used to it.
, the sharp blade never leaves the body.
The same goes for Zheng Pu.
He quickly stood up and waved to the surrounding soldiers to quickly gather other Banzhen barbarians in case there was any enemy.
After a while, several torches stopped more than ten feet away, and a garrison of night soldiers rushed towards them.
As soon as people arrived, the voice also came, "General Zheng! General Ju, Sima Liu has sent his scouts back!"
Um?
Hearing this, Zheng Pu and Ju Fu looked at each other and walked towards the place where the torches were gathered.
The two people who returned were both Liu Yin's personal followers. Zheng Pu had met them when they were at Liu's house, and they were quite familiar with each other. Seeing Zheng Pu and Ju walking up, he said straight away without asking questions, "Director Zheng.
General, General Ju, my Sima ordered us to come back first and inform him that the traitor Zhu Bao has retreated and is marching via the Lianjiang River east of Yelang and is about to enter the Mengjiang River area."
"Meng Jiang?!"
After Jufu heard this, he strode forward and patted the Liu family's servant on the shoulder to express his joy. Fang turned his head and looked at Zheng Pu, his face beaming with joy, "Zijin, the traitor Zhu Bao cannot escape this time, he will definitely become me."
One of the meritorious deeds!"
Mengjiang River is one of the tributaries that merge into the Cangzhou River.
Since Zhu Bao chose the Mengjiang River Valley for his retreat route, it can be concluded that he must have come upstream of the Zangdao River.
"Very good!"
Zheng Pu was also overjoyed, nodded repeatedly, and said, "Starting from tomorrow, we will start building ambush fortifications!"
"Why do we need tomorrow?"
When Dan Jufu heard this, he immediately waved his hands and shouted to himself, "The traitor Zhu Bao is here to see you, how can we neglect Xie? Besides, it's only night, how can we stop our Badi athletes from marching!"
Having said that, without waiting for Zheng Pu's reply, he strode forward and summoned the Banzhen barbarians to prepare for an ambush.
When Zheng Pu saw this, he couldn't help but smile.
Without doing anything to stop him, he just took two of the Liu family's retinues, found a quiet place, and asked Liu Yin carefully about the details of the enemy's situation.
On the bank of the Meng River, the rebels made a temporary camp.
Zhu Bao, surrounded by more than ten soldiers, slowly inspected the placement of soldiers in various departments in the military camp.
It's not that he has the appearance of a famous general who shares the joys and sorrows with his soldiers, but the morale of the army has been a bit unstable recently. The reason is because of his crazy offensive and defensive battle with Ma Zhong for nearly ten days while guarding the dangerous pass between Guangtuan and Qielan.
.
That dangerous pass is called Maduan Valley.
It is two steep and dangerous mountains approaching each other, and the mountain stream channel squeezed out is only more than ten feet wide.
He built a camp with three thousand descendants of earth, with huge stone and wooden barriers inside; he dug gullies outside, and built deer villages, pits and other defensive fortifications. Although it cannot be called impregnable, it is not difficult to defend the enemy for several months.
This is also his plan.
First, drag the imperial army's counter-rebellion army here for a month or two, and then slowly retreat southward after using up half of their food supplies.
By then, the imperial expeditionary army will be in difficulty in supplying food and fodder, and will inevitably not pursue it.
Moreover, the battles between Yizhou County and Yuexi County should be able to roughly determine which army has the greater advantage, so that he can plan his future plans: fight with the imperial court to conquer the Yangtze River, or encourage barbarian tribes to sneak into Pingyi County. Waiting for an opportunity to cut off the food route of the imperial army's crusade, and then lead the army north to take back the entire Xangqi County!
However, the imperial court's general in charge of the expedition disrupted his plan in just ten days.
Well, Ma Zhong led an army of more than 4,000 people and settled in camp in front of Maduan Valley. Then, surrounded by more than ten personal guards, he stationed his horse on a high ground within a stone's throw to watch Zhu Bao's camp and fortifications. .
One look at it and it’s a day.
The next day, three to five hundred sergeants were sent to build a hillock, and then more than ten large yellow crossbows were set up!
The big yellow crossbow is a weapon in the army!
The bow power can reach up to twelve stones, and the range can reach two hundred feet (five to six hundred meters)!
Even the Xiliang war horses, which are famous for their majesty, can kill with one blow!
In the past, when Li Ling went out of the fortress and fought against more than 100,000 Xiongnu with 5,000 infantry, he once personally controlled the big yellow crossbow and almost shot the Xiongnu chanyu 200 feet away!
Naturally, the craftsmanship of such sharp tools is complicated and the gold is extremely expensive.
Therefore, Zhu Bao could not figure out why the imperial court, which had experienced a military shortage after the Yiling Battle, actually let a partial army carry more than ten extremely valuable large yellow crossbows to the barren land!
He is also known for his difficulties!
Although the big yellow crossbows that Ma Zhong brought were all simple and scaled-down versions, their range was only about a hundred feet.
But it was enough to make Zhu Bao's soldiers panic and demoralized.
Just imagine, if you climb the observation tower and guard the wooden fence of the camp, you will become a target for sniping with the big yellow crossbow. Moreover, the protective wall built with wooden planks and shields cannot prevent the crossbow arrows from penetrating. How can they not be panicked?
Moreover, nearly a hundred feet away is the range that they cannot counterattack!
Zhu Bao also tried to recruit people who dared to die by spending a lot of money to highlight the outside and destroy the big yellow crossbow.
As a result, the three hundred warriors only rushed half the distance before being forced back by a hail of crossbows.
Only a few hundred people were lucky enough to return alive.
Pina Ma Zhong, half a school of crossbowmen had been waiting on both sides of the mound where the big yellow crossbows were set up for a long time!
The inability to destroy the big yellow crossbow also greatly reduced the morale of the rebels. When it was the turn of the soldiers guarding the arrow tower, their faces were full of lovelessness, as if they were mourning for their heirs.
But Zhu Bao was really helpless about this.
More than a dozen large yellow crossbows were not very helpful in attacking fortresses, and they could only kill a limited number of people. However, he could not explain it to his subordinates, so he had to let the soldiers on duty, in groups of two or three, work together to lift the big oars and risk their lives. .
On the tenth day, Ma Zhong suddenly summoned all his troops, beat drums and carried long ladders to prepare for the attack.
This also made Zhu Bao, who was watching from behind the big oar, sneer again and again.
The fortifications he built are absolutely impossible to break through in one day, which means that if the imperial court attacks the fort today, his soldiers will win a victory, which will boost their morale.
However, he never expected that Ma Zhongzhen would break through in one day!
Today, the east wind blows strongly!
Ma Zhong went up first to recruit people who dared to die, and threw many wet vegetation and oil jars on the defensive deer village under the rain of arrows. He then lit the fire crossbow with a big yellow crossbow, and let the billowing smoke be swept towards Zhu by the strong east wind. A lovely camp.
Immediately, a large army came to cover up and kill them.
The soldiers on Zhu Bao's side were choked by the thick smoke and coughed repeatedly, bursting into tears and unable to see.
No matter how roaring the generals are, they cannot resist the attack on the wooden fence.
Therefore, the blockade defense was defeated in one battle!
