The fog at night was as thick as light rain, suffocating, and lasted until the afternoon of the next day before it gradually dissipated. And when the evening breeze blew, it encountered people unexpectedly again.
There are no big post roads here, just winding field roads.
On the road, a group of sergeants were marching forward bravely.
Just how honorable they were can be seen from the expressions on the faces of the Youzhou soldiers and civilians who suddenly met them: they looked as if they had seen a ghost.
His face was haggard, his beard was unkempt, his whole body was dirty, and he was filled with an unpleasant smell. He had weapons in his hands, but generally no armor on his body, and he looked like a bandit.
"You are so courageous, where did you escape?" The sergeant guarding Yuzhai Pass was furious when he saw it.
These thieves and bandits would have gone to trouble them long ago if they hadn't looked at their friendship many years ago. But I didn't expect that they would be so ungrateful and suddenly rush out to seek death.
I didn't care about anything at the moment, and immediately called my brothers out of the camp, preparing to give them a hard blow. Although Li Cunzhang, who was left behind, went south to Cangzhou and took away most of the troops, there were still two to three hundred people left behind in the camp, fully armed.
, isn’t it easy to defeat these weak-willed stragglers?
Unexpectedly, one side had just beaten the drums to gather troops, and the other side had already formed a formation skillfully. Then the first few groups came forward with walking bows, and rained down a hail of arrows with their heads and faces covered.
The arrow was shot very fast and urgently, and the most outrageous thing was that it was very accurate. It knocked down the village wall and the people on the sentry tower in two or three shots, and then shot the Jin soldiers who rushed out of the camp gate, causing them to scream in agony.
"Kill the thief!" An officer took the lead and led more than a hundred people to charge forward to kill him.
They fought hard without caring about their own safety, with a posture of fighting for their lives as if they were dead. They killed the Jin soldiers until they could not stand, and they were defeated one after another. The camp gate was soon lost. The following groups of people swarmed in, slashing with swords and axes, and stabbing with spears.
The stunned Jin soldiers were killed and wounded until all of them were killed.
Liu Zhijun walked in through the blood on the ground, grabbed a Jin army officer, and asked: "How many people are there in this military camp of yours?"
The Jin army officer was dumbfounded when he heard this accent.
He was a native of Youzhou, and his accent was completely wrong. It sounded like Henan. Suddenly, he thought of a very scary question: Are they really the Yan soldiers who were defeated before?
"Let him wake up." Liu Zhijun ordered.
Soon, two wolf-like sergeants came forward. One of them knocked off his helmet, grabbed his hair, and the other took out a short blade, stabbed him hard on the thigh, and then put the blade against him.
In his throat, he yelled: "Reply quickly."
The Jin army officer was shocked and immediately replied: "There were originally a thousand people, but more than seven hundred left."
"Which army does it belong to?" Liu Zhijun asked.
"Lu Longjun." The officer endured the severe pain and replied quickly.
The Lulong Army is stationed in Lulong County, Pingzhou, but that is only the location of the "Military Headquarters". In fact, it is usually stationed in several places, such as Pingzhou, Shicheng, Liucheng Army, etc. Its main combat targets are the Khitans outside the Pass.
.
"How many people are there in the Liucheng Army?" Liu Zhijun asked again.
"I don't know." The Jin army officer trembled and replied.
Xia Bing, who was holding a knife against him, stabbed him hard again, stabbing his other thigh, causing blood to flow profusely. …
The Jin army officer screamed: "I don't know, but not many people were taken away."
"What's the use of you!" Liu Zhijun snorted coldly, turned around and left.
Xia Bing didn't waste any words, and struck hard with his short blade. The Jin army officer struggled for a while and gradually became motionless - his throat was cut, and he couldn't scream even if he wanted to.
There were still people moving in outside the camp, and the Xia soldiers who poured into the camp had already started collecting supplies.
Someone collected all the horses, mules, fodder, and grain.
Someone counted the carts and gathered them together.
Someone was ripping off the clothes and armor from the dead.
Someone is picking up spare weapons, bowstrings...
Landing without a port is such a pain in the ass. Larger equipment and equipment cannot be disembarked, and most typically, there are no carriages. Everyone is traveling lightly, carrying a few days of dry food, few pairs of iron armor, and no horses.
Very rarely, he gritted his teeth and attacked all the way, and the attack was unexpected.
Otherwise, how can we say that a light army marches quickly and travels many miles a day, which is a big gamble? In this state, it is either a big victory or a big defeat.
"Use everything you can use. Don't wait until you need to fight. You don't even have armor." Liu Zhijun walked around the camp and casually told him. Sometimes he would beat and scold someone he didn't like.
.
People who have been depressed for a long time are basically like this - without the opportunity to rebel, how can they be in a good mood?
Rebellion, dare not. Surrender to Li Keyong, don't want to. Continue to serve Shao Sheng, reluctant.
Even if this sneak attack on Youzhou is successful, he achieves great feats, and obtains a noble title, endless wealth and a lofty status, so what? This is not the wealth he wants.
It's almost crazy!
"General Liu." A messenger hurried in and reported: "The military envoy sent me to ask how much food and grass there is in the camp."
"Not much, just two or three thousand dendrobium." Liu Zhijun said angrily.
"I know, I will go and report back to the military envoy." The messenger saluted, turned and left.
Liu Zhijun looked outside the camp and saw that many sergeants were still advancing and heading north.
The so-called military is expensive and quick, but it is nothing more than this.
Although when heading north, the villages encountered along the way were guarded and people were strictly prohibited from going out; all the pedestrians encountered were detained and guarded until the army had left for at least three days; the enemy soldiers encountered were almost all killed without leaving any survivors.
, because they are warriors, it is impossible to leave only a few sergeants to guard them. But even so, no one can guarantee that their whereabouts will not be leaked.
It can even be said that leakage is inevitable as time goes by. What they have to do is to delay this time as much as possible, even if it is not known to the enemy for a day.
"After resting for two hours and sorting out supplies, the entire army turned northwest and headed for Shicheng." Liu Zhijun found a place to sit down and took the time to eat some water and regain his strength.
******
The sun sets in the west and the new moon looks like a hook.
In Macheng County, Li Cunshi, the governor, was busy writing something. However, the days were short in autumn, and it got dark before he could finish writing. So he put away his pen with regret and planned to wait until dinner was over and the candles were lit.
Write again.
After visiting Pingzhou for several months, he had a preliminary understanding of this vast and sparsely populated place and had his own governance plan. …
But now there is a problem that lies ahead. After Li Luoluo, the crown prince of the Jin Dynasty, served as the envoy of Tanji Yingping Town, he had to ask for too much, and the property in the treasury was sent to the front line of Tanzhou like water.
But there are only three counties in Pingzhou, with a population of more than 20,000. Even if we include the nearly 20,000 soldiers and civilians who retreated from outside the pass and behind the mountains, there are only 40,000 people. There is a saying that those people are strictly speaking the governor of Yingzhou.
Yes, this camp is called "Xingying Prefecture", and Qiao Zhi is Changli Town in the southeast of Pingzhou.
With such a small number of people and such an intensive search, the state government was really at a loss.
There are indeed some tribes in Pingzhou, mostly Khitan, Xi people, Sogdians, Shiwei and other miscellaneous tribes. There are more than 30,000 people in total. Most of them were withdrawn from the back of the mountains and are currently grazing in the southern foothills of Yanshan Mountain.
Help guard the border. But it's not easy to collect money from these people. After all, we still need people to help guard the border. It's not bad if we don't pay.
"What a mess!" Li Cunshi sighed, walked out of the office, and asked around: "Is there any news from Cangzhou?"
"No." The attendants replied: "Don't worry, if we are really defeated, even if the Xia soldiers approach Jizhou, we will not get any news, and there is no way we can let them reach Pingzhou quietly.
.”
Li Cunshi nodded and said: "I'll ask Cui to leave and Li Sima to come over later. I want to discuss the autumn sowing with them. How can it be unworthy to leave the best land in Pingzhou uncultivated? This is the hand of the Xia people."
It would be a pity if the hinterland that is hard to reach is not properly sorted out."
After that, he went to eat.
The Xia soldiers Li Cunshi mentioned had already swarmed outside the city, totaling more than 3,000 people.
Military envoy Fan He personally led the team. When they arrived outside the city, they saw the four gates were tightly closed, and the surrounding area was deserted. There were a few villages with scattered lights, and they were so quiet that it was not like the human world.
"Capture Ma City in two days." Fan He drank the last sip of wine in the water bag, smashed it directly on the ground, and said: "Do it."
The sergeants carried simple wooden ladders and were divided into two groups. One group, with a thousand people, went around to the north of the city, making loud noises and preparing to attack the city. The other group, with two thousand people, rested in a small forest in the south of the city, waiting for orders.
"Dongdong..." Not long after, the rhythmic sound of war drums sounded in the north of the city, as well as the sergeants' shouts like a roaring tsunami.
Like a ferocious beast awakened from a deep sleep, Ma Cheng immediately started to move.
Fan He climbed up a big tree and carefully observed the city wall of Ma City in the dim light.
About half an hour later, there were not many soldiers on the south city wall and they hurried down the tower. It was obvious where they were going, they must have gone to reinforce the north city.
"Capture the city!" Fan He immediately ordered without any nonsense.
Kang Huaiying, the Marquis of Du Yu, tied up the red forehead with force. After taking a sip of Zhuangxing wine, he led eight hundred elite soldiers out of the grove and rushed out.
The faces of the eight hundred warriors were full of excitement, madness and even cruelty.
You are excited because you want to catch the enemy off guard, you are crazy because you have a great chance of winning, and you are cruel because you will be punished if you don't succeed. After all, it is a battle to seize the city. If you are not careful, you will suffer heavy casualties - not only the enemy will die, but you will also die.
will die.
…
Warriors can burn, kill, loot, play with women, humiliate, whip and even eat human flesh. This is cruel to others. But at critical moments, they must also be cruel to themselves, be willing to sacrifice, and survive in death.
Except for a few of the eight hundred warriors, they had almost no armor and not all weapons, but they did not hesitate. Under the pale moonlight, everyone's face was ferocious, even with a hint of madness, as if they were saying to the enemy:
I'm not fucking alive anymore. Come on, let's chop at each other. Whoever blinks first will be the grandson!
"Bah!" Ladders were put up on the top of the city one after another, and the warriors of the Chishui Army quickly climbed up the city wall.
The city was deserted, with only a dozen or so people on guard. They were shocked by the sudden appearance of the Xia soldiers and warned one after another.
"Old man, what are you calling me!" Kang Huaiying stepped forward, swung his heavy sword, and chopped off a head with all his strength.
The crazy sergeants swarmed up and killed all the remaining defenders on the city wall like chopping melons and vegetables. Then they rushed straight to the bottom of the city. Some of them opened the city gates, while others advanced along the streets to create noise and attract the attention of the defenders.
——In fact, there is not much need to do this, because after Lu Longjun left, there were really too few defenders in Pingzhou City.
Li Cunshi was halfway through his meal when he heard some noise outside.
He suddenly stood up and asked, "But the Yan people are causing trouble?"
Datong soldiers, Hedong soldiers, Zhaoyi soldiers, and Youzhou soldiers are all Jin soldiers, but the differences inside are huge. Since Youzhou town was conquered by Hedong, the rebellion has never stopped. At the beginning, there was the huge Youzhou
It took Li Keyong a long time to put down the rebellions of old generals and old officials one by one. Later, the big rebellions disappeared, but rebellions caused by junior officers and local powerful people were still heard from time to time.
Over the years, Hedong generals have gradually become localized, and rebellions have become less frequent, but they are definitely not absent, which is why Li Cunshi is so nervous - at this juncture, Youzhou cannot withstand rebellions.
"Your Majesty, Xia soldiers have rushed in. There are many of them, perhaps ten thousand." A soldier rushed in outside the door, covered in blood and looking anxious.
"What?" Li Cunshi was shocked and turned pale. He rushed out of the gate of the county government office like the wind and stood on the side street. He saw the sound of killing not far away. A group of sergeants rushed towards him with their spears drawn. There was almost no one who could stop them.
"What are you still doing?" Li Cunshi said angrily: "Gather people. Officials, generals, government servants, servants, whatever you need, the sooner the better."
Before the soldiers had time to reply, they were met with a hail of arrows and screamed again and again.
Li Cunshi was unable to dodge and was hit by two arrows. One arrow hit his thigh and the other hit his shoulder. The pain made him unsteady and he knelt on the ground.
The sound of rapid footsteps came, accompanied by heavy breathing and excited shouts.
Li Cunshi felt a chill in his heart, and just as he was about to stand up, several spears stabbed him like lightning, and he was lifted high into the air.
The soldiers all cried out in unison, the governor is dead!
"Boom!" The city gate in the distance has opened, and countless Xia soldiers swarmed in.
Fan He carried a Mo Dao and walked quickly among the crowd. As he walked, he encouraged the soldiers: "If you take down Ma City, you will have meat to eat, a warm bed, and generous rewards. You must hurry up."
.”
The soldiers responded with a bang.
After a while, a messenger rushed over excitedly and reported: "Military envoy, the thieves are dead, and the Jin people are defeated."
Fan He was overjoyed at first, but then calmed down quickly. He put the hilt of his sword on the ground and shouted: "Choose a thousand people and follow me to Qian Jinye. Soldiers are very fast, and the Jin people can't let them be so lax."
Come to your senses."
Qianjinye is not far to the north of Macheng County. It is an important weapons manufacturing base and must be captured.
To the east of Macheng, on the other side of the Ru River, there was the Liucheng Army, and perhaps a few Jin soldiers staying behind. Fan He even considered detaching another group of people to sneak attack the Liucheng Army at night and pull out this stronghold.
This is how bold the people are and how productive the land is. Xia Jun, who has shown his temper, is extremely confident. Now he is asking them to attack Youzhou. It is estimated that many people will dare to go.
