Shu Chen

Chapter 231 Rebellion
Xiaoguan Road, Changlishui tributary valley.

The sky was dizzy and pressed down, engulfing the distant mountains from people's sight.

Shuofeng whimpered and wailed like a she-wolf who had lost her cubs, and swept the snowflakes flying all over the sky into awls, beating each particle until her face hurt.

A dental flag embroidered with the character "Han" was hunting.

Standing alone and proudly between the heaven and the earth, the Han family's spine that has never been bent is tall and straight.

The root of the flagpole is tied with many hemp ropes, and there are bamboo tablets about three inches long and one inch wide hanging.

It is densely packed, layer upon layer, and it is impossible to count.

Some were still frozen, dry and dark brown in a thin layer of crystal.

Such bamboo slips, with names recorded on the front and hometowns and villages engraved on the back, are the identity certificates of every Han soldier.

Usually, the soldiers are hung by their waists, not daring to let them leave their bodies for a moment; now they are all sleeping in the wind and snow, so they are tied to the root of the flagpole.

Late winter is December.

The wind and snow and the offensive against Wei are becoming more and more frequent, and there are more and more bamboo slips tied here.

The original camp with [-] infantry was now only half left.

No one was injured.

Slightly wounded, as long as they can fight with a knife and spear, they cannot be called wounded soldiers.

Severely injured people with broken arms, broken legs, or broken stomachs, who can't even lift their swords and spears, usually can't survive the night; The harshness of the wind-frozen soil - until the next day, you will find that they have become pale and stiff.

The biting cold did not give the wound a chance to be infected and festered, but it did not change the practice that more injuries were caused by combat than death in battle.

The living people are used to this kind of leaving without saying goodbye.

In silence, they will carry the corpses to the back of the tooth flag and stack them, tear off the bamboo slips and tie them to the root of the flagpole, and bury them after the battle is over.

If at that time, the tooth flag with the word "Han" still stands.

That's why, occasionally, individual soldiers would come to talk to themselves to the bamboo slips after the day's offensive or when they were free at night.

Li Mo is one of them.

He is under Zhou Tai's command, and he was the corps leader before the war started, but now he is already a Dubo under the wartime change of "dead deputy and terrific Wu Dai".

Once, he was one of the apprentices of the powerful family in Qianwei County.

Later, the imperial court claimed that the registered households in Hanzhong County could be granted land when they moved to Hanzhong County, so he took his family and his father and elders to the north.

I got nearly [-] mu of land, 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.

It is not for the purpose of granting more land to military households and reducing or exempting taxes, but that all the sons of soldiers can enter the county school for free.Moreover, after his death in battle, the imperial court will also reduce or exempt the family's taxes until all the sons become adults.

Born insignificant, when encountering a promising opportunity, he will not be stingy with his life.

The one in the village who has the same idea as him is Zhang Le.

The difference is that Zhang Le is a field soldier under Zhang Min's command, and the bamboo slips on his body are now tied to the root of the tooth flag.

The battle is too fierce.

Even if the snow in front of the camp was two feet thick, Niwei completely ignored the fact that the soldiers became living targets for the Han army's crossbow arrows because of their difficulty in walking, and they would come to attack every day.

There are also a lot of tricks.

Such as trying to climb over the mountains behind the Han army camp to sneak attack.

However, due to the steepness of the mountain and the thick snow, countless people slipped and fell to their deaths.

Such as ordering the soldiers to step on the newly frozen river to attack from the side in such a season when dripping water turns 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.

Also, the ingenuity of breaking the outer fence.

The artisans accompanying the Wei Wei army followed the method of making siege vehicles, and built a slope-shaped step with wood.After pushing it under the fence, the surrounding camps were turned into a small hill. Soldiers with a little bit of skill can jump up by taking two or three steps of approach.

It almost offset the advantage that the Han army had fences to rely on.

Zhang Le died in the battle that day.

When the situation was urgent, the field soldiers who had never experienced war also came to block the breach in the battle line.

However, Zhang Le's death was a bit disgraceful.

He didn't die at the hands of Ni Wei, but was beheaded by the Central Guard Zheng Pu himself.

Frightened by countless broken limbs and the strong smell of blood, he suddenly collapsed when the anti-Wei soldiers rushed in, threw down the spear in his hand and fled yelling, and then was killed by Zheng Hujun's personal guards Part [-] fell to the ground.

Afterwards, Zheng Hujun, who had already started personally supervising the battle, walked over with a blank expression.

Without any hesitation, without the slightest procrastination, he drew his blade and swung it down in silence, letting Zhang Le's body and head separate.

This is not an isolated case.

According to legend, the general Jiang Wei, who also came to supervise the battle, personally beheaded more than ten people.

Although those newly recruited Qiang people are proud of dying in battle, they are also less disciplined, and it is inevitable that there will be some who will not advance before the battle.

Those who take a step back, beheaded!
This is the only command that day.

It also made it impossible for Ni Wei to break through the defense line of the Han army even if he had a way to resolve the advantage of the fence, and took advantage of the situation to attack the camp to establish the victory.

After the war, the Han army all retreated into the inner circle, using the chariot formation as a new line of defense.

Uninjured soldiers such as Li Mo will clean up the battlefield after the battle that day.

Such as looking for the disabled, bringing back the bamboo slips of the dead, and collecting arrows, arrows, intact swords and shields, etc.

Li Mo remembered where Zhang Le belonged to.

Therefore, he also rushed here immediately, tore off his bamboo slip and brought it back.

It was also secretly tied to the root of the tooth flag.

Although Zhang Le is not qualified for this - he was killed when he fled the battle, and according to military law, there is no post-war pension.

But what did Li Mo do.

As for whether he will be convicted after being discovered, he doesn't care that much.

Who can know whether his bamboo tablets will be tied here in the days to come?
Moreover, neither Zheng Hujun nor General Jiang asked people to investigate these things strictly.

Li Mo saw that those newly recruited Qiang soldiers who were beheaded by Jiang Wei also had new friends and old friends who didn't shy away from other people's eyes, and directly tied their bamboo slips here, and no one pursued them.

Perhaps, at this time, the two generals would not care about these small details.

After entering the inner circle and relying on the car array to defend, the battle damage of the soldiers was much better.

First, the wind and snow are becoming more frequent.

Ni Wei could no longer rely on the superiority of its troops to continue to attack day and night.

The river valley here is really too cold after nightfall.Every time the knife-like north wind howls, it can make people feel pain like being stabbed in the bones; they are shivering from the cold in the military tent, let alone a night battle.

Ni Wei completely gave up the night attack after one failed sneak attack.

Well, once under the cover of night, they let two thousand elite soldiers crawl on the snow to attack.

However, it was discovered by the secret sentry of the Han army on duty at night, leaving hundreds of corpses behind without success.

The other is that the inner circle is easier to defend.

The horizontal car formations are framed with wooden boards and poured with melted snow water, and it becomes a solid ice city.

It also became a natural moat between Ni Wei and the Han army.

The smooth surface makes it impossible to climb, and the convenience of repairing with just water makes it impossible to talk about damage.

The smaller attack surface allows soldiers to take turns fighting, reducing the possibility of being killed due to exhaustion.Moreover, the frozen corpses of the enemy and us in a mess outside have also become an excellent roadblock.

Li Mo has been in the army for nearly three years.

I have long been used to life and death, so I can feel very keenly the changes in the morale of the soldiers after entering the inner circle.

First, when they were on the outskirts, Ni Wei attacked without counting casualties, and the number of casualties on his own side increased day by day, which made the new soldiers and field soldiers panicked, and they often 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 he is numb and desperate.

Rather, they felt that they could at least stick to the season of spring and flowers blooming in the coming year.

That is the morale boosted by the few casualties and many beheads every day since sticking to the inner circle for half a month.

Five hundred heavy infantry under Zheng Hujun joined the battle.

Every time Ni Wei came to attack, Yamen General Liu Lin would lead five hundred heavy infantry to attack.Those tall backs wearing heavy armor and wielding knives silently, and the invincible killing of the opponents step by step, are so reassuring.

Ni Wei has no solution to this.

The slightly sloping half-mountain slope and the snow two or three feet deep made it impossible for their heavy infantry to climb up and attack.

In particular, Ni Wei's current offensive is faintly sluggish.

Li Mo, who was always standing on the front line, clearly felt that when those soldiers against Wei came to attack with the sound of small gongs, their eyes were no longer bloodthirsty and red, and their eyes were no longer frantic with beheading for rewards; They are much slower.

The Han army backed by camps lost nearly [-] soldiers, and they were naturally more.

At least, there are more than ten thousand soldiers, right?

This is Li Mo's prediction.

He knew that there was another reason why he changed from a corporal leader to a Du Bo. Eight Wei soldiers were stabbed to death by him with a spear.

For the other robes, even if they killed less, at least one of them had the power to behead twice.

The soldiers who rebelled against Wei could not attack for a long time, and suffered heavy casualties, so how could their morale not be low?

On the sixth day after entering the inner circle, Ni Wei shot and picked up the letter of surrender, which is the best proof.

Everyone knows that the last time Zheng Hujun stood firm at Xiaoguan Road, there were out of ten soldiers under his command, and he still fought to the death against several times the Wei army.

Now that Ni Wei has no hope of breaking through the inner circle, he still wants to surrender?

What "surrenders are spared from death, people reward ten thousand dollars, and Zuo Jie's position is promoted to three ranks" and so on, are simply absurd and absurd!
Zheng Hujun is the emperor's brother-in-law, what kind of honor can he bestow on him against Wei?

Didn’t Luoyang Cao Rui’s heirs all die young~~~~
Hey.
If Zhang Le hadn't flinched at the time, maybe he would have been able to accumulate a beheading and be promoted and return home!

Sighing in his heart, Li Mo, who was standing next to the tooth flag, stretched out his short hand and gently wiped off the icicles on Zhang Le's bamboo slips, and then sat on the ground, chatting about today's offensive and defensive situation and trivial matters to the dead souls and the cold wind.

"Today's morning meal, everyone got three slices of meat! What I got was very fat and delicious!"

"I heard that the general will drink with us during evening meal!"

"It's the wine that can only be rationed by people on night duty! Now we can also have a good fortune."

"Hey, Zhang boy, you go first, and those of us who are alive will share your share~~~~"

"By the way, I shot another thief to death with a crossbow today! Sima has credited the meritorious service, and I can get some more rewards when I go back! Boy Zhang, tell me, I exchanged these rewards for food for your family. Or Bubo?"

"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'll give it to someone."

It was getting dark gradually.

Li Mo, still not satisfied, got up and went back to rest in the military tent.

The fluttering tooth flag made him feel that he was not talking to himself.

Zheng Pu, who watched this scene silently from a distance, also started his daily camp tour.

He looked haggard.

Her hair and beard, which hadn't been taken care of for several months, had long been disorganized, and the heavy bags under her eyes made her bloodshot eyes look extremely cruel.

In other words, both he and Jiang Wei have been exhausted recently.

Jiang Wei urged the soldiers to guard against the attack against Wei day and night, and he racked his brains every day to boost the morale of the soldiers.

It has been three months since I was trapped and attacked.

Half of them were killed or injured, and not every soldier was an old soldier like Li Mo.

Despair is contagious and fear is contagious.After passively defending for three months, not to mention those new recruits and field soldiers were depressed, even he himself was a little restless.

Because the situation in the army is not as good as Li Mo imagined.

Thanks to Niwei's attack regardless of casualties, the arrows in the camp are about to run out, more and more swords and spears are broken, and even the stone cannons and Yuanrong crossbows are also damaged in sevens and eights.

Only food and fodder, which is quite ironic, gradually became surplus due to the casualties of soldiers.

In any case, in the original reserve of supplies and supplies, it was not thought that nearly [-] troops would attack Wei Wei.

Also, he no longer wanted to answer questions about the soldiers, such as "how long will it take for Prime Minister Zhuge to come to his aid", "whether General You can come to aid from Ayang City" and other questions.

After all, Wu Banbu was powerless to come to help when he was cut off by the cavalry of Liu Bao, the wise left king of the Xiongnu.

In addition, Zheng Pu didn't want Prime Minister Zhuge's main force to come to aid too early.

Because the longer you stick here, the greater the chance of winning for the prime minister.

He discussed with Jiang Wei in private that it was impossible for the prime minister to sit back and watch Xiao Guandao being attacked by the rebellious Wei army and remain indifferent.

Moreover, the [-] Qiang cavalry belonging to the Qiang Huying camp were sent by Jiang Wei to listen to orders and the prime minister before the siege of Wei Wei.In the confrontation between Han and Wei in the Wushui Branch River Valley, the prime minister's troops are already more powerful than Cao Zhen!
Therefore, the prime minister has been slow to take any action, and must have planned something.

The plotter, no accident, was to break through the [-] soldiers and horses in the headquarters supervised by Cao Zhen.

All they could do was try their best to keep Ni Wei Feiyao and Wei Ping's troops here so that they could not rush to the prime minister's battlefield in time.

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 last for a few more days, it might last until spring and March.

But sometimes, things just don't go your way.

The secret of the serious consumption of the Han army's supplies was discovered by Niwei.

There are rebels!
(End of this chapter)