Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 835
Vinegar Valley is a place name.

There is a poem by Cen Shen: "The Yansai connects to the salt marsh, and the dragon pile connects to the vinegar ditch."

In the ninth year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, Lou Yan issued an order to Shaanxi, and Zheng Gangzhong, the secretary and young supervisor, accompanied him from Lin'an to Fengxiang Mansion.From Bianjing to the west, passing through Bajiao Town, Jiugou, and Suzhongmou, it is recorded in Zheng Gangzhong's "Xizhengdaoli Ji".

This place is fifteen miles west of Bajiao Town, and there used to be a post station.

On September [-]th of the fourth year of Qianning, a group of masters rested in the vinegar ditch.The leading Xiangyong commander carried a bow on his waist and a long sword on his back. He walked vigorously and kept urging his masters to get on the road.

"Get up, get up!" The commander kicked and beat the masters, driving the crap out of them.

A master was furious, picked up the spear and wanted to have sex with him.

The commander took two steps forward, glared angrily, and said, "I've seen many people like you. When we attacked Shifo Mountain Village in Xuzhou, Shi Pu recruited a bunch of recruits, and I beheaded several of them in the fight. You should have been executed for disobeying the military order. I don’t blame you because you are young. If you refuse to obey, I will give you ten years to fight me after you have finished training. Even if you die, you will not regret it.”

The master was silent for a moment, saluted, and went to pack the mule cart.

The convoy shipped more than [-] dendrobium corn, all of which were the high-quality Weizhou millet just harvested this year, and shipped them to Zhongmu.

I heard that there has been a fight over there, and the defenders have many weak soldiers, and it is very hopeful that they will be defeated.If Zhongmu can be won, and thousands of troops are stationed, the Xia people will have to weigh up their efforts to attack Bajiao Town: your grain road is under the threat of Zhongmu's defenders.

The sound of hurried hooves sounded from afar.

The two rangers rushed over quickly, saying: "There is a brigade of thieves! Come on, form a defensive formation!"

"How far away?" asked the commander, ordering to blow the horn as a warning.

"It's only a few miles away." Ranger shouted.

"Fuck you! Did you come to report so close?" The commander was furious, quickly jumped into a carriage, and shouted: "Form an formation, relying on the post station, hurry up!"

A large group of cavalry had already appeared in the field of vision. Their speed was very fast, they did not care about their horsepower, and charged in just a few miles.

"Whoosh!" The commander shot an arrow through the air, extremely precise, and shot the moving cavalry off the horse.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" The second and third arrows were shot one after another. Instead of choosing an easy-to-hit horse, they shot people directly, and each arrow hit the target.

Hundreds of cavalry rushed up, and after entering the range of the cavalry bow, arrows flew out overwhelmingly, and the commander was full of arrows and fell under the chariot.

A qualified archer often takes several years to develop.You need to have a good physique, eat well at ordinary times, and have good nutrition. The resources consumed in the practice process are even more enormous.

Moreover, there were no full-time archers at this time, and infantry had to be able to not only shoot arrows, but also fight with long and short weapons. The cost of training individual soldiers was higher than in previous dynasties.Among the best, the cost is even more expensive.

The commander has practiced martial arts since he was a child, he can draw a strong bow, play a long spear and an epee, and he has been fighting in battle for more than ten years, and has seen countless battles.The death of such an elite warrior was neither heroic nor soul-stirring, but this is the normal state of the battlefield.

The person who died beside you like a weed in obscurity may have practiced archery for more than ten years, and when he stood up, he could not get close to him.But both sides fighting on the battlefield are such brave fighters. If the economic and social order collapses and the follow-up training of recruits cannot keep up, the elite soldiers and strong generals will be gradually wiped out like this.

What a pity!

The iron cavalry galloped horizontally in front of the convoy, arrows raining down like rain.

Many townspeople in the convoy fought back with all their strength, and the cavalry fell in large numbers, causing heavy casualties.But only a few brave men dared to fight back. After they were shot into blood gourds, the rest of the people hid behind grain carts and grain bags, suffering bitterly.

"Kill!" Qian Yu dismounted from his horse and charged forward with an iron sword in his hand.

Xiang Yong commanded the deputy envoy to roar, calling his subordinates to follow him.But it seemed that only a few hundred people followed, and most of them broke up and fled to the station.

The short and bloody fight instantly decided the outcome.

The cavalry soldiers broke through the barrier and rushed straight to the post house.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" A rain of arrows flew head-on, and more than a dozen cavalry soldiers screamed and fell to the ground.

The warriors who followed up continued to rush forward without blinking an eye.

"Kill!" Spears, iron swords, sabers, and rifles intertwined, and countless people lost their lives in an instant, highlighting the cruelty of the battlefield to the fullest.

Liu Zijing, deputy envoy of the Iron Cavalry Army, wore heavy armor and led dozens of warriors who were born in the back of the chieftain. After repeated orders, he finally killed all the brave men who dared to resist.

Outside the post station, iron cavalry criss-crossed, chasing and slashing and killing the rout Xiangyong wantonly.The blood stained the yellow sand, and the cry broke the sky.

A quarter of an hour later, the battle was over, and more than a thousand masters of the Liang army were wiped out: more than five hundred were beheaded, eight hundred were captured, and none of them slipped through the net.

"Clean the battlefield, collect vehicles, and build camps." The iron cavalry envoy Zhe Siyu rushed over on horseback and ordered.

The generals responded with a loud bang and acted separately.

The camp is not for himself, but for the guards who are about to come.

Those people said they were cavalry, and it was undeniable that some of them were, but most of them were just good at riding, and their level of cavalry was not flattering.

Their usual training direction is also infantry, using long spears, infantry bows, and long swords to fight.But as far as the level of combat is concerned, Zhe Siyu also feels that it is very average, and it is not a very safe way for them to guard the gap.

But the Flying Dragon Army is not here, what can be done?Your Majesty must also miss the brave infantry that can move quickly, right?A heavy armored cavalry infantry costs more than cavalry. I don't know how large the cavalry infantry the king dares to maintain in the next reorganization of the "Forbidden Army".

"Military envoy, the military report is here." Du Yuhou walked over with the letter.

Zhe Siyu took it, and took a rough look:
The main force of Tianxiong's army has reached Baisha, and the forward part has approached Zhongmu County.

The Tiande Army marched [-] cavalry and the Zhen Guo Army [-] infantry marched southward to Guandu City.

The main force of the guards came from the east of Guancheng County, and came to Jiugou. They did not spare any horsepower, and arrived in the middle of the night.

The townships of Mianchi, Heqing, Wangwu, and Xin'an counties in Henan Province, with more than [-] horsemen, have moved closer to Zhongmou.

"Good guy, surrounded by an iron wall!" Zhe Siyu laughed.

As soon as the fighter plane appeared, all the ministries were in place one after another, or were about to be in place, and the action was very fast, obviously it had been planned for a long time.

"Zhu Youyu, if you don't die, you have to peel off your skin!" Liu Zijing laughed after seeing it.

"General Liu!" Zhe Siyu suddenly shouted.

"The end is here!"

"You lead the four thousand riders from the right wing to the east, and attack outside Bajiao Town. If the bandits go west, try every means to delay them."

"As ordered!"

"Wait, I haven't finished talking yet." Zhe Siyu called to Liu Zijing who was about to leave, and said, "Don't be afraid of casualties. Digging roads, setting fires, poisoning, or even driving people to stop the enemy, you can use any trick." .If your Majesty is to blame, I will bear it with all my strength."

Liu Zijing glanced at Zhe Siyu, and replied in a deep voice, "I obey."

Although wars can be done by any means, the king likes to put on a show, cherishes his feathers, and often restrains the army, preventing them from using any bad tricks.What Zhe Siyu said can be big or small. At this time, he is still fighting the world, and no one will pay attention to it. But if the world is peaceful, there will be Mao awls to turn over old scores.

Zhejia, it's too big to attract the wind.

Liu Zijing quickly summoned all the generals, recruited the sergeants separately, and rushed eastward.

******
The Liang army outside Zhongmu City was still attacking the city in an orderly manner.

In the past few days, they built the equipment and tried to attack three times.The first two times were a little bit, but the third time I put in a lot of effort and once reached the top of the city, but was quickly pushed down again.

It didn't seem to be going very well, but Zhu Youyu was keenly aware of the deficiencies of the defenders: they had too few serious warriors, and the defenders were filled with a large number of townsmen and even civilians with low combat power.

The generals also felt this, and they called for the battle one after another, and their morale looked good.

Soon, the fourth attack was launched.

This time it was still the old routine, Xiangyong went up first with the arrow headed, followed by the elite soldiers of the Changzhi Army, all at once, without giving Xia Bandit a chance to breathe and adjust.

"Boom, boom, boom..." After the sound of the war drum, the brutal siege began immediately.

Zhu Youyu stared intently, clenched his fists unconsciously.

"Report, a large number of Xia thief cavalry were found in the Caogongtai area." Suddenly, a scout brought back the news of the scouting. After reporting layer by layer, they quickly reported to Zhu Youyu.

"What? How many people?"

"Hundreds of cavalry and thousands of infantry."

"Are the scouts you sent out recruits? 'Hundreds', 'thousands', what the hell is called intelligence?" Zhu Youyu was furious: "How many people?"

No one can answer, there are too many Xia Zei cavalry, it is really difficult to get close to count and check.

Zhu Youyu also knew the truth, quickly curbed his anger, and asked: "Who is the thief general? What is the number?"

"The thieves did not raise their banners."

Zhu Youyu was silent.In fact, there was a possibility, but he didn't dare to think deeply about it.

"Yanei, could it be the Tiande army? Zhongmu's defenders are mostly Tutuan and the like. Since the main force of the Tiande army is not there, the one who occupies Guandu City must be the bandit general Cai Songyang."

"Is there a dead person in Wansheng Town? Why don't you stop them?"

"Two thousand townspeople, how to stop them?"

"Cai Songyang is definitely in Guandu City."

"This thief is really hateful. He participated in the siege of Kou Yanqing when he was in Luoyang."

"Shut up! What is your intention to mention Kou Yanqing at this time?"

Zhu Youyu's head is a bit big, and the Tiande army suddenly came from the north, what's the plan?Could it be that he wanted to cooperate with Zhongmu's defenders inside and out and defeat them?
No, the German army alone cannot do this.Perhaps the Zhen Guo army also went south, or Xia Bandit came to other reinforcements, which gave Cai Songyang the courage.

But if the Xia bandits heading south only had a few thousand paces, it didn't seem to be very serious, and the battle still had to be fought.The problem is that there may be a large group of people following up in the follow-up, which is the biggest hidden worry.

"Ya Nei..." Someone came in hurriedly and reported in a low voice: "There is a brigade of bandit cavalry more than ten miles to the east. Judging by their attire and fighting style, they should be iron cavalry."

Zhu Youyu's eyebrows furrowed suddenly.

The iron cavalry should be cruising around Wei's, and they also came to Zhongmou?
"Immediately send envoys back to Bajiao Town and Bianzhou to deliver the letter."

"The couriers are divided into three batches. They set off after nightfall. One group goes east, and the other two groups detour from the south and north respectively."

"Send all the scouts out, don't be reluctant to use them, put them far away, and investigate the enemy's situation."

"Fortify the camp, don't hesitate."

"Count the food and grass in the camp, and report it to me."

After issuing many orders immediately, Zhu Youyu subconsciously glanced at the soldiers who were attacking the city.He felt that the hope of capturing the city seemed very small.

I don't know how Bianzhou is. If Xia Bandit came prepared this time, he and Chang Zhijun will be in big trouble.

He thought of his wife and children, and suddenly felt a little sad.After fighting for many years, I don't know how hard I fought, so that I fell into this field.

He thought of his uncle who lived idly in Dangshan.His uncle brought him up from a young age, he was not greedy for wealth and honor, and he was not used to living in a mansion in Bianliang. He only wanted to watch every plant and tree in his hometown and protect his ancestors' dormitory.

He thought of his aunt, and his biological mother, who had passed away many years ago.

Even if I die, my father will not be half sad.In his eyes, it may not be as important as a long straight army.

(End of this chapter)