Late Tang

(Thanks to Mengmengmengmeng and Tears in Smile for their support, thank you!)

Ten ice sledges made in Yingzhou run on the ice of the Rushui River from Waqiaoguan in Mozhou to Beiping City in Dingzhou. The Xushui in Yizhou, the Hushui in Dingzhou in the south, and finally the Hutuoshui, the rivers that join the Juma River, Zhangshui, Yongji Canal, Sanggan River, and Lushui to the east and enter the sea in Tianjin .If it is in summer, the area from Mozhou to Dingzhou is full of water lakes and swamps, especially in early summer, the roads are extremely difficult.However, in the cold winter and the twelfth lunar month, this dense water area has become smooth roads.

Especially sitting on this kind of ice sledge, which is widely used in the northeast, is even more convenient.There are two types of sledges: ice and snow, and now they sit on ice, which is most suitable for walking on frozen rivers in winter.Horse towing requires almost no effort, it is faster than riding a horse, and it is more stable and labor-saving, and it can also carry a lot of supplies.

The ice sledges they rode on were of the military type, stronger and much larger than ordinary ones.

The car was speeding all the way, and General Ningyuan Bo Guotao, the deputy commander of the First Army of the Iron Cavalry Legion, who was under the fifth rank, was lying on the car with his staff officers and guards wrapped in military coats.Guo Tao was wearing a tiger-skin hat and a collar that covered his entire neck tightly, and a grass-green army coat and cotton jacket covered with snow were tightly wrapped.

The weather was very cold, and he wore a pair of toad sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, but he was in a very happy mood, whistling while blowing the cold wind.

Since returning from beyond the Great Wall, Guo Tao has been transferred to an active combat unit.It turned out that he was the leader of Xuejun, and when he came back, he was transferred to the cavalry regiment led by Li Jing himself, and he was still in the first army.Entering the First Army, the leader of the Xuejun was changed to the deputy leader of the First Army of the Cavalry Legion, and he was promoted.

When assessing the Wu San rank, it was General Ning Yuan who was under the fifth rank.Ranked No. 13 in the Wusan class, it seems a bit low, but it is actually very high.Qin Fan's current Wusan rank still uses the Tang system, with a total of 31 ranks, the highest from the first grade, then the second grade, and the second grade.Starting from the third rank, each rank is divided into four ranks from top to bottom.Moreover, the problem of Qin Fan's falsely high official position has gradually changed in recent years. The third rank is already at the level of army commander, and the fifth rank is all senior generals.

Guo Tao is seventeen this year, and has already been made an earl. He ranks up to the fifth rank and is under the rank of General Ningyuan. He is the deputy commander of the First Army of the Cavalry Army. , Even the Thirteenth Taibao can't keep up.

After being transferred to the first iron cavalry army, Guo Tao has been low-key and honest for a long time.He stayed in the barracks all day, practiced his skills hard, and worked hard to integrate into the first army.There is still a big difference between a soldier unit and a student soldier. First of all, the officers under him are all older than him. Most of them can even be his father, and some of them can be his grandfather.Being able to be the owner of the compartment or the owner of the battalion, either of them has made a lot of military exploits and has fought on the battlefield for many years.Guo Tao, a guy who has not yet grown all his feathers, ran to them and became the deputy army leader, which really made many people dissatisfied.For more than a year, Guo Tao, the deputy army leader, has actually worked very hard. It can almost be said that there is no easy day, and he has been fighting wits and courage with those old guys all day long.

Fortunately, the wandering life in the early years and the life in the military academy later made him very tenacious, and he was never discouraged. In the end, he took root in the First Army and even initially gained the support of most officers and soldiers. agree.

If he wanted everyone in the First Army to agree with him, he knew that he could only rely on a real battle to prove himself.

Fortunately, such an opportunity did not make him wait too long.

As the new year was approaching, the General Staff Council, the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army, the Ministry of War, and the Headquarters of the Cavalry Corps jointly issued a military order to let the First Army go to the south immediately.The task given to the First Army above is very simple, let them divide the ten cavalry battalions and attack Chengde!

At the same time, several other armies participated in this operation. A total of ten armies and one hundred battalions were invested, which is known as the Hundred Battalion War.

On the first day when the battle broke out, the first battalion of the Iron Cavalry Army captured Beiping City with great shame, and then captured Wangwangdu and Tang County one after another.This speed was achieved even when the first battalion had no casualties at all. They almost marched forward all the way. In seven days, before the follow-up troops came up, they had already captured three counties in Dingzhou in a row.

The owner of the first battalion is Guo Tao's junior at the Dengzhou Military Academy, and also the little brother who entered the Dengzhou Orphan Camp together.This junior is very good. He graduated from the Dengzhou Military Academy and was admitted to Lu Shi. He participated in the last Battle of Daibei as the head of the capital, and was promoted to the head of the camp after the war.

But they rushed too hard, which made Guo Tao full of worry.

Maybe Zhao Jun in Chengde Town didn't know the reality of Qin Jun, but as the deputy commander of the First Army, he knew it very well.

This military operation is not so much an attack as an exercise.

This was a military tactical fraud. The Qin army declared to the outside world that it had mobilized 40 troops to wipe out Chengde Town in one go and flatten the five prefectures within three months.But in fact, the Qin army only planned to dispatch a hundred battalions in total, but only the first iron cavalry army was invested in advance.The other nine armies are still on the way!

To put it bluntly, the strategic intention of the Staff Council is very clear. This is an act of fraud and intimidation.The purpose is to promote peace. Although there are many confidential things he doesn't know yet, he guesses in his heart that it may be related to the war situation in the Northeast.The Northeast has been fighting for two years, and it is still fighting. Although the war is stopped intermittently, the Qin army is dragged there.Now that two years have passed, the Qin army who fought this battle has a headache.After a year and a half of contraction and recuperation, now the top can't bear it anymore.

At this time, most of the towns in Guanzhong of the Central Plains were involved in the battles of the eunuchs. Therefore, it is very likely that the Council of Staff intends to take advantage of this good external situation to deploy troops into the Northeast, and prepare to start from strategic defense and strategic stalemate. stage, transferred to the strategic first stage.

This also means that the Qin army needs to send at least 30 more soldiers and horses to the northeast, and an additional [-] troops, and at least [-] logistics civilians.This will be a decisive battle. If it wins, the Qin army will solve the Northeast issue once and for all, and will be able to control the Bohai Sea and absorb the blood of the Bohai Sea to speed up its recovery.But there is a prerequisite for this, that is, when the Qin army is unable to fight in the northeast, there will be a second battle.

Finally, with this request, Qin Jun suddenly issued an ultimatum to Cheng De, and engaged in this hundred-battalion battle, in fact, it was just to frighten Cheng De and show the military strength of Qin Jun, lest Cheng De see Qin Jun's silence for more than a year, It is believed that the Qin army is weak.In fact, if the Qin army sends troops to the northeast, it really does not have the logistical capability to supply the war with Chengde.But such a hole card cannot be known to Cheng De, otherwise, Cheng De will definitely attack and harass them when they are fighting against the Northeast, and even attract more people to take advantage of the fire.

In fact, this is also because the Qin army dare not fight Chengdezhen before resolving the Northeast war situation.Otherwise, there would be no need for bravado.The Qin army will definitely be able to win if it becomes a virtue, but the current Qin army needs to pay a too high price if it can defeat Chengde. It has not been digested yet, and if it swallows Chengde forcefully, it is really possible that it will not be able to survive. move.

It is better to scare them than to fight, to show their force, to force Chengde to seek peace, so that they will not dare to disagree in a short time, and then send troops to the northeast for a decisive battle.

It's just such a strategic plan, not many people know about it.Guo Tao himself came to such a guess based on the information he knew and then analyzed in detail.The people below don't know about it, such as junior student Yang Weili. What he knows is that the Qin army will dispatch ten troops to fight in Chengde this time. The township soldiers, united soldiers, militiamen, student soldiers, and road maintenance soldiers in Beiping all mobilized for a massive winter joint exercise. In addition, the young and strong men and women in the counties and villages of all states and counties would also gather those young and strong men and women. war.But in fact, they just let the people of all states and counties take advantage of the winter to build roads, hunt, and bluff.

But now it seems that it has gone too far. In seven days, 5000 people from the First Army have attacked at the same time on a front hundreds of miles away, and captured eight counties in one fell swoop.

The Military Intelligence Bureau reported the situation on the battlefield to Li Jing at any time. The 5000 troops of the First Army captured eight counties in seven days. The joint meeting of the Court House was also disturbed, the meeting of the Political Affairs Hall was also disturbed, and finally Li Jing was also disturbed.

Damn, do you want to fight so fiercely, you really think you want to kill Cheng De, so desperately?

If he could really fight right now, Li Jing would have nothing to say.But now it's just cheating, the play is over.If you are so desperate, if Chengde fights to the death, if he freezes, he will be in trouble.

Many things are too late, so Li Jing hastily ordered in Yanjing to brake and slow down immediately, and not to make fake tricks come true.

The order is passed down one by one, but it can't be too ostentatious and secretive.The senior officials at the first level conveyed that when they arrived at the First Army, Guo Tao immediately volunteered to go to Dingzhou to find Yang Weili and the others.In order to hurry, he didn't bring a large army, but only a total of more than [-] staff officers and guards, and hurried on the road.

Guo Tao is not someone who is waiting for you. He is a real person with no background. He doesn't know who his biological parents are. He has been a little beggar for many years. He came to Dengzhou in his teens and entered the scout school. It can be said that he lives entirely by Li Jing. It was because of his life that he read books, learned characters, and possessed this ability.In terms of loyalty, King Qin's Sixth Guards may not be as good as these boys who were born in the Boy Scouts.Fighting little homeless beggars, and later entered Dengzhou and became a boy scout. From small captain to squadron leader, he was conscripted to form a school army before graduation. He joined the Northern Expedition and fought outside the customs for two years. He made great military achievements and was promoted from camp owner to box owner , Army Lord.Immediately after the triumphant return, he was granted the titles of Uncle Ning Yuan, General Ning Yuan, Deputy Commander of the First Army of the Iron Cavalry Legion.

Although Guo Tao is young, he really relies on his own achievements.Of course, there are also some reasons why he is set up as a model and paid a lot of credit because of his age and meritorious deeds.But his illustrious military exploits are also a fact. After Qin Jun's propaganda, he can be said to be the best among the young up-and-comers and a future star.During the Northern Expedition, he raided Xi Wang Khan Court and fought against Tuhe. He even defeated most of the enemy with a few soldiers and horses twice. The two battles combined beheaded nearly [-] prisoners, which made him famous.

At noon, Guo Tao and his party crossed the Qingyuan County boundary, and ten ice sledges drove southwest through a small riverside village.I saw the word Zhaozhuang written in limestone on the wall of a dilapidated house at the entrance of the village, which has been mottled and blurred by the years, and is almost unrecognizable.The road in the village was deserted, and the two villagers ran home in a panic and closed the courtyard door firmly.Behind more gaps in the courtyard doors are pairs of terrified eyes, watching the ten ice sledges driving from Mozhou to Dingzhou interface, and the sergeants under the grass-green cotton army coats on them.

There are many trees on the bank of the river near the village. Guo Tao glanced at them accidentally, but was surprised to find that not only the leaves of these trees had fallen off, but also the bark had been stripped off.Having been wandering and begging in his early years, he suddenly understood that those tree barks were stripped and eaten by hungry people.Looking at the ground on the shore, it is also bare, not to mention wild vegetables, not even a single weed, and even the roots of the grass have been dug up long ago.

Startled by the hooves of the war horses, a group of crows croaked and croaked.

Guo Tao took out his pocket watch and looked at it. It was already one o'clock in the noon. He felt a little hungry, so he ordered the car to stop and eat lunch before leaving.

The head of the guard brought the wooden box from the guard car behind, spread a piece of military oilcloth on the bare river bank, opened the folding chair, asked Guo Tao to sit down, and then began to distribute food.

A team of guards each received a three-pound field lunch box, which was the standard field food of the Qin army, also known as the army dry food. It contained sliced ​​pot helmets, luncheon meat, a handful of fried rice, and a portion of pickles.

Guo Tao and a few staff officers ate better. Their lunch was the Qin Army’s first-class combat dry food. This is a kind of combat picnic packaged in an assembly line. It's too extravagant.Each lunch weighs three catties. There are three cans and a small box. Three of the cans are canned meat, canned fish and canned beans, which are called high-nutrition supplements. The box contains staple foods, including instant noodles, naan slices, and Bacon and salted eggs.In addition, there is a small bag of tea, ten cigarettes, and five matches.Each serving is a day's ration, and in most cases the soldier's field meal and the officer's field meal are served cold, but they can also be eaten warm.

This specially designed field food has greatly improved the army's continuous combat capability, but it also increases the difficulty of logistical supply.Compared with traditional military dry rations, Qin Jun's field food takes into account both nutrition and taste.Compared with traditional dry rations, Qin Jun's dry rations more reflect the strong comprehensive strength of the Qin Fan and the degree of specialization of the handicraft workshop.This is very popular among the soldiers of the Qin army, and it also saves the army the trouble and time of cooking during battle or march.

In the Qin army, all soldiers can enjoy this kind of field food. It is very popular in the army and the soldiers enjoy it very much! (To be continued.)