Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 3' Return to Xianyang with full rank (12)

"There are so many people who haven't gone north?" Han Ningshuang frowned and said, "No matter what, we can't delay any longer." Her eyes were full of anxiety.The Kingdom of Jin was obviously no longer able to resist the attack of the Liao army. As long as hundreds of thousands of Liao troops spared their hands, the villages that had not yet moved would be slaughtered.However, the common people have been displaced for many times. This year, the sowing was originally late, and the harvest season was correspondingly late.In the prefectures and villages that are quite close to the forward of the Liao army, the red beams and beans are about to ripen for the second time. Many people are waiting for the harvest and refuse to leave to go north.There are even those who are afraid of the bitter cold in the north and flee to the mountains privately to avoid forced migration.

"The people have just moved once, and it is inevitable that they are reluctant to move again before the land is mature." Xu Detai said with a distressed expression on his face.

Although the commander-in-chief of the Han army is the co-owner of each village, it is inferior to the imperial court in the Central Plains in the implementation of many military discipline and military orders.In this chaotic season, food is strength, and the chiefs of the Han army villages may not have the luck to go north after the autumn harvest.

"If there is no food for the autumn harvest, the rations will not be enough. Even if we go north, we will have to starve to death." Someone muttered dissatisfiedly. "Flee, run, run, where is the head!" Gao Bolong tore open his clothes, panting, "It's better to stay in the south, the Khitans are coming to kill, let's fight him!" In winter , the area north of the Gunmen River is barren, and it is impossible to survive the winter without food.Most of the generals of the Han army didn’t even believe that crops could be grown there. After all, it was nearly a hundred years ago that the Bohai Kingdom fell. There are only savage tribes who live by fishing and hunting.

"Exactly, let's fight with the Khitan dog!" Tong Yunjie said with a trace of desolation.Several generals of the Han army bowed their heads in silence, rubbing their rough fingers on the handle of the knife.Even the behemoth of the Kingdom of Jin was torn apart under the attack of the Liao army. How could the Han army, which had just assembled not long ago, resist the crushing force of the stormy army.

"It's better to die on the road to survival than to sit and wait for death." Zhao Xingde's tone was the calmest, he paused, and then said in a deep voice, "Find more ways to buy grain from Da Song, everyone tighten your belts, Persist for a while, and the situation will turn around." His arrow wound has not healed, so he is only wearing a green robe, his face is a little pale, but his tone is very firm, "If you keep the green hills, you don't have to worry about no firewood. People are fundamental. In any case, the people must be kept first, and the villages must speed up the relocation of the people."

He silently calculated in his heart that with the northward migration of tens of thousands of people, the food gap must be quite large.The Huguo Mansion was able to send troops to Xijing Road, which shows that Liaodong is not light in the chess game to contain Khitan.Some time ago, the Han army and Xia Guoying both bought grain in Huainan on a large scale, and private grain merchants took the opportunity to hoard it, so that the price of grain over there soared.Now it seems that if you can get through the difficulties in front of you, spending more money will be a small matter.It happened that Wang Yan was in charge of Hebei Daying, and Han Shizhong was leading the Dengzhou Navy. As long as the two of them agree, they can smuggle grain from the sea with great fanfare.The Imperial Army of the Song Dynasty often had some old military rations, which had always been a mess. They could also negotiate with Wang Yan privately and buy them at a high price. They might even be able to use the Dengzhou Navy's ships to transport the rations.Yu Gong and Wang Yan should be able to see that as long as the Yelu Dashi "dumps" Liaodong, Hebei will immediately feel a sense of death.Personally, there are benefits up and down.As long as nothing happens, the Song Dynasty court has always turned a blind eye to the misappropriation of money and food by the generals of Jiezhen, and even embezzlement of ink military pay.

Standing behind Zhao Xingde was the mighty Xia Guo, and he was very resourceful. When he opened his mouth, the generals of the Han army who were talking weirdly just now all lowered their voices, and the atmosphere suddenly seemed a little weird.Since returning from danger, Han Ningshuang and Zhao Xingde have hardly met each other, except for meeting with the generals, and they didn't talk much when they met.However, when Zhao Xingde was speaking, the generals of the Han army seemed a little too respectful.

The tent of the Chinese army was quite quiet, and Han Ningshuang said: "General Zhao is right, everyone in charge should hurry up and urge his subordinates, don't delay any more, the lives of the people are more important than the grain and grass harvested in autumn. Except for land migration, Navy ships also need to transport people, food and grass along the coast. It is necessary to move as many people as possible to the north of Heishui, near the Jumen River, before the Liao army invades. The camp in the north still needs to be prepared by General Zhao. arrange."

The coach made a decision, and Zhao Xingde and all the generals of the Han army agreed loudly.Han Ningshuang nodded slightly, subconsciously avoided Zhao Xingde's gaze, and looked around at the generals, but there was a trace of deep worry hidden in her awe-inspiring gaze.Most of the Liao army is cavalry, and they can gallop hundreds of miles a day and night. It is not easy for the Han army to retreat with hundreds of thousands of people.If the cavalry of the Liao army chased them all the way, the Han people would retreat to the end. Will the situation really develop as Zhao Xingde estimated?

Outside the tent of the Chinese army, Wang Ji tried his best to straighten his body.The autumn wind is bitter, but the winter clothes have not yet been issued.The bitter autumn wind pierced through the single clothes of the Han army unscrupulously.This area of ​​Guannan in Suzhou can be regarded as one of the warmest places in Liaodong. On the ridge not far away, the woods have shown different shades of autumn colors. The red pines are still tall and straight and green, and the maple trees are deep red. The larch is golden and brilliant.However, such colorful and beautiful scenery reminds people all the time that the cold winter is coming with unstoppable strides.

Ehushan lies in the northeast of Suzhou. It is a steep mountain with jagged rocks. It is usually deserted, but there are gusts of wind rushing and howling like ghosts in the valley.This is a natural danger, a place that must be contested by military strategists, but the Han army suffers from insufficient troops, so they can only deploy scouts at key points.If Zhao Xingde came here, he might have passed through here when he tried to testify that Cao Cao conquered Karasuma, or he might point out that the battle happened here again when Emperor Taizong of Tang attacked Goguryeo.But for the scouts of the Han army, it was a miserable job to be stationed in this inaccessible Evil Tiger Mountain.

Outside the shed made of birch bark, only one scout was on duty, and all the veterans were sheltering from the cold wind in the shed.The team leader Wang Gui was yelling weakly, when a trembling voice suddenly came from outside: "Boss Wang, boss..." Wang Gui said impatiently: "What's wrong?" Xiao Ning, who was on duty, was in his early 20s Young people are the most timid, and when they see this roe deer, they think it is a wolf.But Zhu San'er, the old pawn, said with a smile, "Maybe it's a wild game. I'll go and have a look." As he spoke, he picked up his bow and arrow, stood up, wobbled and went out.

The other veterans still huddled together, Liu Wuguan laughed and scolded: "I don't know which god this brat offended, and was sent to join us hob meat." Suzhou is colder than the boss, but the winter clothes are still not distributed. No wonder everyone is reluctant to go out to blow the northwest wind.

Unexpectedly, just after Zhu San'er removed the thatched hut, he immediately exclaimed in a low voice: "Boss, the Khitans are here! There are a lot of Khitans!" At this moment, Wang Guiteng stood up from the ground, and all the scouts were in a hurry Grabbing the weapon, Wang Gui just went straight out.

As soon as Wang Gui poked his head out from behind the rocks, he sucked in a breath of air, and saw continuous Khitan soldiers and horses passing through the middle of the mountain road.The birch bark shed was set up behind a hidden rock, although it was a little colder, but it could overlook the mountain road, and it was not seen by passers-by on the mountain road. It was the place Wang Gui chose specially.While the Khitan army was passing through, they also continuously sent out scouts to search both sides of the mountain road. They didn't expect that there were people hiding behind this abrupt rock.The Khitans marched with their war horses, and behind the horses were two spare horses, carrying simple provisions and supplies.The narrow mountain road was immediately crowded by Khitan soldiers and horses, Wang Gui secretly called it a pity, thinking that it would be great if an ambush had been set up here early, as a Khitan could be hit by just throwing a stone.

"The Khitan dogs are going south in a big way. Could it be that Liaoyang has already fallen?" Wang Gui's mind was full of distracting thoughts, while counting the number of Khitan troops that passed through. The number, and then write down the time when the entire army passed through, and you can roughly know the number of the army.Only this time, the number of Khitan soldiers and horses seemed to be endless, Wang Gui's face became more and more ugly, and he asked the boss in a low voice when he would leave, but he didn't hear him.

Three batches of Khitan soldiers passed by, and after a long time, most of the scouts from the Liao Kingdom on both sides of the mountain road also withdrew, Wang Gui just murmured palely: "10 horses, the Liao Kingdom actually sent 10 horses." Thousands of people are attacking Suzhou." Before he knew it, his back was already soaked in sweat, and he turned around and shouted, "Hurry up, let the commander-in-chief know!"

Several scouts of the Han Army who looked extremely nervous retreated out in a hurry under the cover of the rocks. After traveling several miles away, they rode horses, avoided the main road of marching, and headed all the way to Suzhou Pass. City run wild.In the north of Suzhou, there were still some natural dangers for defense, but unfortunately the Han army had too few troops to fight, so they could only deploy heavy troops to defend the front line of Nanshan City.

Suzhou Pass is surrounded by sea water on two sides, and the narrowest point is less than ten miles away.And Nanshan City is guarded here. Although the city is not big or high, and it is built in a weird way, it is the biggest reliance of the Han army to defend Suzhou. The range of the far heavy artillery is more than three miles away. If the Liao army does not conquer Nanshan City, they can only pass through the narrow isthmus under the bombardment of artillery fire.On the sea on the left and right sides of the isthmus, three gunboats from the Xia Guo Navy were moored to help out.

The defense of Nanshan City fell on Tong Yunjie, the commander of the artillery battalion of the Han Army. Since he returned from Liaoyang City, except for the generals of the Chinese army, he has been sleeping on the top of the city day and night.In the evening of this day, the red sun slanted to the west, the sea and sky were crimson, the tired birds returned to the forest, and the quiet and peaceful scenery outside Nanshan City.Tong Yunjie was staring at the north and was in a daze. Suddenly, his eyes froze, and he saw several horses flying towards Nanshan City.

The leader of the scout at the front was covered in dust, and before he reached the city gate, he shouted loudly: "Liao Bing, Liao Bing is here!"

Note: Ancient Heishui, Gunmen River, today's Heilongjiang, Tumen River.