Country color

Chapter 312
The army marched eastward, rolling up a cloud of gray smoke.

Jin Chunqiu looked at the soldiers of Youzhou County carrying bows and crossbows on the road, secretly comparing him with the soldiers of his own country.

"Are you the Prince of Silla, Kim Chunchu?"

Although it was very unpleasant to be called by his real name, but thinking of the identity of the other party, Jin Chunqiu immediately put aside the trace of dissatisfaction in his heart and said: "I am the one who pays my respects to Duke Shanggu."

Jin Chunqiu glanced at the other person, then lowered his head, not daring to look any further, although he knew that this person was very young, but he did not expect to be so young.

Li Chongjiu was dressed in armor and led his own horse. After Kong Shan told the identity of this person, he realized that this person in front of him was the historical King Wulie.

How should I put it, this person is comparable to Li Shimin in the eyes of Koreans today. It was he, his son, and grandson who worked together for three generations to complete the real unification of Silla on the Korean peninsula. This period is called in history Silla, known as Unified Silla, represents the first time that the Korean peninsula has entered the era of great unification.

Jin Chunqiu said: "I know that the battle of Lord Shanggu is coming soon, so I led five hundred warriors here to help Duke Shanggu."

Li Chongjiu nodded and said: "Thank you King Zhenping for your help. I will wait and see how brave your army is. But since you have come to my tent..."

Before Li Chongjiu could finish his sentence, Jin Chunqiu said: "Please go ahead and send me, Lord Shanggu. When Xiao Wang was in Silla, he knew a thing or two about archery, martial arts, documents and Sinology."

Li Chongjiu nodded appreciatively, and immediately said: "Since that's the case, let the prince succumb. First, I will lead the five hundred Silla warriors for my army, General Ying Yanglang."

"Yes, the last general takes orders." Jin Chunqiu said loudly.

After speaking, Li Chongjiu got on his horse.

Jin Chunqiu looked at Li Chongjiu's back in silence, and Kong Shan stepped forward and asked, "Prince, what do you think of Lord Shanggu?"

Jin Chunqiu said: "This person must have his own ability to reach his current position, but whether he can defeat Khitan depends on whether his subordinates are capable or not."

This road leading from Zhuojun to Liaoxi County, all the soldiers are already familiar with walking.

But this time along the way, it was different than before.

If the Khitan invaded, if the city were to be destroyed, neither the old nor the young in Zhuo County would be spared.Therefore, the people in the villages along the way all spontaneously carried a basket of corn cakes and twisted a pot of buttermilk, and stood silently beside the road.

Once a soldier is thirsty and tired, he will take it from the common people's basket.

Li Chongjiu saw a white-haired old woman on the road, holding a bunch of straw sandals made by herself, and kept asking the passing soldiers if they needed replacements.

Li Chongjiu couldn't help being moved when he saw this scene, and the words Qu Yanran said when he served as an official once again rang in his ears.The emperors and generals of all dynasties have been able to take care of the people when realizing their own ambitions, which is enough to leave a good reputation.

Can you do it yourself?

The army left the plain and entered the dense and continuous Yanshan Mountains. At the foot of it is the imperial road repaired by Emperor Sui Yang to conquer Goguryeo, which is enough for three carriages to drive side by side among the high mountains.

[-] soldiers from the county, [-] Goguryeo auxiliary troops, [-] Mukunbu cavalry, and [-] Hualang soldiers marched among the vast mountains.

After entering Liaoxi County, the population gradually became thinner, and the army rested overnight, that is, by the roadside.The soldiers dragged down their leggings and picked out the blood bubbles on the soles of their feet. After that, they crushed the rice cakes and put water in an iron horse bowl, sprinkled 01:30 star coarse salt, and boiled them with whetstones and fire starters.

This is also helpless, the rice cakes used as military rations are not thoroughly pounded, and most of them have not been threshed, so if they are not cooked, they are very rough and difficult to swallow.

This is also a conditional limitation, but the soldiers did not complain when they went. The world is in chaos now, the fields are barren, and in the land of Zhuojun, the poor people can only eat bean scraps, bark and leaves, and fluffy oak noodles. Wei Zheng proposed to Li Chongjiu to set up a righteous warehouse to provide porridge for the people. After this winter, at least ten thousand people in Zhuo County will starve to death.

As for the situation in other counties, I really can't bear to mention that people are vying for food, and everyone knows it without the help of people who fled from other counties.

Therefore, as a soldier, it is quite satisfying to have a full mouthful of food, even if it is a bit rough.

As for Jin Chunqiu, he was also annoyed when he saw that the rice cakes provided to his Hwarang army were hard to swallow, but he was also annoyed when he saw the meals of other armies, especially Li Chongjiu himself was eating rice cakes with his hands. We share weal and woe, and are even more speechless right now.

Jin Chunqiu observed carefully, saw that although the county soldiers were eating poor food, their morale was still very high, he couldn't help but nodded silently, thinking that the tenacity of the Sui people was indeed better than that of the Silla people.

After entering Liaoxi County, although Li Chongjiu was all infantry, he was not worried about outflanking and ambush by Khitan Xi cavalry.The movements of the Khitan Xi clan's army, Tudiji's Mohe scouts, and Cui Xu's Dingling scouts all kept coming.

Two days after arriving in Liaoxi County, Tudiji and Cui Xujie led the soldiers from the clan to come.Tu Diji led 1 Mohe soldiers, while Cui Xu led Dingling 5000 troops.

These are the biggest mobilizations of the two departments. Among them, Li Chongjiu remembered that last year, when Tudiji and Luo Yi fought, the department could mobilize at most [-] soldiers. Now, except for the [-] Mohe warriors who were transferred to the Wansheng Army, Tudi Ji can actually cobble together [-] soldiers.

It turned out that after Li Chongjiu's successive victories in Goguryeo, his reputation was greatly shaken, and people from the same clan of Sumo Mohe continued to cross the Liao River from Sumo River to join Tudiji.Therefore, the Mohe tribe under Tudiji continued to increase.This time the Khitans invaded western Liaoning, plundered several Mohe tribes, burned, killed and looted, and suddenly Diji was furious, and also prepared all the soldiers and horses.
Jin Chunqiu was worried that Li Chongjiu would not be strong enough to fight against the Khitan, but when he heard that Mohe and Ding Ling had sent 5000 troops to join him, he immediately gained some confidence in his heart.

But Jin Chunqiu immediately inspected the two armies, and compared Li Chongjiu's county soldiers, he couldn't help shaking his head.

The soldiers of the Dingling and Mohe tribes are all young and strong, old and weak, young and strong, and the equipment is simple, so simple that a few bones nailed to a big stick can be used as a weapon. The soldiers are all Mongolian. Wearing animal skins, without decent armor, holding a wooden shield and a hunting bow, they came to fight.

However, although the equipment was simple, Jin Chunqiu looked at the muscular muscles and bronzed skin of the soldiers, and knew that these people grew up in poor mountains and rivers, but their strength and bravery could greatly make up for the lack of equipment.

After Li Chongjiu gathered the Qi army, he continued to advance.Dingling pushed their carts and followed behind the army.

The carts of the Dingling people are loaded with their food and tents. Whether it is fighting or migrating, wherever the Dingling people go, the cart will follow. The height of the wheels of the Dingling people is very exaggerated, almost as high as a horse. They like to use high cars, so they are also called high car family.

The origin of the Gaoche clan comes from the Chile clan, which is the same as Xue Yantuo in Mobei, and Huihe is the same clan. When Rouran rose to the grassland, the Dingling people surrendered to Rouran. Rennei moved to Han, and this branch was called Shanju Dingling from then on.

Zhai Liao, a native of Dingling who later moved to Han, gathered Dinglings to establish Zhai Wei in Hebei. Later, it was destroyed by Murong Xianbei's Yan Kingdom, and many clansmen were moved to Longcheng, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty in Liaoxi County, for resettlement.

After Yan State was destroyed, Dingling people still lived in western Liaoning, but their life was already very difficult, but the custom of using carts was still preserved. For example, Cui Xu, the current commander of Dinglingbu, called himself a descendant of Zhai Liao.

After Dingling, there are Mohe people in western Liaoning, who are compared with Dingling pushing a cart.

The Mohe people each have a big horse, or at least two people have one horse. Many of the Mohe people's horses are not used for riding, but for drawing horses.Liaodong horses are good at galloping and can bear heavy loads, so they are all used as war horses, but they are a minority after all. Most Liaodong horses are tall, but not fast, so they are more suitable for use as draft horses.

After the rendezvous of the army, the vanguard had encountered the Khitan forward cavalry, and a small-scale battle broke out with a few cavalry and dozens of cavalry.

Since Li Chongjiu's main cavalry had not yet arrived, the scouts were all Mohe cavalry and county cavalry.Although the [-] county soldiers are mainly infantry, and there are no more than a thousand cavalry, it does not mean that the county soldiers and cavalry are weak.The county soldiers and cavalry are selected from the good families of Bianjun, who are good at bow and horse, and are well equipped.However, it is said that Khitan's forward scouts are also selected as one of the best warriors in the clan.

Although the scale of the scout battle was small, it was a test of the two armies before the decisive battle.Not only to test the forces, but also to collect and report the surrounding terrain and enemy intelligence.

After the fierce scout battle, the Khitan scout cavalry retreated a little after casualties of hundreds of cavalry. It turned out to be the high mountains and dense forests in western Liaoning, the most powerful scouts were not cavalry, but the Mohe people who grew up here and were familiar with the terrain.

Although Khitan also had people in the forest spying on them, in the end the mighty dragon was defeated by the local snake, and finally gave up the entanglement ahead, and retreated to a plain next to the White Wolf River.

Standing on the top of the hill, Li Chongjiu looked at the Khitan tents covering the entire plain across the White Wolf Water. The white felt bags were densely packed, revealing a sense of coldness and murder.Li Chongjiu listened to a few soldiers who were veterans of the battle whispering quietly, saying that the Khitan Xi people claimed to have an army of 20 this time, and what they said was true.

Li Chongjiu knew that the Khitan Xi Ren wanted to use the power of his cavalry on the plain to fight him decisively.Li Chongjiu would never go deep into the grassland. Instead, he set up a big camp by the side of the White Wolf Water River Valley and waited patiently for Li Hu's army to arrive.

Originally, it was expected that Li Hu should have led the main cavalry on the grassland to join forces here two days ago, but it has not been seen for a long time.

All the generals felt a little uneasy in their hearts.

Facing the army of the Khitan Xi clan, the failure of the reinforcements before the battle was a fatal blow to the morale of the army. If Li Hu had not been the father of Li Chongjiu, he would not have been able to abandon his son. Hold on, maybe the most cowardly person will be the first to get oil on the soles of their feet.

But why Li Hu missed the appointment, it is difficult for the generals to guess.

(End of this chapter)