Chapter 287 Meeting of Troops
Yang Dian was in a daze, and when Shijiang Junan told them that they were surrounded, he didn't react.
But soon the boil outside grew louder and louder, and the enemies outside obviously raised their torches and howled in the darkness.
Yang Dian did not dare to delay any longer, put on his clothes and armor, and quickly led the guards to the outside of the camp.
Only here did he know who were surrounding them.
Through the light of the fire, he saw some martial regiments with disheveled hair and tattered armor. They were probably broken troops who had been scattered in several battles and then wandered into groups in the wild.
But don’t these hopeless remnants of soldiers only dare to hunt small settlements? I have hundreds of soldiers here, but they actually have the courage to stroke the tiger's beard?
In the darkness, Yang Dian couldn't see how many enemies were coming and whether there were any ambush behind him, so he just shouted loudly:
"Don't be blind, we have more knives here than you. If you don't want to die, disperse. Otherwise, if you hit Naigong Knife Mountain, I will make you die in vain."
Yang Dian's strong voice made the hunting group on the opposite side obviously commotion. After watching with eager eyes, some saw that these soldiers were not easy to deal with, so they could only retreat into the darkness unwillingly.
But some of them were obviously hungry, or had other means of support. They didn't say anything, but just stayed around Yang Dian and the others.
Still unwilling to give up after seeing these tour groups, Zhu Nan, the general on the side, asked Yang Dian fiercely:
"General, I think these people are going crazy with hunger. If we don't kill a group of them, they won't disperse without seeing blood."
Yang Dian shook his head and said to Zhu Nan:
"No, it's too risky. Who knows who else is behind these dog slaves? We can't let our brothers take this risk."
After thinking for a while, Yang Dian said to Zhu Nan:
"In this way, I will divide the team into five teams, and each team will be worth half an hour. It will only take about two or three hours until dawn. I will lead the guards to guard the first round. That's it."
Jun Nan nodded and went to call some team generals.
Nothing happened all night. Obviously, the tour group on the opposite side was not sure where these soldiers came from and how many swords they had, so they did not dare to attack.
On October 25th, Tian Gang Buddha dawned.
Yang Dian stared at the bloodshot eyes and came to the outside of the tent. Only then did he see clearly the reality on the other side. And when he saw it, he couldn't help but take a breath.
I saw a dense crowd of people outside their tent area, and they were all lying on the ground sleeping soundly. The few bonfires from last night also turned into curls at this time, looking particularly desolate.
Yang Dian swallowed. These tour groups probably cost thousands. Where did all these people come from?
Just when Yang Dian was surprised, the people on the other side also woke up and apparently saw the true number of soldiers they had surrounded last night, and they all boldly surrounded them.
Yang Dian is also a fierce person. Now he was forced into a corner and became more ruthless. He took the lead in drawing out his sword, and then the whole village began to form a formation, preparing to attack these groups.
Just as the two sides were tense, a weak voice suddenly came from behind the tour group:
"Are they the Yellow Turban Soldiers from Taiping Road across the street?"
Yang Dian and the others from the Taishan Army all wore black uniforms, but in order to show their relationship with the Yellow Turban Army, they also kept wearing yellow turbans on their heads, so it's no wonder that the other side would ask this when they saw them.
Yang Dian said loudly:
"We are the Taishan Army from Henan. Who are you?"
Who knew that these words directly caused a huge commotion. It was obvious that there was a big dispute on the opposite side. Then, when Yang Dian couldn't understand, the tour group of thousands of people immediately divided into three groups.
The tour group that had just formed a group to confront the Taishan Army split apart because of Yang Dian's words.
Then Yang Dian saw a group of tourists, obviously with broken clothes and armor, leaving first. Then another wave came up and said to Yang Dian:
"The Taishan Army is so powerful that no one knows about it. The brothers were so hungry that they didn't know it was your army. So they collided. Let's leave now."
Yang Dian thought for a while and asked the guards to bring a cart of military rations.
The guards pushed the rations to the middle of the confrontation and then withdrew.
Yang Dian shouted back to the other side:
"This is the rations given to you by our Taishan Army. We, the Taishan Army, will stay here from now on and are establishing settlements on both sides of the Zhang River. If you, the heroes, are trustworthy and want to give your families a happy birthday, you can go. And you guys are going. No matter how much, charge more.”
This is Yang Dian's plan to give these people military rations. Although he is a local, most of the Taishan Army are not. If he gives the locals a sense of authority when he first comes here, it will not be conducive to establishing a good relationship with the locals. So Yang Dian came up with Huairou's method.
They all brought their military rations from Aocang, and this time they brought a lot of them in order to find Lieren's Yellow Turban troops. Therefore, it is not a loss to exchange a truckload of millet for a piece of publicity.
How did you make this friend? He is generous and generous.
With this car and millet clearing the way, the tour group became obviously lively. Even the leaders who were originally hiding behind showed their broken teeth and said some flattering words to Yang Dian and the others.
In the end, these people hurriedly pushed the millet cart and left. As for what Yang Dian said about going back to Zhangshui to farm and settle down, the leaders forgot after hearing this.
Just kidding, it took a lot of effort to gather these people, but if they go to Na Laoshi's camp, won't they disperse immediately? They are not that stupid. It is not a loss to take a load of grain without spending a life.
But the news that the Taishan Army had taken root in Yecheng finally reached everyone's ears. And this will eventually spread to the settlements along the Zhangshui River. I believe that as long as the Taishan Army shows its behavior, it will be a matter of time before the population returns to the settlement.
In this way, three groups of people left and two groups left. In the last group of people, a stout man with a yellow scarf came out from the crowd. With red eyes, he kicked Yang Dian and said tremblingly:
"Are you really the Taishan Army?"
Yang Dian nodded, and then he saw the rough man opposite him burst into tears.
While Yang Dian was wondering, the man told his origins.
It turned out that this person was Zhang E, the retinue of the general Zhang Liang. Since Zhang Liang died in battle at Julu City, Zhang E escaped from the army with a dozen soldiers and wandered around the north bank of Zhangshui River.
Originally, he was going to go to Zhang Liang's disciples to offer sacrifices to his grandson, but because Lu Zhi's Hebei Han army surrounded him three times, he could not enter the city and could only continue to wander around with the group that came out.
After crying to vent, Zhang E recovered and said to Yang Dian:
"Take me to see your commander, I have something important to tell him."
Yang Dian looked at him in embarrassment, shook his head and said:
"I'm afraid that won't work. I also have a mission. Besides, Qu Shuai is far away in Yecheng, and we don't have anyone to send you there."
This was Yang Dian's reply, but what he didn't say was, how do I know if you are a soldier of General Ren Gong? If a Han soldier died, wouldn't it be over if he sent it to Commander Qu?
So Yang Dian refused directly.
But Zhang E still refused to give up and pressed further:
"You are going to join the list, okay? Take me with you. I'm going to see Jiqushuai." Seeing Yang Dian still denying his determination, Zhang E directly threatened:
"I have something important going on, and you are trying to shirk it. Aren't you afraid of missing something important? When the time comes, you will never be able to redeem yourself."
Yang Dian secretly cursed the trouble, and then asked Zhang E to lead his team as a guide, so he had no choice but to agree.
In this way, Zhang E came with a group of hundreds of people and followed Yang Dian's Pioneer Village to continue heading east. On the way, Yang Dian also found out from Zhang E the origin of the tour group that surrounded them last night.
Since the war in Hebei began, Jizhou has been in chaos, and there are begging groups everywhere who can't survive. This one in the northern part of Wei County was originally a small tour group that could not survive nearby and reported to the group to keep warm.
However, with the subsequent large-scale battles such as the Battle of Julu and the Battle of Lieren, many deserters from the Han army and Hebei Yellow Turban deserters fell into these tour groups, and gradually gained leadership authority by force.
Just like the thousand-person tour group that surrounded Yang Dian last night can be divided into three categories. The group that ran away first at that time was led by deserters from the Han army. They were worried that the Taishan Army would annihilate them after knowing their origins, so they escaped first.
The group that took the cart of millet sent by Yang Dian were wealthy people from nearby villages. They also had a bad relationship with the Han army, because a group of them had escaped from death on the battlefield and knew how the Han army did not take their lives seriously.
The last group was led by Zhang E. Most of them were poor or pro-Taiping Taoists.
After hearing this, Yang Dian asked Zhang E doubtfully:
"You guys have grievances against each other, how can you unite to surround us?"
Zhang E leisurely said:
"What are the grievances from the past? We have to do our best to stay alive. This time, it's not that we really have no food, and we won't come to seek bad luck for you hundreds of people. But there is no way, if people don't eat, they will You will die. Who cares about this in order to survive?”
Yang Dian nodded and said nothing more. After all, he still had great doubts about the man who claimed to be the general and the retinue of the general.
Let me just say one thing, as a personal general of General Renggong, now that General Renggong has died in the battle, you are still alive. Isn't this just desertion? To put it seriously, this is someone who has abandoned his master.
He, Yang Dian, had nothing to talk about with such an unjust and shameless person.
So in this depressing situation, the Taishan Army Pioneer Village walked about ten miles and came to an earthen village.
This village is located on a flat, open land with vegetable plots inside. When Yang Dian saw this, he knew that this village must have a history.
Why do you think?
The area around here has been so damaged by the war, but this village is still safe and sound. Doesn't this explain the problem?
This is what Yang Dian learned from Zhang E. It is said that this family is a wealthy family named Feng, and they are not even close to the Feng family in Yecheng, so the Han soldiers in Hebei are treated with respect and no one is harassing them.
But this fell into the hands of Yang Dian, and this kind of rich man was exactly what he wanted to attack.
So, Yang Dian ordered an attack and stormed into the village in less than two seconds. This made Zhang E, who was watching the battle on the side, a bit stunned.
This kind of heirloom wall is small but strong. It's not that they haven't fought before, but they always surrounded them and relied on human lives to make up for it. When did they break through so easily.
Just like this, Zhang E had a more intuitive understanding of the combat power of the Taishan Army, and once again strengthened his determination.
Later, the Taishan Army Pioneer Tunnel seized dozens of sheep, hundreds of chickens, and hundreds of stone millet from Fengjiazhai. Yang Dian was not at a loss for his own people, so he asked his brothers to kill sheep and chickens to prepare a happy lunch.
Zhang E's tour group was also called by Yang Dian to help. During the food preparation, the two groups got a lot closer.
The smoke from the cooking pots curled up, and the smell of meat mixed with the smell of millet and rice was so appetizing that it only made those beggars who relied on stems and roots to feel so happy that they felt like they were in heaven.
Soon, everyone had several pieces of mutton and two chickens. A large pot of millet rice mixed with mutton soup was passed around, and everyone ate it heartily with ladles.
The people in the tour group only have one thought in their minds: this life is worth it.
An hour later, Yang Dian led the team and continued to set off. But this time, everyone's morale was high, and many people sang local folk songs, which spread far and wide with the wind.
On the way, they encountered another Lishe, but it had long been in ruins. When passing by an ancestral hall in the center of the Lishe, the people in the team discovered that this ancestral hall was also an ancestral hall to worship Huang Tian.
So, everyone entered the ancestral hall, pulled up weeds, worshiped Huang Tian for a while, and then continued to set off.
As soon as everyone left, a few wild foxes emerged from the sacred bank and disappeared.
They didn't go long this time when a general from the rear team rushed to Yang Dian and said that the original group of tourists had followed again, and the leader was the deserter from the Han army.
Yang Dian looked at the sky and asked Nashi General to continue to be on guard, and then he led the team to move forward. Zhang E told him that the troops were not far away, and Yang Dian did not want to waste time here with the defeated soldiers.
The team continued walking, and soon Hou Shi reported that they had fought back and drove those people away. So Yang Dian didn't care about those tour groups anymore.
Afterwards, Yang Dian led the team to a stream, which is a small branch of Zhangshui. Rivers and streams like this are dotted all over Hebei.
In the Han Dynasty, Hebei was not entirely a plain, with many low-lying areas. The water veins separated from the Taihang Mountains converge in low-lying areas to form rivers and lakes.
Moreover, there is the Yellow River on the north side of Hebei. When the Yellow River flows eastward from its source, it passes through the high loess slopes and brings out a large amount of sediment. As a result, in the gentle areas around Hebei, the water flow dropped and the sediment was deposited. This causes the river bed downstream to rise. Once the Yellow River floods, it flows sideways from both sides, causing the Yellow River to often change its course.
Only in the Eastern Han Dynasty did the Yellow River change its course once, and its mouth was changed from Hebei to Shandong. It is precisely because the Yellow River often floods that it leaves Hebei with rich silt as soil, shaping the fertile Hebei.
Yang Dian led people to explore the stream, and when they saw that the water was knee deep, they decided to wade the team directly across the river.
But as soon as this person passed halfway, a wave of people came from the other side and shouted:
"Kill the thief!"
When Yang Dian heard this, he thought it was still the same group of arrogant remnant soldiers, so he became angry, drew his sword and cursed:
"It's really a man's fault. If we don't kill him today and bleed into a river, they won't be afraid."
But just when he was leading people to wade through the water, Zhang E suddenly ran forward and shouted as he walked:
"We are all our own people."
But it turned out that Zhang E had good eyesight, and when he saw the other person wearing a yellow scarf, he hurried up to stop him.
In this way, Yang Dian's Pioneer Village finally contacted Lieren's Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, and the fight was over.
(End of chapter)