July 14th, Shen time and Aftern time.
It was time for the second meal of the day, but Chen Deng's three thousand Huaishang disciples were marching.
At this time, Jiang Qin, who was a water bandit on the river, was sitting on a broken cart watching the army stretching north.
In addition to the three thousand Huaishang disciples brought by Chen Deng from his hometown, there are also some heroes who joined Chen Deng after entering Qingzhou, such as Wang Xiu and others.
So so far, Chen Deng's army has about 4,000 soldiers and about 2,000 remaining soldiers, all of whom were sent from various villages.
Unlike Qingzhou Cao Cao, Chen Deng not only provided these Yu Ding rations but also gave them some miscellaneous grains as payment.
Xuzhou has not been in war for many years, so it has abundant savings. Chen Dengjun is naturally not in danger of shortage of food.
As far as Jiang Qin could see now, all kinds of military supplies and provisions were piled up on the road. The whole camp was full of cattle and horses, which was really luxurious.
Seeing this, Jiang Qin felt more and more that his choice was right.
What is the future for continuing to be a Jiang bandit in the Jiujiang area? Now everyone knows that the world has changed, and there are fewer and fewer business travelers on the river. Even if there are a few, they belong to the princes and cannot be snatched away.
So Jiang Qin took his brothers ashore to change their lives.
Then he chose Chen Deng, whom he had met once before. In the past, he had only heard that he was a son of the public family, but only after Jiang Qin actually joined Chen Deng's forces did he know the extent of this identity.
Jiang Qin felt that he had seen the world on the river, but he had never seen the five or six thousand people marching like the one he saw now.
Not to mention, Jiang Qin and the others had a glorious scene when they followed the main force of Xuzhou to the north.
The 20,000 Xuzhou elites were so vast that the dust swept up by their riders could cover the sky.
But with such a huge force, Jiang Qin heard that the princes in the north were stronger than this.
It was not until this time that Jiang Qin, who had been watching the sky from the river, had a relatively clear understanding of the situation in the world.
For example, Cao Cao in the north is said to have occupied most of Qingzhou and has about 30,000 to 40,000 troops. Further north is the Taishan Army, which is said to have occupied most of the states and counties on the north bank of the river. There are even armies of these people in the Central Plains and Mount Tai.
Thinking about it this way, my lord Chen Deng seems to be the weakest among them.
But Jiang Qin also had his own considerations. The first one was that he was self-aware and knew that he was just a water bandit. He would be looked down upon wherever he went, so he might as well be a confidant here with Chen Deng.
Besides, Jiang Qin didn't think Chen Deng was really weak. From what he saw in the Linpu area, he knew that this place was almost like a fiefdom of the Chen family, with extremely deep influence.
In the early years, the Chen family of Linpu was alerted by Chen Gui's letters that troubled times were coming, and then began to cultivate farmland, livestock and grain on the Huai River.
After three or four years of farmland accumulation, canals were opened, irrigation was increased, and water transportation was opened. The Chen family has accumulated 300,000 hu of dendrobium in the Huai River, enough to feed an army of 10,000 people for five years.
Everyone knows in this world that if you have food, you will have everything, so Chen Deng has a promising future.
Therefore, Jiang Qin felt energetic all over as he watched the military vehicles passing by in front of him.
At this time, a military officer rode up on the military road and shouted:
"All the generals and above went to the front army to discuss matters."
Jiang Qin's water bandits were also reorganized into one group after joining Chen Deng's army. Jiang Qin was a general, so after hearing the military order to send troops, he also rode to the front army with two guards.
There, Chen Deng held a pre-war military meeting.
……
The structure of Chen Deng's tribe is very simple. The four thousand soldiers in the whole army are divided into eight tribes. Among them, there will be four tribes of Chen, and one each for Jiang Qin, Gao Cheng, Dong He, and the last one is Beihai's tribe. Yi took refuge with Wang Xiu.
As soon as the eight generals arrived, Chen Deng told everyone a surprising news:
"The Luqiu defense line is empty and the Taishan bandits have escaped."
The wind was a bit strong at this time, and everyone could not hear what Chen Deng said clearly for the first time. Only after Chen Deng jumped off the chariot and said it again did everyone accept the good news.
Among them, four of Chen Deng’s tribesmen, Chen Duan, Chen Shi, Chen Xun and Chen Dong, were overjoyed when they heard this and hurriedly congratulated:
"Mr. Lang, this Taishan army must have heard that our army was heading north and fled in panic. It is time for our army to take advantage of the victory and pursue it, and let those who are sitting back and watching know how powerful I, Chen, are."
But except for the four people who took the initiative to challenge, Jiang Qin, Gao Cheng, Dong He, and Shi Yi, who had read the scriptures, all frowned and remained silent.
Chen Deng glanced at Jiang Qin and asked:
"Gongyi, if you have any concerns, let me tell you."
Jiang Qin looked at everyone present and said seriously:
"When I was on the river, I often encountered merchant ships and ran away when they saw me. At that time, we felt that they were afraid of me, so we enjoyed the pleasure of chasing them. Until one time, I chased them into an ambush and almost died. ”
After saying that, Jiang Qin exposed his chest and saw a long scar running down from his shoulder.
After Jiang Qin finished speaking, Chen Deng did not comment, but asked Shiyi next to him.
Shiyi was a local tycoon in Yingling, and the biggest official in his family was the county official, himself. Shiyi also disagreed with the pursuit. He said frankly to Chen Deng:
"My lord, this Taishan bandit cannot be underestimated. At that time, the Yellow Turbans were everywhere, and we were already trapped by the Guanhai bandit army when we stood guard in the camp. It is true that one Han soldier can be worth three Yellow Turbans, but one Taishan army can withstand The ten Yellow Turbans show the strength of the Taishan Army.”
Then Shiyi looked at Wang Xiu, who was standing next to Chen Deng, and advised:
"Although our army has strict military discipline and feels that it is the strongest army in the world, it does not have any great martial arts. How can we scare away a hero like Guan Yu? There must be monsters when things go wrong. Please think twice, my lord."
After hearing this, Chen Deng burst out laughing.
He said to everyone:
"What you said is good, but I want to say that Cao Cao's army has turned around and is nearby. What do you think?"
At this time, all the generals still didn’t understand, and they all clasped their fists:
"I am willing to follow my lord (Lang Jun) to pursue the victory."
Therefore, Chen Deng was in high spirits, held up his military equipment, and loudly ordered:
"Chase, don't let the thieves return to Mount Tai."
……
In a hilly area five miles away from Chen Deng's department, Xu Shuzheng, a general of the Taishan Army's left army marshal's department and a former military academy lieutenant, and his nine little brothers were lying in a grassland.
It was July, the grass was growing, and the weeds in this hilly area had already grown as tall as a villain. No one could have imagined that thousands of Taishan troops would be ambushed here.
After Xu Shu listened to Shi Tao's words and turned to join the Taishan Army, he knew that he had made the right choice.
At this time, he felt that changing his name to Xu Shu was in line with God's will.
Because this Taishan Army is really a group of troops that make decisions for the common people to stand up for themselves. Everyone is equal in it. Even the tallest Guan Yu eats the same food and sleeps on the same mat as the brothers below.
In such an atmosphere, Xu Shu's heart was filled with a certain sense of noble morality, and a spirit of serving the world inspired him and Shi Tao.
In the end, Xu Shu chose to join the Taishan Army without hesitation, while Shi Tao chose to become a township official stationed in the township office.
Because Xu Shu had a very high level of education, he quickly transferred from a scholar to an official and became a general of the Taishan Army.
But this time, their entire department, where Quan Shi was located, had been ordered to lurk here a few days ago.
So far, Xu Shu didn't know their combat mission or who the enemy they were going to ambush was. This made Xu Shu feel quite helpless.
This is not because he lacks intelligence, but because he is at too low a level and receives too little information. About three days ago, they followed their leader Chen Guang into the Dongping Tomb.
But in the morning of the next day, as soon as the sky dawned, military orders were issued from above, asking them to withdraw from Dongping Ling. After that, Xu Shu and his brothers hurriedly packed their backpacks and began to move out of the city.
Along the way, Xu Shu discovered that it seemed that they were not just one of them, but several of the captains who attacked the city last night seemed to have withdrawn from the city in sequence.
Outside the city, a military official with a yellow star embroidered on his armband was waiting in an open space, where dozens of large pots were boiling broth.
As soon as Xu Shu heard it, he knew it was pork stew in an iron pot, an important dish in the army.
He never understood why Taishan Army could make such smelly pork so delicious.
However, compared to this meal, Xu Shu was more satisfied with the quality of Taishan Army's food.
In the military, food supplies can be roughly divided into four categories.
The first category is when the field army is about to fight, when meat is generally available. The second category is when the field army maintains security. At this time, there is meat across the mountains. The third category is the garrison soldiers in various places. Although they have no meat, they have enough millet tubes. The worst category is the civil servants in the rear of Hebei, who generally distribute according to rations.
Xu Shu agreed very much with this strategy of giving priority to the army.
After all, eating meat is fighting power.
After Xu Shu and his brothers each had a bowl of hot broth, they became energetic.
Behind him, the military officer with the yellow star embroidered on his armband climbed onto a wooden platform with stacked boxes, and then said some inspiring words.
Xu Shu and the others were far away and couldn't hear clearly, but as long as they saw the shouts from the brothers in front, they knew it wasn't bad news.
The officer with the yellow star embroidered on his armband was the chief history officer of the Taishan Army. This was something Xu Shu had never understood. He didn't understand why a village could have a chief history officer.
Someone from above also came to talk to Xu Shu before and asked him if he was willing to transfer to the Changshi system.
But Xu Shu and his brothers became emotionally attached to the offer, so they refused.
Later, just when Xu Shu and the others were about to disband and return to their respective ministries, they received a new departure order.
Around noon that day, the sacrificial wines of each army held a large-scale military sacrifice activity at Dongping Mausoleum. The sacrificial wines of each army prayed to Huang Tian on the field, and led the souls of the soldiers who died in the battle to Huangtian. sky.
Xu Shu and the others also participated, and it was only then that he learned the death toll of the Taishan Army in this battle.
I thought that the siege battle was so fierce that there would be a lot of casualties, but as far as Xu Shu could see, there were only more than a hundred victims on the ground.
Later, Xu Shu thought about it again and realized that this was right. After all, so far, he has suffered no casualties.
After the military ceremony was over, Xu Shu followed his former military academy captain and began to move eastward.
At the beginning, everyone was quite excited, thinking that the army was returning victoriously.
Many officials in the army are getting married and having children in Fenggao, so who wouldn't be excited to return to the army after a victory to see their families?
But there was a little rain in the field that night, and on the second day, orders were sent from above to turn the army southward. No one knows where their destination is.
When they arrived at the hilly land that day, they were ordered to dig trenches.
In this way, after dozens of connected trenches were dug out of this hilly land, the superiors ordered them to rest in the trenches.
After a tiring day, Xu Shu and his brothers wrapped themselves in mats and fell asleep.
The next day, when Xu Shu woke up, he found that one of his brothers had a fever. This was their heavily-armed sword, and they had the strongest physique in the world. However, they did not fall in the siege of Dongpingling, but were knocked down in this small ditch.
In the end, Xu Shu could only ask his brothers to send the heavy swords to the rear. On the way, he heard that several teams had such problems.
No way, this is the military.
For the next few days, Xu Shu and the others hid in the ditch they dug. No one knew what they were waiting for.
Sometimes Xu Shu and the others would see one or two Han soldiers wearing crimson uniforms riding horses through this hilly area. There were even one or two times when these people stationed their horses nearby and observed the place carefully.
And this boring day ended on July 14th.
But to be more precise, at about a quarter past noon, they finally saw a patch of dust in the southeast.
Following the dust came dense footsteps and various shouts, and gradually Xu Shu and the others saw clearly.
But it was a troop wearing apricot-yellow military uniforms, bearing the banner of the Lieutenant Gao Ya of the Hou Military Academy, and they were running rapidly towards the north.
Because there was no order from above, the Taishan Army lurking in this area did not go out to join the friendly forces, and just watched them move north.
But by this time, military officials like Xu Shu had noticed something. He ordered his men to eat a meal first, and found the only gourd of honey water in Quanshi and tied it around his waist.
Others also understood, some silently pulled out their armor and put it aside, some started to string their bows and arrows, and even the one with the crossbow started to try to trigger the trigger.
In this way, time passed slowly in silence, and probably more than half an hour passed.
Suddenly, the direction from the Elegant Department was filled with smoke again, and this time the scale of the smoke was larger than before.
When Xu Shu finally saw the "Han" flag in the smoke and dust, the flag as red as blood, he couldn't help but feel excited:
"Finally waiting for you."
This Han army was moving very fast and was almost reaching the hilly land.
But at this time, Xu Shu found that the other side had stopped, and then several military officers dressed in uniform came out in front of the team and began to look at the area where they were lurking.
Xu Shu snorted coldly:
"Quite alert."
But he and others were lurking in the ravines, and these Han troops could not see them.
Maybe people really heard Xu Shu's thoughts, and soon a dozen mounted sentinels rushed out from the opposite side, running towards the hilly land where the Taishan Army was lurking.
Looking at these sentry riders approaching, Xu Shu felt hot all over, fearing that he would be exposed.
But just as Xu Shu and his brothers were lurking carefully, a horn sound suddenly came from behind. This was the charge horn of the Chinese army.
Xu Shu was stunned for a moment, not knowing why he suddenly started to attack.
But he still reflexively jumped out of the ravine and shouted to his brothers:
"Kill with me!"
For a time, there were killings all over the hills.
(End of chapter)