Chapter 750 Shengyu
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 26, the Taishan Army and the Wei Bo Army set up a barrier.
The rain was like a leak from the sky, heavy and heavy.
People's joy and sadness are always different. While the Yuan clan members were praising their virtues and saying that fate was on their way, Wei Bojun, who was stationed at the fortress of the front camp, was cursing the heavy rain.
Wei Bo's Army, Long Xiang's Army, and Ying Yang's Army were deployed on the north bank of the Luoshui River. Because of the sudden heavy rain, the Chinese army believed that the Luoshui River would rise, so they ordered these armies to move to higher-lying areas. camp.
So amidst a burst of cursing, Wei Bojun became busy again, starting to change camps and mount horses. It was a busy period.
What makes all the officials happy is that they can always hear the voice of their military commander Xie Bi. Even if it rains heavily, his military commander does not hide behind the curtain to warm the wine, but is busy with his brothers.
He is really a good military leader. Thinking of this, Wei Bo's army became more energetic, complained less, and did more. In fact, they all know in their hearts that they are truly lucky to have Xie Bi as their military leader.
Because not any second-line battalion leader can get the same treatment as the first-line troops such as Long Xiang Army, but his own military leader has achieved it by relying on military merit.
So, what else do they have to complain about? Just remember one thing, sweat more in peacetime and bleed less in wartime.
The cruelty of war has long made these good men from Handan and other places agree with this sentence.
But just when they were thinking about their good military leader, their good military leader was frowning.
At this time, Xie Bigang and several guardsmen worked together to carry a log, and a guard came over and called him:
"Military Commander, it's raining heavily. Let's go to the tent and rest first. There are also generals and commanders waiting for you in the tent. It seems that there is something important to report to you."
Xie Bi nodded. After all, he was the leader of an army and not a mere laborer. It was impossible for him to abandon military affairs and come here to work as a coolie.
Therefore, when the officers and officials in the army came to look for him, he could still handle them with ease.
So, he said to the guard:
"Xiao Deng, ask the Logistics Department to use the wine we have reserved and distribute it to the brothers, and then ask how the ginger soup is going, and distribute it as soon as it is ready."
This guard named Xiao Deng is called Deng Qian. He was a guard that Xie Bi took when he was in Handan. He was capable of fighting, but he was also out of pure filial piety. He didn't come to join him until after seeing off his old mother.
But it's a pity. If this person had joined the army earlier, he could have recommended him to the Hengzhao Army. But now that the Hengzhao Army has been promoted, low-level officers are no longer directly selected from the army. Therefore, no matter how good Xiao Deng is, The most he can do is enroll in a martial arts school in Yedu.
In fact, this is also natural. As the Taishan Army system becomes more and more perfect, and more and more territories are included in the system, there will be fewer and fewer things like reaching the sky in one step in the past. These are the dividends of an era, and every time we can seize them, You can only climb the grid behind.
How high Xiao Deng can climb in the future really depends on his luck.
Xiao Deng also had an idea. He said to Xie Bi:
"Military Commander, there is an order in the army that no one is allowed to drink alcohol except for Dashao, so why not drink ginger soup instead. The ginger soup should be ready, I will urge you."
Xie Bi was originally going to say that he was responsible for whatever happened, but suddenly thinking of what Xi Shen had experienced, he changed his mind and nodded:
"Okay, then just use ginger soup. Go ahead and urge it. Don't make the brothers sick."
Afterwards, Xie Bi led the guards back to the military tent.
Xie Bi's tent was decorated first. Because of the heavy rain, it was specially reinforced with grommets. Outside, there were dozens of soldiers wearing raincoats standing still in the rain.
Xie Bi nodded, then lifted the tent and entered.
As soon as he came in, Xie Bi saw that all the logistics officers in the army had arrived. He guessed that there was a problem with the army's logistics. He was not in a hurry. After taking off his raincoat and hanging it on the tent, he went behind the screen to change clothes. .
When Xie Bi appeared in front of all the Cao officials again, he was well-dressed and shining.
Xie Bi was the only son of aristocratic family among the old brothers. Although he had changed his luxurious style a lot over the years, his image of pursuing respectability and dignity could not be changed.
He can endure hardship outside and in front of his brothers, but if possible, he must behave decently.
This is what his mother taught Xie Bi: People are like clothes, and clothes are like people. If clothes are not neat, how can a person be upright?
At this moment, he sat gracefully on the banquet and asked the official below:
"Chang Shi, what happened to mobilize troops and mobilize people like this?"
Wei Bo's commander Shi was Wu Zhi, a native of Juancheng. He was a talent from the Heji base area. He came from a poor family and gradually grew up from a field official to an army assistant.
Xie Bi was a very proud man, and he looked down upon ordinary people. Even people like Pan Zhang were treated like warriors. But Xie Bi respected Wu Zhi very much, because this man was not only knowledgeable in literature and history, but also well versed in military strategy. He was a colleague of Xie Bi, so the two of them always worked well together.
And because he knew that Wu Zhi was not one to make fuss, he thought that something big had happened.
Sure enough, Wu Zhiju was right:
"There are three things. The first is that the firewood in the army is all wet, and the camps have no way to make fire. They need to immediately get a batch of dry firewood from the general ration station of the Chinese army."
Xie Bi asked doubtfully:
"In addition to some of the firewood in the army being kept in the open air, aren't there also a lot of firewood stored in warehouses? Why are these also wet?"
Hearing this, Wu Zhi snorted, and then someone tremblingly came out of the queue and fell to the ground, saying in a trembling voice:
"Previously, our army had to rush to build the Luoshui defense line, so the strong men of each army were sent to do the work, so there was no manpower to build warehouses."
When Xie Bi heard this, he was furious:
"How brave. If you were in need of someone, you should have told me earlier, instead of waiting for luck and telling me after something happened."
Then without giving the people below a chance to defend themselves, Xie Bi said loudly:
"Where is the halberd? Take this person's seal, ribbon, crown, and belt with me, push him into a hard camp, and discuss his crimes after the war."
Before he finished speaking, two majestic halberd-wielding men appeared outside the tent, one on the left and one on the right, dragging down the limp Kurasao Cho.
Xie Bi did things like this and couldn't get rid of the dirt in his eyes. At this time, he looked around at the Cao officials present and hummed:
"If there's anything else, I'll tell you all."
Wu Zhi originally wanted to give some advice, but when he saw Xie Bi's behavior, he quickly talked about the next two things.
"There is also the defense line designated by the Chinese army for us. I took people to see it. Most of this place is flat land. If the Luo River really floods, it will definitely be flooded. So I suggest that the camp be moved further back. Arrange it in the Lingtai area, where there is a high platform where troops can be stationed. "
But Xie Bi frowned after hearing this, and he asked:
"Retreat to Lingtai? Doesn't that mean we have to go to the capital of Kyoto? Our army is the first line of defense of the army. If we retreat so far, wouldn't we give up Luoshui to others? This won't work. In this way, you let each battalion build In the stilt building, the sergeants were stationed on the upper floor, and the generals in the camp were ordered to move the baggage to the high ground. In addition, each battalion was ordered to build a few wooden boats, not afraid of ten thousand, but just in case."
After Wu Zhi heard this, he quickly wrote it down.
Then he looked up and said the third thing worriedly:
"I just led people to inspect the conditions of each camp. The officers and soldiers were all fine. Except for some northern barbarians who were a little sick, they were generally normal. However, the war horses in the army fell ill a lot due to the acclimatization and heavy rain. , this problem is quite serious.”
Xie Bi first said:
"Don't call them Beilu or Pingzhoushi. These are all brothers in the army. Don't use insulting words such as Hu, Lu, and Yi. This is the system of the army, and it will be the system of the country and the dynasty in the future. Remember it."
Wu Zhi also knew about this, but he just complied with it for a while, nodding hurriedly to write down Xie Bi's instructions. After telling Wu Zhi, Xie Bi also frowned.
As the saying goes, "Heaven is better than a dragon, and earth is better than a horse." In Wei Bo's army, the number one strategic resource is undoubtedly the thousands of horses in the army.
After several times of army reorganization and expansion, Wei Bo's army was fully equipped with 5,000 officers and men, including 500 cavalry, and the extra 500 were specially equipped with 500 cavalry because Zhang Chong believed that Xie Bi used his troops wisely.
Previously, Xie Bi had made many supporting tactics around the thousands of cavalry as the core combat force, but he did not expect that the war horses were now sick a lot, which suddenly disrupted Xie Bi's previous arrangements.
But actually there is nothing we can do about it.
It turns out that during the Taishan period, the Taishan Army had insufficient war horses in terms of both quantity and quality. At that time, the entire army had only about a thousand assault cavalry, which had been accumulated from previous wars.
It was not until the Taishan Army successively captured Jizhou, Youzhou, Pingzhou, Daibei, and Bingdi, and almost took control of the most important horse-producing areas of the Han Dynasty, that the number of Taishan Army's cavalry increased sharply.
But this also inevitably led to the fact that most of the cavalry horses in the army came from the above areas, and when these horses went south to the Central Plains, they inevitably became acclimatized.
Now when encountering this rare heavy rain, these war horses from the border areas suddenly fell ill.
Seeing Xie Bi frowning at this time, Wu Zhijian said:
"How about allocating a group of troops to the Chinese army first? Otherwise, our army's combat effectiveness will decline."
But Xie Bi shook his head and said:
"Chang Shi, there are many of you, so you don't know about our army's horse management. Even if we transfer it to the Chinese Army, the Chinese Army doesn't have that many spare horses to transfer to us."
It turns out that the horses of the Taishan Army were all numbered. This time, heading south from Taiyuan, the Taishan Army carried about 20,000 horses. After more than half a year of fighting, almost half of them were lost and sick.
Had it not been for the subsequent destruction of Kyoto and the acquisition of thousands of horses from the families of various ministers in the city, Zhang Chong would not have been so generous as to add another 500 horses to Wei Bo's army.
But now a heavy rain has greatly reduced the advantage of our own cavalry. Needless to say, the enemy is still a little lucky.
But he couldn't say this, he just said to Wu Zhi and others:
"First let's talk about the war horses that can be used, and then put the sick horses in a dry shed and let the military veterinarians see how many can be saved. But if the war horses can't be used, our army can't fight? Our army's horses are sick, The enemy's horses will also fall ill, and our army will still have an advantage over the enemy."
Perhaps knowing that what he said was not very reasonable, Xie Bi suddenly asked the Xuanfu envoy in the crowd:
"Old Han, how is the morale of each battalion in the army?"
The man named Lao Han was Wei Bojun's propaganda envoy, responsible for propaganda and nurturing the hearts of scholars.
Lao Han is also an old man in the army. No one is as meticulous as his beard in doing things or dressing up.
He cupped his fists and stepped forward and said to Xie Bi:
"Because of the heavy rain, the sergeants were slightly depressed, but soon everyone in the army cheered up."
This was a big surprise to Xie Bi. He asked:
"Oh, Old Han, what are you doing?"
Lao Han was humble, but his eyes were firm and he said:
"I have no means, but I tell the officials that this is the rain of great victory. In the past, our army also had heavy rain before the decisive battle at Zhongrenting. In the end, our army won the battle and conquered Hebei. In this battle, on the eve of the decisive battle, the same The heavy rain is the same as the great victory.”
That's what the old Korean says, and he thinks so too.
In fact, not only Lao Han believed so strongly, but also all the Wei Bo army officers and soldiers believed in it.
This is Sheng Yu, and our Taishan Army will win a great victory!
Sure enough, after hearing this, Xie Bi couldn't help but stand up and said:
"Okay, okay, Shengyu Zhaozhao, Shengyu Zhaozhao! Send these words to the central army quickly, and make sure that the king and the entire army know it."
After that, Xie Bi chatted with everyone more and asked them to cry more with Zongliangtai. In this regard, Xie Bi was not at all pedantic like the children of aristocratic families. Instead, he was very familiar with the principle of "children who cry will get milk."
Later, everyone dispersed one after another, and Xie Bi walked around the tent again, then spread out a piece of "Qiyuan paper" and wrote:
"I love Zhao Ji, and I don't believe you. At the moment when I read the letter, my husband has already ascended to the yellow sky with my brothers. I entrust your handsome son to you. I don't ask for talents, but only for peace and security. I will bless you in heaven. You, please also tell Jun'er to act with conscience, not to bully others, and to protect Huang Tian's great cause, because his father and all his brothers died for it."
At the end of the letter, Xie Bi wrote another paragraph. He thought about it for a moment and then crossed it out with a pen. Only words like "beloved" were vaguely visible.
……
Just when Xie Bi was thinking about writing a farewell letter that would only be sent back if he died in battle, a large army was trudging in the rain at Heyinyi Station in the Three Cities of Heyang.
They were Pan Zhang of the Leopard Tao Army, and Zhang Dan's three armies that were resting on the battlefield in Hanoi. After receiving Zhang Chong's report and arranging many matters, these four armies finally came with their troops.
Coincidentally, there was a heavy rainstorm.
At this moment, countless Taishan soldiers were walking on the straight road. They were struggling to move forward in ankle-deep mud. There were sentries and riders everywhere on both sides, constantly reporting the distance to Kyoto.
Due to the chaos of crossing the river and the delay of heavy rain, almost every camp in the four armies was in chaos and mixed with each other. Sometimes the officers and soldiers would find themselves in a strange team while walking. , if you don’t rely on each other to identify military badges and armbands, there will definitely be trouble.
But it was so difficult and chaotic, and the flag guards from the rear kept blowing golden sounds, urging the armies to move forward.
During the process, some officials fell down from exhaustion, and someone dragged them to the roadside, where they set up tents and cooked ginger soup to serve them.
There were also some Xuanfu officials nearby. They stood on the boxes and shouted at the advancing Taishan Army under the heavy rain:
"Defend the King! Defend Huang Tian!"
Not many people answered, and everyone was busy on their way.
At this time, singing came from nowhere. They were singing:
"Raise swords and soldiers, exchange for peace, and restore the Qingming Dynasty to the world!"
In the majestic heavy rain, everyone roared and sang their songs together, and the steam was steaming with water mist, as if the heavy rain was being dried.
This is an invincible army because they have faith and know that they are fighting for themselves and for the endless masses of Guizhou people like them.
There may be a king or Huang Tian here, but it must be the infinite masses of Guizhou people that make all this possible.