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Sheepskin Beach is actually just north of Wanshan, not very far from Xiangyang City, about thirty or forty miles away.

There are many theories about the origin of the name Sheepskin Beach. Some people say that sheepskins were often dried on the shore here a long time ago. Others say that this was a place where people used sheepskin rafts to cross the river. Some people say that this was a place where sheep were killed.

etc.

But no matter what, this shoal is relatively famous but cannot be escaped, and the chance of the peasant army coming here to test it is greatly increased.

There are many sandbars in the Han River, but there are no sandbars here at Sheeppitan. The water area is relatively open, estimated to be more than 1,000 meters long. Although it is still far behind the vast water area near Xiangyang City, which can be more than 2,000 meters wide.

, but it’s not narrow anymore.

After all, the river between Xiangyang and Fancheng is only five or six hundred meters wide.

However, the shoals of Sheepskin Beach are mainly on the north bank. Although there is a large area of ​​sand on the south bank, the river is not very shallow, so many people think that the north bank is the real place of Sheepskin Beach.

After marching for most of the day, Li Ping and his troops arrived at Sheepskin Beach on the afternoon of Zuo Liangyu's request.

The reason why it took so long to walk was because we had to go east and make a large circle along the road between Wanshan and Yanggu Mountains to avoid the narrow Wanshan Mountain.

Of course, crossing the mountain will shorten the road several times, but it is only suitable for light infantry, not for troops like them with a large number of chariots and horses, and it is not necessarily faster for light infantry to cross the mountain.

After arranging the location of the camp, Li Ping and Ma Yong immediately inspected the surrounding terrain. The rest of the specific matters of setting up camp were the business of the staff officers and company commanders. Li Ping must become familiar with the general situation around him as soon as possible, otherwise

All the arrangements are just a figment of imagination.

After riding a horse and riding around for several miles, Li Ping saw that there was still some time before dark. Li Ping asked Dong Jiangpeng, the signal soldier (order soldier) who had been following him, to call his grandfather. He wanted to cross the river to have a look.

.

Dong Jiangpeng is the young man who helped Li Ping row the boat on the river almost two months ago, and his grandfather is the old boatman.

After Dong Jiangpeng and Li Ping returned to the villa, because they were smart and physically fit, they were included in the training scope of the Youth Army. They first participated in basic training for about twenty days, and then were assigned to the staff office as a communications corpsman.

The Youth Army is not a specialized unit, but generally refers to the underage soldiers serving in Li Ping's army. They are used in indirect combat positions of the army, mostly in communications, division, service and paperwork.

The use of minors is second to alleviating the shortage of qualified prime-age soldiers. The most important thing is that these growing children have strong learning ability, easy to instill ideas, and strong plasticity. They are the best supplement for future combat soldiers.

As long as he is properly led, he will still be the most loyal and best reserve officer candidate.

Because he had to deploy defenses along the river, the night before yesterday Li Ping asked He Zhuzhu of the Logistics Department to take Dong Jiangpeng and several other "little soldiers" to the water village set up by the army on the Han River to find their relatives and friends on the river.

Need those living maps.

Although the government and army have gathered all the ordinary civilian ships on the Han River to prevent them from being used by the peasant army, it should not be a problem for Li Ping, as the latest "red man" around Zuo Liangyu, to have a few ships in the name of preparing for exploration.

Big.

Therefore, when Li Ping's troops arrived at Sheepskin Beach, Dong Jiangpeng's grandfather was already waiting with his boat.

But there are not many boats, only four, two small and two large.

Li Ping did not get on the two boats, which were actually not very big, but on a small boat. The two larger boats were used to carry horses.

When the boat reached about the middle of the river, Li Ping looked at the river and asked casually: "How deep is this place?"

As a result, before Dong Jiangpeng's grandfather could answer, Dong Jiangpeng said first: "General, it's not very deep. It's cold now and there's little water. The deepest place is probably only deep for one person. I'll go down and have a look."

After saying that, the boy didn't wait for Li Ping to nod, but he took off his clothes and jumped into the river.

After a while, Li Ping saw Dong Jiangpeng popping up here and there in the river, and the one popping up must be probing around.

After waiting for a while, Signal Corpsman Dong Jiangpeng showed his head at a place beside the boat and stopped moving, and shouted to Li Ping and others: "General, Chief of Staff, the water depth around here is almost the same, and it is a little worse than my height. I

Now my feet are touching the bottom."

"Okay, I got it, come on up. It's so cold, don't worry about catching a cold!" Li Ping said to Dong Jiangpeng with a smile.

After finishing speaking, Li Ping turned to Ma Yong and told Ma Yong: "When the temperature is the highest tomorrow, arrange more people to understand the water conditions in this area."

Dong Jiangpeng's height was estimated to be about 1.5 meters tall. Li Ping estimated that the depth of this place was between 1 meter and 1.4 meters, but to be on the safe side he had to conduct a rough survey of the water area to see if the cavalry could

Come directly.

As soon as Dong Jiangpeng climbed onto the boat, his grandfather hurriedly took a thin quilt from the boat to cover his grandson. Ma Yong also went up to help wipe the boy's body.

The winter now is not like previous years, it is really cold! It is almost freezing.

While wiping Dong Jiangpeng's body, Ma Yong deliberately scolded him with a straight face: "You are a soldier now. Why are you still acting on your own accord? Neither the general nor I approved it. Why did you jump off on your own? Let's see what you can do."

, just thinking about showing off. If it freezes, you will cry."

"Chief of Staff, I will definitely pay attention next time." Dong Jiangpeng, a communications soldier, said with a playful smile.

When he turned to peek at Li Ping, he saw Li Ping glaring at him and hurriedly lowered his head and stuck out his tongue.

"He's grown... he's got more flesh on his body, he's grown stronger... he can see it clearly when he's naked!" Old Man Dong kept nagging his grandson while he was helping his grandson get dressed.

After Dong Jiangpeng got dressed, the boat continued to move forward, and several other boats that had been following also continued to follow.

"General, there is a large shoal where the river is wider up there. The water should only reach the calf, but the water on both sides is deeper. It is designated to drown people." Dong Jiangpeng's grandfather said suddenly.

.

Li Ping and Ma Yong were both stunned for a moment.

"Yes, yes! How could I forget this? Grandpa, you too, why didn't you tell me earlier?" Dong Jiangpeng interrupted in annoyance.

"Don't you forget it and blame others?" Li Ping smiled and touched Dong Jiangpeng's head. He didn't seem to mind.

Since there were relatively few boats, there were not many people crossing the river with Li Ping. There were only Ma Yong, Dong Jiangpeng, a staff officer and two guards. The other people who had been following him stayed on the south bank.

Since the Han River has a large and shallow area near the north bank of Sheepskin Beach, unlike the south bank where it is basically steep even near the bottom, this may be due to the topography and river channel characteristics.

Therefore, when the boat reached the shallow water on the north shore, everyone had to get off the boat and wade across. Although the distance was not many meters, the quite cold river water gave Li Ping another layer of awareness.

This is a good thing for the defender.

Because neither Dong Jiangpeng nor his grandfather could ride a horse, they had to let two guards drive them and Li Ping slowly and briefly for a few miles along the north bank of Sheepskin Beach. Li Ping needed to know more about the terrain and the like.

problem, and the staff officer was left to help watch the ship.

After briefly viewing the north bank, Li Ping was not in a hurry to return. Instead, he walked slowly along the river on the north bank of Sheepskin Beach, and kept observing the south bank in the darkening sky. He needed to know the enemy's intentions.

What is perspective.

"There are some obvious undulations and a lot of forest cover on the near side of the north bank, and behind it is a flat river, which is very conducive to the assembly of the army and to a certain extent, conducive to concealed attack preparations. Although our side is backed by Wanshan, it is not far away.

Wanshan Mountain is still seven or eight miles away, and the terrain is too flat, especially the shore is almost bare, with only a small highland..." Ma Yong expressed his views worriedly.

"Actually, the terrain on both sides is not much different. Although our side is the flatter, there are also a lot of woods after leaving the shore, which can effectively block the movement of our troops and the strength of the defender. The trouble is,

The vegetation on both sides of the Han River

There are so many that we cannot have a good view of the entire upstream and downstream of the Han River, and we have few troops, so it is impossible to extend the defense line too wide. If the cooperation between friendly forces is not good or the war is prolonged, it is easy for deficiencies in defense to occur...

"Li Ping also talked about his views.

…

"In this battle, muskets and bows and arrows are the main ones, and tactical arrangements are crucial." Ma Yong slowly turned to tactical issues.

"We will discuss the tactics together tomorrow. Think about it better and send troops across the river tomorrow to cut down several forests on the opposite side to open up some sight lines. The cut trees will be brought to our side for repairs.

We will discuss the details of the fortifications when we discuss tactics tomorrow morning..."

As they were talking, Li Ping and Ma Yong were suddenly attracted by the quarrel coming from behind. It turned out that Dong Jiangpeng, who had been following them not far behind and on standby at any time, got angry with his grandfather.

Li Ping was a little unhappy, muttered, "This kid is a little too much," and then nuzzled at Ma Yong.

Ma Yong understood what Li Ping meant and immediately walked back and scolded Dong Jiangpeng.

Unexpectedly, Dong Jiangpeng explained with tears in his eyes: It was not that he didn't respect his grandfather, but that his grandfather was not only ignorant, but also stubborn. His ideas were too dangerous. He was reprimanding his grandfather for not being able to distinguish between thieves and robbers.

It turned out that Old Man Dong, who was following behind and had nothing to do for a while, suddenly talked to his grandson about his desire for the rebel army. He said that the common people were very happy when they heard that King Chuang was coming and the rebel army was coming. Many people were discussing going.

Join the rebel army.

Moreover, everyone said that King Chuang had a message: no one should be killed, no rice should be robbed, no taxes would be levied for three years, and granaries would be opened to release grain.

Therefore, the people were looking forward to the rebel army coming soon, and he himself was looking forward to it too.

Dong Jiangpeng quit at that time, and advised his grandfather not to believe those nonsense, and taught his grandfather: "The bandit army does not engage in production, but relies on robbery for a living. After a long time, they will give some to the common people and spread it widely. In fact,

It is to fool the people to drive them. When there is not enough to rob, they show their ferocious behavior, killing people to satisfy their hunger, dirtying other people's wives and daughters, and doing all kinds of bad things... How can they be trusted when they say they don't tax taxes? Then it's difficult for them to eat and drink whatever they want.

Will food fall from the sky?..."

Dong Jiangpeng's remarks were all words from the army education class. Li Ping did not dare to ignore his ideological position and took it very seriously. So far, it has only been two months and it has had a great effect. Of course, children are the easiest to be guided.

One aspect.

However, what Dong Jiangpeng didn't expect was.

He talked for a long time, but his grandfather didn't believe him and insisted on his original point of view. He also said that when Zhang Xianzhong came to Xiangyang last year, he had done nothing wrong in autumn and even opened a warehouse to release grain! I heard that King Chuang's reputation was greater than that of Zhang Xianzhong, which was also wrong.

Can't.

The old man Dong also said that if he hadn't seen with his own eyes that Li Ping and his group of officers and soldiers were really kind to Dong Jiangpeng and that Li Ping was kind to them, he would have taken Dong Jiangpeng away long ago. But now he is really confused and doesn't know what to do.

good.

Dong Jiangpeng became anxious and couldn't help but said harsh words to his grandfather.
To be continued...