The battle in Handan entered the final stage. Li Dingguo stepped on the bluestone road full of blood and was facing a group of torn beggars. Each of them had a bamboo pole in his hand, forming a solid shelf with a Tartar covered in armor tied on it.
"Good people, please pay homage to you!" The beggars knelt in front of Li Dingguo.
Li Dingguo hurriedly took a few steps, grabbed the old man in front, and smiled and said, "Old man, please get up quickly!"
The old beggar suddenly shook his body and his eyes turned red.
"Sir, we beggars are just a group of people who should have died long ago, but they are still silly and silly. How can we afford to be called a sir!"
Li Dingguo looked around these beggars. As he looked at them, they felt a little ashamed and lowered their heads one by one.
"Do you want to know what I did before I was ten years old? Like you, I also gave it to beggars. One year, I was hungry for three consecutive days. An old beggar asked for a bun. He was unwilling to eat it, so he gave it to me. Then he ate a handful of Guanyin soil, but it ended up swelling to death!"
The beggars present were stunned by the sound of being fooled. They never thought that the handsome and handsome man in front of them would have such a tragic past, and they all raised their ears.
Li Dingguo said with great emotion: "Later, he was plundered by Zhang Xianzhong and became his son. He fought all day long and fled everywhere. Later, thanks to His Royal Highness the King of Liao, he took me under the tent and served as a staff officer. I had a little feeling that life is impermanent, as long as I am still alive, I still have confidence and aura, I can make a fortune. In another ten years, you may not be able to become a useful person!"
The beggars looked at each other, and no one had ever said this to them, and tears actually appeared in their eyes.
"Thank you, sir, even if we have your words, we will have the motivation to survive. If we hadn't had Tartars, we wouldn't have become beggars. What do you use for us? Just give us your orders and never frown!"
The beggars said as they pushed the Tartars who were sent to Li Dingguo. The old beggar said, "Sir, we beg for food every day, and we don't have any other skills, but we have developed a pair of fiery eyes. This guy came here when the city was in chaos. It seemed to be sending a letter to Ma Degong, please ask!"
Li Dingguo's eyes suddenly lit up. He was polite to the beggars, of course he empathized with them. In addition, he also had his own plans. Don't underestimate these beggars. They traveled around the streets and alleys, and the city was full of people. Who is good, who is bad, who is rich, who is rich, who has food, they have a lot of accounts in their hearts.
During this period when Li Dingguo became a staff officer, he flipped over Gu Zhenhua's pamphlet about war and carefully pondered it. Speaking of which, Gu Zhenhua's training and fighting was not surprising, it was nothing more than Qi Jiguang's set. But Gu Zhenhua's most powerful thing was to extend the concept of war.
In the past, Li Dingguo thought that fighting was nothing more than fighting between two armies and siege the city and territories. However, Gu Zhenhua's book mentioned the concept of total war, which means that any battle is not simply aimed at the army, but includes every person and every field.
To win the war, all nations must be determined to enter the battlefield, and everyone must spare no effort, dedicate their whole body and mind, and crush their opponents materially and spiritually!
This concept is Ludendorff's overall war. In fact, before the Western War, the melee between countries was mostly power struggles between nobles. After fighting, they were just royal families of aunts and aunts, and they were still some distance from the lower class people.
With the development of industrialization, the territory of the nobles' feudal was broken and a modern country was formed. Ludendorf followed the trend and proposed a total war.
In Gu Zhenhua's opinion, this statement can actually be brought up earlier. Although China does not have the concept of a nation-state in later generations, China is a unified dynasty. Through the imperial examination system, social mobility is very high, unlike the West being monopolized by aristocratic lords. Therefore, the concept of total warfare just strengthens the national identity of the people and gathers various social forces.
After seeing the concepts explained by Li Dingguo, he was shocked by the Book of Heaven. He actually kept reflecting on why the bandits were so powerful, but they were in a slump after being defeated. Gu Zhenhua happened to give him the answer, that is, the social organization was not in place and the social forces could not be mobilized.
Li Dingguo also specifically consulted Gu Zhenhua for this. Gu Zhenhua also noticed Li Dingguo's keenness and was relieved to let him be an assistant to Li Xu!
Facing this Tartar, Li Dingguo was not polite and waved his hand directly. Two soldiers rushed forward and pressed him down. The sharp dagger pointed at his ear.
"Say, what kind of news you sent? Count to three, and cut off your ears without saying it!"
“1,2…”
"I say!" The Tartar was indeed scared and said hurriedly: "It's Li, the message sent by Lord Li Rutai, he will arrive in Handan in half a day!"
Li Dingguo was shocked all over. After half a day, he deducted the time for the war. I was afraid that the Qing army would come within two or three hours!
Li Dingguo glanced at Tan Xingming beside him and said hurriedly: "Go tell Ma Wannian and let him go to the city immediately and strengthen his defense. Then inform the commander-in-chief, so that he must speed up and drive his troops into the city."
Tan Xingming nodded quickly, turned around and went with the messenger to convey the order.
Li Dingguo turned his attention to these beggars again: "The Tartars are coming. I want to ask you, do you want to be put into the Tartars again?"
"The grandson thought! The Tartars didn't treat the Han people as humans at all. We can see dead bodies transported out of the city every day!"
"Well, then, from now on, you will be An**'s reserve team members and enjoy half the salary!"
The beggars were immediately excited when they heard this and became an official army. It was really unexpected.
"Sir, what do we do? Are you going to kill the Tartars?"
"No, you should be your guide to your brothers. Whoever gets close to the Tartars in the city will be captured and killed. Their property will be confiscated. Whoever has a grudge against the Tartars? Let them help defend the city. As long as you defend Handan, you will be a great achievement. You will be sure to be successful in the future!"
Li Dingguo said, his face also became gloomy and said seriously: "Remember too. If you dare to commit favoritism and fraud, we still have people to stare at it, wrongly accusing good people and letting go of bad people. All officials will be engaged in military law!"
This is not to scare them. An** has another force, that is, Fang Dahong's World Society. They just supervise each other and quickly control Handan with these local snakes.
Li Dingguo's method is indeed effective. Beggars are all tidy feet. They have the energy to walk around the streets and alleys, so they are not too fast. First find the prestigious ones and have a grudge against the Tartars. These people act as militia captains. They then mobilize their trusted men to form teams of militias, allocate blocks, and search from house to door.
The rich gentry and businessmen who were most in contact with the Tartars were naturally the first to be cleaned up, and a large amount of food and property fell into the hands of An**. Li Dingguo collected 70% and sent the other 30% to the militia.
The militia were like snowballs, with more and more people. The lackeys of the Tartars and the remaining traitors were wiped out. In less than half a day, the city of Handan was a piece of iron.
Li Xu climbed over Taihang Mountains and arrived in Handan. At first sight, he couldn't help but give Li Dingguo a thumbs up.
"Staff General Li, no wonder His Highness the King of Liao personally ordered the generals. He is such a good man!"
Li Dingguo smiled bitterly: "Commander-in-chief, this is just the first step. The Tartars will come at any time. As far as I know, there are tens of thousands of people. Can they withstand..."
While he was talking, battalion commander Lu Dongyong hurriedly ran over.
"Report to the commander-in-chief, the brothers have already seen the traces of the Tartars. They can reach the city of Handan in about thirty miles northeast of Handan in as soon as an hour!"
"So fast!"
Li Xu was shocked. Gu Zhenhua handed over the elite soldiers of his two brigades, with a total of more than 10,000 people, and it was no problem to deal with tens of thousands of Tartars. However, it was not easy for a large group of people to cross the Taihang Mountains, especially the large amount of baggage, which were all left behind.
"Staff General Li, I calculated that the mountain road is difficult to move forward. It will take about noon before Kang Lesheng's troops arrive. As for Xiong Xin's troops, it will take until evening."
Li Dingguo suddenly frowned: "Chief Commander, can't you hurry up?"
"Staff General Li, you also know that in addition to food and arms, there is also a lot of cement in our supplies, which is the key to our guardianship of Handan. People can't just carry horses and pull them quickly."
Both of these two people felt a headache. If they followed the steps, the Tartars would kill the city. At that time, the Tartars would clench into a fist and An** would still be scattered everywhere, so there would be no way to fight this battle!
"Commander-in-chief, don't worry, my subordinates ask us to go out of the city to fight the Tartars, so that they can know how powerful An** is!"
The ones who came to ask for the order were Li Laiheng and Ma Wannian, who were very imposing.
Li Dingguo said with some doubts: "The Baigan soldier has been fighting for so long. Is he still motivated? The old guard is the prince's heart. If there is a little loss, who can afford it!"
Li Laiheng patted his chest and said, "Sir, don't worry, don't we have this!" His fingers were pointing at the hot air balloon in the city.
Since the development of hot air balloons, each brigade has basically equipped at least two or three hot air balloons, and Li Xu and the others have equipped five. This time, the hot air balloons were the first to discover the enemy situation.
However, Li Xu was a little suspicious that there was no problem with hot air balloons to watch, and it was hard to say whether they could fight.
"Do you really have confidence?"
"Don't worry, commander-in-chief, even if there is no hot air balloon, the Minnie gun equipped by our Guards has an overwhelming advantage, and we can guarantee that we can escape unstoppable!"
Li Xu and Li Dingguo looked at each other and could only nod their heads to agree.
Li Laiheng and Ma Wannian immediately greeted their subordinates. They brought a total of 1,000 old guards and 1,500 white-rod soldiers and quickly rushed out of the northern city, and arranged an array about five miles away from the city. The hot air balloons carrying three soldiers slowly rose into the air. The army suddenly had a sky eye, and the actions of the Tartars in the distance could be clearly seen.
The observer above pointed the banner to the northeast and waved it down five times in a row, telling Li Laiheng and the others that the enemy was in the northeast direction, with a total of about 5,000 people.
Chapter completed!