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 and 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 grain were piled up all over the road, and the whole camp was filled with herds 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 river bandit in the Jiujiang area? Now everyone knows that the world has changed, and there are fewer and fewer business travelers traveling 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 a noble family, but only after Jiang Qin actually joined Chen Deng's forces did he know the extent of this identity.
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Jiang Qin felt that he had seen the world on the river, but he had never seen a march of five or six thousand people like the one he saw now.
Not to mention, the splendid scene that Jiang Qin and the others had when they followed Xuzhou's main force to the north.
The 20,000 Xuzhou elite troops 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 he 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, even in the Central Plains and Mount Tai.
An army of these people.
Thinking about it this way, my protagonist Chen Deng seems to be the weakest among them.
But Jiang Qin also had his own considerations. The first 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 Huaihe River.
After three or four years of accumulating farmland, opening canals, increasing irrigation and water transportation, the Chen family has accumulated 300,000 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 these 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."
After joining Chen Deng's army, Jiang Qin's water bandits were reorganized into one unit. Jiang Qin was the general, so after hearing the military order, he also rode to the front army with two guards.
There, Chen Dengzai held a pre-war military meeting.
…
The structure of Chen Deng's tribe is very simple. The entire army of 4,000 soldiers is divided into eight tribes. Among them, there will be four tribes of the Chen family, one each for Jiang Qin, Gao Cheng, and Dong He, and the last one is the tribe of Beihai.
Yi came to seek refuge with Wang Xiu.
As soon as the eight generals arrived, Chen Deng told everyone a shocking news:
"The Luqiu defense line is empty, and the Taishan bandits have escaped."
The wind was a bit strong at the moment, so no one could 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, Chen Deng's clan members 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 fled in panic after hearing that our army was heading north. Our army should 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, tell me what concerns you have."
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.
That’s it.”
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, and he was himself. Shiyi also did not agree to pursue, and 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 serve as three Yellow Turbans, but one Taishan army can withstand
There are ten Yellow Turbans, which shows how powerful the Taishan Army is."
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? When things go wrong, there must be monsters. Please think twice, my lord."
After hearing this, Chen Deng burst out laughing.
He said to the crowd:
"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, so 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:
"Pursue, don't let the thieves go back to Mount Tai."
…
In a hilly area five miles away from Chen Deng's troops, General Xu Shuzheng, then the former military academy lieutenant of the Taishan Army's Left Army Marshal's Department, and his nine young brothers were crouching in a grassland.
It was July, the grass was growing and warblers were flying. The weeds in this hilly area had already grown as tall as a small man. 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 one, 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 did not know their combat mission, nor did he know who the enemy they were going to ambush was. This made Xu Shu feel quite powerless.
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 Dongpingling Tomb.
But in the morning of the next day, as soon as the sky broke, a military order was issued from above, asking them to withdraw from Dongpingling. 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 one of their troops, but that several of the captain's troops who attacked the city last night seemed to have withdrawn from the city in sequence.
Behind 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 supply can be roughly divided into four categories.
The first category is when the field army is about to fight, and meat is generally available at this time. The second category is when the field army is maintaining peace, and meat is available across the mountains. The third category is the garrison troops in various places. Although there is no meat, there is no meat available.
Millet tubes are enough. 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 where boxes were stacked, and then said some inspiring words.
Xu Shu and the others were far away, so they couldn't hear clearly, but as long as they saw the brothers in front shouting, 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 felt affection for him, 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 from all armies held a large-scale military sacrifice activity at Dongping Mausoleum. The sacrificial wines from each army prayed to Huang Tian at the scene and led the souls of the soldiers who died in the battle to Huangtian.
sky.
Xu Shu and others also participated, and it was only then that he learned the death toll of Taishan's 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 saw, 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 had not suffered any 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 and see their families?
But there was a little rain in the field that night, and on the next day, orders were sent from above to turn the army southward. No one knew where their destination was.
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 heavy-duty sword. He had the strongest physique in the world, but he did not fall in the siege of Dongping Ling.
He was 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 this problem.
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, and even once or twice, these people would station their horses nearby and observe the place carefully.
And this boring day ended on July 14th.
But to be more precise, around 2:00 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 Hou Military Academy Lieutenant Gao Ya Division, 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 have a meal first, and also found the only gourd of honey water in the whole country 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 pull the trigger.
In this way, time passed slowly in silence, and probably more than half an hour passed.
Suddenly, smoke and dust filled the air again in the direction leading from the Elegant Department, 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, that flag as red as blood, he couldn't help but feel excited:
"I've finally waited for you."
This Han army was moving very fast and was almost reaching the hilly land before our eyes.
But at this time, Xu Shu found that the opposite side had stopped, and then several military officials 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, so the Han troops could not see them.
Perhaps 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 the approaching sentries, 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 sounds of killing all over the hills.