The withered and yellow weeds on both sides of the road were swaying in the wind. The whole world seemed to have lost its life, and the crows of crows could be heard from time to time.
The refugees huddled on the side of the road, waiting to die, looking at the horse team retreating, their eyes as gray as ashes without any emotion.
Le Jin looked back at the owner of those eyes and sighed silently. His mood seemed to be a little heavier.
The team member on the side reprimanded in a heavy tone: "I remember that when the Yellow Turban thieves came to Hedong a few years ago, the scene was not as miserable as it is now. Damn the White Wave Army, what on earth have they done."
Another team member said solemnly: "I heard that they not only robbed food, but also robbed people. Regardless of adults or children, as long as they had some strength, they all dragged them to mine. There were also women, except for the really old ones.
, as long as it’s a woman, they won’t let it go.”
This team member is from the Jiaolong Gang. Although they are water bandits, they will not kill them all. They will only rob goods and food, and everyone will be released. They will not do anything that is harmful to nature.
Therefore, even they, who are water bandits, hate the Baibo Army's animal behavior.
Le Jin withdrew his gaze and looked up helplessly at the gray sky.
The reason why the sky was gray was because several villages not far ahead were burned by fires. Not only the houses, but also the crops in the fields were not spared. It didn't take much to think about it, but it must have been done by the Baibo Army again.
"Brother Le Jin, Xia County is ahead of us. We'd better be careful to avoid running into people from the Baibo Army."
Le Jin nodded and tightened the letter hidden in the seam of his chest.
After about a stick of incense, several people arrived at the outskirts of Xia County City.
The soldiers guarding the city spotted them immediately. An arrow flew from the sky and was nailed seven or eight meters in front of Le Jin.
Le Jin tightened the reins of his horse, raised his head and shouted loudly: "I, Le Jin, have been entrusted by my young master to ask to see Mr. Wei."
The soldiers on the city asked: "Who is your young master?"
Le Jin took out the badge provided by the Wei family and said loudly: "My young master is Wei Cheng, the second legitimate son of the Wei family."
The soldiers guarding the city were startled when they heard this, then turned around and ran away in a hurry.
Not long after, Wei Gong appeared at the top of the city wearing a military uniform. Seeing the familiar stab-proof uniforms on Le Jin and others, he whispered to the soldiers on the side, and the city gate slowly opened the next moment.
Le Jin rode in with several team members.
However, the scene in front of them made them take a deep breath.
I saw injured soldiers everywhere, the buildings in the city were in ruins, there were traces of fire in many places, and there was an unpleasant burning smell in the air.
"Is this... the Baibo Army entering the city?" One of the team members couldn't help but muttered.
At this time, Wei Gong came down from the city gate tower, and Le Jin and others hurriedly got off their horses.
Le Jin stepped forward, cupped his fists and saluted, and said, "Young Le Jin, I have met the third master."
Wei Gong lifted him up with both hands, signaled the soldiers to close the city gate first, and then said: "Did the second brother ask you to come?"
Le Jin took out Wei Cheng's letter, nodded and said: "That's right, the young master has something important to tell the third master and ask the third master to read it."
Wei Gong took the letter, nodded slightly, and explained to the soldiers on the side: "In modern times, they are going to rest...I'm sorry, I still have some things to deal with here. The few of you will go and have a rest first. Wei will entertain you in person later."
A strong man." He was later told to Le Jin and others.
Le Jin and others clasped their fists and saluted. The situation in the city was obviously not good, and they did not want to disturb them. After thanking them, they followed the soldiers to rest. After traveling for so long, they were indeed tired.
Emiya watched them leave, then glanced at the letter in his hand, turned around and walked into the guardhouse nearby.
"Cough cough cough, cough cough cough..."
There was another tragic scene in the guardhouse. Soldiers could be seen everywhere. Many of them were missing arms and legs and were already hanging on.
Wei Gong was not surprised and walked into a main room with a gloomy face.
Several people dressed as scribes in the room were sorting out documents. When they saw Emiya coming in, they all raised their hands in greeting.
Wei Gong waved his hand casually, walked to a desk and sat down cross-legged.
Maybe he moved a little hastily, but there was a look of pain on his face. He lowered his head and looked at his waist and abdomen. He saw traces of blood seeping out of the leather armor of his military uniform, mixed with the stained undershirt. You wouldn't know it if you didn't pay attention.
he got hurt.
Seeing this, a thin-looking scribe next to him frowned and said, "Uncle Wen, your injury can't continue like this. It's better for someone to take you back to Anyi for treatment as soon as possible."
Wei Gong frowned, shook his head and said, "I'm not in the way."
The scribe wanted to persuade him again, but another scribe with a long beard on the opposite side suddenly said: "In the battle last night, our side suffered heavy casualties. 317 people died, and more than 1,200 were seriously injured.
The Chinese herbal medicine has been exhausted, and I am afraid there will be more deaths today."
Another scribe said: "The granary was also burned. Although the rescue was timely, only less than 30% of the original more than 3,000 stones of grain were rescued. If the Baibo Army comes to attack at night several more times, I'm afraid..."
He looked at the leader, Emiya, with a worried look on his face, as if he was hesitant to speak.
Wei Gong knew what he was going to say and said decisively: "Don't mention the abandonment of the city again. Baibo thieves are always watching outside the city. Unless we don't care about the people in the city and don't need the nearly 10,000 shi of autumn grain, they won't let it go easily."
Pass ours.”
The lean scribe also said: "Yes, Brother Pei has proposed abandoning the city several times, which is not what a gentleman does. Do you want to imitate those dog officials who leave the corpse and eat nothing, and abandon the common people when they are in danger?"
The scribe frowned slightly and asked with a red face: "Brother Wang, what's the explanation? Am I leaving? The Baibo thieves almost entered the city last night. Who led the people to use the train to force them back? It was me! Yes.
I am Pei Qingzhi!"
The thin scribe was speechless for a moment.
Seeing this, Wei Gong patted the table hard and said in a deep voice: "Okay, Brother Wang, Brother Pei, please stop arguing."
Wei Gong took out Wei Cheng's letter and opened it in front of everyone.
After taking a look, Wei Gong frowned slightly, thinking that in the first line of the letter, Wei Cheng told him that he was returning to Wei Village.
When he saw the following content, Emiya's breathing became rapid.
By the time he finished reading all the letters, the dejection on his face had disappeared, and turned into an expression of excitement and disbelief.
The scribes in the hall looked at each other and secretly asked Emiya what is going on?
The thin scribe cupped his hands and asked curiously: "Uncle Wen, is this a letter from the second master?"
Several scribes immediately thought of Wei Min, because Wei Min was in the county government. If Wei Min wrote a letter, it is likely that the county government would send troops to support them. If not, Wei Palace would not be so surprised and happy.
changes in expression.
However, Emiya's answer directly poured cold water on them: "No, it's not the second uncle's letter. I'm the second brother."
Several people looked at each other, even more puzzled.
"Brother Wei Cheng?"
"Wei Zhongdao?"
"What did the letter say? Why is Uncle Wen so excited?"
···
Wei Zhuang.
Not far to the west of Zhuangzi is Anyi County. At this time, many people were carrying supplies to the city.
"Hurry up, be careful when moving, don't bump it."
"You two, please be careful, or you may save your life?"
"...Really, everyone is frizzy."
Wei Cheng stood on a carriage, holding a map of Anyi County in his hand.
"Ah Cai."
"Hey, I'm here, I'm here, what do you want me to do?"
Wei Cheng called over the steward in charge of supervising the work, pointed to a hillside not far away, and said, "Dig a trench there as well."
The steward nodded, took out a simple drawing from his pocket, and made a mark on it.
Wei Cheng pointed to a ditch a hundred meters away and asked, "Which ditch is connected to the inner city?"
The steward came over, glanced at the Kan map, and said uncertainly: "This little one needs to find someone to confirm. I remember that it is a sewage canal, connecting several squares in the east of the city. As for whether it is connected to
I really don’t know about the inner city.”
"That's it..."
Wei Cheng frowned slightly, looked around, and said, "Okay, you go and do your work first, and I'll go look elsewhere."
The steward bowed his hands respectfully and said, "Farewell to the Second Master."
Wei Cheng nodded to Xu Ding, who waved his whip and started running around Anyi County with his carriage.
This is the second day after arriving in Weizhuang.
Wei Cheng didn't get much rest, and went into intense work the next day.
The area of Wei Village was still too small to accommodate too many people, so Wei Cheng suggested that Wei Hao give up Wei Village and move his family to Anyi County.
The Wei family also has a house in the county, but compared to Wei Zhuang on the outskirts of the city, the house in the city is much smaller.
Fortunately, now the entire Anyi County town can be said to be empty of ten houses and nine empty rooms. The Wei family did not care so much and directly occupied the center of Anyi County town. All the clan members moved in and planned to occupy the city and defend it.
.
In addition, the county wall is higher, making it easier to defend against foreign enemies.
Even so, Wei Cheng was still worried, and he led Wei's people to begin the renovation and construction of the entire defense fortifications in Anyi County.
After looking at the defense fortifications of Anyi County, even though Wei Cheng was a military novice, he discovered many loopholes.
For example: many ditches in the city are dug into the ground and are connected to the inner city. This obviously provides the enemy with a special passage into the city. Without saying anything, Wei Cheng had people block all the ditches.
As for the sewage problem, digging a septic tank can solve it.
Another example: City defenses in this era did not consider the enemy's fire attack, so there were naturally no water storage tanks and cisterns around the streets and houses. Wei Cheng did not waste any time and forced all streets and houses to be resettled.
A large water tank.
Streets are 20 meters apart, and every house with a yard must have a large water tank to store rainwater. If the house catches fire, the water can be used to put out the fire immediately.
This problem could have been solved by diverting water from the Fen River five miles away, but now it is obviously too late to expand the moat and canals, so we can only use water tanks and reservoirs for a while.
There are also some new simple defense methods and traps, such as wooden fences, which can effectively block the cavalry's offensive, as well as trenches and horse traps. Wei Cheng had people dig several holes at some high points and places with wide views.
Each one will be tricked when the time comes.
Of course, in addition to these, necessary counterattack means are also indispensable.
Led by the Wei family, the common people in the city who had not yet left chose to join the queue for city defense. Even the refugees passing by also enthusiastically chose to join, because the Wei family not only provided food, but also a set of winter clothes.
The people of Wei were very active in solving the problem of food and clothing with such great wealth. In less than half a day, nearly 3,000 people had joined the defense force. Currently, Xu Huang and others are leading the training.
The team temporarily followed Wei Cheng's arrangements in Wei Village, and divided Xu Huang, Guan Yu, Xu Chu, and Zhang Fei into four square formations. Each formation was based on the original guard members and villagers, and attracted the people in the city to join, with a total of four thousand people.
people.
Soldiers should be more sophisticated than numerous.
Wei Cheng felt that four thousand people would be enough, and the remaining people could join in the construction of city defense and do whatever they could.
It's definitely not possible to eat and drink for free. If you want to eat and clothe yourself, you have to work.
Xu Ding was responsible for driving the carriage, while Wei Cheng sat in the carriage and thought about what else was missing.
Not long after, the two came to the north of the city.
"Sir, look!" Xu Dingle stopped the carriage, turned around and said in a deep voice.
Wei Cheng's expression changed, and he looked in the direction he was pointing, his brows furrowed.
I saw thick smoke billowing in the sky, and the smoke dispersed with the wind. It was visually estimated that the source of the fire should be no less than ten miles away from here. But even so, it was still possible to judge the ferocity of the fire based on the rising smoke.
"It should be a village."
Wei Cheng didn't look too good and said to Xu Ding: "Go back and send a few people over to take a look."
Xu Ding nodded, turned the horse's head and rushed towards the city.
Wei Cheng looked back at the direction where the smoke was rising, and his brows could not help but frown even more tightly.
After he came out of the mountains in the past two days, all he saw along the way were haggard and displaced Li people. These were the people who escaped, but... what about those who did not choose to escape? Did they really have any chance when they encountered the Baibo Army?
The power of resistance?
The answer is obviously no, ordinary people can only be slaughtered and ravaged.
Those who slay dragons will eventually become evil dragons.
These so-called rebels chanted the slogan of overthrowing the corrupt court and saving the common people, but in fact they did more despicable things than Zhang Rang, He Jin and others.
At least Zhang Rang, He Jin and others know how to raise pigs and cannot kill ordinary people. However, these so-called rebels shout nice slogans, but when they encounter ordinary people who disagree with them, they can only join and fight.
Two choices are to be killed.
Which is right or wrong, maybe Wei Cheng can't say.
But now that he has encountered it, he will not let tragedy happen in front of his eyes.
At least in the territory of Anyi, under his nose, as long as someone dares to bully and rob the people wantonly, he will not ignore it.
The two returned to the city, and Wei Cheng directly found the place where Xu Huang and others were training.
"Gongming, Yun Chang, you two quickly lead five hundred cavalry, with the county town as the center, within a radius of twenty miles. I don't want to see the existence of Bai Bo thieves."
The expressions of Xu Huang and Guan Yu, who were training soldiers, changed, and Wei Cheng's expression became terrifyingly gloomy. The two of them didn't know why Wei Cheng, who usually had a calm look on his face, suddenly changed into a different person.
Xu Ding winked at the two of them, and then pointed to the north.
At this time, the city gate is wide open. Through the city gate hole, you can see a wisp of black smoke like a bed bug, constantly eating the blue sky...