Six hundred and ninetieth chapters Highway robbery
The Wangwu Mountain Range borders Taihang to the east, Zhongtiao to the west, Taiyue to the north, and the Yellow River to the south. It is one of the nine famous ancient mountains in the Central Plains and a holy land of Taoism.
The "Wangwu Sect" and Fugui Villa are both located at the southern foot of the mountain range. The Ci Ma Tun, where the underworld men and horses gather, is to the west, and Zuo Liangyu's cavalry came from the east, apparently wanting to compete with "Fugui" "Alliance", the underworld jointly formed a horned force, encircling and attacking the white men and horses of Fugui Villa.
Hua Bushi's plan was to intercept the army and cavalry at Duanlong Gorge outside the eastern foothills.
Wangwu Mountain is not that kind of dangerous and tall mountain range. Except for the main peak Tiantan Peak, which is very steep, most of the terrain consists of mountains and hills that are not too high.
Although the name of Duanlong Gorge sounds quite impressive, it is actually just a very ordinary canyon. The valley is hundreds of feet long. It is not deep, and the slopes on both sides cannot be said to be very steep. [
The mountains on the north side of Duanlong Gorge are shaped like curved eyebrows, so they are named Daimei Mountain.
Hua Bushi was standing on the top of Daimei Mountain. Beside him were Ximen Tong and Chu Yiyi, as well as Yang Sichang. The big white dog princess was crouching at the feet of the young master, wagging her tail leisurely.
Where they are, they are located on the edge of the woods. They have an excellent view from a high position and are shaded by trees. They are not easily spotted from a distance.
At this moment, Hua Bushi was setting up a pergola with his hands and looking out, but what he was looking at was on the slopes on the north and south sides. More than two hundred heroes from various factions were lying in wait in the grass there.
"The terrain here is not ideal for an ambush. Mr. Yang must have put a lot of thought into choosing this place to ambush Zuo Liangyu,"
Hua Bushi's words seemed quite contradictory, but Yang Sichang laughed when he heard it and said: "Young Master Sichang Chenghua trusts you so much and entrusts him with the responsibility of blocking Zuo Liangyu's plan. How dare you not do your best?"
He paused briefly and said: "Zuo Liangyu has experienced battles for a long time and is good at using troops. If we set up an ambush in a dangerous place, he will definitely be alert and will not fall into the trap. Only by choosing such a place does it seem that there will be no threat." Only by starting at the right place can he fall into the trap."
Hua Bushi frowned and said: "Zuo Liangyu is good at using soldiers and is very alert. Why does Mr. Sichang think that he will be fooled so easily?"
Yang Sichang said: "Zuo Liangyu is very brave in charging into battle. He has made many military exploits in Ningyuan, Liaodong Province in the north. He is both resourceful and powerful. He is really a rare general. It's a pity that he is not a handsome man. This man is born " He is arrogant by nature, attaches too much importance to fame and self-interest, acts arrogantly, and is headstrong. He will make big mistakes out of small things due to temporary impulsiveness, and cannot discern the situation. He was demoted for this reason back then, so Sichang expected that he would only need a little motivation , he will definitely be deceived by negligence,"
Hua Bushi had great trust in Yang Xiaoguan. Without Yang Sichang's "Mao" Sui, he would not have dared to take over the task of intercepting Zuo Liangyu's brigade.
But when he heard what Yang Sichang said, his heart moved again. What he was thinking was that Yang Sichang could talk freely about Zuo Liangyu's strengths and weaknesses. He presumably also knew the other civil servants and generals in the current dynasty very well. This must have taken a lot of effort and effort to achieve. This shows that although Mr. Yang was dismissed from office, he has great ambitions and will never be willing to remain a commoner.
Hua Bushi said: "It's really rare for Mr. Sichang to know the other side. But why did Mr. Sichang calculate that Zuo Liangyu had lost the food and fodder for the army and had to withdraw his troops? He was ordered by the emperor to come to Henan to suppress the bandits. He was the army's food source. , it shouldn’t be too difficult as long as you ask for it from the nearby prefecture and county yamen,”
Yang Sichang smiled slightly and said: "Young Master Hua has learned everything in his mind. He is proficient in the art of war and medicine. His knowledge is not what Sichang can match. It's just that he is not familiar with official affairs."
Hua Bushi said: "Sir, it's funny. Xiao Ke really only knows some things in the world, and he knows nothing about officialdom."
Yang Sichang said: "Zuo Liangyu is a member of the 'Donglin Party', but most of the civil servants and military generals in the prefectures and counties in Henan belong to the 'Five Kings Party', and they were all colleagues of Sichang in the past. A few days ago, Sichang had visited the magistrate of Mengjin County, and sent letters to the officials in Jiyuan and Shaanzhou to inform them of the situation in detail. They would all be prepared, and Zuo Liangyu brought out the imperial edict. It is also difficult to get food and grass supplies from them,"
Hua Bushi said: "Oh, is it possible that these officials still dare to disobey the imperial edict?"
Yang Sichang smiled and said: "I dare not openly resist the decree, but Master Hua doesn't know something. In today's court, as long as you are a local official, the first thing you have to learn is to falsify your performance and confuse the money and food accounts. Even if they have If there were really tens of thousands of stones of grain and grass deceived, they could have made it so that not even a grain of grain was left in the accounts. When Zuo Liangyu asked for it, they only had to take out the account book, and then they could withhold the grain on the pretext of not giving it."
"Such things are not surprising in the officialdom. It is said that a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake. Not to mention that Zuo Liangyu is only a fifth-rank general, it is the Ming Xuan Governor Zhang Zongheng, who is a third-rank official and leads With nearly 100,000 troops stationed in Henan for several years, they were unable to wipe out Li Zicheng and other bandits. This was also because they were restricted everywhere and the supply of food, grass and weapons was difficult to guarantee."
Regarding the dispute between the three parties in the court, Hua Bushi had heard Chu Yiyi talk about it earlier, but he did not know that the role of party struggle could be so great. In order to suppress the opposing parties, local officials could also fabricate important military matters. Fraud, but considering that Zhuo Yiwen ordered Jianghu sects to withdraw from Huaiqing that day, even abandoning the entire city to the rebels, only to suppress Henan Governor Fan Jingwen, this kind of thing seems to be natural, [
Yang Sichang said: "The two thousand men and horses led by Zuo Liangyu are all heavily armored and elite cavalry, and their consumption of food and grass is no less than that of five thousand infantry. As long as his food and grass supply is cut off, no matter how brave he is, there is nothing he can do but withdraw his troops." Other methods,"
But at this moment, Chu Yiyi stretched out her hand and said, "Look, the army's cavalry is coming."
Everyone looked in the direction she pointed, and saw a puff of dust and smoke rising far away from Duanlong Gorge.
The dust smoke was only a faint wisp at first, and gradually grew bigger and bigger, and then several black dots appeared on the horizon. They were heavy armored cavalry marching in formation. After a while, one could see an apricot flag embroidered in front of the team. With a big "left" character,
Looking at the approaching officers and soldiers, a sharp light flashed in Hua Bushi's eyes. It was these people who brutally murdered tens of thousands of refugees on Biluo Mountain that day. Xiao Ningning's family also died there. When their subordinates thought of this, Hua Bushi couldn't help but feel a surge of uncontrollable anger and hatred in his heart.
Yang Sichang stood next to Hua Bushi, and immediately saw the change in the expression on the young master's face, and said hurriedly: "Master Hua, with our current strength, it is really difficult to compete with his large group of fine cavalry. Resistance, today's battle is just to stop Zuo Liangyu from rushing to aid Fugui Villa. We must not fight forcefully. I also ask Master Hua to put the overall situation first and act according to the plan."
After hearing this, Hua Bushi's expression calmed down and he said: "Mr. Yang, don't worry, Hua Bushi should understand and won't act out of emotion."
I saw the army's cavalry approaching gradually, heading towards Duanlong Gorge. Even though they were several miles away, Hua Bushi and others could hear the "rumbling" sound of the horses' hooves on the ground.
Yang Sichang said: "As expected, Zuo Liangyu brought a lot of food and grass with the army, at least five or six thousand stones."
At this time, it could be seen clearly that the official cavalry was led by five hundred cavalry. There were as many as a thousand cavalry in the middle army, and there were more than five hundred cavalry in the rear army. Between the middle army and the rear army, there were fifty or sixty cavalry.
A caravan pulled by mules and horses, which contained mostly food in bags and bundles of fodder, as well as some military equipment.
The "left" flag is located in the front army. It has more than ten fine armored cavalry supporting a general. You can see that this man is seven feet tall, wearing a fiery red battle robe and black gold armor on his shoulders. He is riding a tall horse.
The five-flowered war horse has a bright saddle and bridle, and a nine-ring sword hangs on the weapon ring. Although it is too far away to distinguish his appearance, you can see the beard on his face. He is not very old.
This general is suspected to be Zuo Liangyu, who is known as "the most powerful general in Liaodong".
Normally, as a military commander, most of the time he would be stationed in the middle army, but Zuo Liangyu led his own soldiers to march among the front army and served as the vanguard. This shows that this man's bravery is extraordinary.
The horse team reached the front of the canyon, paused briefly, and then continued to move forward, galloping towards the valley.
Broken Dragon Canyon is very wide, and the mountains on both sides are not too steep, so it is not suitable for an ambush. This is obvious to experienced generals like Zuo Liangyu, so he ordered his troops to continue advancing.
However, there was an ambush in this place that was not suitable for an ambush. The front team had not gone twenty feet into the valley when they suddenly heard a "whoosh" sound and a loud arrow flew and was inserted into the valley.
in the middle of the road,
Then there was a "ding-ding" sound of gongs, and forty or fifty riders galloped out from behind the rocks and trees on both sides of the road, blocking the way of the officers and soldiers.
Horse thief, are you kidding?
Arrows sounded as a warning and gongs sounded to show up. This was a standard scene for underworld horse thieves to cut off paths and rob. However, it appeared here and now. Even Zuo Liangyu couldn't help but be shocked.
These were 2,000 regular elite cavalry, not a gang of escort merchants with only a few carts to transport goods. The horse thieves who escaped from somewhere were so blind that even a large army of officers and soldiers dared to rob them.
Forty or fifty cavalry, which is not a small number for the horse thieves who robbed the road, but compared with the heavy cavalry of the official army in front of them, they are like a few ants, and although these horse thieves blocking the road are also black scarves
They were masked and each held a weapon in their hands, but most of their armors were incomplete. Some only had upper body and lower body, and some simply wore only one arm armor, which looked quite shabby.
First there was a burly man, holding two steel rings, one large and one small. He was obviously the leader of this group of horse thieves. He held the reins and shouted loudly: "I opened this mountain, and this tree is mine."
I'm dead... I don't care whether I kill or bury them."[