In recent years, the Jurchens' Meng'an troops have been weakened and have become increasingly unusable. Many of the elite Meng'an who were once famous are full of soldiers who were forced by the Jurchens to replace the army's troops. Therefore, they are located in the boundary trenches.
The garrison armies to the north gradually relied on the tribal armies of the Xi people and the Bohai people.
These tribal armies are headed by the Jiedushi envoy. Under the Jiedushi envoy, there are people called "Yili Jin" who are in charge of tribal village affairs, and there are people called "Tuli" who are in charge of tribal litigation and prevent and detect violations.
The hundreds of households further down are not only the leaders of the settlement, but also the generals of the army.
This state of both fighting and farming, where all the people are soldiers, makes the cohesion of the tribal army naturally much stronger than that of the Han'er-dominated divisional army or driving army.
The warriors who followed Guo Ning southward divided and reunited over the past few years, and in the end only a few were left. As for Xiao Haohu, he benefited from the system of the tribal army.
He also retreated from Rouyuan County in Fuzhou, north of Yehuling, all the way into Hebei with twenty or thirty remaining soldiers. Not only did his troops not decrease, but they swelled to nearly a hundred people.
Recently, Tu Shanhang, the governor of Anzhou, planned to recruit local defeated troops to form a capital commander. Xiao Haohu believed that Guo Ning had a reputation for bravery among several nearby defeated troops and would undoubtedly be an obstacle, so he immediately sent people to attack Guo Ning.
Ning Suobu.
The Gaoyang Pass where he was entrenched was more than 80 miles away from the lake and swamp area in the southwest of Ansu Prefecture where Guo Ning usually traveled, and the road was even more difficult to travel.
In the past, Xiao Haohu's men rarely reached this area, let alone mastered Guo Ning's route to collect grain, so Guo Ning was completely unprepared for this and was succeeded by his attack.
Xiao Haohu has the ability to gather broken troops and the decisiveness to attack potential opponents.
Guo Ning felt that this Xi Ren did have some talents as a hero in troubled times, and given time, he might not be able to do something great. In comparison, the original Guo Ning was just a brave man.
It's a pity that Xiao Haohu doesn't have the chance to display his talents anymore.
Xiao Haohu must die, he must die!
Guo Ning had fully prepared his weapons and left the Xiangjun River branch that day. He first went east around Bianwudian and then around Katsuragi at dusk. He stayed in the wilderness that night, then turned south and headed straight.
Gaoyangguan, where Xiao Haohu is located, is about forty miles south of Gecheng.
This pass, also known as Caoqiao Pass, was once one of the important military fortresses set up by the Song Dynasty in northern Xinjiang. It is located south of the three passes of Yukou, Yijin and Waqiao, and is the second pass of the Song Dynasty's military control of Youji.
It plays a core role in the defense line. Therefore, the defense is extremely strong and the garrison is very heavy. Famous generals are often in charge.
However, after the Jurchens swept through the Central Plains, military fortresses such as Gaoyang Pass were no longer on the border, and their military significance was lost.
Moreover, these military forts rely on artificially dug ponds for terrain protection. In recent years, the ponds have gradually become silted up and dried up, so the military forts are no longer dangerous at all. They are just dilapidated fortresses located on the highlands.
Gaoyangguan had previously been requisitioned by the inspection departments of nearby prefectures and counties as a base for capturing thieves in the swamps.
The force of the Inspection Department was not enough in the eyes of veteran frontier soldiers who had experienced many battles. Around September last year, Xiao Haohu easily captured Gaoyang Pass, which was like a mass roar.
At that time, Guo Ning was a little worried, fearing that this move would arouse the anger of the imperial court. Once the imperial court sent troops to fight, wouldn't all the defeated troops around him be in trouble?
For this reason, he deliberately went to Gaoyang Pass to investigate the situation, but found that officials in Gaoyang County and even Anzhou turned a blind eye to this and only wanted to maintain peace of mind.
After Guo Ning came back, he sighed to Yao Shier, Gao Kezhong and other companions, saying that the imperial court was so weak that it would be difficult to control the Black Tartars.
Because he had been there once, he still knew the way there.
On the second day, he did not take the main road the whole way, but moved along the narrow valley leading from Katsuragi to Gaoyangguan.
This river valley is the bed of the Majia River.
The Majia River is a tributary of the Hutuo River, with water from the Yangcun River and the Tuwei River in its upper reaches. In summer and autumn, the entire river course often drains into the Majia River Lake, and in winter it mostly dries up. Wherever Guo Ning passed, he saw only large and small gravels at the bottom of the river bed.
They are all exposed, there are specks of unmelted snow on the rocks, and the mud at the bottom of the river is dry and cracked.
This is a good time to recruit civilians to build water conservancy projects and dredge rivers. However, in recent years, the states in Hebei have been expropriating land, conducting inspections, and in times of war, there have been large-scale mill expropriations, requisitions, and military signings.
I heard that there were more than 30,000 households in Anzhou in the early years, but now that they have been tossed around, I don’t know if there are even 10,000 households left.
In such a situation, how can local officials still have the time to manage rivers?
Even though Tu Shanhang, the governor of Anzhou, was thoughtful, his main energy was focused on military affairs and he could hardly take care of the trivial civil affairs.
Because there was not a single figure along the entire river valley, Guo Ning strode forward very quickly.
He was carrying armor and weapons on his back, and his steps were inevitably heavy. When he stepped on the gravel, he made a splashing sound. This sound echoed between the tall river banks on both sides, which seemed a bit too loud.
Guo Ning doesn't care.
To the east and south of this river valley, there is also the Sanjikou embankment that stretches for fifteen miles as a cover.
The Sanchakou embankment runs across the line of sight. The top is bare, without even a tree. If someone is watching on the embankment, Guo Ning can have a clear view from a distance. On the contrary, it is Guo Ning himself, wearing a gray-white military robe, walking through the gray-white
It is difficult to distinguish between the earth and rocks on the riverbed from a distance.
Guo Ning is only twenty years old this year, but he has been in the army for eight years. He has accumulated rich experience through countless battles in the frontier fortress, and he is already a very experienced warrior.
Guo Ning is already familiar with many of the routines and tricks of marching and fighting, so he doesn't need to be particularly careful and nervous on weekdays, and he won't miss anything he should be careful about.
Guo Ning felt that he had probably only made one omission in the past few months, and that was the day before yesterday.
He did not expect that Xiao Haohu would act so violently, so he ruined the lives of Yao Shier and others.
Guo Ning pressed the long knife on his waist and touched the armor and helmet on his back.
The cold touch calmed his anger, which was about to boil, and he continued on his way.
At dusk, he knelt on the top of the Sanjikou Embankment and looked toward the southeast.
Below the Sanjikou embankment, there is a stretch of dirt road. Walk forward two or three miles along the dirt road, bypassing a depression, and there will be an earth platform that is tens of feet in length and about ten feet high. On the top of the earth platform, there is a
Fragments of walls are in ruins.
Among the ruins, there are several newly built high walls, several courtyards, and two watchtowers. On the watchtowers, there are figures walking around, looking around. Those are the ruins of Gaoyangguan where Xiao Haohu was entrenched.
It was not easy for Xiao Haohu to build a large-scale construction here with less than a hundred people. He probably recruited strong men from the surrounding villages to work as coolies, or perhaps his subordinates were once again enriched.
For a walled city of this size, as long as the defenders are not negligent, one can be used against five or ten.
Under normal circumstances, Guo Ning would be alone here, and trying to rush in and kill people would be a fool's errand.
But Guo Ning traveled more than 80 miles in two days and arrived at this time. He had his own reasons.
Guo Ning sat down behind the Sanchakou embankment, unwrapped the package behind him, took out the remaining pancakes, ate them hungrily, then took out his armor and put it on carefully.
This is a fine set of armor, including iron armor, shawls, arm guards and skirts. The armor leaves are all pierced with green velvet silk ribbons. Generally speaking, this kind of armor belongs to the elite Jurchens of Zhongdu who gathered on the Onsu Guards, or
It was used by the bodyguards of Duji Sizhong, the head coach of the Jin Army at that time.
However, no matter how well-equipped these people are, they all have silver-like pewter spearheads. When Yehuling was defeated, I didn’t know whether the owner of this armor was dead, or whether he took off his armor and ran away? On the contrary, Guo Ning relied on
This set of picked-up armor has fought hard in several tough battles involving mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and has survived several near-death situations.
After Guo Ning finished dressing up, there was a sound behind him on the dirt road below the Sanjikou embankment.
Guo Ning listened attentively, and the sound was getting closer and closer. It was the rumble of footsteps of a small army marching, occasionally mixed with the light sounds of weapons clashing.
Guo Ning sped up his movements and put on his military robe in twos and twos. Then he placed the long sword, iron bone sword, bow and quiver properly. Finally, he put on the phoenix-winged helmet and lowered the edge of the helmet slightly.
The next moment, he turned over and stood on the top of the slope, shouting loudly: "Who is coming?!"