Guo Ning rode his horse and led 300 riders across Gaoyuan County in Zizhou, and then passed through Jinling and Yinling in the north of the county.
The terrain of this area, which runs through the remaining veins of the Changbai Mountains in the southwest, is generally low hills, gentle slopes, and shallow depressions. Unfamiliar outsiders will inevitably go round and round when they come here. Fortunately, Dong Jin is in front to act as a rural guide, and Guo Ning
The others filed along and walked very quickly.
Occasionally climbing up a high slope, Guo Ning watched from far and near, only to feel the north wind blowing from time to time.
In the past few days, the weather has become colder and colder. The sound of horse hooves stepping on the ground has become crisper. This is because the surface soil has dried out in autumn and lost a little water. During the cold wave in winter, the soil is frozen hard.
, the sound of the horse's hooves will be different.
This place was originally a prosperous land, with farmland and villages dotted along the roadside. It can be seen that there are ditches and ridges between the farmland, and they were once carefully maintained. However, now the ditches have all collapsed and been abandoned. The mulberry trees on the ridges
Most of it was cut down, and there must have been an army passing by, collecting materials for building the camp.
The farmland itself was already overgrown with weeds, and only a small part was planted with wheat, millet, etc. Guo Ning urged his horse to take a closer look. The entire dry field had not been taken care of for a while, and the wheat was a little wilted.
Just as he was about to turn his horse and continue on his way, Ni raised his hand and signaled: "Jie Shuai, look!"
I saw several corpses piled up in the corner of a ravine at the back. The corpses had just begun to rot, and large areas of the exposed skin had turned purple-black. Among the corpses were old men, children, and women, most of whom were wearing clothes.
Suffering horrific knife and gun wounds.
Guo Ning reined in his horse and turned back to the road.
A warrior who survives in this world has long been hard-hearted, so he would not lament over a few corpses.
He said to Ni Yiyi: "When the war is over, we have to send people to patrol these abandoned villages, put up signs to collect the corpses, and bury them deeply. Otherwise, after the spring begins, we are afraid of epidemic diseases. Well, we also have to collect all the news about the burials.
Summarize it in time and distribute it to the three prefectures of Denglai. The soldiers and civilians stationed there may have local origins and they can use it."
Ni nodded repeatedly, took out a book from the leather bag hanging beside the saddle, and wrote two lines on it with charcoal pen.
Seeing that Ni Yi was writing like flying, Guo Ning leaned over to look at his books.
Ni Yi was concentrating on writing, fearing that others would bump into it. He subconsciously retracted his arm, and when he saw Guo Ning looking sideways, he grinned and stretched out the book in front of Guo Ning.
Guo Ning stretched out his hand and gestured in the air: "Epidemic. There are two points on the left, not two horizontal lines."
"Yes, yes, let's change it."
Ni immediately rode to the roadside, spread the book on the front saddle, painted the original wrong words into a dark circle, and neatly wrote the correct words next to it.
By the time he finished writing, Guo Ning had already taken dozens of steps forward. Ni stuffed the book back into his bag and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
There was a chuckle from the side, and it was Zhao Jue who was leading the men to catch up from behind. Ni Yi made a face at Zhao Jue, urged his horse to speed up, and followed Guo Ning's figure.
Zhao Jue shook his head and smiled at Chen Ran, his deputy next to him: "Ni Yi is a man who never knows how lucky he is despite being blessed. How many people wish they had an opportunity like him."
After Chen Ran was injured in the fight in Zhongdu, he never fully recovered. At this time, his left hand could only barely rein in. So he was usually among the personal guards, responsible for welcoming people and delivering some documents and books.
At this time, he was also traveling with Guo Ning, hanging his usual double swords next to the saddle.
Hearing Zhao Jue's words, Chen Ran nodded, but said very harshly: "I studied in the military academy at the beginning of the year, and the commander also gave me lessons!"
The cavalry continued to move forward without any obstacles. In a blink of an eye, the last highland called Tieling on the south bank of the Beiqing River was in sight. It also passed two villages along the way, all of which were abandoned and uninhabited.
Zizhou, Zouping, and Changshan were first affected by the massacre by the Mongolian army last year. Later, the Ding Navy continued to send people here to gather the Dingkou and take them to the three prefectures of Denglai, so the remaining number of people was probably less than
10% of its prime.
When Guo Ning and his party crossed Shangshan in the morning, they could see that the once prosperous Jinling Town was in ruins, and many villages to the west of Shangshan were even more empty.
Before, Li Quan controlled this place and always maintained basic order, so he was still somewhat popular.
But in the past few days, the light cavalry of Guo Ning's command and the sentries and cavalry of Pusa Anzhen's command in Hebei and Li Quan's command in Binzhou galloped back and forth, and small-scale fighting broke out from time to time. This is the impact of fighting.
In this situation, it is impossible to judge which party is responsible. It would be meaningless to judge. At this time, to restrain one's own hands is to take one's own life. Previously, Guo Ning sent Jingqi to sweep away.
He personally ordered that anyone who resisted the Ding Navy, regardless of soldiers or civilians, would be killed without mercy.
The conduct of the Jin army was ten times worse than that of the Ding navy; Li Quan's troops might be better, but some of his troops were ruthless and unscrupulous, so that's not certain.
Fortunately, this sudden war is almost over.
Pusan Anzhen suddenly proposed negotiations, which was quite beyond Guo Ning's expectation, but after thinking about it carefully afterwards, it made sense.
Now that the weather in Shandong is getting colder, it is also average in Hebei.
Since Yang An'er died, the territory of the Red Coat Army will inevitably be divided by various parties. However, all parties involved in the division have paid a considerable price.
As far as the Ding Navy is concerned: This time it dispatched a large army, the Ding Navy used an equal number of additional civilians as support in terms of logistical supplies. This will of course affect the autumn harvest. In terms of the current situation, the Ding Navy has also begun to drain the wealth of the Ding Navy.
It affected trade with the Southern Song Dynasty and Zhongdu.
Taking into account the arrangement and appeasement of the newly acquired land and population after the war, a large amount of food and materials will be spent at a low price, and the navy's financial resources are actually far from being rich.
That's why Guo Ning has been saying that he will sweep across Shandong with a thunderous force. This is because if he acts fast enough, the price he pays will be small enough.
The Hebei Jinjun is also facing a similar situation.
The east and west roads of Hebei that Pusan Anzhen was responsible for were the areas most completely destroyed by the Mongolian army. Since the third year of Da'an to the present, there have been floods, droughts, and military disasters almost every year, and the degree of devastation was beyond imagination. Originally,
Of the hundreds of cities, less than one-third are now inhabited, and less than one-fifth of the original vast hectares of fertile land remain.
Everyone knows that if there is even the slightest problem with this year's autumn harvest, a large-scale famine affecting the entire Hebei province will be inevitable.
And under the famine, Anzhen's efforts to unite the soldiers and civilians in Jingzhou may not be sustainable for a long time.
Of course, with Pusan Anzhen's identity and status, he probably doesn't care much about the suffering of ordinary people, and most of the Jurchens' high-ranking officials and generals under him do the same. But think about it from another perspective: once there is a famine in Hebei, the support for Zhongdu will be
It became a problem again.
Since Mu Huali led his troops to capture Dading Prefecture in Beijing and cut off the Liaohai Sea Channel, Daxing Prefecture, the central capital of the Jin Kingdom, has been facing the threat of the Mongols in the east and north at the same time. After late autumn, the Mongolian army will inevitably come again, and this
Once, they didn't even need to pass through natural barriers such as Juyong Pass and Zijin Pass. They only had to enter Dading Prefecture in advance, and then they would naturally form a pincer-like offensive and take the Central Capital directly.
If the main force of the Mongolian army takes the front line of Dading Prefecture, all parties in Liaodong will immediately have no time to take care of themselves. In terms of military affairs, the only one that China can directly rely on is Hebei. If Pusan Anzhen loses control at that time, I am afraid that there will be a war between the monarch and his ministers.
The dough is torn and doesn’t look good.
In Yidu Prefecture, both families had their knives drawn, seen blood, and judged their superiors.
The two families still showed their teeth and claws to intimidate, but each other's concerns were also understood by the other. Especially Pusan Anzhen, who was directly facing the threat of the Mongols, and his concerns were obviously more than Guo Ning's.
Therefore, it is inevitable that Pusan Anzhen wants to end the military confrontation as soon as possible. No matter what Pusan Anzhen's plans are, whether he is coy or unwilling, he must come up with a plan that satisfies Guo Ning.