At the end of the school yard is a small dry riverbed, and the continuous autumn rain fills the ditch with a half-moon of autumn rain, and this river channel is so seasonal that it becomes a river when there is a lot of rain in summer and autumn, and when there is a drought, it disappears, revealing countless rocks of all sizes on the riverbed.

Recently, there has been a lot of rain, and the low terrain where the riverbed is located has caused rainwater to flow into the vicinity, so there are no rocks in the riverbed now, only the dusk river slowly flowing eastward.

When the drill people lined up in a horizontal line and walked to the end of the school field, Li Guo waved the command flag in his hand, the drum beat suddenly stopped, the gong sounded, and the horizontal team turned back.

Li Guo waved the Ling Flag twice in a row, and the column became a horizontal line again; The flag waved again, and the horizontal team quickly turned back. When the horizontal team entered the school field again, Li Guo was about to wave the order flag, but was stopped by Li Zicheng, the king who had just arrived here, with a gesture, so the small colonel of the gong did not dare to sound the gong, and the small colonel of the drum had to continue to beat the drum. The drummer was confused in his heart, and frequently peeked at Li Guo's eyes. Li Guo understood what his uncle meant, glanced at the drummer with a stern look, and said, "Beat the drum hard!" The drummer immediately snatched the drumstick from the little colonel of the drummer and beat the drum desperately.

At the beginning, Gu Kecheng, who was one of the eighteen cavalry who followed Li Zicheng to fight his way out of the encirclement, was the leader of the 300 recruits, and walked in front with a small order flag in his hand. When he was facing the general, he commanded the troops at any time according to the banner in Li Guo's hand; When his back was to the general, he commanded the troops according to the sound of gongs and drums. At this time, he heard the sound of drums and continued to rush forward, and he and the soldiers all wondered that Li Guo might not have seen that he had reached the edge of the school field and could not move forward. People look at each other. Some people still looked back, standing still, waiting for Kecheng to give an order. Ke Cheng looked back twice in a row, and saw Li Guo's Lingqi waving at him, he suddenly understood, and also raised the Lingqi, and shouted the order: "Go forward!" Don't look back! The squad walked down the riverbed and into the water, armed with their bright weapons. The river was half a man's deep, knee-deep in the shallows, and rocks of various sizes were underneath. It was quite difficult for this group of recruits to get through. Someone keeps falling. But when he fell, he immediately got up and continued to move forward, and soon the formation became chaotic.

Because the drums were beating like a burst, and Gu Kecheng was walking in front with the order flag held high, no one among these recruits dared to look back or look left and right. Just grit your teeth and trek forward in the water. The platoon crossed the riverbed. Straighten up as you walk. Continue to move forward into the uneven muddy water, until you hear the sound of the gong, and then turn back. When you come back. No one hesitated when crossing the river, just followed Gu Kecheng's command banner, and the formation was much more neat than just now. As Li Guo's order flag waved, the horizontal team turned into a three-way column again, until the temporary general commanded by Li Guo stopped in front of the platform.

King Chuang's face was grim, he stepped off the platform, first called Gu Kecheng out of the team, kicked him hard, and ordered him to kneel, and then ordered several lieutenants under Gu Kecheng to kneel together. He glanced at Gu Kecheng and the other generals who were punished, and then looked at all the soldiers who participated in the drill and said:

"Since ancient times, the teachers who have always won have relied on the command of moderation. If the order of temperance is not strict, how can we win in the face of the enemy? In peacetime training, we must not only practice martial arts, but also practice to obey orders. Everyone obeys the order, 10,000 people have a heart, and the heart of 10,000 people is the heart of the main general, so that they can win more with less, and they are invincible. The Yue family army and the Qi family army are invincible because everyone listens to orders. If the drums do not stop beating when facing the enemy, there is water and fire in front of you, and you have to jump into the water and fire; If the gong does not stop, there are mountains of gold and silver in front of you, and you must return immediately. While the drum is beating, if anyone looks back, they must be beheaded immediately. When the big and small leaders look back, it is even more unforgivable. Why decapitation immediately? Because just when the sound of killing shook the sky and arrows rained down, if one person looked back, it would make everyone suspicious and most likely to shake the morale of the army. Especially if you are the leader, the eyes of the brothers are on you, and the relationship is more important, so you must be killed. He looked at Gu Kecheng and the others again and said: "Today is just a drill, not a battle, and besides, I didn't have any orders in advance, so I won't be held responsible." In the future, as long as the drums are beaten non-stop, and there are those who look back, they will definitely beat the military sticks. Get up and keep practicing! ”

Most of these recruits recruited among the nearby mountain people were holding the old miscellaneous equipment replaced by the soldiers of the old battalion, and the knives, guns, equipment, and armor were simply like Hanako compared to the soldiers of the old battalion. However, in these years, it is enough to have a knife in your hand, a garment to cover your body, and enough food in a bowl to satisfy your stomach.

Now the number of people who broke into the camp has quietly expanded to more than 3,000 people, although it has not yet recovered to the peak of the camp, but the reason why there are not many soldiers is very clear.

On the one hand, he took advantage of the rare calm time in the mountains of this Fang County to train the troops well, and on the other hand, together with Chen Guoxi's guards, they swept all the large and small cottages in the vicinity one by one, in addition to obtaining valuable materials such as food, gold, silver, cloth and other materials to supplement themselves, they could also use these materials to help the nearby mountain people, and win a good reputation for themselves in fighting the rich and helping the poor.

In this way, Li Zicheng led the whole battalion to lurk in the Yunyang Mountains safely, expanded the army and trained the troops, recuperated the soldiers and horses, and sent a lot of meticulous work to inquire about the news everywhere, only waiting for Yang Sichang to chase Zhang Xianzhong into Sichuan or the official army was dragged exhausted in the eastern Sichuan area, and the camp immediately came out of the Yunyang Mountain to do a great job.

All kinds of news from all directions were constantly collected, some of them were gossip circulating in the government, some were rumors in the market, and some were found in the seized Tang newspapers.

Numerous sources gradually put together a picture of the shape of the outside of the mountain for Li Zicheng.

He constantly convened his generals to discuss the matter, and according to the situation between the official army and the peasant army, combined with the contradictions between the officials and the army of various departments, and the little dirty between Yang Sichang and the officials of various departments, he constantly deduced on the map, calculating the possible development of the next step.

As soon as Yang Sichang began to supervise the army and lead the army, he planned to trap the thieves with the danger of Shu, saying that the Shu land was dangerous, and the extremely remote places were many barbarians in Songpan. Force them into Shu. Shu can be guarded, and if it can't be defended, it will abandon Fuzhou, Wanzhou, Yazhou, Songzhou and other areas, so that the enemy can go deeper. (This trick, hundreds of years later, there was once a person who also used it, he planned to force an army into this desperate situation, either to become Shi Dakai's second, or to use the snowy mountains and meadows here to destroy this army, but, in front of this heroic army.) His wishful thinking miscalculated. ）

His arrangement was to cut off the plank road with the Qin soldiers of Shaanxi. Guards of the White Water; Yunnan Yunnan soldiers stationed in Qujing, guarding the Baishi River; He himself led his troops to cover from behind, and drove the thieves into the place where the Songpan barbarians lived, so that the thieves could be put to death. Yang Sichang was afraid that the Shudi Gateway Pass was strong. In a hurry, the enemy turned around and fought a decisive battle with the officers and soldiers. So all the elite and strong brigades in the Shu soldiers. all moved away from the guard; Sichuan Governor Shao Jiechun had only 20,000 weak soldiers under his command to guard Chongqing.

And such an arrangement, of course, will not get the cooperation of the Sichuan locality. Governor Shao Jiechun once said angrily: The law says that if you lose a city, the governor will be punished, and now the entire Shu land is given to the thieves, and the governor is going to kill me if he does this! In order not to make Sichuan a victim of Yang Sichang's meritorious deeds, the officials and gentry of Sichuan tried their best from Shao Jiechun downwards, but there was no result.

As a result, there was such a rumor that Yang Sichang was a native of Huguang Changde, out of selfishness, so he didn't want thieves to invade and ravage Chudi. So I started to think about beggar-thy Sichuan.

The generals are so intrigued with each other to tear each other down, it's no wonder that the war against thieves can succeed!

Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai took advantage of the weakness of Shao Jiechun, the governor of Sichuan, who scattered his troops to defend many passes, and on the sixth day of September, they suddenly attacked the Sichuan official army with all their strength, breaking through several passes defended by only three or four hundred troops, and entered the Daning River and approached Dachang. Shao Jiechun panicked and handed over the responsibility of defending Dachang to the deputy general Shao Zhongguang, while he quickly transferred to Kuizhou, and flew Zhang Ling and Qin Liangyu to help. Both men were the most senior and prestigious Sichuan generals, and their troops were trained in a summer intact. In particular, Qin Liangyu's white pole soldiers, for more than a year, have received a large number of ordnance and armor assistance from Ning Yuanbo, and their morale and combat effectiveness are no less than those of the white pole soldiers during the Battle of Hunhe.

Now not only Shao Jiechun points his hope of reversing the war situation in eastern Sichuan to this pair of male and female veterans and the main force led by them, but almost the entire gentry in Sichuan hold the same hope. Zhang Ling's men and horses were in front of the stone soldiers, separated by more than a day's distance. On the one hand, he urged the army to advance, and on the other hand, he flew to Shao Zhongguang, the general of Dachang, saying that he was rushing to the aid tonight, and asked Shao Zhongguang to hold on for three days, and when he arrived, he would eliminate the "thieves" under Dachang City and build a great achievement.

The three crossings of the Daning River, namely Shangmadu, Zhongmadu and Xiamadu, were all necessary routes for the attack on Dachang. Shao Zhongguang was originally divided into troops to guard the three ferries, and on the shore of each ferry port quickly built forts with stones, dug pits, arranged deer and thistles, and placed firearms and crossbows in the forts. Although he was very afraid of Zhang Xianzhong, he hoped that with the turbulent flow of the Daning River, the steep riverbank, and these defensive arrangements on the bank, he could hold on until Zhang Ling's reinforcements arrived. He thought that as soon as Zhang Ling came, Zhang Xianzhong would not want to seize the ferry and attack Dachang; Even in the worst case, even if Dachang is lost at that time, the responsibility lies with Zhang Ling, and it has nothing to do with him Shao Zhongguang. Unexpectedly, when Zhang Xianzhong's outpost was still more than 20 miles away from the Daning River, the defenders were crowded, unwilling to obey the commander's command, and unwilling to fight for the imperial court, because the salary was too long, and from Shao Zhongguang, the commanders layer by layer withheld the food and salary of their subordinates and soldiers to enrich themselves, and it was even more common to steal and sell grain, grass and ordnance.

Shao Zhongguang heard a lot of rumors from the soldiers, and he was shaken by his mind to wait for help. As soon as he saw Zhang Xianzhong's men and horses coming to the Daning River, beating drums and shouting to rush to the crossing, he sent people to Kuizhou to lie to the governor that he was supervising the soldiers to resist desperately, killing hundreds of "thieves" and killing hundreds of casualties, and the river was red, while losing the fortress and fleeing with a few cronies. As soon as the soldiers of the Sichuan army defending the Daning River heard that the main general fled first, they collapsed without a fight, and most of them scattered into small groups and fled for their lives, and only a few people chased after Shao Zhongguang and fled to Kuizhou. The combined forces of Zhang and Luo succeeded in rushing across the city almost without a battle, divided their troops to break through Dachang, and then advanced the whole division in the direction of Kuizhou.

Zhang Ling, the general of Sichuan and a veteran, was rushing to the aid of Dachang, and when he received the news of the loss of Dachang, he immediately stopped his advance, camped at a place called Zhuyiping, blocked the road for the righteous army to advance westward, and waited for work. It is intended to build a great merit in this battle. , Zhang Ling is a general who followed Lu Chongming in the past, he is more than seventy years old, and he can also use a five-stone crossbow immediately, and the shot will inevitably run through the leather armor, loyal and brave and good at fighting, known as the crossbow general in the army, Shao Jiechun relies on Zhang Ling. However, Zhang Ling's temperament is light on the enemy, and Qin Liangyu's white pole soldiers are also rushing here, making Zhang Ling even more courageous.

On the morning of the second day when he arrived at Zhujiping. The front team of the combined forces of Zhang and Luo arrived with 2,000 cavalry. He immediately looked up for a while. I saw that the troops of Zhang and Luo were neat, the banner was clear, and the men and horses were strong, especially the soldiers and horses of the western battalion of Zhang Xianzhong's department. It is a strong soldier. I decided in my heart. Ordered the generals not to leave the village. If the enemy comes to attack, he can only shoot back with guns and strong crossbows and hard bows. After giving the order, he returned to the village to rest. The generals on the left and right have advised him: take advantage of the first arrival of the "thief soldiers". One is tired, the other is unstable, hurry up and attack, you can win. But Zhang Ling said confidently: "You are all shouting and playing the piano!" This town has lived for more than seventy years, and has fought more battles in a lifetime than you have walked, don't you know how to fight the enemy? You don't understand, there is Zhang Xianzhong here today, not just a Luo Rucai! Zhang Xianzhong's turtle son is a cunning thief, but also a thief, this spring in Kejiaping, Lao Tzu almost suffered a big loss because he underestimated his turtle son. This gang of thieves recently broke the Land Ridge, defeated Shao Zhongguang the day before yesterday, broke Dachang, and was in full swing. Go out of the village at once and fight with them, there is no cheap for you to choose. You only guard the passes, do not fight, and a day or two passes, and when they are slackened and their spirit is gone, you will punish them fiercely. The eyes of the elders of the whole Sichuan are looking at us. We must fight this battle well and win a complete victory, so that we can face the court and the elders of Sichuan! ”

The next day, at the time of Chenpai, the defenders of Zhufu Pingzhai saw that the Xiying men and horses attacking the village were replaced by Caoying people, and the troops were not as strict as the Xiying. About the beginning of the day, people reported to Zhang Lingyu that Luo Rucai's men and horses were already very slack, and the troops were scattered. He walked to the village and looked at it for a while, and saw Luo Rucai's soldiers in the east and west, sitting down to rest, some were playing leaf play, some were eating, some were waiting to eat, and some people took off their saddles and let the war horses eat grass at will. After Zhang Ling saw it, he had a very contemptuous smile in his eyes, and turned back to the group of generals who were following him and asked, "How is it at the moment?" The time has come for all of you to make meritorious contributions with Lao Tzu, right? ”

The generals were in high spirits and asked for immediate battle. Zhang Ling smiled arrogantly and said: "As Lao Tzu expected, sure enough, after noon, Luo Rucai, the son of the turtle, was slack, and became a group of rabble!" He asked the Chinese army, "When can the stone soldiers come?" ”

The Chinese army replied: "My lord, the front team of 2,000 people is only ten miles away from here. Qin Shuai led the brigade behind, less than twenty-five miles away from here. Qin Shuai is urging the army to come to help, and he will be there soon. ”

A general asked, "My lord, do you still have to wait for the stone soldiers?" ”

Zhang Ling chuckled lightly with his nostrils and said, "Forget it, don't wait!" Let's win this one by ourselves! Didn't you already covet the baggage equipment and property in Cao Cao's camp? ”

Hearing Zhang Ling's words, the officers around him couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Who is General Zhang? General Zhang, please speak alone! ”

After arranging the combat deployment, Zhang Ling led his subordinates out of the village to meet the enemy, preparing to break Cao Cao's troops in a battle, and then take advantage of the chaos to cover up the past and break the combined forces of Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao.

After beating Cao Cao's scattered subordinates to flee from the wind, Zhang Ling and his subordinate officers such as generals and guerrillas suddenly saw a single man jumping out of Cao's fleeing military horses and rushing towards them, and they felt strange in their hearts and waited with their eyes. They all guessed that it was probably Luo Rucai who sent his cronies to convey his willingness to surrender.

He didn't know that this young man in white horse brocade was Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son, the famous Zhang Yuer Zhang Dingguo. After Zhang Dingguo was stationed in the horse, he was facing southwest, and a late autumn sun shone on his face. Although he fought bravely, he was born very handsome, and a man of twenty looked like he was seventeen or eighteen. Zhang Lingping heard that Luo Rucai was greedy for wine and lustful, thinking that he must also be "masculine", looking at this "beautiful boy" with jade appearance and brocade clothes, silver saddle and white horse, he couldn't help but show a knowing smile from the corner of his mouth. Before he could speak, he heard the "beautiful boy" shouting again on the white horse: "Please General Zhang hurry up and speak in front of the battle!" ”

"This general is Zhang Ling, the chief soldier of Sichuan, you thief, if you have something to say, you will speak!"

Surrounded by dozens of family guards, Zhang Ling, a seventy-year-old veteran general, rode out on horseback, and his beard was white, and his long hair was blown by the cold wind of late autumn, which was also quite majestic.

Zhang Dingguo smiled slightly on the horse and said, "I heard that the general is good at shooting, and today I will repay him with an arrow, and I hope to beg for a smile." ”

At the sound of the bowstring, a steel triangular arrow was quickly launched, Zhang Ling screamed in his heart that it was not good, but it was too late, this arrow hit his neck and passed through his neck.

"Kill!"

Zhang Dingguo hung up the bronze iron arm bow, pulled out the Jedi knife hanging on the saddle, shouted and fought hard, led dozens of his own soldiers, and went straight to Zhang Ling's guards to pounce over, and behind him were thousands of Zhang and Cao's allied troops who had long been ambushed in the bushes and bamboo forests.

Zhang Ling's department was defeated! (To be continued......)

PS: Returning from the holidays, recovering fù update.