The cold wind of January blows across the earth, rolling up snowflakes into the sky, and then slowly falling on the snow-covered earth.

In this cold and snowy day, a group of men and women of all ages staggered forward on the frozen Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the cold wind and snow.

The men walked outside, surrounded the old people, children and women in the middle, and walked slowly in the wind and snow. From time to time, the cries of children, the scolding of men, and the soothing voices of women made the whole team full of panic.

"Shopkeeper Liu, thank you for your righteous action this time, the old and young masters of Wangjiazhai will never dare to forget." Among the few people at the front of the line, a man in an old cotton jacket and a melon skin hat said to a man with a goatee and a master next to him.

"Village Chief Wang, Da En doesn't dare to say it, it's just that there are still more than ten miles away from Xuzhou City, let's hurry up, if the turtle grandchildren in the back catch up, it will be all over." Shopkeeper Liu stroked his goatee and said.

"That's what you said." Village Chief Wang responded, turned around and shouted at the team, "If you don't want to die, hurry up, and if you rush to Xuzhou City before dark, the big guys will all escape." ”

After hearing the commotion in the procession that had to go more than ten miles, all kinds of complaints rang out.

"Village chief, we've been gone all night, and we're dying of hunger without food or drink, let us rest."

"Village chief, my baby seems to be sick, what can I do, come and take a look."

"I can't walk, I'm tired."

"I'm starving, I'm starving."

"Mother, I'm hungry, I want to eat."

This group of refugees is the people of Wang's village in Nigou Town, Zaozhuang, and a horse team under Zhang Zongchang, the overseer of Shandong, drove into the village last night. Originally, after the village brought grain, cured meat, and a few jugs of wine, the horse team was ready to leave. Unexpectedly, heavy snow suddenly fell in the sky of Ludao, and the horse team settled in the stockade.

Zhang Zongchang's subordinates are all from bandits, what else can you expect them to know about the three disciplines and eight points of attention? After a full meal and a full meal, it was time to be full of warm thoughts**, and the drunken bandits carried guns and smashed the door from house to house.

The local people in Shandong are fierce, and they can't stand it when they see their women being pressed on the bed. How can a civilian, just with a wooden stick and a kitchen knife, do it better than a bandit with a gun in his hand?

For a while, there was a lot of gunfire, and the bandits who were attacked with wooden sticks shouted and slaughtered the village, setting fire everywhere. A caravan that was originally hiding in a farmer's house couldn't stand it, and the caravan that wanted to hide until the bandits left and then left, saw that the bandits began to kill people and set fires, and knew that they couldn't hide after they reached the bottom, so they simply did it.

The caravan dart masters who traveled south and north all had good martial arts and marksmanship, and the bandits who were busy robbing and setting fire were caught off guard, and the people in the village worked together, this horse team of only forty or fifty people was almost all killed in a hurry, and only two horses with good eyesight and did not drink too much rode away.

Now there is no choice but to flee to Xuzhou overnight, otherwise when the bandits who ran out of the city at dawn brought people back, then really no one would live.

Listening to the villagers complaining, the village chief was also anxious and shouted: "How far can we, old and young, go overnight?" How fast do the horses run on fast horses? If we don't hurry up, if we are discovered, how can we still live? The village chief was about to say something, when he suddenly heard the people behind the team shout in horror: "The ringing horse is coming!" ”

On the bank of the canal, in the direction of the road, groups of ringing horses rushed out of the woods, screaming and rushing towards the team!

The team immediately blew up the camp, and the old and young ran in the direction of Xuzhou crying and shouting, and no one shouted hunger anymore. It's just that Xuzhou City is more than ten miles away, and the bandits are behind them, where should the hungry and tired old and weak women and children run? No one thought of this problem, and everyone was desperately rushing forward, as if there was the Xuzhou City Gate dozens of meters in front.

The bandits walked cautiously across the canal ice, slowing down until they had crossed the river and letting go of their horses and running, and it would not be long before they could surround the people in front of them.

A leading bearded man who rode in front of him was called He Sandao. Because when he was young, he was slashed three times in a fight with other bandits and didn't die, and everyone he knew after that called him He Sandao, but no one remembered his real name.

He Sandao was the head of a cavalry regiment under Zhang Zongchang, and as the vanguard of the southward march, he arrived in Zaozhuang yesterday, and sent many of his subordinates to various villages to threak before dinner. But I didn't think that in the middle of the night, the two men would come to report quickly, and dozens of brothers would be folded in a small village.

Hearing this, He Sandao, who was furious, pushed away the girl in his arms, and ran out of the cold sky to gather the troops. Because of the heavy snow, many threshing teams did not return to Zaozhuang, and He Sandao, who was not in a hurry, took more than 200 cavalry to kill all the way to Wangjiazhai.

When I arrived in Wangjiazhai, I only saw the corpses of bandits all over the ground, and there were no villagers. In a fit of rage, He Sandao set fire to the stockade, and killed all the living creatures in the stockade, such as cats, dogs, and pigs. After that, he followed the footprints all the way up.

He Sandao slowly walked across the ice with his horse, looking at the villagers running in front of him with a cruel sneer, and his ugly face with two scars was really hideous like a ghost. Reaching out to stop his men from firing, he said to the bandits, "Stay alive." ”

The bandits around them all laughed uncontrollably when they heard this. "All the men were buried, and the women were given to the brothers to play with, and when they were done playing, they smashed holes in the river and threw them into the river." If what He Sandao said is heard by modern people, the first reaction is that this is the Japanese locust army?

The bandits grinned as they watched the crowd in front of them rush into the woods, not at all in a hurry. After more than 20 minutes, more than 200 bandits had crossed the canal, and the bandits all screamed and beat their horses and rushed into the woods to chase the crowd.

The forest is not big, and after a while, they rushed out of the woods, and the bandits who rushed in front of them suddenly desperately grabbed the reins of their horses after getting out of the forest, and the bandits behind them did not hide and bumped into them, and several of them fell off their horses. But no one complained, because all the bandits saw dozens of foreign iron cars parked neatly in the open space in front of them, and next to the cars stood troops wearing gray military uniforms, steel helmets and weapons! The people in Wang's village had already hid behind the car.

He Sandao's heart was cold, and he secretly screamed, "It's broken." Although he didn't know where the troops were on the other side of the road, just looking at the neat military appearance, the sophisticated equipment and those foreign iron cars gave He Sandao a feeling of extreme danger, and his heart was beating fiercely.

The scene seemed to be still, only the snowflakes were still falling, and a child's cry sounded from time to time behind the car.

After a while, He Sandao shouted at the top of his voice, "Which part is on the other side?" The brother is a person from the Zhenwei army under Zhang Dashuai, don't get me wrong. He was answered by a muffled command: "Pull the insurance." There was a clatter of bolts. He Sandao was shocked, and as soon as he pulled the reins, he was ready to turn around and escape.

"Fire." A dense burst of gunfire rang out, and the bandits in the front row screamed and fell off their horses. Those who were still alive desperately turned their horses and fled in all directions. The sound of the car starting, several trucks carrying soldiers chased towards the bandits, and the continuous gunfire was like a chasing charm, and the bandits were constantly knocked off their horses and wailed bitterly.

He Sandao, who was shot three times in his body, couldn't get up anymore, lying in the snow and watching the truck slowly press over, the huge wheels getting bigger and bigger in front of him, and he could only let out the most terrible howl in his life.

None of the more than 200 bandits ran away, and all but 20 or so who knelt on the ground and surrendered were killed. Soon the battle report was sent to the headquarters of the Sixth Division of the Army in Xuzhou City, and the commander of the army, Lieutenant General Gao Yang, replied with the order: "All bandits will be executed on the spot, and then all bandit units will be executed according to this order." ”

How did Gao Yang become the commander of the Sixth Division of the Army? It turned out that Zhang Dashuai entered the northern capital a few days ago. At the Grand Presidential Palace, there was a heated debate between the Duan administration over the post-war spoils. Unlike Zhang Dashuai's words in history, Gao Yang and Lu Yongxiang of the Anhui Department occupied nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses under the command of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu provinces, and Duan Dashuai spoke with great confidence.

After that, the two sides reached a compromise, and all the north belonged to the Feng department, and as for Jiangsu, the territory of the original direct lineage, it was solved by the simplest method, and whoever had a hard fist would belong to whomever it was.

The numbers of the 6th and 19th Divisions of the Army, which originally belonged to the direct lineage, were confiscated, and then they were awarded to Gao Yang by Duan Dashuai, and Gao Yang was promoted to lieutenant general at the same time. Originally, Gao Yang was going to appoint Weix as the commander of the 19th Division, but he was opposed by everyone. Zhang Qian, who was invited by Gao Yang to go out of the mountain to serve as the acting governor of Jiangsu Province, said to Gao Yang: "The old man shouldn't have said much about military affairs, but the general wants to order a foreigner to be the commander of the army, and the old man will never agree, so the old man would rather go home!" "Gao Yang must not directly serve as the commander of two divisions.

These two divisions are regular armies with a clear quota on file with the War Department and paid by the government. Gao Yang reorganized the original First Division of the Anhui Army into the Sixth Division of the Army, of course, the original establishment was only changed. Weikes was appointed as the chief of staff of the 19th Division of the Army, stationed in Nanjing, all of whom were newly recruited recruits, trained and reorganized by mercenaries, biochemical fighters, and non-commissioned officers as reserves.

Gaoyang lined up the Sixth Division along Xuzhou to Lianyungang, placed the core position on the front line of Taierzhuang, and arranged the blocking position relying on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Three days later, Zhang Zongchang led the main force to the vicinity of Zaozhuang. Zhang Zongchang's subordinates have been recruiting troops and horses since they entered the customs, and as long as Zhang Zongchang is willing to take refuge in himself, he has always refused to come, and his soldiers and horses swelled up like snowflakes. Third, I don't know how many guns in the title of General Lu Dao came out at this time. Zhang Zongchang was also the fastest runner among the various departments of the Feng Department, and he fought all the way back to his hometown in Shandong.

Most of the direct troops originally stationed in Shandong were transferred to the front line of Shanhaiguan to fight, and now they are either eliminated or dispersed or absorbed, and Zhang Zongchang has encountered very little resistance along the way, which also makes his heart more and more arrogant.

In Xuzhou City, Gao Yang silently looked at the snowflakes outside the window, full of anticipation for the upcoming battle! Come on, I've been waiting for you for a long time!