The sky is clear and cloudy, and the cold wind is blowing the remaining snow.

The early morning mist is still rolling over the Mingxi River, which is as thin as a stream in the cold winter and dry season. There is only a trickle among the rocks on the riverbed. The reeds and grass are withered and yellow. Several jackdaws with black feathers and yellow beaks stand majestically on a withered tree.

Shaotou.

Dozens of solemn-looking armored soldiers surrounded several refined iron shield vehicles and stood guard at the gap between the two long posts.

Under the biting cold wind, the soldiers' faces were sunburned and turned black, like silent black stones; some were sitting on the ground, while others were forming formations behind the shield chariots, with no intention of talking.

The bushes and miscellaneous trees on the hillside in front of the gap have been cut down, and when the field of vision is opened, many horsemen can be seen patrolling in the ditch in the distance.

"Uncle Eleven, will the Hu soldiers come and kill us before the fog clears?"

The cavalry dispersed very widely, as if the mountains and valleys were full of their people. From time to time, they would form small groups and pick up speed at the foot of the slope and gallop for a while. This was a scene that a thin young man standing behind a fine iron shield car saw.

, couldn’t help but feel nervous.

On such a cold day, the young man's palms holding the spear were sweating. Unable to suppress the panic in his heart, he asked with a trembling voice.

"The bearded dogs are easy to disperse. If you count carefully, there are actually less than a hundred people. Why are you in such a panic, you young melons? This is how they use this method to scare you young melons - this cold weather

My God, you're sweating profusely, and your whole body is as stretched as a drowned dog. I think you're going to collapse there before the slut comes to kill you - I don't need you to watch me now, sit down and save some energy."

A strong man sat leisurely on the dirt, chewed sweet grass roots, slurped the sweet taste, and said nonchalantly,

"The bearded dogs are very smart. We are here like hedgehogs. There are not many more of them than us, so they will not join in to seek trouble. If they really dare to come over, we will kill these bearded dogs like chickens.

The dog jumps! Hu Gouzi looks ferocious, but it is not difficult to kill. They are not copper-headed and iron-armed - just watch him come over, hold the gun and poke forward. He dodges quickly, puts the gun back and pokes again.

.In addition to thinking too much, remember not to think too much.

Xi, every time you thrust, control your strength. Don't use too much force, otherwise the strength will be released in a few times. Poke shallowly and repeatedly, three shallow and one heavy, nine shallow and one heavy. No matter how familiar you are with this kind of practice, you will still panic in the moment of battle.

, but poke it a few times on the battlefield,

You will gradually gain control of the situation. You can leave other matters to Tie Shuanzi and the others, but you can't be soft-hearted. If you are soft-handed, you will harm Tie Shuanzi and the others, and you can't run away. I'm afraid that it won't matter, but you can't run away.

run"

"I'm just a little timid, but how could I run away? I also want to get the first-level skill so that I can be qualified to take the township official exam!" The young man put his spear on the shield cart, squatted next to the strong man, and looked at him

With his empty left arm sleeve, he asked, "Uncle Eleven, the township department is also short of manpower now, why are you still in the army?"

The strong man glanced at his sleeve and said with a smile: "Do you think I can't kill Hu Gouzi with a knife after I told him to cut off his arm? Look at my knife." The strong man took off his saber.

, press the scabbard with the broken left elbow, pull it out and give it to the back

The student looked at the sharp blade and said, "With this knife, I can kill ten or eight more bearded dogs. Your uncle's skill with the knife is better than his skill with the pen."

Otherwise, if we leave the battlefield to you young melons and eggs, will there be no mistakes?"

"Woooo" the horn sounded in the distance behind me.

"The north is already in action!" The strong man put his sword back into its sheath, turned around and looked to the northeast. Two to three thousand troops from the two armies were already clashing in front of a small mountain col on the south bank of the Mingxi River.

The place where the strong man and the young man stood was a gap called Heilanggou between two long low hills.

The front slope of Heilanggou is gentle, and the back slope is steeper, with a lot of rocks piled up.

Although the long hills on both sides are only more than ten feet high, the valley is deep and the cliffs are dangerous. It is a very typical rift terrain, which makes the Heilang Valley within ten miles from the south to the right bank of the Mingxi River.

An inevitable place to approach.

In the last few days of the first year of Jianji, the puppet Chu army rushed to build two camps on both sides of the middle reaches of the Mingxi River south of the Iron Curtain Mountain as a stronghold for the attack on Huangyangzhai.

The two camps were far away from Huangyang Village and the terrain was open. Seeing that the small-scale attack by troops and horses had no effect, the Chushan Army simply ignored them and continued to build fortifications on the south and east sides of Huangyang Village.

In the northwest of Huangyangzhai, the supply camp has also been set up.

While digging canals, thousands of craftsmen took advantage of the fact that there had been no rain for a month and hurriedly carried soil to the open valleys on both sides of the river bed.

Thousands of wheelbarrows are constantly transporting soil into the valley, and also tripping a large amount of lime. To this end, dozens of new lime kilns were built in the mountains to the west of Huangyangzhai, and only the kiln-burning workers were requisitioned.

Two to three hundred people.

Like building a city, the soil is mixed with lime, river sand, and gravel and compacted layer by layer.

On the side facing the water, a large number of bamboo cages filled with gravel will be sunk to resist the erosion of the dam body by waves and undercurrents.

The plan is to cut off the Mingxi River before mid-January and store water on a small scale first. Then, based on the earthen dam that cuts off the river, we can continue to pile up earth and build cofferdams along the terrain of more than ten miles to the left and right.

.

If the puppet Chu army never takes action, Xingyuan plans to encircle a lake to the west of Huangyangzhai in the spring, about fourteen to five miles deep from north to south and about 20 feet high from the middle and lower reaches of the Mingxi River.

Seeing Chu Shan's posture, how could the pseudo-Chu army dare to bet that Chu Shan was just bluffing?

If it is delayed until the mountains and lakes are surrounded in the spring, and they are withdrawn in despair, how will they face the censure of Bianliang and the Zong Palace?

For this reason, the puppet Chu army could only be forced to advance upstream along the Mingxi River.

The puppet Chu army had previously built a stronghold at the southern foot of Iron Curtain Mountain, and then went south from the southern foot of Iron Curtain Mountain to build a fort in the middle reaches of the Mingxi River. The terrain there was open, and there were elite horsemen coveting one side, and Chu Mountain also responded.

faint.

However, it is impossible for Chushan to tolerate the puppet Chu army building the front camp fortification only five or six miles away from Huangyangzhai.

One wanted to advance, but the other refused to give in. The two sides finally fought in front of a mountain col, seven miles away from Huangyangzhai and only a thousand steps away from Heilanggou.

On the north side of this mountain col is the valley on the right bank of the Mingxi River, where you can attack Huangyangzhai; on the south side, you can bypass a series of intermittent and rugged long hills and attack the Shimenling Military Village where the Shimen Inspection Department is located, or even

Cut off the connection between Shimenling Village and Huangyang Village.

The morning fog has not yet dissipated. The elite troops of the Third Battalion of Chu Mountain formed formations in the valley and on the sides of Ruishan Col. Thousands of puppet Chu troops, armed with swords, shields and spears, surrounded side carriages and shield carriages, carrying them like locusts.

The arrow rain that was covered by the swarm slowly attacked upward.

This scene made the young man standing at the gap of Heilanggou feel a little nervous in his heart.

Chushan gathered only more than 3,000 soldiers in Huangyangzhai, while the enemy used the two forts built in the middle reaches of the Mingxi River as strongholds and gathered more than 20,000 soldiers and horses.

Thousands of captive cavalry blocked dozens of kilometers of plains on the right bank of the Mingxi River. It was obvious that they were trying to block the troops from Chushan City and Shimenling Village from reinforcing Huangyang Village, and then used their overwhelmingly superior force to attack in turn.

Huangyang Village.

At this time, a group of cavalry left Huangyang Village and galloped towards Heilanggou.

The northern slope of Heilanggou is steep. People came to protect the war horses and gathered them at the foot of the slope. They climbed up on the rocks.

Seeing the face of the incoming man clearly, the strong man shouted excitedly: "Commander Jies come here to supervise the battle, brothers, cheer me up!"

Xu Huai climbed up to Heilanggou and saw a strong man with one arm. He smiled and said: "Wei Daya, I transferred you to be the secretary of the Jiboqiao Township Division, but you stayed in the army and refused to leave. You are not giving me face!"

"

"In the past, I liked to stay behind during battles, which embarrassed the Commander, but so many brothers died on the battlefield. I really don't have the shame to stay behind again," Wei Daya said with a grin, "Why don't we drive Hu Gouzi away?"

, Commander-in-chief, will you give me a bigger official position?"

"Okay, I'll find a good job for you after we drive away the wild dog!" Xu Huai said with a smile.

Wei Daya is still Pan Chenghu's old subordinate. His hometown is on the edge of Yuhuang Ridge. He is very good in fists, kicks and swordsmanship. He is an old bandit from Xiema Mountain. In the first northern expedition against Yan in Datong City, he led dozens of Tongbai soldiers.

He returned to Chushan. With his qualifications and skills, he was qualified to be a commander, but his personality was slippery and he had not made any outstanding military exploits until the battle of Taiyuan.

The interception battle in the north of Taiyuan City can be said to be the first head-on confrontation between the Chu army and the elite Red Husbands. Wei Daya's troops were all led by Xu Wuqi and others to participate in this battle, resulting in heavy casualties.

Wei Daya also had his left arm cut off in that battle.

In any case, Wei Daya was also an old man and was disabled in the bloody battle. The tribes returned to Tongbai Mountain, and Xu Huai set up townships in Xinyang and other places, so he decided to remove Wei Daya and other meritorious people, but had to withdraw from the camp.

All the grassroots military officials were transferred to the township department as officials.

However, Wei Daya changed his old nature and refused to quit the army, so he stayed in the army and is still only a deputy general.

The terrain of Heilanggou is high. Xu Huai looked at the situation in the north and south. He sat on a stone on the ground and saw that the young man next to Wei Daya had grown fair and looked similar to Wei Daya. He asked in surprise: "This is yours."

Nephew?"

There are many Chushan fathers and sons and brothers who have joined the army, but they will arrange them in different places as much as possible. This is not to prevent any disadvantages. In fact, if one of the father, son and brothers is killed in the battle, they will immediately arrange for others to withdraw from the war, so that the family will not be hit too hard.

.

This arrangement will be explained clearly to the generals below, but the father and son brothers want to be together to take care of each other, and Chushan will not stop it at the moment.

"My nephew, named Wei Qi, is the only scholar from the old Wei family," Wei Daya pulled the young man to Xu Huai and said carelessly, "Come in and do some military exploits so that you can take the exam for the local officials! Today is

The first time I went to the battlefield, I almost couldn’t hold in my urine!”

At present, there are as many as 34 township divisions (inspection departments) in the three counties of Xinyang, Chushan and Huaiyang in Chushan (Shenzhou). The township divisions have the inspection envoy (inspection envoy) as the chief officer, and there will also be

Depending on the actual situation, there will be a few to a dozen or so officials, such as secretary-generals, clerks, clerks, etc., to assist with the work.

Xu Huai's current selection standards for officials in prefectures, counties and townships, as well as those who have previously served in various government offices, require that in addition to regular assessments, they have to go to the camp for training, and he also has requirements for the Xiang army, the work camp and the sky.

Heroes all have different time requirements.

Simply training in a relatively safe work camp requires the longest time limit; going to the most dangerous front base garrison requires the shortest time limit; having achieved military exploits, the time limit can be more lenient.

In this way, in addition to making the prefecture, county and township officials aware of the hardships of the camp war and making their actions more pragmatic, Xu Huai also realized that a group of grassroots military officials who had to withdraw from the camp were assigned to serve as township officials.

This was due to the long-term influence and was more or less suppressed and excluded by the old official group, which was mainly composed of scholars. Xu Huai simply made entering the camp and gaining experience as a rigid criterion for selecting officials in Chushan.

Of course, those who have made military achievements as generals or are the heirs of generals or military officials are exempted.
To be continued...