For two days, the wind was calm.

The sun is scorching, and the golden wheat sea outside Yongjia Fort is rippling with the heat wave. Scattered among the wheat fields, countless soldiers and people were sweating profusely and bending over to busy. Yang Zhaofeng looked at the periphery, compared to the wheat fields that were still harvesting a few acres, more wheat fields were already bald and flat, and the eyes were full of countless short half-cuts of wheat stalks densely planted in the land.

Yang Zhaofeng straightened his back, clapped his hands, and squeezed his stiff waist. There was a soldier near the left and said: "Join the army, just these few pieces of land, give them to the small ones, and you can collect all of them before dusk at the latest, you have accompanied the small ones to work hard for two days, and you should have rested." ”

At this time, a little girl with pigtails stumbled to Yang Zhaofeng's feet, squatted down to pick up some fragmented ears of wheat scattered on the ground, and held them neatly in her hands, and saw that there were still a few ears of wheat that Yang Zhaofeng inadvertently stepped on under her feet, reached out and pulled them out, but couldn't pull them out, so she raised her head and looked at Yang Zhaofeng with a little timidity.

Yang Zhaofeng looked down, smiled kindly at the little girl, leaned down, picked up the ears of wheat at his feet with his own hands, and gently handed them to the little girl. The little girl blinked her bright eyes, with a little timidity, and said carefully, "Thank you, uncle." After saying that, he turned around and happily sent the ear of wheat in his arms to his father.

The little girl's father came up, and when he saw Yang Zhaofeng, he was not afraid, and slapped the little girl on the head and scolded: "Cheap, how do you talk to the military master!" Saying that, he saluted Yang Zhaofeng, "The wild child doesn't know the height of the sky, and the villain is here to make amends to the military master!" ”

Yang Zhaofeng saw that the little girl's tears were rolling in her eyes but she didn't dare to cry, but the ears of wheat that she had worked so hard to collect for half a day had been scattered all over the ground, sighed in her heart, and said: "It's okay, the child is still young, don't scare her." As he spoke, he saw that the sack behind the man was half full, so he touched a piece of silver from his bosom and secretly stuffed it to the man, "You have a child, and the wheat is almost harvested, so let's go to Datong first." ”

Seeing this, the man hurriedly hid the water silk silver, looked left and right for a while, and confirmed that no one was aware, Fang said happily: "Thank you for the uncle's favor, the villain listens to the uncle's words." With that, he kicked the little girl lightly and motioned for her to follow. shouted loudly, and three children of different sizes but all skinny came out of the wheat waves.

"Let's go first." The man gave two commands, and strode away with his own pride, while his wife hurried after him with his four children.

Yang Zhaofeng shook his head, turned around and ordered a few soldiers, and said, "You go with me to the outside to find out the news." ”

In the past two days, there has been no movement in Xuanfu Tartar, Yang Zhaofeng has always been difficult to rest assured, today is the third day, and he decided to explore the situation by the way before the end.

Several horsemen swept across the wheat fields and galloped, and many soldiers and civilians who were doing their work on the road stood up and saluted. Yang Zhaofeng's afterglow swept over them with the strong wind, and a strong sense of responsibility arose in his heart.

After traveling for several miles, most of the wasteland and mountains in front of you are extinct, and the pedestrians along the way are extinct. Yang Zhaofeng knew that he had arrived in the territory of Xuanfu, and further north was Wanquan Zuowei, so he did not move forward. Just as he was about to turn back, there was a sudden loud laugh in the distance. Yang Zhaofeng was alert, dismounted with two soldiers, and quietly touched the sound of the sound. After passing through a poplar forest, I saw a village not far away, and at the intersection there were several corpses strewn and bleeding all over the ground, and several soldiers were distractedly picking up the bloody clothes on the corpses.

"This must be a tartar." Yang Zhaofeng looked at the armor of the soldiers opposite, and his eyes became sharp.

The soldiers of the Qing army put the ragged linen shirts on their bodies with their rough hands and feet, and no matter how fishy and unfittening, they seemed to be quite happy, and they actually danced with their hands and feet, just looking at their demeanor, which was quite funny.

In the early years of the Eight Banners, the productivity was low, and it could only produce crude silk and linen, and slightly better clothes could only be obtained from the Ming Dynasty or Korea. During the Nurhachi period, the children of the Eight Banners captured the city, and the target of looting was clothing, and it was stipulated that the clothing of the people in the occupied area "should be kept by the rich households, five by the middle, and three by the subordinates", and the rest were all confiscated. Until the Huangtai period came to power and the national strength increased, there were still the Eight Banners Army who were accustomed to stripping blood-stained clothes from the bodies of the Ming soldiers who died in battle. Today, such a move has long been detached from its original meaning, and has simply become a symbol of the Eight Banners Army's boasting of its military exploits.

Looking at the hideous face of the Qing army, Yang Zhaofeng was furious, but observing the situation, the smoke and dust over the village in the middle of the intersection dispersed into the air, and a large number of soldiers and horses were crisscrossing there. This place is less than ten miles away from Yongjia Fort, Yang Zhaofeng Qiang pressed his anger and beckoned the two accompanying soldiers to slowly retreat.

However, after only two steps, a crisp bell suddenly rang in his ears, and when he looked at it urgently, a Qing army horse soldier slowly rode through the forest, and he also looked at each other in a daze.

"Let's go!" Yang Zhaofeng shouted and ran wildly.

After a short time, when I came out of the forest, I heard the melodious snail behind me, and the ground seemed to tremble faintly.

Yang Zhaofeng took a few soldiers to fly on the horse, hurriedly left, when the war horse galloped, raised his eyes in the direction of the village, and there were continuous Qing troops pouring out, hundreds of thousands, can not be counted.

Several horsemen galloped and galloped for several miles back to the vicinity of Yongjia Fort, and Yang Zhaofeng urgently ordered to blow the military horn and gather the whole army.

"How many acres of wheat have not been harvested, how to dispose of them?" A soldier asked.

"No, don't worry about it at all." Yang Zhaofeng pondered for a moment, "Put a fire and burn the rest." "It's hot, the breeze is blowing, and a single spark can set the wheat fields on fire.

"There are still some people who may not have time to evacuate." And the soldier was worried. The Ming army had horses, but most of the people only had a pair of straw sandals or barefoot, how to outrun the iron hooves of the Qing army.

Yang Zhaofeng was silent for a long time, and then said ruthlessly: "I can't take care of it, the whole army will withdraw to the town guard first!" ”

As soon as the torch was thrown, the fire was monstrous in an instant, and the vast wheat field suddenly turned into a sea of fire.

The walls of fire burned in all directions, the people fled in horror, and Yang Zhaofeng shuttled like the wind with hundreds of horses. In the distance, the shouts of the Qing army were already clearly audible.

A little, Yang Zhaofeng, who was galloping, suddenly saw a family of six fleeing in front of him, and the little girl glanced back, seemed to recognize Yang Zhaofeng, pointed her finger and said loudly: "Uncle is here, uncle is here!" "I didn't stumble under my feet, and I fell to the ground solidly.

It was important for her father and mother to flee for her life, where could she take care of her, she didn't cry, struggled to get up, but her father and mother and her brothers and sisters were already more than ten steps away. Seeing this scene, Yang Zhaofeng suddenly felt compassion, suddenly tightened the reins and broke away from the horse team, jumped off the horse and picked up the little girl on the horse's back and placed it in front of the saddle.

The little girl's father and mother heard the sound, turned around and looked, each was surprised, Yang Zhaofeng urged the horse again, and shouted when he passed: "I'll take her away!" Before the words fell, he took out a few pieces of broken silver and threw them to the little girl's father, but he disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The Qing army did not pursue the Zhenyuwei, but the Zhenyuwei was no longer a place to stay for long.

Han Gon believed that since the Qing army had arrived at Yongjia Fort, it would inevitably come to attack the town and capture the guards in the next two days, and after a brief discussion with the generals, he decisively issued an order to withdraw the army.

After the previous harvest and the fire before Yang Zhaofeng left, even if the spring wheat of Yongjia Fort and Xinping Fort could not be transported to Datong Mansion City, it could be avoided from being used by the Qing army. In addition, the fortifications around the acropolis are almost completely demolished, and the messenger sent by Jiang Hao today also said that the construction of the flint ridge city in the north of the mountain is basically perfect - there is an old city in the flint ridge, and there are still many mountain people living there, although the mountain city is deserted, most of the walls and corner towers are complete, and they can be used with a little repair.

The day after the Ming army withdrew from the Zhenwei guard, the front-line scouts came one after another to report that the Qing army successively captured Yongjia Fort, Xinpingbao and other places, destroying the castle and slaughtering the soldiers and civilians, and the arrogance was terrifying. When Han Gon heard this, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The difference of one day is like the next day.

The reason why the Qing army, which swept through Xuanfu, was delayed for three days after capturing Chaigoubao was that the commander Azig coveted the horses of the Ordos Department of Hetao, and while negotiating with the Ordos Department to ask for horses, he was preparing to march into Shaanxi from Hetao in a roundabout way, but the matter was not completed and he was denounced. When the Qing court received the news, Kuaima instructed him to "exterminate the remnants of the enemy army for a period of time, so as to atone for the guilt of his former stay", and Azig did not dare to neglect his duties again.

At present, in the territory of Xuanfu, there are nearly 40,000 troops in the Eight Banners, and Wu Sangui annexed Tang Tong's soldiers and horses, plus the newly surrendered Bai Guangen, a total of 20,000. Azigliu, Wu Sangui, Bai Guangen and other 20,000 troops continued to besiege Sun Chuanting, who was stubbornly resisting in the corner of Shangzhuang Fort, and he led all the Eight Banner Army to transfer to Datong Mansion in Shanxi, taking the same route as Han Gon and others expected, and would pass through the northern passage of the Zhenyu Mountain to Datong Mansion City.

Azige's order to Wu Sangui was to take Shangzhuang Fort and sweep away the troubles before he arrived at Datong City. When the soldiers forced Jiang Huang to land, the Qing army of Azig was able to gather more than 100,000 people from Mongolian tribes in Wu Sangui, Jiang Huang, Hetao and other places to sweep Shanxi, Shaanxi and even the whole world.

A day later, Han Gon led his army into Flint Ridge City.

There are still many repairers and civilians in the city of Flint Ridge, who are in full swing transporting stones and repairing brick walls. Han Gon went up the ridge along the road, but saw that the city of Flint Ridge was located on the waist of the mountain, with gentle slopes and plains at the bottom of the mountain, and the mountain was extremely steep, with only a few trails passing. On both sides of the road, there are many stone forts, corner towers, etc., which cover each other, and they are horns of each other.

"The shape of this city is largely undamaged, and for only three days, our army has been working day and night, which has given it a new look. At present, there are only a few small gaps to be repaired, and even if the Tartars attack now, our army can rest assured that they can sit and defend. ”

In charge of the construction of the city of Flint Ridge is Jiang Xuan's henchman Wang Jinchao, in addition to the repair army, he still has 10,000 field battalion soldiers of Datong Mansion stationed here, and will defend the city with Han Gun's army.

On the way here, Han Gon had already received a military report from the south, saying that Zhao Dangshi's army had conquered Taiyuan Mansion and was on its way north. Thinking about it, Jiang Hao must have learned the news one step earlier, and suddenly actively repaired the city and increased his troops, and had a posture of fighting hard, not for no reason.

"Our army is bound to hold the mountain city and wait for the army of King Song." Han Gon frowned, "All the way from the Zhenwei guard, there are no pass checkpoints, only this mountain city controls the road leading to Datong Mansion City, the Tartars will definitely attack with all their strength, even if our army uses corpses, the road will be blocked." ”

When Wang Jinchao heard this, he looked at Han Gon with a solemn face, admired it in his heart, and arched his hand: "Wang and all the soldiers of Datong Mansion will accompany him to the end. Not only for my fathers and fellow villagers, but also for the sake of the future. He added, "Your army has 3,000, and I have more than 10,000 battalions of soldiers, and the combination of several strands is nearly 20,000." As Brother Han said, even if you take flesh and blood, you must also block the city without leakage. ”

In the distance, there were many small dots moving slowly, and Han Gon knew that they were all people who had fled from Zhenyuwei and other places, so he said: "Many of these people have brought wheat to be sent to the capital city, gather them in the mountain city, I don't know how long to defend the city, and it is good to have more supplies." ”

Wang Jinchao nodded in agreement.

Han Gon looked around at the mountains and mountains on all sides, and sighed: "The gate of the Ming Dynasty is now guarded by us, even if it is inevitable that the horse leather shroud will be used in the end, what more can you ask for this honor?" Then he took off his robe and left.

Another day later, the Qing army came to the city.