…

Mt. Kei, as the name suggests, is a mountain that resembles a dustpan.

This is the choke point of the east, and it is also a place that must be passed.

As long as you pass through Mt. Keisan, you can go north to Yunseong, you can go south to Jeju, and more importantly, you can enter Yangsanluo, and then go wherever you want through the waterways that extend in all directions.

In short, as long as you pass through Keishan, then the Northern Song Dynasty's encirclement and suppression of the Song Jiang Righteous Army this time can be declared a failure.

Because of the important geographical location of Jishan, the Northern Song Dynasty court built a fortress in Jishan, and the name of the village was "Jishan Village".

It's just that because Jishan is located in the interior and close to Beijing, the Northern Song Dynasty court did not pay enough attention to Jishanzhai, and only placed 500 township troops (nominal) in Jishanzhai.

The armies of the Northern Song Dynasty were divided into three types - the forbidden army, the box army, and the township army.

Theoretically speaking, the only one of the three who really has combat effectiveness and can really go to the battlefield is the forbidden army.

During the period of the Five Dynasties, the forbidden army directly under the king naturally became the object of vigorous development.

The Northern Song Dynasty inherited from the Five Dynasties, and the same is true.

At the same time that Zhao Kuangyin released the military power with a glass of wine, he transferred the elite of the world into the forbidden army.

This innate superiority determined the absolute position of the forbidden army in the garrison and in the expedition.

Some units of the Xiang Army did have a certain combat power in the early Northern Song Dynasty, but the degradation over time was very obvious, especially after a large number of elites were transferred or even reorganized into the forbidden army, it is more appropriate to use the word "national engineering team" to describe the Xiang Army, like this time Zhao Kai sent to help the Jinwu Army escort grain and grass materials Most of the people are the Xiang Army.

The requirements for recruiting the Xiang army are not high, as long as they are willing to join the army, even criminals and homeless people can enter.

The sources of the township army are mainly divided into two types - requisition and recruitment.

It is easy to understand that levy is to draw the population proportionally from the household register.

The recruitment is intended to gather those who are unwilling to leave their hometowns to join the forbidden army and the Xiang army but have the potential to join the army.

The treatment of the forbidden army, the box army, and the township army was also very different.

The monthly salary of a soldier in the box army starts at 300 yuan, and the cap is only 500 yuan, and the general with the highest monthly salary in the box army is only 15,000 yuan.

The salary of the forbidden army starts at 300 yuan, but there is a lot of room for growth, as long as the assessment results are excellent and promoted to the class, it can reach up to 5,000 yuan, and the salary of an ordinary soldier can be the same as that of the middle and senior generals of the Xiang army.

In terms of welfare, the clothes of the Northern Song Dynasty soldiers were all taken care of by the Northern Song court, including cotton, cloth, grain, and even pickles.

The box army often has to be discounted, and the forbidden army can receive it in full, and the number is far more than the box army, just the daily meal discount can reach 500 yuan a month, and the later period will reach an astonishing five times (15 to 200 yuan a day)!

The treatment of the township army is even lower, and there is even a big gap with the Xiang army - the purpose of the township army at the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty is to change the peasants into soldiers, and they will naturally not spend too much money on food, they have no salary, only subsistence food, that is, two liters of grain per month.

(This is the case with the township army that was requisitioned, but not the "strongmen" who took the initiative to join the army, and the Northern Song Dynasty court gave them the treatment of the forbidden army in order to win over these people, of course, this is only a very small number of people.) ）

But the village army has a special benefit that makes up for it - land.

As long as you join the township army, a family will be given two hectares of land.

However, most of the land given by the Northern Song Dynasty court to the township soldiers was in remote areas and newly reclaimed land, and there were no tax incentives.

This is a burden for the vast majority of township soldiers.

Let's put it this way, the township army is almost a group of peasants with knives and guns, not a real army, and they have almost no combat power, let alone the heart to protect their families and defend the country.

Therefore, although Cai Yi and the others already knew that there were still some township troops in Jishanzhai before they came, they did not count them into their own combat strength.

In less than seven hours, the Jinwu army crossed the mountains and rivers, crossed the river and ran for more than 60 miles, approaching the Keishan village.

This road came in a hurry, and under Cai Ying's order, even the cavalry of Madu did not ride on horseback - all the horses of Madu were used to carry baggage and supplies, and the cavalry of Madu also followed the infantry to march with their legs (in order to ensure that the horse army still had the strength to fight in an emergency, and to ensure that the horse knights who were vital in this battle were not left behind, the horse knights could ride their horses and rest for a while every once in a while).

The knights of the horse army did not complain at all about this, because Cai still marched with them on his own legs, and Cai still did not ride a horse once after the whole process, on the contrary, Cai still resisted his own armor weighing seventy or eighty catties.

In this case, who dares to complain, and who is embarrassed to complain?

It wasn't until there was less than three miles left from the Kei Cottage that Cai still returned a hundred war horses to Madu, let the soldiers of Madu and their war horses rest a little, and then took the lead in rushing towards the Kei Cottage.

Before the township army in the Kei cottage knew what was going on, Wang De had already led the horses to rush into the Ji cottage.

Due to the fact that Chengping has been peaceful for a long time, during the whole process, the villagers in the Keishan cottage did not even resist at all, or even react at all.

It can be seen that if it is the Song Jiang rebels who are coming, then the Kei cottage will inevitably fall into the hands of Song Jiang and his gang very easily.

By the time Cai still and the large army of the infantry army arrived at the Kei Cottage, Ma Du had already controlled the Ji Cottage and had already asked the villagers in the Kei Cottage to boil water for cooking.

Cai still saw this, and immediately asked people to count the number of soldiers of the Jinwu Army - this way super strong and rapid march, how could there be no stragglers, if it is a training period, Cai can still use "do not abandon and do not give up" to take these stragglers, but this is an important moment to seize the fighter plane, Cai can still only use "do not abandon and do not give up" to let these stragglers keep up as soon as possible.

After a brief rest, Cai still asked the head of each capital to count the number of people who had arrived, and at the same time sent Tabai out to find out the movements of Song Jiang's righteous army.

Soon, the heads of each capital counted the number of people and came to report to Cai Ying:

"One has reached ninety-one, and nine people haven't followed!"

"The two have reached eighty-two, and eleven people have not followed!"

"Three people have reached eighty-three people, and twelve people have not followed!"

"Seventy-nine people have reached the four capitals, and seventeen people have not followed!"

"All the horses are here!"

Cai still asked someone to bring the map, and then discussed the deployment with several heads.

After some discussion, Cai still placed the second, third, and fourth places in the key points of the Kei cottage, and asked the head of each capital to supervise the township army to immediately repair the fortifications, and then Cai still sent the first capital and Ma Du to Yuhedian, which the Song Jiang rebels would definitely pass by, a few miles away, to ambush the Song Jiang rebels.

Yuhedian was originally a river valley, but now it has dried up into a north-south road, covered with fine gravel and gravel, and flanked by long slopes with large pine forests.

As soon as Zhang Xian and Wang De arrived at Yuhedian with Yidu and Madu, they found a good place to lurk, and at the same time let the soldiers and horses of Liangdu begin to rest.

Zhang Xian and Wang Degang sneaked down with the soldiers of Yidu and Madu.

In the distance, the sound of horses galloping could be heard.

Zhang Xian immediately climbed onto a tall pine tree and used a telescope to check on the visitors.

Soon, Zhang Xian understood that it was Jin Wujun's stepping white.

Zhang Xian's mind moved, and he said to Wang De below: "It's our Jin Wujun's stepping white, he should come back to deliver the news." ”

Wang De also reacted quickly, and he immediately sent someone to intercept the stepping white.

There was no need for Zhang Xian and Wang De to ask, and that Tabai took the initiative to say: "The two heads, the villains and others have found out, the vanguard of the rebels has already arrived three miles away, and they will be here in half an hour at most." ”

When Wang De heard this, he was overjoyed, and he said: "Fortunately, we came faster, otherwise, I am afraid that this gang of thieves will run away again this time." ”

Zhang Xian asked very calmly: "How many people are there on the other side?" ”

Tabai said: "There is about a battalion, all of them are infantry, and there are only thirty or twenty war horses, but their weapons are quite complete, unlike the group of rebels we met before." ”

Zhang Xian asked again: "Did they find you?" ”

Tabai grabbed the binoculars around his neck and said, "We have this, how can we let them find out?" ”

Now Zhang Xian and Wang De were completely relieved.

After putting Tabai over and letting him continue to report to Cai Ying, Zhang Xian said: "Since the vanguard bandit army only has one battalion of men, then we must eat them all, in this way, it will not only reduce our pressure in the future, but also boost the morale of our Jinwu army." ”

Wang De said: "Yes, you must eat them all!" ”

……

It was one of the 36 core personnel of the Songjiang Righteous Army who led the vanguard of the Songjiang Righteous Army. Thou shalt not forge ahead, for the heavenly soldiers are ahead. The pioneer of Suo Chao.

There is a reason why Suo Chao has been able to repeatedly serve as the vanguard of the Song Jiang Righteous Army.

And there is no other reason for this, just because Suo Chao is particularly good at rapid marching, and he can always seize the opportunity for Song Jiang's righteous army.

Just like this time.

Song Jiang said to Suo Chao: "Whether you can take the Kei Cottage or not is related to the life and death of our group, so you must go to the Kei Cottage first and take it down!" ”

After Suo Chao received the order, he desperately urged his righteous soldiers all the way.

As a result, it only took them thirteen hours to approach the Kei Cottage.

"Compared to speed, who can be faster than me?"

Suo Chao firmly believes that no matter how fast the official army is, it is impossible to outpace him.

Based on this, when he arrived at Yuhedian, Suo Chao slowed down - after all, there may be another battle to be fought in a while, although the combat effectiveness of the township army is almost zero, but it can't be taken lightly, right?

When the team entered Yuhedian, Suo Chao felt that there was a thick yin in this dry river valley, and the situation seemed to be a little bad.

Suo Chao was about to give the order to wait and wait to march again, but it was too late.

I saw that the slopes on both sides of the river valley were shot with arrows, and the arrows were like rain.

The Song Jiang rebels were taken by surprise by the Jinwu army, and five or six hundred people crowded into the narrow river valley, running from east to west and trampling on each other.

Wang De observed for a while, and saw that the formation of the Song Jiang Righteous Army was already chaotic, and it was unlikely that he could organize an effective counterattack anymore, so he immediately led the horse to rush to the river valley like a tiger descending the mountain to kill the Song Jiang Righteous Army!

Zhang Xian followed closely behind, and also led the soldiers of Yidu to rush down with guns.

The dust in Yuhedian was flying, and the sound of killing shook the sky.

This bloody battle lasted for nearly a tea time before it ended.

The remnants of the sun shone brightly on the severed heads, arms, legs, feet, and arms.

The horses and mutilated corpses that fell to the ground were strewn in a frightening appearance.

The air was filled with a thick, disgusting smell of blood.

Some of the seriously wounded soldiers of the Song Jiang Righteous Army lay on the ground and were dying, and they looked at the sky for the last time, wondering whether their hearts were yearning for heaven or fearing hell, and the corners of their mouths twitching did not know whether they were smiling or suffering.

Suo Chao wanted to lead the remnants of the defeated army to open a bloody road and rush out of Yuhedian.

It's a pity that they don't have such force at all, and in the face of the cavalry of the Jinwu army, all their counterattacks are so pale and powerless.

In the end, Suo Chao could only urge the inferior horse under his crotch to flee with three or five pro-soldiers as if they were dying.

However, where can the inferior horse under Suo Chao's crotch outrun the superior war horse under Wang De's crotch?

What's more, the superior war horse under Wang De's crotch has been resting for more than an hour, while the inferior horse under Suo Chao's crotch has been running with Suo Chao for more than ten hours.

Therefore, before he ran out half a mile away, Suo Chao was pierced through the heart by Wang De, who followed him, and then picked off his horse, and the defeated generals were also slaughtered by the horse cavalry brought by Wang De......

……