Thinking of the war with little hope of victory, Sun Zhongshan and his deputy had no intention of discussing military affairs. Because there is no longer any need for this. At present, the disparity between the forces of the enemy and us is too great, and no amount of planning and strategy or arranging troops can change this cruel fact. At such a time, it is useless to say that the art of war and war strategy are well understood, and it can only be delayed for a while to talk about the general's single-minded and three-military life......

It was quiet in the humble command post. Sun Zhongshan and his deputy sat opposite each other across the "military case", neither of them spoke, and each lowered his head to think about his thoughts. The wick of the marching candle is about to burn to the end; A small puddle of wax oil shone a dim white light in the withering lamp. The last bit of yellow light from the candle dragged the backs of the two men long, casting them onto the gray canopy.

I don't know how much time passed, but the deputy finally couldn't bear the suffocating atmosphere, coughed and said, "Then, I'll go and rest for a while." As soon as the morning dawns, I will take 300 people to the ...... first."

"Okay."

The deputy stood up with a waist knife in his hand, grinning and trying to say something, when he heard a string of spurs outside the tent, and the military blanket that temporarily served as the curtain door was torn off, and a man with his head and face wrapped in a military blanket fell in, and shouted loudly:

"General! Checkmate! Duan Xiu, Duan ...... I've found General Duan! ”

What the?

The deputy saw the opportunity quickly, and with a choking sound, the waist knife was pressed against the man's neck. Sun Zhongshan was also a little troubled by the sudden change in front of him, and jumped up to stroke the hilt of the sword, hearing that the word "Duan Xiu" popped out of the man's mouth, he kicked away the knife in his deputy, took a step forward and asked in a dumb voice: "You mean Duan Xiu?" One by one, where is he? ”

The little colonel crawled on the ground and raised his palm to point to his own path: "It's already here!" Coming soon! General Duan will be here soon! ”

Sun Zhongshan looked up, in the darkness and drowsiness, there seemed to be a few people coming here, and immediately heard Duan Xiu's old and indisputable Lanzhou accent: "Sheng Xie (General Sun) is in Ha (where)?" ”

Sun Zhongshan's heart was light, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and glanced at his deputy, and each of them had a fluke feeling of being alive and dead. The two of them hurriedly stepped out to meet Duan Xiu.

Duan Xiu was already wounded, one arm was hanging around his neck, half of the general's armor was also removed, both ribs of his right shoulder were tightly wrapped in raw cloth, and there were still black blood stains in several places; Under the faint candle flame, the armor and robes were dark in some places and light in others, and they were all stained with blood at a glance. Sun Zhongshan helped him sit down, and at the same time ordered people: "Hurry up and call the military doctor over!" Hurry up, find a way to prepare some hot soup to eat! ”

Duan Xiu waved his right hand tiredly and said, "No." If you have wine, just bring some of it. Only then did Sun Zhongshan find out that Duan Xiu's right hand was also injured, and a section of his tail finger, ring finger, and middle finger had all been cut off, but the strip of raw cloth wrapped around his hand had been soaked in blood and turned black, so he was not noticed when they first met. His brows couldn't help jumping, and he was still fighting so hard in such a position, which showed that the battle situation was tight at that time, and the enemy was fierce. Duan Xiu held his injured arm and continued, "I don't have time to take care of this right now. General Sun, how many people do you have here? ”

Sun Zhongshan instructed his soldiers: "Go get wine!" He turned his head and said directly to Duan Xiu, "I brought three battalions of 1,300 people; In addition, 600 people from the left battalion were also contained on the way. A total of 1,900 soldiers who can fight......"

"Enough! Bring your people, let's go and take the camp back first! ”

"Not right now." Sun Zhongshan said. He took out the military order from his arms, "This is the order of the Governor Jun, please take a look at the old general." ”

Duan Xiu quickly read the military order, was silent, and then got up to give a military salute, and said: "Since the military order is like this, then from this moment on, everything in the left camp will be handed over to General Sun's command and decision." The lower section of the post is repaired, and he obeys General Sun's orders. The three officers of the left battalion who came with him also silently saluted together.

At such an urgent moment, Sun Zhongshan was not polite and humble, first helped Duan Xiu to sit down, and he also sat down on the horse with a heavy weight, and asked, "How many people are there in Zuoying now?" ”

“…… More than 1,300. can fight, less than a thousand. ”

"Where are you now?"

“…… All in a small ditch ten miles to the south. Duan Xiu lowered his head in shame. This defeat was caused by his carelessness. If he had reported the enemy situation to the Chinese army as soon as he discovered it, if he had made up his mind to expel the enemy when he was still unsteady, and if he had ordered the battalions to concentrate when he sensed that the enemy did not advance or retreat, he might not have been so badly defeated...... But he was no longer able to correct the mistakes he had made. All he can do is try to make up for his mistakes.

"Where is the main force of the Turbids chasing you now?"

As soon as Sun Zhongshan asked this, the three officers of the left battalion who were holding their heads solemnly with their swords hanging their swords couldn't help but glance at him quietly. It hadn't been a moment since they came over, and Duan Xiu hadn't even mentioned half a word about dealing with the enemy until it was dark, how could Sun Zhongshan know? It seems that this Sun Zhongshan has risen to the top, and it is not all based on the friendship he formed with the admiral at the beginning, he himself also has the ability that others can't compare, and with this ability to strategize and plan deeply, it is no wonder that someone nicknamed him "Little General" behind his back......

Duan Xiu has been in Yanzhou for a long time, and he knows the length and shortness of several of Shang Cheng's henchmen and favorite generals, Qian Lao Sanmeng, Ji Zhengfan Quanyong, Shao Chuan loyal Geng Jie, Zheng Qi is clever and vigilant, and Wen Mu is thoughtful and careful...... Only this Sun Zhongshan is resourceful and decisive, can run and fight, can be described as both wise and brave, and is also the most valued by businessmen. Therefore, he was not as surprised as a few of his subordinates, took a sip of the warm water that his own soldiers said, and said: "The camp is kicked, and we will fight and walk to the south, and one by one we dare not let the enemy's main force go to Heishui along the road. Together with a battalion to the south, they were unable to repel the enemy, and did not get rid of the enemy until dark. In fact, it's not that they got rid of it, but they retreated on their own. There are about four or five thousand enemies in this group, about three thousand in the Great Tengliang Division, and about a thousand in the Wannuer Division......"

Sun Zhongshan frowned tightly to listen to him, and suddenly interjected and asked, "There are no soldiers from the Alegu Third Division?" ”

Duan Xiu shook his head and said, "I didn't see the banner of the Alegu Tripart; I haven't heard of it either. There were also big tent soldiers, but there were very few, only two or three hundred......" he glanced at his three men. An officer said: "There are black flags of the hundred-man team of big tent soldiers, and there are no black flags. ”

Seeing that Sun Zhongshan lowered his head thoughtfully, Duan Xiu paused for a moment before continuing: "...... We had planned to recapture the camp first, destroy the 200 sets of iron armor and 7,000 arrows stored in the village, and move here, just in time to meet you......"

Only then did Sun Zhongshan understand why he couldn't find Duan Xiu in the middle of the night. The remnants of the left battalion fought fiercely with the enemy for several hours, and they were already full of panic and fatigue, and they were suspicious at the slightest disturbance, saying that it was a team movement, or perhaps that the various departments were divided into pieces and slowly moved to hide and hide. Besides, the grassland is so big, and it is a moonless night, and it is not uncommon for the sentinels to find them...... Thinking about it, he said slowly: "Okay, according to the old general's plan in the front, the left battalion will assemble here, and grab the camp after dawn." The officers and men of the left battalion I brought with me also let them return to the formation and listen to the dispatch of the old general. As he spoke, he spread the map he carried with him on the "military case," beckoned his deputy and several officers of the left battalion to come forward, pointed to the map, and said, "You must fight the old camp, the momentum must be fierce, and the movement must be large, but the offensive must not be too fast, and you must find a way to attract the main force of the enemy stationed by the lake to come......

The three officers of the left battalion exchanged glances with each other and grinned at the same time. This surnamed Sun is completely blind in command! Not to mention that the war relies on a single blow, now that the left battalion is newly defeated, the soldiers below are almost the same as the frightened birds, and they still want to fight slowly to attract the enemy's main force? How to fight this battle, how to attract the enemy? I am afraid that the main force of the enemy did not come, so I scattered in a hurry.

An officer smacked his lips and said, "General Sun is really calculating!" We attract the enemy's main forces, and you take your soldiers to steal the enemy's camp? ”

"I think this calculation can work." Another officer said, "When the enemy's main force comes out, the old camp must be empty, and General Sun took the enemy's old camp and burned their grain and grass, and they can only retreat if they don't retreat." He looked at Sun Zhongshan with a raised face and said with a smirk, "My subordinates first congratulate General Sun on burning grain and grass one by one, this credit is not small." ”

Sun Zhongshan ignored the sarcasm of the two officers and continued: "I will lead people to make a detour from here, move to the enemy's flank, and wait for the enemy's main force to come before making a move. He poked in the middle of the map, "This is a muddy swamp soaked in the water of the lake, and the deepest place can trap horses, and we must find a way to drive the enemy here." He stopped, raised his head, stared at Duan Xiu with blazing eyes, and asked, "General Duan thinks that this is okay?" ”

Duan Xiu's face was also covered with blood and mud, with two eyes, he looked at Yutu's heart and weighed it again and again, before he said slowly with an expressionless face: "The way is good, it's ...... I'm afraid that the left battalion won't be able to withstand it. As for why the left battalion couldn't stand it, he didn't say. He knew that Sun Zhongshan must have understood what he was talking about; At least Sun Zhongshan will give him an idea and let Zuo Ying find a way to resist it. But Sun Zhongshan didn't open his eyes coldly, so he had to continue his words, "Or, let Zuo Ying come and take a detour?" ”

"No way!" Sun Zhongshan rejected Duan Xiu's proposal without hesitation. "The left battalion is running with the battle, and the soldiers are already physically and mentally exhausted, and now let them make a maneuver and detour for hundreds of miles, even if people can withstand it, the horses can't run. I ordered the officers and men of the left battalion to rest on the spot at once. And the food, and the armament, and the baggage that I have brought with me, shall be handed over to you for your care. He called out to a junior school on duty, "What time is it?" ”

The little colonel looked up at the stars in the sky carefully from the gap between the two canopies, and said uncertainly for a long time: "...... The ugly time is probably almost over. ”

Sun Zhongshan himself is also in this assessment. The Oriental Daystar has not yet risen, which means that it is not yet the time of the second day. He glanced around at the officers in the tent and said calmly, "That's it." Go and prepare. My soldiers will be transferred at once. Take the first tree here looking west, and when the sun rises over the treetops, you start! After saying that, he packed up the map.

Although the officers of the left battalion felt that they were not sure about the implementation of the deployment, they did not dare to disobey the military order, and they raised their arms and roared in unison: "Rin obeys General Sun's order!" ”

Duan Xiu's arm was raised and not put down. He was embarrassed and said, "...... Can you play a little later? The soldiers fought for a long time, and then bumped for most of the night......"

Before he finished speaking, he was coldly interrupted by Sun Zhongshan: "Is it that the soldiers can't fight, or do you dare not fight?" He sat on the horse and looked at Duan Xiu and the three left battalion officers Sen Ran, and was silent for a long time before his expression was calm and said in a calm tone, "The words are serious, General Duan don't mind." As you know, I was born in the Yanshan Border Army, and after I was promoted to the Weijun, I have been in the Yanzhou Central Army, and I am not very familiar with the affairs of the Fangzhou Left Army. I only remember that when General Li Wei and General Li were there, he praised the Fangzhou Cavalry Brigade many times as 'Yanshan Tiger Ben'. When the Chinese army built a new cavalry brigade last winter, half of the officers at all levels of the sentry battalion were also drawn from the Fangzhou cavalry brigade. At that time, the Ministry of War wanted to transfer a group of officers from the Central Plains, but was stopped by the commander. If nothing else, just because our Yanshan Guards themselves have good officers! The commander also told me several times that we want the Chinese Army Cavalry Brigade to take the Fangzhou Cavalry Brigade as the standard, and we must be able to endure hardships, be able to survive, be able to fight continuously, and be able to fight battles that others can't and dare not fight! However, at the moment, General Li in front of him, as well as our commander, seem to have looked away......"

The four officers of the left battalion were so ashamed of his words that they were simply ashamed. Duan Xiu's old face was even more black and purple, and after chattering for a long time, he stood upright again, his legs and spurs clanged crisply, and his right hand clenched his fist and slammed it on the armor leaf on his chest: "General Sun, don't worry!" One by one, he will live up to the commander! ”

"Your subordinates will live up to the commander!"