The sky was dark and dreary, and suddenly it began to fall like goose feathers, and white snowflakes fluttered, and soon covered the earth.

The bloodstains on the school field were also quickly covered with snow, although Zhao Xingde only reminded him lightly, everyone's hearts were cold. The officials walked over to the crowd huddled together in the snow to keep warm. The people timidly looked at these non-commissioned officers in military uniforms and military boots. Some of them had cold faces, while others squeezed out a few smiles, but their moods were heavy, as if they had stepped onto a new battlefield.

The scribe Mei Xia first said: "Lord Zhao, the notice of the land sale order has been transcribed, when will it be promulgated?" ”

Zhao Xingde nodded and ordered, "Immediately issue it." Mei Xia first immediately presented the official document that had been prepared, Zhao Xingde took it, read it quickly, nodded with satisfaction, and said to Mei Xia first: "Post it." ”

"Yes." Mei Xia said respectfully first, and took the notice with both hands.

The invasion of the Liao Kingdom to the south and the Central Plains were uncultivated, resulting in a large amount of fertile land in Henan that was uncultivated. Zhao Xingde issued a land sale order, setting the price of abandoned land at about half to a quarter of the original price. People who have no money to buy land can borrow money from the government on credit, and then pay the land price for a total of 20 years, without interest. Zhao Xingde's original intention was to guide the workers in Guanzhong to take out the "grain stamps" and "cotton stamps" to buy land, and then use this to help those who did not have apprentices outside. However, a small number of scholars who did not flee south, such as the Lushan Mei family, also planned to take this opportunity to buy land on a large scale, in the words of Mei Xia first persuaded his father, if General Zhao can defend Henan, then this is a once-in-a-century opportunity, if General Zhao can not defend Henan, then there are no eggs under the nest, a little floating wealth and grain, what is it? After experiencing the rule of the Liao people and the harassment of robbers, after Zhao Xingde's army restored Henan, Mei Xia first heard the news, and rushed to Bianliang to serve under the command, he was skilled in handling affairs, and was familiar with the situation in Gyeonggi County, and was soon pulled by Zhao Xingde to his side, specifically responsible for drafting documents. Although Zhao Xingde himself has outstanding articles, he is entangled in military and government affairs, and most of the documents are only dictated, which are recorded and sorted out by Mei Xia first, and then issued with seals.

............

Heavy snow fell one after another, and the top of Shiren Mountain was soon covered with snow.

The minions of the cottage wore their clothes as much as possible, and shrunk into a ball with their bodies on their backs, not even saying much. It's snowy and windy on the mountain, so try to keep a hot breath. Although the officers and troops only had six or seven thousand men and horses, they had all horses, infantry troops, and artillery, and they fought very well. When the official army first came, the owner of the Wang village also lit up the people and horses to fight against a game, who expected that it was like an egg hitting a stone, and was beaten by others, after which Wang Lun gathered the remnants of the army and did not go out. The officers and soldiers were not in a hurry, and only sent scouts to watch the roads to death. In order to save food, Wang Lun successively drove 20,000 or 30,000 people from the old and young people in the village, and there were some fine works mixed in the middle, and all the officials and soldiers took them, and then there was no news from the side. Now there are still tens of thousands of people in the village, and the rest are the families of the old brothers. The road down the mountain and up the mountain is cut off, and if you keep surrounding it like this, I'm afraid that you will end up eating people.

"Big boss," Du Wu licked his lips, stared at the official barracks, and said viciously, "Just kill it!" ”

"Kill?" Wang Lun's eyes widened, "Who killed whom?" Now the time has not come," he rolled his eyes slightly, stroked his beard, and said in a low voice, "Zhao Xingde underestimated the heroes of the world, did he think that the Liao people would let him stay in Henan in peace?" These seven or eight thousand men and horses are dead here, and they will be delayed until the beginning of spring next year at most, and by that time, let them know who is in charge of this land! ”

"Yes!" Du Wu was fierce and glared at the Song army camp under the mountain.

Wang Lun's mouth called "they", is the nearby counties of the big clan and the owner of the village, Zhao Xingde's army arrived, these people immediately surrendered, not only that, but also assisted the official army to block the road, the formation of the Baojia camp, Shiren Mountain sent spies down the mountain several times, were exposed, either tied to the hands of the capture, or the bloody head was hung in the mountain pass. Several village owners were so angry that they were trapped by the officials and soldiers, unable to move, let alone burn and kill for revenge.

The Song army built a sturdy short wall under the main mountain road, and simply erected a shack on top of the short wall to protect against wind and snow. Beneath the shack, rows of musketeers sat cross-legged on the ground, carefully holding their muskets in their arms, waiting for the order to attack. Lu Mingyu, the commander of the left army, bowed his waist and observed the movement on the mountain through the lookout hole. Today is the day to prepare for the attack on Shiren Village. Although the weather was not beautiful and it snowed heavily, Lu Mingyu did not intend to let the village owners live one more day. After recovering Henan, Zhao Xingde recruited heroes and selected strong men, mixed them with veterans into battalions, and expanded the army again. The front, rear, left, center, and right armies under the command of the Tokyo Garrison Division were expanded to about 20,000 men respectively. Before the Liao people invaded, using troops to exterminate bandits could not only train soldiers to see blood, but also eliminate hidden dangers in the hinterland.

"The artillery battalion fires." Lu Mingyu straightened up and ordered politely, "Use the Heaven-Shaking Thunder Bomb." ”

The artillery battalions of the Tokyo Left-behind Division were all directly under Zhao Xingde's Chinese army, and even if they were assigned to fight in various armies, they only obeyed military orders. In the event of an unfavorable war, the armies must also find ways to preserve the artillery. Artillery is the key to victory, and since the Northern Expedition, this has almost become a consensus. In particular, this time it was assigned to Lu Mingyu to suppress the bandits, and it was the first artillery battalion that Zhao Xingde valued the most, and most of the people in the battalion were veterans of artillery.

Leaning behind the low wall, Zhu Bailiu's teeth clashed, gurgling, not only because of the cold, but also timid, he couldn't bear it, he held the fire gun tightly with both hands, and he didn't dare to raise his head. Suddenly, someone tapped him on the shoulder, and Zhu Bailiu looked up and saw that a leather water bladder was handed in front of him.

"Take a hot sip." Ten Captain Wu Qi said in a low voice, and the comrades of the first team all turned their heads to look over, and some people had smiles in their eyes. Zhu Bailiu nodded gratefully, picked up the water bladder, raised his neck and took a big sip, but immediately choked, it was obviously cold, but it fell into his throat but burned like fire, burning until he reached his stomach. "Is this wine?" Zhu Bailiu coughed while looking at Wu Qi in disbelief, he was born poor, he had never drunk alcohol, let alone such a strong wine.

"Enough, huh?" Wu Qi patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile, "One person is just one bite." He took the kettle from the stunned Zhu Bailiu and handed it to the next person, the veteran was more experienced, took a small sip with a smile, took a small sip in his mouth, swallowed it slowly, and then closed his eyes slightly, letting the heat generated by the wine and sweat fill his body, only then did he breathe a long sigh of relief and smiled: "It's so warm." Zhu Bailiu's eyes widened, watching the fire guns pass the water bladder full of wine and sweat, unconsciously, he felt hot and hot, and just wanted to rush out. At this time, the sound of "boom-" was deafening, and all the firecrackers were stunned. "Get on the gun!" "Get on the gun!" With the sound of orders one after another, Wu Qi and Zhu Bailiu hurriedly took the spear out of the sleeve, inserted it into the fire barrel, rotated and clamped it tightly, and carefully held the fire gun in their arms.

"Ready—" "Fire!" ”

Although it was freezing and the movements were a little stiff, the gunners still completed the movements meticulously. When the gunner corrected the gun position, the deputy gunner carefully measured the length of the earth-shaking thunder lead and the gun lead with a wooden ruler, and the other gunners filled the gun chamber with just the right amount of medicine pack, put it into the wooden partition, and added a layer of wet cloth, and finally put the earth-shaking thunder that lit the fuse into it, and then, with the gun commander's immediate "fire" command, ignited the lead of the firing powder pack.

"Boom-" "Boom-"

The artillery that throws the sky-shaking thunder is cast in Bianliang, the cannon body is thicker and shorter, and the requirements for steel are not so high, after the sky-shaking thunder is thrown out, the curve drawn is just around the wall of the bandits on the mountain, most of the sky-shaking thunder is exploding in the air, and the iron, marbles, and locust stones are splashed everywhere, and there are almost no dead ends. The firecracker leaned against the low wall, and screams and wails could be heard. At this time, even the people who usually complained about the high salaries of the gunners did not speak, but just rubbed their muskets over and over again.

After counting the five rounds of shelling, Lu Mingyu's face sank and shouted: "Attack!" ”

"Stand up-" "Stand up-" "Attack!" ”

A command shouted, the long-waiting gunners stood up, crossed the low wall, and carried the gunners to attack the wall, the wall of the Shiren village was built on the narrow and steep mountain road, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, but after being bombarded by the earth-shaking thunder several times, the cottage minions who were not killed and injured were also frightened to flee, and the Song army gunners took down the most dangerous first wall. A small number continued to chase up the hill, while most of them set up guns and prepared to deal with the bandits' counterattack.

"Damn," Lu Mingyu spat and said disdainfully, "What a hero, soft egg!" ”

............

Thousands of miles of ice, thousands of miles of snow drifting, the river is like a frozen dragon, the hideous body is crawling in the wilderness, I don't know when it will fly into the sky again. On the south bank of the Great River, the Song army rushed to repair a lot of wooden watchtowers and walled forts, even if the weather was freezing to death, the sentry guards also insisted here, once they found the movement of the Liao soldiers, they should immediately light the wolf smoke, and inform the rear brigade to prepare to meet the enemy. In order to save manpower and monitor a larger area, the baggage battalion built each watchtower as high as possible, the wind was strong by the river, and the watchtower leaked everywhere.

"His grandmother's." The cold wind blew on his face, Jia Yuanzhen raised his sheep's tail collar, and still felt that his face was like a knife.

Counting nine cold days is no fun, he even has a little pain in the cold, standing on the watchtower swaying in the wind, he has to hold on to the railing with his hands. In the cold wind, the simple wooden building constantly emitted the sound of "squeak" and "squeak", which made people tremble when they listened to it. As a battalion escort, Jia Yuanzhen could not have gone up to the watchtower, but in order to sympathize with the hard work of the soldiers, he specially asked to be on duty like an ordinary soldier.