Luo Xianshi said worriedly: "If you want to take the road of the Great River, you have to pass through the place controlled by the Jiangling Naval Division. What about the Gangneung Sailors? "The Jiangling Navy Division has not returned to Ezhou so far. The so-called peers are enemies, and they all eat food on the water. Although Luo Xianshi was already under the control of the imperial court's Baoyi Right Army, he still couldn't let go of his vigilance against the Jiangling Water Division, and he thought that the Jiangling Water Division was the same for these original Jingxiang Water Kou.

"Although Hao Xi, the commander of the Jiangling Naval Division, refuses to show his attitude, he is still waiting to see the success or failure, and he will not easily tear his face with us. However, as the saying goes, the soldiers are not tired of deceit, and the reinforcements take the route from the river to Guizhou, and then turn north, and it is best to hide the ears and eyes of the northern captives. In the opinion of the last general, it is better to make a big show to the outside world, declaring that we and the Zhenguo army will merge all the way and open up Xiangyang first. waterway, and then join forces with Xiangyang to rescue Fangzhou. In fact, he disguised himself as a merchant ship to go west against the river and quietly went ashore in Guizhou to the north, which could catch the Liao army by surprise. ”

Shi Jingkui stood up and gestured with his hand on the map. Luo Xianshi nodded and hesitated: "Will the Jiangling Sailor really let him go?" The other generals also showed worry in their eyes, Shi Jingkui looked at Zhao Xingde, and the two exchanged glances.

Prior to this, Zhao Xingde and Shi Jingkui had specially discussed the matter of appeasing the Jiangling Water Master. Because the Jiangling Sailor was stuck between Shu and Ezhou, it threatened the water passage from Xia to Song. In the future, a large number of ordnance, grain and grass rescued by the Xia State in Ezhou, and even the soldiers and horses of the Eastern Expedition may pass through this waterway. Therefore, if Ezhou can't control the Jiangling Water Division, the Shu Water Division will also look eastward to provoke, find an excuse to punish the Jiangling Water Division, and then hand over Jiangling to Ezhou. Now the Baoyi Army wants to take the road to rescue Fangling, just to find out the attitude of the Jiangling Water Division.

Zhao Xingde nodded and affirmed: "Don't worry, Jiangling won't make any trouble." ”

Seeing that both of them were so sure, the generals had always held something, and they did not question it again. Lu Mingyu sneered: "If the sailor is embarrassed with us, he will simply take Jiangling." "The next step is to discuss how the various ministries will send troops.

There are now more than 6,000 soldiers and horses in the headquarters of the Baoyi Army, most of whom are Jingxiang Shui Kou, and a small number of them are state and county volunteers led by the original Baoyi soldiers. Zhao Xingde is the commander of the fake Baoyi Army, Shi Jingkui is the staff officer, and the following is divided into left and right compartments, Lu Mingyu is the commander of the left army, and Luo Xianshi is the commander of the right army, and there are more than 2,000 people under each of them. Shi Jingkui also led the tooth battalion of more than 500 people.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Baoyi Army, in order to appease the hearts of the heroes, Zhao Xingde rejected Chen Dong's suggestion that he should use the state and county volunteers or the imperial court officials as tooth soldiers, but instead selected elite strong men from the Jingxiang Shui Kou to build the tooth barracks, not only that, but even Lu Mingyu and Luo Xian also selected elite subordinates respectively, and formed two tooth battalions of more than 500 people each. Usually Zhao Xingde lives in the camp, so Shi Jingkui, Lu Mingyu and Luo Xianshi take turns to lead the camp to be on duty. Seeing him so pretentious, the Baoyi Army was not at all vigilant, and they were also very moved, and gradually, even the discord between the many Jingxiang heroes who were recruited in was much less.

After the military discussion, the generals divided up to prepare. Zhao Xingde first went to the Zhenguo Army and Yue Fei agreed, and both sides falsely claimed that the Baoyi Army and the Zhenguo Army would join forces to go north and open up Xiangyang. land and water, and then rescue Fangzhou. Shi Jingkui and Du Chuijiao went to the arsenal of Ezhou to search for suitable armor, and as a result, most of the good armor of the Ezhou arsenal was allocated to the Zhenguo army, and the rest except for the tattered and rusty goods, only some paper armor was still intact, so Shi Jingkui picked out 5,000 paper armor, which was better than nothing. He was worried that the paper armor would not be able to resist arrows, and he squeezed out more than 3,000 iron helmets with the soft grinding and hard soaking of the Quartermaster's Office, so that the soldiers of the Baoyi Army could be regarded as a full set of armor.

"That's all there is to the arsenal, you will use it first." When handing over the ordnance, Shi Jingkui was still a little guilty. The armor used by the Shuzhong sailors has a whole piece of steel on the chest, which is lined with rattan armor and sponge, which can block arrows, and the knife cannot cut in, and it has enough buoyancy. In Shi Jingkui's eyes, the paper armor can only be regarded as an indiscriminate thing, but when the paper armor is sent down, the water army is jubilant.

"It's good, it's light enough." Xia Mao'er put on paper armor, waved the steel knife twice, and grinned, "This is a thing that only the imperial court sailors have." I heard that Gangneung is reluctant to use it, so it's all locked in the warehouse. He raised his hands and feet again, and laughed, "I have money again, and I will send soldiers and armor, Brother Lu, this time Zhao'an is the right one." With Zhao Juntou, I tried the taste to get it. ”

If the paper armor is made well, it can still resist arrows, but things are not perfect, because the armor is made of paper, which is easy to be damaged, and is afraid of moisture and insects. And the officers in the battalions in various places simply hid the paper armor in the treasury, took it out regularly to bask in the sun, and put it in the regular replacement or not, it is a confused account that cannot be calculated.

Lu Mingyu hid the smile in his eyes, and said with a calm face: "After you receive this batch of armor, you will go to General Zhao's tent to ask for guilt." "Just the day before yesterday, Xia Mao'er went to Jiayu County to urge salary, and actually brought the iron brain hoops, clamping sticks and other things used in the original kidnapping and extortion, and put these things in the county office, seeing that the words were not speculated and the county order was going to be punished, so frightened that the county magistrate hurriedly summoned the gentry of the county school, and everyone first made up more than 5,000 stone of grain to send away this evil god, and the official letter of Jiayu County's complaint followed by Ezhou.

"Yes, big brother!" Xia Mao'er patted her chest and said, quite bold, doing things alone.

"Get down!" Lu Mingyu scolded. Xia Mao'er walked down with a smile. Others are careless and careful, Zhao Xingde has always been very lenient in the means of urging salaries, and this plea is at best a show. Compared with this, it is still a good deal to get a real salary.

Sure enough, after Zhao Xingde reprimanded Xia Mao'er in front of the quartermaster house, because it was the time to employ people in the army, he punished him to die for the crime of wearing a crime in the front army. And the so-called "front army" is the Baoyi Left Army led by Lu Mingyu. Therefore this penalty is equal to nothing. This matter was originally caused by the Quartermaster House to make a military quartermaster for the Baoyi Army Baitiao, and the Quartermaster Office was not too likely to pursue it, and when the Jiayu County Commander learned about the disposal, he had to admit that he was unlucky, but he didn't dare to deal with the Quartermaster Baitiao from then on. All the taxes due were to be paid in full, lest the Quartermaster House stuff them into the Baoyi army to collect the accounts.

After announcing with great fanfare that he was preparing to join forces with the Zhenguo Army for the Northern Expedition, Zhao Xingde took a boat back to the west. Because it was a thousand miles to come to the aid and to hide people's eyes, each army that went west was a scale of more than 500 people, led by the generals respectively. Zhao Xingde was only protected by three boat-carrying tooth barracks.

The weather was beautiful, the wind on the river was positive and strong, and the east wind blew the hard sails to the swell, although it was against the current, but under the impetus of the rocking oars below deck, the speed of the ship was not slow. Most of the soldiers in the Ya Barracks were born in Shuikou, Shi Jingkui was a Shu person, and he was quite familiar with water warfare, so he divided his subordinates into three classes, one group of people rocking under the deck, one group responsible for cable sails and rudders, and one class resting and practicing martial arts on the deck. If a soldier commits a crime, the rest class is canceled and the rest class is added, and the reward soldier is to reduce the rocking class and increase the rest class. Zhao Xingde saw that he handled the water affairs in an orderly manner, so he let him do it, he didn't interfere too much, and only thought about how to fight the battle after arriving in Fangzhou.

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

It was drizzling outside the city of Fangzhou, and in the drizzle, the green hills on all sides appeared lush and green, and the air carried the fragrance of all things, which was a vibrant scene in early spring. The city walls in the mist and rain are like in the painting. However, even in the rainy weather, the Liao army did not stop attacking the city, a team of signed troops against the simple ladder swarmed up, against the arrows and sassal wood at the head of the city to climb up, the sound of fighting and screams mixed together, the rolling stone "boom" to the ground, the "bang" sound of throwing stones on the city wall sounded from time to time.

At the head of the city, Zhizhou Gao Zhen was wearing the robes of ordinary soldiers, and he looked to the east from afar, his brows deeply locked. Since the Liao army pressed the border, Fangzhou asked for help from Xiangyang, Jinzhou and Ezhou at the same time, and so far has not seen a single reinforcement.

"Is there any news from Xiangyang?"

"Still haven't heard anything." Chen Keli said in a low voice.

Although he is in the same camp as Ezhou, Gao Zhen has greater hopes for reinforcements from Xiangyang. After all, there are 100,000 troops stationed in Xiangyang, and it is close to Fangzhou, and Xiangyang's troops will arrive in a few days. Gao Zhen even secretly planned that if Xiangyang saved Fangzhou, the southeast battalion would take advantage of the situation, and under the prohibition, he did not want to fight in the same room, so he had to resign from the official position of the governor of Fangzhou and go to Hubei to join Chen Dong alone.

Fangzhou City was originally built on a small plain surrounded by mountains, at this moment, Ding Zhuang and even the healthy women in the city have been mobilized by Gao Zhen and Chen Keli, and more than 5,000 people have taken turns to defend the city. Compared with the endless Liao military camps outside the city, the small Fangzhou City is like a flat boat in the stormy waves. Fortunately, this Fangzhou City is a famous minister Chen. Xiliang built, the city was built very strongly, the Liao army bombarded with trebuchets for several days, except for the damage to some city towers and wooden war sheds, did not cause much damage to the city wall. In the past few days, although the Khitan people have not personally attacked the city, but the signing army has been very fierce in attacking the city, the arrows under the city and the defenders are powerful, the dead and wounded under the city, and the casualties in the city of Fangzhou are also very serious.

Gao Zhen couldn't help but touch his pocket, there was a letter there, which was written to him by Chen Youyi, the son of the prince of Xiliang, who built this Fangzhou City. "Xia Guo, Xia Guo," he sighed secretly, "It's hard to quench your thirst from far water." ”

The light rain was still dripping, and the rain and blood mixed into deep and shallow streams, invading the red earth.