On the evening of September 26 in the fourth year of Xiande (957 AD), Guo Shao saw Li Chongjin's people.

"Li Chongjin can't run away." Guo Shao looked back left and right. The generals laughed, and he added, "Rest all night, and fight tomorrow morning." Even if Li Chongjin wanted to run, he couldn't run. We walked 200 miles yesterday and today, and Li Chongjin walked less than 50 miles, how could he run? ”

At this moment, the swarthy people, one old and one strong, with a cloth on their heads, climbed and took them up the mountain. Guo Shao gave Zhou Tong a look, and Zhou Tong took out a handful of copper coins and held it. Guo Shao then asked, "Are you locals?" ”

"My father is from Xiakou, and so is my grandfather." The older man spoke with a strong Hedong accent. Fortunately, although the accents in the north are different, they are much better understood than the southern dialects, and Guo Shao can almost understand them.

The old man got the money and pointed to the river under the mountain: "That's Fenshui, and the mountain opposite is called Qin Wangling; The mountain where we stand is called Xitou Mountain. There is not a hole in the north, which is occupied by soldiers and horses (Li Chongjin's department), and the mouth is open in the past, and there is Xiakou Town. ”

Zhou Tong asked: "What do you mean by openness and flatness?" ”

"Yes." The old man nodded hurriedly, "It's winter, it's windy at night, the north wind, and it's the end of hiding in the south of the mountain." ”

Guo Shao asked in detail about the terrain of Xiakou Town in the past.

The two people had nothing more to say, and were taken down. Zhou Tong immediately said: "After Fenshui crosses the mountain, it winds eastward, although the terrain of Xiakou Town is wide, the flat land is on the north bank; The road on the south bank is narrow, and unless you go over the mountain, you will have to crowd the road when you retreat. ”

"He blocked this hole in order to prevent our army from expanding; He deployed in the open field in the north, but he didn't think about how to retreat, but in order to fight. Guo Shao said with a smile, "Li Chongjin is still a battlefield veteran in the end, and he only talks about the use of soldiers, which is not bad." ”

Shi Yanchao snorted: "No matter how you use the soldiers, a bunch of wastes under your command can't stop the iron horses!" ”

Guo Shao echoed him and said: "General Shi said that the battle is about strength, unless the hope of victory is pinned on the stupid luck of the opposite side, otherwise whoever is stronger wins." Therefore, the strength of the whole country in the Great Zhou Dynasty is tilted towards the military, raising so many elites; If you don't want to win the battle, wouldn't it be nice to share the money with everyone for fun! ”

Everyone burst into laughter when they heard this, and a strong man and martial artist said happily: "If you share the money, you will have glory and wealth while sitting, and we will come to this deep mountain and wild valley to eat bird eggs!" ”

Guo Shao suppressed his smile and turned his head to Zhou Daodao: "General Zhou will be the envoy of the formation early tomorrow morning, and he will be responsible for arranging the formation early in the morning." Such a narrow area, less than a mile wide, could not be used, and the heavy infantry was deployed in front to increase the density of troops. ”

This kind of arrangement, which has almost no technical content, let Zhou Tong go completely to give him credit. Zhou Tong hurriedly clenched his fists and said, "The last general will take the order." ”

A general pointed to the opposite mountain and said: "Li Chongjin also has soldiers on the mountain, should we send troops up the mountain to guard it?" ”

Guo Shao glanced at it and immediately said, "No need." If you can make a detour from the mountains to hit me in the middle, it's still a bit of a threat; But Li Chongjin was at a disadvantage, and he took the initiative to dive down to find death. What's more, the roads on this mountain are difficult to navigate, and it is impossible for a large force to form a formation movement, and any movement is also very slow. It's also time for us to temporarily organize a defensive line on the side of the mountain. ”

Everyone observed again, and Li Chongjin built some fence fortifications on the mountain, and the fortifications were deployed in a line, and sure enough, they looked like they were defending. The movement of the enemy soldiers in the corridor of the river beach below the mountain could not be seen clearly, and some camps and flags could be seen in the distance, and large clouds of dust were covered in the mountains.

Guo Shao and the others couldn't get any closer, there were scouts in front of them, it was getting dark, and the skirmishes were meaningless.

…… Back in the camp, according to the guide's reminder, the various departments selected a camp behind the mountain and stationed there, and sent people to set up light and dark sentries and scouts, and there was nothing to do for a while. The night soon begins as the sun goes down, and there are bonfires at the foot of the mountain. It is estimated that there has not been such a popular scene in this mountainous area for several years.

After leaving Beijing on September 12, it has been 14 days, Guo Shao actually doesn't feel much, and all day is nothing more than riding a horse and walking; And then a battle fought. In the midst of it, he didn't feel that he had done anything earth-shattering...... But one can imagine the feats: half a month to travel thousands of miles, defeating sixty or seventy thousand people in a row. (In fact, it is not an exaggeration to exaggerate a little bit and claim to destroy an army of 100,000; In the Battle of Chibi that year, Cao Cao had less than 200,000 people, and it was nothing to claim 800,000. ）

Two Li 100,000 troops rebelled and were wiped out in half a month! Isn't this kind of power called internal and external shock? How will the people of the world react?

The more Guo Shao thought about it, the more excited he became. Although he was cautious the day before yesterday, he was actually tempted by this result in his heart, so he would do everything possible to send troops continuously, and he was looking forward to tomorrow's battle.

Guo Shao sat under a dead tree, not even a tent, quietly excited. Because the whole army was lightly armed and simple, the tents were few, and the complex structure of the Chinese army's big tent, which required several vehicles to fit, naturally did not bring it.

The armies first boiled hot soup on the ground, and then chatted after eating. Then they removed the fire, and when the ground was already hot, they spread the tung tarpaulin and blankets that wrapped the quilt; Then carry the small tent to the big bunk. Then a few people were wrapped in a large quilt, and there were twenty people lying in a small tent, huddled together, and there was no room in the tent except where they slept; Warm up with a fire outside the tent.

The conditions are quite tough, real wind meals for camping. But as long as everyone thinks they can win, it's nothing.

Fortunately, there is very little rain in the east of the river in late autumn and early winter, and if it rains at this time, it will be even more miserable...... There were too few tents to shelter from the rain, and they were too low to make a fire in the tent. If it rained, Guo Shao might not dare to send troops from Jinju in such a hurry.

Guo Shao is better as the master, he doesn't have to squeeze with others, he lives in a tent and changes a quilt by himself. However, the tent was still very low, and it was impossible to straighten up when entered, and could only bend over except to lie down.

Rao is like this, Guo Shao still can't sleep. This feeling is very subtle, as if I am going to see a beautiful woman tomorrow, I am very excited and excited, but I have gains and losses in my heart...... What if she doesn't like me? What a pity if I'm nervous and misses......

Of course, now Guo Shao is looking forward to Li Chongjin, and Li Chongjin can't like him, so he has to come strong.

Fu Jinzhan heard that he had defeated Er Li in fifteen days, how would he feel? Hey......

Guo Shao fell asleep in a daze in a dream and nervousness.

The next morning, he woke up at the sound of a trumpet and hurried to get up. He stood in front of the low tent and saw that a large force of infantry had been drawn out of the battalion, and the huge tiger flag in front of him was still not adapted from the previous flag.

The conductor holds his sword diagonally, followed by the standard-bearer and drummer. "Knock, knock......" 500 people slowly marched in a neat queue to the beat of drums. The black iron armor and heavy footsteps seem to conquer the mountains and rivers.

Guo Shao asked someone to help put on heavy armor, tie the waist ornament on his body, and hang his sword. Then he took a toothbrush out of his pocket and went into the tent to brush his teeth, he had overslept this morning, but he was not panicked at all, and he had to remain calm and calm. When he washed his face, he said to the shadow inside: Every time you think about Fu Jinzhan, you will definitely win. It's going to be a good day!

Guo Shao ate three wheat cakes with cold boiling water, Dong Er led the horse to come up, he turned over on his horse, got out of the fence, and more than 200 horsemen were waiting in formation. Guo Shao waved his hand and said, "Let's go!" ”

Along the way, the infantry army was marching, and Guo Shao rode by the flank and shouted: "This battle will be won!" ”

The troops looked back at Guo Shao and shouted: "We will win...... The sound of "Victory ......" echoed in the mountains on the opposite bank, hovering over the surface of the Fenshui River.

When Guo Shao arrived at the battlefield, he saw from a distance that Li Chongjin, who was hundreds of steps away, had a fence in front of him, rejecting horses, and dug a ditch in front; This battle is again a defensive situation. He looked up and saw the undulating hills on the side, on which the enemy soldiers had fortified and defended; However, the hillside is undulating, and the enemy is far away, so a temporary ambush cannot be surprisingly successful.

"Dong Er, you take a team of personal soldiers to abandon their horses and disperse up, and see clearly whether there are any signs of ambushes, stones and other man-made in the mountains in front of the enemy soldiers." Guo Shao pointed to the east side and shouted, "If you find something abnormal, wave the flag to report the news." ”

"Order!" Dong Er replied with a fist.

Guo Shaoze's horse patrolled everywhere, only to see Zhou Tong leading people to shout and set up the formation, the camp on the front line had been deployed, and the men and horses who came one after another were arranging the formation.

He took a look, the eight commanders on the first line, according to the sequence of front and back arranged in advance, the front belonged to the second army of the Tiger Ben Army, all of which were infantry. 500 men each, a long phalanx of ten platoons; There are about fifty people in two teams in a row. A command stretched out horizontally at less than fifty paces, and the infantry was densely deployed; The eight commanders spread out horizontally, and about a mile of the front, there was a wide gap between the commands.

Although Zhou Tong used to be a sect leader, a large number of personal soldiers in the Weiwang Mansion should be trained by him. It seems that the marching formation is still very expert.

In the camp fence of Li Chongjin on the opposite side, I am afraid that Guo Shao's considerations are similar, and the front is full of infantry...... Because the horsemen occupy a large area, they are too dense to run at all, and if they are too sparse, the number of people who can be thrown into the battlefield is small; Where the terrain is narrower, the density of infantry is greater and the frontal combat effectiveness is stronger. In infantry combat, the denser the more advantageous, because the dense side may locally have two or three men fighting one.

Guo Shao became a recruit guard in the Weiwang Mansion at the age of thirteen, and he has been in the military for nine years, and he knows what war is like according to experience. Later, he "changed people", and gradually became fond of reading, and Sun Tzu was the most familiar with the Art of War...... However, it is almost useless in actual combat, and the organizational form of the army is completely different from that of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and we can only comprehend abstract ideas.

So far, he has not found that there are detailed military books in this era, teaching people how to march and fight, everything depends on experience and his own thinking and summary.