A fort of fireworks, a place of dead corpses, there is no living thing in the entire fortress, the granary is even darker by the fire, the grain stack that has become charcoal, so that Lu Shi and Guo Tianxing can't help but lament.

Watching the brothers carry out the corpses one by one, looking for a suitable place to bury them, watching a group of unclothed, skinny people brave enough to rummage in the ashes of the grain that had turned into a pile of charcoal, hoping for an unexpected surprise, Lu Shi only had helplessness and self-blame.

"Is it necessary to do things so desperately?" Guo Tianxing turned his head and asked Lu Shi, but it was more like asking Gao Yingxiang, who had already escaped.

Lu Shi shook his head helplessly, and said sadly: "Actually, this is also my sin, if it weren't for our implementation of the strategy of driving the tiger and devouring the wolf, maybe Gao Yingxiang would not be so ruthless." ”

"Sir, don't be sad, don't take any responsibility on your head, or that Gao Yingxiang is also ruthless, he turned to those places, which of the breached fortresses has a living mouth? He also counted on killing these powerful bullies to summon the people and win the hearts of the people. Zhao Xing, who was close behind, whispered to persuade.

"Actually, when we implemented this strategy, I should have thought that there would be such an outcome." Lu Shi sighed and muttered in a low voice: "He Gao Yingxiang, after all, he is the hero of this troubled world, he was beaten by us, and he has been broken, and this time he is used by us, it is even more difficult to calm his mind, since he knows that we are following behind him, he wants to do things and cut off our food and grass supply, let us watch him continue to be strong, let us slowly consume and exhaust, and at a certain time, he will turn over and fight with us again." ”

Guo Tianxing nodded in agreement with Lu Shi's analysis, but he was not at all worried about the outcome of Gao Yingxiang's battle after he became strong.

In fact, the population of the entire county of Yichuan, after the natural disasters in the past few years, is only a little more than 100,000, even if Gao Yingxiang is coerced with all his might, it will only be forty or fifty thousand people, for no other reason, the countryside where a large number of people live, now Gao Yingxiang, no matter what, will not dare to loot under Lu Shi's nose.

All he can coerce is the tenants and distant relatives in these forts, and the real owners of these forts, coerced, can only bury barrels of explosives for themselves, and can only kill, in fact, he can't kill if he doesn't kill, because according to his tacit agreement with Lu Shi, he kills people in the open space, and Lu Shi no longer kills him, so it is not an exaggeration for Lu Shi to say that he has his responsibility.

"Brother Zhao Xing, is it now the first fortress to be broken by Gao Yingxiang?"

Zhao Xing, who came in a hurry, hurriedly stepped forward and said in a proper manner after saluting Lu Shishi: "It's five now." The original ones were all small fortresses, with not much grain in stock, and not a lot of money, so they couldn't really support him Gao Yingxiang 10,000, well, now I think there will be a long-term consumption of 20,000 horses. ”

Lu Shi nodded, this Yichuan is not better than others, Yichuan is located in the Weibei Plateau, along the Yellow River, belongs to the Loess Plateau hilly and gully area, the territory of the ravines vertical and horizontal, the Sichuan plain intersecting, divided into three geomorphological areas: the Yellow River along the stone hilly area covered by a thin layer of loess; The north of the county Chuanhe is the loess crushing plateau area; The southwest is hilly and rocky mountainous area. The terrain slopes gently from west to east, forming a dustpan-like terrain with high in the southwest and low in the east. The mountains in the territory belong to the Hengshan mountain system, from north to south there are Yunyan Mountain, Yeqi Mountain, Hutou Mountain, Qilang Mountain, Fengyin Mountain, Python Mountain, Ruling Mountain, Pangu Mountain and Balang Mountain and other nine mountains, the flat land is limited, at the same time, the whole county is far away from the central area of northern Shaanxi, the business is not very developed, the big landlords and businessmen are very few, therefore, this time Gao Yingxiang plundered down, but there is no big harvest.

"Therefore, they don't have the ability to fight back against us, so he still has to continue to storm the fortress and gather strength." Zhao Xing analyzed again.

"yes." Lu Shi still has some confidence at this point, first, as Zhao Xing said, Gao Yingxiang didn't get much, and at the same time, he was pushed behind him, and he couldn't sit down to rest, so he couldn't take too much food, or he wouldn't burn the food that he couldn't take away.

Second, the population he coerced along the way, including the elderly and children, was only more than 10,000 at most, not to mention, more than 10,000 people were still a number of heads, and they had no combat effectiveness at all, and there was no threat to Lu Shi and others at all.

If Gao Yingxiang did everything to drive these people back to fight with Lu Shi, it would only make Lu Shi very grateful, because it was to send Lu Shi's mouth, and Gao Yingxiang would not be so stupid.

Third, Gao Yingxiang's elite old subordinates, not to mention whether they still have the courage to fight with Lu Shi, that is, after nearly ten days of continuous fighting, they must have been very tired, although they can eat enough and get material replenishment, but such continuous battles without rest are not combative, at least for the invasion army.

At the same time, he Gao Yingxiang should also see that behind Lu Shi were more than 10,000 militiamen, pouring into Yichuan like a tide, stabilizing the place where Lu Shi got the fastest number of times, and at the same time ensuring the safety of Lu Shi's back road.

Geng Kui even took 5,000 spearmen to break into the army, embellished thirty miles behind Lu Shi, not only providing Lu Shi with a steady stream of food and grass, but also able to enter the battlefield within an hour of the battle, the combat effectiveness of those black spearmen, he Gao Yingxiang has been taught, it is definitely not something that his 20,000 rabble can contend with.

If Gao Yingxiang wants to turn over and fight, he must have enough people and horses, and he must rest in a certain place for a long time.

But it was precisely like this that Lu Shi didn't give him time to rest at all, so he pressed him step by step, facing east, east, and went straight to the Yellow River.

It seems that Gao Yingxiang wants to get time to rest, and he can only have a chance when he crosses the Yellow River and enters Shanxi.

Looking at the sky, Lu Shi said to Tianxing: "Great Commander, I think we will camp in this fortress tonight, and let everyone rest and rest?" ”

Guo Tianxing said to Lu Shi nonchalantly: "Everything is decided by King Chuang's words." ”

Lu Shi no longer counted on Tianxing, so he called Da Lang to his side, "Da Lang, take a martial brother to set up camp outside the fort, and let the other brothers enter the fort to rest." ”

Da Lang immediately gave the order on the horse, and then went out directly without complaint, taking a martial brother, and simply camped outside against the fortress wall, responsible for guarding and patrolling.

Dalang was independent into an army, mainly responsible for the instability of the bullet pressure in the base area, there are not many things, but the inspection is hard, and at the same time, it is necessary to build a good relationship with various forces, due to the tragic changes in the family, the temperament has been slowly tempered, and now he has become a fierce general.

"Da Lang has finally become a talent, and the honest brother and sister-in-law should also be blind, and at the same time, King Chuang, you have a good arm." Guo Tianxing looked at the back of Dalang who ran away with satisfaction, and his appreciation was beyond words.

"It's us who got another fierce general, and it's your commander who got another helper." Lu Shi corrected Guo Tianxing's speech disease.

Guo Tianxing laughed: "Yes, yes, it's me, if you don't even look inside and outside, I'll really be busy to death, this time there are too many people from Gao Yingxiang, so I have to transfer Da Lang to make him work harder, look at the eldest nephew who is getting more and more tired, it's really distressing." Guo Tianxing sighed with emotion: "However, this has also trained him, and when you and I are old in the future, he and these children from those military schools will all be beaten, and we can rest assured that we can enjoy Qingfu." When he said this, his eyes were filled with happiness.

Hearing this, Lu Shi squinted his eyes and teased: "This old man, should we get off the horse and eat?"

Guo Tianxing was ridiculed by Lu Shi, and he didn't take it to heart at all, this matter that the two of them had been doing behind their backs, and only behind the backs of people did the two of them really presumptuous, after all, they are now considered to be a high authority, and they can be regarded as the attention of thousands of people, and every word and deed may be misunderstood by some people, although no one in the entire base ground level has misunderstood their relationship now.

Of course, Zhao Xing is not an outsider, so Zhao Xing is rare and in line with Lu Shidao: "This uncle, there is still a house on the edge of the fortress that has not been burned, how about you ask the veteran to rest?" ”

With that, the three of them laughed together.

The so-called good house, in fact, only burned down half of the room, and you can see the stars in the sky on that side, but fortunately, it is now May (June of the solar calendar) and it is the hot time, as long as you can avoid the dew.

Sitting in the middle of the room, a bonfire was lit to drive away the dew, and the three of them sat around and continued to discuss some important matters.

"Have the army's supplies arrived?"

In fact, Lu Shi shouldn't ask Zhao Xing about this, but now there are few people, and everyone has a few part-time jobs, and Zhao Xing is no exception.

"The rabbit meat and dry cakes are all in place, enough for us to eat for three days, and the honeycomb coal can also ensure that we can have hot meals and hot dishes for our brothers at any time without a logistical master."

Lu Shi nodded, trying to stay away from the fire as much as possible, and then asked, "How is Cao Meng's follow-up?" ”

Zhao Xing hurriedly said: "King Chuang, rest assured, now this Yichuan is close to us, our wealth and good policy has long been spread all over Yichuan, if it wasn't for our policy to take a place and stabilize a place, then everyone would have beaten the gong and drum to invite us to come, and now, I heard that we are willing to take them in the base area, those people are on the street, beating the waist drum to celebrate, there is no one who opposes it at all." ”

"What about those landlords?" Lu Shi didn't want everyone to be so optimistic, when he stabilized the base area, he was not in a hurry to expand, he was afraid of being greedy and chewing too much, and this time he hurriedly recovered Yichuan, Lu Shi was still afraid of chaos.

"The big landlords have been wiped out by Gao Yingxiang, so that the small landlords, it is too late to welcome us to protect, some remote places, that is to take a donkey carrying the protection fee they approve to ask us for protection, although the rent reduction and interest reduction are not necessarily reluctant, but there is no objection, everything is better than we imagined."

"However, it is also the suffering of the people, what is their food arrangement?"

"Don't worry, King Chuang, we are worried that the potatoes can't be digested, now, just to find a good place for the potatoes again, our base people use potatoes as dung, but in this Yichuan, the people take potatoes as treasures, that is hundreds of times stronger than Guanyin soil, can survive things."

When they said this, the expressions of the three of them darkened together, and even the bonfire that drove away the dew was a little colder.

Lu Shi was silent for a while, and said to Zhao Xing: "Tomorrow, under the oppression of Gao Yingxiang, let him start faster, our brothers and fathers can no longer survive by eating Guanyin soil." ”

"However, about the day after tomorrow, Gao Yingxiang will encounter the largest fortress in Yichuan, with their strength is really-"

Lu Shi threw a piece of wooden stick firmly into the bonfire, "Give them a few explosives packs." ”