On April 5, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the West Road Protector Army set out from Bazhou City had marched continuously for nearly 100 miles. On the nearly 100-mile journey, the scout cavalry found only a young madwoman digging in the field. Her clothes were rotten into a scarf, her body was covered in abscesses and a foul smell, and her yellow-white hair was all over her head (Note 1), and she was like a yellow-haired girl on the stage.

When the woman saw the army, she was so frightened that she went straight into the grass hole. asked her about the enemy in front of her, and her face was dazed; When I asked her family names, she was also confused.

Yang Mingshi, the supervising army, had no choice but to order the cavalry platoon to send someone to send her back to Bazhou, so that the soldiers could see with their own eyes how the local tyrants had turned living people into ghosts after plagued northern Sichuan for so many years!

On the morning of the same day, the troops crossed the Yanxi River in vain and reached the foot of Mengjia Mountain at noon. According to the plan, the troops would quickly climb over the not too high Mengjia Mountain, reach the village of Mengshan on the bank of the Enyang River to rest and eat, and take control of a stone arch bridge that could cross the Enyang River. In the afternoon, the troops will set off again. After crossing the bridge, march twenty miles to Mumen Town, the meeting place designated in the order, and join forces with Wang Xingwu's 18th Battalion, and tomorrow start the siege to Baishan.

The early summer sun was raging in the sky, and the hurried footsteps made the mountain road dusty.

At this time, the cavalry exploring the road in front turned back and reported to the battalion commander Cheng Weiguo, who was at the head of the 20th Battalion:

Three miles ahead, a camp of local tyrants was found on the top of Mengjia Mountain, which firmly blocked the way of the Protector Army's advance.

After getting the enemy's situation, Cheng Weiguo did not dare to slack off, and immediately rushed to the regimental headquarters in the center of the marching army.

After listening to Yang Mingshi's report, the head of the regiment, He Qiukou, ran forward without saying a word, leaving behind Yang Mingshi, the prison soldier with a puzzled face. Cheng Weiguo knew that something was wrong, and hurriedly caught up with He Qiukou.

"Cheng Weiguo, you are also a fighter from Banzhou. You say, when the local thugs saw us in the past, they were afraid that they would not be able to hide from us. What is the reason for swaggering to erect a camp in front of us! ”

He Qiukou's solemn face when he asked made Cheng Weiguo feel shocked. He is younger than He Qiukou, but he has fought a lot of battles. The battlefield of life and death gives people who have lived in this environment for a long time a special sixth sense. He Qiu Kou reminded him, and immediately made Cheng Weiguo smell the danger in the air.

"Boss Gao! Boss Gao! Cheng Weiguo shouted loudly, panting in front of him as his deputy battalion commander and company commander of the vanguard company.

Boss Gao's real name is Gao Gouyu, who was originally a low-born Tianquan Tusi soldier, and was later promoted to the company commander of the fourth company of the fifth battalion. Gao Gouyu also has a second brother named Gao Goudan, who is a platoon commander of the company.

Before the establishment of the 20th Battalion was issued, Cheng Weiguo, who was also in Bazhou, took the initiative to apply for an exchange of companies with the task force, saying that he hoped to learn the Dafa of the National Protector Army. With a stroke of the pen, the prince Zhu Pingjin changed the fourth company of the fifth battalion to the twentieth battalion, the number became the first company of the twentieth battalion, and Gao Gouyu became the deputy battalion commander and the first company commander.

"Boss Gao! You immediately lead a company, occupy that small hill, and cover the main assembly! Be quick! Be quick! ”

Cheng Weiguo looked around and clicked on an unnamed mountain three hundred steps away from his right side.

At this time, Cheng Weiguo was coldly interrupted by the head of the regiment, He Qiukou.

"Xiao Yuan wants to fight the general ambush, and the hills in front and behind the side will definitely arrange ambushes. Now you go to grab the mountain, just in time to hit someone's knife! ”

Yang Mingshi heard that the road was blocked, so he hurriedly went to the front to investigate, and just stopped the horse's head at this time. The word "ambush" drilled into his ears, making his face change greatly, and he hurriedly asked He Qiukou what to do.

"What should I do?" He Qiukou snorted coldly, and suddenly laughed at Yang Mingshi and Cheng Weiguo.

"Xiao Yuan thought this was a dead place and wanted to ambush us. Is this the land of death? Lao Tzu, we have entered the land of birth, and the earth tyrant has entered the land of death! Don't you Cheng Weiguo like to play with firearms, let you play enough today! ”

"Shall we ...... Good! As soon as Cheng Weiguo gritted his teeth, he ordered Gao Gouyu to assemble on the spot and camp with his back to the Enyang River.

"What?"

Gao Gouyu's eyes widened, not believing the command he heard in his ears.

"There is a great mountain in front of you, and a great mountain on your right; There is a river on the left and a river in the back. It's a bare barren field, there's no danger to defend, and camp in this place? ”

"Don't fucking talk nonsense! All actions are subject to military orders! Choose the terrain to defend the camp! ”

Cheng Weiguo impatiently rebuked Gao Gouyu, whipped his horse and ran back along the road, leaving a cloud of dust and smoke. The first company was followed by the regimental headquarters and artillery company, the baggage company, the engineer platoon, and three infantry companies of the 20th Battalion. Between life and death, everything has to be fast.

He Qiukou ran to the front to command the cavalry, Cheng Weiguo ran to the back to command the infantry, leaving the overseer Yang Mingshi to stand still.

Looking at their backs as they went from south to north, Yang Mingshi finally understood, and suddenly realized: "It's all about putting death and then living!" ”

"the fart! X! Gao Gouyu scolded fiercely and kicked the lump of dirt that stood in the way under his feet a few feet away.

Perhaps in response to them, there was a sudden movement on the unnamed hill on the left.

Several black-colored broken flags of the earth tyrants were erected and shook vigorously, and a broken drum issued a puff and puff attack order. Immediately, thousands of enemies took the lead in showing their faces and rushed down against the official road.

……

It must be said that the ambush area chosen by the local rioters is excellent.

The ambush area chosen by the local rioters was in a narrow area south of Mengjiashan, east of the Enyang River, and north of the Goxi River.

Mengjia Mountain, due north of the ambush area, is a long mountain range in the middle of the official road. Mengjiashan blocked the official road head-on, and its westward branch even squeezed the Enyang River out of a sharp convex corner. The north-south Enyang River is close to the west side of the official road, and the east-west Goxi River crosses the official road in the south, and the two rivers delineate a perfect right-angled side for the ambush area.

The northeast of the ambush area is the nameless mountain that Cheng Weiguo originally wanted to occupy. The unnamed hill faces the official road and has a wide and gentle slope. To the south of the nameless mountain, there are several small hills, all of which have been occupied in advance by the ambush of the local tyrants. Between the unnamed mountain and the Mengjia mountain, the unnamed mountain and several small hills to the south, there are several ravines. The exit of the ravine is facing the official road, and there are also ambushes of local tyrants inside.

The wishful thinking of the local tyrant can be said to be racking his brains. To express it in the lyrics of the play, that is: as soon as the horn and cannon sound, the ambush is exhausted. The Tyrants wanted to bluff as much as possible, so that the panicked Protectors would choose to retreat to the valley of the Gouxi River that had just passed.

Yanxi River is a tributary of the Enyang River, and the direction of the river is perpendicular to the Enyang River. The water along the stream is not deep, and the river channel is full of large and small stones, which can be climbed and waded. However, the banks of the valley are steep and densely wooded, making it easy to ambush soldiers.

If the Protector chooses to retreat south to break through, it must pass through the valley along the river along the river that runs steeply south. As soon as they went up and down, the formation of the army was bound to be chaotic. The ambushes of the local tyrants on both sides of the river took the opportunity to storm on, and the protectors were bound to suffer a crushing defeat. Therefore, along the river seems to be the only way to survive in the ambush area, but it is the hidden way of killing the local tyrants.

However, the way the Protectors responded was something that the local tyrants never expected:

As soon as the camp on Mengjia Mountain was discovered, the front army of the Protector Army began to form a formation, and the rear army immediately quickly approached the front army, clearly intending to set up camp and build a fortress and wait for reinforcements.

In this way, all the expectations of the local tyrants were disappointed.

In desperation, the local tyrants had no choice but to send down thousands of people from Mengjia Mountain and Nameless Mountain to fight a dozen, hoping that the Protector Army would be frightened, and then turn around and flee, jumping into their encirclement. Even if the Protector Army did not flee and was entangled by thousands of people at close range, it would buy time for all the ambushes to press up.

That's a good idea.

It's just that the local tyrants ignore the cooperation between time and space.

The first to show his face on the nameless hill was immediately hit hard by the flank cavalry.

……

Rushing down from the nameless mountain, passing through the gentle slope of the mountainside, it is only 300 steps away from the official road.

Three hundred steps is one mile.

If it is ordinary flat land, it will take a normal person at most half an hour to complete this mile.

But the art of war is cloudy: condescending, like a bamboo. It means to rush from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain, to run fast and to rush fiercely.

The thousands of earth tyrants who rushed down from the nameless mountain were so happy that they rushed too fast and too fiercely, not only completely lost their formation, but also lost touch with their neighbors on the left and right. The two cavalry platoons led by He Qiukou happened to return from the reconnaissance of Mengjiashan and immediately seized the fighter plane.

The fighter plane was fleeting. The battlefield veteran He Qiukou did not stop to adjust the cavalry formation, so he led his own soldiers and cavalry platoon to launch a flank attack on the earthy tyrants who were rushing on the hillside.

The Tyrant found that it was too late for the cavalry to charge on the right, and completely lost the time for the whole group to form a dense formation.

The cavalry scraped through the sparse formation of the bandits like dozens of sharp grate teeth, slashing and slashing, leaving countless ugly faces howling. In an instant, a vigorous offensive collapsed.

The horses rushed over the gentle slope and jumped up a slope. Looking down from above, I found that there was still a group of enemies at the foot of the mountain. This group of six or seven hundred enemies was coming out of their hideouts in the col and taking advantage of the ravine to stealthily advance along the official road. Probably to block the back road of the Protector Army, or to cut off the marching column of the Protector Army.

Unfortunately, the enemy was too focused on the enemy situation in front of him, and he didn't know anything about the tragic situation on the hillside on the right. Like ghosts, the Protector cavalry re-accelerated with the help of the terrain descending, silently descending from their right flank.

The sound of galloping horses' hooves was like the knock of death on the door, and suddenly swept through the exploding crowd.

The thug left the back of the panicked fleeing to the cavalry, and also gave up his life.

The cavalry lined up in an instant to catch up with the fleeing thieves, and the corpses under the iron hooves were immediately scattered to the ground.

The cavalry struck a blow and did not turn back to kill. They delicately drew an arc back to the official road, and put on a posture ready to attack again. Seeing that the local rioters were desperately retreating, the cavalry set up a wide screen on the east side of the official road, and used the tall figures of men and horses to cover the assembly of troops and build a defensive line.

The elated He Qiukou had a little soldier and horse, but there was only one person and one horse missing, and he couldn't help but be fascinated. The unlucky guy who fell into battle was a platoon-level squad leader in the non-commissioned officer company. The reason for the fall is said to have been that the placket of his loose coat caught the thorns during the impact.

As soon as the battle began, the local tyrants suffered a great loss. Under the threat of cavalry, they hastily retreated to the top of the hill and carefully formed a formation.

The dark broken flag waved again, and the broken drum sounded again. Native rioters poured out from Mengjia Mountain, Nameless Mountain, and several mountains and ravines in the south, and there was a steady stream. Even veterans like He Qiukou and Cheng Weiguo can't see how many there are. The vanguard of the Tyrant cautiously approached the cavalry screen line, and immediately stopped the garrison, assuming a posture of stubborn defense. It wasn't until a large group of people in the rear came immediately and formed a dense formation that they slowly moved forward again.

Relying on their absolute numerical superiority, the Tyrants slowly squeezed the cavalry's protective line until they were about two hundred paces away from the Protector's infantry line.

The outpost battle was over, and the cavalry completed their task of covering the assembly of the main forces and forming a defensive line. This will inevitably be followed by a brutal positional battle between the main forces of both sides.

The soldiers of the Protector Army know it. It's not like the tyrants don't understand people.

Note 1: The hair of people living in the wild is prone to graying, which should be related to the long-term lack of minerals such as table salt.

.。 Vertex m.