Wuliang Town is not a town, but a fortress, and an important pass that runs through the boundary between the north and south of the river.

A hundred miles to the south of Wuliang Town is Caizhou City, and to the north outside the pass is the stronghold of various towns and villages occupied by thieves, to the east is the Ganzhou Occupation Area, and to the west is the boundary of Jingtai Province.

The natural geographical advantages make Wuliang Town an easy to defend and difficult to attack natural and dangerous pass, the pass has two cliffs, and the steep mountain wall cannot be climbed at all, and anyone who wants to attack Wuliang Town can only be tough from the front.

The Zhao family has spent countless generations of money and energy to build a high base and thick walls along the mountain, and the walls up to 12 meters high are all tightly glued together with green bricks mixed with glutinous rice and egg whites, and the thickness has reached a rare nine meters.

The fortress could accommodate 100,000 soldiers, and the endless plains outside the rear pass could accommodate more than 300,000 soldiers. In the face of such an impregnable fortress, any vain attempt to break through head-on with military force is stifled in fantasy.

In the fortress of Wuliang Town, Wei Yi, the commander-in-chief of the Great Zhou Thunder Army and the brother of the current emperor Wei Zhen, was looking at a huge topographic map of mountains and rivers in front of the case with a sad face.

"Now more than a million thieves have gathered at Liudaokou outside the town to eyeing Wuliang Town, but why don't they take the initiative to attack after a few months? Do you want to go around the switch?"

Wei frowned deeply and lowered his head in thought, "Impossible, I have ordered Zhao Yuanji to demolish the bridge section leading to Caizhou, and the ships in various places along the coast have also been collected and requisitioned, it is no longer possible for thieves to enter the south of the source of the river from the waterway, and the thief's first Duan Hong is not a fool, do you want to swim across the Tengjiang River dozens of miles wide with a bamboo raft?"

Wei Yi smiled secretly, his frowning brows stretched slightly, "Since the waterway is impassable, you can definitely only take the land route, and the quickest way is to break through from Wuliang Town into the south, but...... Is there such a good breakthrough in Wuliang Town? ”

Thinking of this, Wei Yi couldn't help frowning again, "Although there are more than 100,000 thieves in Liudaokou on the opposite side, there are at most 200,000 real combatable soldiers, and the real elite among the 200,000 is not more than 40,000, even if the northern region is your Duan Hong's territory, it is undoubtedly a fool's dream to arm a team of hundreds of thousands of people, take 10,000 steps back and say, even if these 200,000 soldiers are all armored, but in the face of the Great Zhou Central Army with high walls and thick walls as a cover, what can this rabble do?"

Wei Yi paced back and forth, he had fought with Duan Hong for more than ten years, and he was naturally familiar with Duan Hong's temperament, he was by no means the kind of brainless and reckless man, otherwise he would not have been safe and sound under the hundreds of encirclements and suppressions by the official army, and even finally forced himself to give up Ganzhou, Liuzhou and other places to reverse the decline of the war. With such a difficult and cunning opponent, Wei Yi felt that he must have some plan in the pipeline.

……

Liudaokou is not just a simple mountain road gorge, to be precise, it is a pass town with the literal meaning of Wuliang Town, but this town is not big, and the terrain is located in the steep high place of the mountains, looking down from the top down the cliff canyon just six sides leading to all directions to get the name "Liudaokou", and Wuliang Town is also easy to defend and difficult to attack, and compared with Wuliang Town, there is one more advantage, that is, it can calmly retreat in the intricate terrain in the gorge, and it is difficult to be surrounded and annihilated.

In addition, the Liudaokou Valley is very large, with 500 miles of main roads across mountains and rivers, which is enough to accommodate millions of people to gather here.

In the camp of the Shunyi Army (Banner of Thieves), Duan Hong was dressed in a cotton velvet leather coat, standing on the high place of the Yuantai, looking at the majestic pass in the wind and snow in the distance, and exhaled a breath of white air.

"Wei Yi, in a few days, your Thunder Army will be wiped out, and it will be turned into dust of history just like Liangzhou's 'Chasing Wild Goose Army'...... And my Shunyi army will take Wuliang Town, and then set foot on Caizhou City, capture Wuyang Mansion, destroy Zhao Yuanji, disintegrate the Zhao family's power in Heyuan, and become the new master of the entire Heyuan, and then wave the army to attack Jingtai Province, and force Wei Zhi to make me the governor of Heyuan......"

This is Duan Hong's true thoughts in his heart, the so-called overthrow of the Great Zhou Dynasty is just a slogan, just trying to use this slogan to coerce the people into turning into thieves and giving their lives for their own interests.

Duan Hong's training ideas have one thing in common with Liu Ce, they both believe that in the war is the fastest shortcut to training, but the difference is that Liu Ce will make systematic training and deployment of soldiers before going to the battlefield, as long as they do it according to the previous plan, the loss can be minimized, and Liu Ce has his own set of standards for the soldier's equipment, and he will never let a soldier without a piece of armor and defenseless go to die in vain, this is Liu Ce's respect for the lives of the soldiers under his command, so the Jingwei battalion can successfully pass the most difficult initial stage and grow up rapidly.

Duan Hong, on the contrary, the coerced people and displaced people said that it was better to call it a "pioneer battalion", but in fact it was cannon fodder to send them to death, and they were randomly given a little broken copper and iron, and even wooden rakes and hoes were let them rush into battle.

But it is this bloody "training" method that has allowed Duan Hong to have more than 50,000 sharp soldiers and hundreds of thousands of qualified (in Duan Hong's eyes) troops in more than ten years, which is enough to threaten the safety of the entire Heyuan......

Just when Duan Hong was arrogantly fantasizing about the coming good days, a thief ran up to him, knelt in the snow and clenched his fists: "Generalissimo Qiqi!" Jingtai Zhang Zhong's department has arrived at the camp! ”

"Haha! Great, the nine hundred sharp soldiers of Zhang Zhong's department are all extremely brave, and they are not far behind compared with Jin Heng's department. He's there! The odds of winning are one more point, please enter the big tent! Ben Shuai wants to pick him up in person! After speaking, Duan Hong walked down the platform and walked towards the big tent, without even looking at the soldier whose lips were purple from the cold......

……

Wuliang Town, ten miles in front of Liudaokou......

The officers and troops stationed here are Zhao Yuanji's descendant local army, and the two flag regiments have more than 30,000 people. In the Left Banner Regiment of Great Britain, a heroic warrior general was drinking with his two lieutenants in the big tent.

This person's name is Zhao Mengxi, born to Zhao Yuan's extremely concubine, because he is a concubine, he is not welcomed in the clan, and compared with his brother Zhao Mengyuan and younger brother Zhao Mengchun's treatment, it is really cold.

Zhao Mengxi knew that he was not valued by the elders of the clan and Zhao Yuan, but he did not give up on himself and spent his life in waste, and decisively gave up the career arranged for him by the clan to eat and wait for death, and did not hesitate to join the army for further study.

Because of his excellent performance in the army, he was extremely brave and cautious in fighting thieves and rarely made mistakes, coupled with the background of the scholars, he soon stood out in the barracks, and in just eight years, he sat all the way to the position of the commander of the flag regiment from a commander (the lowest rank of the soldier in the army) to the position of the commander of the flag regiment, and was crowned as the "Xie'an General" of the local army with the rank of major general, which made Zhao Yuanji impressed.

Zhao Yuanji was drinking sullenly at this time, it had been five years since he became the head of this banner, and he had not made any further progress in the past five years, and he was extremely depressed in his heart......

The positions of the Great Zhou army are mainly composed of army commanders, even chiefs, A commanders, hundred commanders, flag commanders, thousand commanders, battalion flags (pipe bands), flag regiment commanders (commanders), division flag envoys (commanders), and army commanders......

Now Zhao Mengxi is stuck in the gap between the flag commander and the division commander, only one step away from the upper position, but he can't cross it.

Last time, I finally had a chance to be promoted, but Wei Yi crossed his hand and arranged for his cronie Li Xiuwen to be appointed as the commander of the division banner, and the angry Zhao Mengxi secretly greeted Wei Yi's family.

"Alas~" Thinking of this, Zhao Mengxi sighed and threw the wine bowl in his hand on the table.

"General, what's wrong with you?" Seeing Zhao Mengxi's appearance, a deputy general on the side of the seat asked with concern, this person's name is Fan Shizuku, and he is very good friends with Zhao Mengxi on weekdays.

Zhao Mengxi looked at him and said: "I think I, Zhao Mengxi, has been in the army for more than 13 years, I dare not say that my military achievements are brilliant, and I can be regarded as fulfilling my duties and being loyal to my duties. ”

Fan Shizuku said: "The general doesn't need to worry, thinking that Li Xiuwen is unarmed but can sit high in the position of the commander of the banner, all the generals will definitely not accept it." In addition, there are many complaints about the lack of salary in the army, which will inevitably cause riots, and at that time, the general will come forward to stabilize the mood of the soldiers, and the position of the division flag will be none other than the general. ”

Zhao Mengxi said: "Li Xiuwen is unarmed, but don't forget who is behind him, the central army of the Great Zhou royal family, dare to instigate the military camp to make noise to you and me, even if I have ten heads, it is not enough for Wei to cut off, and even someone with a heart will make a big fuss to force my Zhao family into a desperate situation, I advise you to still die of this heart, if you want to die, don't pull me and my father up." ”

Fan Shizuku suddenly sweated on his forehead, and almost forgot about Li Xiuwen's backer, although the commander of the Thunder Army, Wei Yi, was born in the royal family and had a noble status, but he was able to sit in this position not only because of his background, but also because of his great military exploits. This master has been on the battlefield since he was sixteen years old, and after thirty-two years, he has crawled out of the sea of blood in the corpse mountain countless times, what conspiracy and tricks have he never seen? Playing with him is really thinking that he has a long life......

After thinking for a while, Fan Shizuku wiped his sweat and continued: "Since this path does not work, then there is another path for the general to choose. ”

"Huh? Say! ”

Seeing Zhao Mengxi nodding, Fan Shi continued: "Now that the thieves in Liudaokou are gathered, they are eyeing my Wuliang Town, and now the combat effectiveness of the officers and troops of all departments is low and morale is low, but the combat strength of our banner regiment is still outstanding and strong, why not take advantage of the unstable front of the thieves to send troops to take the initiative to attack?" The thieves never imagined that our army would abandon the defense at this time and take the initiative to attack its unpreparedness, destroying its grain and grass, and then the thief camp will be in chaos. ”

Zhao Mengxi nodded when he heard this, but he was still a little worried, and asked, "What if the war is unfavorable?"

Fan Shizuku said ruthlessly: "In case the war is unfavorable, don't worry, just shift all the responsibility to the generals of the war station, the general is at most guilty of lax management of the army, let Wei scold a few words, with the general's background of the warriors, forgive him and don't dare to be embarrassed." ”

Zhao Mengxi smiled and said: "It's up to you to pass on the current Yu Jin and Sun Yan's department!" When I make such a feat, I will see what Wei Yi and Li Xiuwen have to say! Hahaha......"

Yu Jin and Sun Yan were born in the Shu clan, once the war is unfavorable, Zhao Mengxi and Fan Shi will not hesitate to shirk the responsibility to them, in their eyes, it is far easier to clean up a few generals with no background than to deal with a veteran with a scholar background, because they don't treat the Shu soldiers as human beings at all in their hearts, just a random object of bullying......

"Two idiots." The lieutenant who had been sitting on the right side and had not spoken looked at Zhao Mengxi and Fan Shizu, sneered disdainfully, raised his head and drank the wine in the cup, and thought, "Li Xiuwen didn't make an inch?" If you knew that Li Xiuwen still had a name, you would probably be stupid, Li Xiuwen...... Li Suwen! And with these thousands of people you want to defeat a million thieves? It's really that easy, will the Thunder Army still shrink in the fort and not move? I see how you end up when the time comes, no! I have to think of a way out quickly, so as not to be affected by these two stupid pigs in front of me......"

……

The goose-feather-like snow sleet hit the faces of Sun Yan and Yu Jin's five thousand soldiers with gusts of cold wind, and they couldn't stop shivering, and after receiving Zhao Mengxi's order, they led their troops to Liudaokou without saying a word.

Because the snow was so heavy that every foot of the officers and men did not reach their knees, they marched for an hour before marching five miles.

"Koi! Do you say that the flag commander is a good word? Sun Yan said loudly to Yu Jin.

"Commander Zhao said, we are all brothers in life and death, of course forget it! As long as this trip is completed, our brothers in the banner will be able to live a good life! Yu Jin recalled that Zhao Mengxi patted his shoulder and called him a brother before, and felt extremely moved, what is his identity? What is the identity of Zhao Mengxi? At that moment, Yu Jin had the urge to pull out his knife and kill himself without hesitation, even if Zhao Mengxi let himself die.

"But it's so cold, the brothers can't walk in the cold!" Sun Yan was very distressed when he saw that dozens of people had fallen in his flag.

"Tell the brethren to just get through it! As long as you kill the thieves, I will take them to eat and drink spicy food! Yu Jin's eyes were resolute, "It's almost there!" It's almost there! ”

……

Liudaokou, the entrance to the gorge......

Hundreds of thieves were blue from the cold wind, and they tried to shove some hay and branches into their thin sheets of clothing, trying to drive away the biting cold. On the side of the mountain wall, dozens of frozen corpses lay down, and several thieves were carrying one corpse to the house behind......

Although the thieves occupy most of the area north of the river, food problems still plague this army of millions of displaced people. Even if the fall of Ganzhou and Liuzhou only slightly alleviated the tense food problem, the army of thieves is not fundamentally different from before, but the soldiers and sharp soldiers eat better than before, and there is no need to eat "want meat" at a meal, while the hungry people who have just joined still have no way to fill their stomachs, so they can only wait to eat the materials distributed by the soldiers and sharp soldiers, or go to eat "want meat"......

In the environment of extreme hunger and cold, any ethics and morality become meaningless, the dark side of human nature is infinitely magnified, what family, friendship, love, at this time the hungry people who have lost their minds will not hesitate to wave the butcher knife to the closest people around them, and when the first bite of "thinking meat" begins, he has become a beast, and can no longer be called a human.

In the back room, there was the sound of butcher knives slashing the limbs of corpses, and the room was full of dried blood, frozen into blurred blood marks due to the cold weather. The walls were littered with human hands and feet, as well as washed human flesh, and even a whole naked corpse hung from an iron hook, which had been disemboweled, and the internal organs had been hollowed out...... Not far away, a cook's eyes were sunken and red, and he was cutting the skin of a pair of human legs with a pig-killing knife in his hand, and then slicing off the blood-red thigh meat piece by piece, and the room was filled with a disgusting smell of blood......

A thief with a bamboo knife in his hand, his body already hot from the cold, and his consciousness began to blur a little, and he tried to keep himself awake, knowing that if he fell, his fate would be the same as that of the corpse in the back room. He tried to cling to the wall on the side of the gorge and stepped on the knee-deep snow to reach the mouth of the gorge, but he saw a group of moving snowmen approaching him in the distance......

"Poof......

Before the thief could react, one of Sun Yan's archers shot him through the head, and the thief fell to the ground without a snort, with no fear on his face, as if he was relieved......

Later, due to the long-term invasion of the foot bow by the snow and the lack of care for a long time, after the bow was tightened, the bowstring made of ox tendon broke in response to the sound, making a crisp sound, and was quickly submerged by the whistling wind and snow in the snow-filled air......