The moonlight is like water, shining on the cold earth.

The trees in the mountains have fallen all their leaves, leaving only bare branches, and when the cold wind blows in the cold night, they open their teeth and claws, like the strange monsters painted in the picture book.

Cheng Fang, Xu Ming and the others were all wearing armor, and the large groups of soldiers in front of them were in armor, and each of them had white gas spraying from their noses, and everyone endured it without stomping their feet or rubbing their hands to keep warm.

It is not easy to dispatch troops and horses in the mountains that stretch for more than ten miles, and it is also thanks to the fact that many mountain roads have been repaired on the mountain in recent years, and you can use war horses to gallop, even so, after knowing that the imperial court will send troops from Jinzhou to this side to cooperate, the dispatch on the mountain is also quite tense...... But fortunately, I caught up before the appointment.

Hutchison not only trains his own soldiers of less than one regiment, but also constantly trains the soldiers and horses of the rest of the departments on the mountain, and at the same time, the trained officers and soldiers are also constantly being sent to Kuandian or transferred to other troops...... The Thirteen Mountains are a nail, and it is good to maintain the identity of the nail until it plays a role.

But Yang Er and many leaders did not agree very much, they had no doubts about handing over the command during the usual training, and they were willing to be loyal to Hutchison, but they always looked forward to cooperating with the Ming Dynasty, and the best thing was to open up the blank space of less than two hundred miles between the Thirteen Mountains and Jinzhou, drive away the Houjin soldiers stationed there, and start the defense of Tuntian at the foot of the mountain, and slowly build some small castles, until the strength was enough to restore Guangning.

On the one hand, they are all Quang Ninh people, and every time they see the ruined city at the foot of the mountain, they feel heartache. On the other hand, everyone is eager to make meritorious contributions and confer official positions, most of them are generations of military households, and the official positions of the imperial court are still quite attractive to them.

If Houjin always maintained a strong siege force, even if there was a strong army protecting the grain route dozens or hundreds of miles away, the people on the mountain would not have any idea. But in the past two months, the Houjin's trade with Hutchison has gradually decreased to a negligible level, and the army protecting the grain route has also dropped from a few thousand men at its peak to a few Niu Lu patrolling along the way.

The number of soldiers and horses guarding Quang Ninh and the Thirteen Mountains was also reduced to about 3,000, which may be less than 3,000.

Moreover, a large number of elite cavalrymen wearing silver armor or wearing small flags on their backs and wearing bright or dark armor kept leaving, and most of the people who were supplemented were bannermen wearing ordinary cotton armor or not wearing armor.

This change is quite obvious, and the hearts of the people on the mountain also float, so there is a trip to close the door of Cheng Fang and Yang Yi.

Xinjing was able to happily agree to the request on the mountain, and even made Yang Er and others excited, broke the siege, cleared those Dongyu bannermen, beheaded and reported, and restored Guangning.

A piece of great work seems to be at your fingertips, even if it is such a cold winter night, it can still make people's hearts hot.

"Damn." Yang Yi walked over slowly, trying not to make his armor make too loud noise, he spewed white gas in his mouth, and said to Cheng Fang: "This God, it was warm a few days ago, and it became cold all of a sudden." ”

"It's going to snow." Cheng Fang was very determined, and said with a smile.

"It's going to snow." Yang Yi frowned and said, "It's not good for the army's actions." ”

Yang Er also walked over, in the past few years, he has been the supreme leader in the mountain, and he has been the leader of the line for many years, he has a majesty on his body, his body is tall and slender, containing strength, and his right hand grasps the war knife at his waist, showing a little nervousness.

Yang Er looked around, the soldiers and horses here were all directly under Hutchison, most of the soldiers of more than 2,000 people were wearing piercing armor, a small amount of chain mail and cotton armor, and some officers were wearing thick cuirasses, which shimmered with a strange iron light in the winter night under the moonlight.

Yang Er pressed the knife and said: "Today is the third day of the first month of October, we are one hundred and seventy miles away from the Jinzhou side of the forward station, the captives are on both sides of the official road between Jinzhou and the Thirteen Mountains, Guangning, there are two lines of defense, the barracks are lined up, the captives often come out to spy and hunt, and often engage in small-scale battles with the cavalry on the Jinzhou side, and both sides have their own victories and defeats......"

Yang Er groaned: "This battle can be fought, and even if it is not good, it can also make the captives take the initiative to retreat!" ”

Everyone was excited, and a leader hugged his fist towards Cheng Fang and Xu Ming and said: "Thanks to Hutchison in the past few years, we should also treat ourselves as Hutchison's people, even if it is an official from the imperial court, as long as Lord Zhang gives an order, we will have to shirk, we are bitch!" ”

Everyone laughed out loud with the leader of the small group, and they all looked sincerely happy.

Ren Mu, the deputy commander of the regiment, was not very happy, and said in a low voice: "Look at the appearance of these bastards, it is like a black gauze hat in hand, and I don't want to think about what happened to them without us!" ”

Cheng Fang glanced at Ren Mu, this kind of words that undermine unity can be thought about in his heart, and it is unnecessary to say it.

The leaders who remain now are actually the result of the big waves, those who are not grateful or have different ambitions at both ends of the head and rat, have long been secretly dealt with by Zhao Lide, or accidentally killed in battle, or accidentally fell off the cliff, or accidentally ate unclean things and diarrhea to death, there are more than 20,000 people on the mountain, but most of them are farmers and soldiers who are reclaimed, and the number of soldiers has been cut by half, leaving less than 6,000 people, of which more than 2,000 people are directly under Hutchison, and the soldiers and horses of Yang Er and others are also completely consistent with Hutchison. It also recruited a considerable number of Hutchison officers.

It can be said that apart from the fact that these leaders are still loyal to the minds of the Ming Dynasty, there is no difference between the middle-level and low-level soldiers and the people of Hutchison.

Now if Cheng Fang gives an order, except for Yang Er, who can retain some of the people by relying on his authority and image all along, most of the leaders are estimated to be unable to keep their subordinates, and they will be pulled over directly.

Of course, Cheng Fang would not have done this if it was not necessary...... It is also Zhang Han's intention to keep Yang Er and others as cards, it is unlikely that the imperial court will allow a Thirteen Mountains that are completely controlled by Hutchison, if that is really the case, the Jurchens can be withdrawn, and the next to besiege the Thirteen Mountains should be the Liaozhen Ming Army.

"Today is the second year of junior high school." Yang Er continued with some confusion: "But I haven't seen the slightest movement." ”

The soldiers and horses on the mountain were assembled urgently, but it took less than a day to assemble them, and it took another half a day to complete the deployment here in Xixinkou.

At the same time, a small number of elite soldiers, including cavalry, were sent to try to infiltrate and harass the Jurchens, which was a warm-up preparation for a large-scale battle.

The task of the spearhead soldiers was quite good, in the first half of the night, the Jurchen people's defense line spanning more than ten miles was full of firelight and shouts, and the shouts of fighting were non-stop, and the spearheads withdrew in dew before the second half of the night, almost everyone was wounded, and there were considerable losses, but it had a considerable impact on the defense system of the Jurchens, and effectively involved the deployment and defense system of the Houjin soldiers.

At least below the mountain road and near a few small valleys, that is, on the outskirts of the West Gate of the ruined city of Quang Ninh, the strength of the Jurchen deployment was severely weakened.

Although the opponent's generals will also judge that they are suspicious, after a large-scale attack, it is inevitable to make some corresponding reinforcement arrangements in the most intense attack, and Cheng Fang and others are taking advantage of the psychology of the opponent's generals to attack and harass the place where the main force will raid is lighter, which also leads to the relative weakness of the opposing forces.

"There's no way." Yang Yi also stood up, lying on his stomach for a long time and being extremely cold, it was inevitably a little difficult to resist. He also tightly squeezed the handle of the saber on his waist, and said in a deep voice: "Who told the soldiers on the other side of Liaoxi to come only by the old official road, they don't have the ability to march cross-country and long distances." ”

The Ming army in western Liaoning really did not have this ability, like the long-term training of the Thirteen Mountains garrison, including those difficult subjects of the mountain infantry, it was an impossible task for the battalion soldiers in the Ming army in western Liaoning, and even the general Neiding would not take the initiative to accept this kind of hard training.

The Ming army preferred to practice horseback riding and archery, as well as the art of fighting, and the other is to boil the body and strengthen their strength and fighting skills.

These are all skills that can save your life when you are fighting, and it is normal to practice hard.

But this also made the Ming army completely incapable of forcing marches or marching in complex terrain...... The first is that there is no such training and experience, unless it is to flee for their lives, and the second is that the supply capacity is quite tragic, and if the soldiers have to carry their own rations for the next ten days, you cannot expect them to walk too fast.

In any case, the agreement was made ten days in advance, and the exact news was not obtained until the Ming army had been on the road for nearly ten days...... The main reason is that the Houjin side is still trying to cut off the communication between the Thirteen Mountains and Liaoxi, although this nail is not as eager to pull out as before, and the blockade ability has also decreased, there are still many restrictions on the exchange of information.

After urgently assembling on the mountain and pulling down the main force, and carrying out a large-scale attack, there was still no shadow of the main force of the Ming army, which made Yang Yi and others couldn't help but be anxious.

"Don't rush." Cheng Fang instead comforted Yang Yi and said: "You and I have been mixed in the army, and we know what a long-distance march is all about." However, this time the number of battalions is small, and the main composition is the cavalry of the iron cavalry battalion, and it is believed that it will arrive soon. ”

"Okay." Yang Yi lay down again, and after a long time, he said, "I think it's better to ask the soldiers to lift the highest alert level, so that they can do some movements and rest, right?" ”

"Absolutely." All the officers present replied in unison.

"It's snowing, it's okay for us, I'm afraid it's a severe test for the Ming Wangshi." Yang Er didn't say anything, just pointed to the sky, and sure enough, under the bright moonlight, the snowflakes of the fifth winter of the Apocalypse fell down splendidly.