At the beginning of June of the 11th year of Jianxing, Chen An led 100,000 Qiang people from Shangqi to the Nan'an county town guarded by Liu Gong, the general of Liu Zhao Zhengxi.

The elite sentry cavalry of Liangzhou in Jincheng County, and the sentinel cavalry in the Guangwu army who crossed the river and went deep, respectively transmitted this shocking news to their respective counties. Chen An's intentions can be said to be very obvious. After his defeat last year, he was under attack from three sides, and the only south without Liu Zhao's forces was the insurmountable Qinling Mountains.

Chen An was unwilling to be a turtle in an urn, so he picked Liu Gong's soft persimmon and pinched it. After all, Shiwu, the king of Jiuquan in the west, is mainly a Xiongnu and is good at riding and shooting. Although there are only three or four thousand people, they are not existences that can be kneaded at will. And Liu Zhao's main force in the east, not to mention.

No matter how stupid Chen An is, he will not move the idea of the Eastern Expedition at this time. Previously, he had ordered his younger brother Chen Ji to gather 30,000 people, and then chased Liu Yao to conquer the army of Yang Yan, the leader of Baimadi, and returned to Chang'an, but Chen An led 30,000 troops were defeated by more than 10,000 Hun cavalry led by Liu Zhaowei's general Hu Yanyu.

Therefore, now, Chen An can only pick Liu Gong's soft persimmon and pinch it. On the one hand, the city wall of Nan'an County is very low, less than two zhang high, and the soldiers led by Liu Gong in the city are less than 4,000. On the other hand, the capture of Nan'an can open a way for yourself to end the embarrassing situation of being besieged, and it can also be used to warn yourself of some of your subordinates with different ambitions, as well as enemies waiting outside.

It can be said that the set conceived by Chen An can be described as quite clever from a military point of view. However, that was when none of his opponents made any moves. In fact, he had forgotten to anticipate the possible actions of his opponent.

On the eighth day of the first month of June, Li Yanzhao personally led Shao Lei to lead 50 horsemen to cross the river and sentry sentry. At this time, there were plenty of men in the cavalry camp, and each sentry would not be less than the size of a team. Moreover, now the cavalry in the army crossing the river and the sentry have all one person and two horses, so as to exchange rides, on the one hand, to save horsepower, and on the other hand, to increase the mobility of these sentry horses a lot.

Since the expansion of the Guangwu Army last year, the shortfall has been filled, and the number of personnel has increased, and now there are 60 people in one team. However, learning from the previous lesson, Li Yanzhao ordered his subordinates to stay in the camp every time they went out on a mission, so that in case of an accident to the cavalry who went out on a mission, the sergeants who stayed behind could also identify the remains of the robes.

In the early morning, the cavalry prepared dry food, arrows and other things in a familiar way, and then, under the leadership of Li Yanzhao, set off from the camp, and in less than two hours, they had arrived at the camp on the north bank of Jincheng.

The soldiers guarding the camp and the cavalry of Li Yanzhao's department have long been familiar with each other, looking at those cavalry soldiers and neatly dressed towards the pontoon bridge, it seems that they are preparing to cross the river sentry cavalry, and the soldiers on duty on the camp wall have hit the ground with guns and halberds under the command of their own troops, shouting "mighty!" ”

When the Guangwu cavalry heard the friendly army's kind cheering, many of the soldiers turned their heads sideways and looked at the friendly soldiers on the camp wall who looked as solemn as them. An inexplicable atmosphere of slaughter suddenly enveloped these soldiers.

Seeing this, Li Yanzhao on horseback turned half of his body sideways, hugged his fists at the friendly soldiers on the camp wall, and then turned his head and led his men and soldiers across the pontoon bridge in batches.

After crossing the pontoon bridge only a few hundred steps away, it is Jincheng County, and the number of patrol soldiers in the city has more than doubled compared with a few days ago. Seeing that Li Yanzhao's cavalry had passed, the soldiers at the head of the city also hit the ground with their guns and halberds, shouting might.

Li Yanzhao raised his head and looked at the Jincheng County city wall in front of him, which had been repeatedly heightened. Now it is more than three feet high. And they are all made of clay and repeatedly tamped. If an enemy army comes to attack, I am afraid that it will be difficult to advance without paying a huge price.

Looking at this brand-new Jincheng County, Li Yanzhao couldn't help but smile knowingly, and hugged his fists to thank the sergeants cheering at the head of the city. In fact, he didn't know in his heart that at present, these subtle places, he himself who was paying attention to them everywhere and trying to perfect them, was carefully prying the trajectory of history.

After passing through Jincheng, Li Yanzhao released a guard sentry horse, and a group of horsemen continued to go south, and encountered many scattered people with ragged clothes and thin faces along the way. Presumably, a war broke out in Longxi, and the people who were attached to Chen An did not do any less evil things of robbing homes and houses.

Most of these homeless people are more than a dozen people, thirty or fifty people are in a group, and occasionally one or two groups of 100 people are seen. They saw that in this winding valley leading to Longxi, such a group of brightly armored horseback soldiers suddenly appeared, and they all fled towards the mountains and forests with frightened expressions.

Looking at these displaced people who saw them from a distance and fled in a panic, Li Yanzhao's heart felt as if he was blocked by something, and he suddenly felt depressed. These displaced people were forced to flee their homes, presumably persecuted by bandits and rebels on the way, and many of their family members may have died as a result. So much so that when he saw the soldiers, his first reaction was to turn around and flee for his life.

He was also mentally unprepared for this situation. When they were in the county before, when they saw the soldiers of the county, they felt as if they were seeing their relatives. The villagers who have helped them always say hello and talk on the road when they see familiar soldiers. Even those elders and officials of the sect always had to say hello respectfully before leaving.

However, now in the war-torn land of Longxi, the people's feelings for the soldiers have become terrified. Li Yanzhao sent an order to strictly prohibit his subordinates from disturbing the people, and at the same time sent cavalry to chase them into the mountains and forests to find the traces of those displaced people and take them out of the concentration.

After waiting in place for about half an hour, most of the cavalry sent out returned empty-handed. Occasionally, one or two horsemen led a few homeless people out of the forest, but they were all old and weak, women and children, as well as people with limited mobility. The lack of food and clothing along the way seriously endangered their health, so that they could no longer survive soon after they ran into the mountains and forests, so they were invited out by these cavalry sent out by themselves.

The horsemen escorted these old and weak women and children found in the forest, each supported each other out of the forest, came to Li Yanzhao, and after about two quarters of an hour, twenty or thirty people had gathered on the side of the road in front of them, some described as withered, white-haired old men and old women, as well as women with slightly bulging bellies, and drooping boys who looked like they were only a few years old and were led by their grandparents or mothers.

The boys, who were still crying in the mountains and forests, saw that these soldiers invited them out of the mountains and forests, and they had no intention of harming them to rob their money, and their sobs became smaller and smaller, and they raised their eyes from time to time to secretly look at the solemn soldiers around them. However, as soon as someone turned their gaze to look at them, they did not know whether they were ashamed or afraid, and they lowered their heads one after another, avoiding the gaze of others.

A boy who had been the loudest cryer had stopped sobbing when he was being carried in a basket on the back by a woman with a slightly bulging belly, and looked curiously at the group of soldiers on tall horses, and then wiped his eyes with his dirty little hands, and continued to look back at the villagers beside him for a moment. Suddenly, he asked the woman who was carrying him with a crying voice: "Mother, where did Father go?" Why can't I see him anymore? ”

The woman, who was worried about not knowing what the soldiers were going to do with them, heard her young son's question, but did not know how to answer. hesitated, but heard the child in the basket behind him cry loudly again, crying and choking: "Father! Father! Where are you? Mother, I want to see my father, I want to see my father! ”

The woman was afraid that her child's crying would cause impatience among the soldiers around her, so she hurriedly put down the basket with a frightened face, and then covered the child's mouth, and said with such nervousness that she opened her mouth and said, "If you don't make trouble, don't make trouble, Father will look at us, he will come in a while, and he will come in a while." ”

The little boy was suddenly covered in his mouth, and at this time he could not make a sound, but he was still sobbing to himself. However, the woman's strength was so great that it did not take long for the child to let out a whimper of lack of oxygen, and her little face gradually turned purple.

Seeing this, Li Yanzhao knew that the woman was afraid of herself and other soldiers, so she used so much strength to cover her child's mouth and nose, intending to make her stop crying. Seeing this, he couldn't bear it in his heart, so he hurriedly turned over and dismounted, and quickly stepped forward and said, "Don't be afraid, little lady, let go of that boy, I see that he is going to suffocate to death!" ”

When the woman heard this, she looked down and saw that her young son's cheeks were bruised, so she hurriedly let him go, and when she saw that he was panting heavily, she calmed down, raised her head and glanced at Li Yanzhao in shame, and then lowered her head and stroked the heart of her young son, who was still sobbing, but she didn't know what she was thinking.

"Little lady, don't be afraid, we are soldiers of the Liangzhou army. When you flee at this time, most of them will go to Liangzhou? I'll send a few soldiers to escort you to Liangzhou, okay? Li Yanzhao saw that the woman was silent, so he asked tentatively.

The woman looked up at Li Yanzhao in disbelief, but she didn't know how to answer. However, when the old and weak women and children around them heard what Li Yanzhao said, they were all full of disbelief and shock.

After they were silent for a moment, an old man finally took the lead in kneeling and kowtowing: "I already feel that there is little hope for this go, but the virtue of God's good life, the general protects us, we are already very grateful, and we dare not work under the general's command to protect us, we were afraid before, so we hid, and asked the general to forgive me for being disrespectful." ”

Before the old man's words fell, the twenty or thirty old and weak women and children in front of him had already knelt down. When the woman saw this, her knees were bent and she was about to kneel.

Seeing this, Li Yanzhao hurriedly stepped forward to support the woman, and pointed to the child in her arms, signaling her not to kneel. Then he hurriedly turned around and took two steps, and helped up the kneeling people next to him one by one, but there was already a sour tone in his tone: "My Liangzhou Army has come to recover my homeland and guard the people on the pastoral side." How can a certain indebted person who has contributed to you be able to afford your great gifts? Everyone, please hurry up, and don't kill us. ”

After these people got up one after another, Li Yanzhao looked at their thin faces, dirty clothes, and the helpless eyes of the children, and his heart was like a knife.

He ordered his subordinates to divide the dry food they carried with him into daily portions and give them to the twenty or thirty people in front of him. Without the slightest hesitation, the 50-odd soldiers untied the dry food bags, took out some Hu cakes, fried soybeans and other things, and concentrated them in an empty dry food bag held by Li Yanzhao.

After collecting these dry foods, Li Yanzhao took them and stepped forward to distribute them to everyone. They tore a piece of cloth from their clothes, or opened the package they were carrying, and wrapped them around them. Finally everyone got some.

Presumably, the dry food given by these soldiers is enough for them to last for three days, so that they can last until the moment they arrive in Liangzhou.

Li Yanzhao was about to order his subordinates to send a few soldiers to protect these people to Liangzhou, but suddenly heard a shout from the edge of the forest not far from him: "Dolphins! ”

The little child who had almost been covered by the woman because of his crying heard this cry, and suddenly became excited, and shouted in the direction from which the voice came: "Father! Father! The dolphins are over here! Father, come quickly! ”

After more than a dozen breaths, I saw a gray-faced man rushing out of the mountain forest, and the short coat on his body was almost scraped into strips of cloth by the shrubs in the forest, and at this time it hung on him in tatters, which looked extremely funny.

However, looking at the man who ran out, Li Yanzhao's expression became grim. Watching the man run into the ranks of the homeless, he picked up his young son with a happy face. Li Yanzhao was already standing behind him without smiling.

"Fang Cai, why did you abandon your wife and children and run away alone?" Li Yanzhao glared angrily at the man in front of him with his back to him, and asked sharply.

The man was startled when he heard someone behind him scolding angrily, and turned around with the child in his arms, just as he met Li Yanzhao's eyes that were spewing angry flames, and for a moment, he didn't know how to answer.

"I ......" The man opened his mouth, but he was intimidated by the power of Li Yanzhao, and was thinking in his mind about how to properly answer the question of the general in front of him.

"In times of crisis, abandoning your wife and children, you are also worthy of being a gentleman?" Li Yanzhao's voice not only became more and more severe, but also gradually increased the anger that made his voice tremble: "Come on, take down this bad seed that abandoned his wife and children for me!" ”