During the Five Dynasties, Yanzhou was divided into two cities, east and west, and it was a relatively rare two-city structure. The river ran through the city, separating the two cities. In the west of Yanzhou City, there are Zhangwu Military Jiedu Mansion and Yanzhou Jiedu Judge's Office, and at the same time, the highest command organ of the Yanzhou military, the Yanai Command Office, is also stationed in Xicheng, and these institutions are directly in charge of the civil and military affairs of Xicheng and have great power. Correspondingly, most of the people living in Xicheng are high-ranking officials and dignitaries in Yanzhou, and the Gao family is a typical representative of these county dignitaries. These last gate lords control almost all of the economic lifeline and main income of the entire Yanzhou, and also control almost all the military and political power in Yanzhou. Therefore, the city walls of Xicheng are relatively strong and tall, the city defense system and public security situation are relatively tight, and there are four battalions of the main force of the Zhangwu Army stationed in the city.

In contrast, the walls of Dongcheng are dilapidated and underarmed, and there is only one left battalion in the city, not to mention the strength of more than 200 people, not even a slightly richer family. Most of the city's population is the local poor people and some out-of-town displaced people, and there are some merchants who sell grain, salt, horses and other scarce materials from the north and south, in order to avoid the high transit taxes in the west of the city and pass through the east city. The cruel policy of the Xicheng side towards the displaced people is an important reason why the displaced people mostly gather in the eastern city. Dongcheng has two political institutions, the Fushi County Government and the Yanzhou Jiedu Observation Judge's Office, and Li Bin is actually the highest military and political official in Dongcheng.

Therefore, in the Guanzhong area, when it comes to "Yanzhou", it actually refers to Xicheng, and when it comes to "Fushi", it refers to Dongcheng.

There is a big mountain in the southeast of Fushi County that is not dangerous, called Fenglin Mountain, commonly known as Woniu Mountain. The Yanhe River meanders through the foot of the mountain, moistening the water and soil vegetation on the mountain, so the lush greenery of the mountain is lovely in spring and summer. There is a pagoda on Fenglin Mountain, it is built during the great calendar of the Tang Dynasty, after many years of military turmoil, it has been quite dilapidated, there are two high platforms at the height of the mountain, one is the highest beacon tower outside the city of Yanzhou, and the other is built in the Wangkou platform at the highest place of the mountain peak. The former is used for warning in the state town, while the latter is used to observe the enemy's situation from all sides. Because Wangkoutai is on the top of the peak, the momentum is high, and the stars are approaching, so it is also called the star picking tower.

There is a big road at the foot of the mountain, which crosses the Meridian Ridge all the way to the north, and can go directly to the Hetao grassland, this road is called the Qin Straight Road, which is the most important military passage from Guanzhong to the Hetao area. Fenglin Mountain stands on the side of this avenue, overlooking the Guanzhong Plain in the south and the scene on the Qinzhi Road in the north. For Yanzhou, this mountain is actually a strategic location, and a battalion of soldiers was originally stationed on the mountain when it was originally done by Zhou Jie Du, and Gao Yunquan abolished the formation of this battalion after taking over Yanzhou.

Fenglin Mountain was not very famous in this era, but more than 90 years later, after becoming the first line of resistance to the iron hooves of Western Xia, there will be an extremely great figure who will come here to establish a military village here, train soldiers, and build a academy on the mountain, called Jialing Academy, this mountain is also renamed "Jialing Mountain" because of the ink treasure left by people at the foot of the mountain

Jialing Academy was later called Fan Gong Academy, because the great person who built him was Fan Zhongyan, who was called "Little Fan Laozi" by the Western Xia Party members.

The pagoda on Fenglin Mountain was repaired in the Ming Dynasty and became a scenic spot, and Jialing Mountain also got another name that could be called thunderous in Li*'s era - Pagoda Mountain.

Of course, at that time, Yanzhou had already restored its former name of the Sui Dynasty - Yan'an.

The mountain of Fenglin Mountain is gentle, the water and soil are fertile, which is very conducive to the growth of crops, except for the topography factor, the slope of the mountain is not much worse than the land on the Guanzhong Plain in other conditions.

It's just that due to the troubled times, there are quite a lot of thieves in Yanzhou, and businessmen often have to travel in groups to be safe. In addition, the party members in the north went south to loot every year, causing the farmers at the foot of Fenglin Mountain to flee one after another, and the farmers on the hillside became scarcer and scarcer. By the first year of Guangshun, there was only one small village called Woniu Village left on the entire Fenglin Mountain, and there were less than ten households in the village.

Next to this small village, there are hundreds of acres of good sloping fields, of which 400 acres are cultivated by the people of the village, but their harvest cannot be completely enjoyed by themselves, and sixty percent of the crops harvested each year must be sent to Fushi to be handed over to the old man Li Bin, the observation judge of Yanzhou. Not a single acre of land on this hillside belongs to the villagers, and Li Bin is the owner of these lands.

On the first day of October in the first year of Guangshun, a group of strange guests came to this village......

……

Li * wiped the sweat on his body, and looked coldly at these living treasures behind him, who were three points like people and seven points like ghosts.

Eighteen miles away, two full hours, the whole army of Team C ran into such a virtue.

At first, it was barely in a row, but now it is too scattered to bear. Except for the Wu led by Shen Chen, who relied on each other to support and pull each other, and were considered to be brought by the whole system, almost none of the rest of the Shiwu arrived. None of the original two soldiers of Lu Xun's pro-army team arrived, only Lu Xun and Li Hu'er gritted their teeth and followed. Wei Xun's left wing ran away with one, and he himself almost turned back halfway through.

There were thirty-one people in the whole team, and only sixteen people really followed them to the bottom of Fenglin Mountain.

Team deputy Zhou Zhengyu, Shi Chang Liu Heng, Di Huaiwei, Wu Chang Zhao Qun, Yang Li, all fell behind.

Eighteen miles away, half of the soldiers were lost, and half of the officers were lost.

A chill ran through Lee's heart, and the more he came into contact with these soldiers, the more difficult he felt about his future. With no money and no food, it is really not difficult to train these rabble in front of you into a strong army that can fight......

Of the sixteen soldiers who arrived at the foot of the mountain, nine threw away the blankets they were carrying and two threw away the pointed sticks in their hands.

Lee* called the two soldiers out of the ranks.

He said in a light tone: "You go back now, pick up the sticks that you threw away halfway, and come back, I will wait for you here." The whole team is waiting for you here. If you can't pick it up, you don't have to come back, and I don't want the bear soldiers who lost their weapons. If you didn't understand this before, you should start learning it today......

As he spoke, he looked at the nine soldiers who had thrown away their clothes and quilts and said, "You can also go back and pick up your bags and backpacks, or you may not go back to pick them up, this team will never force it." Just to remind you that from tonight we will be camping in the mountains for the night, without barracks, without tents, and sleeping in the open air. It's windy on the mountain, and whoever is not afraid of the cold doesn't have to go back to pick up the covers......"

Looking at the eleven people who were looking at each other in despair, Li* turned his head to Shen Chen and said, "You wait at the bottom of the mountain, and the people who arrive later will inform them to gather in the village on the mountain." In an hour I will order you to be replaced. ”

With that, he glanced at the miserable team in front of him again, and said loudly: "Those who have not lost their weapons and uniforms, follow me up the mountain!" ”

……

After two more moments of climbing along the fairly easy mountain road, Li * finally walked with the remaining six "survivors" into the village of Woniu, where smoke had begun to rise, under the red sunset.

When they came to the courtyard at the head of the village, after Li * gave the order to "disband", the six people, whether officers or soldiers, could no longer support it. After running eighteen miles and climbing the mountain for half a day, the little food I ate in the morning had already been digested, and I was tired and hungry at the moment, my legs were weak, and I was staring in front of me, and I wanted to fall down and never get up again.

A farmer with a beard and stubble hunched over timidly approached, and looked at the men carefully, the wrinkles on his face trembling in the mountain wind, as if he was a little unsure whether to come forward and speak.

Li * saw the old man, and he walked up to him in a few steps: "Ah Gong Hao, are you ready?" ”

The person known as Hao Ah Gong hurriedly nodded and said, "Ready, ready, ready, everything the Lord ordered, all ready." I've prepared a full amount of thirty people, and I've already asked the dolls to carry them this way......"

Li * smiled and said to him: "Father, don't worry, I will ask someone to send the food borrowed in the past few days to the mountain the day after tomorrow, and I will not eat your ...... in vain."

As he spoke, he took out nearly thirty copper coins from his bosom and said, "This money is not a tribute, Ah Gong will take it to sell some wine and drink ......."

The old man was so frightened that he shook his hand again and again: "This can't be helped, the two hundred dollars given by the adult the day before yesterday are already too much, and this meal is not even worth twenty yuan in total, how can the adult give it again?" ”

Li * smiled and shook his hand: "Father, these are two different things, we are the army, we have food, and the used food in the village is a temporary loan, and it will be repaid in a few days." This money, as well as the money I gave earlier, is the wages for the trouble you have been helping to cook these days, not the money for buying food. You can rest assured that you can take it......"

Old Man Hao shook his hand again, and said tremblingly: "This is too much, I can't use so much, it's just to cook a meal, where can I use so much money?" ”

He pursed his lips and said, "There are two houses in the village for the military masters to live in, and more than thirty people live in a bit crowded, but if there are only seven or eight people, they can still live openly, as long as the military masters are not too dilapidated and shabby, it will be fine......"

"Enough is enough, enough is enough, the batch of wrecks that didn't keep up behind, let them sleep well with the moon......"

Liang Xuan, who was lying on the ground on all fours, shouted.

Li* glared at him fiercely, turned around and smiled: "Grandpa, we won't live in a house in the village, we can't disturb you, this is a matter of military discipline and rules." ”

He paused, and then said: "I know, these days are slack, and the people in the village still have some effort. From tomorrow, we will repair the big barracks in the east, which has been useless for more than five years, even the roof is gone, we are not manpowered, and we need the help of the elders in the village, so that the price is set, and the villagers will help us repair the house, and we will each pay ten cents a day, what does Grandpa think, if it is too little, we can add ......"

The old man shook his hand hurriedly: "What should be done, how dare you ask the military masters for money again, the village is not busy for a while, they are all idle at home, they have already taken a lot of money from adults, how can you be embarrassed to let adults break the bank again?" ”

As he spoke, he asked hesitantly: "I haven't had a house to live in these days, ...... the military masters?" ”

Li * smiled: "There is no house to live in these days, we will camp in the open air and sleep in this courtyard......"

"Ah——?h The old man was stunned again......

At this moment, a few able-bodied villagers brought three steaming baskets and a round-mouthed jar, each of which was filled with freshly steamed coarse grain flour cakes, and in the jar were pickled vegetables made by the villagers themselves.

The villager at the back carried two buckets of freshly drawn well water.

The eyes of the soldiers, who had been hungry for a day, suddenly turned blue, and the aroma of food stimulated their empty stomachs and stomachs, giving birth to new energy in their bodies that had seemed to have been drained.

Li* was also a little hungry, he glanced at the soldiers, then at the villagers with numb expressions, and shouted an order: "All stand and line up!" ”

The six men barely stood up and fought in a row.

I don't know what kind of tricks this living Hades is going to play, and how he wants to toss everyone.

Li* glanced at the six people, and said with a straight face: "This food, this water, are all made for us by the villagers of Woniu Village. Let's put it a little bigger, the clothes we wore as soldiers. The hats on the heads, the weapons in the hands, and the monthly salaries were all given by the villagers. Drinking water should think of the source, and those who serve as soldiers should know whose food they are eating. What we eat is the food of the common people and the villagers, and without them to pay the grain and pay taxes, we will have no food to eat, no clothes to wear, and no money to pay. Therefore—"

He turned around, reached his chest with his right hand, and said, "Listen to my command, follow me - thank you, folks!" ”

Everyone had become accustomed to the endless new flowers of Li *, and these tired soldiers immediately followed suit, and the flat-chested military salute followed by the sparse lala: "Thank you, folks......"

Li * didn't turn his head, and said with a sneer: "Is this your thanks?" Like a mosquito, I didn't hear it! ”

"Thank you, folks—"

"I still haven't heard it, if you can't shout today, don't eat, I, the team officer, accompany everyone to be hungry-"

"Thank you-thank you-folks-you-" This time, even Wei Xun pulled his neck and shouted, obediently, he didn't call for dinner after a tired day, is this still a human life?

Li * nodded with satisfaction: "Okay, let's start to receive food, don't fight or grab, line up to get it, the little one is in the front and the tall one is in the back, the soldiers will receive it first, the soldiers will receive it after the officer, and I, the team officer, will receive it last!" ”

Wei Xun almost cried: "God, what kind of monster is this sent to us......

……

In the evening of the same day, the stragglers and officers arrived. At about midnight, Zhou Zhengyu, the deputy of the team, finally climbed up the mountain with the support of a young soldier, so far, a total of 22 soldiers and officers arrived at Woniu Village, and seven soldiers have never returned.

Li *, who learned the news, sneered repeatedly, and said to Shen Chen, who came to report the matter to him: "It's going to rain, my mother wants to marry, let them go." People who don't want to follow me Li*, I will never force it, I am not a good road to take, rich and dangerous, without this ambition and endurance, go early and worry about it......"

He looked at the soldiers who were wrapped in quilts and barely lying down, raised his head and said slowly: "We are here, right on this Woniu Mountain, relying on these twenty-two soldiers who cannot be counted as soldiers for the time being. We need to build barracks, we need to build up armies, we need to train them, we want to polish them, we need to change them with better weapons, we need to recruit more warriors, we want to form stronger armies. There's so much we have to do...... As long as we do it one by one, do it seriously, do not slack off, and do not hesitate, one day, our footprints will be all over the Central Plains, and our voice will resound throughout the times......"