On the first day of the fourth month of the sixth year of Jian'an, Xiyang County ordered Li Sheng to swear to send troops to the school outside Xiyang City. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Although only 3,000 soldiers and horses were dispatched, although it was only to exterminate the remnants of the Yellow Turban Party that had been causing trouble in Xiyang for a long time, Li Sheng still did a good job. He completely treated this small war of bandits as a big war, and even the swearing-in ceremony that should be held before the war, he did not hesitate to learn a full one. Although because of the number of people, the scale of the oath is naturally not as large as the hundreds of thousands of troops who swear to the army, but Li Sheng's special speech made everyone on the field involuntarily imprint everything about this ceremony in their hearts. For them, this scene that happened today is something they will never forget decades later:

The wind gently stroked the empty and flat ground, slightly raising the dust attached to the ground and forming a faint cloud of yellow smoke. Occasionally, a strong gust of wind rolls up the grass clippings on the ground, throws them high into the sky, and then allows them to whirl and fall without any support.

It was early spring, and although there was some business on the ground, it was limited to farmland and forests, just like the vista around the schoolyard. And the school itself is destined to have nothing to do with the greenery, on the huge flat land, all the green has been swept clean, leaving only this piece of brown and yellow in the wind constantly rising, so that people can not feel the softness of belonging to the south of the Yangtze River at all, only feel that they are still in the border of the north. Of course, the wind blowing here is definitely not as cold as a knife in the real Saibei.

Li Sheng stood on the podium of the school yard and endured the discomfort of the wind, squinting and calmly looking at the soldiers who were standing in several phalanxes. "As soon as you enter the barracks, you become a soldier." Although he is the supreme leader of Xiyang County, the lord of the people, and usually manages both the army and the government, but at this moment of the expedition, he greatly changed the dress of the literati in his daily life, and appeared in front of everyone with the appearance of full body armor. He wasn't used to being heavy, but he knew what he had to look like at any time.

This silver armor completely reflected his handsome and straight body more powerfully, making Cui Hao, Xu Shu, Liao Li, Ma Liang and others, who had never seen him dressed like this before, involuntarily light up their eyes. They didn't understand until this moment that this lord, who had always been regarded as weak in their eyes, could actually have such a majestic appearance, and he could actually be like those generals who had really been on the battlefield, exuding a murderous aura all over his body - that was the masculinity of a real soldier.

"It's really imposing." They looked at each other and thought in unison.

The 3,000 people in the audience stood in a phalanx of 100 people each. They all puffed up their chests and clenched the weapons in their hands under Li Sheng's gaze. They were all selected by Li Sheng to prepare for the battlefield, a total of 2,000 officers and soldiers, and 1,000 village warriors. This may also seem strange. After all, I have never heard of the officers and soldiers and the townsmen swearing together in regular battles.

In the minds of ordinary people, the official army is the official army, and they can enjoy the benefits of the accumulation and promotion of military exploits, while the village warriors are just the helpers of the official army, they cannot be promoted, and they often belong to the kind of role that is used when needed and forgotten when rewarded. Xiangyong is an armed force belonging to the people, and no one in power is willing to let it grow.

However, in Xiyang, the township warrior army established by Li Sheng is different from the ordinary township warrior. In Li Sheng's hands, the Xiangyong existed as a reserve force of the officers and soldiers, except that the weapons in their hands were worse than those of the officers and soldiers, the training intensity was lower than that of the officers and soldiers, and they had to be responsible for a certain number of Tuntian tasks, they were no different from the officers and soldiers. They were paid the same salaries as the officers and soldiers, and they were disciplined as the officers and soldiers. Of course, their officers generally have the same rank as the officers and soldiers, but under the same official name, they are only half a level lower than the officers and soldiers.

The officers and soldiers and the village warriors are very familiar with each other. Because in ordinary training, it is very common to mix the officers and soldiers with the village warriors to train together. Although at the beginning, there were still many contradictions between them, such as some people in the official army were very envious of Xiang Yong's much lower training standards, and they had to embarrass Xiang Yong in every way, but under the mediation of Li Sheng, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan and others, these contradictions gradually disappeared. The officers and soldiers became a group of warriors with a sense of honor, and they no longer struggled with the fact that they had to go through much more training than their village warriors, but looked forward to such training.

Because Li Sheng told them: "Only after experiencing such training can you become a real strongman." You are all much stronger than Xiang Yong now, but it is possible that such strength can be replaced by others. If you don't work hard, I'll kick you into the ranks of the villagers, and in the same way, if the villagers are stronger than you, they will rise up to become your companions. My army must be the strongest, and those who are not strong can only be eliminated as weak. If you don't want to be eliminated, you have to train hard. ”

Under the dual effect of a sense of honor and orders, the relationship between the officers and soldiers and the townspeople became more and more harmonious, and they were gradually able to cooperate with each other to carry out some tasks.

The expedition to Runan was a big event for Li Sheng. In order to complete the task of exterminating the remnants of the Yellow Turbans, Li Sheng sent the strongest team in his hands, which was the 3,000 people standing on this school ground.

Li Sheng stood on the high platform and squinted at them, feeling the momentum emanating from these three thousand people, which was comparable to that of tens of thousands of troops, and nodded with satisfaction. He took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and prepared to speak.

"Brothers, you are now standing here in your armies and armour, with this weapon in your hands. Whether it is a village warrior or an official soldier, you all exist as soldiers, which is already different from the people, but you must not forget your identity before you became a soldier. Li Sheng said loudly: "You were also the people at the beginning, the people of Xiyang and Xiangyang, and even the people of Jingzhou are your brothers and sisters, and you must not forget this." ”

The soldiers below stood silently, motionless and listened to Li Sheng's speech above. They only knew that they were going to go on an expedition soon, and they were going to fight in the north of Jiangxia. As for who they fought and why they fought these people, they didn't know. In their consistent cognition, deciding how to fight and who to fight with is the generals' business, and these ordinary soldiers, as long as they practice their skills well, it is almost enough to kill the enemy on the battlefield as much as possible and survive. For them, the battlefield is also an event of baptism of killing and being killed.

Therefore, they stood up at the moment, and Li Sheng couldn't help but be a little puzzled when he said that these things that seemed to have nothing to do with the battlefield: "What is the lord saying these things for?" "They don't know, but after five months of training, their discipline has been perfected. They all stayed in their queue calmly, listening with unchanged faces.

Li Sheng's speech on the stage continued: "......, I would like to ask you, what will happen to you if one day robbers break into your home, plunder your belongings, and kill your brothers and sisters, parents, and blind dates? Li Sheng asked them loudly.

"Kill them and destroy all the robbers!" I had never met the Lord General who would ask about the soldiers under him when he was giving a speech on the oath, which made the soldiers slightly stunned, but they still quickly answered this.

"That's right!" Li Sheng nodded with satisfaction: "For this group of robbers, we want to destroy them." That's why we're standing here today. ”

"Huh?" The soldiers couldn't help but be stunned again when they heard this. They looked at Li Sheng, waiting for his further explanation. They finally understood what Li Sheng was going to say today, and he wanted to explain to us what the purpose of sending troops was. Although they did not know what the Lord was explaining this way for, they couldn't help but feel a little moved in their hearts that the Lord would do this—people need to understand, and the Lord will undoubtedly see them as human beings, not as war machines. This is a kind of respect, and this respect has given rise to a kind of recognition among the soldiers that "the soldier dies for his confidant".

"Everyone knows that although we have now exterminated all the bandit forces in Xiyang and temporarily guaranteed the safety of our Xiyang County, we have nothing to do about the bandits outside Xiyang. Those bandits who belong to the remnants of the Yellow Turban Party also invade our Xiyang from time to time, ransack our villages in Xiyang, and slaughter our villagers. These things are unbearable for us. As I said, the people of Xiyang and Jingzhou are our brothers and sisters, our parents and fellow villagers, and now that our homes have been burned and plundered, and our brothers and sisters have been killed, we can continue to remain indifferent. Just a few days ago, our Yunshui Village in Xiyang was attacked by unknown Yellow Turban thieves, the village was completely burned, and none of the villagers in it escaped, all of them were brutally killed by those beast-like guys. It's a blood debt. It's what we flesh and blood old men have to get back. We must go north to Runan, destroy these damned creatures, and show them our wrath. As a soldier, if he cannot protect the territory and the people at home, and cannot expand the territory outside, then this soldier is definitely not a qualified soldier. So ......" Li Sheng suddenly raised his voice when he said this: "Brothers, take up our weapons and avenge our fellow villagers!" ”

"Revenge! Avenge! Hearing Li Sheng say this, they remembered the news told to them by various commanders a few days ago, and they couldn't help but get excited, and loudly responded to Li Sheng's words. As Li Sheng said, they are all flesh and blood masters, and they will never allow anyone to infringe on everything they guard.

Looking at the crowd boiling below, Li Sheng and the people behind him all had satisfied smiles on their faces.

"Morale is high!" Huang Zhong whispered to Wei Yan beside him.

"yes!" Wei Yan nodded: "Even those villagers below are not inferior to our regular soldiers." Seeing the following scene, I can remember what Zixu said before. ”

"What?" Huang Zhong asked.

"The hearts of the people are available!" Wei Yan's gaze looked straight at the phalanx of soldiers arrayed under the stage.

"Popular support?" Huang Zhong was slightly stunned, and then smiled: "It is indeed the people's heart!" The two of them thought of something other than the battlefield.

******

Runan County is the capital of Yuzhou, and it is also the largest county in Yuzhou, with Runan, Pingyu, Xinyang, Xiping, Shangcai, Nanton, Ruyin, Ruyang, Xinxi, Yichun, Canyang, Qisi, Yang'an, Xiang, Xihua, Xiyang, Ancheng, Wufang, Liyang, Shenyang, Xincai, Anyang, Fubo, Yilu, Langling, Yiyang, Zhaoling, Zhengqiang, Sishan, Yaoxin, Yuanlu, Dingying, Gushi 34 counties, with a large population, this is the most prosperous place in Yuzhou.

Before the outbreak of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, there were famous scholars Xu Shao and Xu Jing brothers who presided over the Yuedan Commentary in Runan, commenting on the characters and current affairs at that time, bringing together a large number of literary people. Cao Cao, who is now the most popular, is also famous for seeking a review from Xu Shao. It can be said that Runan and even the entire Yuzhou were the places with the strongest Chinese atmosphere in the world's minds before the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Many of today's famous talents are from Runan.

If it weren't for the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Runan might have been able to maintain its status as the cultural capital of the Central Plains in addition to Luoyang. However, a "Yellow Turban Uprising" spread across the country, destroying all of this. Yuzhou became one of the main battlefields of the official army fighting the Yellow Turban Army, and Runan was a very important part of this main battlefield. The national ****, which lasted for nearly a year, caused the population of Runan County to plummet and the city to be barren. And the princes who fought for hegemony after the Yellow Turban Rebellion made the Central Plains region to which Runan belonged a constant war, and there was no chance to recuperate.

Although Cao Cao, who had a great vision, had long included Yuzhou in his own forces and also focused on controlling Runan County, compared with other places that needed to use troops, he left too few soldiers and horses in Runan, and could only ensure a dozen cities near Xuchang north of Runan County, and there was really no way to do anything about Yang'an, Langling, Yichun, Shenyang, Anyang, Ancheng, Yaoxin, Xinxi and other places in the hilly area of Dabie Mountain. These cities in the mountains were still under the control of the remnants of the Yellow Turbans, and after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, no official and military forces could enter here. The reckless mountains provide good protection for the remnants of the Yellow Turbans who are good at fighting in small units, but this is fatal to the officers and soldiers who are not good at mountain warfare. The power of the princes could only be established in the big cities outside the mountains, which were completely under the control of the Yellow Turban Army and the bandits.

Li Sheng's 3,000 soldiers and horses traveled day and night, and it took nearly ten days of hard work to come to the city of Xinxi County, Runan County. This is the closest county to Xiyang in Runan County, which is located in the hilly belt of Dabie Mountain, the northern edge of the Huanghuaihai Plain, and the Huai River traverses the south, so it can be regarded as a large county in Runan in terms of its situation. However, the county seat in Li Sheng's eyes is much more dilapidated than Xiyang, which was under the control of the thieves.

The county seat of Xinxi is in the middle of a flat land. Although the whole county is in a hilly area, the place where the county seat is located is quite flat because it is close to the Huai River, but it is slightly undulating in the south of the county. The main vein of the Huai River passes through the south of the county seat, and under the artificial axe chisel, a tributary is divided into a circle around the county seat - this is the moat of Xinxi County.

Under the morning light, Li Sheng took Xu Shu, Wei Yan, Huang Zhong, Zhou Rui and several other cronies and generals to the hills not far south of Xinxi County to carefully observe the situation in the north. At that time, Li Sheng rode his horse and whipped, pointed to the ruined city in Xinxi County, and said to Xu Shu and the others with a smile: "Looking at such a city, I understand why the Yellow Turban Army was launched in a hurry, and finally failed. ”

"Oh? Please make it clear! Xu Shu's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he seemed to quickly grasp something, and then he fell silent again, and said respectfully to Li Sheng.

"Why does Yuan Zhi have to be like this, I don't believe you can't think of this." Li Sheng smiled bitterly a little unaccustomedly, and saw that Xu Shu did not react to what he said, so he had to explain it himself: "The Yellow Turban Rebellion has been more than ten years now, and this piece of land south of Runan can be said to have always been in the hands of the Yellow Turban Army. The power of the imperial court has not been able to control this place. Although this piece of land is mountainous and the development potential is not as huge as that of the county town in the flat land, these seven or eight county towns together are almost as big as some small counties, and their potential is still there. If the people who manage this piece of land have a little level, then after more than ten years of steady development, this county will definitely not be as dilapidated as we see now. But now ...... This county is like this, which shows how bad the people who manage this water and soil are.

The momentum of the Yellow Turban Army back then was huge enough, and it really controlled the territory of several states and counties. It's a pity that most of them, like the people who manage here, only know how to fight, kill, and destroy, but they don't know how to build, manage, and restore. At the beginning, the Yellow Turbans were just to live better, but when they found that the arrival of the Yellow Turban Army had made their lives worse, their original hopes for the Yellow Turban Army disappeared, and they hated the Yellow Turban Army instead. Because they found out that the Yellow Turbans had destroyed everything they already had. Under such circumstances, the official army became the winning side, and the Yellow Turban Army became the losing party. In this way, if the yellow scarf does not fail, then it is called no heavenly reason. ”

Hearing Li Sheng's explanation of the gains and losses of the Yellow Turban Army and the official army, Xu Shu, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan and others all fell into deep thought. Xu Shu is a literati, but he is good at swords and knows soldiers, and the military staff can no longer regard him as a pure literati. Although Huang Zhong and Wei Yan are martial artists, they also have their own judgments on the quality of civil governance, so they are not pure martial artists. For what Li Sheng said, they felt a little novel and bold in their ears, but after thinking about it carefully, they also thought that such an explanation was indeed somewhat reasonable.

"Zhong Ming, is there any update on the situation in Xinxi County?" Returning to the camp from the hill, as soon as Li Sheng and the others entered the tent and sat down, they sent someone to find Luo Zhao, who was in charge of intelligence gathering.

"Nope." Luo Zhao shook his head gently: "It was originally Zhang Wu and Chen Sun who defended Xinxi, since Zhang Wu and Chen Sun went south last year, Xinxi's defense was once empty, and was later taken over by a Yellow Turban force from Anyang. However, the number of this team from Anyang is not large, only about 200 people, and they usually fight the autumn breeze around the county seat, and there is no big move. At present, because the actions of our army are very hidden, they have not noticed the arrival of our army, and the county town of Xinxi is still the same as before. ”

Li Sheng couldn't help but squint his eyes when he heard that Xinxi's strength was extremely weak, and after quietly thinking for a while, he asked Luo Zhaolai again: "What about the situation in Anyang and Yuxin counties?" ”

"The defenders of Anyang are about eight hundred men, and they are together with Xinxi County, under the command of a Yellow Turban leader named He Mu; And Yu Xin is the territory of Zhao Shun, the leader of the Yellow Turban, and his strength is not very good, about 500 people. Luo Zhao briefly talked about the situation in these two places.

"Why are there so few?" Hearing such a little enemy, Wei Yan, who had been looking forward to a war, suddenly became a little dissatisfied.

"There's no way around it. The main force of the Yellow Turban Army is in the mountains, and the troops that are really used to occupy the county seat are not very many, and for them, the cities established on flat land like Xinxi, Anyang, Yuanlu, Fubo, and Yuxin are all chicken ribs. To defend such a place, it is not enough to send all their soldiers and horses, except for more oil and water, everything else is simply useless. Only people like He Mu and Zhao Shun who can't win the top of the mountain in the mountains will settle down on this flat land. And these people who settled on the flat land, because of their small power and small troops, themselves existed as vassals of the forces in the mountains. Their strength will never exceed a thousand. Because it is impossible for those big forces to let these people develop on flat land. Luo Zhao explained in detail: "In fact, He Mu and Zhao Shun originally only had one or two hundred soldiers and horses, and the extra ones now were all sent by the forces in the mountains to give them a façade, on the one hand, to enrich their forces on the flat land, and on the other hand, to monitor them. After all, the county seat on the flat land is an important source of materials for those people in the mountains. ”

"I see." Everyone finally came to their senses.

"So the Yellow Turban Army is centered on the mountains?" Li Sheng asked, "Even if we wipe out all the troops in their county, their troops will not have much impact." ”

"That's true." Luo Zhao nodded affirmatively.

"That's not going to be easy. It would be terrible if they ignored us and attacked us every time we retreated. Wei Yan thought of this and couldn't help frowning.

"But if we can use it well, this layout may still be our strength in eliminating them." Xu Shu's eyes rolled slightly, pondered for a while, and shook his head and said. He came up with a completely different answer from Wei Yan.

As soon as Li Sheng heard Wei Yan's words, the words "guerrilla warfare" involuntarily floated in his heart. Coming from modern times, he naturally understands what a headache guerrilla warfare is. Discovering that the enemy on the opposite side could use such tactics against him, he even had the urge to give up. However, this impulse was suppressed in his heart and did not say it, he wanted to see if there were other people under his command who could solve this problem. Hearing Xu Shu say this, he was not only a little overjoyed, but hurriedly asked, "What do you say?" ”

"Most of the enemy's taxes and materials come from these five counties, which they must not give up, and they will inevitably launch a counterattack on these counties after our army has successfully attacked. And after the counteroffensive, they do not have more troops to control the county, and they must leave a small number of soldiers and horses - this is our goal. 'Rice is eaten one bite at a time', and as long as we make such a fuss a few times, the other side's power will inevitably be damaged. And a damaged force has no other way to survive here. At that time, not only us, but all the forces here will see them as targets. Just like Zhang Wu, Chen Sun, Liu Ji, and Zhou Yan. Xu Shu said with a smile while holding the beard that had just grown under his chin and was not very long.

“？” Listening to Xu Shu's explanation, Li Sheng couldn't help but be stunned, "Isn't this also a guerrilla?" It turns out that Yuan Zhi wants to fight guerrilla warfare. He thought it over and found it to be a good idea. At least for now, until anyone comes up with a better way, it works.

Now that the matter of the far has been solved, it is now necessary to focus on how to solve this "near" problem. For Li Sheng's Northern Expeditionary Army, the first thing that needs to be done at the moment is how to quickly capture Xinxi County and obtain the first foothold in Runan County.

"How to deal with this city of only two hundred people?" As for how to attack this place, although Li Sheng had a plan in his heart, he still opened his mouth to ask his subordinates.

"Is the lord still going to ask us about such a simple matter? There are only 200 people on the other side. One attack can take them down, so why bother? Zhou Rui heard Li Sheng's question, and said listlessly. He really didn't have much interest in such a sure battle.

"You can't say that, if we just look at the strength of the army and say who wins and who loses, we wouldn't have won Zhang Wu and Chen Sun in the first place." Huang Zhong, who had always been calm, said: "No matter how weak the enemy is, we must fight them as a tiger. careless, but the boat capsized in the perineum. ”

"That's ...... I was taught. After listening to Huang Zhong's words, Zhou Rui quickly realized the mistake in his mentality, and hurriedly lowered his hand and said.

"Okay, don't talk so much. In fact, I also think that we will win this battle and that it will be won quite easily. Li Sheng waved his hand and said with a smile: "But in order to test the results of our training in the past few months, I don't plan to use all our troops to attack Xiyang, I plan to send only two hundred soldiers and horses to conquer here." I wonder if any of you have the guts to take on this task? ”

Several people in the "......" tent fell silent for a while, and they all fell into their own calculations.