Huanghuadui, also known as Huanghualing or Huanghualiang in later generations, is a few hills protruding from the entire plain in the Datong Basin.

In ancient times, the northern nomads invaded south from the direction of Zhangjiakou, and after passing through Yunzhou (that is, Datong in later generations), if they continued to advance, they needed to choose whether to bypass Huanghuadui from the east or west.

The whole Huanghuadui is twenty miles from east to west, north and south, the east side is Yingzhou, and the west side is Huanzhou.

After He Ping's Ding Chen infantry battalion crossed the Huangshui River, they arrived in Huanzhou at noon on the third day.

This area belongs to the battlefield outside the gate outside the Yanmen Pass, and the four cities of Yunying Huanshuo set up here by the Central Plains dynasties are all for the purpose of stationing troops and using this place as the first line of battlefield to resist the invasion of the steppe nomads.

During the Tang Dynasty, the main enemy was the Turks, and in the last hundred years it was the turn of the Khitan to rise, which was later known as the Great Liao Dynasty in history. As early as the Tang Dynasty, the local government had moved all the local residents to Shuozhou in the rear, and in addition to the barracks, only a small number of border traders and some ethnic minority refugees lived here in the three cities of Yunyinghuan, which stood in front.

The last time Huanzhou was plundered by the Khitan was six years ago (960 AD), when Yelu Lihu, the third son of the Khitan Taizu Yelu Abaoji, ran in and killed Yitong, captured Huanzhou, and plundered a large number of personnel and materials, which made Huanzhou even more dilapidated.

Because it is not a very important strategic point, the city of Huanzhou is actually very small, the city wall is made of earth and sand, only three meters high, it looks very unreliable, and there are even two large gaps in the direction of the north, and no one has repaired them. The buildings in the city are in tatters, and almost none of the houses are intact.

There were only a few hundred old, weak, sick and disabled Tuyuhun homeless people in the city, and a miscellaneous army of less than 500 people.

He Ping originally looked down on the post-Tang army he was in, but compared with the miscellaneous soldiers in Huanzhou, this Tang army was actually neat and well-armed.

"You two are taking the lead?" Captain Huang Qiang looked at the two men in Tuyuhun costumes in front of him in disgust.

These two people are the leaders of the Huanzhou miscellaneous soldiers, short and thin, their faces are as black as if they have been coated with charcoal, and the clothes on their bodies are also made of various rags, and they can't see the color and material at all.

The two dwarfs grunted, but Captain Huang didn't understand, and turned his head to look at He Ping.

He Ping had previously reported that he was a person from the vicinity of Yingzhou before enlisting in the army, and Huang Xiaowei thought that he might know the Tuyuhun language. Of course, language was never an issue for the former monks.

"My lord, they say that they are a local militia group, paid by merchants in Shuozhou, and they are here to guard Huanzhou." He Ping translated.

Just these thin grasshopper-like turtles, still guarding Huanzhou?

Huang Qiang's brows furrowed.

Staying in Huanzhou is purely looking for death, if you are surrounded by people, even if you are not breached, you will starve to death or be scared to death.

"My lord, why don't we go five miles, there is a place called Golden Beach, the terrain there is much safer than this lonely Huanzhou City, you can use the narrow terrain of Golden Beach to establish defense, if the enemy is strong, we can also retreat into Huanghuadui, as long as we go up the mountain, the cavalry will not catch up."

He Ping knew the topography of Golden Beach, so he made suggestions as a local.

Huang Yong nodded, led the way by the two miscellaneous soldiers, left Huanzhou City, and continued to walk north for half an hour with the 1,000 officers and soldiers of Ding Chen's battalion and the 500 Huanzhou miscellaneous soldiers, and came to the Golden Beach.

Golden Beach is a flat and narrow lakeside passage about a mile wide, with a nice view, and a large lake to the west, the breeze blows, making it exceptionally cool in this hot summer day. To the east is the slope of the Yellow Flower Stack, and the hill is covered with large weeds and countless small yellow flowers, lush and colorful in the sun.

If there is a large army ready to pass through the west side of Huanghuadui, Golden Beach is the way to go.

On the passage between the hillside and the lake, there are two earthen walls about half a meter high that were built at some unknown time across the road, but these two earthen walls are full of gaps, which are basically not very useful as infantry defense, but they can still slow down the cavalry charge speed when dealing with the cavalry charge and surprise attack of the brigade.

If the Khitan army comes, the main force is estimated to go to the Yingzhou side, and the enemy troops coming from the Huanzhou side are probably only here to plunder or reconnoitre, and the number should not be too much. Moreover, the main purpose of the Khitans is to quickly go to Taiyuan through Yangwu Valley to rescue Shi Jingjiao, and they will not be entangled here for a long time.

"Zhao Ping!"

"Yes, sir."

"These miscellaneous soldiers are under your control, and you take them to build defenses along the earthen wall. The others followed me up the hill and camped on the hillside, forming horns on both sides. ”

"How do you fight when the enemy army comes?"

"You take the miscellaneous soldiers to resist first, and we will kill them from the hillside, and attack from both sides!"

He Ping received the order, turned his head and pointed at one of the leaders of the miscellaneous soldiers, and said:

"There is about to be a big battle here, you take a hundred soldiers back, move all the people in the city to Shuozhou, and no animal or food is allowed to be left in the city."

The common people in Huanzhou City are actually Tuyuhun people, and these miscellaneous soldiers are all from the same tribe, and when they saw that the commander let them flee for their lives before the war, they were naturally grateful, and the leader of the miscellaneous soldiers hurriedly took the order and left.

He Ping turned his head and asked another Tuyuhun leader:

"What's your name?"

"My name is Ah Bo, my lord."

"Well, Ah Bo, you can stay and fight with us."

Seeing Ah Bo's frightened look, He flattened his face, ignored him, and turned to leave.

"Li Chao, come here." He Ping called one of the leaders of the B team again, "You pick thirty strong people from these miscellaneous soldiers to come out and supplement our B team." ”

"And you, Ge Song." He Ping pointed to the other gang leader and ordered, "You take the other miscellaneous soldiers to dig a pit." ”

To dig a pit is to dig thousands of small holes in the ground the size of a bowl and half a foot deep.

Based on He Ping's experience, this kind of thousands of small holes distributed in the ground are very lethal to the cavalry. The small long legs of the war horse are running, and as long as a horse's hoof steps into this small hole, it is easy to sprain or even break the horse's leg. The land of this golden sand beach is often relatively soft, and although these Huanzhou miscellaneous soldiers have yellow faces and thin muscles, they can still do it by digging ten of these small pits.

Of the 500 Huanzhou miscellaneous soldiers, there were probably only a few dozen people holding Tang Army-style spears or iron knives with iron heads, but the weapons in the hands of the others were varied, strange shapes, and there were everything, and those who cut long sticks with branches were relatively decent, and there were even many people who were bare-handed.

These Tuyuhun miscellaneous soldiers have little combat effectiveness, and it is estimated that they will be scattered in a hurry when they start a battle, so it is better to use them as coolies first, and it can be regarded as making the best use of them.

Looking at these Huanzhou miscellaneous soldiers who were digging pits slowly, wilting like zombies, He Ping felt irritable for a while, looked up at the lake in the desert to the west, and turned around and walked towards the lake with the four heels around him.

Finding a hidden corner, no one else could be seen on all sides, He Ping ordered Shan Wu and Liu Qi to stand guard and sentry, not allowing others to approach, and plunged into the lake by himself.

Putting his head out of the water again, the heat subsided, and the whole body was extremely cool.

Seeing that Lu Min'er and Lu Chan'er, the two chicks, were still standing stupidly on the shore, their thin and small bodies were wearing large soldier uniforms, and each of them was holding a spear much taller than them, looking stupid and cute, He Ping suddenly felt funny.

"Come down, come down and take a shower."