"Scared!" The two sides smacked their tongues and said: "Huang Lai'er, the Yellow River is very wide, but it is not a small ditch at the door of the house, how can so many of us get there?" ”

"When I was a post man, I went to the river, and when I got to the ferry, I had a boat to use and a sheepskin raft to use." The young man named Huang Lai'er retorted: "It's really not good, find a place where the river is gentle, the cavalry can swim with the horses, and the infantry is caught by the cavalry, so I tried." ”

"The horse is accompanied by the west wind, and the fox is still the first hill to die. We are going to die in Shaanxi, why do we want to cross the Yellow River to Shanxi? Another retorted.

"You can't say that, if you can't get by, who wants to leave your hometown? Isn't it really unbearable? Huang Lai'er replied: "There has only been a thin snow so far today, less than half a finger deep, seeing that there will be another big drought in the coming year, maybe there will be locusts, what will you eat in Shaanxi?" What to drink? “

Huang Lai'er's speech aroused a chorus of approval in the crowd, and the non-muddy couldn't help but be a little anxious: "What's the locust plague, let's go south to Guanzhong, eight hundred miles of Qinchuan are still afraid that there will be no steamed bread to eat?" ”

"Not bad!"

"No matter how dry and flooded it is, eat steamed buns in Guanzhong!"

"That's it, I can't be hungry for Aunt Guanzhong!"

For these people who have lived on the barren Loess Plateau for generations, the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan is synonymous with wealth and beauty, and if they were given a choice, crossing the Yellow River to Shanxi and Xiaguanzhong would obviously choose to go south to Guanzhong.

"But if we want to go down to Guanzhong, the imperial court will definitely want a large army to suppress it, and when the time comes, He Huchen and them will come from behind, wouldn't it be a front and back attack, it is better to cross the river to the east, Shanxi will definitely be defenseless, and be caught off guard!" Huang Lai'er still wanted to argue with all his might, but unfortunately the others couldn't listen to it at all, and they clamored to go south to Guanzhong, and no one paid attention to him at all.

"Okay, since everyone thinks it's good to go to Guanzhong, let's go to Guanzhong!" Shen Yikui, who had never expressed his position, made a final decision: "Yan'an will not fight, the battalions will go back and pack up, and the day after tomorrow!" Light on both sides! “

"In!"

"This time you hit Yan'an, you will benefit from eating the most, and the things after the break will bother you, you will pull out the camp at the latest, and come according to the old rules!"

"Don't worry!" Liangmiang patted his chest: "Leave this matter to me!" “

The excited leaders put on their coats and went out one by one, leaving Huang Lai'er at the end, as a newly joined leader with a weak strength, he knew very well that he didn't have much say in this kind of meeting. But judging from the experience brought to him by his past post life, going south to Guanzhong is definitely a bad move. Suddenly, he was tapped on the shoulder, and when he looked back, he saw his nephew Li Guo waiting outside his door.

"Uncle Hongji! Is things not going well? Li Guo looked at his uncle with some concern, although he was a generation later than Li Hongji, he was about the same age, and he had followed this stubborn and resolute uncle since he was a child, and the relationship between the two was very good. After the incident, in order to prevent disasters to his hometown, Li Hongji used his own name in the army, and only in private did Li Guo use his real name.

"Nothing!" Li Hongji shook his head violently, as if he wanted to shake off the haze in his heart: "The leader of Shen Yikui has spoken, tomorrow he will go south to Guanzhong and eat white flour buns!" “

"Hey!" Li Guo responded happily, this energetic young man was very happy, but immediately asked, "Then Yan'an won't fight?" Put it behind your ass and not afraid of accidents? “

"Hmm!" Li Hongji snorted coldly, and shook the pine tree next to him violently with a punch: "More than a dozen families and horses are afraid of damaging their own strength, how can they fight if the wolf can't get on the dog?" I just wanted to eat the white flour bun in Xiaguanzhong, but I didn't want the white flour bun to be wrapped in poison and eat it to death. “

"Uncle, what should we do then?" Looking at Li Hongji who suddenly broke out, Li Guo was a little overwhelmed, in his impression that the uncle was a man who was strong to the point of being a little conceited, and it was the first time that he was so dark and depressed as today.

"It's only time to act when the opportunity arises!" Li Hongji sighed: "You go back and let the brothers feed all the livestock, and besides, the heavy household has been lost, and the grain and soft are tied up, I think the situation is not good this time!" “

"Hey!" Li Guo answered, turned around and ran in the direction of his camp, Li Hongji turned around and looked east, the Yan River at the foot of the mountain passed through the valley, stretched to the east, and joined the Yellow River on the cool bank of the Nanhe ditch, this road he has walked and did not know how much to eat, on the other side of the Yellow River is Shanxi Province, and I heard the veterans in the post station say that in the east of Shanxi Province over the Taihang Mountain is the city of Beijing, and the emperor of the Zhu family lives in the city of Beijing.

"To the east, to the east, to the east!" Li Hongji clenched his right hand and slammed his fist on the pine tree next to him.

What Shen Yikui and the others didn't know was that just when they decided to go south, Yang He, the right attendant of the Ming Army, and Yang He, the governor of Shaanxi Trilateral Military Affairs, were facing them, and the army under Yang He was not much, only including the standard battalion directly under the governor and a few battalions drawn out of the garrison in various parts of Guanzhong, a total of only seven or eight thousand people, but because of the arrears and generous promotion fees that had just been issued, the morale of the soldiers was very strong. Yang He planned to rush to the city of Yan'an to fight the defenders inside and outside, and crush the peasant army in one fell swoop.

As a member of the standard battalion, Liu Cheng was also in this army marching north, and it was the first time he had participated in such an operation. Years later, he still remembered everything in his mind: the steep road during the day, the cold wind, the goshawks soaring in the sky, the campfires dancing during the camp at night, the strong smell of tens of thousands of animals, the howling of wolves, and the rude jokes of the soldiers under his command. But what Liu Cheng will never forget is watching the marching procession of the army stretching for miles in the river valley from a high vantage point, the banners waving, the galloping horses, the rows of shining spear tips, and once in his life, a flame called "ambition" rose in the man's chest: he wanted to make all this obey his orders, and wanted to control everything under the sky in his own hands, and that extremely strong feeling made him forget hunger, cold, and fatigue. During Liu Cheng's lifetime, the flame in his chest was never extinguished, so much so that decades later, when Liu Cheng's children and grandchildren advised him not to endure hard labor in the year of the sixtieth year, he asked in surprise: "For a king, is there a more comfortable bed than the straw mat of the march, and more delicious food than the dry food in the army?" ”

However, the soldiers did not feel Liu Cheng's pride at all, although decades later, every surviving of them claimed in unison that their chests were full of the ecstasy of meeting Allah, but in fact every soldier under Liu Cheng complained—the reason was simple, Liu Cheng didn't know where to get five heavy four-wheeled carriages, and whenever they encountered a place where the road was damaged, they had to fill in the potholes to allow the vehicle to pass, which made them exhausted. Even those who had seen what had happened to Liu were suspicious of the cars. According to them, it was not that there were no chariots in the Ming army, but they were all light and convenient side vans and gun carts, and such a clumsy four-wheeled cart was unique. The carts are two meters high, and the sides of the carriages are thick planks that slope slightly outward, which can be pulled up with ropes as a wall if necessary, and the wheels are specially reinforced. In addition to shotguns and three-eyed guns, the carriage was loaded with axes, iron picks, hoes, machetes, shields, a flag, and two six-meter-long iron chains.

Liu Cheng's chariot also contained a tiger cannon, and in order to be able to pull such a heavy cart, each cart was equipped with six horses (two for replacement), with the result that the soldiers had to use axes and pickaxes to clear the way when the cart marched, and had to serve these delicate animals when camping. Soon the soldiers gave this heavy and clumsy cart a rather apt nickname - "turtle", and Liu Cheng became a hundred turtle households.

As in all organizations in ancient and modern times, China and foreign countries, the superior puts a heavy burden on the lower, and the subordinate reports rumors behind his back. Whenever Liu Cheng laboriously prepared the flags for communication between the chariots during the camp, the other soldiers happily fabricated all kinds of rumors about Liu Cheng around the campfire.

"Your Excellency!"

Liu Cheng raised his head and saw that it was Du Ruhu at the entrance of the tent, so he hurriedly got up and beckoned the other party to come in: "It's Brother Du, come in, come in, it's warm inside!" As a hundred households, Liu Cheng owns a cowhide tent, which is a big benefit in the cold winter.

"Thank you!" Du Ruhu got into the tent and saw Liu Cheng writing something on white paper with carbon strips in the dim candlelight, and asked casually, "What are you busy with?" ”

"Oh, I want to design a set of flags, red and white during the day, and torches and horns at night, to command the troops on the battlefield." Liu Cheng casually explained that he organized his army into five units with big carts as the core, and then compiled the twenty-five commonly used commands into banners, which was just a piece of cake for him who had taken signal processing in college.

"Hey!" After listening to Liu Cheng's story, Du Ruhu thought for a long time: "I heard that Qi Shaobao not only used soldiers like a god, but also had ingenious ideas, which no one could match, and I still didn't believe it, but now it seems that I am a frog at the bottom of the well." ”

"Brother Du thinks this method is feasible?" Before the popularization of walkie-talkies, due to the noisy sound on the construction site, accidents were prone to occur, so there was a simple flag system to transmit signals, but I don't know if it is suitable in the chaotic battlefield.

"Feasible!" Du Ruhu nodded: "Actually, there has been a flag and a trumpet commander for a long time, but it is not as clear as your expression, and even the formation change and speed can be clearly explained, which is not much different from speaking in person." ”

"Wouldn't that be too complicated for you to remember?" Liu Cheng remembers the astonishing illiteracy rate of his soldiers

"Hmph, if you can't remember, you will serve with a military stick, and you will remember it after a few more fights! Anyway, as long as the leader of the fruit team remembers! Du Ruhu sneered: "My lord, as the saying goes, mercy is not in charge of soldiers, if you want to take this road, you still have to be hard-hearted." ”

Liu Cheng smiled bitterly twice with some embarrassment: "The soldiers have worked hard these days, so they must not be very good at talking behind their backs, right?" “

"That's natural, you have to dig and fill the pit during the day, you are so tired that you stink to death, others can lie down and rest at night, they have to wait for the livestock, but it's nothing, since ancient times, there has been no soldier who doesn't scold the general behind his back! Fight a victory, and people's hearts will change! “

"Can you win?"

"I don't know, but this cart is a good idea. These recruits who have never seen blood are not able to fight at all, and they can hide in the women's wall

Throw rocks and firearms in the back, and with these carts, you can have a barrier so that you don't crash at the touch of a button. ”

Looking at Du Ruhu's iron-like face, Liu Cheng suddenly remembered that his hometown was Yan'an, and he wanted to say a few words of comfort. A biting cold wind came in, and as soon as he entered the tent, he rubbed his face vigorously, and the ice cubes on his hair and beard cracked crisply.

"Damn, the north wind of this dog day is going to freeze the eggs!"

"Come and have a fire and something to warm up." Liu Cheng gave up the position next to the brazier, and used iron chopsticks to pick up the brazier twice, and took out a few roasted taro, which was the supper he prepared for himself.

"Hmm!" He sat down by the brazier, picked up the taro and didn't care about the hot hands, opened the skin and swallowed it in two bites, and he exuded a strong horse-like smell by the fire. Liu Cheng poured him a glass of water with a smile, and threw a few raw taro into the brazier and buried them with charcoal.

"It's a pleasure!" Totobuhua ate four taro in a row, and drank another glass of water before stopping, he rubbed his hands: "I met the outpost of the thief, just a dozen miles away, killed two people, and caught one alive." “

"So fast?" Liu Cheng was stunned: "Didn't you say that there are still two days to go from Yan'an?" ”

"I just asked on the way, and the thieves went south without attacking Yan'an City, saying that they were going to defeat Guanzhong and eat white flour buns!" As he spoke, he reached for the charcoal in the brazier to find out if there was any ripe taro missing, his hands were calloused, and he didn't care about the reddened charcoal.

"Send someone up, this is important news!" Liu Cheng stood up: "Do you want the soldiers to prepare?" ”

"The captives have to be sent, but there is no need to tell the people below." Du Ruhu rubbed his hands: "It's time now, it's going to be dawn when the thieves come over, we are all new recruits here, let them know but disturb each other, maybe there are still people who escape from the camp at night, but it's not good." ”