A day later, on the plain outside the city of Weixian for more than ten miles, the barbarians of the Sui army and the Wubai tribe had already set up camp respectively, and the camps between the two armies were separated by seven or eight miles, and there were scouts of the two armies riding short-legged southwest horses to inquire back and forth, and from time to time the scout cavalry on both sides would shoot each other with bows and arrows, and the riders of the Sui army obviously had the upper hand, repeatedly shooting the enemy scouts off their horses, and then rushing up to cut off the heads, hanging them under the neck of their horses, and then leading the enemy's horses, running back proudly with a whistle.

Wang Shichong stood on the watchtower by the fence of the camp, his face sinking like water, looking at the company camp dozens of miles opposite, as well as the provocative actions of the barbarian soldiers in front of the camp.

The army of the Sui Dynasty arrived here early this morning, the fire in August, the summer of Ningzhou is particularly hot, the vanguard of the Sui army of this 10,000 soldiers, this way has suffered a lot, and there are a lot of people who have fallen into a coma due to heat stroke, fortunately, Wang Shichong has been prepared, and he has prepared enough water along the way, and he has used the ice-making method taught by An Suiyu.

Along the way, more than 3,000 elites opened the road in front, 5,000 Shu soldiers followed up to widen the road and cut a road from the dense forest, while the 7,000 main force followed up with a heavy burden in the back, and went out at night, and when it was hot during the day, they found a place in the shade to rest, and buried the ice bucket in the temporary hole in the ground, and at night they hurried to the road, and used ice to cool down the soldiers who suffered from heat stroke in front.

These effective measures minimized the non-combat attrition of the troops, and this time Mai Tie Staff brought more than 100 personal soldiers from Lingnan to escort them, who were familiar with the shape of the miasma and poisonous boils, and taught the soldiers many ways to avoid the miasma in this dense forest. Except for one time, more than 100 Shu soldiers slept in a dense forest where birds and beasts were extinct because of greed. In the early morning, he was hit by the poisonous gas emitted by a nearby evil spring. In addition to most of the poisoning deaths, the accidental non-combat attrition of the southern expedition was probably the lowest in the previous Central Plains army expeditions.

In the past month of fighting, the Sui army was extremely sharp and morale was high, and every time he broke through a barbarian army, Shi Wansui let all the captured women be raped by the sergeants, and all the captured clansmen were also counted as prisoners. The soldiers of each forward battalion were evenly distributed, and as for the gold and livestock of the Liuzhao tribe, half of them were taken out to reward the soldiers of the vanguard troops, and the other half was divided equally among the Shu soldiers who paved the road behind.

This kind of measure greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the forward troops and the troops who opened the road, and the 10,000 troops in Guanzhong rushed to the forward battalion one by one, and the things of making meritorious contributions were too far away, and there were women to play and gold points, which were real benefits in front of them, for the sake of these. The soldiers all maintain the hunger and thirst and combat effectiveness of wild beasts, all the barbarians who stand in the way of their own wealth and achievements. All the killings are buried, and Shi Wansui is just right to rotate the forward battalion once every three days, which also allows everyone in Guanzhong to have a share of meritorious service and fortune, as for grabbing more and grabbing less, it depends on their own ability.

Wang Shichong followed Shi Wansui this time, only to know what Lu Dao was called a famous general, compared with the troops that could be regarded as a benevolent and righteous division when the imperial court conquered Jiangnan and Lingnan in the previous few times, Shi Wansui was ruthless and poisonous in his use of soldiers, but he was not as ruthless to his own people as Yang Su, and he did not use merit, but generously gave his subordinates all kinds of benefits, but he recorded the gold in everyone's name and handed it over to the rear army for unified safekeeping.

This puts an end to the idea that some soldiers don't want to contribute after taking the money, and want to save their lives and get the money, only when they keep advancing, fighting, and returning triumphantly after the last day, the money will be given to each soldier, as for now, it just looks good.

In this outer land of Ningzhou, Shi Wansui drove the soldiers with the most primitive desires, making them burst out with 120% combat effectiveness, even those thin and short Shu soldiers, all of them were like mountain tigers, vigorous and brave, compared to the appearance of one step and three stops grinding foreign workers when they first set out on the expedition, they were much stronger.

When Wang Shichong first saw Shi Wansui's use of soldiers, he also persuaded him to practice benevolence and righteousness, but Shi Wansui coldly said, "For the generals, protect the lives of their soldiers, and winning the war is the greatest benevolence and righteousness, as for the rebels, this is the price they have to pay!" "To the top, Wang Shichong was originally worried that Shi Wansui's action would give Wan Zhiguang a pigtail, but along the way, he fed Wan Zhiguang quite well, and there were more than a dozen catties of gold before and after, which was enough to make his eyes shine with gold.

The supply points along the way, Shi Wansui is left to guard the Shu soldiers, every thirty or fifty miles of spring water left more than a thousand Shu soldiers to build a fortress to guard, the wounded and sick in front will be transported to the rear supply station, and those soldiers who really can't stand up are transported back by cart, their expressions are as painful as the death of Lao Tzu Niang, and they are deeply annoyed that they missed this good opportunity to make a fortune.

In a month, from the Dadu River and the Dragonfly River, it has been more than 700 miles deep into the wilderness, dozens of battles of all sizes, and hundreds of tribes such as the Six Zhao who defended the danger were broken, 3,000 were beheaded, and 30,000 or 40,000 people were captured, which was already a big victory, but these previous victories were really not worth mentioning compared to the elimination of the more than 100,000 white barbarians and black barbarian alliances on the opposite side.

To be honest, Wang Shichong was also a little taken aback when he saw the opponent's formation just today, he didn't expect that these barbarians would be able to make up so many troops in addition to repeated defeats, and the troops in the large camp in front of the enemy army looked obviously different from the white barbarian troops encountered on this road, almost unclothed, muscular, and covered with tattoos, revealing a primitive bloody nature and fierceness.

A loud voice came from Wang Shichong's feet: "General Wang, Shi Dashuai has been promoted to discuss the matter, please go over now." ”

Wang Shichong looked down and saw that it was Zhang Xutuo, along the way, this person was an alternative, with a team of three hundred people, lightly armed with sharp blades, leather armor for self-defense, specializing in the grass and woods on both sides of the army to search for enemy ambushes, this person has a rough appearance, but his mind is extremely fine, none of the barbarian ambushes can escape his eyes, the barbarians who were killed in frontal combat are actually not many, often collapse at the touch of a button, but there are a lot of people who hide and ambush after escaping, and there are seven or eight hundred people who were captured and killed by this Zhang Xutuo.

And Zhang Xutuo is a thoughtful person, strict in governing the army, and strictly prohibits his subordinates from raping and adulterating those captured barbarian women like other troops, although this makes some people complain about him, but because he has a much higher number of captures than other troops, no one is stupid enough to quit this sweeping army, after all, the lower body is only temporary, and the number of heads is the most direct basis for being promoted and making a fortune when he goes back to discuss his merits.

Wang Shichong jumped down from the high platform, this time he went to Ningzhou, he also abandoned the heavy chain mail along the way, but replaced it with light leather armor, even so, it was sweating like pulp, and he kept needing to drink water to ensure the water in his body, fortunately, this time the whole army brought enough water all the way, and the front sent elite scouts to investigate, just look at this style, there will be a decisive battle tomorrow, and then you still have to wear the damn chain mail, after all, on the battlefield, life is the most important.

Wang Shichong glanced at Zhang Xutuo, who was dressed neatly with fish scale chain mail, and said with a smile: "Zhang Dudu, on such a hot day, you are still wearing so much, aren't you afraid of heat stroke?" ”

Zhang Xutuo replied quietly: "General Wang, I am ready to fight at any time, the strength of our army is better than that of the Southern Barbarians, because the armor is sharp, without this armor, maybe I will shoot the barbarian's blow arrow in the skin in a battle a few days ago, and I will not talk to you here at this time." ”

Wang Shichong nodded, glanced at the barbarian company camp opposite, his heart moved, and asked: "Zhang Dudu, look at the barbarian camp, what is the fighting spirit of these soldiers, you have fought with them many times these days, you should be clear." ”

Zhang Xutuo looked at it carefully and shook his head: "These soldiers are not the barbarians I met recently, their combat effectiveness is much stronger, those white barbarian soldiers have been frightened when they see our army, and they will flee when they see it, but in the eyes of these people, they are full of fighting spirit and high morale, probably because they have not fought with our army." ”

Wang Shichong smiled: "Do you mean that these people are not white barbarians, but barbarian soldiers?" (To be continued......)