Ge Congzhou suggested on the side: "Your Highness, the last general thinks that the troubled times should be punished heavily!" Ke Ling let the rest of the soldiers go down to act as stormtroopers, and in order to prevent them from escaping, he was stabbed in the face. And once you escape, you should blame your family and sit with the team! This will certainly make the soldiers not afraid of battle. ”

Li Cunhuan was stunned when he heard this, he couldn't help but think of the things about the Song Dynasty in later generations, that is, the soldiers of the Song Dynasty all tattooed words on their foreheads. So the soldiers of the Song Dynasty have another name, thieves with troops. The low morale and lowly army made the Song Dynasty a humiliating record.

Li Cunhuan shook his head firmly and said: "Soldiers can't drive money, torture, and fight in battle, so the army will either become an unruly army, or an army that is unwilling to fight to the death." Of course! Nor can it be driven by money. An army should have his faith, either, in order to protect the homeland. Either for the sake of peace in the world. Either for the sake of the commander-in-chief, or for the sake of honor! You can't fight for riches! ”

When Ge Congzhou heard this, he frowned and asked, "Then Your Highness, what should you do with the remaining more than 150 people?" The last general thinks that not killing him is not enough to settle the army's heart and settle the general's grievances. ”

Ge Congzhou's words are not wrong, don't look at the intercession, in fact, many generals in the army are extremely disgusted with these more than 150 soldiers. The commander has already personally killed and led by example, while he himself is afraid of the enemy. In the future, if you are the commander of this army, and you encounter danger, won't there be anyone to save you? That's it, it will drag down your own team. A soldier is a soldier who licks the tip of a knife and lives, fights between life and death, and makes meritorious contributions. How can such a war-feared soldier be liked by an ambitious officer?

Zhou Dewei hesitated for a moment and said, "Your Highness, you have already been deterred by torture, it's enough!" ”

Although Zhou Dewei was against it, his tone was not very firm.

"Dexiang, what is your opinion?" Li Cunhuan turned his head sideways and asked Fu Cun.

"Your Highness is in charge!" Fu Cunxian lowered his head, he didn't know what he was thinking, and he looked submissive to Li Cunhuan's questioning.

Li Cunhuan frowned, but when he thought of something, he quickly relaxed. After a moment of silence, he bowed his head and said, "If the army has always relied on torture to maintain his combat effectiveness, then it is the saddest thing! ”

When Li Cunhuan said this, he paused and said, "Someone! Commanded to go down, thirty sticks per man! After the battle, ask their opinion that the next battle must be a siege battle, and if they are willing to wash away their shame, then they will be chosen as the first to die. If you don't want to, you will tattoo the word on your forehead, and you will be assigned to work in the Liaodong mine for three years, and then you will be demoted to a pariah! ”

"Your Highness is wise!" Zhou Dewei and others said in unison.

The soldiers who have seen today's events are not in a calm mood, because there is one more military rule from now on. Fear the enemy and not the former, and the commander fights to the death and does not former, and implements tithes and kills. The surviving soldiers are also beginning to face two choices: risk death to wash away their shame, or live in humiliation. Untouchables, this is one more free people than slaves. They have not been officials for three generations, and they have no social welfare to do so, so they can only live in a humble manner.

"Your Highness, there are a total of forty-three people who are willing to become the first to die." Zhu Jilong walked up to Li Cunhuan and reported.

Li Cunhuan frowned and said, "Since the rest of the people are like this, let's do it!" No matter what relatives they have, they will always follow the rules for me! If someone intercedes for these thieves, they will all be fined for half a month! ”

When Zhu Jilong heard this, he knew that Li Cunhuan's determination had been made.

Li Cunhuan led the army forward, followed Daishui all the way west, and went to Fanzhi County, but was not blocked. From the mouths of the local people who had not had time to flee, Li Cunhuan learned that yesterday Li Siyuan had led the soldiers and horses of Fanzhi County to retreat to Dongcheng Pass.

Zhou Dewei immediately put forward his opinion: "Your Highness, you should take a rest in Fanzhi County, otherwise it will be easy for Li Siyuan to take advantage of it." ”

Li Cunhuan thought about it, after all, he only had 6,000 troops on hand now, and other soldiers and horses were following behind. Li Cunhuan ordered to rest in Fanzhi County. After a day's rest, he had gathered an army of 30,000, of which 20,000 were Youyan [***], and the other 10,000 were Ge Congzhou's Yuan Congjun.

Seeing that a lot of soldiers and horses had been assembled, Li Cunhuan ordered Zhou Dewei to wait for the follow-up soldiers and horses in Fanzhi County. And he led an army of 30,000 to press up. After Fanzhi County, it is Dongcheng Pass.

晉關 (xing), as its name suggests. 陉: The break of the mountain.

The east pass is bordered by cliffs in the south, and the torrent is used to replace water in the north. From a distance, the mountain that looks like a giant dragon lying on its stomach is cut off from the middle, and the north side of the water is a cliff, and the narrow plain on the south side is the East Pass. In this section of the water, the current is very turbulent, and countless small whirlpools emerge on the surface, and the waves that crash on the cliff from time to time can splash up to two meters. Anyone who tries to get through here can't help but retreat.

"Xiongguan!" Li Cunhuan frowned and muttered.

"At the beginning, Guo Ziyi's crusade against An Lushan could not overcome the Dongcheng Pass, and in the end he had to take a long detour, turn a corner, and capture Mayi and Yunzhong, and then he was forced to land at this pass." Fu Cunxian came to Li Cunhuan's side, looked at Dongchengguan and sighed.

"It is said that there is also Yanmen Pass in Daizhou, the head of the nine border passes, won't you have to pass through here?" Li Cunhuan asked with a smile. As if he didn't care about the dangers of Dongcheng Pass.

Fu Cunxian shook his head and said, "This is not necessary, if you go to the middle of the clouds, you will have to pass through the Yanmen Pass." Walking on behalf of water can avoid Yanmen Pass. But there is no shortage of Xiongguan along the way to Jin. From Daizhou to Xinzhou, there is Jiancheng Tanglin, and there are three or four from Xinzhou to Taiyuan Mansion, and it is not easy to walk all the way. ”

Li Cunhuan couldn't help frowning, for Jiancheng, that was the most disgusting existence for any commander who was an attacker. All because a strong city and pass can hold off an attacking army for a year and a half, or even longer. During the Warring States Period, Qin's Hangu Pass blocked the attacks of the Six Kingdoms of Shandong for hundreds of years. Let the six states of Shandong realize the rise of Qin, and they have no ability to stop it.

"Something needs to be broken!" Li Cunhuan raised his eyebrows and said, "Set up camp!" Order to assemble siege weapons! This attack also made Wang Maozhang come to the manager! ”

"No!" The generals responded in unison.

After receiving Li Cunhuan's order, Wang Maozhang began to arrange everything, and it was not simple to assemble siege weapons, such as trebuchets, and with enough people, it would take three days to assemble a large trebuchet.

On the surface, the situation in Dongcheng Pass during this period was very calm, exactly the same as before Li Cunhuan came, and the gate was closed. The last thing that is lacking is the patrol of soldiers, and it can be seen from here that the Dongcheng Pass is not as calm as it seems.

Soon, thirty huge trebuchets were erected outside the Dongcheng Pass, and the huge pole arms pointed diagonally to the sky. From the flat ground to the top of the pole arm, it is more than four feet high, about thirteen meters.

But this is not the highest, the highest is the siege tower, although there are only three, but it is seven zhang high, which is one zhang higher than the Dongcheng Pass. The siege tower can be divided into two parts, with a ballista placed at the top, and can house ten crossbowmen, and the second level is used by the landing soldiers. There is a two-foot pedal with a steel hook at the top. Even if two strong men take turns to destroy it with a tomahawk, it will take at least a quarter of an hour. The question is that in the heat of battle, where is there time to break the hook?

When dawn breaks and the sun casts on the earth, the war has begun. The trebuchet made a tooth-aching sound to the sound of the rumbling drums, and the pole arm that had been pointing straight to the sky had been pressed down and lifted to the end where the huge rock was hanging.

"Get on the cannonballs! One hundred and twenty pounds! A shout sounded, and the boulders with new and new polishing marks were lifted onto the projectile belt at the front end of the pole arm by the strong men.

"Ready! The right eleventh degree angle, the target corner tower! Put! When the sound of the words was spit out, it was followed by a palpitating whistling sound, and the entire trebuchet of tens of thousands of catties couldn't help but shake violently, driving the earth to launch an earth-shattering shaking.

"Boom!" However, all this shuddering and shaky sky shaking was obscured by the dazzling performance of the stone bullet. I saw a loud noise from the entire corner tower in the distance, and the boulder jumped from the top of the corner tower like a pass, splashing countless broken bluestone bricks and dust. When the dust cleared, the entire top of the turret was cut by nearly half, and the remnants of the turret were in shambles, with the crumbling masonry suggesting that it was some ruin, or some quarry.

But this was only the beginning, and the other trebuchets began to throw shortly after, but it has to be said that the accuracy of the trebuchets was so speechless that they could turn dumb. Thirty earth-shattering boulders were issued, and in the end, only seven of them were shot at the city walls, corner towers and other facilities in the eastern part of the city. Four of them were submerged in the city of Dongcheng Pass, and I don't know how much damage was caused.

The rest either fell in the wilderness outside the city wall, or fell in the cliff on the side of the East Chengguan Pass, or they fell into the water of Daishui, and there were waves as high as ten zhang.

"Huh!" Li Cunhuan showed a hint of surprise, he specially chose to attack in the early morning, when people are most likely to be confused. And actually after meeting the first round of attack. Dongcheng Pass quickly made a defense, and long bamboo poles scraped thick curtains and stretched out.

"Interesting!" Li Cunhuan said with a smile, "Let's find out, who is the other party, isn't the reaction slow!" ”

"Yes!" Zhu Jilong hurriedly responded.

Ge Congzhou only wore a robe, walked to Li Cunhuan's side, and asked in some surprise: "Your Highness doesn't seem to be worried?" The old man saw that this person was not chaotic in guarding the rules and regulations of the city, and his reaction was not slow. I'm afraid it's not so easy to beat down! ”

"Ge Gong underestimated Wang Maozhang too much! Although Wang Maozhang is not famous in the past, this person's ability is not my praise, and he is indeed a rare famous general in the world. Li Cunhuan laughed on the side and praised.

When Ge Congzhou heard this, he showed an interested expression, and turned his head sideways to Fu Cunxian, who came up behind him, and smiled: "Brother Dexiang, it seems that it is not easy to earn meritorious service in this battle!" There is such a great competitor! ”

Fu Cunxun raised his eyebrows, and said coldly: "General Ge inevitably underestimated me too much, right?" I don't dare to say anything else about this battle! The only ones who can compete with me are His Royal Highness and Zhou Dewei's black charcoal head! Wang Maozhang, it's still tender! ”

Li Cunhuan and Ge Congzhou laughed when they heard this, and Li Cunhuan laughed: "Dexiang, you are too old-fashioned, right?" You don't seem to be a few years older than Wang Maozhang! ”

Ge Congzhou didn't care about Fu Cunxian's words that he looked down on him a little just now, he stroked his long beard with a smile and said with a smile: "Interesting! Interesting! So in front of His Highness, how about we bet! Look at the battle of the Western Expedition to Hedong, who got the most merits! ”

Li Cunhuan smiled when he heard this: "Okay, I will also make a lottery this time!" Who has the highest merit in this battle! I named him the envoy of the Hedong Festival! Plus the county marquis! ”

Unlike other places, Li Cunhuan is very strict in the management of the title, and it is not like other places, where a small regimental training envoy is no longer either a marquis or an earl. Even if it is Fu Cunxian, he is just a Kaicheng Bo now.

When Ge Congzhou and Fu Cunzhen heard this, they couldn't help but think about it. Although under Li Cunhuan's strict separation of powers, the Jiedu envoy is no longer a figure who is single-handed by the military and the government and covers the sky with one hand. But in a town, the Jiedu envoy is still the undoubted leader, with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands. Not to mention that Hedong Domain is one of the best towns in the world, with more than 100,000 soldiers and horses.

Suddenly, a whistling sound sounded, and Li Cunhuan said with a smile: "I'm afraid Wang Maozhang is going to take the lead!" ”

Ge Congzhou and Fu Cunzhen were often stunned, but immediately understood, only to see clusters of flames passing through the sky like meteors, bringing out a long and scorching brilliance. Crashing into the thick curtain, there was an exclamation on the city wall, and the fireball hit the curtain, and the oil splashed everywhere, occupying the curtain, and ignited wildly.

"It's a fire bomb!" Fu Cunxian exclaimed.

"This ...... What is it? Ge Congzhou asked in surprise.

Fu Cunxian glanced at Li Cunhuan, and when he saw Li Cunhuan nodding, he said: "This is a special cannonball, which is held in brittle ceramics and contains fierce fire oil collected and refined from Liaodong. Mixed with sulfur, charcoal, cotton and other combustibles. The surface is then coated with fire oil and lard, and wrapped in linen cloth, straw rope and other materials. When lit, it can burn endlessly. ”

Ge Congzhou raised his head and saw that this was indeed the case, and the curtains were burning. You know, the curtains are lightly smeared with sand and gravel. It's not that it can't be burned, but it's not that easy to burn.

Ge Congzhou couldn't help but sigh: "If there are enough fire bombs, wouldn't it be able to plunge a place into a sea of fire?" Isn't that invincible! Invincible? ”

When Fu Cunzhen heard this, he smiled bitterly and said: "So to speak, but the problem is that these fire bombs are not easy to refine, and the entire Liaodong only produces about fifty fire bombs every month, and these fire bombs are to provide the entire Lu Long. It is used for defense and siege of cities. And according to what General Ge Lao said, the Dongcheng Pass in front of him is going to let Liaodong do its best, and use five or six years of output, which is enough to burn the city. ”

Ge Congzhou opened his mouth, and finally showed a wry smile. If you only rely on fire bombs to attack the city, I am afraid that Hedong alone will need to accumulate at least thirty or forty years before you can be sure of capturing Hedong. But is it possible?

............ "Attack!" Wang Maozhang roared. Immediately, the drums of war sounded.

"Wan Sheng! Wansheng! The Youyan [***] soldier violently tapped his weapon and roared loudly.

Three thousand longbowmen and one thousand giant shield soldiers rushed out, and the longbowmen continued to shoot at the east pass under the cover of the giant shield soldiers. They did not seek to shoot the enemy, all the arrows were mainly to cover the surname, and the speed of the longbowmen reached the very top, each soldier threw twelve arrows in a minute, and the army of three thousand was thrown in three teams. The soldiers on the Dongcheng Pass were under the rain of arrows almost every second.

The closed crossbowmen were severely suppressed, and they could only glance at them quickly and strike back with their senses. But the effect of the counterattack in this case can be imagined. Often, the arrow either misses or shoots in the wrong direction. However, the longbowmen did not pay a price, and their high-intensity shooting could not last long.

Five thousand crossbowmen quickly crossed the longbowmen, and they formed in front of the longbowmen, because they did not suppress them, they occupied the place very calmly.

"Stop!" In just three minutes, the thunderstorm of the longbowmen finally stopped. However, during the three-minute attack, everyone in the longbowmen was out of breath, their arms falling involuntarily, and trembling slightly.

"Brother! Thank you very much! The follow-up crossbowmen stepped up and said to the longbowmen.

The longbowman nodded, but did not reply, as if he had picked up the pulley longbow with all his might, slung it on his shoulder, and left. Although at this moment the three thousand longbowmen lost their combat effectiveness. But Wang Maozhang achieved his goal. He set up a position of 7,000 crossbowmen and calmly advanced to the vicinity of the city walls. The siege towers, ladders, and siege vehicles in the rear also slowly pressed up...... And the current siege commander Wang Maozhang rode a horse to the first dead soldiers, these people are willing to serve, because the first dead soldiers have the highest meritorious service, and at the same time, the pension is the highest under normal circumstances.

Wang Maozhang grabbed the reins of his horse and glanced at all the first dead soldiers. Wang Maozhang looked at everyone seriously, and a voice full of magnetic surnames sounded: "Everyone, some of you entered the first death because of that fearing the enemy. This is not only a shame for you, but also a shame for all the soldiers of Youyan [***]! It's my Wang Maozhang's shame! ”

Speaking of this, Wang Maozhang paused, and his sharp eyes made some of the first dead soldiers involuntarily lower their heads.

"Do you know what other people say about us right Yan [***]? An army of cowards. Some people call us the Earth Dog Army! What is a soil dog called? When you see a weak one, you go up frantically, but once you meet a strong one, you cowardly run away. Earth Dogs! This is the earth dog! And me! Wang Maozhang roared angrily, the horsewhip pointed at himself, "The commander of the earth dog!" What is it? Dirt Dog King? ”

Wang Maozhang waved the whip in the void as if venting his anger, and let out a sharp whistling sound. "This is a shame that can only be washed away with blood! I'll lead you on the charge myself! Win or ...... Death!!! ”

"I want the world to see it! What does it mean to go down in World War I!! Wang Maozhang's last words were like a meteorite falling down, falling heavily on everyone's hearts, and there was a loud bang!

(To be continued)