This is a strange city put together on six sides, each side is thirty zhang wide, and each of the six sides has a corner tower sticking out of the city. 1 - The wall is two feet and five feet high, and the corner tower is four feet high. There is a six-sided tower built in the city, the face is ten zhang wide, and the height is eight zhang. The outside of the city is surrounded by a ditch, two zhang deep and three zhang wide. In terms of Chinese regulations, this is not a city, but a military fortress, which is named "Juyanbao" in the establishment of the Anxi Governor's Office.

At the beginning of the day, the morning light did not appear, Cao Zhan came out of the podium of the hexagonal tower in the fort, the early morning in the northwest September was already three points cold, he shrunk his neck, and then kicked the high riding boots, exhaled the mist, and completely dispelled the sleepiness. Tidy up the red clothes, the military hat, make sure that the short guns, sabers, and kettles on your waist have been hung up, and raise your legs and walk towards the corner tower in front.

A group of red-clothed men trotted past Cao Zhan, carrying bayonet spears and shouting the slogan of one-two-one. The non-commissioned officer at the end of the team carried a bright red flag, and the golden Taiji twin dragon on the flag was eye-catching.

"Still can't compare to the ...... of the flag-raising team"

Cao Zhan thought dejectedly, he still thought that he was the first to get up during the day shift.

"Captain Cao!"

The night guard at the stairs of the corner tower raised his gun and saluted, Cao Zhan raised his arm to salute, and then raised the city patrol token. As a battalion staff officer of the 83rd Battalion of the 6th Praetorian Division, patrolling the city defense is a daily routine.

When Cao Zhan climbed the corner tower and looked at the railing, the wake-up horn sounded, and then the trumpet beat together with the drum beat sent the golden dragon flag to the flagpole.

With military affairs in his body, Cao Zhan did not have to salute the Golden Dragon Banner like other officers and soldiers. He looked north, and the endless Gobi extended his gaze to the sky, and the sparkling waves in the northwest and northeast were like a pair of wings, holding up the wilderness to the north.

"When will we be able to continue north?"

Cao Zhan was guilty of the usual muttering, and he also did the usual military affairs. Whether there is any suspicious enemy situation, whether the sentries are doing their duty, whether the spare supplies are in good condition, whether there are any problems with the artillery on the corner tower, and even whether there are new cracks in the walls of the city wall and the corner tower that have not been marked. As a marching staff officer, his job was not easy. However, if he wants to be promoted to a staff officer of the regular army who is responsible for transmitting military orders, formulating operational plans, and even assisting in operational command, the qualifications of a two-year marching staff officer are an iron threshold, and Cao Zhan is still half a year away from this threshold.

Turning to the south corner tower, the scenery in the field of vision is very different from the north, the vegetation is flourishing, and it is dyed with a layer of rich colors after autumn, spreading out layer by layer. The wide river swept over the east bank of the military fort and flowed north into the lake, and if you ignore the wasteland of the Gobi to the north, you will think that this is the land of the Central Plains.

The place where he stands, but the border of the Han Dynasty and China. The sparkling waves are the weak water in ancient times, and the Juyan Sea in today's time. The Han family had reclaimed the border here, not only built a city, but also built the Great Wall called Juyansai.

Even though he had been on duty at Juyan Fort for two months, whenever Cao Zhan thought of the location of this military fort, the slight tremor in his heart was still difficult to suppress.

Juyan Fort, standing on the Juyan Sea in the south, was almost rebuilt on the site of Houguan City [1] in the north of the Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, Li Ling was out of the fortress, attacked the Xiongnu in the north, and was besieged by the Xiongnu more than ten miles away in this city, and was captured and surrendered to the enemy.

Now the Anthion-West army has also advanced north to this place, but this fort is not the end of the northward advance, on the contrary, it is just.

The bicycle wants to ask the side, and the subject country lives extends.

Zheng Peng out of Hanse, return to the wild goose into Hu Tian.

The desert is lonely, and the sun sets over the long river.

Xiao Guan waited to ride, and he was all protected by Yan Ran.

Cao Zhan was full of emotion, and Wang Wei's side poems were stirring in his heart.

When I was pondering the rhyme, another person came behind him, yawned and said: "There are some advantages to the cracking of the bottom wall of the Nanyi corner building, if it is bombarded by more than four catties of artillery, I am afraid that it will collapse." After all, cement is not as good as stone, and it would be nice if iron bones could be used like building buildings in the mainland. ”…,

Cao Zhan answered: "Don't you just want to be fast, you will build a city here in half a year, and it is too late to use bricks and stones." As for the iron bones, a pound of iron bones is transported here, and it is estimated that you can buy 100 catties of iron bones in the mainland. ”

The person who came was another marching staff officer from the battalion department, who was sick on his behalf, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and was more bookish than Cao Zhan. This name was changed after entering the northwest, and in the past two years in the Anxi army, it has been popular to change the name of a certain Guang and a certain hussar and a certain Anxi to go to the sick.

It was the night shift that went to the sick duty, just waiting for Cao Zhan to hand over, he muttered: "This is not a trivial matter, we have to let Commander Yang pay more attention, don't be a Mongol without artillery." ”

Cao Zhan didn't care too much: "There are twenty catties of artillery in the city, but I am not afraid that the Mongols will drag artillery to bombard the city." The commander shouldn't be concerned about this matter, he is busy fighting with the division to ask for winter clothes, let's just write it in the camp newspaper. ”

I didn't insist on going to the disease, which is also the disadvantage of the cement wall, the mainland has an iron backbone as the bottom, which can ensure the firmness, but there is no such condition here, so it can only be made of wood. He sighed: "King Guiyan is also fighting with the military administration for this matter, and the military administration is afraid that it will be arguing with the governor's mansion again." In ancient times, there were swords and pens, and now there are rouge clothes, and those scholars are happy in Lanzhou, two thousand miles away, how do they know that north of Hanhai, it will freeze in October. ”

The so-called rouge clothes are talking about the people in charge of supplies in the army, even if they are also red, they are good at dialing abacus, and they must be compared, and they are regarded as women by front-line officers and soldiers, and are called "rouge clothes".

Cao Zhan said: "Longxiang is in Suzhou, but the General Transfer Office of the Governor's Mansion is in Lanzhou, which is too far away and difficult to take care of. ”

Indeed, the Anxi Army's front was stretched too far, from Lanzhou to Suzhou, from Suzhou to Guazhou to the west, and to Juyan in the north, both routes were more than 2,000 miles each, and the operation of the divisions, armies, and combat units, command, and logistics organs such as the Governor's Office and the Transit Bureau was very troublesome.

This is the usual sigh of the Anxi army, and when he was sick, he shrugged his shoulders and went back to the barracks to sleep, and said as he walked: "Isn't it Long Xiang's decision?" I don't know who was dragged to death first between us and the Mongols. The Mongols are really calm, and for more than two years, they haven't gathered a large army to fight us, and our red clothes are going to be washed peach......"

"Long Xiang" is talking about Zhang Hanwan, and it is he who suggested that the northwest should be steadily advanced to promote change under pressure, and this policy is quite controversial at the grassroots level of the Anxi army. The emperor agreed to Zhang Hanwan's plan, built a road and built a city, on the road of Beiting, relying on the three military forts of Shaoma, Dongwan and Juyan to the north, until it reached the waist and abdomen of Wusu Yalitai.

Under such a combat policy, in addition to the dragoons and the Qinghai and Shuote Mongol cavalry, the various units of the Anxi army were not so much armies as military households guarding the road.

Originally, everyone could accept this policy, and such a barrier was built to advance, which was the living space of the Chiguoguo Land to oppress the Mongol tribes in Mobei. Every time a section of road is repaired, every time a military fort is erected, the rope around the neck of Mobei Mongolia must be tightened by an inch. Rabbits have to resist, let alone people.

What was the core of the Battle for the Northwest? Let the Mongols gather all their strength and face the red clothes head-on. Therefore, as long as the Mongols were forced to send troops to seize the fort and cut off the road, victory would be within reach. If the Mongols retreated, it would be better to build roads and fortresses all the way to the North Sea.

As soon as this policy was implemented, the Turkhut [2], Heshute Mongolia (Alxa Erlut Banner), and the Wusu Yalitai Sanyin Noyan were the direct "victims". Yinghua had also tried to solve the problem politically before, but the ministries were unwilling to follow the example of Qinghai and Shuote and submit to the Yinghua New Deal, so there was only one typing, and the difference was only in the morning and evening.

But even though the situation was so grim, the various ministries still failed to reach an agreement, and under the containment of the Dzungars, as well as the attack of the dragoons and the Qinghai and Shuote Mongols, Mobei Mongolia was never able to pull out a united army. Even when the Anxi army entered Juyanhai like a gamble and did not hesitate to build Juyanbao, the Mongols in Mobei still did not move, which made the grassroots officers and soldiers of the Anxi army very depressed. …,

For more than two years, more than two years, the Anxi army has been stuck on the side of the road and in the military fort that is constantly advancing northward, and has not fought a major battle. The current situation is just as Dai Quai's said, in order to maintain this northern road, the Anxi army not only spent most of the military spending, but also used the two most elite divisions to protect the road and defend the fort. The Mongol tribes were also sitting on pins and needles because of this fortress line, and the dragoons and the Qinghai and Shuote tribes relied on this line to constantly encroach on the tribesmen, and the two sides were almost at odds with each other. The Anxi army consumed money, food, and time, while the Mongols consumed flesh and blood and patience.

Cao Zhan still wanted to make some witty words, but the poignant military horn sounded in the north, and Juyanbao was strangely silent for a moment at first, and then it was boiling. Just like Cao Zhan and Dai Quai, they hurriedly ran towards the corner tower of the northern city wall, and the blood in their bodies was bubbling and tumbling.

Rushing to the north corner tower, he saw the commander of the 83rd Battalion of the Army Guard, and Yang Jiyuan held the binoculars and laughed while observing.

"The Mongols are coming......"

On September 17, the 14th year of the Holy Dao, the war clouds in the northwest rolled, looking down from mid-air, and the smoke and dust rolled on both sides of the northeast, rolling like a storm towards the northernmost point of the territory actually controlled by Yinghua, Juyanbao.

"The Mongols are about three thousand forwards, and they are thirty miles away!"

"The captives confessed that there were more than 40,000 enemies who came to attack, and they were the combined forces of the Heshute Division, the Turghut Division, the Sanyin Noyan Division, and the Zasaktu Khan Division."

"There are quite a few four-wheeled heavy artillery vehicles in the army, and the number of old guns over 1,000 catties ranges from 30 to 50."

The sentry cavalry returned to the city to report the news, whether it was the strength or artillery, the numbers made Cao Zhan, who had just arrived, tremble, 40,000 people! Thirty or fifty cannons!

Counting the soldiers and civilians, Juyan Fort was only 2,000 people, and although there were four 20-pound guns, the total number of artillery pieces did not exceed 20.

On the corner tower, the faces of the others also changed, and like Yang Jiyuan, they gasped.

After gasping for a while, everyone burst out laughing, this was a hearty laugh, Cao Zhan was also laughing, and the other side of his heart trembling was this.

I've been waiting for two years, but I'm waiting for the Mongols!

The strength of the troops is one to twenty, the artillery is one to two, and the difference in strength is so great, but everyone doesn't care, and they are excited about one thing. The Mongols are pouring out of the nest! Defeat them here, Mobei is determined! And their eighty-three battalions will grab this immortal achievement!

"Pegasus urgently report to King Gui Yan of Dongwan Castle! With that guy's virtue, he will definitely suggest that Zhang Shuai use us as nails and absorb the Mongolian army! So...... Most of the reinforcements will come late, but as soon as they come, all the divisions and battalions that can fight in Anxi. ”

Yang Jiyuan shouted to his subordinates, unscrupulously exposing the fact that his boss wanted to treat them as victims. But this is already the common knowledge of the Sixth Division of the Praetorian Guard, and Gui Zhen, the commander of the division, is such a king of Hades, and in order to win, the lives of the enemy and his subordinates are treated equally.

"Defend Fort Juyan, this battle will be won!"

Almost all the officers of the battalion department were already present, and Yang Jiyuan's mobilization was simple and direct.

"Fight to the death! Fight to the death! ”

The officers echoed loudly, and the soldiers also responded, and the entire Fort Juyan was suddenly enveloped in a layer of high-spirited and festive battle spirit.

"First of all, we have to mobilize reinforcements, and then we have to travel thousands of miles to come, at least two months, it doesn't seem to be a simple matter."

Cao Zhan shouted while calculating.

From Suzhou (Jiuquan) to Juyan, the distance is more than 1,000 miles, mostly the Gobi, and the Ejina River runs through, which is not difficult to walk. But the road was barren and inhabited, the grass and trees were barren, and the army had to carry more heavy grain and grass to march, and the speed was much slower. If Zhang Hanwan, the governor of Anxi, was strong enough to trust Juyan Fort, he would gather as many troops as possible and would not rush to help. Two months is an optimistic estimate, and you have to be prepared to stick to it for three months.

Three months, will you die here? I'm going to have a crown ceremony next year, and I can marry my cousin after the crown ceremony, and I'm really going to die, so I'm reluctant.

More than ten miles away, the dust raised by the Mongol vanguard was already clearly visible, and the battle was about to start, Cao Zhan suddenly became nervous, and such a thought swayed in his mind.

But I didn't even get promoted to the staff officer of the army, just a marching staff officer who did chores, and I went to marry my cousin like this, whether she looked down on me or not, I looked down on myself.

The comrades-in-arms hurriedly and uncluttered preparations for battle, the shouts and cheers came one after another, the trumpeters and drummers of the military ceremonial supervisor began to audition, and the trivial sections of the piles converged, making Juyan Fort like a hard bow that was stretched inch by inch. This feeling was like fireworks, burning Cao Zhan's chest, he clenched his fist, the distracting thoughts disappeared, and there was only a breath of heart left.

Fight to the death!

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