Gaojibo is located at the junction of Qinghe County and Xindu County, north of Zaoqiang County, Xindu County, south of Wucheng County, Qinghe County, a radius of hundreds of miles, is a vast swamp land, but in the center of the swamp there are many small islands, the water is complex, muddy everywhere, it is very easy to hide, so it has also become one of the two original rebel base of the bandits at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

As Pei Xingyan said, in winter, due to the drop of the water level, Gaojibo has become a mire, and the ice is very thin and covered with snow, the entire Gaojibo has become a huge trap, and if you are not careful, you will die in the quagmire several feet deep.

But there is a secret passage in the depths of Gaojibo, which is not more than a foot wide, and the bottom is not a mud swamp, but mud, this secret road is difficult to find in spring and summer, not to mention in the winter after being covered with snow, there is a white expanse everywhere, where can there be a trace of the road.

Although difficult to find, this secret passage is very important to Yang Gongqing, and the small amount of grain stored in the high chicken pool is the key to their survival.

The entrance of the secret road is located in the northwest of Gaojibo, in a radius of more than ten miles in the uninhabited wilderness, the general bandits are to take a small boat into Gaojibo, do not take the secret road, the entire Zhang Jincheng army only no more than five people know the details of this secret road.

In the early morning of the next day, more than 14,000 people led by Yang Gongqing appeared in the northwest direction of Gaojibo.

"To find a willow tree, that's the entrance!"

Looking at Gaojibo, which was covered with snow, Yang Gongqing instructed the soldiers to look for willow trees, and more than 1,000 soldiers searched north along the edge of Gaojibo.

Yang Gongqing's heart became more and more anxious, he was dark, and he would have lunch in another hour, and after eating the last lunch, most of the soldiers had no dry food, even if a small number of soldiers left a little. To no avail.

Just then, a soldier came galloping from a distance and shouted, "General, we have found a willow tree five miles away!" ”

Yang Gongqing was overjoyed, hurriedly ordered the soldiers to continue north, and walked a few miles, and sure enough, there was a lonely willow tree in the distance. Yang Gongqing recognized this willow tree at a glance, it was the one at the entrance of the secret passage. But the secret road is not a straight line, he has no impression of how to go specifically, he can only try to move forward step by step, Yang Gongqing shouted: "The third army goes first, and the second army follows!" ”

Yang Gongqing's subordinates were divided into three armies, of which the first army of 5,000 people was his direct army, of course, the last to go, and let the rest of the army go forward.

At this moment, suddenly a soldier pointed to the south and shouted, "General." There is the Sui army! ”

Yang Gongqing was taken aback, looked back, and saw more than a dozen Sui cavalry on a mound ten miles away to the south, looking at them from a distance, Yang Gongqing breathed a sigh of relief, this was just a Sui army scout. It's not a formal army, but when scouts appear, the official army won't be too far away.

He ignored the Sui army scouts and hurriedly shouted: "Leave immediately!" ”

A group of 300 bandits, spears in hand, tested the snow, and began to slowly march towards the porai

More than a dozen Sui scouts appeared in the distance. It was the cavalry scout team led by Shen Guang, a total of more than fifty people, divided into three teams, they were ordered to follow the thief army, at this time Shen Guangyuan's army was preparing to march to Gaojibo, he immediately shouted: "The first fire stays here to continue to monitor, and the rest go back with me!" ”

Five cavalrymen remained. The rest of the cavalry followed Shen Guang and galloped south.

After running for dozens of miles, a Sui army appeared in front, which was a 3,000 army led by Zhang Xuan himself, because the number of troops in the city was as many as 7,000, Zhang Xuan divided his troops into two routes, and Wei Chi Gong and Luo Shixin guarded the city, and he and Pei Xingyan came to look for fighters.

Just last night, they got accurate information from several prisoners of war who were wounded by arrows, Yang Gongqing only brought four days of dry food, which means that they will run out of food today, and Yang Gongqing's eagerness to enter Gaojibo can be understood.

Zhang Xuan put his hand curtain and looked at the north, several cavalry were rushing to this side, the leader was Shen Guang, Zhang Xuan urged the horse to meet him, and after a while, Shen Guang ran to the front, bowed down and saluted: "See the general!" ”

"What is Yang Gongqing's movement now?" Zhang Xuan asked with a smile.

"They are thirty miles away, and they seem to have found the entrance to Gaojibo, and they are trying to move forward a little bit."

"Then let's wait a little longer!"

Zhang Xuan sneered, "Waiting to collect their corpses!" ”

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Time passed little by little, and gradually in the afternoon, the thief army walked like a turtle, and it took most of the day to advance five miles, but to go to the nearest island, there are at least thirty miles, this is still a straight line distance, this secret road in Gaojibo is winding, the actual distance is more than fifty miles, in the case of no food around, it is difficult for them to get to the place of food supply.

Nearly 10,000 people from the two armies had already entered the Gaojibo Secret Road, but at this time, Yang Gongqing stopped the advance of the First Army, and he watched the army gradually move away with complicated eyes, the road inside was extremely complicated, and the method of exploring the road was useless at all.

In fact, he didn't want to enter the secret passage at all.

Seeing that the army had entered Gaojibo, Yang Gongqing waved his hand and ordered: "Turn around and head west, and set off immediately!" ”

Yang Gongqing's heart is like a mirror, according to the progress of this march, he will not want to find the nest in Gaojibo for two days, then they will all be trapped and die in the swamp, from the beginning he did not want to enter Gaojibo, he just wants to keep his five thousand troops, while there are still more than 100 mules and horses in his hand to carry supplies, he may be able to leave from Xindu County, and enter Gaojibo just to get rid of other soldiers.

Yang Gongqing led an army of 5,000 to the west, and soon left Gaojibo.

In the snow of Gaojibo, the three hundred pathfinders led by them were moving forward cautiously little by little, and when they walked into a snowy field, there was a sudden click under their feet! Click! The three hundred thieves were suddenly frightened, and they turned around and ran back desperately.

In the crowd and pushing, many people fell to the ground, the ice under the snow suddenly broke, and all three hundred soldiers fell into the mud, they screamed and struggled desperately, and the mud quickly poured into their mouths, flooding their heads, and in a moment, everyone disappeared.

The soldiers behind were all stunned, in fact they had gone the wrong way, there was only a slightly hard ice under their feet, and their endurance had reached the limit, and as the ice cracked, a chain reaction quickly occurred.

The nightmare of the thieves was far from over, a series of clicking sounds sounded at the feet of the soldiers, and all the soldiers screamed in fright, desperately running back, only to see groups of soldiers fall into the mire, as if the earth was cracked, and the groups of soldiers were quickly swallowed up by the mire.

The 10,000 soldiers were so frightened that they turned around and ran back desperately, and screams and cries continued to be heard from behind, but no one dared to turn back, only to run for their lives, and countless people fell to the ground, or were trampled to death, or swallowed up in mud.

After a long time, the ice beneath their feet finally stopped cracking, and they returned to the hard ground, only to realize that they had gone two miles wrong, and a long black mud gushed out from behind, and nearly half of them were swallowed up by the mud.

Countless soldiers were so frightened that their legs weakened, knelt on the ground and cried loudly, at this time, at the entrance of Gaojibo, a few miles away, Zhang Xuan led the army to seal the only way to retreat, he did not have many troops, gave up the pursuit of Yang Gongqing, and instead concentrated his forces to deal with the thief army trapped in the mire.

There were more than a thousand thief soldiers kneeling in the snow next to them, and this was the first batch of thieves to escape, all of whom surrendered to the Sui army.

At this time, Pei Xingyan whispered to Zhang Xuan: "These thieves are all troubles, it is better to execute them all!" ”

Zhang Xuan smiled faintly and said: "The culprit is Zhang Jin, it has nothing to do with these low-level soldiers, and it is not necessarily a bad thing to leave them to farm!" ”

Zhang Xuan knew very well in his heart that at least half of the people in Zhang Jin's army were coerced peasants, and the young men in Qingzhou and Hebei had suffered heavy losses due to the war, which could not be made up in three or five years, but would take a generation or even several generations to recover.

Zhang Xuan immediately called dozens of surrendered soldiers and said to them: "You go in and tell the people inside that Yang Gongqing has abandoned them and fled, if they want to resist to the end, then Gaojibo is their burial place, if you don't want to die, give me an honest surrender." ”

Dozens of soldiers walked into Gaojibo, and after a while, a group of soldiers raised their hands and surrendered, at this time all the thieves were trembling with fright, and their will to resist had long been lost.

To Zhang Xuan's surprise, more than 9,000 thieves walked into Gaojibo, and less than 5,000 soldiers finally came out to surrender, and nearly half of the thieves died in the quagmire of Gaojibo.

This day is the second day of the first month of the eleventh year of the Great Cause.

Yang Gongqing took this opportunity to break away from Zhang Jin, he plundered all the way, ten days later, Yang Gongqing led the army to arrive at Wagang Village, officially surrendered to the Wagang Army, but at the same time, the East County Wagang Army also had a change. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for the recommendation ticket, your support is my biggest motivation. )