The battle in Handan entered the final stage, Li Dingguo walked on the bluestone road full of blood, facing a group of beggars in tattered clothes, each with a bamboo pole in his hand, inserted together, forming a solid shelf, on which was tied a tartar full of armor.

"Grass people, meet your lords!" The beggars knelt in front of Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo hurriedly walked a few steps, grabbed the old man in front, and said with a smile: "Old man, please get up!" ”

The old beggar suddenly shook his body, and his eyes turned a little red.

"My lord, we beggars are a group of people who should have died a long time ago, but they are dead and alive, where can we be worthy of the title of sir!"

Li Dingguo looked around at these beggars, and when he looked at them, they actually felt a little ashamed of themselves, and lowered their heads one by one.

"Do you want to know, what did I do before I was 10? Like you, it was also for a beggar, and one year when he was hungry for three days in a row, an old beggar asked for a bun. He didn't want to eat it, so he gave it to me, and then he ate a handful of Guanyin soil, and it ended up swelling to death! ”

The beggars present were stupid, they couldn't have imagined that this glamorous handsome guy and dignified officer in front of them would have such a tragic past, and they all pricked up their ears.

Li Dingguo said very emotionally: "Later, he was plundered by Zhang Xianzhong and became his son, fighting in the south and north all day long, fleeing everywhere. Later, His Royal Highness the King of Liao looked up to me and took me under the account as a staff officer. I have a little feeling, life is impermanent, as long as I am alive. With confidence and a breath of energy, you can break through to the sky. In another ten years, you may not be able to become a useful person! ”

The beggars looked at each other, and no one had ever said this to them, and there were tears in their eyes.

"Thank you, sir, with your words, we have the strength to live. If it weren't for the Tartar, the big guy wouldn't have become a beggar. If you have any use for us, just tell us what you want, and don't frown! ”

The beggars said and pushed the twisted tartars in front of Li Dingguo. The old beggar said: "My lord, we ask for food every day, and we have no other skills, but we have trained a pair of fiery eyes." This guy came running when he was messing around in the city. It seems to be a letter to Ma Degong, just ask! ”

Li Dingguo's eyes lit up suddenly, he was polite to the beggars, of course, he had empathy for reasons, and he also had his own calculations. Don't underestimate these beggars, they walk the streets and alleys, and the first three sects in the city are good. Whoever is bad, who is rich. Whoever has food has an account in their hearts.

During the time that Li Dingguo was a staff officer, he turned over Gu Zhenhua's pamphlets about the war and carefully pondered it. Speaking of which, Gu Zhenhua's training to fight is not surprising, it is nothing more than Qi Jiguang's set. But Gu Zhenhua's greatest power is that he has extended the concept of war.

In the past, in Li Dingguo's view, fighting a war was nothing more than two armies fighting each other and attacking cities. However, in Gu Zhenhua's book, the concept of total warfare is mentioned, that is, any battle is not simply aimed at the army, but includes everyone and every field.

In order to win the war, the whole nation must be determined to go to the battlefield, and everyone must spare no effort, dedicate all their body and mind, materially and spiritually, to crush their opponents!

This concept is Ludendorff's overall war, in fact, before the First World War in the West, the melee of various countries was mostly a power struggle between nobles, fighting back and forth, all of them were the royal families of the seven aunts and eight aunts, and there was still some distance from the people at the bottom.

With the development of industrialization, the territory of the aristocracy was broken and a modern state was formed, and Ludendorff summed up the experience of the First World War and proposed a general war.

Gu Zhenhua seems that this term can actually be taken out earlier, although China does not have the concept of a nation-state in later generations, but China is a unified dynasty, with a general examination system and great social mobility, unlike the West that is monopolized by aristocratic lords. Therefore, the concept of total warfare is precisely to strengthen the national identity of the common people and unite various social forces.

After Li Dingguo saw the concept of few elaborations, he was shocked by the heavens, he actually kept reflecting on the fact that Liukou was so powerful, but why after the defeat, he collapsed. Gu Zhenhua just gave him the answer, that is, the social organization is not in place, and there is no way to mobilize social forces.

Li Dingguo also consulted Gu Zhenhua for this purpose, and Gu Zhenhua also noticed Li Dingguo's keenness, so he was relieved and boldly asked him to be Li Xu's assistant!

Facing this tartar, Li Dingguo was not polite, and waved his hand directly, and two soldiers rushed up and held him down, and Xueliang's dagger was aimed at his ear.

"Say, what kind of news did you send, count to three, and cut off your ears if you don't say anything!"

“1，2……”

"I say!" This Tartar was indeed frightened, and hurriedly said: "It's Li, the news sent by Lord Li Shutai, he will arrive in Handan in half a day!" ”

Li Dingguo was suddenly shocked, half a day, deducting the time to fight, I am afraid that within two or three hours, the Qing army will come!

Li Dingguo glanced at Tan Xingming beside him, and hurriedly said, "You go and tell Ma Wannian, let him go to the city immediately and strengthen his defense." Then go and inform the commander-in-chief, tell him to speed up, and drive the men into the city. ”

Tan Xingming nodded hurriedly, turned around and went with the herald to convey the order.

Li Dingguo set his eyes on these beggars again: "The Tartars are coming, I want to ask you, do you want to be in the hands of the Tartars again?" ”

"Sun Tzu just thought! The Tartars don't treat the Han people as human beings at all, and we can see dead bodies being transported out of the city every day! ”

"Well, that's good, from now on, you are the reserve members of the Anguo Army, and you enjoy half salary!"

When the beggars heard this, they immediately rejoiced, and they turned out to be officers and soldiers, which was really unexpected.

"My lord, what are we going to do, go up to the city and kill the Tartars?"

"No, you serve as a guide for the brothers, whoever in the city is close to the Tartars, they are caught and killed, their property is confiscated, and whoever has a grudge against the Tartars, let them help defend the city, as long as they hold Handan, you will all be a great achievement. In the future, the army is guaranteed to soar! ”

Li Dingguo said, his face was also gloomy, and he said sternly: "You also remember." If we dare to engage in favoritism and fraud, we still have people watching us, wronging the good people and letting the bad people go, and the officials will be dealt with by military law! ”

These words are not to scare them, the Anguo Army has another force, that is, Fang Dahong's Heaven and Earth Society. They happened to supervise each other, relying on these local snakes, and quickly controlled Handan.

Li Dingguo's method is indeed effective. The beggars are all iron-footed, and when they have the energy, they can walk the streets and alleys, not to mention how fast. Find out the prestige first. and have a grudge against the Tartars. These people act as militia captains. They then mobilized their cronies, formed groups of militia, assigned neighborhoods, and searched from house to house.

The people who had the most dealings with the Tartars were of course the wealthy gentry and merchants, who were the first to be purged, and a large amount of food and goods fell into the hands of the Anguo army. Li Dingguo collected seventy percent, and the other three components were sent to the militia.

The militia is like a snowball, and the number is increasing. Those Tartar lackeys and the remnants of traitors were also swept away. In less than half a day, Handan City was ironclad.

Li Xu climbed over Taihang Mountain and arrived in Handan, and when he saw it, he couldn't help but give Li Dingguo a thumbs up.

"Staff Officer Li, no wonder His Royal Highness the King of Liao personally ordered the generals, what a good hand!"

Li Dingguo smiled bitterly: "Commander-in-chief, this is just the first step, the Tartars will come at any time, as far as I know, there are tens of thousands of them, can they resist ......"

While he was talking, the battalion commander Lu Dongyong hurriedly ran over.

"Report to the commander-in-chief, the brothers have already seen the traces of the Tartars, in the northeast of Handan, about thirty miles, and they can be killed under the city of Handan in one hour at the earliest!"

"So fast!"

Li Xu was taken aback, Gu Zhenhua handed over his two brigades of elite soldiers, a total of more than 10,000 people, and it was no problem to deal with tens of thousands of Tartars. However, it was not easy for the team to cross the Taihang Mountain, especially a large number of baggage, all of which were left behind.

"Staff Officer Li, I calculated, the mountain road is difficult to walk, and it will not be until about noon, and the Kang Lesheng department will not be able to arrive, and as for the Xiongxin department, it will not be done until the evening."

Li Dingguo's brows suddenly wrinkled together: "Commander-in-chief, can't you hurry up?" ”

"Staff Officer Li, you also know that among our supplies, in addition to food and ammunition, there is also a lot of cement, which is the key to our defense of Handan. People don't just want to be fast. ”

These two people all felt a headache, if they went according to the order, the Tartars would be killed under the city, and when the time came, the Tartars would clench into a fist, and the Anguo Army would be scattered everywhere, and this battle would not be able to be fought!

"Commander-in-chief, don't worry, your subordinates ask for orders, let's go out of the city to fight the Tartars, let them know the strength of the Anguo Army!"

It was Li Laiheng and Ma Wannian who came to ask for orders, and these two people were full of momentum.

Li Dingguo said with some skepticism: "The white pole soldiers have just been fighting for so long, do they still have the strength, the old guards are the heart of the prince, if there is a little loss, who can afford it!" ”

Li Laiheng patted his chest and said, "Staff Officer, don't worry, don't we have this!" The finger pointed right at the hot air balloon in the city.

Since the development of hot air balloons, basically each brigade is equipped with at least two or three hot air balloons, and Li Xu and they are equipped with five, and this time it was also the hot air balloon that took the lead in discovering the enemy's situation.

However, Li Xu is still a little skeptical, the hot air balloon is no problem for lookout, and it is impossible to say whether it can fight or not.

"Do you really have faith?"

"Commander-in-chief, don't worry, even if there is no hot air balloon, the Minnie gun equipped by our guards has an overwhelming advantage, and it is guaranteed to be able to escape with all its body!"

Li Xu and Li Dingguo looked at each other and could only nod in agreement.

Li Laiheng and Ma Wannian immediately greeted their subordinates, they brought a total of 1,000 old guards, 1,500 white pole soldiers, quickly rushed out of the north city, lined up about five miles away from the city, the hot air balloon carrying three soldiers slowly rose into the air, the army suddenly had an eye in the sky, and the actions of the Tartars in the distance could be seen clearly.

I saw that the observer above pointed the flag to the northeast and waved it downward five times in a row, which was to tell them that the enemy was in the northeast direction, with a total of about 5,000 people.

Li Laiheng clenched his fists and said with a smile: "Tartar, grandpa is waiting for you to die!" (To be continued......)