Since the Tianzun Sect started the incident, it has swept across Henan and has the tendency to spread all over the world, all because the local officials and troops have no power to contain it, which shows the major shortcomings of the Han military.

After Emperor Taizu Gao unified the world, in order to maintain the people's livelihood, he immediately dismantled the army of the world, and the number of personnel was set at 500,000. Among them, there are 100,000 Praetorian Guards, commanded by four generals on the left and right, stationed near Luoyang, and are the elite of the world; The remaining 400,000 jiedu troops are stationed in ten provinces, and are led by the envoys of each jiedu; In addition, the Imperial Forest Army is not included in the quota, and is personally commanded by the emperor, but the elite of the elite. Taizu set this military system, and naturally he was very particular. Internally, the Guannai Province, together with the Imperial Forest Army, the Praetorian Guard and the Jiedu Army, has more than 200,000 troops, and most of them are elite soldiers. If there is an accident in the court, and the Son of Heaven goes out to hunt, then the world's elite soldiers will be summoned, and the army will be far above the forbidden army, which is enough to sweep away the traitors.

However, the Han Dynasty has been circulating for more than two hundred years, and the situation has already changed greatly.

First of all, the number of troops has increased greatly, and the initial 500,000 soldiers set by Taizu can be maintained by Emperor Taizong; Emperor Shengzuwu increased the number of troops to one million for the northern attack on Tatars, and even sent more than 400,000 troops in one northern expedition; Emperor Zhongzong lost his morality in his later years, and rose up everywhere, adding 500,000 troops to suppress the rebellion; Emperor Chengzong was in a stupor, and the land outside the pass was seized by the Turks, and Xianzong added 500,000 troops to garrison each side in order to save the decline. At this point, the number of people in the world has already exceeded 2 million, and more than two-thirds of the income of the Han Dynasty is used to raise soldiers.

The second is that the structure of the army is a change, Emperor Wu is well versed in the way of using troops, so he integrates the power of the imperial forest and the Praetorian Guard, although it has been reformed several times, but the two armies are finally merged into one; Today's saints are weak, and they have long been unable to personally control the forbidden army, and the emperor really has no soldiers to call on; The two imperial brothers were brave and extraordinary, and had the heavy responsibility of fighting against the Turks and Shanyue, and opened shogunates respectively, both with more than 100,000 soldiers, and the soldiers were well fed, which should not be underestimated for a day.

Finally, the army's combat strength has declined greatly, the world has been peaceful for a long time, the armaments in various places have been relaxed, and the officers have all had the malpractice of eating empty salaries and occupying tuntian, and the local armies have long been unable to fight; There are only 500,000 forbidden troops in the world and the pro-armies of Youyan and Lingnan Wangfu are quite strong, especially Youyan Wangfu has resisted the Turks for a long time, which is the strongest in the world.

Therefore, although the Tianzun Sect is strong and rampant in Henan, it is not the opponent of Youyan's elite, although it is not easy to win in the south this time, as long as it is steady and steady, it is already an undefeated game. It's just that Zheng Xin is sitting back and commanding the battle independently, can he return with all the victories? Zheng Sen is too angry, does he know how to attack the heart? Zheng Miao is benevolent and weak, will he hinder the use of troops by the two generals? The battle of Qiuyi's Mantou Mountain is quite talented in using soldiers, is it just a temporary fluke? All kinds of questions inevitably crowded the mind of Zheng Rong, the king of Youyan, but not only for his sons to be able to experience it personally, but also because of this little uneasiness and more doting? If his four sons are just flashy and untruthful, it is not easy to even protect themselves, so how can we talk about supporting the government and appeasing the world?

So Zheng Rongte, who has always been extravagant, chose the auspicious day of the Dragon Boat Festival, set up a general platform at the south gate of Guangyang City, killed the black ox and white horse sacrifice flag, personally awarded the Fu Festival Arrow, and sent the two commanders of soldiers and horses to the south.

Although the status of the two princes is respected in the army, Zheng Miao and Qiu Yi's trip is only to learn military affairs after all, and according to the royal order of Zheng Rong, the king of Youyan, they are only responsible for discipline in the army, and each leads 300 personal soldiers for escort.

The Youyan army is really well-trained, the horses are lined up in four columns, led by the elite of the army and the queen of the palace, the baggage supplies are pulled by pack horses in the center, the four main generals occupy the key places, and the cavalry on both sides patrol and pass the word from time to time. 20,000 horses stretch for three or four miles, along the wide and flat official road of Youyan Road, sometimes singing military songs, but in two or three days they have arrived at the edge of the Hutuo River, and crossing this river is the territory of Bianzhou, Henan Province.

As soon as you enter Henan, the situation everywhere has changed greatly, not to mention anything else, the official road alone is half narrower than Youyan's, and because of the lack of people to take care of it, it has long become potholes and dusty, and it has almost been integrated with the red ground on both sides. General Wei Hu has always been cautious, knowing that this time he was fighting in the hinterland of the Central Plains, that is, it was different from sticking to the city, and it was different from the desert field battle, and countless pairs of eyes of the imperial court were staring, and he was not sloppy at all, so he discussed with Cui Nan and the two princes that it was better to camp on the spot.

So at the sound of an order, the team circled like a long snake and gathered together. The officers and men of the team were specially responsible for building bridges, repairing roads, and building and repairing, but in just one hour, a well-organized camp had been built. There are also generals Wei Hu, worthy of the name of good guarding, the military tents, deer barricades, and fences in the camp are all in order, and the generals are arranged to inspect everywhere, arrange patrols to patrol everywhere, and really build a military camp as solid as gold.

Zheng Miao and Qiu Yizhi strictly obeyed the order of their father Wang to study military affairs with the army, and followed Wei Hu and Cui Nan to manage the construction of the camp. Zheng Miao has a gentle and modest temperament, so naturally he will not put on a prince's stand in front of the heroes and generals to point fingers. However, Yizhi had another heart, thinking that he had followed King Youyan several times on the expedition, and read a lot of military books from Zhong Likuang, always wanting to find out some deficiencies in the camp, and make a review and rectification, so that others would not dare to underestimate him, a person who was a moth in the palace. Who knew that after inspecting half of the military camp, there was no place up and down that was not neat and proper, not to mention that it was the Tianzun Sect's tangled farmers and hungry people, or the Turks gathered 50,000 elites to set a perfect strategy to attack, and it was not overnight, so he couldn't help asking: "The Tianzun Sect bandits are just blinding the villagers in the countryside, and they are all rabble." My Youyan army is well-equipped and well-trained, and when the camp is completed, I only need to set up more patrols to prevent sneak attacks, so why waste my energy on this? ”

"Don't blame the villain for being disrespectful, the prince doesn't know about it. The last general was also a cropper, and he was arrested by the imperial court, so he was included in the army, and he was lucky to follow the king of Youyan. I don't dare to say that the prince of Youyan has no knowledge of people, and the last general still has some ability, but he also learned it from the prince. "Wei Hu is one of the best in Qiu Ba, and once he speaks, he will be like a river," the prince often said: The way of using soldiers, with the right combination, with the odd win, there is no difference between the odd and the inferior. If you use your troops to be right, you can maintain an undefeated trend, and this is the principle that those who are good defenders are undefeated. On the contrary, if you blindly seek curiosity, it is often easy to make mistakes. ”

Cui Nan on the side glanced at Wei Hu. They are a pair of famous generals, who are known for their good offense and defense, and they are excellent friends in private, and the coordination of marching and fighting can be described as seamless. But Cui Nan has always been good at assault, and he is responsible for charging into battle and destroying the city. Youyan King Zheng Rong is proficient in the art of war, and has always treated Cui Wei and the two equally, but Wei Hu is a little resentful after all. Cui Nan had already known this, fortunately he was born in Jiangmen, and he was also very generous, smiling without saying a word, and let Wei Hu continue:

"Of course, these art of war that the prince talked about are unfathomable, but it's a pity that I have fought for so many years, and I still seem to understand it. However, when I was a soldier, there was a story that I could tell the two highnesses. ”

Zheng Miao knew that Wei Hu was going to talk endlessly, so he smiled slightly and said, "I want to hear about it." ”

Wei Hu swallowed his saliva and said: "At the end of that year, the general just became a big soldier, about fifteen or sixteen years old, not as tall as the two highnesses, Shi Chang is an old man surnamed Zhang, and I can't remember who he hit now." I remember that it was autumn, and it was already so cold that my bones hurt, and the army walked all day, and before it was dark, it was so cold that even the general could not walk, so he ordered to set up camp. The general is not as careful as I am, and it is clear who should be stationed and where. At that time, he found a mound with a stream next to it, occupied the top of the mound, erected a big tent, drew a circle around the ground, erected a fence, and asked everyone to find a place to camp on their own, as long as they did not disrupt the structure. The soldiers walked all the way, and they were choked by the cold, and they all rushed to set up tents in the sunny place under the mound. However, the old army chose a big stone to settle on the waist of the mound. This place was far from the water source, and the northwest wind poured into the tent vigorously, and because it was close to the big tent, it was woken up several times in the middle of the night by the general's retinue. At that time, I hated it so much, but I didn't dare to scold this Zhang Shichang. Unexpectedly, as soon as the sky was dark, the enemy army touched it......"

"Oh, since the enemy army has come to steal the camp, they must be prepared, and this will be camped like this, I am afraid that the whole army will be annihilated." Qiu Yizhi answered.

Wei Hu sighed and said: "It's not fake to steal the camp, and the whole army won't be wiped out." This general was not incompetent, and the enemy's forces were not enough to sneak attack, and the army was united in hatred of the enemy, and actually drove them away. However, our army did not come to its senses and fled, and was surrounded by the enemy's main force. Seeing that the enemy soldiers were outnumbered, the general had no choice but to send light cavalry to break through the siege and report the news, and on the other hand, let the sergeants ram the earth according to the camp to build a wall, preparing for a long resistance. The enemy didn't seem to want to attack, and set up camp around our camp......"

"If I am an enemy, I can take it lightly as long as I cut off the upstream water source or poison the water, and I will not need a single soldier." The Way of Etiquette.

"Now that I think about it, it seems that they want to surround the point and send reinforcements. But at that time, where would he think of this layer, he would think that he would be able to live one more day. There was no shortage of water, but it began to rain the next day, and it rained incessantly, for seven or eight days in a row. The soldiers with clever brains moved their tents to the halfway point of the mountain early, and those who did not get to the high position could only soak in the water, and their feet were soaked. Even if you run to the mountainside, you will sleep and lie in the wet mud, and after a long time, you will have a rash on half of your body. ”

Zheng Miao suddenly realized: "This old army is also quite knowledgeable about astronomy, and he chose a good place, but unfortunately it is colder." ”

"Cold is indeed cold, but it is much stronger than giving away a small life. Fortunately, after about ten days, reinforcements arrived, and we broke through the encirclement with all our strength, and it took a lot of effort to break out of the encirclement. It's a pity that those brothers whose feet are rotten, let alone running, can't even stand steadily, so they have to resign themselves to fate, alas~" Wei Hu couldn't help but sigh when he talked about the past.

Having said this, Yizhi couldn't help but sigh when he heard it: "The soldiers are fierce and dangerous, and the ancients are honest and do not deceive me." I don't want to camp, I am so particular, Yizhi has gained a lot today, thank you General Wei for your advice! With that, he bowed his hand to Wei Hu deeply.

Wei Hu hurriedly helped Qiu Yizhi up, and said with a smile: "Where do you dare to give half a sentence of advice, it's just that I have too much to say today." However, the last general has always been so wordy, presumably His Highness will not blame him. ”

"It's just that the old soldier surnamed Zhang?" Zheng Miao was the most thoughtful and asked.

Wei Hu was silent for a long time, sighed and said: "Zhang Shichang later took me to fight a few battles, and finally grabbed three heads, saved a dozen taels of silver, and wanted to go back to his hometown to buy a few acres of land to hold his grandson, but he was robbed by bandits halfway through, so he had to turn back and become a soldier." Later, the imperial court sent troops to fight the Turks, and after a battle, he was shot like a hedgehog and died in the north of Guangyang City. The last general stuck an arrow in his back in pain, lay on the ground and pretended to be dead, and then came back alive......"