The veteran, who was shivering with cold like the recruits, blew his beard and glared at the recruits, and said to the recruits proudly:

"How? Let's just say that we are going to fight Caizhou tonight, right? How is it? Boy, learn more from us in the future? ”

But the recruit didn't buy it, muttering:

"When did you say something like that? Learn from you, and now he's just a big soldier. ”

Regardless of whether they are veterans or recruits, they are still very excited about fighting Caizhou. Of course, it is not without fear, for example, the road to the east of Zhangchai Village is something that the official army has never walked, and now the official army can only rely on Li You, Li Zhongyi, and Ding Shiliang to lead the way. But the sheer military fear of Huaixi is completely gone. In the past, the soldiers and horses of the Shannan camp were repeatedly subjected to the violence of the Huaixi army, and the accumulated fear had long since disappeared with the victories of these months. No matter who it is, seeing Huaixi now is the same as seeing a sick cat. What's more, the manager said that after this battle, you can go home for the New Year? Seeing that the morale of the soldiers had not dropped, Li Yu waved his hand, and the stagnant army immediately moved again. At this time, Li You was ordered to quietly leave the brigade and set off forward. He went to contact Hou Weiqing.

The snow is getting heavier and the night is getting darker, and the Langshan Army led by Wu Shaoyang is not like the official army, which has cotton jackets inside and cotton gloves outside, and retreating on such a snowy night is tantamount to a death march. By the end of the ugly hour, the morale of the soldiers, who had been raised by the retreat, had seriously declined. Groups of mules and horses were unable to resist the bitter cold wind, and gradually fell to their deaths on the road, and one soldier after another walked and fell, one fell on top of the soldier in front, and often both fell in the snow and never got up again. On the road passed by the Langshan army after the ugly time, the corpses of men and horses were scattered on the side of the road, looking at each other endlessly. When Hou Weiqing and Hou Weiming's brothers led the six hundred soldiers and three hundred officers and soldiers to catch up with their teeth chattering, they were all blue-faced, but fortunately, because it was broken, Wu Shaoyang specially allowed them to add clothes, and when Hou Weiming caught up, each of the two hundred officers and soldiers brought a few Hu cakes and two wine bags, and the Hu cakes were already frozen to the ground, so they had to drink more to drive away the cold. In fact, this is the misunderstanding of the ancients, always think that drinking more alcohol can drive away the cold, where do you know that the stomach is empty, and after drinking, the wine will disperse, and people will be colder? Looking at the corpses of their comrades lying on the side of the road, which had been covered with a thin layer of snow, the Hou Weiqing brothers led the soldiers to speed up the march.

If they can't walk quickly and get to the nearest fence as soon as possible to rest, they will also die on the side of the road, and there will be no one to collect the corpses.

About the third and a half watch, Wu Shaoyang finally led the Langshan soldiers who were numb from the cold to a safe place, a barrier thirty miles away from Caizhou. There are three more such barriers on the road to Caizhou, but none of them can hold so many soldiers and horses. Wu Shaoyang was already too cold, but he was still conscious, and after resting for a while, he ordered some of the frostbitten and weak soldiers to be left behind and distributed to various barriers, while the others continued to march towards Caizhou. And he himself, unable to support it when he reached the third barrier, was forced to stop and wait for the snow to stop. Wu Shaoyang was so weak that he didn't even reprimand the defenders for such a major mistake as being touched by their own people, and went to sleep.

The same situation also appeared in Li Yu's official army. It is one hundred and thirty miles from Wencheng to Caizhou, if there is no wind and snow, just a rapid march on a winter night, the soldiers can fully support it, but now the wind and snow are very strong, and the road to Caizhou is extremely difficult to walk. When Caizhou was still thirty miles away, there were mules and horses that froze to death in the official army, as well as soldiers who froze to death. Unlike the Langshan Army, they did not choose to march on a snowy night when they had no other choice. The soldiers became more and more silent at the thought that these brothers who had frozen to death or that they should have slept in warm tents instead of being cold or dying in the cold wilderness. There was resentment in his heart, but he was afraid of Li Yu's authority, and no one dared to speak, but silently accelerated the pace of the march. The road from Zhangchai Village to the east was not traveled by the officers and soldiers, which invisibly exacerbated the fear of the officers and soldiers. Li Yu ordered the bodies of soldiers who had frozen to death to be collected and recorded as war dead when they returned.

At first, according to the agreement, Li Yu's plan was to wait for Hou Weiqing and Hou Weiming's arrival thirty miles away from Caizhou, and follow them into Caizhou, after all, thirty miles is the core defense circle of Caizhou. But I didn't expect the wind and snow to be so big that everyone expected. Seeing that the agreed time had passed for a moment, and the Hou brothers and the Langshan army were still nowhere to be seen, Li Yu looked at the soldiers who were shrunk from the cold, sighed secretly, and ordered to give up the mules and horses, leaving five hundred soldiers to take care of them, and the rest of the soldiers picked up their weapons and prepared to walk through the thirty miles on foot. As he did in Zhangchai Village, Li Yu ordered Ding Shiliang and Ma Shaoliang to lead people to touch the fence in front.

The results were successful. The sleeping defenders of Caizhou were all killed, and five hundred officers and soldiers happily took their place and stationed at the fence.

Li Yu ordered 500 soldiers to drive their horses into the grove behind the fence to avoid the cold. The officers and soldiers of the brigade pointed directly at Caizhou.

When Hou Weiming arrived and reported that the rear army had finally caught up with the tail of the Chinese army, Wu Shaoyang breathed a sigh of relief, now that there are many dead in Huaixi, he really doesn't want Hou Weiqing and Hou Weiming's brothers to have an accident, otherwise, he can't even get together the manpower to guard the four cities of Caizhou and the surrounding fortresses. Hou Weiming, who was ordered to catch up, saw that Wu Shaoyang's face was ruddy and his speech was intermittent, knowing that Vice Marshal Wu's old injuries had not healed, and he had suffered from the wind and cold, and the situation was very bad. After exchanging glances with the adjutant general, Hou Weiming asked for orders to lead the army to Caizhou first, and asked Caizhou to sit down and prepare in advance, and welcome the marshal back to the city tomorrow. Wu Shaoyang rolled his eyelids a few times and agreed.

On the fourth watch, Hou Weiming led the cavalry slower than the usual infantry and finally arrived at the city of Caizhou, the snow was as deep as the horse's legs, Hou Weiming had already ordered the horse to stay in a sheltered place, dismount and walk. Looking at the striking black city wall covered by thick white snow, Hou Weiming sighed with emotion, found a sheltered place from the wind, stopped the soldiers, and let them move their muscles and bones, ready to go to the city later. While waiting, Hou Weiming heard the cries of chickens and ducks coming from the other direction very strangely. There is a pond outside the small south gate of Caizhou, which Hou Weiming knows, but it is very strange that there are so many geese and ducks crying suddenly. After panting evenly, Hou Weiming led 200 soldiers and began to call the door.

"Open the door!"

"Open the gates!"

"Vice Marshal Wu has returned to the city, open the city gate quickly!"

A faint cold wind blew, and the snowflakes hit the soldiers who shouted at the door, and they couldn't open their eyes. The sound was loud in the quiet early hours of the morning, but there was still no movement in the city. I didn't even see the lights in the dark city, so I thought I was sleeping in the warm bed. It's no wonder that no one would have thought that someone would be on the road with such a big snowfall.

Hou Weiming breathed in the cold and heavy air, anxious and hoping to delay a little longer. Wu Shaoyang saw that he was coming, and the city gate had not been opened yet, so that he could delay for a while, delay for a while, and maybe he would be in touch with Li Yu. Having lost contact with Li Yu, Hou Weiqing and Brother Hou Weiming discussed it, gritted their teeth, and decided to do it first with the thousands of people in their hands. Originally, their brothers planned to talk about it later after entering the city, but Tian Zhirong, who led 300 people to assist them, did not agree, and Tian Zhirong said:

"You have all entered the city, what will we do with these three hundred brothers? Besides, I believe that Li Dashuai is a trustworthy person, although he has lost contact with us, he must be near Caizhou, and he will come as soon as it is dawn. ”

The Langshan soldiers, who were tired all night, did not agree:

"General Hou, we are grateful to you for saving our family, but what you did was not authentic. Our brothers could have surrendered to Langshan immediately, and after listening to you, they followed you to prepare to take Caizhou as a greeting gift to Li Dashuai, but now they braved the wind and snow to rush all night, and they also frostbitten more than a dozen brothers, so let us see that it is difficult, if we enter the city, we see that Wu Shaoyang's old boy can't do anything. ”

Morale can be boosted, since everyone says so, let's give it a hand! Anyway, most of the soldiers in the city were transferred to the fence and the outer barriers, but only two or three thousand people remained. So Hou Weiming asked Wu Shaoyang for the precursor, the purpose of the precursor was to arrive at the city in advance, call open and control the city gate, if Wu Shaoyang arrived, it would be troublesome to put on a big show. Until they are forced to do so, they will not let Wu Shaoyang come forward to call the door. The soldiers in the city were more comfortable than the soldiers in Langshan this night. Hou Weiqing stayed behind, responsible for Tian Zhirong's cooperation in controlling the various barriers. After pulling out the various barriers on the road, as long as you hold on for a while, I believe that the officers and soldiers will definitely arrive.

The cries of geese and ducks have gradually stopped at some point, and looking at the battlements that are rumbling in the black, Li Shuo's heart can't help but rise. Although the number of officers and soldiers was large and the departure was late, they followed the main road, unlike the Langshan Army, which turned around to avoid the officers and soldiers, and the protective measures were also done well, so the action was faster than that of the Langshan Army. Almost at the same time as Hou Weiming, Li You and Li Zhongyi led the front army to the city, and then Li Shuo and Li Jincheng arrived successively, and the tens of thousands of soldiers who were pressed by the black pressure lurked under the city of Caizhou unconsciously. It was so easy that not to mention the soldiers, even the generals rejoiced. If it weren't for Li Shuo's continued caution and strict prohibitions, I was afraid that the people who were still complaining about Li Shuo on the road would have begun to express their admiration for the manager.

He took out the hot pancakes wrapped in layers of quilts and gave them all to the soldiers. After eating the cakes and drinking some soju, the soldiers had recovered a little bit of heat, and their hands no longer looked like chicken feet, Li Yu ordered the whole army to move down the city. Li Yu personally and Li Zhongyi led the front army of 1,000 people to fight the vanguard. The soldiers no longer complained about the two generals, Li You and Li Zhongyi. There was a pond outside the city, and the pond was surrounded by free-range ducks and geese, and the careful Li Yu listened to the spectacular creaking sound of thousands of people stepping on the soft snow in the front army, and his heart was not steady, and he ordered the soldiers to quarrel with the sleeping ducks and geese, and suddenly the cries of the ducks and geese rattled to cover the creaking sound of the soldiers stepping on the snow. In fact, Li Yu was too worried, the official army had not been to Caizhou City for 30 years, although the situation was tense, the Caizhou defenders would not believe that the official army would go straight to Caizhou City on such a snowy night. Li Yu and Li Zhongyi led thousands of elites to the base of the city wall amid the cries of ducks and geese.

"Dashuai, the city wall is too slippery."

Li Zhongyi whispered to Li Yu. Li Yu looked up at the tall and slightly sloping exterior wall, and said:

"Take out the daggers!"

The soldiers drew their short knives one after another, but they didn't know what to do, only to see that Li Yu had already started digging a pit on the city wall with a knife, Li Zhongyi leaned on Li Yu's side, and was also digging, after digging a few hurdles, Li Yu took off his heavy armor, climbed up lightly, and turned back:

"Those who are not afraid of death will follow the commander, and the rest of the people will wait by the city gate!"

Immediately behind Li Yu was Li Zhongyi, and in the future, Ding Shiliang and Li You, quietly learning from Li Yu and Li Zhongyi, began to dig ridges on the city wall and climb up. Then there was Ma Shaoliang, and more and more soldiers began to learn from them, unloading their armor and digging up the hill to climb. A thin soldier had just reached into the pit dug by the person in front of him, and was kicked down by Ma Shaoliang:

"What are you doing here? Wait below! ”

The soldiers below looked up and watched as their commander led several generals to climb the city wall step by step, each one step up, climbing one pit with his hands and digging another pit up. Li Yu and the others had already taken off their gloves. Everyone's hearts rose to their throats, watching Li Yu and them getting taller and taller, and the soldiers clutched their weapons tightly. From a distance, a group of people slowly climbed up like ants, and finally, they were almost at the end of the city.

After Li Yu dug the last pit, the person went up, his hand had already climbed the battlement, his foot stepped on the position, and he just wanted to climb up, but Li Zhongyi on the side had already taken the lead and rushed to the city. Then he grabbed Li Yu and dragged him up. Then Ding Shiliang, Li You, Ma Shaoliang and others also climbed the city tower, Ding Shiliang untied the rope prepared in advance to help on the battlements, as soon as a few ropes hung down, the soldiers below climbed much easier. Dozens of people quickly climbed to the top of the city, and when they looked down, it was really scary.

The door to victory has been opened!

The soldiers guarding the door did not expect that the officers and soldiers would brave the wind and snow to run for a long time, and they were all asleep, when they realized that the door was pushed open and a cold air rushed in, the soldier by the door muttered:

"What a son of a bitch, I don't know how to close the door when I go out to drown (pee)."

He turned around and went back to sleep. These were the last words of this soldier in this world. Others lost all their strength to speak and were killed in their sleep.

Li Yu said:

"Leave the watchman and let him continue to play. Open the gates and enlarge the army into the city. ”

The gates of Caizhou, which had been closed to officials and troops for thirty years, slowly opened, and the thousands of soldiers waiting outside the city quietly rushed into the city. The flag bearer held high the military flag and ascended to the top of the city. With the fall of the snowflakes of the "Wu" character flag, the military flag of the Tang Dynasty fluttered high on the tower of Caizhou City.

(Computer problems, the manuscript that was originally saved to the manuscript box was actually uploaded, but fortunately it didn't reach 1000 words, otherwise everyone would have to spend money in vain.) )