Chapter 5: Homelessness (5b)

General Xue Shixiong did not like to hide in the mountains and be dug up, and on the fifth day after leaving Bo Shan Village, he suddenly led a large army to appear near Cangyan Village, which was more than 400 miles northeast of Bo Zhai Village. First of all, more than 300 old and weak soldiers pretended to be a tribe of the Tatar people, robbed the villages near Cangyan Village, and when the remaining guard of Cangyan Village, Baye Wang, led the army out of the village to suppress bandits, more than 3,000 Sui troops suddenly emerged from the woods.

Most of the soldiers of Cangyan Village were requisitioned and transferred to the vicinity of Maqishui by Yizhi Wende to cut off the back road of the Sui army, and all the soldiers and horses left in the village together were only more than 700 people, and most of them were old and weak. This little strength was not enough to stuff Xue Shixiong's teeth, and the battle only lasted less than half an hour, and King Baye was killed by cold arrows, and all seven hundred soldiers were wiped out.

Immediately, Xue Shixiong led the march into Cangyan Village with lightning speed, and after a large sweep, Cangyan Village was burned, and then, the army went out of Cangyan, and the soldiers pointed directly at Gebei Village, which was less than 100 miles away from Cangyan Village. The guards left behind in Gebezhai were so frightened that they closed the gate of the village and did not dare to fight. Xue Shixiong did not attack either, and ordered people to burn the crops in the fields near Gebezhai with a fire, and then disappeared into the depths of the mountains.

Three days later, the Sui army swaggered in front of the Mudi Village. The defenders of Mudi Village were powerless to stop them, and watched as the Sui army "collected" the horses of several nomadic tribes outside the village who had no time to escape. Then, the entire Sui army was reborn, and after replenishing the two cavalry regiments, nearly a thousand soldiers had war horses to travel.

The rejuvenated remnants of the soldiers no longer crawled slowly in the mountains, they forcibly marched 150 miles in a day and night to avoid the Goguryeo army that came to the rescue of Mudizhai, first to the north of the false shot, giving people the illusion of preparing to defect to the Great Sui vassal kingdom, and then to the south, along the Xiaoliao River to kill the new city.

Liaodong was stirred up, and the tribes that had become accustomed to the Sui army appearing as a benevolent and righteous army suddenly discovered that this remnant army under the banner of the Great Sui was comparable to bandits. The robbers paid attention to the retention of blessings, and after robbing the money and grain, they often did not harm the crops in the fields, the cattle in the pens, and the places where the remnants of the soldiers passed, but they did not even let go of the wells. The 50,000 Goguryeo army that followed behind was invisibly cleared by the wall, and it was difficult to replenish the country, so they had to stop again and again to ask for food and grass from neighboring tribes and fortresses. And the owners of the forts and the leaders of the tribes made comparisons and realized the fact that it was far more difficult to satisfy the normal needs of a regular army of 50,000 men than to satisfy the extortion of 3,000 bandits.

At the beginning of August, the remnants of the army, which had been repaired for 12 days after the breakout, failed to return to western Liaoxi as originally planned, but were blocked by the defenders of Xincheng on the north bank of Xiaoliaoshui. The situation ahead was unclear, and Xue Shixiong did not dare to pass through the enemy directly, so he turned around and went east to kill the general.

"They're going to be finished, and our soldiers and horses are near Mudi Village. Flanked on both sides, one person can drown this group of Sui troops with a mouthful of foam! Gao Rui, who was left behind in Xincheng, looked at the smoke and dust in the distance and said happily. In order to deal with this wandering lone wolf as soon as possible, he left 20,000 soldiers to defend the city and led 10,000 elites to pursue the enemy army.

"Defeat him, let's go home!" After hearing the news that the defenders of Xincheng were following, Xue Shixiong sneered and ordered the army to stop on an unnamed slope in front of the river.

The hillside was a mound about twenty miles long, on the edge of the hilly terrain, which was cut into north and south parts by the small Liaoshui from the center. Because Xue Shixiong settled in the village here, a few years later, this hill had a slightly louder name, Zhumapo.

Li Xu and Liu Wuzhou each led a regiment of cavalry and were ordered to ambush in a depression five miles north of Po. There were four or five cameo appearances in a row as robbers, and the soldiers were very irritable. Liu Wuzhou's subordinates were okay, they had seen how the Goguryeo people treated their compatriots, so when they slaughtered and robbed the other party's people, they felt that they were just repaying their grievances with resentment. It was difficult for Li Xu's former grain guards to accept this approach, many of them had read the same books as Li Xu, and the soldiers and horses from the Central Plains Dynasty had always been benevolent and righteous in their minds, and they had not committed any crimes wherever they passed. But he never thought that killing people, plundering people's cattle and sheep, burning people's houses and tents, and destroying people's crops would have to be done by himself.

But everyone has to admit that Xue Shixiong's method is very effective. Until they met the defenders of the new city, the tribes and fortresses along the way almost avoided the remnants of this army in their early 3,000s. Some tribes also secretly sent cattle, sheep and fried rice, begging the banner of the king not to appear near their pastures.

"He's ***, I didn't expect Lao Tzu to be a robber and enjoy it!" Brigade Gao Xiang stood beside Li Xu and muttered quietly. With the speed of the defenders of the new city, it would take some time for them to enter the ambush area, and under the burning of bloodthirsty desire, Gao Xiang felt the bridge of his nose tingle, and always wanted to say some nonsense to distract himself.

"Even if we die today, we'll have enough money. In any case, let's choke enough of the Goguryeo mongrel! Another newly promoted brigade leader, Yuan Zhongwen, licked his dry lips in response. He is a soldier from Luozhou, and when he ambushed King Baye, he beheaded two gang leaders of the other side in battle, and was credited with merit once, and rewarded a woman who robbed a large family in the village. Although the woman was abandoned by the Sui army the next day, Yuan Zhongwen was still very satisfied that he had finally become a man.

"Benevolence and righteousness are made to show people, which general doesn't have thousands of white bones piled up there behind him!" Wu Shi Tong secretly glanced at Li Xu, who was becoming more and more unsmiling in front of him, and muttered quietly. When what he did conflicted with what he had learned in his life, and he suddenly found that it was easier to survive by doing evil than doing good, he had to find some reason for himself to be at ease. When these reasons were found, the eyes of those who had read the books suddenly became more violent than those of the martial artists.

He was not the only one, this violent atmosphere infected almost everyone. On the one hand, there is the temptation to go home and survive, mixed with the thrill of revenge from killing and plundering, and on the other hand, the head is cut off and built into a stupa with the idea in their heart, and everyone knows what they should choose.

When they return to the Central Plains in the future, perhaps on a sleepless night, they will look at their hands in the Buddhist hall and blame themselves. But now, out of instinct, they have chosen a path that can survive.

Although this road to survival has to be paved by countless corpses.

Li Xu pulled the black wind and stood at the forefront of the team. His heart was as restless as that of Samurai Tong and the others, and his eyes were as blood-devouring as everyone else. The afternoon sun shone down from the west, and he had to squint his eyes very thinly, but the moment his eyes turned, all he revealed was a fierce light.

For more than ten days, he did not participate in the revenge against the people of Goguryeo, nor did he enjoy the women he had robbed. But he led several orders to massacre captives and sack tribes. Some of the captives could not be called soldiers, they were just old men and children with knives and guns, but Li Xu still did not hesitate to order someone to cut them down next to the pit dug by the other party's own hands. The bodies of the 300,000 righteous men who did not kill prisoners and did not torture were all laid on the edge of the horses, and no one dared to take the same danger again.

"I took three hundred men into the camp, two hundred and thirty-seven died, and I am still alive because I am a captain, they are not!"

"I killed all the captives and the people so that I could go home. Because I am a Sui person, they are Goguryeo people! "Every day, the chaotic thoughts make the young man almost crazy. He had nowhere to confide in these strange and torturous thoughts, and no one would understand.

Liu Hongji is a good brother, and he will instruct Li Xu on everything about dealing with people. But he wouldn't understand Li Xu's guilt for the death of his companion. I can't understand why, in Li Xu's eyes, the people of the enemy country are like his father and uncle. He was born as a right guard, although he was down, after all, he was used to being superior.

Yu Wenshi and not a person to talk to, from him, Li Xu can only receive blows and ridicule. Although there are no family interests to fight for at the moment, Yu Wenshiji's tongue looks normal. But after all, he was born noble, and he was incompatible with Li Xu's growth environment.

For days, the threat of death and the guilt in his heart almost crushed the young man. His words became less and less, but his personality became more and more withdrawn. Whether it was to his companions or the tribal elders who came to ask for mercy, he always had an urge in his heart to draw his sword. This violent feeling was terrifying, and at least two of the elders of the Nameless Tribe paid an extra twenty sheep because of this young man who held a long black scimitar in his hand and would pounce at any moment. And those newly added to Li Xu's command also instinctively chose to obey this young man who was nearly half younger than himself.

"Your captain is like a beast!" Someone privately exchanged views on Li Xu with Wu Shitong.

"My captain was once called Attachment by the Turks, what is Attachment, do you know, it is the Wolf King!" Samurai Tong used hearsay stories to show off to everyone. "Back then, when my captain was only fourteen years old, he rushed into the Turkic camp alone and hacked to death more than thirty people!"

"No wonder, no wonder you became a captain at such a young age!" The soldiers quietly admired. In addition to the gratitude for saving his life, there was a little fear in his heart.

Li Xu couldn't hear these gossip, since the day Zhang Xiu followed Li Jiancheng back to the east, he had no henchmen around him who liked to make small reports. Several of the soldiers were killed in the camp of the horse company, and the guards who were temporarily brought in were too old to have a common language with the young people.

Sometimes, Li Xu especially wants to die in battle. I fantasize that I will die heroically in the enemy army, leaving a glorious image for future generations, and at the same time, I don't have to pay attention to the countless troubles in my heart. But every time he rushed into the enemy's army, he always relied on instinct to swing his sword, and although the battle tricks taught to him by the coppersmith master were scattered, after being instructed by General Qian Shixiong, they became practical. On the battlefield, often after three moves, the enemy on the opposite side is shorter. Immediately after, Li Xu had to concentrate on the next opponent until the end of the entire battle.

After each battle, the young man would be surprised to find that between the sword light and the rain of blood, he had the least troubles, and the sword was not a pleasure, but a tranquility, a concentration and tranquility that could almost not think about anything. This feeling made him more and more eager to fight, and the murderous aura on his body became stronger and stronger. On the battlefield, Wu Shi Tong, Gao Xiang and the newly added Yuan Zhongwen all like to accompany Li Xu's side, because although the ruthless feeling that suddenly appeared on the captain of the school recently made people uncomfortable, the results on the battlefield were often invincible.

Suddenly, the wolf-like boy raised his fingers, and two regiments and six hundred cavalrymen covered the horse's mouth with their hands at the same time. The enemy appeared, slowly appearing in the distant wilderness in the afternoon sun.

When the silence fell, people noticed that there was a strong wind in the place, and the wind was blowing from northeast to southwest. At the same time, the sun in the west is dazzling.

At the same time as being discovered by the enemy, Gao Rui, who stayed behind in Xincheng, also found his prey. From the size of the enemy army, he even guessed that there would be ambushes nearby, so he ordered six thousand soldiers to press, two thousand soldiers to flank the guard, and two thousand soldiers to act as the rearguard. On the side of the river, he didn't put any soldiers. It is impossible for the Sui army to have a warship ashore, otherwise they would have already crossed the new city downstream, and there would be no need to spend so much time to lure the defenders out.

Gao Rui did not intend to camp and hold out, although that would most likely hold the enemy back until the following army of 50,000 was reached. But in that case, the credit shared with him would be much thinner. The 10,000 people under his command were elites, and he didn't believe that 10,000 elites couldn't defeat 3,000 remnants.

Xue Shixiong did not intend to defend either, although the Sui army had a good advantage in the terrain. However, there are not enough bows and arrows in the army, and once the two sides are stuck for a long time, their own side will not take advantage. So, as soon as the Goguryeo approached the mound, he beat the drums of war and sent down all the foot soldiers on the hillside, except for his own guards.

Two armies dressed in different colors approached with the footsteps of death, one occupying a position with twenty-three brigades (hundreds) and the other occupying Tianshi, with sixty brigades. The ground beneath his feet began to tremble slowly, first slightly, then hugely, and then more and more intensely, as if there had been an earthquake, and the people who were shaking were numb.

Suddenly, the sky went dark, the mountains collapsed, and the sound of the river disappeared completely.

Tens of thousands of feather arrows covered the long sky, and countless people began to speed up their running, and countless people died under the arrows in the process of running, and they fell straight down without even snorting. Without hesitation, his companion stepped over his corpse and continued to charge forward against the enemy's feathered arrows. The river turned red in an instant, and I didn't know where the blood was coming from or whose body it came from.

The archers on both sides loosened the strings only twice before pulling out their swords. At such a close distance, although the momentum of the bow and arrow is huge, the actual effect may not be ideal. What can really cause mass destruction is the waist knife, the sound of the steel knife penetrating into the bones, which is far greater than the whistling of feather arrows to the enemy's morale.

Under the slanting sun, a river of blood flows westward!

Note: Xiaoliaoshui is a tributary of the Liao River, which flows into the Liao River from east to southwest.

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