In the nineteenth year of the Great Yuan Dynasty, the fifth year of the Dragon and Phoenix of the King of Xiaoming, in March, Fengzhou, Datong Road, Zhongshu Province (now * East).

The Yuan army, which rushed to the attack, stood like a forest of halberds and guns, and the carriages and horses flowed like a river, and arranged their positions outside the city in an orderly manner. The armies in front and behind were endless, all of them were plain, full of white flags. Under the cold sun, this scene of solemnity and mourning gives people a heart-warming coolness. As can be seen from the banner, the general who led the troops was Polo Timur.

"Your uncle, Tartar wants to fight to the death." On the city wall, Deng San said.

The Red Turban Army in the city is mostly the Eastern Red Turban of King Xiao Ming and Liu Futong, and some of them are the remnants of several other rebel armies that have failed, and Deng San is different from them. He is not a red scarf, let alone a follower of the White Lotus Sect, an out-and-out horse thief. Before Liu Futong's uprising, he had been crisscrossing both sides of the Yellow River for many years.

At the peak, he had hundreds of subordinates, everyone had horses, and they came and went quickly, and the Yuan court called them horse thieves, and they could not be controlled in three or four years. Later, Emperor Yuan was alarmed, and he personally issued an edict that among the important cities along the Yellow River, each city should set up a special command of soldiers and horses to encircle and suppress them.

After repeated fights, there are fewer and fewer brothers. At this time, Liu Futong Yingzhou got into trouble, and moved to Henan, with great momentum, and the country was established as the Great Song Dynasty, so he simply took the remaining 100 brothers to vote for the freshly baked King Xiaoming of the Great Song Dynasty. He was incorporated into the cavalry army, and although he was very famous, he was not a descendant in the end, and only held the position of a thousand households.

Soon after, for strategic purposes, Liu Futong sent the Third Route Army to the Northern Expedition, and he was ordered to transfer to the subordinates of Guan Duo, Mr. Guan of the Middle Route Army, and Pan Pancheng, who broke the head. Entering Jin and Hebei, it was strangled by the Yuan army's fierce general Chahan Timur, trapped outside the Taihang Mountain, and failed to attack Dadu (Beijing) by the Eastern Route Army, so he had to go out of the fortress and plunder the counties outside the fortress. Three months ago, it captured Shangdu (in the territory of the Zhenglan Banner of the Xilin Gol League in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region).

According to the original intention of Guan Duo and Pan Cheng, they wanted to take advantage of this to capture Liaoyang Province and seize the northeast, so as to echo the Eastern Route Army in Shandong across the sea. However, Liu Futong issued a strict order, asking them to go south immediately, and once again make a gesture of attacking Dadu, attracting the main force of the Yuan army, to relieve the huge pressure he was under in the Henan area.

-- After repelling Guan Duo, Chakhan Timur and other troops gathered heavy troops on the front line of Taihang Mountain, eyeing the south at any time.

Mr. Guan Duolian sent three waves of messengers, hoping that Liu Futong would change his mind, and the reply was only eight words: If the skin does not exist, Mao will be attached? In addition, he sent the decree of King Xiao Ming, and Prime Minister Liu Cheng ordered: set up Liaoyang Province, and appointed Guan Duo, Pan Cheng and another general of the Middle Route Army, Sha Liu Er, as the provincial Pingzhang.

The meaning is obvious, you want to fight Liaoyang, and Liaoyang will give it to you, but now you must come back and fulfill your responsibilities as a courtier of the Great Song Dynasty. It can also be seen from this that the situation in Henan is indeed urgent.

In desperation, the overall situation was important, and Mr. Guan, Guan Duo and Pan Cheng divided their troops into two ways. Pan Cheng's troops continued to advance eastward and attacked Liaoyang; Guan Duo burned all the palaces in Shangdu, and went south to conquer Fengzhou, an important town in the west, and prepared to attack Datong.

Unexpectedly, the Yuan army moved quickly, they entered Fengzhou City with their front foot, and the Yuan army surrounded them with their back foot.

Looking at the appearance of the Yuan army, Deng San turned his head to look into the city, up and down the city wall, the heralds rode horses and galloped, and various flags flew everywhere. The shouts of the officers at all levels were filled with the shouts of command, and the non-commissioned officers who had not had time to rest rushed along the road with weapons and defensive equipment in their hands to rush to the predetermined combat positions. They wore red clothes or red scarves, and as far as the eye could see, it was like a torrent of red, converging in all directions, until the entire city wall was stained with red.

The city of Fengzhou is not very large, there are not many residents in the city, and there are even fewer at this time, and the city is full of almost no civilians except for red scarves. The landlords and most of the wealthy fled elsewhere before the arrival of the Red Turbans. The rest of the people who didn't leave were women, children, the elderly, and the infirm, and completely ownerless. They are also the natural source of red scarves.

In the northwest corner of the city, there stands a white tower, which is very famous, called Wanbu Huayan Jing Tower, also called the White Tower, built during the Liao Dynasty. Mr. Guan's headquarters was set up in the Daxiong Hall of Daming Temple, to which Bai Da belonged, and from the city wall, you could see the cold light flashing from the swords and guns in the hands of the armor soldiers guarding the front of the hall.

Between them, two three-zhang high flags were erected, blowing in the wind, showing sassy, with black letters on a red background written on them: Three thousand tigers, sweeping the land of Youyan; Long Fei Ninety-Five, reopen the day of the Great Song Dynasty.

The white tower, which is more than 40 meters high, temporarily serves as a watchtower for reconnaissance and command, and at this time a black flag is stretched out from its top, which means to gather cavalry. Deng San straightened the armor on his chest and said to the people around him: "Let's go down, the cavalry has begun to gather." ”

After many years of fighting, less than half of the hundred and ten descendants who joined the army together were left with him, and it was his righteous son who watched the enemy situation with him at this time. is only fifteen or sixteen years old, according to convention, with his surname, there is no big name, everyone calls him Dunshe.

- Yuan custom, she, the honorific title for the children of honorable officials and nobles. Deng San and the nobles couldn't fight each other, and for his subordinates, they were indeed honored officials.

Dunshe agreed, and went down to the city.

In this world, his biological father was originally the second master of the horse thief, and Deng San had a good relationship, and in a battle with the official army, in order to cover the evacuation of most of the troops, he died in battle, when he was only eleven or twelve years old. Previously, Deng She had a strange illness, and after waking up, he was quite different from ordinary people, and it was a bit of a young man's meaning, and those who knew it thought he could do. Deng San liked him very much when he was a child, and Deng San had no children, so he immediately adopted him, and after joining the army, he has been following the army and fighting with Deng San. Although he is young, he is also an old soldier, and he is still stained with Deng San's light, and he has the title of 100 households.

Although the title is one hundred households, there are only forty or fifty soldiers under his hands, which is also because he is the son of Deng Sanyi; You must know that Deng San's department, at most, is full of four or five hundred people.

"Who called Lao Tzu not a descendant? Grandma doesn't love your uncle and uncle, and you have to rely on yourself to recruit to replenish the source of soldiers, if it weren't for your father's reputation in the past, these horses wouldn't be able to recruit them. ”

Deng San said it well, his subordinates are really coming for his name,—— basically horse thieves from all over the country who can't get along.

While making way for the soldiers who had gone up the city wall, the father and son walked down the city. Deng Shedong looked around and asked, "Dad, do you think you can hold it?" ”

"Polo Timur's father, I heard that he was killed by Prime Minister Liu Cheng with a counter-plot, you didn't see him in white clothes, this is to take revenge. They are many strong, but we have not yet gained a firm foothold, and I think we have to have a hard fight. Deng San cursed, sighed and muttered, "From the time we joined the army to the present, it has been five years, and there are fewer and fewer brothers." If it goes on like this, it won't be long before my thousands of households with false names and false numbers will become genuine hundreds. You, a hundred households, should also be reduced to the rank of ten. ”

Deng San's complaints, Deng She had long been used to hearing them, he touched his head, only when the left ear went in and the right ear went out.

A thousand households, of course, are not as good as the career of an unrestrained horse thief, but in the current situation, only by relying on the army can he survive. Be a horse thief again? Not only will the Yuan army come to suppress them, but the rebels everywhere will not tolerate them in their own territory.

Changing careers? There is war everywhere, there is a shortage of soldiers, just look at the people who escaped from Fengzhou, you can know that they don't know what happened in the morning and at night, and their lives are difficult to live. This is also why, although Mr. Guan does not care about replenishing the source of troops, Deng San has always been able to summon soldiers intermittently, and he has barely maintained a total of two or three hundred subordinates.

The black flag on the white tower has been changed from vertical to tiled, and this flag means that within a stick of incense, the cavalry must be assembled, and those who arrive late will be killed.

"The summoning is so urgent, your uncle, the layout of the city and the city is not good, why don't you ......" Deng San turned his head and looked outside the city again, they walked to the middle of the horse road at this time, and it was vaguely seen that the Yuan army camp had not yet been set up, but the nest car for the lookout had been set up, and a team of cavalry galloped outside the moat. After the cavalry, there were more than a dozen hundred-man teams sorting out the flying bridges used to grab the moat, and in the western corner of the city, the glowing artillery was about to be lined up.

"I want to take advantage of Polo Timur's unstable foothold and use cavalry to attack for a while." Deng She made a judgment for Deng San. After a few years of service, he didn't know how many people were attacking and defending the city, plus the knowledge of his previous life, he still had this idea of common sense.

The two men quickened their pace, went against the red current, and soon reached the bottom of the city, where two cavalry warriors saw them and led their horses to meet them.

Like a sudden thunderstorm, the west corner of the city made a shocking sound. "The Tartars of the dog day are going to test the gun!" Deng San shouted. Deng She's eyes were quick, he reached out and dragged him, ignoring the spring snow on the ground, and rolled into a declination under the road. The red-turbaned soldiers up and down the road were suddenly in disarray, shouting and shouting, and they all threw themselves down and ran, looking for a place to hide.

In the chaotic exchange of guns, the first few sounds, only the cannon sounded, and there was no movement, obviously the distance was not adjusted well, and it did not reach the city wall. Immediately afterwards, a stone bullet whistled over their heads, smashing into a house dozens of meters in front of them, wooden beams flying horizontally, smoke and dust, like an earthquake, the stone bullet went straight to the ground three feet.

Then three or four more cannons smashed into the city wall, and one of them rolled down the road, and the red turban soldiers, who could not dodge, were crushed and killed several of them.

Then there was silence outside the city, and the distance was about to be tested. After waiting for a while, Deng She let go of Deng San and drilled out of the declination together, but fortunately, the two cavalrymen and their mounts were unharmed. Only one of the horses, which had just entered the battlefield, was frightened and was struggling desperately, trying to break free from the reins tied to the stones.

"Let's go!" Ignoring the mud on his body, Deng San ran to his mount, jumped up, and tightened his bridles. The soldier who led the horse loosened the reins, and Dunshe followed, whipping his horse, knocking out the chaotic crowd and running towards the cavalry camp not far away.

After half a burnt incense, the black flag on the white tower changed from tiling to oblique to the left, and the wind swept the flag, drawing a short straight line. The wind became stronger, and this was an order for the assembled cavalry to prepare for battle.

——

1. Horse thief.

"A group of thieves on the horse broke into the rich family, counted their money, and invited gold and silver to scatter flowers. Or rob the state and county official treasury, take light capital, restrain the loading, detain *, put the wine high, and go on the horse in three days. The state and county are not armed, and there is nothing like it. ”

"Nanyang, Daimyo, Dongping, Jinan, and Xuzhou each set up a command division of soldiers and horses to catch horse thieves, but they can't ban it."

"The horse thieves in the Central Plains plundered the Huai Bian, and the court could not control it." Not only did they plunder the treasury, but they also robbed grain ships, and their activities were roughly on both sides of the Yellow River.