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Zhong Ye set out from the capital division and brought 3,000 soldiers with him to escort the military pay and rations.

These 3,000 people were selected by Zhong Ye from the ordinary soldiers of the winter camp, and the soldiers in the winter camp were all children of commoners, who did the hardest work and ate the worst food, and the most unfair thing was that they could only be big soldiers, and there was no way to advance.

When Zhong Ye went to recruit soldiers, he made it very clear to these people: those who are not afraid of death and want to stand out.

At that time, only more than 2,000 of the 40,000 Dongying soldiers stood out, and most of them did not want to be sent to death, knowing that the imperial army had been repeatedly defeated and their morale was low, not to mention that there were less than 20,000 soldiers on the front line. It's too unrealistic to fight ten at a time, after all, not everyone is Zhong Manlang.

More than 2,000 people, plus the hundreds of firehead troops assigned by the imperial court, together they were just enough for 3,000 people.

After gathering all these 3,000 people, Grandpa Zhong concentrated on the lecture.

He didn't say anything, he was loyal and filial, and killed the enemy bravely. Just ask who of these people is in debt and how much they owe.

Because these people have low military salaries, they often have loans on weekdays, and Zhong Ye has been in the market all year round, so he knows all this.

Sure enough, the vast majority of these people have loans, but to varying degrees.

Zhong Ye then ordered someone to take the money and pay off all the arrears for these people.

He also gave each person ten taels of silver, which was regarded as a military salary paid in advance, which could be used as a settling-in fee for a family person, and ten taels of silver would be used to save money, enough to support a year.

If you are alone, you can take it with you and put it back in your account.

In this way, these soldiers have no worries, and they are all grateful to Zhong Ye.

There are three thousand miles from Zhaoyi to Shuozhou, if it is Zhong Ye himself, he can naturally travel thousands of miles a day, but with his entourage and baggage, it will take half a month to travel day and night.

What's more, you have to take a proper rest and not get too tired.

Zhong Ye came out this time with only one gourd, and the winter melon stayed at home to take care of the house.

Among these soldiers, there is a veteran nicknamed "Green Onion", who has been boiling for many years.

The main reason why he went on the expedition with Zhong Ye was because he owed too much gambling debts to pay off.

was chased for debts every day, so he simply ran to the front line to hide his debts.

It's not that he is not afraid of death, but he wants to fight if he wins, run away if he can't win, and pretend to be dead or surrender if he can't win. It's better than being beaten to death by creditors.

When I was walking, I always liked to get close to Zhong Ye, hoping to get some benefits.

When he was resting this day, he leaned over again, first said a few flattering words, and saw that Zhong Ye ignored him, so he said solemnly: "General, my subordinates have a few unpleasant words, I don't know whether to say them or not." ”

"If there's a fart, let it go!" The gourd next to Zhong Ye spoke: "Are you addicted to gambling again?" Do you want me to heal you? ”

"Hehe, I've learned well now, and I won't gamble anymore, otherwise where will I be worthy of the general?" The green onion squeezed his eyebrows and smiled: "I want to say, the general is a little too generous." It is just to pay off the debts and pay the money in advance for those of us, in order to settle down and kill the enemy and serve the country. But why should those fireheads be treated the same? They just cooked, and the rebels didn't know what they looked like, and they actually followed us to get naked! ”

"What's wrong with cooking?!" Hulu squinted and asked him, "Don't you have to eat?" Or can you win the account with a hungry stomach?! ”

"I didn't mean you," Green Onion quickly explained, "I mean them." As he spoke, he pointed to the firehead army who was cooking in the distance.

Zhong Ye smiled and said, "When I was very young, I played in my father's barracks, and I found that whenever there was a reward in the army, no one would be left behind, whether it was cooking or feeding horses. I was also curious at the time, and asked my father why he was treated equally.

He told me a story about the Warring States period, when Zheng attacked the Song Dynasty, the Song State ordered the general Yuan Hua to lead the army to meet the enemy, and before the battle, Yuan Hua killed cattle and sheep to reward the three armies, but only let the soldiers with weapons eat meat. At that time, a coachman named Yang Chu also wanted to ask for a piece of meat to eat, but was abused by Yuan Hua. When he went to the battlefield the next day, Yang poured a car for Yuan Hua and sent him directly to the opponent's military camp, saying that you let me see the anger of the nobles yesterday, and today I will also invite you to see the anger of the puppeteer. As a result, the Song army was in chaos, and the commander Yuanhua was captured alive by Zheng Guo's soldiers, and the Song State was defeated.

My father died early, and I didn't have time to learn his tactics of war, but I always remember this story. ”

The green onion looked stunned when he heard this, and praised: "The old man is really a rare good general, and now there are often people in the army who talk about his old man's great achievements." For example, the battle of Qingyan Mountain, it was really remarkable! ”

"The battle in Qingyan Mountain is the credit of General Zhenguo, and it has nothing to do with my father, you remember wrong." Zhong Ye said with a smile.

The green onion suddenly turned purple and ran away.

"I hate such a poor tongue the most." Hulu snorted: "It's not annoying. ”

"Such a person is not completely useless," Zhong Ye didn't care: "Hurry up and eat, hurry up after eating." ”

The farther north you go, the colder the weather becomes, and along the way, you keep meeting people in the north helping the old and the young to move south, saying that the north is going to be chaotic and you have to go to the south as soon as possible.

After walking for more than ten days, Zhong Ye and his party came to Qin County on the border of Shuozhou.

Qin County has now become an empty city, and Yuan Shichuan did not send troops to garrison it, but occasionally rebels would come over to inspect it. After all, the number of rebels is also limited, and the battle line cannot be stretched too long.

Zhong Ye had planned it in advance, so he went straight here, first to stand still, and then to plot something else.

Zhong Ye was not stationed in the city, and the walls of the county town were destroyed and could not be defended. In addition, I am afraid that the rebels will move in advance, and I don't want to be a turtle in the urn.

But he chose a high ground outside the city and set up camp, transported all the baggage to the mountain, and chose reliable people to guard it.

The remnants of the main force of the imperial court withdrew to Dianyang Mountain, which was three hundred miles away, and there were rebels besieging the mountain, cutting off the supply of grain and grass, and trying to trap the officials and soldiers on the mountain.

Some other scattered small stragglers, most of them scattered everywhere, could not be gathered for a while.

But as long as the news is released slowly, some people will be slowly gathered.

The night was as deep as ink, and Zhong Ye's big tent was still lit with candles.

Hulu came in with a basin of hot water, and when he saw that Zhong Ye was looking at the marching map, he didn't bother, he went up directly to take off Zhong Ye's shoes and socks on one foot, and put his foot in the water to soak.

Zhong Ye's feet were too big, and he didn't have a suitable foot basin, so he could only soak them one by one.

"Grandpa has rested early! I'm tired enough today. Hulu said while washing Zhong Ye's feet, "I probably won't be able to sleep a few times." ”

Now that the rebels have not received any news, they will inevitably come to harass them when they know that the officers and soldiers are coming.

"It's okay, I'm going down to see how the fortifications are going down the mountain, and I need to fix the defense as soon as possible."

Zhong Ye asked the 3,000 soldiers to work in three shifts, taking turns to build fortifications, and they had to race against time and not have a moment to relax.