The big mountain between Anfu County and Yuanzhou Mansion is called Wugong Mountain.

If you send troops in the spring, you may be able to get lucky and turn over in the mountains. But winter is absolutely impossible, and after entering the mountains, you will either freeze to death, or you will starve to death if you can't find anything to eat.

Then you can only take the route further east, and you still need to cross the mountains and mountains, and go straight from Anfu County to Fenyi County, which is equivalent to crossing the remaining veins of Wugong Mountain.

At the beginning of December, Zhao Han personally led an army of 4,000 people, without any heavy grain and grass, and set off into the mountains in the snow.

Half of this mountain journey belongs to Anfu County, and the field division has been completed. Moreover, the fields were divided after the autumn harvest, and the rent had not yet been handed over to the landlord, so it can be said that every family had surplus grain.

Whenever he went to a village, Zhao Han would borrow grain from the villagers to keep the grain and grass he carried with him.

All the way to Taoyuan Village, which is a relatively wealthy village, mainly because there is a small river in the village, alluvial fertile and flat mountain valleys.

"The whole army rests, don't sit down in the snow!"

Including Zhao Han, all 4,000 soldiers stood at the entrance of the village, stomping their feet on the spot to warm their bodies.

The missionary officer entered the village alone and contacted the village chief and the peasant association: "Village Chief Li, I am the missionary Zuo Zhao, and I have accompanied Mr. Zhao on the expedition here. Please arrange for the villagers to borrow grain for cooking, and the borrowed grain will leave bills. After the beginning of spring, the villagers can go to the county to receive grain and repay it at one cent of interest. It can also be used to offset summer grain taxes, which are also calculated at one cent of interest. ”

"No interest, no interest." The village chief of Li is called Li Huairen, who was originally a child here, but he was so poor that he gave up the imperial examination, and now the whole family has been allocated land.

Li Huairen first assigned work to the members of the peasant association, and then immediately went out of the village to meet Zhao Han.

"Meet Mr. Zhao!" Li Huairen fell to his knees in the snow.

"Hurry up." Zhao Han said with a smile.

After Li Huairen got up, he hurriedly said, "Mr. Zhao, go to the village to rest." ”

"Please." Zhao Han said with a smile.

Fei Ruhe ordered: "The whole army advances!" ”

The herald raised the command flag, and four thousand soldiers walked through the snow. Although I walked staggeringly, I tried not to step on the field, and I couldn't help it if I fell into the field.

When they entered the village, every household was boiling water, mainly to soak the soldiers' feet.

The military Chinese books and heralds were busy, issuing receipts for grain loans to the villagers everywhere, and the military judges repeatedly warned the soldiers and pawns not to disturb the people.

Seeing that thousands of soldiers had not committed any crimes, and lived in the villagers' homes very politely, Li Huairen couldn't help but sigh: "The teachers of true benevolence and righteousness, if you talk about military discipline, Yue Wumu's soldiers are just like that." ”

Zhao Han smiled: "I can't compare to Yue Wumu. Village Chief Li, after crossing the Taoyuan Ridge in the north, will you reach the boundary of Fenyi County? ”

"It's just to turn over, but the snow is not easy to walk, and it is more convenient to melt the snow in spring." Li Huairen said.

Zhao Han said: "No matter how difficult it is, you have to turn over." ”

Troops must be sent in winter, once the spring begins, the elite of Yuanzhou will definitely join forces with the governor Li Maofang, and take a boat along the Gan River to Jishui County to kill.

Moreover, sending troops in winter will definitely make the prefect of Yuanzhou defenseless.

When I came to Li Huairen's house, I saw that the village chief's daughter-in-law had killed chickens and was boiling water to scald her hair. Zhao Han immediately said: "The poultry killed by the villagers will be compensated according to the price!" All the meat in the village was given priority to the wounded and sick. ”

"Mr. Zhao, there is no need to do this," Li Huairen hurriedly said, "Mr. Zhao gave us a share of the field, he is our great benefactor, what is the point of killing a chicken?" ”

Fei Ruhe said with a cold face: "This is a military order, don't hurt our army's heart." ”

"Don't dare, don't dare." Li Huairen is not good to say.

After the village chief's chicken was cooked, it was taken out by the missionary and given to the wounded and sick. Along the way, some people are sick, some people are frostbitten, and more than a dozen have been "reduced".

Fortunately, there was no severe frostbite, so it was enough to recuperate at a villager's house.

Zhao Han, Fei Ruhe, Huang Qi, Huang Shun and other middle and high-ranking members of the army all ate ordinary food at Li Huairen's house, and they didn't drink a sip of wine they took out.

The composition of the army is more simple, and it is far better to train than civilian officials.

Don't look at the off-duty soldiers in Zhao Han's hands, there are only a few hundred people, and the rest are all half-ploughing and half-fighting peasant soldiers, but the military discipline is far superior to any current army. Those who are disobedient and make mistakes have long been eliminated.

Even a small number of gangster-born soldiers became forbidden after severe punishment.

The main credit goes to the missionary officers in the army, and the soldiers are not treated badly!

The non-commissioned officers who participated in the winter march not only received their salaries in excess of the quota, but also received a free cotton coat and two pairs of cotton shoes for each of them.

Cotton and cotton cloth, Zhao Han ordered a lot from the merchants.

The lonely elderly and the disabled in the hospices, as well as the homeless women in the city, were asked to make clothes and shoes, which were purchased at the expense of the General Military Office.

When he slept at night, Zhao Han didn't occupy Li Huairen's bed, and slept on the ground with others. It was laid with straw, and on top of it were straw mats, and the quilts and straw mats were brought by the soldiers.

Li Huairen saw that there was a place lying on the ground in the hall, and even Zhao Han was lying in it, and he was suddenly shocked beyond measure.

He had never seen such an army, nor had he seen such an officer.

Li Huairen thought to himself: Mr. Zhao should be the emperor, and the people of the world will be blessed.

"Zi said," Fei Ruhe suddenly said in the dark, "I'm a little worried about my family, some time ago there was news that the county town was attacked by bandits. ”

Zhao Han said: "The prefect of Guangxin has recruited troops to suppress thieves, maybe the county town will not be able to fight back for the time being, but your family must be fine, after all, it is so close to the city." ”

Fei Ruhe sighed: "Shanglu Town is a den of thieves, it is too close to my house, and it takes less than half a day to get there by boat." ”

"As long as the gentry are not stupid, they will definitely not sit idly by, so you can rest assured." Zhao Han comforted.

Leadshan County is so rich that the gentry can recruit a lot of villagers if they scrape together a little money.

And the secret sect is not able to succeed, after the sect leader has taken the lead in the county seat, he has begun to take the lead in enjoying. In addition to killing the landlord and distributing the grain, the lives of the low-level believers have not improved much, and the land has been occupied by the high-level of the Esoteric Sect.

The prefect of Guangxin also changed one, and he was quite responsible, and recruited troops immediately after taking office.

It is estimated that the thieves in Leadshan County will be destroyed by the prefect within half a year.

Don't look at Fei Ruhe's home is very close to the thief's nest, but it is the safest. In order to block the thieves' den, the prefect set up a barracks at the confluence of the two rivers, just to serve as bodyguards for the Fei family in Goose Lake.

Fei Ruhe didn't bother to think about family affairs anymore, and suddenly said: "Tanimura Li's family wants to marry me." ”

"Li Mengyan's family?" Zhao Han asked.

Fei Ruhe said: "It's Mr. Li's niece and granddaughter, I didn't dare to agree, those scholars in Jishui made too much trouble." ”

Zhao Han sighed and said, "These scholars are really thieves." Don't promise them, I'll ask your sister to come forward and find a better one for you. ”

Some gentry still want to recruit An, and some gentry think that Zhao Han can succeed.

Even if Zhao Han already has a wife, these guys are also knocking on the side, and if they want to send their daughter and sister over, they can be Zhao Han's concubines.

Zhao Han kept dragging his feet and refused, and they stared at the others.

Fei Ruhe, who is the first military officer of the General Military Office, has not officially married a wife, and instantly became a fragrant bun, and I don't know how many gentry want to kiss.

Not only that, but the high-level civil servants of the General Military Office, including Zhao Han's three secretaries, all had secret contacts with the gentry.

If you are seriously married, Zhao Han can't control it.

If anyone dares to take the daughter of a gentry as a concubine, or marry a wife after divorcing his wife, Zhao Han will definitely not spare him!

The next day, after soaking their feet, the soldiers left the wounded and sick in the village, and immediately set off on the road, leaving no time to help the villagers clean up their houses.

The further you go into the mountains, the more difficult the road becomes, especially over the Taoyuan Ridge.

This mountain is actually not steep, and later generations also built an interprovincial highway, which is the shortest and best route from Anfu County to Fenyi County.

It's just that the snow is too thick!

More than 20 soldiers who were good at climbing mountains were sent out to be pioneers. They stepped on the snow and climbed up, and from time to time someone slipped and rolled down, and the snow along the way could not fall to their death.

After tossing for a long time, finally a soldier climbed up, looked for a big tree to tie the rope, and then got it down for the main force to climb.

Zhao Han was so cold that his feet were numb, and his hands were blue from the cold. His physical strength was still good, and he grabbed the rope and climbed hard, but the knee-deep snow was disgusting.

The soldiers who climbed to the top of the mountain first were struggling to make a fire.

The fire was not seen, but the smoke came out a lot, and when it was rising, it was extinguished.

"Whew!"

Zhao Han climbed to the top of the mountain, was pulled up by a soldier, and was so tired that he wanted to lie down and sleep directly.

Fei Ruhe also came up, kept stomping his feet and rubbing his hands, and was still in the mood to joke: "I used to read books, read about ancient famous generals, marching in the snow, and crossing mountains and mountains, but I didn't think it was very powerful." Now that I think about it, I deserve to be a famous general, how far have we walked? ”

"Counting the mountain roads that go around and around, it's about 200 miles." Zhao Han said with a smile.

They started from Anfu County and walked all the way to this place, and the straight-line distance was actually only sixty miles.

"It's burning, it's burning!"

The ignition soldier suddenly shouted excitedly, and was immediately silenced by Fei Ruhe's order.

Many of the dead branches were picked up and dried, and then moved to the side to light a fire, and more and more fires were burning.

The soldiers who climbed to the top of the mountain also took off their shoes and changed into dry pairs, and even took off their leggings to make a fire, because the leggings were already soaked with snow.

Each other, while roasting the fire, while helping to rub their legs and feet, otherwise they will definitely get frostbite again.

After resting for an hour and a half, the clothes had been dried and the stomach was full to recover his strength, Zhao Han immediately ordered to continue the march.

The way down the mountain is almost rolling, and it is half an afternoon when I reach the foot of the mountain.

This place is under the jurisdiction of Fenyi County, and the villagers were frightened when they saw the army, and they hid in their homes one by one and did not dare to come out.

Zhao Han forcibly knocked open a dwelling, asked where the largest landlord in the neighborhood was, and quickly led troops to the landlord's house.

"Fence it off!"

There are no real big landlords in the mountain villages, and they can have hundreds of acres of land if they die. Zhao Han sent troops to surround the house, tied up the men of the landlord's family, asked the women to help make the beds and fold the quilts, and then asked the women to take grain to cook.

The house was not big enough to fit four thousand soldiers, so he divided a lot of them to borrow houses from the common people.

Rest for the night and set off again the next day.

The landlords and peasants here are confused, and they can't figure out where the army came from, and they are too benevolent.

Yes, benevolence!

Although the landlord's whole family was tied up, they did not do anything to the woman. I just robbed the landlord's family of some grain, really only a little bit, because it was inconvenient to march because I robbed too much - petty thieves and petty soldiers must exist, and this is not our own territory, stealing some small objects is unavoidable, and the missionaries and law enforcement officers cannot investigate.

As for the people, the soldiers did nothing but go into the house to sleep.

Compared with the officers and soldiers, this is a real army of benevolence and righteousness, and the landlord even feels that he is in a dream.