The Chinese New Year's Eve of the second year of the Taiqing Dynasty was originally a time for family reunion and celebration of the New Year's Festival, but today's Jiankang City is chaotic and like a ghost domain.

There are many temples on both sides of the Qinhuai River, and in the past, incense was flourishing and believers gathered, but now it has become a military camp where people from all walks of life are stationed. On the north bank is the Hou Jing rebels, numbering tens of thousands of people, and on the south bank are the men and horses from all sides of the Southern Liang who rushed to help, and the two sides are facing each other across the Qinhuai River.

Throughout the day, both sides restrained themselves and did not engage in any large-scale fighting. In the evening, the ban on the respective camps was somewhat relaxed, and occasionally people walked between the camps.

A tall and thin battalion guard dressed in a cyan military uniform and carrying a long axe walked towards the big truss north camp, and everywhere he went, the other camp guards looked at this person with envious and awe-inspiring eyes.

Hou Jing's rebel army has a large stream, including the township warriors recruited from Huainan, as well as the captives who were captured and incorporated along the way.

So many rebels did not know where they belonged, and their generals could not distinguish between them, but soon the masses summed up a lesson, that is, to distinguish the status of the soldiers in the chaotic army from their clothing and weapons.

In the old years of Datong, there was a song in Jiangnan that sang "Qingpao White Horse Shouyang Comes", Hou Jingqian begged for brocade to the imperial court, and the imperial court gave green cloth, so he made clothes for the soldiers in response to this old ballad, so most of the people in the army who got the green robe were the rebel veterans who followed the rebellion since Shouyang.

Hou Jing's army expanded to Si in a short period of time, and there were no more armor and ordnance to give to the soldiers. Therefore, there is also an obvious generation difference in the armaments of the battalion sergeants, and the most elite and core troops are naturally the most well-armed, while the other rabble may not even have short-bladed iron weapons.

This tall and thin battalion soldier was wearing a green robe and holding a long axe, and it was clear at a glance that he must be the elite of the rebels. In fact, this battalion pawn is Han Shao, who was arrested and coerced by Shouyang's chaotic pawns in Huainan Han earlier.

That day, in order to cover his younger brother Han Xian, who was hiding in the reeds, Han Shao took the initiative to appear and be arrested, and was incorporated into the army because of his tall and brave, and followed the rebels all the way to the south, and now he is a team leader under the command of Hou Jingbu General Zhi Boren.

Because of this outfit to deter the crowd, Han Shao was able to travel freely through the camps, and he soon arrived at the camp near the Vermilion Bird Truss along the north bank of the Qinhuai River. This is where the rebel army is located, and many elite soldiers are stationed here, and heavy supplies are also stored here.

Outside the camp, there were many refugees from Beijing, and many corpses were thrown around the camp.

They were not driven here by the rebel army, who entered the city as early as October and quickly took control of the whole city, divided their troops to defend various key places in the city, and had already surrounded Taicheng. All the captured soldiers and men and women were also placed around Taicheng, and the earth mountain was built to attack Taicheng, among which the old, weak, wounded and dead were directly rammed into the earth mountain, and even the corpses could not be seen.

As for the people and corpses on the north bank of the big truss, the residents of the city who were originally hiding everywhere heard that reinforcements from all walks of life had arrived, and they swarmed out to meet the army of the king of Qin, but after the reinforcements passed the big truss, instead of directly attacking the rebels, they instead plundered the people of Beijing who came out to meet them, killing and injuring many people.

On the contrary, Hou Jing's troops rushed to hear the news and temporarily frightened the reinforcements from all sides to the south of the Qinhuai River, and the two sides confronted each other across the river.

Because it was the end of the Chinese New Year's Eve, in order to reward the soldiers who had fought hard for days, Hou Jing ordered the meritorious soldiers of all armies to enter the camp tonight to receive a reward for wine and food, and Han Shao came for this.

He had the merit of taking the lead in the battle when the army first entered Jiankang and attacked Dongfu City, and naturally there was no perfect merit recording procedure in the chaotic army, and only the official seals captured in Dongfu City were printed on cloth and distributed to the meritorious soldiers as evidence, which can be used to receive wine and food today.

At this time, many heroes had gathered outside the rear camp where the materials were stored, although each person was only given two liters of turbid wine and three catties of dried meat, but in Jiankang City, which had been in the war for more than two months, it was already a very rare reward.

All the heroes who came to receive the reward were all extremely vicious among the rebels, and the battalion guards responsible for distributing the rewards did not dare to slack off.

However, when Han Shao handed over his Dongfu City merit certificate, the two battalion guards inspected it and then waved their hands and said, "The official family has an order, you and other Dongfu City soldiers can't protect the prince, so that the prince loses his life, and all the merits of Dongfu City will not be rewarded!"

The official family mentioned by this battalion pawn is not Xiao Yan, the Liang Emperor in Jiankangtai City, but Xiao Zhengde, the king of Linhe, who responded to the rebels and received the rebels into the city. After Xiao Zhengde's rebels entered the city, he was impatient to ascend the throne as emperor with the support of the rebels, and his son Xiao Jianli was the crown prince.

Dongfu City is a key garrison in the city, the location is second only to Taicheng and a few other places, and there are also a large number of material supplies, so Hou Jing ordered the crown prince Xiao Jianli and his generals to be stationed in Dongfu City with Lu Huiluo.

Xiao Zhengde is extremely enthusiastic for the common cause, and spends all his family wealth to help military funds and reward meritorious soldiers. The new crown prince Xiao Jianli probably saw that his family wealth was scattered and his heart was painful, coupled with his own temperament was frivolous and lawless, and when he was guarding Dongfu City, he was busy leading the bandits to plunder and loot near the big truss, probably to make up for the increasingly empty family, and was shot to death as a result.

This incident caused a lot of sensation in the chaotic army at that time, even the pawns in the chaotic army couldn't figure it out if they wanted to break their heads, everyone carried their heads and followed the supreme and the prince to engage in the great cause of rebellion and theft of the country.

"Open the dog's eyes and take a closer look, Lao Tzu is under the command of General Zhi Borenzhi, not the prince of the dog! And in this way, you will deduct your reward, and you will deceive me with the blade of the axe."

Han Shao himself has a strong temperament in the township, and after being coerced by the chaotic army, he quickly adapted to the rules of survival in the chaotic army, and after hearing this, he directly waved the long axe in his hand and cut through a wooden plank.

The heroes who lined up to receive the reward before and after seeing this also clapped their hands and cheered, although they were all extremely vicious, but they also felt that their own merits with their lives could be invalidated because of the Xiao family's dog prince.

The camp guards in charge of distributing the rewards were also shocked and turned pale when they saw this, and they couldn't care about the so-called Supreme Decree anymore, so they directly distributed Han Shao's rewards to him, and even added a little more.

After receiving the reward, Han Shao withdrew from the camp, and then inquired all the way along the fence on the north bank of the Qinhuai River, and after more than an hour, he finally found the goal of this trip, a camp with about 1,000 people inside and outside.

"Dare to ask the battalion lieutenant general if Huainan Guo is buying General Guo? A certain person from Huainan, who has heard the name of General Guo for a long time, misses his fellow villagers during the New Year's Festival, and when the Hou Wang rewards him with wine and food, he comes to meet the general!"

Han Shao shook the wine and food in his hand in front of the camp guards, and said with a smile.

Seeing this, the camp guards did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly entered the camp to make a report, and after a while, they introduced Han Shao into the camp tent.

The camp general Guo Zhengmai sat on the main seat in the tent, and there was also a maid of the East Palace who was given by the prince a few days ago who was carefully pouring wine for it, and when he raised his eyes, he saw Han Shao who walked in with wine and meat, and said with a smile: "Look, it is indeed a brave soldier, where is your hometown? Which general is under it today? If you know my name, why don't you vote early?"

Guo Zhengmai is a local tyrant in Huainan, as early as Shouyang, he led his troops to serve Hou Jing, and when he saw Han Shao's brave and meritorious body, he suddenly had a love for talent in his heart, so he wanted to summon him into his command.

Han Shao knelt down to offer the gift he had received to Guo Zhengmai, and respectfully answered Guo Zhengmai's question, and also expressed his willingness to take refuge in Guo Zhengmai to continue to make meritorious contributions and glorify his ancestors.

Guo Zhengmai also laughed after hearing this, and ordered a subordinate general to wrestle with Han Shao in the tent, and saw that Han Shao had defeated several warriors under his account in a row, so he couldn't help but love him even more, and left him in the tent to drink together.

The sky soon darkened, and fog also floated on the Qinhuai River, and some soldiers entered the camp to convey the order of the Hou Wang, saying that the Liang army on the south bank had signs of large-scale dispatch, so that the battalions should be careful and vigilant, and beware of the Liang people cutting the camp and fighting at night.

Guo Zhengmai couldn't help but be angry after hearing this, but he didn't dare to disobey the order of the prince, and even if he ordered to stop the banquet in the tent. And Han Shao, who was trying his best to greet him at the banquet, couldn't help but secretly say pity after hearing this.

The members of the tent dispersed, and Han Shao, as a new voter, was appointed by Guo Zhengmai as the leader of the team to lead the new attached pawn, but now

It was already late at night, and he had to instruct his subordinates again tomorrow, and that night he would rest in his tents.

Although Han Shao is a newcomer, he has also won the favor of the masses with his courage and boldness, and after entering the other account, five or six people in the same account are still discussing Huainan township affairs with great interest. Han Shao asked casually, "Although General Guo is a wealthy man in the township, he has never been so powerful in the township in the past, how can he be so powerful when he serves the queen Hou?"

"That's naturally the way to ......."

When several people heard this, they didn't suspect him, so they talked about Guo Zhengmai's troops looting and gathering people in Huainan Township, but Han Shao still smiled to himself: "Is there a village called Xia Fengzhuang among them?"

"How do you remember that......

A battalion guard had already secretly sensed that something was wrong, and before he finished speaking, Han Shao had already pounced forward, holding a short knife and stabbing him in the chest, and a person next to him felt a sudden wind, turned his head and shouted, "What is Han Er going to do......

However, he was not spared, and was cut in the throat. Several members were already drunk and hazy, and Han Shao came prepared again, and suddenly made trouble, and killed five people in the tent in a row, but he didn't make too much noise.

"Sister, the enemy has been found! Don't be in a hurry, and send the Lord to the Yellow Spring tonight!"

He bent down and threw a few people into the felt, grabbed the dirt to cover their wounds to hide the smell of blood, and let the night breeze blow away the bloody breath on his body, and then continued to the tent where Guo Zheng bought on the pretext of getting lost.

However, at this time, Guo Zhengmai went out in armor, because the enemy army was approaching the big truss and had to escalate the vigilance, and when he saw Han Shao coming, he ordered him to follow behind his own soldiers and go to the camp with a thicker fog.

Under the strong recommendation of his cousin Wei Cang, Liu Zhongli was finally able to serve as the general leader of the alliance to join the armies and obtain the nominal power to command the armies.

But Liu Zhongli also knew that if he wanted the armies to truly respect and obey, he still needed to have enough brilliant and dazzling deeds. Previously, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling, led the army to be defeated, and Pei Zhigao and the Huainan people were closely connected with Xiao Fan, the king of Poyang. In addition, other clans and town generals have their own contradictions, and the personnel within the entire coalition army are extremely complicated.

So far, among the surrounding armies who have arrived in Jinai, it can be said that only Liu Zhongli and Wei Cang, as the prince's henchmen, are really eager to rescue Jiankang, and the other people are not so concerned about the safety of the two palaces, and may even secretly expect Hou Jing's army to take away the two palaces.

"Whether the danger of health can be lifted or not, we will fight here!"

After nightfall, Liu Zhongli went straight to Wei Cang's camp from Xinting and informed his cousin of his battle plan, he himself would move the camp to Dazhuan and engage Hou Jing in the front, hoping that Wei Cang would be able to march to Qingtang, cut off the road between Shicheng and Jiankang, and threaten the enemy's Huanbei camp from the side.

Now that all the armies are stationed in the south of Qinhuai River, Pei Zhigao's higher troops are even far away in the river, Wei Cang knows that going to Qingtang is going deep into the enemy, and if he is not careful, he may fall into the enemy's encirclement, but under Liu Zhongli's persuasion, plus he is also eager to rescue the East Palace, so he agreed to come down and prepare to take a risk.

At night, the fog was even greater, and even the fishing boat lamp hanging from the bow of the ship was compressed into an inconspicuous spot by the fog.

This situation naturally exacerbated the difficulty of the march, not only to avoid being discovered by enemy scouts, but also to ensure that they arrived at Qingtang in time and set up camp, which was a hard work for Wei Cang and his party.

Suddenly, there was a chaotic sound of gold and iron in the night, Wei Cang ordered people to go in to visit, only to find that there was an inconspicuous enemy lookout point in the river bay and pond ahead, more than a dozen enemy corpses were slaughtered around the outpost, and a soldier covered in blood was struggling to pull out the sword from the corpse of a general, and the soldier himself was also wounded in the abdomen and back, and was seriously injured and dying.

[In view of the general environment,

"Aren't all the soldiers here slaughtered by strong men?"

Wei Cang looked at the battle situation before entering, and couldn't help but be in awe of the seriously injured and crumbling man, so he said again: "A certain Qinwang division brigade marches at night to attack thieves, may I ask the surname of the strong man?" Will you go along?"

"The husband of the Xiao family, indulged in evil and raised thieves, so that my relatives were slaughtered. I will take revenge on the thief and die without it

Regret, but never work for the Liang family again! What kind of Qinwang is the teacher, the jackal and wild dog who is no different from the thief master, I would rather die than walk with him!"

Han Shao finally stabbed the enemy, holding it in his chest and letting it out, and when he heard Wei Cang's words, he couldn't help but sneer again and again.

When Wei Cang heard Han Shao's words, his expression couldn't help but darken, but seeing that this person was seriously injured and dying, he didn't care about his rudeness and offense, and ordered his entourage to leave some medicine to treat knife wounds to stop bleeding, and moved this person to a more remote location to settle down, and he continued to march.

Han Shao originally reported his mortal heart, but he didn't expect that there would be such an opportunity, and when he was about to faint from the pain, he gritted his teeth and asked Wei Cang's entourage in a deep voice, "May I ask what is the surname of your master?" I will repay this kindness if I do not die in the coming day."

When the attaché heard this, he smiled and said, "My lord is the Marquis of Yongchang, the descendant of Jingzhao Wei's Wei Kaifu, if you can get away with it, you can hide and steal your life, but you don't need to repay your kindness."