The first mountain abandoned by officers and soldiers was called Wolong Mountain, where Zhuge Liang once stationed troops.

The second mountain abandoned by the officers and soldiers is called Changqing Mountain. Li Yan of Shu Han was demoted to a commoner, so he migrated to live at the southern foot of this mountain. And the origin of its name is that Sima Xiangru once studied here.

If you want to guard Zitong, you must guard Changqing Mountain.

In other words, it is necessary to guard the surrounding hills.

For example, during the Red Army's Long March, when attacking Zitong, it first hit a bunch of mountains. The Sichuan army and the Red Army fought fiercely in Changqing Mountain, and the Red Army called it "Bloody Battle of Changqing Mountain", but no battle broke out in Zitong City.

To attack Zitong City from the direction of Changqing Mountain, it is necessary to cross the river to fight, which can be described as very difficult.

Why don't you attack from the direction of Qiqu Mountain? The terrain there is the most flat and open, and there is no need to cross the river to attack the city.

Because it is not easy to capture the hills there, the attacker will always be in a situation of being caught from several sides if he does not take all the hills.

Zhu Ming stood in front of Sima Xiangru's reading room, admiring the calligraphy inscriptions left by the literati of the past dynasties.

A group of captives were brought over, all of whom were middle- and low-level officers of the township soldiers.

"Have you read my article?" Zhu Ming turned around and asked.

There was no answer.

Zhu Ming smiled: "Didn't see it? I'll show you again. ”

"No, I've seen it." An officer named Wang Xin said.

Zhu Ming asked, "How is it written?" ”

Wang Xi replied: "Every sentence is wonderful, the scolding is free, and the voice of the people is spoken." ”

Zhu Ming asked: "Then why do you still have to work for the government?" ”

Wang Xin said: "Your Excellency is a thief after all. No matter how disciplined the thief is, he will loot military rations and forcibly recruit soldiers. Your Excellency, don't quibble, did those tens of thousands of thieves and countless military rations come up out of thin air? It is impossible to get so much food only from the government and the officers and soldiers. We, the small people, are conscripted for grain and conscription, so it is better to serve the imperial court, and it is better to say that it is better to listen to it than to join the thieves. ”

"Makes sense." Zhu Ming nodded.

Wang Xi also said: "Since you have been captured by Your Excellency, if you want to kill or chop up, listen to your respect." If you don't kill it, I'll ...... and willing to surrender. ”

Zhu Ming couldn't help laughing: "You said it directly." ”

Wang Xin said: "Although the Wang family has been a eunuch for generations, there are also small families. My family only has more than 100 acres of land, and I have long been unable to bear the heavy taxes of the government. ”

This kind of small landlord and thief really has no psychological burden.

Zhu Ming asked the other captives to think about it, and they were all willing to be thieves.

Changqing Mountain is on the edge of the Zijiang River, and the officers and soldiers abandoned the village and fled, escaping too quickly and bizarrely. The rebels couldn't catch up, so they captured hundreds of people, all of whom were landlubbers who were blocked by the river and couldn't board the boat.

Some officers and men fled across the river by boat, and many more escaped by jumping into the river without armor.

Zhu Ming not only rescued a lot of grain and grass, but also picked up a lot of cloth armor, leather armor, and a small number of official and military weapons. These armors are just assigned to the auxiliary soldiers.

Standing outside Sima Xiangru's reading room, Zhu Ming picked up the binoculars and looked at Zitong City across the river.

This place is less than two miles away from the city wall, and the view is very good, and you can overlook the entire Zitong County.

Inside the city.

Huang Xuan pulled Zhao Shu and painstakingly dissuaded: "General system, you can't kill it!" These are all Chengdu soldiers who killed an officer, and the soldiers of several nearby villages will be resentful and unwilling to fight again. Your Excellency is going to kill more than a dozen at a time, and I am afraid that everyone will be in danger, and the army's morale will be chaotic without a fight. ”

Zhao Shu said angrily: "If you don't listen to the military order, you won't be killed, who will listen to the order in the future?" ”

"Just give a military stick, be sure to think twice!" Huang Xuan is still dissuading.

Zhao Shu changed from anger to silence, and then became depressed, and turned around and left: "You can punish the military stick, I'll go and rest for a while." ”

This battle can't be fought, and he can't even control his own army.

Zhao Shu returned to the mansion and sat in the hall, looking at the big trees in the courtyard in a daze.

Zhao Shu was born in a clan and is a native of Kaifeng.

He felt that the old Zhao family's country was probably running out, and it was beyond the power of manpower to recover.

Two days later, Zhu Ming divided his troops to cross the river downstream and occupy a hill southeast of Zitong City to prepare for the next strong attack on Zitong.

The officers and soldiers attacked the mountain many times, but they were all defeated and fled back to the city.

Anyway, there are mountains everywhere outside the city, and the thieves will occupy one, and the officers and soldiers will not come out of the city until they occupy one.

It's early winter, and the temperature has dropped suddenly.

Zhu Ming had prepared a lot of winter clothes, and unless it was snowing heavily, he was not afraid of the soldiers being frozen.

On the side of the officers and soldiers, however, they were very, and there was a shortage of winter clothes for local combat. And give priority to the Xiang army and the subordinate soldiers, as for the township soldiers originally recruited by Huang Xuan, they can only wear autumn clothes and carry them.

Detained by the logistics officer!

The transport envoy is often the commander-in-chief, and if there are such senior personnel as the strategic envoy, the pacification envoy, and the commander-in-chief, the transport envoy will automatically become the deputy marshal and the chief logistics officer.

As the chief logistician, Huang Jian is really not corrupt, but it is normal for materials to be transferred along the way, and there are fewer things in confusion.

I don't know which clever ghost in the rear, or a group of clever ghosts, is taking the opportunity to steal and sell the winter clothes of the front-line soldiers!

Zhao Shu inspected the barracks and saw the frozen villagers, so he went to Huang Xuan with a black face: "Your Excellency can survive the winter without clothes?" ”

Huang Yi knew what was going on: "This matter is being investigated, and I have asked the subordinate officials to urgently transfer another batch." ”

Zhao Shu was so angry that he brushed his sleeves and left.

A few days later, the messenger came urgently to report that Zizhou was successfully attacked by anti-thieves. The thieves took Zizhou, only rested for half a day, and then galloped to besiege Mianzhou in the starry night.

Before Zhao Shu could react, another messenger came to report that a group of thieves besieged Yanting County.

Officers and soldiers are going to be dumplings!

Zhao Shu's plan was to defend the city as long as possible, delay it until Zhu Ming's army ran out of food, and wait for reinforcements from the Western Army next year.

But it was clear that he couldn't wait that time.

Zhao Shu had already sent orders to all roads to recruit troops and levy food to suppress bandits, and especially told Kuizhou Road to drag Li Bao.

However, most officials are disobedient or incapable of carrying out the law.

The Zizhou Road transfer envoy knew the stakes, and he couldn't care about Lu Nanyi, so he transferred half of the "elite" in the south to the north, wanting to attack Li Bao's back road. However, as soon as the officers and soldiers left on the front foot, Lu Nanyi rebelled on the back foot.

The entire Zizhou Road was disturbed by anti-thieves in the north, ravaged by barbarians in the south, and only some of the states and counties in the middle were still in the hands of the government.

What's even more nonsense is that many Han people in Luzhou actually rebelled against the official army with the barbarians!

These Han people have a feud with the barbarians.

"Our army has been besieged on three sides," Huang Yi said in despair, "Either go north to Jianzhou, but there must be thieves guarding the city there, and if you go, you will be completely blocked in the mountains." Either cross the river from the direction of Qiqu Mountain, cross the hills to Zhangming, and then cross the hills to bypass Mianzhou and return to Chengdu. ”

Zhao Shu shook his head: "Hundreds of miles of marching and detouring, if the officers and soldiers can't do it, the thieves will chase after them, and they will inevitably be defeated." If you don't want to stay in Zitong and wait for death, you can only go out of the city to fight a decisive battle, and you have to fight a decisive battle before the Mianzhou thieves arrive! ”

"Then let's fight," Huang Ji sighed, "If you win, you will be alive, and if you lose, you will lose Sichuan." ”

The officers and soldiers were finally willing to go out of the city to fight, leaving a few thousand people to defend the city. The rest were all pulled out, some of them were arrayed in the southeast outside the city, and some of them went to attack the thieves and occupy the mountain.

Zhu Ming was afraid of being attacked by the half-crossing, so he led the main force to cross the river further downstream.

Deng Chun led 3,000 Changjie troops and 1,000 auxiliary soldiers, guarding the mountain and waiting for a large army to come to help.

Xie Jianzhong, who abandoned the village and fled before, was ordered to make meritorious service for his crimes. Knock down the mountain, and his sin will be forgiven, and if he can't beat it, he will directly cut off his head.

Xie Jianzhong led the troops to attack, and another general named Shi Fangping led the troops to assist in attacking the mountain on the side.

The mountain is gentle and narrow, and it is not a dangerous place.

However, Deng Chun had more than 10 leveling cannons, and when the officers and men were still at the foot of the mountain, they were attacked by small leveling cannons. There were not many casualties, and the main thing was to hit the morale of officers and soldiers.

"The captain is killed, and the whole team is beheaded! If you want to avoid death, you will not retreat from the bloody battle! ”

Deng Chun rode a horse to personally reaffirm military discipline.

The captain is the core of the Mandarin Duck Formation, and he is protected by the whole team. Unless you're particularly unlucky and killed by long-range fire, you're basically not going to have an accident.

The captain had an accident, which means that the mandarin duck formation has been broken, and this team has no combat effectiveness left.

Four battalions of soldiers were deployed in various places for defense.

Deng Chun led one battalion of soldiers and two battalions of auxiliaries as a reserve in the center. In addition, there were hundreds of non-combatants, all clericals, accountants, carpenters, stonemasons, doctors, tailors, etc., who also belonged to the regular establishment of the Changjie army.

Mu Heng guarded the main attack direction of the officers and soldiers, and with the continuous expansion of the righteous army, the twelve of them, Hua Rong became the leader of the musket team, and Yang Zhi, Li Jinyi, Lin Chong, Guan Sheng and others all led the army alone.

Only Mu Heng, Zhang Qing, Li Ying, and Wang Xiong were the worst mixed, and they were all battalion commanders with 500 people.

Mu Heng dreamed of making meritorious service and shouted: "Cheer up, whoever dares to retreat cowardly, without the military law of the commander, I will kill him first!" ”

The whole battalion was divided into dozens of mandarin duck formation squads, and the four squads formed a large team and were arranged in various places on the mountain.

The rugged terrain does not affect the formation of the military formation, and the formation can always be changed slightly according to the situation.

The officers and soldiers who attacked the mountain were affected by the terrain.

When they reached the halfway point of the mountain, it was already difficult to form a formation, and they fought separately.

Xie Jianzhong was not afraid of death, he did not hide in the rear, and commanded his officers and soldiers to attack the mountains from everywhere.

Before the two sides met in a short battle, dozens of squad leaders greeted them with bows and arrows.

Immediately, the rattan and long players threw their javelins, each with three javelins, and they had to throw them before they could engage the enemy.

There were also a small number of archers among the officers and soldiers, and the cats were leaning over to shoot upwards.

"Phew, hoo!"

The squad leader's bamboo whistle came and went, and the first battle finally began...... Well, it's over too.

I saw that the wolves were stirring up everywhere, and the officers and soldiers were attacking from the back, and it was difficult for them to advance by the wolves. In a daze, a few spears stabbed at them, and the officers and soldiers who rushed to the side individually were forked back again and again by the rake, and then a spear stabbed them.

The rebels obviously had fewer soldiers, but they could always fight more and less in the local battlefield.

Only one person looked at each other, and the officers and soldiers of each team retreated one after another.

"Blow the trumpet!"

"Wave the flag!"

The trumpet sounded, the flag waved, and Mu Heng's battalion of rebels actually rushed down the mountain to kill, and 500 people charged back towards more than 1,000 people.

The two battalions next to Mu Heng also began to countercharge.

Because the battle time was too short, Xie Jianzhong didn't even react, and found that his soldiers had been nearly half defeated. was rushed by the thief again, and those who did not collapse also collapsed.

"Command, go!" The pro-soldiers shouted.

There was no need to remind Xie Jianzhong of his own soldiers, and he ran away.

It was really a failure, and he didn't even know why he was defeated.

(End of chapter)