At the foot of the hill of the western military camp, near the passage by the river, many trenches were dug.

There were also mounds of earth and wooden fences behind the trenches.

In places that are really difficult to excavate, low walls of earth and stone are also piled up.

On the high mountains on the other side of the river, there have always been vigilantes of the rebels, borrowing the telescope of the general to observe the situation.

Whenever the Western Army asked the grain transport team to move the grain, Yang Zhi would lead the troops out and make a decisive appearance.

And Liu Yanqing, who tried to lure the rebels down the mountain before, now faces the rebels who come down the mountain, and he has no intention of fighting. Just guarding the trenches, fences, earth and stone walls and cottages, the rebels will engage him if they attack him, and the rebels will confront him if they don't attack him.

The grain transport team repeatedly cycled and transported the grain to a small station more than ten miles away, and the people came back again to continue to carry it.

Yang Zhi did not dare to force the enemy's defense line, firstly, he had fewer troops, and secondly, the morale of the western army was improved.

The morale boost is visible to the naked eye and can be seen through telescopes.

The previous Western Army was very loose and lazy.

Now that I heard that the army can be withdrawn, as long as the rebels are blocked, they can go home when the food is gone, and the officers and men of the whole army are in good spirits.

The rebel army is attacking at this time, and the western army will inevitably fight to the death!

Of course, this desperate effort is selective.

Let them hold the defensive line, the officers and men of the Western Army are naturally willing to work hard, this is fighting for their own survival to return home.

But let them cross the line to fight, then I'm sorry, they should flee or flee because it's not for themselves.

"If you forcibly fill in those trenches, you can still get through the fence." Wang Xiong said.

Yang Zhi had his own thoughts, shook his head and said: "The gains outweigh the losses, and the lives of the soldiers are lost in vain." It is necessary to fight halfway through the retreat of the officers and men, and there are no obstacles to stop them, and the officers and men will not fight desperately when they are in a hurry to return to their hometowns. At that time, it was easy to fight. ”

Yang Zhi simply ordered the troops to be collected, let the soldiers recuperate, and at the same time organize the people to transport grain.

A few days later, the sentries reported that the officers and men were abandoning the camp and retreating.

Yang Zhi immediately led a large army to kill, and he only had 12,000 men under his command.

And Liu Yanqing's Western Army, in addition to those who guarded the grain route along the way, as well as those who were killed or captured in the previous battles, there were more than 23,000 people left.

When Yang Zhi led his troops to kill, the main force of the Western Army had withdrawn for three or four miles, but there were still thousands of archers left.

The rebels filled the first trench under the rain of arrows, and the archers of the Western army panicked, and hastily shot a round and ran away.

Yang Zhi ordered: "Fill in a passage and let the elite chase after it first!" ”

The passage several meters wide was filled in, the wooden fence was also pushed up, and the wooden planks were placed on the earthen and stone walls, and Yang Zhiqin led the troops to begin to chase after them.

The further you go, the narrower it becomes, and the narrowest place can only accommodate one person walking.

This kind of terrain is impossible to fight, or even ambush, because the high mountains next to the road are difficult to climb.

After advancing for more than ten miles, I finally reached an open place, where there was originally a village, but now it was empty and there was no ghost to be seen.

It is estimated that it was once used as a transfer station for the Western Army, and many wooden fences were also set up. The western army withdrew too quickly, and even those wooden fences were not destroyed, and Yang Zhi used them as camps after a little repair.

Yang Zhi took this road to Daming Village in the first place, and he knew the terrain in front of him too well.

The road will get narrower and narrower, and eventually it will become a long boardwalk.

It was useless to chase after them, the officers and soldiers only needed to let a few hundred elites break off, and they could block the rebels on the plank road.

And it's getting dark, so it's better not to chase at night.

……

Han Shizhong was at the entrance of the plank road, if the rebels were chasing, he would immediately retreat to the plank road, and if he didn't chase him, he would line up in a long snake formation for the night.

This kind of terrain can only be a long snake.

"Cheer up, don't be like your dead parents!"

Han Shizhong was boosting morale, but it was useless to say anything.

Except for Han Shizhong's troops (there are only a few dozen people left), the rest are all recruits recruited this year.

After the name is broken, it is really an outcast!

It's like a man who comes home in the evening and is always followed by a hungry wolf, and he always has to throw two bones to get out.

Han Shizhong and these soldiers are the bones used to feed the wolf.

If it had been changed to other terrain, it would have scattered and fled. But this is Fu Luo Road, either surrender on the spot, or fight after the break, or chase the large army and be punished by military law, there is no other choice.

The military order they received was to try to block the pursuit of the rebels as much as possible, and to stop them for at least five days.

The task is actually very easy to complete, just desperately hold the plank road, the difficulty is how to escape after completing the task?

The old sergeant in charge of the investigation came back: "Fifth brother, the thieves didn't chase after him, and they camped in that mountain valley." ”

Han Shizhong asked, "Is the enemy camp heavily guarded?" ”

The scout replied, "I can't see clearly, I don't dare to get too close, I just glance at it from a distance." The thieves were outside the camp, and they sent soldiers to patrol, and they looked to the side of the mountain road, and it was probably very difficult to rob the camp tonight. ”

Hearing this, Han Shizhong immediately gave up his plan to attack at night.

The scouts couldn't get close, and the big army must have been spotted in the past, and the thief would be so fucking cautious.

Han Shizhong said: "Light a torch and touch the dark plank road!" ”

As long as it is not in disrepair, there is no danger in crossing the plank road at night.

Passing through the hundreds of meters long plank road area, in front of it is the military rations left by Liu Yanqing.

Moreover, the military rations were sufficient, and he did not dare to be insufficient, otherwise the troops of the 1,000 people would immediately break and flee.

Han Shizhong led all the troops through the plank road, and acted immediately after dawn.

He first asked the soldiers to pry up the pallet, which was relatively easy to operate, and quickly pry away twenty or thirty meters.

Han Shizhong also wanted to remove the trestle, but after a long time, not a single trestle was pulled out.

This requires the use of professional tools to knock out the triangular wooden wedges, and the remaining trestle beams can be kicked off with one kick.

"The thieves are coming!"

Han Shizhong looked up and saw that the rebels were slowly advancing along the plank road.

"Archer!"

Yang Zhi was also shouting: "Captain! ”

One squad leader after another, cautiously moving forward. The rest of the soldiers stepped on the plank road, grabbed the vines and branches of the cliff wall and stood still, and asked the squad leaders to move to the front to shoot arrows.

The rebels had not yet formed a special bow and arrow unit, and only each squad leader was equipped with bows and arrows.

The long card player walked at the front with a huge shield, followed by twenty or thirty squad leaders, and the two sides threw arrows at each other across the destroyed plank road.

"Planks, nails, plank paths are ruined!"

The long player shouted.

This sentence kept passing back, and Yang Zhi asked the carpenter to go back to the area around the mountain valley to cut down trees.

Now it's definitely too late to plank the plank, so I cut down the arm-thick wood and saw it into sections, which can be improvised by nailing it to the trestle.

Wood, hammers, and nails are teleported to the forefront.

The squad leader put away his bow and arrows and said to the long player in front of him, "Move the shield out." ”

The squad leader lay down, leaned out halfway, put a piece of wood on the trestle in front of him, and then picked up a hammer and smashed the nail. Just fix yourself on one side, the other end is too far to reach.

Han Shizhong bent his bow and shot at the squad leader.

An arrow hit the head, but it didn't penetrate the bamboo helmet.

Ordinary bamboo helmets can't withstand strong bows, but when weaving bamboo helmets, paper tendons are sandwiched between two layers of bamboo strips.

Not to mention bows and arrows, small-caliber bullets can be prevented!

The protection of paper armor against knives, guns, bows and arrows, and bullets is actually more than that of iron armor, and it is extremely light to wear. As long as you don't soak in the water for a long time, it doesn't matter if you get wet, it just gets heavier.

The real fatal flaw of paper armor is that it is not durable!

After a few battles, the paper armor was basically scrapped, and a new pair had to be rebuilt.

If it is a high-intensity war, and at the end of a battle, the paper armor will be beaten beyond recognition, and this thing is purely a consumable.

The huge impact of the arrow still hit the squad leader's brain.

But it is still bearable, and the dome-shaped structure of the helmet allows the whole head to disperse the force.

"Archery, archery!"

The long player shouted.

The squad leaders in the rear threw themselves at the opposite side to cover the friendly forces to repair the plank road.

From morning to evening, the plank road was repaired for less than 10 meters.

The four people in front and behind, while hammering nails, were shot and wounded by the Western army in both hands.

Many people were shot and wounded on each other, and only two or three unlucky people died because of the protection of the armor.

Yang Zhi had already pulled the surplus troops back to the small mountain valley and took turns to send people to repair the plank road in front. The construction continued at night with torches.

Han Shizhong's guy was wilted, and he couldn't remove the trestle beam, so he wrapped the trestle beam with firewood and grass and lit it.

Although the wood of the trestle beam has been specially treated to resist corrosion and fire, it will still break if it is burned a few more times. Several trestle beams at the entrance of the plank road were destroyed by Han Shizhong.

When the long player saw the situation, he immediately reported to Yang Zhi, and Yang Zhi sent someone to build a long bamboo ladder, and the last section of the plank road was directly taken by a ladder.

Ladders are made denser.

It took two days before and after, and the distance between the two sides became closer and closer, and the difficulty of repairing the plank road also increased greatly.

The person who hammered the nail not only wore three layers of armor and two layers of helmets, but also protected his face, neck, and hands. As soon as the upper body poked out, more than a dozen arrows were shot in an instant.

When there were only ten meters left, the Western Sergeant began to panic.

"Fifth brother, these birdmen want to steal food and escape!"

The next night, more than a dozen soldiers were escorted to Han Shizhong.

The other soldiers were awakened and gathered in this direction.

Han Shizhong originally planned to deal with it by military law, but by the light of the torches, he felt that the atmosphere was a little wrong.

"Commander Han, withdraw. The boss said to keep it for five days, but we have been guarding it for two days, and we are already worthy of that little salary. ”

"Why can someone else go first, leaving only us to break off?"

"That's it, they were all born and raised by our parents, and our lives are not cheap."

“……”

One soldier after another surrounded him, and Han Shizhong was forced to retreat again and again.

If you don't make a decision, the army will definitely mutiny, because these are not Han Shizhong's soldiers!

Han Shizhong's serious expression was instantly put away, turning into a hippie smile: "Lao Tzu has long wanted to withdraw, but I'm afraid that you won't agree." Don't hide any thoughts. If you say it yesterday, you would have withdrawn yesterday, so do you have to wait until now? ”

As soon as these words came out, the morale of the army was greatly boosted, and the soldiers happily went to carry the grain bags.

Han Shizhong looked at the excited soldier and sat silently alone in a daze, he was now more and more confused.

(End of chapter)