The Perak Army only has three days off during the Chinese New Year. After the holiday, all the soldiers and civilians immediately threw themselves into intense labor, and no one complained about this. It is extremely lucky to survive in this troubled era, and under the rule of the Thunderbolt Army, not only can you eat enough, but you can also eat two mouthfuls of meat during the Spring Festival. If it weren't for the Thunderbolt Army, it would be difficult to say whether the people of western Sichuan would have escaped the butcher's knife of the Mongolian army, just in the area occupied by the Mongolian army on the east bank of the Jinma River, at a glance, there are artemisia grass all over the field, skeletons and white bones can be seen on the roadside at any time, and in some places there is even no rooster crowing for dozens of miles. Even if they fled from the areas occupied by the Mongolian army, the life of the people was not easy, and they could not escape the suffering of cold and hunger. In addition to the Mongol cavalry, who often plundered and burned, bandits in the mountains and forests also came to take advantage of the fire to rob. Finally, some grain was harvested, and the government sent people to collect taxes to take away most of the rations, a picture of "Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road".

Ouyang Xuan actually wanted to let the soldiers and civilians rest for a few more days, but the situation forced him to do so. The Thunderbolts did not levy grain, except for lowering the price of agricultural products and raising the price of industrial products to obtain scissors difference, the main income was industrial and commercial income, and the other was the capture of war. At present, although there is enough food, and the military products are self-produced, they can still cope with the current military spending. However, once the industry, mining and commerce are shut down, there is no income, so they have to reduce their rest time as much as possible. Although it is the slack season at present, there are many farm jobs such as building bridges and roads, repairing ditches and digging weirs. The so-called "people are diligent and spring is early", only by doing these things well can we ensure the harvest of grain.

In fact, during the three days of the holiday, Ouyang Xuan was not completely idle. On the thirtieth day of the Chinese New Year's Eve, he and other high-ranking officials of the Perak Army went to greet the scientific research personnel, the soldiers standing sentry, the technicians of the military factory, and the students of Miao Jiangyi who came to study in the Perak Army. On the day of the Spring Festival, he just sat down to talk to Yang Yan, and his brother-in-law and Ran Zhong went out to probe their brains, so he had to call them in, and it took another half a day to deal with the affairs of Qibanzhou. On the second day of junior high school, Xia Xiaogen, who was on duty at the General Staff, sent many urgent documents, and he had to take a break to deal with them. These official documents actually arrived yesterday, and Xia Xiaogen saw that there was no urgent matter, so he delayed it for a day.

One of the official documents was sent by Jiangyuan County, and after Huang Dagen's review, it was forwarded to Ouyang Xuan. Jiangyuan County wrote in an official document that the Mongolian army on the east bank of the river was very tyrannical, and did not let the people have a good life during the Spring Festival, but drove the people into Wenjiang County. Huang Dagen wrote on the above review opinion that the General Staff was not clear about the intentions of the Mongolian army, and had sent people to reconnoiter but to no avail. Huang Dagen has learned a lot of words at the moment, but the writing is crooked, but it can be seen that he is extremely serious. Let Xia Xiaogen, who is quite talented in reading and writing, be his assistant to make up for his shortcomings.

Ouyang Xuan frowned when he read the letter. It is said that the main reason why he tightened his brows was not that the Mongolian army drove people away during the Spring Festival. The brutality of the Mongol army had made him accustomed to it, and he had seen more serious than this. He was wondering why the Mongols were doing this. This year's Spring Festival is his third Spring Festival in this world, and every Spring Festival, the Mongolian army will take the opportunity to make trouble. During the Spring Festival this year, the Mongolian army on the other side of the river actually did not take military action, and even the rangers were much less. "If something goes wrong, there must be a waist", behind this calm situation, maybe the Mongolian army is planning some conspiracy. Intuition made Ouyang Xuan's back cold, so he found Huang Dagen to discuss and make arrangements for emergency deployment.

In winter, western Sichuan is often hazy weather, often ten days and a half months without seeing the sun, which even gave rise to the idiom of "Shu dog barking day". This year's Spring Festival was particularly overcast, with heavy fog a few days before the Spring Festival. Since the beginning of the first month, the dense fog has become thicker and thicker, and the duration has been getting longer and longer, and some days even the fog has not dispersed at noon, which has brought great inconvenience to the production of various industries. In view of this bad weather, on the one hand, the General Staff Headquarters reminded all outposts to be on guard to prevent a sneak attack by the Mongolian army, and on the other hand, it made key arrangements for Guankou Village and Daojiang County to prevent the enemy from crossing the river from the shallow upper reaches of the river through heavy fog.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the fog is particularly dense, and people with excellent eyesight can only see three or four meters away. When it was still dark in the morning, the guards at the east gate of Chongqing Mansion heard a loud shout from the city. Because of the fog, the gate of the city would not be opened, and the guards used large bamboo frames to hang people on the city tower. The man who came was covered in blood, and he claimed to be a squad leader of the Sandushui Garrison Company, claiming that he had an urgent military situation to report. The guards did not dare to slack off and hurriedly took it to the staff.

Huang Dagen, who was sleeping in the staff headquarters, asked about the situation, hurriedly sent someone to mobilize troops and horses, and sent someone to invite Ouyang Xuan. It turned out that in the early hours of this morning, the Mongolian army suddenly attacked the Sandushui fortress under the cover of night and dense fog. Caught off guard, most of the defenders of a company were killed or wounded, and the company commander also died under the sneak attack of the Mongolian army. The deputy company commander retreated to the inner fortress with more than 30 people. The Sandu Water Fort is divided into two forts, the inner fort and the outer fort, which are more like the watchtowers in the Fan District than the outer fort with a large area. Although its area is small, it is tall and strong, and the fortress gate is also wrapped in iron sheets, which is extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although the Mongolian army was numerous, there was nothing they could do in their eagerness. Seeing that the Mongolian army was lax, the deputy company commander sent this squad leader to report the news.

According to this squad leader, the attacking Mongolian army of about 500 people was all infantry and no cavalry, and they should all be Mongolian and Han troops. After occupying the outer fort, these Mongol troops not only intensified the siege of the inner fort and tried to destroy the artillery in the fort. The weather in western Sichuan was humid, and the Thunderbolt army prevented the rust of firearms and the dampness of gunpowder, and set up special arsenals in each fort. As an important fortress of the Jinma River defense line, Sandushui also set up reinforced concrete forts to store artillery and ammunition. The arsenal is next to the inner fort and is protected by the inner fort's fire, and a grenade dropped from the top of the inner fort can easily repel enemies who try to get close to the arsenal.

Although the Mongol army did not take the inner fort and the arsenal, it is conceivable that as time goes by, the Mongol reinforcements will continue to arrive, and it is difficult to hold these two places for a long time, after all, "ants bite elephants to death". Once the Mongol army completely captured the Sandu Water Fortress, it would be able to gain a firm foothold on the west bank of the Jinma River. Without the Jinma River as a barrier, the Thunderbolt army could not fight the Mongol cavalry in the field at all, so they had to retreat to the line of Yongkang City, Hengyuan Fort, Chongqing Mansion City, and Xinjin City. The plain between Wenjiangjing and the Jinma River will become a place for the Mongol army to plunder, the hard work of the Perak army here will be wiped out, and even the capital city will be under the front of the Mongol army.

At present, it is not impossible for the Mongolian army to cross the river on a large scale through three crossings. When the water is dry, many shoals are exposed on the surface of the Sandu River, and the widest part between these shoals is only more than ten meters, which greatly reduces the difficulty for the Mongolian army to erect pontoon bridges and even block the river. Now it seems that the Mongolian army drove and concentrated a large number of people to Wenjiang City before the Spring Festival, apparently in preparation for this military operation.

What's worse is that the dense fog has seriously weakened the strength of the Thunderbolt Army. In this weather with visibility of only a few meters, even the old fishermen did not dare to sail on the river, not to mention the fact that the warships loaded with artillery had a deep draft and were cumbersome, and the slightest mistake would run aground or even capsize in the narrow river. As for the artillery bombardment of warships, it is even more impossible, and indiscriminate shooting will not only not hurt the enemy, but will also be burned by the sneaking Mongolian army. The Mongolian army's fire oil was so powerful that it could not be extinguished once the ship burned.