"Sigh the law ......"

Before the Song Pass in Yunnan, when the sound of the war horse sounded, the time also entered the thirty-first year of Hongwu little by little.

When the whole world was celebrating the New Year, Mu Chun stood on the school platform in the barracks, overlooking thousands of soldiers.

Of course, here he can also look up at the Song Pass three or four miles away.

It stands between Gaoligong Mountain and Daying River, blocking the Ming army from entering the Longchuan River Valley.

"These 5,000 soldiers will be trained quickly, and when the time comes, it will be enough for the thief to drink a pot."

Standing beside Mu Chun, He Fu stroked his beard with a smile, and Qu Neng, Qu Yu, and Qu Tao on his side also had smiles on their faces.

Of course, behind these generals, there are also many officials at the command and envoy level, but the one standing at the forefront of this is Wang Zhao, who proposed it at the beginning.

Mu Chun glanced sideways at Wang Zhao and praised him: "If you hadn't found that mountain road, our army might not have been able to master this mountain road." ”

"What's the matter, is there any news from Wang Xuan's side?"

Mu Chun mentioned a familiar name, but for everyone present, the owner of this name was just one of the dozens of commanders who accompanied the army.

"The dog has been leading his troops to hide in Gaoligong Mountain, and has never found any trace of the thief army, so I think they don't know this mountain road."

Wang Zhao replied, and Mu Chun, who heard the words, was not stingy: "Okay!" After this battle, your father and son took the lead. ”

"Xie Xipinghou!" Wang Zhao bowed in return, but Qu Neng on the side suddenly asked him: "I heard that your second son, Wang Xuan, was familiar with the King of Bohai in his early years?" ”

In the face of his question, Wang Zhao did not deny it, but he put aside the relationship: "They are familiar with each other, but the relationship is not close, they just lived in a house in the big church." ”

His words stunned the eldest son Wang Kui, who was following him, but he didn't dare to remind his father because of the different occasions.

Compared with Wang Xuan, Wang Kui looks more like Wang Zhao, and his temperament is more straightforward, unlike Wang Xuan, who is wooden on the surface, but in fact, he is a mirror in his heart.

As if knowing that Wang Kui couldn't hide things, Wang Zhao got up in Wang Kui's stunned and blocked Wang Kui's expression with his own figure.

"Unfamiliar...... Qu Neng bowed slightly, and wanted to ask something, but He Fu on the side interrupted:

"I know Wang Xuan well, I remember that he has a very good set of military training."

"Really?" Mu Chun became interested when he heard this, and He Fu also talked carefully about Wang Xuan's military training.

Although Wang Xuan's training of soldiers and horses is not as good as the Bohai Navy personally trained by Zhu Gaoxu, among the thousands of households in the Ming army, he can still praise it alone.

Later, when he was promoted to command, He Fu also inspected the guards he managed, and when he found that he could organize the money and grain of the guards and the tuntian, he wrote down his person.

Now that Mu Chun and Qu can talk about him, He Fu naturally does not hesitate to praise, after all, Wang Xuan, the son of a military attache who grew up in Yunnan, if he can be promoted, it will be good for the Yunnan Dusi.

Because of this, Mu Chun, who heard the words, also smiled heartily: "In this way, after the war, I want to meet him to see if the person who can be praised by General He has real ability." ”

"Hehe......" He Fu also smiled when he heard this: "Why do you need to meet him deliberately, if you can stand out in this battle, Xiping Hou will naturally be able to see him." ”

"That's right!" Mu Chun smiled and turned his head to look at the five thousand sharp soldiers, and after looking at it with satisfaction for a while, he announced that the generals would disperse on their own.

With him disbanding the military attaché, Wang Zhao and Wang Kui also began to return to the camp of the Golden Tooth Guard.

On the way, Wang Kui didn't say a word, and Wang Zhao was in a hurry.

After the two of them entered the Golden Tooth Guard's tent, Wang Kui said angrily: "Dad, you often say that you want to repay your kindness, but why do you want to say that our family is not familiar with the King of Bohai today?" ”

"This is not what I want to say, it is Erlang Jean who said it." Wang Zhao sat back on the throne and poured a glass of water for Wang Kui at the same time.

"What Jiro said?" Wang Kui didn't react, and Wang Zhao also grabbed his short beard:

"I don't know what he thinks, maybe he's worried that others will think that our family is taking advantage of the situation, and I'm afraid of troublesome King Bohai."

"But after this battle, if we can help the army conquer Nandian, then there is no need to hide it."

Wang Zhao thought of the scene when his father and son led the troops to conquer Nandian, and a sincere smile appeared on his face.

It's just that when he was imagining the future, Wang Xuan, who was in the ancient road of Gaoligong Mountain, was not so comfortable.

At the beginning of the first month, it was cold and damp in Gaoligong Mountain, and only the place where the sun shines can make people feel a little warmth.

With 300 soldiers from his headquarters, Wang Xuan made hundreds of cat ear holes on the slope of a river valley in Gaoligong Mountain that could hide soldiers.

This kind of cat's ear hole has a simple construction, which is convenient for soldiers to quickly hide, and the only disadvantage is that the space in the cave is small, only less than three feet high.

And because Gaoligong Mountain is cold and damp, there is often water in the cave, so that the feet and feet of many soldiers are soaked and white and ulcerated.

In order to prevent the soldiers from suffering, Wang Xuan only allowed them to enter the cat's ear piercing at certain times, and the rest of the time they wore leaves and fluffy grass on their bodies to cover their figures.

Sitting on the trunk of a tree, Wang Xuan, who was only wearing a cuirass, had a dry mouth and hurriedly drank two sips of water.

The helmet on his head was stuck with many small branches and leaves, and the armor on his body was also hung with branches and leaves, like a lucky suit hundreds of years later.

In addition to him, there are many soldiers in this primeval forest who are also dressed in the same way, and they are one with the surrounding nature.

This kind of costume naturally could not have been invented by himself, but taught to him by Zhu Gaoxu when he was in the sky.

"Hey, how long do we have to stay?"

There was a human voice from the trunk of the tree on the side, and Wang Xuan moistened his throat before reassuring himself: "It should be around the Qingming Festival, and it happened to be the Spring Festival of this group of thieves in Luchuan." ”

"Isn't that another month?!"

The people next to him were speechless, but Wang Xuan calmly looked at the river beach road in the river valley to prevent the civilians of Luchuan from coming to the mountains to collect herbs, and then find them.

Regarding the complaints of his subordinates, he also comforted them: "If you want to be promoted through meritorious service, you have to endure loneliness." ”

As he spoke, Wang Xuan suddenly thought of something, and asked the person on the tree: "Before the expedition, did you send the things I asked Ling to send?" ”

"It's been sent, but it's estimated that it won't be delivered to Jilin City until winter." The man replied, and the figure slid down from the tree.

He grabbed the trunk of the tree, as if walking on a single-plank bridge, came to Wang Xuan and sat down, looking green, like a green peacock.

After sitting down, he also asked restlessly: "Excuse me, I heard that snow in the north can drown people, is this true?" ”

"I haven't seen it, but when I was in Yingtian, the snow was a foot thick, and it should be thicker in the north." Wang Xuan slowly threw the dagger on his waist with a sudden force.

With a "buttress", the dagger went deep into the trunk of the tree, and a colorful snake was constantly writhing.

"It's a pity, this thing is poisonous and can't be eaten."

Looking at the poisonous snake, Wang Xuan sighed and explained to the person on the side: "Remember to tell the brothers, don't be greedy to pick wild vegetables to eat, there is no healer in this place to heal them." ”

"Don't worry, I reminded you." The man grinned and smiled happily, and at the same time couldn't help but ask curiously: "Why, do you think that after this battle, the brothers will be promoted?" ”

"At least one level." Wang Xuan said confidently, and the eyes of the person next to him also showed yearning.

It seems that because of the rush, the three hundred Ming troops stationed in the river valley did not have a trace of complaints, even if they were bitten by snakes, insects, rats and ants, no one shouted to quit.

This kind of suffering lasted until the sixth day of the second month......

During the "stumbling and squirming", 5,000 pikemen carrying a bucket of military rations and armor and weapons marched on the slippery mountain of Gaoligong Mountain.

With a total weight of 70 catties, they crossed the mountains and crossed the primeval forests of Gaoligong Mountain one after another.

When they were on the road, most of them walked on a beast road of less than three feet, and they almost used their limbs uphill to climb up and downhill, and they climbed downhill with rolling belts.

The steepness of the terrain and the thick fog of the Gaoligong Mountains and Rivers make the animal road slippery.

Whether it was a general or a soldier, they didn't care about the mud rolling on their bodies, even if their skin was torn and their clothes were scratched, they gritted their teeth and hurried away.

In the middle of the night, even though they couldn't see their fingers and the sky was still drizzling, Qu Neng and He Fu still led their troops on foot on the rugged cliff beast road to the designated target.

Thousands of people marched through the jungle at night, unable to see the road clearly, but unable to light torches.

In order to prevent them from falling behind, He Fu asked the soldiers to pull ropes and pull them hard to guide the people behind them and prevent them from falling under the valley cliffs of Gaoligong Mountain.

In such a harsh environment, almost everyone silently said in their hearts: "You must keep up with the team, and don't fall behind." ”

However, the difficulties of Gaoligong Mountain are beyond the imagination of most of them.

Faced with tropical jungle terrain with an average altitude of more than 3,500 meters, it was very difficult for the troops to march.

The road opened by the vanguard was originally dry, but too many people stepped on it, and the water vapor was too heavy, and after a while, the road would be trampled on very muddy and slippery.

Even veterans like He Fu and Qu Neng basically sighed when they climbed the trail of Gaoligong Mountain.

They traveled seven days and a hundred miles, and every day they were either climbing mountains or wading through river valleys.

In the early morning of the fifth day, they finally arrived at the mountain pass where Wang Xuan was.

When he got the news, Wang Xuan immediately took 300 brothers barefoot and hung their shoes around their necks up and down the mountain.

When they reached the valley, they saw thousands of embarrassed comrades.

Even He Fu and Qu Neng and the others were covered with wet and foul-smelling mud.

"The last general commanded Wang Xuan, and I have seen the two governors!"

Wang Xuan led three hundred people to salute, and Qu Neng and He Fu, who were sitting on a stone the size of a house in the river valley, also jumped off the stone when they saw this, and after coming to them, their tone was a little weak: "How far is it from Nandian here?" ”

"Go back to the capital to ......" Wang Xuan heard this, and hurriedly took out the map drawn earlier from the package on his back.

The map he drew was different from the map of the Ming army, it was very accurate, and it was obviously learned from Zhu Gaoxu, but He Fu and Qu Neng didn't know, but they just praised it in their hearts: "The marching map is like this, and people must not be far behind." ”

I don't know what the two think, Wang Xuan pointed to the two routes on the map and said: "There are two routes at the moment, one is to go northwest, so that you can go around the river valley more than ten miles behind the Song Pass, and you can cooperate with the Marquis of Xiping to attack the Song Pass." ”

"There is another one, which is to drive another seventy miles, climb over twenty-three dense forests and mountains, and go directly to the pass about three miles outside Nandian City."

"The last general has sent people to reconnoiter the situation in Nandian City, and in the past month, many rebels have come there one after another, numbering about 10,000, and there are 120,000 people living outside the city."

"Nandian City is made of stone, about one zhang seven feet high, about one zhang five feet wide, the rest of the situation is unknown, half of the rebels are outside the city, half are inside the city."

Wang Xuan's head is the Tao, so that a high-minded and arrogant person like Qu Neng can't help but look down on him.

His words don't sound complicated, but on the real battlefield, there are very few people who can understand so many in one or two months.

Therefore, after he finished speaking, Qu Neng said to him without concealing it: "You kid is a commander and a servant, after this battle, I will transfer you to the Sichuan Xingdu Division, how about starting with the commander of the capital?" ”

Qu Neng can't be said to be disdainful of Wang Xuan, you must know that Wang Xuan is only the commander of the fourth product at this time, and the commander of the affairs is the third product.

Jumping directly from the fourth product to the third product to the third product, this is amazing.

The military attachés of Zhengsanpin, looking at the entire Ming Dynasty, are only about 120 people.

Not to mention, most of the 120-odd people are military attaches from the mainland.

In terms of the number of guard posts, the number of soldiers, and the degree of authority, it is simply not enough to compare with the frontier capital.

Qu Neng's wooing was difficult for individuals to refuse, so Wang Xuan also began to waver.

It's just that before he could do anything, He Fu suddenly interrupted: "Qu Neng, you poach people in front of me, and you don't even care about friendship." ”

"Hahaha......" Qu Neng smiled heartily: "There are many of you who can do this, and it doesn't hurt to have one less of them." ”

"Nonsense!" He Fu blew his beard and glared: "The people of Yunnan Dusi, you can't dig it up." ”

When the words fell, He Fu pointed directly to the rugged and difficult second road: "We... Just go this way! ”

"Just what I want!" Qu Neng chuckled, and then merged Wang Xuan into the team.

In the team, Wang Xuan also met his father Wang Zhao and brother Wang Kui, as well as Qu Yu, who had a few days of friendship with him before.

After half a day's rest, when noon came, more than 5,000 soldiers continued to carry more than 70 pounds of things and began to hurry.

They wrestled all the way, rolling and climbing, and marched with difficulty with one foot deep and one shallow, and it was difficult for the team to maintain their formation.

In a place like Gaoligong Mountain, everyone's biggest fear is to be left behind, after all, without a guide, it is easy to get lost in the dense forest.

Taking this kind of road, the soldiers of the Yunnan Metropolitan Division are better, while the soldiers of Sichuan and Guizhou are a little difficult to adapt to, and they can't keep up with them while walking.

Along the way, the various teams helped, but they still had to encounter stumbles, scratched countless times by thorn bushes and bush thorns.

Many soldiers fell into the ditch and broke their legs and waists, and the non-combat attrition was very serious.

Even one of Wang Xuan's soldiers accidentally slipped and fell into a deep ditch more than 100 meters deep, and after searching, he only saw a corpse, so he could only bury it hastily.

The next day, they went deep into the depths of Gaoligong Mountain.

The environment is treacherous, and people face countless dangers.

The sunlight is completely blocked by the tall and dense trees, making the whole mountain look eerie.

When Qu Neng and He Fu led their soldiers and horses into this dense forest for the first time, even though they were already vigilant and prepared, they soon realized that the depths of Gaoligong Mountain were not just mountains and dense forests, but all kinds of unimaginable horrors were buried.

Leeches, malaria, poisonous snakes, and miasma, these unforeseen dangers make people fearful.

Endless trees rise tall and almost completely obscure the sky, making the mountains extremely cold.

At night, the night here is even more terrifying than the night outside, and everyone can only rely on the faint light of the fire.

All the way down the march, Qu Neng and the others roasted a fire when they buried the pot at night to make rice, but dozens of leeches quickly fell off their legs.

This kind of thing makes a veteran like Qu Neng feel his scalp numb, not to mention many soldiers.

However, it is not only these that make people anxious, but also the various snakes, insects, rats and ants that are all over the forest.

They could attack people from branches or grass at any time, even if Mu Chun had prepared enough snake medicine for more than 5,000 of them before entering Gaoligong Mountain, the number of non-combat attrition still made people's scalps tingle.

In just one day deep into the depths of Gaoligong Mountain, as many as 27 people were bitten to death by snakes, insects, rats and ants, and panic began to spread among the army.

On the second day, the miasma inside Gaoligong Mountain began to show its strength.

Due to the long-term lack of sunlight, the environment of Gaoligong Mountain is dark and damp, and countless animals and plants decay after death, producing a large amount of miasma.

This deadly miasma makes people experience symptoms such as dizziness, high fever, and even loss of life in a short period of time once they are inhaled.

For the miasma, Wang Xuan had already prepared, he asked everyone to be protected when they entered the depths of Gaoligong Mountain, and the simple mask made of coarse cloth was one of the few ways to deal with the miasma in the mountain.

This method was learned by Wang Xuan from his Royal Highness, but even so, there were still many people in the army who inhaled miasma and had a high fever, and finally chose to jump off the cliff to die.

The presence of miasma filled the entire mountainous area with the breath of death, and the weakened Ming soldiers were more vulnerable to injuries and diseases.

Fortunately, they finally survived the most difficult days and walked out of the depths of Gaoligong Mountain late on the third night.

When he walked out of the range of Gaoligong Mountain, Qu Neng ripped off the coarse cloth mask and looked back at the Gaoligong Mountain hidden in the night, as if it was constantly devouring other people's lives.

"Counting back a thousand years, no Han army can climb over this cannibalistic Gaoligong Mountain!"

Qu Neng couldn't tell whether he was proud or uncomfortable, He Fu on the side tore off the mask, and took a breath of relief before agreeing:

"Don't say count back a thousand years, no one has ever done this for two or three thousand years!"

The conversation between Qu Neng and He Fu made many soldiers who had survived the catastrophe look at each other.

With their culture and knowledge, it is true that I don't know if anyone has crossed Gaoligong Mountain before them.

"Not really."

Wang Xuan came from the back of the team and said to Qu Neng and He Fuzuo at the same time: "Since ancient times, only the two Han Dynasty have tried to open up the Southwest Yi Road, but even so, it has only opened up to Yongchang. ”

"Even if it is opened, it is still a river valley road, and no one has ever climbed Gaoligong Mountain."

"From this point of view, now the two governors are leading the army to climb Gaoligong Mountain, which is really a feat of my Han family!"

"Good!!" Everyone loves to listen to flattery, and Qu Neng and He Fu are no exception.

Hearing that the two of them had done something that had never been done before, they both puffed up their chests.

It was only after puffing up their chests that the two of them began to ask Wang Xuan: "How far is this place from Nandian City?" ”

"It's less than seven miles, and it's very likely that it will be discovered after dawn." Wang Xuan frowned tightly and got down to business.

After he said this, He Fu looked at Qu Neng: "Although the brothers are tired, if you want to rest now, you must not send troops to Nandian before dawn." ”

"No break!" Qu Neng made a decision and summoned dozens of hundred household officials from the whole army.

In front of them, Qu Neng and He Fu began to announce their thoughts: "The army is tired, so it should rest, but if we want to rest, we can't go straight to Nandian City, and we will have to pay more casualties to attack the city tomorrow." ”

"During this period, if the Daogan Mengna bandits come back to help, our army will be surrounded day and night."

"Therefore, the two of us are determined to immediately go northeast and go straight to Nandian City!"

"Yes!!" After all, it was Mu Chun's carefully selected five thousand elites, although the experience of climbing Gao Ligong Mountain made them panic, but when they learned that their opponent was the same as themselves, they took out their best spirit.

Under the leadership of Qu Neng and He Fu, more than 4,900 people left more than 300 corpses in Gaoligong Mountain, looking for the direction of Nandian City and began to rush.

Although they were covered in mud, and although they were so exhausted that they were almost about to fall, they felt the river flats under their feet, which were different from the slippery land in the Gaoligong Mountains, and they only felt a force coming from their feet, supporting them to walk out of the range of the Gaoligong Mountains.

The strange thing was that they did not encounter the sentinels of the Luchuan army along the way, and it was not until they saw the sea of fire on the plains of the river valley that they realized when they had arrived.

"Calculate the time, today should be their New Year."

Looking at the 'sea of fire' in the distance, He Fu and Qu Neng beside him told the situation.

Obviously, in order to welcome the New Year, the garrison of Nandian City relaxed their garrison, and this move created an opportunity for the Ming army.

Such a situation seems to be arranged by God, and God is helping the Ming army to destroy Nandian City.

After just a moment of thought, Qu Neng pulled out the long knife on his waist: "New Year? Lao Tzu let them celebrate the New Year. ”

"Brothers, give me a cold meal, put on armor and go into battle......"

"Whatever I want...... Straight to Nandian City! ”

The day after tomorrow should be able to resume the second watch.

(End of chapter)