This year, the rain in the south of the Yangtze River is extraordinarily much, with the word "abundant" is no longer enough to describe the rain that lasts for several days, as if to exhaust all the rain of this year, every day is not a heavy rain, or a fine and dense light rain, occasionally stopped, and can not see the daylight, just cloudy, but for a while, you can hear the rumbling thunder accompanied by the sound of big or small rain.

Xue Zeng looked sullenly outside the big tent, the ghost weather in the south of the Yangtze River really annoyed him, there were soldiers outside the tent who had just lit firewood and were extinguished by the rain and were scolding his mother there, in contrast, even if the wind and sand outside the tent were dry, it was several times stronger than this wet weather.

He is the boss, naturally much better, the big tent is tightly protected, and very tall, although it is a ridiculous thing to burn a fire in the tent in the summer, but after all, the clothes and armor can be dried. Ordinary sergeants are sad, the clothes are not dry in the hazy weather, and the halogen is still good to wear on the body, most of them just use their bodies to dry the clothes half-dry and half-wet, just a little bit, but it is time to change the guard post, and they still have to be drenched in the rain. The soldiers' tents were even more rudimentary, and there was not a thin layer of stagnant water under each tent, and the streams of water washed out fine lines underneath.

Xue Zeng frowned, there were already guards next to him who brought the clothes, and he routinely had to patrol everywhere every day, in addition to the fact that the heavens were not beautiful and the clothes were difficult to dry, fortunately, the soldiers' food could keep up, presumably the king of Linzi also did his best, so except for a few complaints, the army's morale was still quite stable. He walked everywhere, and occasionally lifted the military tent to go in to take a look, day by day, the smell inside naturally became more and more unpleasant, a smell of body odor, the guard next to him couldn't help but cover his nose, but Xue Zeng glared at him and took his hand from under his nose.

"Are you okay?" Xue Zeng asked a few soldiers who were wiping their blades in the tent, and they followed Xue Zeng from life to death, but they were not restrained, and said one after another: "The clothes are still okay, but these shoes are really uncomfortable to wear, and some brothers' feet are blistered." ”

Xue Zeng nodded and turned back: "Write it down, let General Wang find a few Jianghu Lang, let them find some herbs, boil them in hot water and soak the soldiers' feet." With that, he walked out again, took a deep breath, and exhaled again. The smell inside is really unpleasant, but as the coach, although he doesn't have to experience a lot of pain, he can show his suspicion, Xue Zeng was about to leave, but he heard a person behind him: "Marshal Xue ......"

Xue Zeng looked back and saw that the man raised his eyes and peeked at his face, and muttered: "There is a sentence I don't know if I should say to Marshal Xue." ”

Xue Zeng nodded, and the soldier said, "You can go to the westernmost tent and take a look." ”

Xue Zeng was a little stunned, he didn't know what it meant, but it seemed that there was indeed some truth, so he said, "You lead the way." The soldier walked quickly in front of Xue Zeng with his head down, turned around and said, "Marshal Xue, please come with me." ”

The tent in the northwest corner was quite a distance away from the tent of the large army camp, as if it was deliberately alienated, Xue Zeng couldn't help but hold his sword tighter, and was about to pass, but was stopped by the soldier again: "Marshal, wait a minute." Then he turned and hurried away, and came back a little later, with a wisp of smoke covering his arm, but he handed over a burning wormwood that he had gotten out of nowhere.

Xue Zeng sniffed under his nose, Fang took the wormwood, and opened the curtain with a sword, and a foul smell suddenly rushed to his face, even the strong smell of wormwood could not be concealed, Xue Zeng almost vomited, his heart had already understood, and he turned around and scolded angrily: "What's the matter?"

The soldier said: "This damn weather, a few brothers were wet and wet, and then they were hot, faint for a few days, shouting cold for a while, shouting hot for a while, and a few veterans knew that they had it...... Got ......"

Xue Zeng's face slowly became solemn, such a weather was originally when there was an epidemic in the army, and it must be typhoid fever when he heard this symptom, the soldier said intermittently: "We discussed it a few times, and we were afraid that it would be passed on, but if we were still with other people, and we were afraid that it would be given to others, we would ......."

Xue Zeng said: "So I left a few people with typhoid fever here to die?"

The soldier hurriedly shook his hand and said, "We drew lots and found someone to take care of them and bring them food every day, but that brother was also lived." ”

Xue Zeng said: "Okay, you go down." Come back, don't spread the word about this, and the other few who know about it will also pass on the word for me, and if they say it, I'll settle accounts with you!" The soldier was reprimanded, but he was relieved and hurried away.

"This battle can't be delayed any longer!" Xue Zeng sighed secretly, lowered his head and stretched out his hand, there was still a drizzle floating on his hand, he stared blankly at the flow of stagnant water on the ground, and after a while, Fang Da turned around and walked towards the military tent, but his face was already anxious and angry, and shouted: "Give me to pass them all in!"

After the hour of half-burnt incense, the heads and brains of the army were already bowed down and standing in the tent, but for some reason, Marshal Xue was nameless, some bowed their heads and were silent, and some secretly peeked at Xue Zeng's face.

Seeing that everyone below had arrived, Xue Zengfang stepped down, walked to the sand table, stared for a moment and said, "Who is responsible for surveying the terrain and drawing the sand table." ”

The person who didn't call naturally breathed a sigh of relief, and the crowd walked out diagonally: "It's the last general." ”

Xue Zeng didn't need to raise his eyes to know that it was an old general who had followed him for many years, so he didn't answer, he went straight forward and grabbed this person and pushed him outside, and said angrily: "Look at the ground yourself! What might you see?

Whenever he arrives in a new place, the survey and other things have always been in charge of this general, although so, this time Xue Zeng is also responsible, he has inspected with this person, because there was no water accumulation at that time, so the terrain deviation is not obvious, today he looked at the water flow on the ground in a daze, and saw the clue, the water flow downward, the flow speed is quite fast, if the camp is deliberately flooded by bandits, and then the flood is discharged in one fell swoop, I am afraid that the camp in the stage of terrain decline will be washed into a mess! The rain of the past few days seemed to be pressing on Xue Zeng's heart, he was almost out of breath, thinking of the consequences of the rout, a line of cold sweat had broken out on his back!

The general knew his temper and turned back on his own, saying: "Rong Mo will return, but the terrain here is sloping, and the first day and earth area of the underwater flow will be seen by the general, and on the same day, he found the local residents and went out again. The general walked to the sand table and pointed out: "Although the camp tent is located downstream, but not far behind the camp is a dike, so the terrain is low, if the flood is fierce in the summer flood in previous years, it often breaks through the embankment and rushes down, not to mention here, even the city of Hangzhou is also almost damaged, so a few years ago the merchants in the city donated money to repair this dike, which is the first great guarantee. Since it is a dike, of course, there is also a main dike, and it is still a dozen miles north of the dike, which is even taller and firmer, which is the second guarantee. ”

He spoke slowly, and the people next to him understood why Xue Zeng had a big fire, and felt that this fire was really unnecessary, and a person next to him said: " In my opinion, there is a third invisible guarantee, between the embankment and the main embankment, long-term rain, must also accumulate, first, it is difficult to march, and second, if we are so close to us to arrange an offensive and do not let us find out that it is probably difficult to ascend to the sky, so it seems that even the gods in the sky cannot attack us between the main embankment, if the bandits come to attack, they can only come from a lower place than our army, we are uncomfortable, they are not even more uncomfortable?"

The general said: "It's just that the subordinates failed to report in time is indeed a dereliction of duty by the subordinates, and they are willing to accept the punishment." ”

When he opened his mouth like this, Xue Zeng didn't want to say anything more, even if everyone next to him nodded yes, he was always a little uneasy, so he had to say: "It's better to be careful, Gong Shen General, you go out immediately and do another survey, see if there is a higher ground nearby, once selected, move the camp to here." General Wang, you select some capable and good-eyed soldiers, form a team, and inspect the embankment, day and night. Seeing that the two of them received the order, Xue Zengfang breathed a sigh of relief and said slowly: "Everyone, there is one more thing, someone in the army has typhoid fever. ”

The plague has always been the great enemy of the army, and at this moment, everyone in the tent couldn't help but look solemn, Xue Zeng said: "Those brothers who have contracted typhoid fever have been isolated in the northernmost tent and died, General Li registered it for me and treated it as a battlefield death." Ladies and gentlemen, this battle cannot be delayed for a long time, the weather in Jiangnan has never been clear, and it naturally does not matter if the bandits are all natives of Jiangnan, so the more this situation drags on, the more unfavorable it is for our army. ”

Everyone retreated, the big tent was quiet again, Xue Zeng rubbed his temples, it was almost evening, the already not sunny daylight was getting darker and darker, and after a hasty dinner, he took a lamp and slowly pondered it on the sand table. The battle of Hangzhou was lost, which was his strategy. The officers and soldiers are not good at water warfare, especially the batch they brought back from the border pass, Yuan Xingjian's army is stationed in Taihu Lake, he also tried to fight, although the bandits died a lot, but there are also many soldiers buried at the bottom of the lake, there is no perfect certainty that they can capture it, but it is better to give up Hangzhou and lure the enemy deep, if Yuan Xingjian will garrison the army in the city, but can catch it all, who knows that Yuan Xingjian seems to see through it, take Hangzhou and wave his troops back to the nest.

Xue Zeng moved his gaze to a pass behind the barracks, the lakes in the south of the Yangtze River are full of silk, that is, there are several large areas of water around this local pass called "Beiguan", which is quite conducive to water warfare, if the bandits want to go north, the target of the next battle should be here, judging from his retreat to Taihu Lake, he will not easily advance half a step if he does not take this place as the next stronghold.

Xue Zeng's hand couldn't help but clench the candlestick, and said secretly: "It seems that he actually underestimated him." He sighed again, he was ordered to exterminate the Taihu Lake bandits, and he had not built an inch of success for a long time, and the imperial court had already objected, let alone retreated to Beiguan.

I don't know if it's because of the candlelight jumping or something else, Xue Zeng felt that his eyelids were jumping for a while, and the quietness of this big tent as usual also made people uneasy, knowing that he was afraid that he was too worried and anxious, so he turned back to put on a robe and leaned on the chair to close his eyes and recuperate, quietly listening to the wind outside, and the sound of sudden raindrops, and smiled bitterly, it was pouring rain again tonight.

When Xue Zeng opened his eyes again, the sound of the rain was still continuing, the oil of the lamp was filled up at some point, and it must have been more than an hour, and there was a muffled sound outside, as if the thunder was blowing up above the barracks, which shook people's hearts, and there were several sounds in a moment, Xue Zengfang felt that something was wrong, the order cylinder on the bookcase was trembling, as if the entire ground was shaken, and only in the interval of the sound could he hear the shouts of people outside, the sound of the water was noisy, and before he could come back to his senses, the deafening sound conveyed to him a message through the ground one after another: "Something happened to the embankment!"

He jumped up violently, just stepped out of the tent and was almost knocked down by a turbulent current, it turned out that because the wooden stakes of the big tent were strong to slow down the surging waves from the direction of the embankment, the water washed down along the terrain, the height to the waist, mixed with countless dead branches and straw, but there were quite few mud and stones, Xue Zeng knew what was going on when he saw it, this embankment had already been hollowed out by Yuan Xingjian, filled with dead branches and grass, only on the surface it looked like a, but in fact it was simply a rush to open, this series of explosions and thunder must have been Yuan Xingjian sent someone to blow up the main embankment, although he thought about it, but he was still a step late, failed to avoid。

The ordinary camp tents that were seen as far as the eye could see had already been washed to pieces, some soldiers were holding the pillars that had not been washed away, some were caught up in the camp tents and couldn't break free, most of them were holding halberds in the water to resist to prevent being washed down, Xue Zeng also picked up a spear that floated from nowhere, stood on the ground, and pointed them to stand upstream, but saw that the other subordinates were rushing over in the water from all directions, embarrassed, Xue Zeng couldn't help but be angry, but what was the use of reprimanding at this time?

"What are you doing here? Go back to your tent quickly, and order the soldiers to hold each other in a row in a row in a serpentine shape, and stand in the water, and when the water is exhausted, I will count the number of people, and if there is one less soldier, I will beat you ten army sticks, and go quickly!"

Seeing that the battalion generals went back one after another, Xue Zengfang looked up through the rain curtain, and the soldiers behind him reacted quickly, at this time, everyone was holding a halberd in his right hand to support the ground, and his left hand was holding the halberd of a person next to him, and the scattered soldiers all gathered over, and they were lined up in several rows in a moment, Xue Zeng cleared his throat and said: "Brothers, this water is waist-deep, we can't move, and the thieves can't move, they are waiting for us to attack when we are scattered by the water in a panic, we can't let the surname Yuan Ruyi!" Haven't we been drenched in the water for the past few days? What is this water, it will be out after a while, and if you can't kill people, you should take a bath!"