Chapter 63: Preparations for War
When Xu Chu took Yuan Qi and his party to Xujiazhuang and saw Xu Chu's father, Xu Laozhuang, Yuan Qi understood why Xu Chu would call himself Engong. Pen "fun" pavilion www.biquge.info it turns out that the old owner of Xu is the same as Yuan Qi's grandfather, he is also a businessman, a few years ago he took a caravan to Youzhou to do business, unfortunately encountered a group of mountain bandits, and wanted to rob Xu Lao Zhuang and his party.
At that time, Yuan Qi was training troops in Beiping, and let Zhang Chong train his troops in battle, so Zhang Chong led the elite of the local camp to suppress the bandits, and happened to save Xu Laozhuang and his party. Afterwards, the old owner Xu went to Yuan Qi's Taishou Mansion to thank Yuan Qi in person, and Yuan Qi also took out a bottle of burning knives to entertain the old owner Xu and shocked him. When the old owner Xu said goodbye, Yuan Qi personally sent it to the door.
Later, the old owner of Xu returned to Qian County and told his son Xu Chu about it, and the father and son immediately built a shrine for Yuan Qi and worshiped it day and night.
Upon learning of Yuan Qi's arrival, the old owner of Xu Zhuang was inexplicably surprised, and personally served tea and water, which made Yuan Qi embarrassed. On the same day, the owner of Xu Lao Zhuang set up a very rich banquet and warmly entertained Yuan Qi. And let his son Xu Chu follow Yuan Qi in the future and charge for Yuan Qi.
After the banquet, Yuan Qi said goodbye to the old owner of Xu, who knew that Yuan Qi was in military affairs and wanted to pacify the rebellion in Wancheng, and it was not good to force him to stay, so he shed tears to say goodbye.
After returning to the camp, Yuan Qi sat in the military tent, introduced Xu Chu and Dian Wei to his subordinates, and appointed the two as captains, temporarily serving as deputy generals under Zhao Hu, assisting in the command of the Tiangui camp, responsible for guarding his own safety.
After resting for the night, the army marched forward again and advanced towards Wancheng.
A few days later, the Yuan Qi army entered the territory of Nanyang County. A scout came to report: "My lord, under the leadership of Zhang Shao, the bandit leader of the Wancheng thieves raised 150,000 troops and went straight to the direction of the capital. ”
Listening to the scout's report, Yuan Qi understood in his heart that this Zhang Shao finally couldn't hold it back, and wanted to break through the capital in one fell swoop and complete the great thing that his father Zhang Jiao had exhausted his life's energy and failed to accomplish - to establish himself as the king!
"Bring me the map!" Yuan Qi said.
Immediately, the elite of the Heavenly Return Camp held the map in front of Yuan Qi's eyes.
Yuan Qi took the map and looked at it carefully. After a long time, Yuan Qi clicked heavily on a position on the map and said: "Luyang! is the choke point from Jingzhou to Sili, and the Red Turban Yu Party must go to Luyang!
With Yuan Qi's order, the six thousand army once again threw off their footsteps and strode towards Luyang.
When the sunset fell half-covered to the top of the mountain, revealing half of its face looking down on the earth, Yuan Qi's army came to the foot of a mountain ten miles outside Luyang City.
Yuan Qi, who took the lead, galloped wildly, often bowing his head and thinking about something. Suddenly, Yuan Qi restrained the war horse, then turned over and dismounted, squatted on the ground and carefully looked at the jade unicorn's hooves. The generals didn't understand what Yuan Qi was doing, but out of great trust in Yuan Qi, no one asked questions.
It turned out that Yuan Qi was bowing his head and pondering on the horse just now, and he accidentally saw the jade unicorn's horse's hooves trampled on the ground, and the soil he brought up was faintly black.
After observing for a while, Yuan Qi suddenly got up and asked, "Who knows what the name of the mountain we passed by just now?" Xu Chu stood up and replied: "Lord, I came here the year before last, and that mountain seems to be called Funiu Mountain." ”
"Funiu Mountain?" Yuan Qi repeated softly with a smile on the corner of his mouth. Then he turned over his horse, pointed his finger at Funiu Mountain, and said loudly: "Zhao Hu! Take the brothers who return to the camp to Funiu Mountain and draw a fine map for so-and-so!"
Zhao Hu responded to a promise and rode away with the elite of the Ten Heavenly Return Camp.
Yuan Qi turned his head and said to Xu Chu and Dian Wei: "The two of you take a hundred people into the mountain with a certain person, and the rest rest rest in place. After saying that, he grabbed the horse's belly and ran to the mountains first. Xu Chu hurriedly rode his horse to keep up, Dian Wei was not used to riding a horse, threw off his two long legs, and chased after Xu Chu's side. Speaking of Dian Wei, he is really talented, he can carry five hundred catties on his back, travel seven hundred miles a day, and just rely on his legs, he can compete with the best war horses.
A hundred cavalrymen hurriedly urged their horses and chased in the direction of Yuanqi.
Entering the mountain, Yuan Qi began to slow down his horse's speed, and sometimes even dismounted and stood in front of the black stones, looking at it seriously for a while. Dian Wei came to Yuan in front of him, and when he ran all the way, his face was not red or breathless, and his voice was still as stable as ever: "Lord, what are you looking at?"
Yuan Qi replied casually: "Fighters." Then there was a walk to the depths of Funiu Mountain. Dian Wei scratched his scalp, unable to figure out why Yuan Qi said that these black stones were fighters that broke the enemy. Xu Chu walked over with the horse, touched Dian Wei with his shoulder, and said teasingly: "Hey, Lao Hei, we are all rough people, don't bother with that brain, anyway, when the two armies clash, the lord will have to use us to kill the enemy, are you afraid that there will be no credit at that time?"
grinning widely, Dian Wei said humbly: "Yes, it's still a tiger, you have a good brain, hehe." With the march all the way, the relationship between Dian Wei and Xu Chu has also improved a lot, and the two were originally just a battle of will, but it will be okay if they say it. What's more, through fighting, the two admired each other's martial arts, and they actually gave birth to a taste of sympathy. So in private, Xu Chu is called Dian Wei Lao Hei, and Dian Wei is called Xu Chu Laohu.
Both of them smiled, and then chased in the direction of Yuan Qi.
Entering the depths of Funiu Mountain, Yuan Qi stood in the middle of a piece of black soil and observed for a long time, and suddenly looked up to the sky and smiled. Xu Chu and Dian Wei, who were laughing, were a little dazed.
After laughing enough, Yuan Qi regained his composure, his eyes flashed with excitement, and he instructed Xu Chu and Dian Wei: "You two quickly lead the sergeants to dig up this piece of black soil in the mountains." ”
Xu Chudianwei and the others didn't ask much, and beckoned the hundred sergeants who came with them to start digging.
After the time of the three incense sticks, hundreds of sergeants had dug a large pit in the black soil where Yuan Qi had stood, revealing the pitch-black mud inside.
Yuan Qi walked quickly to the edge of the pit, squatted down to carefully look at the black mud in the pit, the excitement in his eyes gradually became more intense, and he whispered to himself excitedly: "It's oil!
Standing up suddenly, Yuan Qi said, "Lao Hei, you run fast, go outside the mountain and call five hundred sergeants to transport all the black mud in the pit to me outside the mountain." ”
Dian Wei replied, turned around and ran out quickly.
Two hours later, hundreds of sergeants removed all the black mud that had been excavated.
Zhao Hu also came back and handed the drawn map to Yuan Qi.
Yuan Qi looked at the map, thought carefully for a moment, turned his head and asked Zhao Hu: "Zhao Hu, if you were Zhang Shao and the others, where would you camp?"
Zhao Hu said without thinking: "Naturally, it is the road to garrison, there are mountains and forests on both sides of the road, and the way to use troops is not to enter the forest." ”
Nodding slightly, Yuan Qi said happily: "Zhao Hu's martial arts are becoming more and more sophisticated, and now even the way of arranging troops is also making great progress, and he will definitely grow into a certain right-hand man in the future." Tomorrow, Zhang Shao will definitely camp here. ”
Zhao Hu hurriedly said humbly: "Senior brother has a reputation, Zhao Hu is ashamed." ”
Yuan Qi smiled and didn't argue with Zhao Hu, but turned his head and shouted: "Song Xi! I order you to lead five hundred soldiers to dig the avenue and dig a soil pit that is thousands of feet long and one foot deep, and it must be completed before tomorrow morning!"
Song Xi replied loudly: "No!"
"Song Qiong, you lead two hundred troops to crush these black mud blocks, mix them with sulfur and nitrate carbon, be sure to stir them evenly, and then wait until Song Xi finishes digging the pit, bury these things in the pit!" Yuan Qi continued to give orders.
"No!" Song Qiong agreed, and went to prepare.
Yuan Qi said loudly again: "Xu Bao, order you to lead a thousand soldiers up the mountain to chop firewood, the more the better, and then go to the top of Funiu Mountain to ambush, tomorrow when you see the fire under the mountain, throw all the dry firewood down to a certain person, and then use rockets to serve!"
Xu blocked the order in a deep voice: "No!"
"Zhao Hu, order you to lead 2,000 troops to ambush in Funiu Mountain, and tomorrow when you see a fire in the Red Turban camp, you can lead your troops to attack the left flank of the Red Turban!"
"No!"
"Xu Chu! ordered you to lead 2,000 troops to ambush on the dirt slope twenty miles outside the official road, and when you saw the Red Turban camp on fire, you led your troops to attack the right flank of the Red Turban. ”
"No!"
"Dian Wei, you and a certain leader of the rest of the sergeants, let's take the path to outflank the back road of the red scarf, and explode their chrysanthemums fiercely tomorrow!"
"But my lord, what do you mean by popping chrysanthemums?" Dian Wei asked again in a simple voice, asking the puzzle in his heart.
Rolling his eyes weakly, Yuan Qi kicked Dian Wei, and scolded with a smile: "If you are told to go, you will go, what are you verbose!"
"Oh, I see. ”
After assigning their respective tasks, Yuan Qi selected a hundred sharpshooters and whispered to them: "Prepare rockets and burning knives and wine, first ambush in Funiu Mountain, and in the evening tomorrow, immediately throw rockets and liquor into the Red Turban camp!"
A hundred sharpshooters nodded their heads in understanding.
After thinking carefully for a while, and finding that there was nothing missing, Yuan Qi turned over and jumped on the back of the jade unicorn's horse, beckoning Dian Wei and nearly a thousand sergeants to pat their horses and leave.
The next day, Zhang Shao took more than 100,000 Red Turban troops along the road and came to the main road ten miles away from Funiu Mountain. This Zhang Shao is Zhang Jiao's only son, so he has a high prestige in the Red Turban Army. The remnants of the Red Turban Party, led by Taihe and Montenegro Zhang Yan and others, all obeyed Zhang Shao's orders. This also made Zhang Shao more and more proud and complacent.
At this moment, looking at the procrastinating army, Zhang Shao was very dissatisfied in his heart, and said coldly: "Speed up the march, from early morning to dusk, the army has only walked more than 20 miles, at this speed, when will it be able to reach the capital?"
A captain with a red scarf on his head came over and said in a low voice: "Little Heavenly Master, our troops are all improvised patchwork, and there are only thirty or forty thousand people who have been on the battlefield, and the rest are farmers who have just put down their hoes. ”
Listening to what the captain said, Zhang Shao also sighed secretly, this is the limitation of the Red Turban Army. Since the Red Turban Uprising, whether under the leadership of his father Zhang Jiao, or under the control of his two uncles Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao, until now he has commanded the army, the vast majority of the Red Turban Army are untrained farmers and hunters, and they have always won by quantity, but the quality is a poor mess, and there is no way to compare with the regular army of the imperial court. After more than a year of training, he finally managed to train thirty or forty thousand soldiers, which also gave Zhang Shao the ambition and confidence to attack the capital and ascend the throne and become the emperor.
"Well, take a break for a while, and leave early tomorrow morning. Zhang Shao sighed helplessly.
After receiving Zhang Shao's order, the army of more than 100,000 red turbans began to get busy, some set up camps, some set up antlers, some dug trenches, and some made fires for cooking. All of a sudden, a commotion came from the mouths of more than 100,000 red turban soldiers, hovering in the air for a long time.
Looking at the more than 100,000 red scarves that were busy shuttling at the foot of the mountain, Xu Shu sighed softly on the top of Funiu Mountain, and whispered to himself: "The lord is really clever, this battle is not difficult!"