Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

On the afternoon of the second day of the first lunar month, reinforcements from Longzhou, Hanzhou and Fuyuzhou all arrived in Xizhou. Since the Beiyuan Kingdom's army only came with 30,000 troops and lost 5,000 to 6,000 troops, they could not besiege Xizhou and could only set up camp outside the North City Gate. This made it easier for the reinforcements to enter the city directly from the east gate.

Zixuan and General Li led people to cover and welcomed all the reinforcements into the city. After everyone introduced each other, they all got to know each other. This time Longzhou sent 3,000 people, Hanzhou sent 2,500 people, and Fuyuzhou sent 2,500 people. In addition to the less than 4,000 people originally stationed in Xizhou and the more than 10,000 young men in the city, the number now is almost the same as that of the Beiyuan Army outside the city.

"Mr. Lin, our number is not much less than that of the Beiyuan Army outside. I think it is better for us to go out of the city and fight with them to get rid of the bad breath in our hearts." Everyone sat down in the living room of the state government office. Here, that General Li said.

Zixuan smiled and shook his head, "Everyone, why are you in a hurry? Now that we have a weapon to defend the city, why bother going out of the city to fight with them? In Xizhou City, not to mention anything else, the food alone is enough for us. These people can eat for two or three months. But what about those people outside the city? They must have traveled lightly. It is already the second day of the Lunar New Year. In my opinion, how much food can each person carry? It won't be until the fourth day of the Lunar New Year at most, they will definitely have nothing to eat." Zixuan smiled sinisterly.

"There are no people in the villages in the north of the city now. All the food has been hidden, and they will definitely not be able to find it. When the time comes, they will definitely go to the east and west of the city to look for food. Then, we can Ambush on the road and deal with them once. When they can no longer find food, the morale of the army will inevitably be disturbed. When the time comes, all we need to do is attack them in one fell swoop."

"Master Lin, these people have come a long way, and they will definitely be followed by a large group of people. When the army comes to the border, we will no longer be opponents." General An said.

Zixuan nodded, "I have sent countless spies to pay attention to the movements in Beiyuan Kingdom at all times. As long as any changes are found, they will be reported in time. When the army moves, the food, grass and baggage must be cumbersome. Now that it is covered with heavy snow, it will definitely not happen. so fast."

These generals are generally partial generals and their positions are not high, so among everyone present, Zixuan is still the highest ranking. Although civil and military affairs are not the same, at this time, there must be someone who has the final say. Anyway, this is Xizhou, and if anything happens, it is his responsibility as the governor of Xizhou, so these generals will not argue with Zixuan. Furthermore, Zixuan's analysis of the battle situation was indeed quite accurate, and these people had no objections.

"Then let's listen to Magistrate Lin and rest for now, and then prepare for a good fight." General An and others all agreed with Zixuan's approach.

So these people each took their subordinates to camp and rest temporarily, waiting for the opportunity to send troops.

In the Beiyuan camp outside the city, several generals could not sit still. "General Bart, we only have one day's worth of food left. If we still can't capture Xizhou, then the army will run out of food." A person in the big tent said.

That General Bart also had a dark cloud on his forehead. He is a fierce general who charges into battle. When the marshal sent him out, he wanted to take advantage of his fierceness. But who would have thought that he would be hindered in Xizhou. Then General Bart didn't know what to do.

"How do I, the general, know what to do? Now when we are attacking the city, the enemy is really weird and I dare not touch it head-on. If we retreat, I'm afraid they will be beaten. Just stay here and there is no food. You let me What should I do?" he said angrily.

At this time, a slightly shorter man in the tent said, "Why don't we send people to look for food tomorrow? Aren't there many villages nearby? Not all villages will be empty, right? As long as we find food, then I’m not afraid anymore.”

Everyone had no other choice but to agree. So it was decided that tomorrow morning, two teams of troops would be sent to the east and west districts of the city to look for food. "Two thousand people per team is good. If there are more, we will be afraid of a sudden attack in the city. Our insufficient troops will be a bad thing." The person who came up with the idea said.

"Okay, let's do it." Bart nodded. He really couldn't think of anything else to do.

On the morning of the third day of the first lunar month, the Beiyuan Army sent two teams to the east and west of the city to look for food. Among them, the group heading toward the east of the city had walked about twenty miles, and saw a village in the distance ahead. "General, look, there is still smoke in that village. Someone must be living there." A soldier pointed at the smoke curling up in the distance and shouted happily.

The leader was also very happy, "Quick, hurry up and move forward. If we can find food, we don't have to be afraid."

So this group of people walked forward quickly. Just when they were about to arrive in front of the village, a sudden change occurred. Countless arrows flew out from the village and headed directly towards these soldiers. These people were completely unprepared, and many people were hit by arrows at once. Moreover, the man who was hit by the arrow just wanted to get up, but found that his body was gradually becoming less easy to use.

"General, be careful, this arrow is poisonous." A soldier shouted.

When the leader saw this situation, he immediately ordered everyone to duck down and retreat slowly.

Unfortunately, before they could turn around, many people emerged from the heavy snow behind them. Then, a large number of soldiers came out from the village, all wearing the uniforms of Daqi soldiers.

When the leader saw this situation, he knew it was not good and said, "Fight for me, kill." As he said that, he swung his knife and rushed forward.

But the sergeants of Daqi on the opposite side did not show any panic at all. They quickly gathered together and surrounded the soldiers of Beiyuan Kingdom from front to back.

The people of the Northern Yuan Kingdom are brave and good at fighting, but they lack a tacit understanding of cooperation with each other. If they fight alone, the soldiers of Daqi will not be their opponents, but if there are more people, the soldiers of Beiyuan will only care about their own affairs and will not cooperate with each other. If the number of both sides is the same, the soldiers of the Beiyuan Kingdom will definitely be defeated. Moreover, this time, Daqi sent 5,000 people to ambush here, which was more than twice the opponent's number.

The two sides fought fiercely for more than half an hour, and the Daqi side won without any doubt. The men leading the troops were none other than Ziwen and Wenxuan. They ordered the battlefield to be swept quickly and then return to the city. This kind of ambush can only be fought once, and it won't work the second time, so quitting as soon as it's ready is the right choice.

So everyone quickly packed up all the weapons of these Beiyuan soldiers and took them away. You know, the young men in the city don't have so many weapons. You can't just fight with bare hands, right? Now, at least two thousand people have weapons to use.

The same thing happened in the west of the city. Of the 4,000 people sent by Beiyuan Kingdom, no one survived.

In the afternoon, Bart felt a little anxious in the big tent before these people came back. "Hurry up and send someone to look around to see what's going on and why you haven't come back yet."

Someone received the order, rode out to inquire about the news, and came back half an hour later to report, "General, something bad happened. All four thousand people we sent out were ambushed and the entire army was wiped out."

When Bart heard this, he sat down on the ground, "How could this happen? Our people were ambushed? Is it Daqi's army?"

"It should be so. The battlefield has been cleaned very clean and all the weapons are gone." the spy replied.

"These people from Daqi are so cunning. How do they know where we are going?" Bart looked gloomy and sat on the ground, not knowing what to do.

Several generals came in from outside, "General, I heard that the people we sent out were ambushed and none of them came back, right?"

Bart said nothing and just nodded. In the past, when troops were sent to various places, Bart was always the first to rush to the front and was a victorious general who was invincible. But this time when we sent troops to Xizhou, we didn't expect it to be like this, and suffered setbacks at every turn. This made him feel very uncomfortable and emotionally depressed.

"General, our food is only enough for one meal tonight. What should we do tomorrow? The general has sent people back to report the situation on the marshal's side, but according to the messenger, the marshal's troops and horses still need two It will take three days. Are we going to have to go hungry these days? "It's the same short general who seems to be a somewhat resourceful person.

"Go ahead and halve the food for tonight so that you can have another meal tomorrow morning. Let's think of a solution tomorrow. Daqi's soldiers will never be in ambush tomorrow." Bart thought for a moment and then said .

Everyone had no choice but to do this. So everyone was only half hungry for dinner in the evening.

In Xizhou City, in the state government office, Zixuan was talking to these generals.

"Thanks to Mr. Lin's clever calculation, these Tatars really went to look for food. We set out from Nancheng in Yinshi, went around to the east and west of the city, and ambush there early. It turned out to be a good fight. Hahaha, these guys The Tatars, who don't live well in their own territory, come to show off their power in our Daqi land, they are really looking for death." General Li laughed wildly, "Finally, they can breathe a sigh of relief. Those who sacrificed their lives to defend Zhenyuan Pass. People, they can rest in peace."

General An next to him also said, "The most amazing thing is the poison on the bow and arrow. It is really effective. Those who were hit by the arrow were unable to move. Mr. Lin, your move is quite cruel, but we all like it." . I just don’t know where Master Lin got the poison from?”

Zixuan smiled, "My wife's aunt is a medical woman who came from the palace. She knows the most about these things. She prepared the poison and gave it to me."