The Bookish Scholar of the Red Mansion

Whenever something big is approaching, you need to be calm and collected. Courage and wisdom are the foundation for survival in desperate situations.

After taking the military information from the soldiers, Chen Heng reviewed it with a straight face. After confirming that Shi Ding's handwriting and the tiger talisman seal were correct, he looked up at the messenger with a hopeful look on his face.

What do you want to ask, sir? The soldier asked eagerly when he saw that Chen Heng had not spoken for a long time.

Chen Heng, who was deep in thought, immediately reacted. He turned around and looked around the tent. Liu Xianglian stood by her side, and in front of her were Xinda and Lu Yingxiong who looked worried.

Thinking that these people were the power he could use, and seeing their expressions, Chen Heng immediately said calmly: There's no rush. I already know the military situation, and I can't wait to ask for help without delay.

After hearing these words, the messenger's expression suddenly darkened. He got Shi Ding's order and followed a few brothers to fight all the way out, just for the sake of the fallen soldiers in the army.

I know that the adult in front of me is not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death. The messenger hurriedly softened his tone, clasped his fists and said gratefully: If you have anything you want to know, sir, just ask me.

Go get the sand table. Chen Heng told Xinda. When the other party carried the simple utensils into the account, Chen Heng hurriedly pulled the messenger forward, pointed to the mountains and rivers on the sand table, and said: Tell me everything in the army exactly.

Yes. The messenger took a deep breath and began to tell his story.

After the whole army entered the mountain, they were immediately harassed and confronted by the Ping'an Prefecture bandits. The terrain in the mountains and forests is complex, making it easy to hide and hide.

An army bent on suppressing bandits inherently lacks initiative. Fortunately, Shi Ding was not a mediocre person. Faced with the constant harassment of the bandits who had the advantage of their location, Shi Ding immediately chose to divide his troops.

This time to suppress the bandits, the imperial court deployed a total of 40,000 soldiers and 50,000 civilians. In addition to leaving 5,000 soldiers and horses in the rear camp to guard the baggage, the remaining 35,000 people, together with 10,000 civilians to assist in the battle, were divided into ten teams and began to sweep the Black Mongoose Mountain.

Shi Ding dared to do this for three reasons. First, the officers and soldiers are well-equipped, far beyond what the bandits on the run can match.

The second is that he has more than a dozen noble disciples under his command, as well as the generals they bring with them. This is the so-called family origin.

These days it is really hard to find a commander who can read and read some military books. Good generals are easy to find, and the little commander who stands between good generals and soldiers is also very important.

With Feng Ziying, Wei Ruolan and other helpers on hand, there is no reason why Shi Ding should not play their role.

Even if one of the groups is surrounded, Pao Ze, who is wandering nearby, can provide support as soon as possible.

The last point is that Wumon Mountain is too big and there are too many bandits. There are small groups with only three to four hundred people who dare to dominate the mountain, and there are also large camps with thousands or tens of thousands of people.

Considering the difficulty of suppressing bandits and the long front line, it is undoubtedly a convenient way to gather the opponents together in a way of herding sheep and decide the outcome in one battle.

This is also the reason why good news spread frequently in the early stage.

When Chen Heng heard this, he never interrupted. He was waiting, waiting for the other party to tell him where the fighter plane turned.

His eyes moved along the fingertips of the messenger, and Chen Heng quickly discovered something suspicious. With the bandits constantly fleeing, Dayong's army walked a zigzag route on the sand table.

Is it to lure the enemy deeper? Or piles of sand? The ultimate success or failure of a strategy depends entirely on the tactical results.

The fingertips of the messenger quickly stopped at the turning point of the lower half of the 'zig'.

This is the Qingfeng Village of bandits. They gathered here and resisted us for more than ten days.

So that was mid-September? Chen Heng judged the time in his mind and asked: How many people are there?

My subordinates don't know. The ordering soldier shook his head decisively. The other party was not a regular army, so naturally he didn't make any move to tell the troops.

The ordering soldier thought for a moment and then explained to Chen Heng, Some commanders in the army said fifty thousand, some said thirty thousand, and some said seventy or eighty thousand.

When Chen Heng heard this, he couldn't help but take a deep breath. He knew that estimating the number of enemy troops through a hard drive would test a general's ability.

In ancient history, there is a method of judging the number of enemies by relying on the rising smoke from the stove. Chen Heng didn't believe that Shi Ding didn't know, so he asked, What did the general say?

The general said it would be at least 40,000. The messenger whispered.

Chen Heng couldn't help but frown after hearing this. This number is no less than the number of officers and soldiers. He nodded and motioned to the messenger to continue his story.

We attacked here for ten consecutive days. All the soldiers were brave and killed countless enemies. We also captured more than 2,000 surrendered troops. The general felt that the time was ripe, so he ordered the soldiers of the three armies to rest for a day and launched a general attack the next day.

Then what?

Who would have thought that these gangs of bandits would take advantage of the darkness and run away, abandoning the old, weak, women and children in the village. When the messenger said this, the joy of chasing and killing the enemy immediately appeared on his face.

You keep talking. Chen Heng, who already knew the result, couldn't be happy, and still had a gloomy expression.

The bandits are running very fast... we... we are here... The messenger retracted his fingertips with some embarrassment, only using his eyes instead, and said dejectedly, We were ambushed by the enemy.

Chen Hengwei looked at the map for a long time, thought about it, and then asked: But the terrain is dangerous.

Yes. The messenger nodded and sighed, This place is a dangerous terrain with a thin line of sky. The army had only passed halfway, when many bandits appeared on the mountain and pushed down rolling stones to block the road.

How could he be invincible if he was so greedy for success? Chen Heng couldn't bear to listen anymore.

The messenger's story continued: I followed the pioneer battalion into the valley first, and there were eight thousand brothers left behind. We...at that time...we could only hear their screams...

Confused. Chen Heng sighed and saw that the orderly soldier was crying and hurriedly asked Xinda to take him down first.

When the other party was gone, Lu Yingxiong hurriedly stood next to Chen Heng and said cautiously: Sir, how are you going to save him?

Rescue, what to save? He only had 40,000 civilians left on hand, so he asked them to make food for the soldiers. If you expect them to hold swords and guns and go into battle to kill the enemy, isn't that making fun of human lives?

Chen Heng walked towards the case and while writing, he said: First report to the court and ask your Majesty to send reinforcements.

This was a matter of course. Lu Yingxiong followed Chen Heng step by step. After the other party had written the memorial document and handed it to him, Lu Yingxiong asked aloud: Where are the trapped soldiers and horses?

Chen Heng also had a headache. After thinking about it carefully, he said: The dry food carried by the soldiers now can last more than ten days. Shi Ding is also good at fighting. Even if he is at a disadvantage for a moment, he will not be able to fight quickly. Defeated.”

Sorting through the thoughts in his mind bit by bit, Chen Heng's thoughts gradually became clear. The top priority is to find a way to send food and grass there...

People have to eat, and tens of thousands of soldiers are trapped in a tight siege. Once they reach the end of their rope, these people have no choice but to surrender.

Chen Heng couldn't even imagine how rampant the bandits would be if they got the weapons of these people.

Thinking of this, Chen Heng subconsciously looked at the nervous Lu Yingxiong. Now in the rear army, the only men and horses that can go into battle are the five thousand men the opponent has on hand.

Seeing this, Lu Yingxiong couldn't help but smile bitterly. He knew he couldn't escape, so he had no choice but to say: Don't worry, sir, I know what to do.

Chen Heng also knew that it was a bit difficult, so he comforted him directly: Let's wait for a day or two and see if any deserters come back. Try to keep them in one place and learn more about the bandits' truth from their mouths.

Lu Yingxiong nodded hurriedly. As long as Chen Heng didn't order him to send troops immediately, it would be good news.

We only have five thousand soldiers and horses now, we can't lose them easily. Chen Heng knew that the safety of the rear army camp depended on these people.

Don't seek to defeat the enemy, but focus on harassment first. See if you can use some deception and some strategies to attack the east and west to mobilize the besieged bandits...

Chen Heng warned him word by word, and he and Lu Yingxiong continued discussing until late at night before deciding on some rescue matters.

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From Ping'an Prefecture to the capital, it's an expedited walk of eight hundred miles, and it only takes three days to arrive. The moment Li Zhi received the military information, his first reaction was disbelief. He couldn't think of how to punish Shi Ding for a moment, so he laughed out loud in anger.

After finally suppressing his anger, Li Zhi ignored the silence of the night and directly summoned all the ministers to Linjing Hall to ask for advice.

It was certain to send troops to rescue. Even Gu Zaiyong didn't dare to touch Li Zhi's troubles.

That night, a group of messengers rushed out of the capital. By the time they arrived at Qingniwa, two more days had passed.

The soldiers of the border army who had been waiting here for a long time began to board the ship overnight as soon as they received the message to go to the peak.

Don't be in a hurry, don't rush. One team at a time, we board the ship, with the leader walking at the end. Keep an eye on the people in your hands.

It will rain tonight, the moon is unclear, and the stars have retreated. In such an environment, in order to keep 8,000 people on board the warship, several generals in the army were busy running around in the rain.

As the leader of this group of people, Xin Suzhao was specially transferred back from the border by Li Zhi. Even before the war, he still wore neat armor.

Holding the reins in one hand, the other hand rested on the long knife at his waist. Xin Suzhao looked at the subordinate who walked up to him and said concisely: Hurry, we must leave the port before Xu Shi.

It's already half past midnight. Is it really so urgent? What if a brother falls into the water?

The subordinate in front of him couldn't understand, but he had followed Xin Suzhao for a long time, and he knew that this superior had a character that meant nothing.

If you are not kind enough to control the troops, if you are really going to fall into the water and die, then consider yourself unlucky.

I understand, I understand. The subordinate responded, raised his hand to wipe the rain off his face, and then asked, Commander, does he know where we are going to disembark?

If he hadn't considered that the other party was relatively reliable, Xin Suzhao would have whipped the other party for this problem alone.

Don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask. Xin Suzhao replied coldly and waved his hand away.

Seeing Xin Suzhao's unkind look, the subordinate shrank his neck, turned around and ran towards the boarding area.

Damn it, I can't even light a torch on this rainy day in the dark. Apart from telling the soldiers to be more careful, what else can the commanders do?

Under Xin Suzhao's urging, although some soldiers fell into the water and disappeared without a trace, a large number of ships still rushed out of the Qingniwa port in time before Xu Shi.

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The military camp has begun to accommodate the first batch of defeated soldiers who escaped. All of these soldiers were injured, and the information they could provide Chen Heng was messy.

What was talked about the most was not the information about the bandits. Instead, he said that the other party had the help of God, God, and Mother Earth, and that was why the mountain god acted in anger.

Chen Heng couldn't laugh or cry when he heard this, so he had to arrange for someone to take good care of them and not deal with the deserters according to military law.

The defeat was due to the general's mistake, and it had nothing to do with the soldiers under his command.

However, considering that there will be no organized grain transportation team in the future, Chen Heng has arranged for civilian workers to cut down trees nearby in advance.

These civilians from all over the world have very skillful hands, so they can go into battle to kill enemies, but they can also make convenient wheelbarrows. All of their skills are very skillful.

It has been sunny in the past few days. Considering that this weather may continue, Chen Heng asked the farmer to remove the soaked cowhide and other items, take fire prevention measures, and wrap them on the wheelbarrow.

When everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, Chen Heng heard a strange news from Liu Xianglian who had come to report.

Xue Pan is dead.

Do you want to say it again?! Chen Heng thought he heard wrongly and looked at Liu Xianglian in surprise.

The wounded soldiers who had just entered the camp brought a corpse. I saw it and it was Xue Pan. Liu Xianglian herself didn't believe how Xue Pan got into the fighting armies.

Chen Heng felt a little strange and quickly got up and rushed to Jia Baoyu's tent. As soon as he entered the tent, he saw Baoyu kneeling in front of a stretcher, lying on the white cloth and crying loudly.

Chen Heng walked around Jia Baoyu's side, squatted down and slightly lifted a corner of the white cloth. When he saw that the person inside was the invisible Xue Pan, Chen Heng let out a surprised hiss.

Jia Baoyu, who was crying, saw Chen Heng appear. He quickly raised his head and cried to his cousin-in-law: Brother-in-law...Brother-in-law Chen...you want to avenge my brother-in-law!!

Seeing Jia Baoyu rushing towards him and hugging him, Chen Heng quickly winked at Liu Xianglian. After the latter opened Jia Baoyu, Chen Heng patiently examined Xue Pan's wounds.

The cause of death was an arrow in the chest and some sword wounds on the body. Chen Heng looked at a few places but did not delve into the details.

What else should we look at? It is more realistic to expect Xue Pan to die and serve the country. It is better to expect Xue Pan to change his mind and study the scriptures diligently.

Jia Baoyu obviously wanted to understand this, so he kept saying the word revenge to Chen Heng.

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After escaping from Jia Baoyu's camp, Chen Heng immediately summoned Lu Yingxiong to discuss countermeasures. The latter was somewhat indifferent to Xue Pan's death. The Xue family is not even considered noble, they are just an imperial businessman. It is also an honor for the Xue family to die fighting for the country.

Chen Heng couldn't explain the strange cause of Xue Pan's death, so he had to tell him to be more careful when traveling.

Don't worry, Mr. Chen. Lu Yingxiong didn't waste any words and answered with confidence.

Seeing him like this, Chen Heng felt even more uneasy. The only person who may lead the troops is the other party at the moment. Where can I find a great commander who can fight against Langyan?

When Lu Yingxiong saw that Chen Heng was silent, he turned around and left in high spirits. He couldn't help feeling a little happy. If he really solved Shi Ding's dilemma, would he be able to advance to a higher level?

Thinking of Shi Ding's face that was so angry that he turned green, Lu Yingxiong suddenly asked his men to leave the camp quickly.

When the other party left with three thousand troops and horses, Chen Heng hurriedly asked people to build fences and lock the camp gates.

I just waited for Lu Yingxiong to give him some accurate and reliable news when he came back.

Unexpectedly, Mr. Lu left very quickly and came back even faster. Before sunset, he had already run back in embarrassment with his men.

Seeing that they all had minor injuries, Chen Heng hurriedly invited Lu Yingxiong to the tent to ask for details.

Sir, you don't know!! Lu Yingxiong, who was slightly injured because he fell from his horse, cried immediately, These bandit soldiers are really fierce.

After telling his story, Chen Heng learned that Lu Yingxiong and others had just entered the forest when they encountered a small group of bandits.

These people were in a good place, so Lu Yingxiong dismissed them casually. But as they deepened, their movements soon attracted more enemies.

You mean there are several times as many people to attack you? Chen Heng couldn't tell for a moment whether the other party was telling the truth, or whether Lu Yingxiong was exaggerating to avoid the impact of defeat.

Seeing Chen Heng's expression of disbelief, Lu Yingxiong quickly explained: It's absolutely true!!! If you don't believe it, I can call the soldiers directly for you to interrogate.

That would be strange. Chen Heng frowned deeply when he saw that Lu Yingxiong's expression didn't look fake. Why are there so many thieves? ?

Happy New Year’s Eve, book friends! ! ! I'm so busy today, ah ah ah.