Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

On the evening of the twentieth day of the fourth year of Xiande (957 A.D.), Guo Shao saw Li Chongjin's troops.

"Li Chongjin can't escape anymore." Guo Shao looked back and said. The generals laughed a lot, and he said again, "Take a rest all night and fight tomorrow morning. Even if Li Chongjin wanted to run, he couldn't run. We walked two hundred miles yesterday and today, and Li Chongjin walked less than fifty miles. How could he run?"

At this moment, two dark-skinned people, one old and one strong, with their heads wrapped in cloth handkerchiefs climbed up the mountain. Guo Shao gave Zhou Tong a wink, and Zhou Tong took out a handful of copper coins and held them up. Guo Shao then asked: "Are you locals?"

"My father is from Xiakou, and so is my grandfather." The elder spoke with a strong Hedong accent. Fortunately, although the accents of different places in the north are different, they are much easier to understand than the southern dialects. Guo Shao can understand almost all of them.

The old man got the money and pointed to the river below the mountain: "That's Fenshui, the opposite mountain is called Qin Wangling; the mountain we are standing on is called Xitou Mountain. There is an opening in the north, which is occupied by soldiers and horses (Li Chongjin's department), and the opening is open, and there is Xiakou Town."

Zhou Tong asked, "Do you mean open and flat?"

"Yes." The old man hurriedly read the head, "It's winter, and it's windy here at night, the north wind, hiding in the south of the mountain is the last thing."

Guo Shao asked in detail about the topography of Xiakou Town where the guy passed by.

The two people had nothing to say and were taken down. Zhou Tong immediately said: "Fen River meanders eastward after crossing the mountain. Although Xiakou Town has a wide terrain, the flat land is on the north bank; the road on the south bank is narrow. Unless you climb over the mountain, your troops will be crowded on the road when you retreat."

"He blocked this opening to prevent our army from deploying; he deployed in the open to the north, but he didn't think about how to retreat, but for fighting." Guo Shao said with a smile, "Li Chongjin is still a veteran in the battlefield. He only talks about using troops, not bad."

Shi Yanchao snorted, "No matter how much you use your troops, a bunch of trash can't stop the iron cavalry!"

Guo Shao echoed him and said: "General Shi made it clear that the battle is about strength. Unless you pin the hope of victory on the luck of the opponent's stupidity, whoever is stronger will win. So my whole country's strength in the Great Zhou Dynasty is tilted towards the military, and we have raised so many elites; it's not for the sake of winning the battle. Wouldn't it be fun to share the money with everyone for fun!"

Everyone burst into laughter after hearing this, and a brawny warrior said happily: "It's good to pay money, and you will have glory and wealth when you sit. Let's go to this deep mountain and wild valley to eat bird eggs!"

Guo Shao suppressed his smile and turned to Zhou Tongtong: "Tomorrow morning, General Zhou will be the formation envoy, and he will be in charge of setting up the formation early in the morning. This narrow area is less than one mile wide, so it cannot be deployed. Deploy the heavy infantry in front to increase the density of troops."

This kind of formation with almost no technical content, let Zhou Tong go entirely to give him credit. Zhou Tong hurriedly cupped his fists and said, "The last general takes orders."

A general pointed to the opposite mountain and said: "Li Chongjin also has soldiers on the mountain, should we send troops up the mountain to guard?"

Guo Shao glanced at it, and immediately said: "No need. If you can turn around and attack my way from the mountain, you can still read the threat; but Li Chongjin is at a disadvantage, and he is looking for death if he takes the initiative to dive down. What's more, the road on the mountain is difficult. It is impossible for a large force to form an organized movement, and any movement is very slow. We have time to temporarily organize a defense line on the side of the mountain."

Everyone observed again, Li Chongjin built some fence fortifications on the mountain, and the fortifications were deployed in a line, it really looked like he was defending. The movement of the enemy soldiers on the river beach corridor at the foot of the mountain could not be clearly seen, and some camps and flags could be seen in the distance, and a large cloud of dust was trapped in the mountains.

Guo Shao and the others couldn't get any closer. There were scouts in front of them, and it was getting dark. Small-scale conflicts were meaningless.

... After returning to the camp, the various ministries followed the guide's reminder, chose a camp to station behind the mountain, and sent people to set up light and dark sentries and scouts, and nothing happened for a while. After the sun went down, the night quickly opened, and there were bonfires at the foot of the mountain, and the fire was bright. It is estimated that such a popular and lively scene has not been seen in this mountainous area for several years.

Fourteen days after leaving Beijing on the twelfth of the lunar month, Guo Shao didn't really feel much. He just rode and walked all day long; then he fought a battle. Being in other places, I didn't feel that I did such an earth-shattering thing... But I can imagine the achievements: running thousands of miles in half a month, defeating 70,000 people in a row. (In fact, it is not an exaggeration to exaggerate the first reading and claim to have wiped out one hundred thousand troops; Cao Cao did not reach 200,000 in the Battle of Chibi, and it is nothing to claim 800,000.)

Er Li's 100,000 army rebelled and was wiped out in half a month! Isn't this kind of power called internal and external shock? How will the people of the world react?

The more Guo Shao thought about it, the more excited he became. Although he acted cautiously the day before yesterday, he was already tempted by such results in his heart, so he did everything possible to send troops in succession. He was very much looking forward to tomorrow's battle.

Guo Shao sat under a dead tree without even a tent, quietly agitated there. Because the whole army is light and simple, and there are few tents, the complex structure of the military tent that requires several vehicles to fit is naturally not brought.

All the soldiers first set fire to cook hot soup on the ground, and then chatted after eating. Then the fire was removed, and the ground was already hot, and everyone spread out the tung tarpaulin and blankets wrapped in the quilt; and then carried the small tent to the big bunk. Then several people and their bodies were wrapped in a big quilt, and there were more than 20 people lying in a small tent. There was no room in the tent except for the place to sleep; a fire was lit outside the tent to keep warm.

The conditions are quite difficult, the real wind and camp. But as long as everyone thinks they can win, the hardships are nothing.

Fortunately, there is very little rain in Hedong in late autumn and early winter. If it happens to rain at this time, it will be even more miserable... because there are too few and low tents for shelter from the rain, and it is impossible to light a fire in the tents. If it rains, Guo Shao may not dare to send troops from Jinzhou in such a hurry.

Guo Shao is better as the main general, he doesn't have to squeeze with others, he lives alone in a tent and changes a quilt. However, the tent was still very low, and the body couldn't stand up straight when entering it, except for lying down and bending over.

Even so, Guo Shao still couldn't sleep. This feeling is very subtle, like going to see a beautiful woman tomorrow, extremely looking forward to and excited, but worrying about gain and loss in my heart... What if she doesn't like me? If I make a fool of myself by being nervous, it would be a pity to miss it...

Of course, what Guo Shao is looking forward to now is Li Chongjin. Li Chongjin can't like him, so he has no choice but to force him.

How would Fu Jinzhan feel when he heard that he had defeated Er Li in fifteen days? hey-hey……

Guo Shao fell asleep in a daze of dreams and nervousness.

Early the next morning, he didn't wake up until he heard the sound of the horn, and got up in a hurry. Standing in front of the low tent, he saw that a large group of infantrymen had pulled out of the battalion, and the huge tiger square flag in front was still not adapted from the previous flag.

The commander held his saber obliquely, and the flag bearer and drummer followed closely behind. "Boom, boom..." The five hundred people marched slowly in an orderly queue, stepping on drums. The black armor and heavy footsteps seemed to conquer mountains and rivers.

Guo Shao asked someone to help put on the heavy armor, tie the waist ornaments around his body, and hang up the sword. Then he took out a toothbrush from his pocket and went into the tent to brush his teeth. He overslept this morning, but he didn't panic at all and had to maintain a calm and calm state of mind. While washing his face, he thought to the shadow inside: Every time he thinks about Fu Jinzhan, he will definitely win. Good luck today!

Guo Shao ate three wheat cakes with cold boiled water. Dong Er led his horse, and he got on his horse and went out of the fence. More than two hundred riders were waiting in line. Guo Shao waved his hand and said, "Let's go!"

Along the way, the infantry phalanxes were marching. Guo Shao rode his horse and passed by on the flank, shouting: "This battle must be won!"

All the soldiers looked back at Guo Shao, and shouted: "We must win... we must win..." The voice echoed in the mountains on the opposite bank, circling on the surface of the Fenshui River.

When Guo Shao arrived at the battlefield, he could see from a distance that Li Chongjin's troops, hundreds of paces away, had set up fences in front of him, kept horses away, and dug a ditch in front; this battle was again in a defensive situation. He looked up and saw that the mountain on the side was undulating, and the enemy soldiers had also set up fortifications on it; but the hillside was undulating, and the enemy soldiers were far away, so a temporary ambush would not be able to surprise and win.

"Dong Er, take a team of your own soldiers and abandon their horses to disperse and see if there are any artificial signs such as ambushes and stones in the mountains in front of the enemy soldiers." Guo Shao pointed to the east side and shouted, "If you find anything abnormal, wave a flag to report it."

"Decree!" Dong Er clasped his fists in reply.

Guo Shao rode his horse around and saw that Zhou Tong was leading people to yell and set up the formation. The front-line camp in front had been deployed, and the troops coming from behind were setting up the formation.

He looked at it, and found that the eight commanders on the front line, according to the sequence arranged in advance, belonged to the second army of the Huben Army, and they were all infantry. Every command of 500 people is arranged in a rectangular formation of ten rows; one row has two teams of about fifty people. One commander spread out horizontally at less than fifty steps, and the infantry was deployed very densely; eight commanders spread out horizontally, and on the front of about one mile, there were still wide gaps between the commanders.

Although Zhou Tong used to be a coach, he should be trained by a large number of soldiers in the Palace of Wei. It seems that the marching formation is still very expert.

On the opposite side of Li Chongjin’s camp fence, I’m afraid Guo Shao’s thinking is similar. The front is full of infantry... because the horse soldiers occupy a large area, they are too dense to run, and too sparse can be sent to the battlefield. In infantry combat, the denser the army, the more advantageous it is, because on a densely populated side, two or three people may fight one at a time.

At the age of thirteen, Guo Shao became a recruit guard in the Palace of Wei. He has been in the military for many years, and he knows what it is like to fight based on his experience. Later, he "changed his personality" and gradually fell in love with reading books. Sun Tzu was the most familiar with the art of war...but he hardly used it in actual combat.

So far, he has not found that there are detailed military books in this era, which teach people how to march and fight. Everything is summed up by experience and his own thinking.