Traveling through the early Tang Dynasty starts with hanging

Chapter 961
It seems that God is helping Liang Shidu, or it may be that God wants to make Li Shan's trip more difficult. On the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, there was a heavy snowstorm in Yuanzhou, and the howling wind rolled up the snow on the ground. trembling.

The hand holding the gun barrel has lost any feeling, but Li Shan can't and dare not let go.

When we set off early this morning, the heavy snow had stopped, but unexpectedly it was a pause before the berserk. Near noon, the overwhelming snow and the strong wind that made people unable to stand still came at the same time. Zhang Zhongjian had to let the soldiers use their spears Holding each other can ensure that the marching ranks will not be scattered.

Although he had stayed in Daizhou for more than a year, and Li Shan had led an army to fight in heavy snow, he had never seen or even imagined such a heavy snowstorm. Ten steps away, there were faint figures Can't see clearly.

How strong is the wind? At the beginning, Zhang Zhongjian tried to hang a flag on the front of the army to guide the direction, but before a quarter of an hour, the flag that had been ravaged by the strong wind for a short time was blown apart. Looking at the broken The flag was blown up into the air by the strong wind, and Li Shan was overwhelmed at that time.

No matter what, I waited for two months, and finally chose this winter, which may be the harshest day to send troops. Li Shan thought in his heart, did he use up all his luck in this life when he shot down the sweat flag last year? ?

Among the white peaks and valleys, it is quiet and empty. It seems that this is a dead place that birds and beasts can't avoid. Hundreds of people are winding towards the northwest like long snakes. In such a cold day, any kind of snake will Hibernate.

The vast majority of people are already numb, and even their consciousness has begun to be a little fuzzy, and they have no normal reaction to everything in the outside world. They only hold the gun in their hands, move their legs mechanically, and follow the previous person. behind.

"Lang Jun!" Hou Hongtao shouted at the top of his voice, "Take a sip of wine!"

Li Shan with a stiff face was too lazy to open his mouth, and it took a lot of energy to speak, so he only signaled with his eyes, Hou Hongtao hesitated for a while, pulled out the stopper, and brought the mouth of the gourd to Qu Silang's mouth, who took a sip just stopped.

Yesterday and today, it was Qu Silang who fed him wine all the time, Li Shan did not forget it.

With such a heavy snowstorm, the marching speed is getting slower and slower. Although Li Shan's body is cold and even stiff, his brain has not been frozen, and his heart is getting more and more anxious. The footholds selected before are based on the normal marching speed. For sure, if you can't speed up, you probably won't be able to arrive before nightfall. The empty land will become a huge cemetery, and everyone will be buried in the snow.

But speeding up... is already impossible. The wind and snow are getting bigger and bigger, and it is becoming more and more difficult for scouts to explore the way. But without scouts, even if the whole army wants to speed up, it is impossible.

Just two quarters of an hour ago, Fan Shiyi reported that the two scouts who had been exploring the way were missing, lost in the endless snowstorm.

Zhang Zhongjian rushed back in person, found a place to leeward, and discussed with Li Shan, Duan Decao, Fan Shiyi, Huangfuzhong and others. It was impossible to reach the predetermined end point today, and another end point had to be chosen.

"Map!" Li Shan roared, Fan Shiyi spread the map on the snow, and several people squatted down and formed a circle to block the wind and snow.

"Here...here?" Li Shan's fingers moved on the map.

"Probably here." Huangfu Zhong moved his finger to the west, "There is no foothold on the east bank of the Rushui River, but there is a village on the west bank."

Liu Heier said without hesitation: "The Rushui River is frozen, cross the river and wash that village!"

"How many people are there in the village?"

"The village is not small." Fan Shiyi gritted his teeth and said, "It may not be possible to wipe them all out."

"Such a heavy snowstorm, it would be a death to run out!" Huangfu Zhong's face was blown open, and he said loudly: "Your Highness, we can only wash that village."

Fan Shiyi, Zhang Zhongjian, and Qu Silang all stared at Li Shan, while Liu Heier and Huangfuzhong were a little surprised. With such a simple choice, why hesitate?

The first three are well aware that the attitude of this gentleman towards the enemy is completely different from that of the common people. Li Shan sneered. He is not a saint. He has reached this point. How can he still consider benevolence and righteousness? ?

Maybe some people in this era will, but an adult who has been immersed in modern society has always been used to starting from the perspective of his own interests...Speaking of which, Li Shan's so-called Huairen's reputation is not all created by himself .

"Scouts to investigate first, don't need to go to war, don't kill people if there is no need." Li Shan quickly ordered, "If you kill someone and leave tomorrow, the villagers may not sue... Remember there is a town nearby?"

Huangfu moved his loyal finger to the north, "There is a town twenty miles away, and there should be a Liang army stationed there."

"Then we still have to cross the Rushui River tomorrow?"

"That's right. Go eastward and go northward for another fifty miles. After crossing the Rushui River, you will arrive at the next foothold."

Li Shan wiped the snow on his eyebrows, "Lock the north side first, don't let the villagers slip out, let's do it."

It was very smooth, and it surprised Li Shan. An hour later, he stood at the entrance of the village, watching Duan Decao mercilessly brandishing a long knife with a sheath, smashing a young man to the point of bleeding. , Dozens of soldiers squeezed more than a hundred villagers into a big house, and more soldiers broke into the house... It is the extreme not to kill people. This way, at least they can save their lives.

As for robbing property and raping women...the former is meaningless to these soldiers of the Tang army, as for the latter, they also need to have that energy.

This village is not much smaller than the original Sun Moon Lake. There are about 100 households, and there are about 500 people, men, women, and children. Zhang Zhongjian put all the people in a dozen or so slightly larger houses for easy supervision. Since they can’t be killed, they can’t be rushed Let them freeze to death in the wild.

"Be careful." Li Shan whispered.

"Don't worry, Liu Heier can hold on, he and I will guard first." Hou Hongtao was quite able to resist in Liangzhou a few years ago.

"Try not to kill people, but if the villagers make trouble, don't be soft."

"Don't worry, Mr. Lang, go and rest quickly."

The other side has been cleaned up, Qu Silang and Zhou Zhoulang dragged Li Shan into a room, the warmth caused by the charcoal basin made Li Shan breathe a long sigh of relief.

Qu Silang came over with a quilt in his arms, and Zhou Zhoulang stripped off the wet cotton armor on Li Shan's body, and then wrapped Li Shan tightly in the quilt.

While trembling, Li Shan was still asking: "Others..."

"Don't worry, sir, Zhang Sanlang will arrange it." Zhou Yilang squatted down and took off Li Shan's boots.

Although it is an ordinary farm house, it has all internal organs. The two guards are tossing around in the cooking room, quickly bringing out several bowls of hot soup.

"It's really a pain. When we go back to Zhuangzi, let's have a good meal and sleep for three days and three nights..." Li Shan said with a wry smile.

"Lang Jun..." Fan Shiyi opened the door and entered.

"Have some hot soup first."

"Yeah." Fan Shiyi drank a few sips before he said, "I just counted and there are 42 missing."

Li Shan lowered his head, he did not expect that the difficulty far exceeded his expectations.

42 people were reduced. Some died of hypothermia, some were even frozen to death, and some were separated because of the heavy wind and snow. For example, the two missing scouts were separated. It's no different than being dead.

Li Shan didn't say anything to boost morale. In fact, everyone knew that they could only keep going.

(End of this chapter)