Han Zuo Gaomen

Chapter 896
Suanzao is not a single city, but a group of cities, with several small-scale earth and stone cities as the core, surrounded by a circle of slightly rudimentary bamboo and wood camps.

Several of the camps and earthen cities still have fresh traces left by the activities of strangers, while others have been damaged to varying degrees.Several camps have been completely knocked down, and the land has been plowed to plant some crops such as Shu and Si.

Outside the city, there are four flat plains, with almost no obstacles, except for some artificially piled mounds of different heights in the direction leading to the Yellow River in the north.Those mounds have long been covered by weeds and trees, and have existed for a long time.

The cavalry of the Huainan Army are currently stationed in the southwest corner of Suanzao, a group of cities. More than 1000 cavalry and even more superior horses occupy only three or four of the camps. As for the other places , just set up some sentries to ensure that no one is sneaked in quietly.

At this time, Xiao Yuandongji was sitting on the tower of the Tucheng city, holding a green grass stalk in his mouth, and throwing the bag to the side. Although his posture was a little lazy, his eyes and slightly frowning brows showed that he was not in a good mood. It's easy.

Under the city tower, there were soldiers driving hundreds of horses back to Tucheng after drinking. The soldiers were in a relaxed and happy mood at the moment. While restraining the horses into the city, they waved their whips and howled and joked.

Xiao Yuandong was overjoyed at the fact that he picked up wild jujubes at first. Although he was only the master of the cavalry, the status of the cavalry commander in the Huainan Army was higher than that of ordinary infantry. The commander of the battalion is even higher.Therefore, Xiao Yuandong was very clear about the war plan of the governor going north.

Suanzao radiates many crossings of the Yellow River. It is an extremely important stronghold that must be taken in the next step. It is also the base camp where the Huainan Army will gather in the future and start a big battle with the Shikan army along the Yellow River.The original plan was to invest tens of thousands of troops in the front, but now they are taken by Xiao Yuandong's thousands of cavalry on an outing.

Although there was no fierce battle, a great achievement was inevitable.Xiao Yuandong was also very helpless about this, he really walked in as he walked, and then occupied this empty camp.

But after being overjoyed, Xiao Yuandong began to struggle.His troops are all light cavalry, and this time he came east only to harass the enemy and block the news. He had no intention of attacking and defending, so he traveled lightly, and the resources and equipment he carried were limited. It's a dilemma.

In terms of food use, that's all. The enemy's retreat here must have been extremely hasty. When Xiao Yuandong led his troops into the city, he collected a lot of food and grass that had been missed in some places. The army rations and horses carried by the team itself are more than enough to last five or six days.

Now the governor is leading his troops to station at Huting, and after he gets the letter, he will definitely lead the crowd to help. Even if the march is a little slow, he can reach Suanzao in four or five days at most.Before that, if he wanted to defend the city, he could only rely on his army of thousands of troops to fight alone.

As for weapons, as a light cavalry unit, the demand is not great. They don't need the heavy ordnance of the infantry. The most important thing they lack is arrows.Now there are only more than [-] arrows in the team, even if they are evenly distributed on the heads, each person is less than one pot, and a charge will consume all the energy.

The enemy retreated in a hurry, although Xiao Yuandong couldn't guess why the enemy general retreated, even if he used the city as a bait, he couldn't turn a blind eye to this empty city that he planned to take down, and he couldn't enter it. , take it down first.

But now he was faced with a dilemma, if the enemy army came back again, would his troops stay in the city or go out to fight in the field?

As a cavalry general trained within the Huainan Army, Xiao Yuandong naturally knew the strength of cavalry in field battles. If all the troops and horses were blocked in the city, the city might not be able to hold it, and even all the troops and horses might be lost.But if you lead your troops out of the city to fight, you will have mobility, and you may not be able to defeat the enemy in the wild, but instead let the enemy rush into the city, causing the city to be lost again.

"It's really embarrassing!"

Xiao Yuandong sighed melancholy, but he didn't know that if his melancholy and distress were seen by other comrades in the Huainan Army, he would be even more disgusted to see him.Picking up a great achievement for nothing, but still put on a frowning look, don't be too shameless!
At this time, a large group of people appeared in the plains in the distance, approaching here.Seeing this, Xiao Yuandong hastily picked up his pocket and put it on his head. He jumped down from the top of the city, which was more than ten feet high, and then got on his horse and summoned a dozen cavalrymen.

Halfway through the journey, it was already clear that the group of people was a group of ragged refugees, about 300 people.Behind the refugee team, a dozen or so Huainan Army knights circled around, and the leading one was Fan Li, a soldier under Xiao Yuandong's command. I found this group of swimmers in the forest, so I drove back..."

Xiao Yuandong nodded after hearing the words, and with a flick of the reins in his hand, the horse trotted around the refugee team for a circle. The horse was straddled in front of the straddle, and said loudly: "Is there a village chief in the team? Come out and answer!"

The refugees throbbed for a moment, and the team shrank even more. They lowered their heads and shivered, and no one dared to respond.This is a very normal posture of refugees, but Xiao Yuandong feels something is wrong, because most of the refugees in this group are young and strong, but they are young, women, children, old and weak. ordinary refugees.

Xiao Yuandong frowned and pondered for a moment, then suddenly urged his horse to rush towards the refugee team, and with a shake of the horse in his hand, he charged towards the refugees.Seeing this scene, the refugees howled in despair, and ran backwards in a panic, only to collide and fall down.

"General..."

Seeing this scene, Fan Li was also startled. He didn't know why the owner wanted to kill so much, he let out a roar, and soon after he saw Xiao Yuandong had reined in his horse, looking at the panicked refugees, he raised his head and laughed loudly. It seems that it was just a casual joke just now.

Leaving aside those slumped and out-of-body refugees, Fan Li galloped up to Xiao Yuandong's side and whispered: "General, our troops are few and weak, and it's not easy to stick to it. It can be used for food, and can also be shared a little..."

Xiao Yuandong nodded after hearing the words, they rode lightly into the distance, there were not many soldiers in the team, in addition to scouting outside to guard against the enemy during the day, the soldiers also had to feed and drink a large number of horses, they were really exhausted.Being able to find this group of refugees in the wild can also alleviate the lack of strength.

So this group of refugees was driven to the nearby stream outside the city, took off their clothes one by one, jumped into the cool stream to wash, and then put on the original old clothes, and was allowed to enter one of the camps to settle down.

Since this group of refugees did not have a leader, Xiao Yuandong directly appointed them, divided them into Wushi, selected more than a dozen leaders, and chose more thin people, and even appointed an old lame person as a temporary camp owner.

After settling down, the Huainan army moved out dozens of grains and ordered the refugees to build stoves for cooking. Of course, surveillance and interrogation were indispensable. And hometown also answered in a mess.This is not a strange thing nowadays. Fighting is going on all over the place, and many refugees have been wandering around since they were born. They don't know where they are or where they were born.

In addition to the food collected in the empty city, the Huainan army also carried military food, which was much more abundant. In addition to cooked rice, there were also meat such as dried meat and fish, which were full of oil and salt. Stir in a pot, the aroma is strong.When those refugees were cooking, they kept sniffing and sniffing the delicious food, and they felt hungry, but there were soldiers from Huainan watching closely, so they didn't dare to try it privately.

In the evening, the Huainan Army finished eating.At this time, it was the refugees' turn to eat the remaining soup in the cauldron.Just when the refugees were about to swarm up, the Huainan soldiers who were watching from the side rushed in and beat and shouted with whips. After these people settled down, they ordered the leader Wu Shi and the battalion master to share the meal.

Those bosses will not be polite when they get such an opportunity, they don't care about anything else and fill their stomachs first, especially the lame old camp owner who drank three big bowls by himself, and even splashed the remaining oil on the edge of the bowl. Lick and lick clean.As for the others, it is inevitable that they did not drink enough, and even took a few bowls of water to wash the pot.

After a full stomach, they had to work. Under the knowledge of the Huainan Army, these refugees began to cut horse feed, dig ditches, repair camp walls, etc. Naturally, the work was light or heavy, and it was all assigned by the leaders.So these sallow and thin men, who were originally bullied characters in the team, became arrogant now. Anyway, they were backed by Huainan Army soldiers, and whoever dared to oppose an order would suffer a severe beating.

After all this busy work, it was not until late at night that the refugees dragged their tired bodies back to the camp, while the Huainan Army only sent a dozen soldiers to guard outside the camp.

When they returned to their place of residence, their accommodations were also different. The beds covered with grass felt were soft or hard. After a day's work, the leaders had already established some authority. Naturally, they subconsciously treated themselves favorably, and chose soft beds first. , soon fell asleep soundly.

As for the other refugees, some of them fell asleep right now, while others looked at the sleeping leaders in resentment, their eyes flickering fiercely in the night, but nothing happened this night after all.

Another day passed like this, and the refugees lived and worked as before.It was just before dawn that when the night was darkest, there was a sudden abnormal noise in the tent. While the snoring lame old camp owner was sleeping soundly, someone strangled his neck. He struggled to wake up. There are more than a dozen strong men standing in the front ring, each with a ferocious expression.

"This old dog really regarded himself as the owner of the camp, and completely forgot what he was doing here!"

One of them held the camp owner tightly by the throat, while the other hand covered his mouth, leaned close to his ear and whispered ferociously: "Tomorrow, you have to choose the horses carefully. If you miss the important business of the lord, you will be killed tomorrow night." Break this old bone, understand?"

When the old camp owner heard this, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he blinked frequently to show that he understood.

After a while, Dongfang Yubai was gradually exposed, and the Huainan army's call to wake up could already be heard outside the camp.Resting in the middle of the night is not enough to fully replenish the exhausted physical strength, but these refugees did not dare to neglect, dragging their heavy bodies one by one to get up, file out of the camp, and start a new day of work.

The old camp owner was the last to go out, his right hand was still kneading his sore throat, when he came out, he found many cold eyes from the team on him, and he couldn't help shivering.It was only after seeing the Huainan soldiers standing silently outside the camp that a gleam of hope appeared in the muddy eyes.

"Old Yu, today we have to repair the north side of the Tucheng. The task is heavy. If you can't finish it, don't blame me for being ruthless with the whip in my hand!"

A Huainan soldier walked over and said with a smile, and raised his hand to pat the old battalion master's shoulder.

"It's done, it must be done..."

The old battalion master bowed his waist and said with an apologetic smile, and then walked with a limp to assign work to a group of hard laborers.When everyone was ordered to disperse, he walked slowly at the end, his lips parted like a smirk, but he murmured frequently in a low voice: "General save me, general save me..."

However, the two soldiers of the Huainan Army behind him didn't seem to notice it, they just talked to themselves and drifted away.Then one of the leaders found that the old camp owner was behind, so he turned around and asked him for instructions.

Until the evening, the old camp owner had no chance to be alone anymore, and there were always people around him, so he was full of thoughts all day long. In the evening, when it was time to choose someone to drink horses, more than a dozen people in the team clenched their fists and stared at him fiercely. Live in the old camp owner.In the end, the dozen or so people finally got the chance to drink horses as they wished.

These dozen or so people walked to the stables as usual. Although it was only a short two or three days of hard labor, many affairs of the Huainan Army were extremely organized, and they were already used to it.After the stables were opened, seven or eight war horses had just been pulled out, when suddenly a knight came galloping from the other side, shouting: "After drinking the horses, add more horse feed at night."

Hearing this, the soldier guarding the stables frowned and said, "Why do we need to add more horse feed? The battalion storage has already run out..."

Speaking of this, the soldier suddenly stopped talking, waved his hands and urged the dozen or so soldiers: "Hurry up, hurry up, drink these few horses first."

There was a slight change in the expressions of those people, and some of them pretended to be Ma Song undoing his chest belt, and a few steps behind, they heard two soldiers behind whisper: "The food is exhausted, and the reinforcements are not coming. The owner of the building is going to abandon the defense at dawn." ..."

A dozen or so people led a few war horses and left the camp, and walked to the side of the stream, beside which were seven or eight Huainan soldiers standing on the grass with their bows.Suddenly a strong man held his hands and howled, quickly attracting people's attention, and then several Huainan soldiers walked over slowly to investigate.

At this time, a few strong men pulled their horses and went in the opposite direction. After leaving a certain distance, they suddenly turned on the horses, and then galloped away on the horses.

"Someone stole the horse!"

"court death!"

After those people escaped, the strong men shouted from the side, and the soldiers of the Huainan army also roared loudly, but at the same time they roared, their feet did not move, they just held their bows and pulled the strings to shoot all the remaining strong men on the grass. die.

At the same time, something happened in the camp. Outside the camp of the forced laborers, Xiao Yuandong suddenly led hundreds of heavily armed Huainan soldiers to surround the camp. Several strong men in the crowd shouted: "He, he...these are traitors who intend to cause trouble!"

Seeing this scene, the old camp owner was stunned. It turned out that he was not the only one planning to inform, not even the first one.

(End of this chapter)