The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

In the 30th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Ningqiang Guard was established in the county seat, and Ningqiang Prefecture was established later.

Ningqiang Prefecture is located in the intersection of the Qinling Mountains and Bashan Mountains, occupying an important road, connecting Guangyuan in Sichuan Province in the south and Mian County in the Hanzhong Basin in the north.

Ningqiang Prefecture was originally the acropolis of Ningqiangwei, and it was built and set up according to the specifications of a military city.

Now, although more than hundreds of years have passed, and the Acropolis has become a state city, the defense of the city is stronger than that of an ordinary state city.

The moon is dark and the wind is high, and the cold wind eats away at the bones.

At this time, there were braziers standing every few steps on the walls of Ningqiang City.

The flames were burning fiercely in the brazier, illuminating most of the city wall as bright as day.

Under the bright firelight, there are strong soldiers wearing winter clothes one after another.

They were at the crenels of the city wall, and no one was sneaking, cheating, or lazily resting.

They were all vigilantly observing the situation outside the city, and from time to time, heavily armed soldiers in armor would patrol from one end of the city wall.

The atmosphere in the entire Ningqiang Prefecture can be described as extremely serious.

They have received news from Lueyang.

A group of rogues fled from Gongchang Mansion into Hanzhong Mansion, and Yu Guan was still not defended this time. This group of rogues who entered Hanzhong Mansion had tens of thousands of people, and they were heading south all the way.

Lueyang is located on Chencang Road. Although Chencang Road is extremely dangerous, the inland prefectures have been peaceful for a long time.

The rise of rogues has indeed made prefectures and prefectures all over the country begin to prepare for war.

But it is not easy to build a city, build a fortress, and recruit soldiers and horses.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, the rogues came from Chen Cangdao, and the officers and soldiers couldn't stop those rogues.

Now the officers and soldiers must also be unable to resist. The Hanzhong Mansion not long ago summoned strong men from all over the country to serve, and the soldiers and horses have all gathered in Xixiang.

Ningqiang Prefecture has been under martial law for nearly three days, and during these three days, no one dared to slack off.

If there is no war in Xixiang, then Ning and Qiang Prefecture can gather hundreds of soldiers and more than 2000 strong guards to help defend Yangping.

But now there are only more than 70 soldiers in Ning and Qiang, and they have no ability to go out of the city to fight in the field.

During these three days, no one stepped out of Ningqiang City.

Naturally, no one knew that just to the east of Ningqiang City, a troop was hiding in a dark valley right now.

The troops hidden in the dark valley were Li Yangchun's and Lin Shengquan's.

At this time, Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan were both in a state of distress, and they didn't have the slightest prestige in the past.

Li Yangchun is now unkempt, and now he can't even see the Xiezhi on his crow-black sleeve makeup and flower-woven gold gauze.

He didn't know where the jade belt around his waist fell, it was just tied with a tattered leather belt, and he didn't even know where the net scarf on his head was thrown.

Lin Shengquan was even more embarrassed than Li Yangchun, the original golden helmet and armor now only left a pair of gold-plated fish scale breastplate.

The breastplate was covered with dust and dark red blood stains, and there were many traces of knives, cuts and fires. His face was filthy and dirty, like a cat.

As leaders, the two were still like this, and the soldiers under their command were even more embarrassed.

"Martial law has been imposed inside and outside Ningqiang City, our spies can't get in..."

Lin Shengquan sat by Li Yangchun's side, he pressed his belly and said grinningly.

"The surrounding villagers are all gathered together, everything has been taken away, there are not many places to rob, last time..."

An arrow hit him in the stomach. The arrow didn't go deep into the flesh, but it almost killed him.

This arrow was shot from the bow in Chen Wang's hand. No one around him reacted at all. The feathered arrow flew towards him, directly piercing through his golden armor.

Those who didn't get deep into the flesh would be cured quickly if they were dealt with in time, but that son of a bitch Chen Wang didn't give them a chance at all, and the cavalry from Liaodong followed behind them like a shadow.

The bumps along the way and the exhaustion of the horses and horses caused the wound on his abdomen to open and heal continuously.

Li Yangchun nodded numbly, his eyes were not very bright.

"How much food is left, how much brothers are still alive..."

They went all the way south via Lueyang, passed the Maming Pavilion Road, passed the Guai Pass, and then passed Yangping. They wanted to turn directly to Mian County, but they were ambushed in Jinniu and forced to flee to the border of Ningqiang Prefecture.

Although Ningqiang is a prefecture, it is much poorer than the counties in the Hanzhong Basin, and the terrain is complicated, and the folk customs are aggressive. They suffered a lot when they first came.

They left dozens of corpses under a big village, and not only returned without success, but also encountered an ambush by the villagers on the way to retreat, and lost nearly a hundred soldiers.

"When we entered Ningqiang, we still had more than 400 people... the few people who were seriously injured yesterday were already..."

Lin Shengquan's expression was low and his voice was hoarse.

"Now there are only more than 300 people left in the valley..."

Lin Shengquan paused for a moment, then lowered his voice and said.

"The grain rations are only enough for another three days..."

"300 people..."

Li Yangchun's eyes moved slightly, and he looked towards Gu Nei.

It was late at night, and the valley was very quiet, not a single sound came out. In order to avoid hiding, they didn't even dare to light up the lights.

Li Yangchun opened his mouth, he wanted to say something, but the thousands of words turned into a sigh in the end.

Not long ago, on the Sizhong Mountain, the two of them had more than [-] soldiers and horses, and they ran rampant across the entire land.

When Li Guo led the army to arrive, he was secretly delighted that as long as it took a while, he could justifiably swallow the fine cavalry under Li Guo's command.

Jieshi's two thousand elite riders were enough to put him in the forefront of the upper battalion and allow him to grasp more power.

But now, less than a dozen days have passed, and everything has turned into ashes.

"Ning Qiang..."

Li Yangchun's eyes were blank, and he sat on the dead tree.

His throat moved, but he only said the word Ning Qiang.

In the battle of Sanshan, the Ming army broke through the camp he built, and he could only lead Jingqi to flee.

But Li Yangchun just felt that with the help of artillery, he did not lose his courage.

But the battle of Lueyang was an upright battle.

At that time, Chen Wang led [-] vanguard cavalry to arrive suddenly, defeated all the horse troops in the rear of the palace, and raided the Chinese army while all the troops were plundering outside.

They could only fight back with difficulty relying on the crude camp, and when the various ministries rushed back, the officers, soldiers and infantry of the brigade had already swarmed.

There are many firearms in the army of officers and soldiers. From the moment they pick up the station, the sound of Francophones, tiger squat guns, and large and small firecrackers has hardly stopped. There are also countless rockets whizzing past overhead, and they are already dead or injured before they get close. Mostly.

At that time, Li Yangchun was really aggressive in driving the hungry soldiers into the formation, and even sent fine cavalry and horse troops to lead the charge as dead soldiers, but no matter how they attacked, the infantry formation of the officers and soldiers remained firm as a rock and stood still.

"Chen Wang drove us all the way to Ningqiang, what exactly does he want to do..."

Li Yangchun closed his eyes and said angrily.

Rather than saying that they fled to Ningqiang, it is better to say that they were driven to Ningqiang.

Starting from Gongchang Mansion, all their trajectories of action are the road paved by Chen Wang for them.

Lin Shengquan stared fixedly at the dark forest in the distance, Li Yangchun's problem was also his problem.

Obviously, they could be captured and killed directly many times, but Chen Wang let them go in the end, just like a cat playing with a mouse.

Under the city of Lueyang, he watched Chen Wangzhen behead Li Guo.

In the middle of crossing the horses, Chen Wang directly cut Li Guo's throat with the lance blade in Chen Wang's hand.

The more than [-] elite cavalry who followed Li Guo into the formation were all defeated by Liao cavalry in just one encounter, without causing much waves at all.

You must know that many of Li Guo's fine cavalry were from the army of Beidi Border Town.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Yangchun's voice sounded in Lin Shengquan's ears again.

"We now have two paths in front of us."

Lin Shengquan opened his eyes, turned his head to look at Li Yangchun who was beside him, and saw Li Yangchun's shining eyes in the darkness.

"The first is to the southwest."

Lin Shengquan pondered for a while, then shook his head.

"I can't go to the southwest..."

The southwest is Guangyuan in Sichuan. On the way to Guangyuan, there is a checkpoint called Qipanguan.

Qipan Pass is located at the foot of Qipan Mountain at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi. It is known as the first pass in the Western Qin Dynasty. Together with Baishui Pass, Jiameng Pass and Jianmen Pass, it is one of the four famous passes in northern Sichuan.

It is well known that Sichuan soldiers are tyrannical, and it is not that other people have never thought about entering Sichuan.

The land of Shu is rich and has the reputation of the land of abundance, so they don't want to go to Shu to get a share of the pie.

But the road to Shu is difficult, and it is difficult to go to the blue sky. The roads in the four passes in northern Sichuan are rugged, and one man is in charge of the pass. Ten thousand people cannot pass through.

At the beginning Gao Yingxiang gathered more than 300 people and didn't dare to ask about Qipanguan, now they have only more than [-] remnant soldiers who are defeated and go to Qipanguan. Didn't they intend to seek death?

Lin Shengquan raised his head, looked at Li Yangchun and asked.

"Where does the second road go?"

Li Yangchun's hoarse voice came from the darkness.

"northwest."

"northwest?"

Lin Shengquan was slightly taken aback. There was indeed a way to go northwest from Ningqiang Prefecture. This road did not lead to any other provinces, but to the hinterland of Hanzhong, to the destination they had originally decided on—Mian County.

"Northwest... can't go..."

It happened that a gust of cold wind was blowing, and Lin Shengquan couldn't help shivering.

Chen Wang had a plan to drive them to Ningqiang, and he would not let them run around easily.

He felt that if they went to the northwest, they might be ambushed or intercepted by officers and soldiers again.

"I really can't go."

Contrary to Lin Shengquan's expectations, Li Yangchun actually echoed his words in the end.

"I'm afraid the officers and soldiers have already gone to the northwest to cut off the road. We can't go to Mian County. That Chen Wang wants to trap us in Ning and Qiang..."

Li Yangchun's eyes were frighteningly bright in the darkness.

"The two roads in front of us are dead ends, and we really have no choice at all."

"The only way out is actually to stay in Ningqiang, in this forest valley..."

Li Yangchun stood up slowly, his eyes turned to Lin Gu.

……

Mian County is located in the hinterland of Hanzhong Prefecture, the westernmost end of the Hanzhong Basin.

Close to the Qinling Mountains in the north and Bashan Mountain in the south, it is located at the key points of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, and has always been a battleground for military strategists.

During the Three Kingdoms period, fierce battles broke out between Liu Bei and Cao Cao in Hanzhong. Among them, a series of battles such as the Battle of Dingjun Mountain were triggered around Mian County.

Dingjun Mountain is located about ten miles southeast of Mian County, but what is mentioned here is Dingjun Mountain in a broad sense.

In a broad sense, Dingjun Mountain belongs to the Daba Mountains. Its veins run from Gaomiaozi to the flat ground, with twelve beautiful peaks raised.

From Shishanzi to Dangkou Temple, it stretches for more than ten kilometers from east to west, and is collectively called Dingjun Mountain.

In a narrow sense, Dingjun Mountain is actually the main peak of the Twelve Mountains.

As the main peak, Dingjun Mountain is the tallest with an altitude of more than 800 meters.

This used to be the place where the Han army stationed troops. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to compete for Hanzhong, Liu Bei led his troops across the Mianshui River and went straight to Dingjun Mountain, occupying the favorable terrain of Dingjun Mountain. Cao Jun Xiahouyuan came to fight, and the battle of Dingjun Mountain began .

However, after thousands of years, everything has changed. There are no longer a large number of soldiers stationed in Dingjun Mountain, and the forest here has flourished again.

Standing on the top of the mountain, Chen Wang can have a panoramic view of all the scenery.

"Dingjun Mountain..."

Chen Wang stood in front of a stone tablet with his horsewhip in his hand.

There are four characters written on the stele - "Ancient Dingjun Mountain."

Chen Gong and Hu Zhili followed behind Chen Wang, while Zhao Huailiang and Tang Shiping led dozens of soldiers and stood far away.

"Where are Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan now?"

Chen Wang turned his head slightly, and asked Chen Gong who was beside him.

"Li Yangchun and Lin Shengquan are now stationed among the mountains in the southeast of Ningqiang Prefecture, occupying the mountains and building a village, and seem to want to stick to it."

Chen Gong took a step forward and said in a low voice.

Chen Wang nodded slightly to understand that Li Yangchun is indeed a smart person.

Chen Wang's eyes only stayed on the stele for a while, then shifted to the north of the mountain.

The fertile fields in the north of the mountain are vast and deserted, with long acres and flat fields, criss-crossing rice fields, and cottages look like cottages. From the top of the mountain, you can clearly see the city walls of Mian County.

Although Hanzhong Mansion also belongs to Shaanxi Province, it has not suffered much drought and impact. Therefore, the people here can still live and the order can still be maintained.

There are many mountains in the south of the mountain, the Yangjia River with clear streams, and many houses and farmland.

In the south of the mountain, there is a large natural pot-bottom-shaped depression, which should be the "Yangtian depression" in the records that "can garrison thousands of soldiers". Now it has become a gathering place for the common people. It is scattered at a glance, but it is There are as many as one hundred households.

"Hanzhong..."

Chen Wang clenched his horsewhip tightly, traveled thousands of miles, and finally entered the Hanzhong mansion as he wished...

No one can understand his current mood.

Now it is November of the eighth year of Chongzhen. At this time, the rogue bandits are very powerful, known as millions of people. Under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang, they practiced to win and defeated officers and soldiers several times.

Many people have already begun to harbor ambitions. Looking back at Xijing, they want to establish a country to rival the Ming Empire.

It's a pity that it was at this time that Lu Xiangsheng entered Henan, and a large number of frontier troops were transferred to the hinterland to suppress the rebellion.

What awaits them is not a bright future, but endless darkness.

The seventh and eighth years of Chongzhen were the initial prosperity of the bandits, but the nine, ten, and 11 years that followed were their darkest moments.

Although the Ming Empire in this era has declined to such an extent, it is still the largest country in the world.

I wish you all a happy new year, peace and blessings throughout the year