Late Tang

(Thanks to Xisha Jizu and Mao Ronglong for their support, thank you!)

From Chengde to Yingzhou, from Yingzhou to Liaoyang, from Liaoyang to the north along the Liao River, through Shenzhou to Kaizhou, to Fuyu, where they crossed the Shuangliao River and continued north until they reached Da'an. On this long road, they walked all the way for several months.Since leaving Liaohe, there have been sporadic battles, almost going all the way.Now, the long journey has long been left behind in the clouds and mists. Na Qibo wants to recall what he saw along the way, but he can't remember anything profound and coherent.

The road from Chengde to Yingzhou and Liaoyang is easy to walk. It is a wide road. Even the section from Yingzhou to Liaoyang has been laid with tracks. There are many stations with red painted buildings along the way. Each station is a small town. , there are post houses, hotels, and arrow towers and gun towers.A station is a small town and a small military castle.There are not only road guards stationed there, but also nearby army storehouses and households, as well as station personnel, post station personnel, and merchants and guys from shops.Every twenty or thirty miles, there is a small town centered on the station, a bustling place integrating townships, stations, military depots, post stations, military settlements, and commercial markets.These originally remote places outside the pass are now driven by the connection of these wide avenues. There are villages everywhere and reclaimed fields everywhere. Every evening, wisps of white cooking smoke rise up, making people feel like Inside the pass.

Except for those very characteristic station towns, it seemed that only the rattling wheels of the four-wheeled carriage, the smell of horse manure and hay were left in Na Qibo's mind.

But after arriving in Liaoyang, there is no such easy track to go further north. Although there are still carriage lanes, the road has narrowed a lot.They changed from Liaoyang to the north by boat.On the bank of the Liaoyang River, I saw the tall and huge Liaoyang City from a distance, but the officers did not let them enter the city. They waited for a day on the west bank of the Liaoyang River, and then a large number of ships came up from the lower reaches, all of which were huge Some ships even exceed ten thousand stone capacity, just like water towns.Under the command of the military police in black and red armbands on the pier, they led their horses and lined up on board with their equipment.Na Qibo had already been assigned to the Sixth Guards Army and was going to the training camp in Yanjing.But when the war started, the higher-ups also transferred part of the Sixth Guards Army who stayed behind in Yanjing to the front. As a recruit, he had not been trained, so he was directly organized with other tribal cavalry recruits who were assigned to the Sixth Guards Army. A new cavalry battalion was established, and more than 500 recruits from Xi, Tatar, Tiele, Tuyuhun, Sogdian, Dangxiang and other ethnic groups were divided into a new barracks.Then they were grouped into five capitals, and the grouping of them from above was very simple. The battalion commander sent by the above directly ordered the cavalry on light brown horses to be grouped into Jiadu, and the recruits on gray and yellow horses to be grouped into In Yidu, recruits with dark brown horses were assigned to Bingdu. Naqibo was assigned to Dingdu because the two horses were both maroon. The horses recruited in this capital are basically maroon and golden yellow.The last light red and iron blue horses were compiled into the fifth capital.

Then, the new tribal cavalry in each capital were organized into teams and groups, and some non-commissioned officers and sergeants were assigned from above to serve as non-commissioned officers at all levels in each team and group.

After the establishment was assigned, they, a cavalry battalion of recruits from the Sixth Guards Army, boarded the ship together with the recruit battalions of other troops.Na Qibo was like many of his companions, it was the first time for them to sit on that huge boat and advance on the wide Liaohe River.At the beginning, many recruits were very excited, but it didn't take long for many of them to become seasick.

That Qi Bo was also seasick. For several days, he vomited non-stop until he felt his stomach was gone. He was so weak that even the horses had to be taken care of by a few Han soldiers from Tongdu. Some came from Cangzhou and Dengzhou, some came from the Yellow River, and one came from the Huaihe River. They grew up either by the sea or by the river. They are no strangers to boats.The few Han soldiers are not new recruits, but veterans. In each of them, they serve as team-level chief officers. Private soldier's abandonment is a complete old bird.While helping him take care of his horses, they didn't forget to make fun of him for being a landlubber.

"Where are you from?"

"Red Fox Village in Chengde, Rehe!"

"Xi Ren? No wonder!"

In their laughter, Na Qibo felt their contempt for the tribal soldiers, and couldn't help silently swallowing the contemptuous words with some insults in his heart.

From a flat track to a river, from a four-wheeled carriage to a larger river boat, even the two high-quality bay red war horses that abandoned their ears, snorted, and kept walking. Their feet fell backwards in the cabin, as if they were walking on a frozen river. It wasn't until a few days later that they gradually got used to the feeling of being on the boat like the discarded tree, and everything returned to normal.

After the boat arrived in Shuangliao, the Liaohe River had two sources here. One was the upper source of Huangshui in the west. The Tuhe River is also a major tributary of the Xiliao River.Another source is the Dongryeo River from Buyeo in the east.

But they were heading north, so they had to disembark.All the way to the north is the territory of the Shiwei people, but the long territory close to the Shuangliao line, the Shiwei people have already withdrawn to the north.This is the ungarrisoned area between the Liaodong Province of the Qin Army and the Shiwei people, a buffer isolation zone.Therefore, there is no road here, and they can only ride forward.

After arriving in Shuangliao, they did not continue to move forward, but the soldiers transferred from behind continued to open the way, and these recruits were stationed in Shuangliao on the spot for a wartime training.

The Qibo new cavalry battalion was stationed and trained in a Shiwei ranch. It used to be the residence of a small Shiwei tribe, but most of the Shiwei people have left, and only a few old and weak people are left here. Don't want to leave, stay here.

The officers sent from above exhausted them with boring, monotonous and intense training every day.It was not dark, and the lights were not blown out, so they had to practice endlessly. The formation of the cavalry changed, the infantry and cavalry cooperated in combat, and the cavalry and artillery cooperated in combat. During the time, I also had to recite the army's military codes, saber manuals, military training regulations, Qin Wang's instructions and other miscellaneous precepts, and even endured mosquito bites at night, listening to the instructions and teaching them to learn Chinese characters and learn to draw. Military maps, reconnaissance skills, battlefield first aid, battlefield communications, battlefield interrogation and other things.

Until ten o'clock in the evening, after the hour and posting, they had to gather and line up, lined up under the staring eyes of that white-faced twat-like teacher, and then followed his hoarse voice like a drake eunuch Sing the newly edited "The Music of the King of Qin Breaking the Array".

The next morning, it was another day of repeating the same old tune.

This kind of life made Na Qibo and other tribal soldiers look forward to going to the battlefield as soon as possible. They would rather fight with the coalition forces happily than live such a boring and monotonous training day.

On the ranch where they were stationed, apart from a group of old men and women, there was only one young woman.It was an old man's slave, a Silla slave, a not too ugly young slave girl, everyone called her Aman.

That girl is like a lotus flower among the green lotus leaves. In this boring training life, all the men in the battalion are staring at her, even the officers and non-commissioned officers are no exception.

During cavalry training, she would often run out of the tent of her sick and dying master, watching the cavalry training from afar.

The sub-battalion and the sub-teams are training, but the young soldiers of each team are always looking at a little red in the green bushes from the corner of their eyes from time to time.

Just as their one-month training period was coming to an end, something happened.

That day, Qibo was on duty in the stable. During the lunch break, some of the officer’s war horses were dishonest and were biting their ears. He took the whip and drove the leading horses away, and then went to look at his own horses. The two bay red horses are chewing hay relish.Because they hadn't worked out for several months and had the battlefield concentrate supplied by the army, they even gained a layer of fat.He gently stroked the two war horses. For a Xi warrior and a cavalryman, the war horses were their brothers.Just then, he heard muffled shouts and chaotic footsteps in the dark corner of the stable, and he followed the sound.

Then, when his eyes went dark, he was pulled up behind the haystack by several hands.

"Who?" he called out.

"That Qibo, you're here too." A deep voice sounded beside him, and it was only then that Qibo got used to the darkness here, and saw clearly that it was a few soldiers from the team.

Their faces were a little nervous, and they were a little embarrassed.He became suspicious, and here he heard the increasingly clear noise behind the haystack in the dark corner of the stable, and walked straight over.

"What are you doing?" He ran into a party fighter of his accomplice head-on, his baldness was conspicuous.

"Your boy is here too, go quickly." The party recruit whispered with bad breath, "It's so cool, go quickly, the brothers dragged Oman there, that bitch, the whole time The sky is flirting and flirting, this time we will let her have a good time..."

That Qibo's face darkened, he pushed the Dang Xiang soldiers away and ran forward.The party member held his knocked knee and muttered and cursed, "Damn it, hurry up, you have a share, why don't you let me say it when you come here?"

The discarded tree ran to the corner. In the corner, where the hay was piled up, a large group of tribal cavalry recruits gathered, all of them, more than ten people.He pushed aside a few recruits and pushed to the front.

Aman, a young Silla servant, lay motionless on the ground, his head was still wrapped in a horse coat, and his skirt had been torn, and it was pulled up to the collarbone above the breasts.A small Goguryeo cavalry lay on top of her and trembled a few times, then got up with a half-smile, retreated to the wall, and gave up his position to the person whose turn it was.

"brute!"

That Qi Bo couldn't help but cursed, then turned around and struggled to run out.

"This kid is going to make a report!" shouted a Sha Tuo soldier who was still wearing his trousers.

A group of people blocked him in the house, covered his mouth, and dragged him back.That Qibo struggled, killed two people, and kicked another one down, but in the end he was crushed to the ground. Just like they did to Aman, those people wrapped his head in horse clothes and tied him up. He stopped, so that he would not hear who hit him.They threw him by the manger, beat and kicked him, and then ignored him.After waiting for about half an hour, he heard a murmur and the closing of doors as recruits came in and out.

After a while they let him go, and a fierce Tartar and two gangsters stood guard at the door.

"Don't tell me!" The tall Tatar stared at him viciously.

"Don't talk nonsense, or we'll cut off your big bird!" A bald man among the two party members next to him threatened with a sneer.

Na Qibo watched the other two Goguryeo men carry Oman out, her legs were exposed outside the skirt, drooping motionless.They quietly carried her to her tent, threw her in from the outside, and left looking around.

He followed with some worry, opened the curtain and walked in.

She lay on the ground, and it took her a long time to get up, her arms were weak and trembling.He stood in the gentleman's magnanimity and watched her stand up unsteadily, with disheveled hair, as if she was a completely different person.He reached out to help her, but she pushed him away indifferently.The look she looked at his face was like looking at a deep-seated enemy, cold and resentful.

"I didn't bully you, I just wanted to save you, but I couldn't beat them." Na Qibo didn't know why he wanted to explain, but he just felt that his explanation was weak.

He reluctantly withdrew from the tent, and on the way back to the stable, the Tatar bumped into him and once again warned him viciously, "Don't meddle in other people's business, otherwise, if you dare to leak a little information... I dare Changshengtian swears, we will kill you and eat your meat, do you hear me?"

During training, the team leader saw a scar on his eye socket and the traces of his clothes being torn, and immediately asked, "Who did you fight with? What does it look like?"

Na Qibo looked down at the torn clothes, and when he thought of that incident, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart and almost wanted to cry.He lowered his head, but from the corner of his eyes, he could already feel that several of the same team who participated in that incident were staring at him fiercely.He could feel that if he dared to come out and correct him, they might really kill him afterwards.

"What happened, private soldier Naqibo, come out and report!" The little white-faced team leader who was only in his 20s stared at him fiercely with wide-eyed eyes.

He hesitated. Although those guys did something wrong, they just spoiled a female slave of the Shiwei people. Even if he reported the truth, those Han officers would at most just reprimand them. In the end, bad luck Maybe it's me.This kind of thing, according to what the former father said, they can't do things that spoil women, but they don't want to meddle in other people's business.

"Then Qibo, if someone is bullying you, just say so, and the army will make the decision for you. The army under King Qin strictly forbids anyone to bully his comrades." The team leader's voice raised a little more.

For some reason, listening to the team leader's words, Na Qibo suddenly had an urge to say all these things.He felt that Qin Jun should be different from the Xi Jun his father had said, and he also felt this along the way.After struggling for a long time, he finally blushed, gritted his teeth and stepped out, saying loudly, "Report, I want to report that a total of thirteen soldiers in Bendu wiped out Aman, the servant of Shiwei. I will report..."

He finished the long paragraph in one breath, and reported the names of all the thirteen Pond soldiers who participated in the ruin of Oman together.

This was like a thunderbolt, which shocked the young team leader, and even the soldiers who participated in the incident. Unexpectedly, Na Qibo dared to report them publicly.

The leader of the team immediately sent a soldier to report to Duli and the battalion. Soon, the battalion owner and the people from each capital will arrive in person. grab it.

Then they sent someone to invite Oman to set up a temporary military court directly on the training ground for a public trial.Regarding this matter, the 13 people did not deny it, but directly admitted it.They didn't even realize the seriousness of the matter. From their point of view, they were just slaves of the enemy, so what if it was bad?The big deal is to apologize and accompany me, or to be locked up and fined a little salary, at most it is to get some army sticks.

It's just that the consequences of the matter were very serious, beyond their expectations. After Yu Hou of the battalion department interrogated them and understood them, he immediately sent someone to report to his superiors. He reported directly to Qin Wang Li Jing. Li Jing, the General Staff Council, the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and the Ministry of War all ordered that he be severely punished.

In the end, Li Jing handed over the case to the Gendarmerie. The Gendarmerie Corps quickly sent an investigation team, and within the shortest possible time, they basically figured out what happened before and after, and got the hard evidence of the case.After requesting Li Jing again, the investigation team announced the verdict.

For the 13 people involved in the case, they were sentenced to multiple crimes including rape and rape, and they were directly beheaded on the spot, and their heads were displayed in the recruit camps.When the verdict was read, everyone was a little shocked.Everyone knew that the incident this time might not be a small one, but they never imagined that thirteen cavalrymen were actually executed for the sake of a servant of an enemy commoner.

But the executioner publicly executed 13 people on the spot that day, processed their heads with lime, and sent them to the camps for public display. Everyone was shocked.Especially for those tribal recruits who have just been recruited, they finally know that the military regulations and other regulations and regulations they memorized all day long are not boring. It turns out that every one of the above is a real iron law.

On the second day after the execution of the thirteen criminal soldiers, the battalion headquarters delivered a commendation order to Na Qibo from above. He was promoted to second-class soldier and awarded a Huben Medal for his meritorious service in the prosecution! (To be continued.)