Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 1116 The price to pay

  The fact that a head can be registered as a military merit also gave a great shock to the surrendered troops in Tongguan. To be honest, for these people, being a soldier is just a way to make a living, but they never thought that being a soldier can also make a fortune and change their lives!

  What people are most afraid of is not knowing the direction of their future, or even where to go next...

Therefore, when the surrendered soldiers in Tongguan expressed their great enthusiasm and motivation to fight for the great cause of General Zhengxi for life, Li Xian had to smile wryly, worrying, and a few middle and high-level officials. The non-commissioned officer was imprisoned in a small black room, and he was in constant fear.

  The house is not big, with a door and a window, nothing else. Well, if you have to say it, the mats on the ground, the thin cotton quilts, and the smelly toilet seat in the corner are the only furniture in the house...

  Because the ventilation in the house is not very good, and the toilet is only cleaned once a day, so the four big men including Li Xian are either standing in front of the window or sitting in front of the door.

   As for sleeping at night, there is no way, and the only way to block the smell is to rely on one word of motto.

Tolerate.

"Damn it, we surrendered soldiers, we want to chop off two soldiers! Tsk tsk..." A military marquis stood in front of the window, talking about the news he heard, "...only the head of a soldier can be converted into a pre-pawn , the heads of the two soldiers are considered to be soldiers..."

   "And when we are fighting, we Yi Cong soldiers... aren't we just 'Yi Cong'? We still need to stand in front of the formation. We only have weapons and no armor..." Another Qu Zhang also said in a low voice.

  The soldiers of General Zhengxi who have been stationed outside for the past few days kept shouting to the surrendered soldiers, and it was not too difficult for some people to know the news.

Another Junhou who was sitting at the door like Li Xian said lukewarmly: "What's the matter? Are you still disgusted? Do you know how many people are willing to be this 'Yi Congbing' in the past two days? We have already left halfway." ! I estimate that in two days, the remaining half will be almost there..."

   "What can I do?" said the Marquis standing in front of the window, "This is a clear thing... Our soldiers were also recruited, and now we have a better place to go and a better future..."

   There is also Qian Cheng.

Military exploits can be exchanged for land, money, cattle and horses, and even official positions. Some of these recruited soldiers are originally tenant farmers under the gentry in Hongnong County, and most of them are unable to live in the local area. People can only come to join the army to get enough food and clothing. In comparison, these most basic soldiers originally had little loyalty to the Hongnong Yang family, but were quickly replaced by fresh and more ambitious roads. replaced.

  Li Xian was silent for a while, and then slowly said: "This is the old pre-Qin method, and we also used it before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty... I didn't expect it to be used by Zhengxi now..."

  While speaking, suddenly the light in the corridor outside the house dimmed, and several soldiers came over, one of them was wearing leather armor, and stood in front of the door of Li Xian and the others...

After Xu Shu burned Yang Jun's soldiers and horses with kerosene once, Yang Jun knew that it was not easy to attack. On the one hand, he had no siege equipment, and on the other hand, he had to wait for Yang Biao to make a corresponding decision, so he spent the past two days in the Hangu Mountain Road They set up camp on the road and blocked the intersection tightly. Compared with Xu Shu, they did not launch an offensive. They just sent people to the rear to cut down trees and make some preparations.

  Tongguan is still some distance away from Luoyang. Even if you use a fast horse to send it three hundred miles away, it will take four or five days to go there and back. Hongnong's post system has been basically abolished under Dong Zhuo's destruction, so even if you want to use the express delivery of six hundred miles, it's not that the people are not good, but that there is no such condition.

   Along the way, there are not many post stations that have been put into use again, and most of them do not have spare horses, so sending them six hundred miles away has become a luxury...

In addition, Yang Biao also needs to weigh and consider something. When he comes to Yang Jun, even if he comes to attack again, it must be three days later. In addition to repairing and defending the Tongguan City Wall, there is another very important thing...

   "How are you thinking?"

  Xu Shu didn't talk nonsense, but stood in front of the house and asked directly.

  For a while, all three people in the room looked at Li Xian.

  As an ordinary soldier, there is naturally no problem. Anyway, he is a soldier everywhere, not to mention that Zhengxi is treated better and has more hope.

   But for middle-level generals like Li Xian, there is a dilemma. Because normally, it is impossible for most of them to be arranged according to their original positions, and naturally it is impossible to give their original soldiers to command, at least they will be deployed, or even downgraded.

   And Xu Shu gave another option, the option of not having to downgrade.

  After Yang Tong's death, Li Xian was regarded as the highest position, so the only two surviving princes and Qu Chang respected Li Xian, and hoped that Li Xian could continue to take them with him.

  But if you want to achieve this, you must pay a price.

   And this price, maybe you have to pay it yourself, maybe let someone else pay it...

  Li Xian was silent for a long time, finally sighed, prostrated himself on the ground and said: "A...willing to be driven..."

  ………………

  In Suyi County, Zhao Wen was somewhat restless these two days.

   Neither the scouts nor the messengers sent out were able to obtain the information Zhao Wen needed. Neither Changan nor Hongnong knew anything about it.

  Except for the Suyi City in front of him, Zhao Wen could see and hear nothing on this battlefield. Although the surrounding area was also surrounded by sunrise and sunset, it was actually dark for Zhao Wen. This kind of unknown fear encroached on Zhao Wen's heart all the time, making him, who was still very confident, now worry about gains and losses.

   Chong Shao, the old guy, is he dead now?

  Has Lingyi been captured?

  Although it is said that Xia Mou has betrayed Zhong Shao once, and his own people are watching, but what if Xia Mou betrays again, and what if his own people are negligent?

   There has been no news from Tongguan for a long time. Is there any change?

   What if Mr. Yang is busy with Kanto affairs and doesn’t have time to send troops over?

  All kinds of questions roiled in Zhao Wen's mind endlessly.

There are cavalry in the city, but the number is not many, that is, about 1,000, which is only slightly more than the front troops of General Zhengxi. Under the current situation, don't even want to know the information about Chang'an and Tongguan...

  But a thousand cavalry can only open communication channels at most. If they want to defeat and defeat them, they have to pay a high price, and Zhao Wen is a little bit reluctant about this price.

   After all, there are only these cavalry on hand...

So use one thousand against eight hundred, not seeking victory, but just to ensure the smooth flow of communication roads, and then pull and restrain the opponent's cavalry. If General Zhengxi's cavalry dares to attack, it would be even better. Come back and fight with the infantry By cooperating with each other, he would have the opportunity to wipe out all the disturbing Xixi cavalry wandering around Suyi.

  However, such a situation is unlikely to occur. It is more of a stalemate, and then the opponent retreats.

   Now is the time to make a decision. Otherwise, once the follow-up cavalry troops of General Zhengxi arrive, even if I want to do this, I may be unable to carry out such a strategy due to the situation of the troops.

  However, it is still a question of whether to go east or west in the follow-up, and to focus on that direction.

   As a result of the division of troops, it is very likely that nothing will be gained, and there will be losses in vain. After all, the combat power of the cavalry of the general who conquered the West before was completely demonstrated in front of Zhao Wen, which should not be underestimated.

  General Zhengxi is now disturbing the surrounding area and cutting off the purpose of communication. Zhao Wen can guess to a certain extent that it is nothing more than involving himself and worrying about sending soldiers to attack the Suyi defenders who are going east.

  However, these three or four thousand defenders who were originally in Suyi in Zhengxi, in Zhao Wen's mind, are not the most difficult and urgent problem at present. The most important problem is Chang'an.

   It can only be Chang'an.

  After thinking about it, Zhao Wen finally chose to protect himself first.

Although it is said that sending soldiers to Tongguan, it is possible to join Hongnong's Yang's soldiers one after another, and attack the soldiers sent to Tongguan by Zhengxi. This is certainly an absolute advantage in Tongguan, but for Zhao Wen, it is also the same. It is tantamount to losing hope of contacting Chang'an. Even if he could defeat the part of General Zhengxi's forces in Suyi, if he lost control of Chang'an, wouldn't Zhao Wen's title of Jing Zhao Yin be an empty title for Zhao Wen?

  Furthermore, even if Tongguan was lost if he contacted Chang'an's troops, he could still rely on these troops on hand to contend. What's more, Zhao Wen still didn't believe that Tongguan would fall so soon.

  Why I am here is nothing more than to cut off the food road for the army that Zhengxi General Fei Qian supported to go west to Tongguan!

   Without the support of food and grass, even if these front soldiers and horses of General Zhengxi can take down Tongguan, so what?

   What's more, Tongguan will never fall.

   Even with 4,000 soldiers, how can it be so easy to attack a pass with 2,000 guards?

  Normally speaking, if there is no more than five times the strength of the troops, if you want to attack the city pass, even if you can win, it will be a miserable victory!

   Zhao Wen still knows this.

  Before attacking Zhong Shao, I had a relationship with Yang Biao, and Yang Biao also said that he would send a soldier to help him defend against General Zhengxi. Calculating the time, he should basically have arrived at Tongguan.

   Therefore, no matter how it is calculated, it is impossible for Tongguan to lose under such a superior force!

  So there is no need to rescue Tongguan by yourself...

  For me, Chang'an and Suyi are the key points!

   Zhao Wen finally made up his mind, so he dispatched the cavalry troops on hand to drive away Zhang Ji's cavalry troops in the surrounding area and open up an information channel in the direction of Chang'an.

  Thousands of rumbling cavalry rushed out of Suyi to drive away Zhang Ji's scattered cavalry. In this way, Zhang Ji could no longer disperse his troops, so he gathered the cavalry accordingly, and then slowly retreated north.

   As Zhao Wen’s cavalry unit, they didn’t dare to pursue too much, but followed from a distance...

   Seeing that the disturbing Fei Qian front cavalry had finally been driven away, Zhao Wen heaved a sigh of relief, and then re-sent messengers to Chang'an and Tongguan...

  ………………

   Zhao Wen’s cavalry came out of Suyi. After running out for more than 20 miles in fear, they saw one or two headless corpses of the messengers who died before, lying scattered on the left and right sides of the road...

   This is considered fresh.

   Haven't had time to be eaten...

  Earlier ones have basically all fallen into the belly of the beasts on this land. After all, in winter, it was not easy to find some food, whether it was for humans or beasts. This suddenly increased a lot of food sources, which attracted the surrounding wild dogs and wolves, as well as some scavengers.

Fortunately, in Guanzhong, there is no large-scale wolf pack due to human activities, and those big cats are mostly in remote mountainous areas, and they will not easily move on the flat ground in Guanzhong. Wild dogs leave behind these precious ingredients.

   Several wild dogs who were having a meal raised their heads from the corpse when they heard the sound of horseshoes. Their red eyes stared at it, and they didn't mean to retreat. They just stood and stared.

One of the wild dogs probably felt that the large intestine in the abdomen of the corpse in front of him was more greasy and chewy, so he quickly gave up the desire to continue staring at the messengers galloping on the road, lowered his head and pulled the intestines of the corpse, Then the other ones quickly joined the ranks of looting, leaving only the outer one, still on guard.

  The liver and spleen were the first to be eaten, and the flesh and limbs were the last to be eaten...

On the tree fork near the corpse, a dozen or so black crows gathered from nowhere, and they were squawking, as if they were protesting the domineering behavior of the wild dogs, or announcing the departure of these new messengers. into death...

   "Unlucky!"

A cavalryman who was marching cursed in a low voice, perhaps to vent his anger on the wild dogs, or to declare his disdain for these deaths, he took his bow and arrow from his horse and pointed at the wild dogs that were eating. The dog shot a straight arrow.

With a whoosh, the long arrow crossed the sky, but with a puff, it landed beside a wild dog pulling its intestines, startling it, and immediately the large intestine in its mouth was snatched away by another wild dog. Howled angrily at the few cavalrymen who disturbed it from eating, then turned around and continued to search for new targets in the abdomen of the corpse.

   "Okay! Let's go! Business is important!"

  The one at the front saw that the cavalry behind who had shot empty wanted to shoot again, so he stopped him.

   Seeing this situation, several cavalrymen also fell silent, and continued to drive towards Tongguan with their heads sullen.

  These are the prices humans pay for war.

  After leaving the county seat of Suyi, they walked for another day. In the early morning of the next day, shortly after the cavalrymen set foot on the journey, they noticed a cloud of smoke rising far to the east...

   Several people hurriedly rode their horses to the small **** beside the road and looked into the distance.

   After a while, the sharp-eyed soldiers shouted: "I seem to have seen Duke Yang's flag! It must be Duke Yang's soldiers coming!"

The cavalry leading the team carefully identified it for a while, and then said: "...It seems that it is really Yang Gong's flag...the number of people is about a thousand...So, it should be the front vanguard...Little dog, take someone with you Go up to see the flag..."

   Immediately, two people unfolded a small recognition flag, put it on their lower backs, and rode forward. Not long after, one of them ran back happily, yelling loudly, holding something shaking in his hand, "It's really Duke Yang's army! The captain's surname is Li! The soldiers in the front are one thousand, It is said that there are 3,000 troops behind! The seal is correct..."

  (end of this chapter)