In recent years, the Jurchens' fierce armaments have become increasingly unusable. Many of the elite men and women who were originally famous were filled with people who were forced by the Nuzhen's master to take their place in the army. Therefore, the garrison troops stationed north of the boundary trench gradually relied on the tribal armies of the Xi people and the Bohai people.
These tribal armies are headed by Jiedushi. Under the Jiedushi, there are people called "Yili Jin" who are in charge of tribal village affairs, and there are people called "Tuli" who are in charge of tribal litigation and prevent and detect violations.
The hundreds of households further down are not only the leaders of the settlement, but also the generals of the army.
This state of both fighting and farming, where all the people are soldiers, makes the cohesion of the tribal army naturally much stronger than that of the Han'er-dominated divisional army or driving army.
The warriors who followed Guo Ning southward separated and reunited over the past few years, and in the end only a few were left. As for Xiao Haohu, he benefited from the tribal army system.
He also retreated all the way into Hebei from Rouyuan County in Fuzhou, north of Yehuling, with twenty or thirty remaining soldiers. Not only did his men not decrease, but they expanded to nearly a hundred men.
Recently, Tu Shanhang, the governor of Anzhou, planned to recruit local defeated troops to form a capital commander. Xiao Haohu believed that Guo Ning had a reputation for bravery among the surrounding defeated troops and would undoubtedly be an obstacle, so he immediately sent people to attack and kill Guo Ning's troops.
The Gaoyang Pass where he is located is more than 80 miles away from the lakes and swamps in the southwest of Ansu Prefecture where Guo Ning usually travels, and the road is even more difficult to travel.
In the past, Xiao Haohu's men rarely reached this area, let alone mastered Guo Ning's route to collect grain, so Guo Ning was completely unprepared for this and was succeeded by his attack.
Xiao Haohu has the ability to gather broken troops and the decisiveness to attack potential opponents.
Guo Ning felt that this Xi Ren did have some talents as a hero in troubled times, and given time, he might not be able to accomplish something great. In comparison, the original Guo Ning was just a brave man.
It's a pity that Xiao Haohu doesn't have the chance to display his talents anymore.
Xiao Haohu must die, he must die!
Guo Ning had fully prepared his weapons and left the Xiangjun River branch that day. He first went east around Bianwudian and then around Gecheng at dusk. That night we stayed in the wilderness for the night, then turned south and headed straight.
Gaoyang Pass, where Xiao Haohu is entrenched, is about forty miles south of Gecheng.
This pass, also known as Caoqiao Pass, was once one of the important military fortresses set up by the Song people in northern Xinjiang. This place is located south of the three passes of Yukou, Yijin and Waqiao. It plays a core role in the second line of defense of the Song army to control Youji. Therefore, the pass defense is extremely strong, the garrison is extremely heavy, and famous generals are often in charge.
However, after the Jurchens swept through the Central Plains, military fortresses such as Gaoyang Pass were no longer on the border, and they lost their military significance.
Moreover, these military forts relied on artificially dug ponds for terrain protection. In recent years, the ponds have gradually become silted up and dried up, and the military forts are no longer dangerous. They are just dilapidated fortresses located on the highlands.
Gaoyangguan had previously been requisitioned by the inspection departments of nearby prefectures and counties as a base for capturing thieves in the swamps.
The force of the Inspection Department was not enough in the eyes of veteran frontier soldiers who had experienced many battles. Around September last year, Xiao Haohu easily captured Gaoyang Pass, just like a gathering of roars.
At that time, Guo Ning was a little worried, fearing that this move would arouse the anger of the court. Once the imperial court sends troops to fight, aren't the surrounding soldiers afraid that they will all suffer the same fate?
For this reason, he deliberately went to Gaoyang Pass to investigate the situation, but found that the officials in Gaoyang County and even Anzhou turned a blind eye to this and only wanted to maintain peace of mind.
After returning, Guo Ning sighed to Yao Shier, Gao Kezhong and other companions, saying that the imperial court was so weak that it would be difficult to control the Black Tartars.
Because he had been there once, he still knew the way there.
On the second day, he did not take the main road the whole way, but moved along the narrow valley leading from Katsuragi to Gaoyangguan.
This river valley is the bed of the Majia River.
Majia River is a tributary of Hutuo River, with water from Yangcun River and Tuwei River in its upper reaches. In summer and autumn, the entire river often becomes the Majiahe Lake, but in winter it mostly dries up. Wherever Guo Ning passed, he saw exposed gravels of all sizes at the bottom of the river bed. There were dots of unmelted snow on the stones, and the mud at the bottom of the river was dry and cracked.
At this time, it was a good time to recruit civilians to build water conservancy projects and dredge rivers. However, in recent years, the Hebei states have carried out land expropriation at one time and inspections at other times. In times of war, there have been large-scale grain expropriations, requisitions, and military signings. I heard that there were more than 30,000 households in Anzhou territory in the early years, but now that they have been tossed around, I don’t know if there are even 10,000 households left.
In such a situation, how can local officials still have the time to manage rivers?
Even though Tu Shanhang, the governor of Anzhou, was thoughtful, his main energy was focused on military affairs and he could hardly take care of trivial civil affairs.
Because there was not a single figure along the entire river valley, Guo Ning strode forward very quickly.
He was carrying armor and weapons on his back, and his steps were inevitably heavy. When he stepped on the gravel, he made a clattering sound. The sound echoed between the tall river banks on both sides, seeming a little too loud.
Guo Ning didn't care.
To the east and south of this river valley, there is also a Sanjikou embankment that stretches for fifteen miles as a cover.
The Sanchakou embankment runs across the top of the line at eye level, with no trees at the top. If someone is watching on the embankment, Guo Ning can have a clear view from a distance. On the contrary, it was Guo Ning himself, wearing a gray-white military robe, walking through the gray-white riverbed soil and rocks, making it difficult to distinguish from a distance.
Guo Ning is only 20 years old this year, but he has been in the army for eight years. Countless battles in the frontier fortress enabled him to accumulate rich experience and he was already a very experienced warrior.
Guo Ning is already familiar with many of the routines and tricks of marching and fighting, so he doesn't need to be particularly careful and nervous on weekdays, and he won't miss anything he should be careful about.
Guo Ning felt that he had probably only made one omission in the past few months, and that was the day before yesterday.
He did not expect that Xiao Haohu would act so violently, so he ruined the lives of Yao Shier and others.
Guo Ning pressed the long knife on his waist and touched the armor and helmet on his back.
The cold touch calmed down his anger, which was about to boil, and he continued on his way.
At dusk, he knelt on the top of the Sanjikou embankment and looked to the southeast.
There is a long dirt road below the Sanjikou embankment. Walking along the dirt road for two or three miles and bypassing a depression, there was an earthen platform tens of feet across and about ten feet high rising abruptly. On the top of the earth platform, there is a broken wall.
Among the ruins, there are several newly built high walls, several courtyards, and two watchtowers. On the watchtowers, there are figures walking around, looking around. That is the ruins of Gaoyangguan where Xiao Haohu was entrenched.
It is not easy for Xiao Haohu to build a considerable scale here with less than a hundred people. Perhaps they had recruited young men from the surrounding villages to work as coolies, or perhaps their subordinates had once again become more manpower-rich.
For a walled city of this size, as long as the defenders are not negligent, one can be used against five or ten.
Under normal circumstances, Guo Ning would be alone here, and trying to rush in and kill people would be a fool's errand.
But Guo Ning had traveled more than 80 miles in two days and arrived at this time. He had his own reasons.
Guo Ning sat down behind the Sanchakou embankment, unwrapped the package behind him, took out the remaining pancakes and ate them hungrily, then took out his armor and put it on carefully.
This is an exquisite set of armor, including iron armor, shawls, arm guards and skirts. The armor leaves are all connected with green velvet silk tape. Generally speaking, this type of armor belongs to the elite Zhongdu Jurchens who gathered around Yusu Guards, or was used by the bodyguards of Duji Sizhong, the head coach of the Jin Army at that time.
However, no matter how well-equipped these people are, they all have silver-like pewter spear heads. When Yehuling was defeated, I didn't know whether the owner of the armor was dead, or whether he took off the armor and ran away. On the contrary, it was Guo Ning who relied on the armor he picked up to fight through several tough battles involving mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and survived several near-death situations.
After Guo Ning finished dressing up, there was a sound behind him on the dirt road below the Sanjikou embankment.
Guo Ning listened intently, and the sound was getting closer and closer. It was the rumble of footsteps of a small army marching, occasionally mixed with the soft sound of weapons clashing.
Guo Ning sped up his movements, put on his military robe in twos and twos, then placed the long sword, iron bone flower, bow and quiver properly, and finally put on the phoenix-winged helmet and lowered the edge of the helmet slightly.
The next moment, he turned over and stood on the top of the slope, shouting loudly: "Who is coming?!"
