"Pu San Anzhen and Guo Ning are two families. One is an important national general that the court relies on, and the other is a reckless and vicious person that the court has to tolerate. Each family has elite soldiers and strong generals, and they are powerful enough to leverage the situation in the Kingdom of Jin. . Therefore, if these two families are going to meet, the location must have been carefully considered."
At this point, a strong autumn wind suddenly blew by. In the past few days, the autumn wind has become more and more fierce. It roared, blowing the large withered yellow trees and reeds up and down like waves, making strange noises like ghosts and gods wailing, covering up Li Quan's voice.
Li Quan stopped talking, straightened his body and looked outside.
The reed flowering season has passed. The white reed flowers blown up by the wind are no longer as thick and continuous as the clouds earlier. Only a few sparse flowers remain, which cannot block the view. It can be seen for tens of miles far and near.
Li Quan scanned his camp in Anding Town on the banks of the Beiqing River, turned to look westward, and could clearly distinguish Tieling due west, where Guo Ning and Pusan Anzhen were scheduled to meet.
Li Quan couldn't help but take a few steps forward. The deep water in the swamp was deep and muddy. He had been standing on the flat ground where the reeds were sparse. But after taking two steps forward, he stepped into the water. With his powerful steps, a large amount of mud was turned up, making the water surface look like mud.
Li Quan didn't mind this at all and just looked at it. It wasn't until the fierce wind whizzed by that he stepped back through the muddy water and returned to continue the topic.
"First of all, this location cannot be too close to the station of Ding Haijun. Not long after thousands of soldiers under Pusan Anzhen died in the hands of Guo Ning, the Hebei Jin Army's hostility towards Ding Haijun was at its peak. Even if Pusan Anzhen He is brave, and his subordinates will never allow him to take risks easily."
"This location cannot be placed near the camp of the Jin Army in Hebei. Guo Ning has always been suspicious of the imperial court. If he is asked to go lightly and be surrounded by Pusan Anzhen's army, it is simply asking him to die."
“So Tieling is the most suitable location.”
"Look."
"Tieling is fifteen miles away from the Beiqing River. There are many swamps and depressions along the Beiqing River, but between Tieling and the river, there is a small plain with solid land. Previously, the cavalry under Pusan Anzhen practiced here every other day , you all have seen it. So, if there is any special situation when the two families meet later, the cavalry commanded by Pusanliujia can easily charge straight to the ridge. Well, even if Pusanliujia's troops are not enough to solve it, Hebei It won’t take long for the Jin army to dispatch directly from the military camp, cross the pontoon bridge, and attack Tieling.”
Li Quan lightly lifted the twenty-kilogram iron gun, pointed the tip of the gun at the long stone representing the Iron Ridge, poked one side of the stone twice, and then turned to the other side.
"To the south of Tieling, there are continuous hills and gentle slopes. Five miles to the south is Yinling, and five miles further away is Jinling. Between Jinling and Yinling is the former site of Dicheng, the capital of Jiaoxi Kingdom in the Han Dynasty. This area , there are many complicated landforms after river breaches, with rivers and swamps intertwined, and jungles widely distributed. It is the best terrain for soldiers and horses to lurk and approach. Forty miles further south is Shangshan Iron and Steel, which Ding Haijun captured five days ago. , the main force of the navy will set out from Shangshan, and it can be reached in one day by taking both routes."
"Therefore, Tieling is very suitable for negotiations between the two families. On the north and south side of Tieling, the Hebei Jin Army and Ding Haijun must have considerable arrangements, so we can only stay away."
Hearing what he said, Tian Si gritted his teeth and said: "North of Tieling, there is a flat plain, so that's fine. With the complicated terrain in the south, how come there is a navy arrangement? They..."
"You are right. This area was originally very suitable for our operations. However, after Guo Ning established his foothold in Shandong, he introduced a group of local heroes. For example, the person who led him at this time was a famous person in the Changshan area. Orion Dong Jin. In addition, Zhang Rong and Liu Bin, who are smuggling salt, are likely to accompany them. These people are well versed in geography, and their understanding of the terrain around Beiqing River is at least as good as ours. Therefore, the south of Tieling is not suitable either , where the slightest flaw is revealed, it will immediately arouse the vigilance of Ding Haijun."
Li Quan held the iron gun, sighed with emotion, and pressed the gun heavily on the ground, causing the sound of rushing water.
The water was dirty and salty. Li Quan trekked for two days and had many wounds on his arms and calves from sharp reed leaves. The wound was soaked in salt water and the pain was bone-piercing.
But Li Quan didn't care at all. He even deliberately wore the wounds on his feet and ran back and forth among the soldiers to boost their morale. This extremely resolute tough guy style was really admired by the soldiers.
"That's why we came here." Li Quan leveled the iron gun: "Look! This piece of reeds has become our cover. At the end of the reed marsh is Jinling. When the time comes, we will climb up the slope to resist the battle. The outside of Jinling None of the cavalry on guard had time to react. But we took the prisoners and retreated deep into the reeds. We only had to cross the river to the north to join the army... Neither of these two families can do anything to us!"
In the lower reaches of the Beiqing River, past Anding Town, there are no longer any village communities in the usual sense. In a wide area of seventy or eighty miles from north to south and thirty miles from east to west, there are only tidal flats, swamps and reeds as far as the eye can see.
This area is located at the junction of the two salt divisions of Cangzhou and Shandong. Over the years, many salt residents have gathered here, using the cover of the continuous tidal flats to set up their own salt farms to produce "sun-burned salt". The so-called sun-burning is a method in which although there are procedures such as pouring brine and scraping alkaline, the steps of frying and refining are skipped and the salt is made by sun-drying.
This method of producing salt has been strictly prohibited because it can easily escape the supervision of the Salt Commission. But the more prohibited it is, the more popular this method will be with the salt people. The production of sun-burned salt is always continuous, and salt roads are naturally formed between the swamps and tidal flats for private salt dealers to run.
The salt road is difficult, but the tidal flats and swamps outside the salt road are even more dangerous. Under normal circumstances, it is completely uninhabited for dozens of miles and is completely impassable.
This time, Li Quan promised many benefits to Yin Chang, a local tycoon in Binzhou, so Yin Chang sent his elite subordinates to help and took them along a remote road that no one knew about. This path follows the embankment on the south bank of the Beiqing River and passes through continuous swamps. Its end is just under the east slope of Tieling.
But this small road had only carried the actions of Yin Chang's own trusted subordinates before, and that was no more than a hundred people at most. Li Quan led more than 2,000 people through the journey, and the difficulty was beyond imagination.
Hearing what Li Quan said, several generals and commanders also stood up slightly and moved aside the reeds to take a look.
Everyone is a veteran in the fighting field. After a few glances, they know that they are really in an extremely advantageous position at this moment. At that moment, some people were very happy and nodded repeatedly.
But some people smiled bitterly. For example, Tian Si touched his face and said, "I'm just waiting to kill the enemy today! Alas, it's just that the march was really difficult. In two days, we lost more than fifty soldiers."
While resting in the swamp last night, Tian Si fell into a deep sleep and was accidentally bitten by a poisonous insect. The poisonous insect was extremely poisonous, causing a swelling as big as a child's fist on his scorched face, and his hideous blind eye was raised close to the bridge of his nose.
If the general is like this, the soldiers will suffer even more. Not to mention the Tiansi troops who were in the rear team, the soldiers of the Changdao Battalion directly under Li Quan were in the front team. Some people even encountered wild wolves in the middle of the night, and some were bitten by water snakes while sleeping. When their companions on duty at night found out, they had already been poisoned. Fatal hair, people are very cold.
For the sake of concealment, Li Quan strictly ordered not to light fires along the way. The soldiers were traveling through complex terrain at night, and they would be separated from the group if they were not careful. Tian Si said that if the loss was more than fifty, it would be better to count it towards the younger one.
"But it's worth it!" Li Quan said in a deep voice: "Bosan Anzhen and Guo Ning didn't even think that we were close! Their necks are already under our sword! When these two people appear, we only need to Swing the knife..."
When he was about to raise his voice, his peripheral vision suddenly glanced at the high slope of Tieling, and there was a vague figure flashing.
Li Quan suddenly lowered his body and waved his hands continuously.
Almost all of the soldiers behind him were confidants who had been recruited by Li Quan for a long time.
When Li Quan was talking to his generals, the old soldiers neither moved nor spoke. They all used their most comfortable postures, lying or sitting on the slightly dry ground in the swamp.
At this time, seeing Li Quan's movements, the soldiers in the front row lowered themselves lower and lower, followed closely by the soldiers in the back row. More than a thousand warriors wearing armor and belts with long knives were like wild beasts about to pounce on prey, and they were extremely silent. The autumn wind swept by, occasionally blowing their military robes, making a slight sound, which was immediately submerged in the wind and could no longer be distinguished.
(End of chapter)
