Chapter 168 Nuwa Mountain
Of course Zhang Hu didn't know that Lin Xiaojing had already deployed most of the soldiers from Xing'an Institute (today's Ankang, Shaanxi Province) to defend Hanzhong Mansion. With the lesson of the Gongchang Prefecture's fiasco, Zhang Hu, since entering Hanzhong Prefecture, has broken through counties and not captured prefectures: townships and counties with little defensive capabilities will definitely take advantage of them, but walled prefectures and garrison posts can be avoided. , if you can't avoid it, go around it. King Zhang has already found the way: as long as he does not take the initiative to fight, even under their noses, the officers and soldiers of the guard station and the state city will watch helplessly as his group swaggers past, even if there are not many guards left. The old baggage camp will never be attacked - obviously, they are afraid of Zhang Hu's revenge. However, Zhang Hu didn't want to be held back. Although it had been going smoothly until now, if the dog officers and soldiers were forced to come to Taiwan, it would not be worth the gain to mobilize troops to encircle them and engage in a few field battles.
Therefore, Zhang Hu only captured Pingli* and turned a blind eye to the "threat" of Jinzhou just behind him. Jinzhou is also called Xing'an Prefecture, and it is also where Xing'an Qianhu Office is located. It is only fifty miles away from Pingli. At this time, the two sides actually had a vague understanding: no one wanted to cause trouble, and Shaanxi Sansi and Hanzhong The government didn't want to do it, and neither did the fledgling Zhang Hu.
Zhang Hu was very excited. After passing the Nuwa Mountain in front, you will reach Huguang, which is as wealthy as Sichuan Province! Zhang Hu has never been to Huguang, but - "Huguang is familiar with the world", who doesn't know?
However, this excitement didn't last long before it was wiped out by a scoop of cold water. Pioneer Officer... Oh, well, when they were in the camp, King Zhang and others liked to hear Mr. Shu's "Shuo Yue" the most, and they all felt that the official title of "Foreign Seal Pioneer Officer" was very domineering. Since Zhang Hu has proclaimed himself Generalissimo, and Niu Gao under Grandpa Yue's account has this position, the person in charge of the front army is Niu Youtian, also named Niu. He feels like a substitute, and even his parents don't know who he is as a beggar. Even though Niu Youtian had found his ancestor, he naturally called the pioneer officer - Niu Youtian sent someone back to report: Enemy troops blocking the road were encountered at Nuwa Mountain, and General Niu was confronting the enemy!
Zhang Hu was shocked when he heard the news. He has organized a total of more than a dozen combat barracks. Except for four or five, they are all new recruits who can make up the numbers. In case of war, there are also ten battalions that can be picked out to fight: Fang Ge has four Sichuan barracks and he has six. Niu Youtian led four main battalions, most of which were veterans, and 5,000 auxiliary troops to go forward and clear the way. This kind of troops could easily capture even a county town. How come they were blocked by the enemy on this barren mountain? Besides, Niu Youtian is also a master who is not afraid of heaven and earth. He got red-eyed in the battle of Baoning Mansion and went to the city first. If the blacksmith hadn't saved Zong Ning A'long from a sudden mental disorder, he would have died there. Got it! The one who can scare him so much that he dares not charge must be a powerful enemy he has never seen before - but, in this Ming Dynasty, who else can scare Lao Niu? Could it be... Could it be that Sun Jie ran back again?
Zhang Hu, who didn't dare to trust anyone, hurriedly told Fang Ge a few words, and then took the guard battalion and ran to Nuwa Mountain to see what happened. Of course the illiterate Zhang Hu didn't know who Nuwa was. Stories such as the Empress patching up the sky and Kuafu chasing the sun were told to children by teachers in private schools. Most of the knowledge of military men came from storytellers, and their knowledge of history was limited to the Yang family generals in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. So when Zhang Hu arrived at the place, he realized that his judgment was wrong.
Nuwa Mountain is named after Nuwa Temple. This is the place where the legendary Nuwa Empress picked five-color stones to mend the sky! One mile south of Nuwa Temple there is a mountain with a partial head. Legend has it that when Nuwa was lifting a stone to mend the sky, she stepped on the top of the mountain and tilted it, hence its name. There is also a "Mogou" in the east, which is where Fuxi and Nuwa's brother and sister got married. There is also a popular Jade Emperor Temple nearby, which is full of treasures. Therefore, it is definitely not a barren mountain as Zhang Hu thought.
However, Zhang Hu could neither worship the Empress nor the Jade Emperor. Under the leadership of Niu Youtian, Zhang Hu and his party had just climbed halfway up the mountain along the stone steps, when the dense military camps built around the Nuwa Temple came into view.
The camp wall is made of wooden stakes as thick as a bowl, arranged closely together, and the tops have been sharpened to prevent climbing. A glance at Zhang Hu revealed that the part where these wooden piles were driven into the ground was at least three feet deep. Such a solid camp wall could not be shaken by manpower. Even with the help of a car, it could hold up for half an hour. above. By the way, this is a mountain. How could a car crash on it? There was a thick layer of mud and straw mixture on the outside of the wall, and a few unarmored auxiliary soldiers were lazily pouring water on it from outside the wall - it seemed that they had been doing this kind of work for several days. Ordinary rockets will definitely not be able to deal with the wet mud, and most importantly, it seems that there is a spring or well in the temple on the top of the mountain, so the defenders will not have to worry about water sources!
There is a trench outside the camp wall, which was dug according to the mountain terrain. It is not very wide, but people cannot jump across it. The trenches are not long, but wherever there is a passable area, there are several, sparsely stretched across them, which will greatly slow down the speed and rhythm of the attack, leaving the attackers exposed to the firepower of the defenders for a long time.
There are two observation towers on the wall, east and west. The view near the top of the mountain is originally wide. With these two observation towers, the situation in front of you will be unobstructed. Zhang Hu estimated that the direction on the other side of the mountain that could not be seen from here should be the same. All the trees within thirty feet of the camp wall have been cut down. The larger ones have now become part of the camp wall. The others must have been transported back to the camp to be used as firewood, right? There was a bald stake about half a foot high on the ground for stumbling blocks. As if to prove Zhang Hu's judgment, a plume of black smoke rose from the camp.
There was also a flag flying in the camp. It looked like a deputy general's flag with a face measuring five feet in length. However, since both of them were illiterate, they didn't know what was written on the flag.
Zhang Hu and Niu Youtian were observing and discussing when they suddenly saw that the suspension bridge across the ditch at the camp entrance was lowered, and then the closed camp door opened, and two officers came out. Judging from their steady gait and smooth movements, these two men are both good soldiers in the army. When they move their hands and feet, the iron armor fits them as well as clothes made of cloth, without any feeling of obstruction or stiffness. But looking at their military uniforms, Zhang Hu felt that they were a little different from the Ming troops he had seen before. I couldn't tell exactly what was wrong. The two walked straight to Zhang Hu and others, who were standing a dozen feet away, and shouted loudly: "General across the way, please step forward and talk to me." The accent was such a familiar Shaanxi accent.
After shouting a few times, seeing that there was no movement here, the two exchanged a few words, then simply took a few steps forward, patted the empty waist without a sword, and shouted: "General across the way, we are friends, not enemies. Jun has absolutely no ill intentions, please feel free to come out and talk to me.”
Zhang Hu and Niu Youtian looked at each other, and then at their own soldiers. Seeing that there were only two of them, and the distance was far beyond the range of the defenders' crossbows, they took a few steps forward and shouted: " Who are you kidding? You are officers and soldiers, we are thieves, but we are very friends!"
Unexpectedly, the person opposite laughed when he heard this: "We are the ancestors of the officers and soldiers!" After speaking, he raised his finger and pointed at the tassels of the iron helmet on his head, "Look clearly, are we the officers and soldiers?"
Only then did Zhang Hu realize what he had thought was an eyesore: their helmet tassels were actually black!
The two people on the opposite side walked over nonchalantly, stood about ten steps in front of Zhang Niu and others, and said with a smile: "Dashuai Guan, Guan Shengyun, have you heard of it? We are soldiers of Deputy Marshal Gao under General Guan." !”
The person stationed at Nuwa Mountain and waiting in full preparedness was actually Gao Tengdou!
*The seat of Pingli County in the Ming Dynasty is now Laoxian Town, Pingli County, Shaanxi Province, which is more than twice as close to Ankang (Xing'an Suo).
*The most common legend about the origin of the Chinese people is that Nuwa created humans from mud. But there is another myth: brother and sister get married.
There are two versions in this version, one is about Fuxi and Nuwa, and the other is about the Pangu brother and sister. Anyway, they are both brothers and sisters. The plot is almost the same: the brother and sister were ordered by the Jade Emperor to create humans and reproduce, but they refused on the grounds that they were brothers. Then the Jade Emperor said it was destiny, and in order to verify it, he asked the brother and sister to push down a stone mill from two mountains each to the valley. The two stone mills there actually merged into one, so they lived together and their descendants prospered.
There is also a record in "Duyi Ji" written by Li Cong of the Tang Dynasty: "If Heaven sends my brother and sister to be husband and wife, they will be together in the smoke; if not, the smoke will be dispersed. They will be united in the smoke." Two hazes and two stone mills have similar meanings.
[There was a glitch in the computer today. It was so slow that the screen automatically switched at every turn. Let’s just write these first. 】
