When the neighing of the Mongolian horses faded away, everyone sat around to catch their breath, and everyone was silent in the darkness. Only Li Shuang was still cursing in a low voice from time to time, sometimes cursing the damn Tatar soldiers, and sometimes scolding Yongkang County Cheng Magistrate and Cao County Lieutenant. He was injured by an arrow and it was very difficult for him to run. Fortunately, Ouyang Xuan and Yu Zhu were holding him up just now, so he was able to escape. However, his running just now made his wound hurt even more. The two soldiers who were injured by arrows There were groans of pain from time to time. One of the two people was hit by an arrow in the arm, and the other was hit by an arrow in the buttocks. They were lying on the ground at the moment.
From the time they set out in the morning until now, apart from running around and being chased by the Mongols, the soldiers were already trapped. Li Shuang felt hungry and called for everyone to bring out food and water. Ouyang Xuan took out only half a box of compressed dry food from his backpack in the dark, and took out a bottle of sports drink. After taking a bite of the dry food, he suddenly remembered the smile of Mr. Wang's compressed dry food. With a thought in his mind, he took it off. Two small pieces were handed to Li Shuang and Yu Zhu respectively, and they whispered: "Try the food used in this remote valley of Buddhism." In ancient times, sugar had always been something only the rich and powerful could enjoy. Sugary foods must have been extremely rare for these sallow and skinny soldiers. As Ouyang Xuan expected, Li Shuang and Yu Zhu both exclaimed happily after a moment of entrance, attracting everyone to gather around. Ouyang Xuan simply cut the compressed dry food into very small pieces and distributed it to everyone, and drank the remaining two bottles of sports drinks, which naturally caused bursts of cheers. Ouyang Xuan swallowed the wheat cake handed to him with water, and even though he was hungry, he felt it was particularly delicious.
After the meal, everyone started chatting one after another, but they were just whispering because they were afraid of the return of the Mongolian horsemen. Ouyang Xuan, Li Shuang and Yu Zhu were talking in low voices, and there were many people around. During the conversation, Ouyang Xuan recounted his fabricated life experience as a wandering monk. Everyone was moved by his filial piety for not being born as a monk, but for returning to the war-torn Chongqing Mansion to pray for his parents and fulfill their wishes after going through all kinds of hardships, and they suddenly had a good impression of him.
There were so many mosquitoes in the mountains in early summer that everyone swatted away at their bites, making it impossible to sleep. Ouyang Xuan was also bitten and itched all over his body. He couldn't help asking: "Why doesn't Yongkang County open the city gate?" "This is not only because the army has ordered not to open the city gate after dusk, but also because the Tatar soldiers are fast and good at raiding the city. Therefore, Xie Zhixian and Cao Xianwei did not violate the rules," Yu Zhu replied. "Those two are just cowards. How can the huge Yongkang City be afraid of more than a dozen northern soldiers?" "It's just that Xie and Cao have always had a rift with the Chongqing Mansion, and they just refused to save them!" Li Shuang said with lingering anger. Li Shuang's words caused everyone to curse. From what everyone said, Ouyang Xuan learned that because Yongkang County is located on the mountainside, it is easy for the population to hide. Therefore, during the four raids of Shu by the Mongolian army in more than 20 years, the population of the four counties in Chongqing Prefecture was the smallest. There are still more than a thousand households, and the stronghold alone has a population of 2,000 and 500 soldiers. If the whole city fights to the death, the Mongolian cavalry will definitely not dare to enter the city and will retreat in anger. It's just that in these years of war and famine, the Chongqing Prefecture's grain collection sergeants have always been ignored, and those sent to do the hard work of grain collection are mostly marginalized people. The hard work and risks are secondary, and they are still hampered at every turn. . For example, Chongqing Mansion is located in the plains of western Sichuan, with crisscrossing rivers making it extremely convenient for boats. This time, Li Shuang and others went to collect grain by water, which was safe and labor-saving, but Pan Tongzhi insisted on not sending boats to go with them.
"If we fight based on the city, our soldiers of the Song Dynasty will not be afraid of the Tatar soldiers. They will never come back." All the soldiers said in various directions.
Ouyang Xuan liked reading when he was in college, especially history. Although he knew that the Mongolian soldiers were extremely powerful, especially their cavalry and archery, and were invincible in the world, while the Southern Song Dynasty army was good at water battles and city defense. Once they fought in the field, they were often defeated like a mountain. However, I was still secretly frightened when I witnessed the fifty-man grain collection team being chased by a Mongolian Rangers team of only ten people, and Yongkang City, which had five hundred soldiers, was so frightened that the city gates were closed tightly. I knew from history books that the Southern Song Dynasty was weak and corrupt, but now after listening to people’s conversations, I realized that the Song army’s repeated defeats were not only due to weak soldiers and poor armor, but also due to political corruption, and even in the face of powerful enemies, they still refused to do so. Stop fighting.
The temperature on the mountain gradually dropped, but the mosquito bites were still severe. Although everyone was sleepy, they could not sleep. Someone was about to light a fire, but Yu Zhu stopped him because he was afraid that the Mongols would follow the light of the fire and attack. Hearing the word "night attack", Ouyang Xuan was moved in his heart and said to Yu Zhu: "The Tatar soldiers are no better than horses and bows and arrows. Now that it is dark, their cavalry and archery skills cannot be used. Why don't we attack the Tatar soldiers at night?"
"The elders don't know. We didn't bring any lighting equipment when we went out to collect food this time. It's pitch dark and we can't see. How can we find the Tatar soldiers? We made torches in a hurry, and the fire is unstable and short-lasting. How can we attack at night?" "Although most monks in the Southern Song Dynasty were not interested in worldly affairs, there were many monks who rose up to fight against the Mongols' cruelty, so Yu Zhu was not surprised by Ouyang Xuan's proposal.
"Although it is dark, we can still move forward gropingly. There must be a fire in the Tatar camp, and there must be a faint light. We can follow the light." Ouyang Xuan feels that the road at night is difficult, but it is not completely impossible. As a senior As a travel companion, he also walked in the mountains at night. "You can't march when it's dark, so why are so many wars in the world fought at night?" Thinking of this, he couldn't help but secretly curse Li Shuang for being a coward.
"Can you travel in this weather?" Seeing Ouyang Xuan's answer, everyone asked in surprise.
"Can't you all see the road clearly?" As soon as Ouyang Xuan said this, he suddenly remembered that the soldiers of the Volunteer Army to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea suffered from night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency. In the early days of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, due to the U.S. military blockade, our army's supplies could only ensure that the volunteer soldiers were well fed. There was a serious lack of animal foods such as meat and eggs, and vitamin A was only contained in animal foods. As a result, frontline soldiers generally suffered from night blindness. He cannot see at night, which seriously affects his combat effectiveness. Later, in addition to increasing the supply of meat and eggs, night blindness was solved through folk remedies such as soaking in pine needle water, and only then did night blindness come into being, which later frightened the US military. The group of soldiers beside me today are sallow and thin, so they probably have enough to eat. Meat, eggs and other animal foods are probably not available. Ouyang Xuan estimated that most of these soldiers suffered from night blindness. Once it got dark, it would be difficult for them to see without torch lighting.
"I can see the road clearly, and I also have this Buddhist artifact!" Ouyang Xuan took out a waterproof headlamp from his backpack. This outdoor headlamp can be used in low light mode for 8 hours. Yu Zhu carefully took the headlamp, looked at the glowing light bulb carefully, and discussed a few words in a low voice with Li Shuang.
"Okay, with this Buddhist artifact to help us, we will be even more powerful. Once we find the location of the Tatar soldiers and wait for them to fall asleep, we can take advantage of them and attack them." Li Shuang, who had been silent just now, fiddled with his headlamp and made an immediate decision. At that moment, everyone sat in a circle and discussed: Ouyang Xuan and Yu Zhu would first find the Tatar camp, then return and lead everyone to sneak nearby, and wait until the third watch before taking action. Except for four people who were thin and two injured by arrows, they stayed in place. The people who participated in the night attack were divided into two groups: Yu Zhu led two people to kill the Tatar sentry vigil first, and Li Shuang led the rest of the people to cover up the killing. Ouyang Xuan strongly requested to go to the whistle with Yu Zhu because he had good eyesight and was tall. Although Ouyang Xuan is only 1.7 meters tall, due to modern people's nutritional conditions and year-round outdoor exercise, he is the strongest and strongest among this group of people except Li Shuang.
