Horse hooves stepped on it, kicking up dust. The withered and yellow weeds on both sides of the road were swaying in the wind. The whole world seemed to have lost its life, and the crows of crows could be heard from time to time.
The refugees huddled on the side of the road, waiting to die, looking at the cavalry retreating in the distance, their ashen eyes showing no emotion at all.
Le Jin looked back at the owner of those eyes and sighed silently. His mood seemed to be a little heavier.
The team member on the side reprimanded in a heavy tone: "I remember that when the Yellow Turban thieves came to Hedong a few years ago, the scene was not as miserable as it is now. Damn Baibo Army, what on earth did they do." Another team member He said in a deep voice: "I heard that they not only robbed food, but also robbed people. Regardless of adults or children, as long as they had some strength, they were all dragged to mine. There were also women. Except for the really old ones, as long as they were a They don't let women go." This team member is from the Jiaolong Gang. Although they are water bandits, they will not kill them all. They will only rob goods and food, and everyone will be released. They will not do anything that is harmful to nature. .
Therefore, even they, who are water bandits, hate the Baibo Army's animal behavior.
Le Jin withdrew his gaze and weakly looked up at the gray sky. The reason why the sky was gray was because several villages not far ahead were burned by fires. Not only the houses, but also the crops in the fields were not spared. It didn't take much to think about it, but it must have been done by the Baibo Army again.
"Brother Le Jin, Xia County is ahead. Let's be careful, lest we run into Bai Bojun's people." Le Jin nodded and tightened the letter hidden in the seam of his chest.
After about a stick of incense, several people arrived at the outskirts of Xia County City. The soldiers guarding the city spotted them immediately. An arrow flew from the sky and was nailed seven or eight meters in front of Le Jin.
Le Jin tightened the reins of his horse, raised his head and shouted loudly: "I, Le Jin, have been entrusted by my young master to ask to see Mr. Wei." The soldiers on the city asked, "Who is your young master?" Le Jin took out the Wei. The waist badge provided by the Wei family, he said loudly: "My young master is Wei Cheng, the second son of the Wei family." Hearing this, the soldiers guarding the city were startled for a moment, then turned around and ran away in a hurry.
Not long after, Wei Gong appeared at the top of the city wearing a military uniform. Seeing the familiar stab-proof uniforms on Le Jin and others, he whispered to the soldiers on the side, and the city gate slowly opened the next moment.
Le Jin rode in with several team members. However, the scene in front of them made them take a deep breath.
I saw injured soldiers everywhere, the buildings in the city were in ruins, there were traces of fire in many places, and there was an unpleasant burning smell in the air.
"Is this... the Baibo Army entering the city?" One of the team members couldn't help but muttered. At this time, Wei Gong came down from the city gate tower, and Le Jin and others hurriedly got off their horses.
Le Jin stepped forward, cupped his fists and saluted, and said, "Young Le Jin, I have met the third master." Wei Gong lifted him up with both hands, motioned to the soldiers to close the city gate first, and then said, "Did the second brother ask you to come?" Le Jin took out Wei Cheng's letter, nodded and said: "Yes, the young master has something important to inform the third master, please have the third master read it." Wei Gong took the letter, nodded slightly, and explained to the soldiers on the side: "Modern They go to rest... I'm sorry, I still have some things to deal with here, so I'll go and rest first, and later Wei will entertain some strong men in person." He said this to Le Jin and others later.
Le Jin and others clasped their fists and saluted. The situation in the city was obviously not good, and it was not good for them to disturb them. After thanking them, they followed the soldiers to rest. After traveling for so long, they were indeed tired.
Emiya watched them leave, then glanced at the letter in his hand, turned around and walked into the guardhouse nearby.
"Cough cough cough, cough cough cough..." There was another tragic scene in the guardhouse. Soldiers could be seen everywhere. Many of them were missing arms and legs and were already living on their last legs.
Emiya was not surprised and walked into a main room with a gloomy face. Several people dressed as scribes in the room were sorting out documents. When they saw Emiya coming in, they all raised their hands in greeting.
Wei Gong waved his hand casually, walked to a case and sat down cross-legged. Maybe he moved a little hastily, but there was a look of pain on his face. He lowered his head and looked at his waist and abdomen. He saw traces of blood seeping out of the leather armor of his military uniform, mixed with the stained undershirt. You wouldn't know it if you didn't pay attention. he got hurt.
A thin-looking scribe next to him saw this and frowned: "Uncle Wen, your injury can't be dragged on like this anymore. It's better for someone to take you back to Anyi for treatment as soon as possible." Wei Gong frowned and shook his head. Said: "I'm not in the way." The scribe wanted to persuade him again, but another scribe with a long beard on the opposite side suddenly said: "In the battle last night, our side suffered heavy casualties. Three hundred and seventeen people died, with serious and minor injuries. There are more than 1,200 dead. The medicinal herbs in the city have been exhausted. I am afraid there will be more dead today." Another scribe said: "The granary was also burned. Although the rescue was timely, the original storage of more than 3,000 stones of grain was finally destroyed. Only less than 30% of them have been rescued. If the White Wave Army attacks again at night, I'm afraid..." He looked at the leader, Emiya, with a sad look on his face, as if he was hesitant to speak.
Wei Gong knew what he was going to say and said decisively: "Don't mention the abandonment of the city again. Baibo thieves are always watching outside the city. Unless we don't care about the people in the city and don't need the nearly 10,000 shi of autumn grain, they won't let it go easily." We have." The thin scribe also said: "Yes, Brother Pei has proposed abandoning the city several times, which is not what a gentleman does. Do you want to imitate those dog officials who leave their corpses and eat nothing, and abandon the common people when they are in danger?" Then The scribe frowned slightly and asked with a red face: "Brother Wang, what's the explanation? Have I left? The Bai Bo thieves almost invaded the city last night. Who led the people to use the train to force them back? It's me! It's me Pei Qingzhi!" The thin scribe was speechless for a moment.
Seeing this, Wei Gong slapped the table hard and said in a deep voice: "Okay, Brother Wang, Brother Pei, please stop arguing." Wei Gong took out Wei Cheng's letter and opened it in front of everyone.
After taking a look, Wei Gong frowned slightly, thinking that in the first line of the letter, Wei Cheng told him that he was returning to Wei Village.
By the time he finished reading all the letters, the dejection on his face had disappeared and turned into an expression of excitement and disbelief.
The priests looked at each other and secretly asked Wei Gong what's going on? The thin scribe cupped his hands and asked curiously: "Uncle Wen, is there a letter from the second master?" Several scribes immediately thought of Wei Ming, because Wei Ming was in the county government. If there was a letter from Wei Ming, it was likely that the county government wanted to send troops. Came to support them.
If it weren't for this, Emiya wouldn't have such a change of expression of surprise and joy. However, Emiya's answer directly poured cold water on them: "No, it's not the second uncle's letter, I'm the second brother." Several people looked at each other, even more puzzled.
"Brother Wei Cheng?"
"Wei Zhongdao?"
"What did the letter say? Why is Uncle Wen so excited?"... Gu Xi Wei Zhuang. Not far to the west of Zhuangzi is Anyi County. At this time, many people are carrying supplies to the city.
"Hurry up, be careful when moving, don't bump it."
"You two, please be careful, are you going to save your life?"
"...Really, everyone is irritable." Wei Cheng stood on a carriage, holding a map of Anyi County in his hand.
"Ah Cai."
"Hey, I'm here, I'm here, what do you want the second master to do?" Wei Cheng called over the steward who was in charge of supervising the work, pointed to a hillside not far away, and said, "Dig a trench there as well." The steward nodded. He took out a simple drawing from his pocket and made a mark on it.
Wei Cheng pointed to a ditch a hundred meters away and asked, "Which ditch is connected to the inner city?" The steward came over, glanced at the Kan map, and said uncertainly: "This little one needs to find someone. To confirm, I remember that it is a sewage canal, connecting several squares in the east of the city. As for whether it leads to the inner city, I really don’t know."
"That's it..." Wei Cheng frowned slightly, looked around, and said, "Okay, you go and do your work first, and I'll go look elsewhere." The steward bowed his hands respectfully,
"Farewell to the Second Master." Wei Cheng nodded to Xu Ding, who waved his whip and started running around Anyi County with his carriage.
This is the second day after arriving in Weizhuang. Wei Cheng didn't get much rest, and went into intense work the next day.
The area of Wei Village was still too small to accommodate too many people, so Wei Cheng suggested that Wei Hao give up Wei Village and move his family to Anyi County.
The Wei family also has a house in the county, but compared to Wei Zhuang on the outskirts of the city, the house in the city is much smaller.
Fortunately, now the entire Anyi County town can be said to be empty of ten rooms and nine rooms. The Wei family did not care so much and directly occupied the center of Anyi County town. All the clan members moved in, planning to occupy the city and defend it. .
In addition, the county wall is higher, making it easier to defend against foreign enemies. Even so, Wei Cheng was still worried, and he led Wei's people to start rebuilding and building the entire defense fortifications in Anyi County.
After seeing the defenses of Anyi County, even Wei Cheng, a military novice, discovered many loopholes.
For example: many ditches in the city are dug into the ground and are connected to the inner city. This obviously provides the enemy with a dedicated passage into the city.
Without saying anything, Wei Cheng had all the ditches blocked. As for the sewage problem, digging a septic tank could solve it.
Another example: City defenses in this era did not consider enemy fire attacks, so there were naturally no facilities such as water storage tanks and cisterns around streets and houses.
Wei Cheng didn't waste any words, forcing all streets and houses to install a large water tank. Every street is 20 meters long, and every house with a yard will have a large water tank to store rainwater. If the house catches fire, the water can be used to put out the fire immediately.
This problem could have been solved by diverting water from the Fen River five miles away, but now it is obviously too late to expand the moat and canals, so we can only use water tanks and reservoirs for a while.
There are also some new simple defensive methods and traps, such as wooden fences, which can effectively block the cavalry's offensive, as well as trenches and horse traps. Wei Cheng had people dig several holes at some high points and places with wide views. Each one will be tricked when the time comes.
Of course, in addition to these, necessary counterattack means are also indispensable. Led by the Wei family, the common people in the city who had not yet left chose to join the queue for city defense. Even the refugees passing by also chose to join in excitement, because the Wei family not only provided food, but also a set of winter clothes.
The people of Wei were very active in solving the problem of food and clothing with such great wealth. In less than half a day, nearly 3,000 people had joined the defense force, and Xu Huang and others were currently leading the training.
The team temporarily followed Wei Cheng's arrangement in Wei Village, and divided Xu Huang, Guan Yu, Xu Chu, and Zhang Fei into four square formations. Each formation was based on the original guard members and villagers, and attracted the people in the city to join, with a total of four thousand people. people.
The soldiers should be more refined than more numerous. Wei Cheng felt that four thousand people would be enough, and the remaining people could join in the construction of city defense and do whatever they could.
It's definitely not possible to eat and drink for free. If you want to eat and clothe yourself, you have to work. Xu Ding was responsible for driving the carriage, while Wei Cheng sat in the carriage and thought about what else was missing.
Not long after, the two came to the north of the city.
"Master, look!" Xu Dingle stopped the carriage, turned around and said in a deep voice. Wei Cheng's expression changed, and he looked in the direction he was pointing, his brows suddenly furrowed.
I saw thick smoke billowing in the sky, and the smoke dispersed with the wind. It was visually estimated that the source of the fire should be no less than ten miles away from here.
But even so, one can still tell how fierce the fire is by the rising smoke.
"It should be a village." Wei Cheng looked unhappy and said to Xu Ding: "Go back and send a few people over to take a look." Xu Ding nodded, turned his horse and rushed towards the city.
Wei Cheng looked back at the direction where the smoke was rising, and his brows furrowed even more. After he came out of the mountains in the past two days, all he saw along the way were haggard and displaced Li people. These were the people who escaped, but... what about those who did not choose to escape?
Do they really have the strength to resist when they encounter the White Wave Army? The answer is obviously no. Ordinary people can only be slaughtered and ravaged.
Those who slay dragons eventually become evil dragons. These so-called rebels chanted the slogan of overthrowing the corrupt court and saving the common people, but in fact they did more despicable things than Zhang Rang and He Jin.
At least Zhang Rang, He Jin and others know how to raise pigs and cannot kill ordinary people. However, these so-called rebels shout nice slogans, but when they meet ordinary people who disagree with them, they only have two choices: join or be killed.
Which is right or wrong, maybe Wei Cheng can't tell. But now that he has encountered it, he will not let tragedy happen in front of his eyes.
At least in Anyi territory, under his nose, as long as someone dares to bully and rob the people wantonly, he will not ignore it.
The two returned to the city, and Wei Cheng directly found the place where Xu Huang and others were training.
"Gongming, Yun Chang, you two quickly lead five hundred cavalry, with the county as the center, within a radius of 20 miles, I don't want to see the existence of Baibo thieves." The expressions of Xu Huang and Guan Yu, who were training soldiers, changed. , Wei Cheng's face was terrifyingly gloomy, and the two of them didn't know why Wei Cheng, who always had a calm look on his face, suddenly changed into a different person.
Xu Ding winked at the two of them, and then pointed to the north. At this time, the city gate is wide open. Through the city gate hole, you can see a wisp of black smoke in the distance like a bed bug, constantly eating the blue sky...
