Yingchun Fort is located more than 40 miles west of Wanli City. As the only fortress built on the mountain among the Wanli Xuanwei envoys on the Shiguocheng plain, Yingchun Fort has always been the main supply point for beef and mutton in Wanli City. .
Because it is located at the boundary between hilly mountains and plains, with beautiful scenery, it was the first among the eleven forts of the Wanli Xuanwei Envoy to see spring, so it was named Yingchun Fort.
But this fortress is not big. It is only close to four miles in circumference. It is built with stones mixed with rammed earth walls. There are more than 60 households in the fort and about 400 households outside the fort.
The owner of the fort, Wang Liulang, was of short stature and looked ordinary, but in fact he was ruthless. When he was young, he was a well-known leader of the Dancing Soldiers in the Yunzhou Tianping Army.
With his short top-like figure, he can carry about ten kilograms less armor than a tall soldier. At the same time, because of his short stature, he can get through the forest of spears more nimbly.
All it takes is a small round shield and a bone handle to act like a steel cone on the battlefield.
At first, Wang Liu hated the imperial court and Emperor Zhang in the Shendu Palace.
Because while he was being sent to the river, his eldest son and his second wife passed away due to acclimatization and illness. Wang Liu often felt heartbroken when he returned from his dreams at midnight.
This was all the fault of the court officials. If they hadn't forcibly expelled their family into the river thousands of miles away, the eldest son and Xu Xian would never have died.
But a few years after arriving in Hezhong, this hatred was quickly diluted.
Without him, the court gave too much!
Before Zhang Zhou, the Central Plains imperial court's attitude towards the Western Regions and Hezhong existed, in a sense, as a 'blood bag'.
At first, it was used as a blood pack to fight against the Huns and Turks and send troops. Behind them are real blood packages that continuously transport supplies to Guanzhong through the Silk Road.
Since it is a blood bag, the imperial court will not allow the Anxi Han soldiers to have too much autonomy.
Therefore, whether they are the field soldiers in the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty or the Anxi Army of the Tang Dynasty, although they can enjoy more autonomy than the officers and soldiers in the mainland, they are still wage earners working for the imperial court.
Most of the wealth they obtained through various channels in Anxi ended up in the pockets of the nobles in Guanzhong through this policy and means.
So in the late Wu Zhou Dynasty, people from the mainland regarded it as a dead end to go to Anxi to serve as soldiers and officials.
If it weren't for Gao Xianzhi, he was so bold that he forcibly intercepted part of the goods that should have been imported into Guanzhong to support the Anxi Army, making the Anxi Army shine again in his hands, and then trained tens of thousands of armor through war support. scholar.
The combat effectiveness of the Anxi Army should have declined the fastest among the Tang Army.
According to historical records, Gao Xianzhi was extremely greedy for money, extorted excessive taxes, and bribed high-ranking officials in the court. In addition to his own moral factors, maintaining the combat effectiveness and special status of the Anxi Army should also be a very important reason.
Historically, Gao Xianzhi had no choice but to retreat to Tongguan. As a result, Li Longji only listened to Bian Lingcheng's slander and decided to let him go to the front to kill important generals like Gao and Feng.
It may not be that Gao Xianzhi's behavior when he was in Anxi left a deep impression on the emperor in the palace that he was such a person, so the old fool gave the order without thinking.
But it was different when it came to Zhang Zhou. A rough guy like Wang Liu could easily feel that the status of the Han people rose sharply after passing Shule.
No matter what kind of villain and scum you are in Middle-earth, as long as you can kill people with a knife, then you are the master.
Not to mention professionals like Wang Liu, you are just an ordinary person. As long as you are strong and dare to kill people, you can get hundreds or even thousands of acres of land, dozens of large and small livestock, and two or three families of indigenous people as slaves.
When Zhang Zhou was in the river, except for the broken leaves, he really shared the world with the Han people who had left the border!
This is how Emperor Zhang responded to the advice from his ministers that he should not create large-scale vassals in the river, which might lead to rebellion and separatism.
"In this world, whoever puts in the most effort can eat the meat the fastest!"
"If you immigrate to the river and still want to completely separate and become independent, then it means that all the officials in the court are incompetent!"
"So what if the river is no longer owned by the country? They will still speak Chinese and follow Han rituals, and their descendants will still be Han people."
With the emperor's direct support and endorsement, the Han people who came to Hezhong in recent years basically followed a pattern of development.
That is to say, they first went to the imperial court in the middle of the river to rent weapons, armor, war horses, etc., and then used dozens or hundreds of people to occupy cultivated land and pastures everywhere, arresting local people and forcing them to surrender to themselves.
Once their status was somewhat stable, they were immediately reported to the imperial yamen. After the yamen sent someone to verify, they would be issued a gold seal, register the household registration album, and send craftsmen to build the city.
The weapons, armor, and war horses they originally rented were converted into production loans on the spot, allowing them to pay off the loans within three to five years.
From then on, as long as you pay taxes and repay loans on time every year, you will become a vassal. If you are attacked on a large scale, you will be able to receive support from the Yamen to send troops.
At the same time, the yamen will organize regular training every year, and then go south or west on a large scale to attack and plunder people and wealth.
This kind of life is too dangerous for farmers in the Central Plains, and is no different from troubled times.
But for killer talents like Zhang Baoyi, Song Heishan and Wang Liu, it is simply heaven.
This is also the reason why Wang Liu's concept changed rapidly after he arrived in Hezhong. In the Central Plains, he was just an old soldier and a thief who was killed without knowing when.
But in Hezhong, he was a legal vassal of the imperial court, and there were a large number of people under his rule.
What happened to the earth bully? The earth bully is also a king!
. . . . .
'Boom! There was a short vibrating sound of a bowstring, and outside the south gate of Yingchun Fort, a Persian cavalryman who was shouting and showing off his power suddenly shook on his horse, and he was shot.
At the same time, the war horse suddenly trembled under its crotch, and an arrow hit its butt. In pain, the war horse screamed and began to run wildly.
The poor cavalryman was shot in the neck. He could have been saved, but the horse's wild gallop knocked him off the horse.
At the same time, the cavalryman's right foot was still stuck in the stirrup. Unable to break free, he was dragged around by the panicked horse on the sand outside the fort. His head was immediately knocked out numerous times. The panic and pain made the cavalryman scream loudly. got up.
'Tap, tap! "Another cavalryman saw the screams of his comrade, and immediately took the risk of riding his horse forward, hoping to stop the galloping horse and rescue the man.
"What a courageous thief!" The sharpshooter was furious, and then he inhaled and drew his bow to shoot another arrow.
Just hearing a muffled sound, the Persian horseman who rode forward suddenly opened his mouth, and a mouthful of blood spurted out from the horse.
The bright tail feathers swayed twice on his back, and he fell straight off the horse.
"Master Sanlang is a great shooter!" A burst of excited shouts like ghosts and wolves howled from the earthen walls of Yingchun Fort, and their morale was instantly boosted.
After the Saburo-kun forced a smile, he moved his left leg with difficulty. The ointment tied with a white cloth around his ankle was clearly visible.
"It doesn't matter. Although there are many thieves and cavalry, the armored soldiers in Wanli City will receive the news soon. As long as they come here, we will be safe." Wang Liu stepped forward and said with some flattery.
Although this Mr. Sanlang is his son, the relationship between the two is a bit subtle, because this is the oil bottle that he brought over.
In fact, the relationship between the two of them is much better now. Before arriving in Hezhong, the eleven or twelve-year-old Chen Sanlang felt that Wang Liu had robbed his mother and was very hostile to his stepfather.
But after arriving in Hezhong, Chen Sanlang, who was hit hard by the death of his mother, was encouraged by Wang Liu, and the father and son joined forces to conquer the nearby thief Hu.
In many life-and-death battles side by side, a strange father-son relationship was formed.
There are more than a hundred Persian cavalry that have penetrated here, and together with the leading party found locally, there are almost two hundred cavalry in total.
And they are well equipped, with more than forty sets of chain armor and fifty or sixty sets of lighter river leather armor.
This elite cavalry team was originally intended to penetrate into the northern town of Hubao.
Zhenhu Fort is located between Baishui City and Shiguo City. Its geographical location is even more important. It is a key thoroughfare for Baishui City to send supplies to the front line.
And there are many believers who stubbornly believe in Tianfang religion, unlike Yingchun Castle where some Zoroastrian believers live.
Therefore, if more than a hundred elite cavalry could arrive near Zhenhu Fort, under the cover of the local Tianfang believers, it would be enough to cause great trouble to the Han army, which had already mobilized a large number of troops to the front line.
However, when they arrived at Yingchun Fort, they originally just wanted to take a rest, but the news was leaked at some point. Wang Liu, the inspector of Yingchun Fort, took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack in the early morning, losing seven or eight people.
Originally this was nothing, just think of it as carelessness, just bypass Yingchun Fort and speed up north.
But after interrogating several Persians who were captured, Wang Liu of Yingchun Fort got the information that they were going to suppress Fort Hu. He immediately realized that these Persians could not be allowed to continue going north.
Therefore, Wang Liu made a prompt decision and hung three corpses on the road west of Yingchun Fort leading to Zhenhu Fort.
These three corpses were all Persians kidnapped or killed by Wang Liu and others during the early morning raid.
What made it even more difficult for these Persian Huqi Centurion Salar to accept was that these three corpses were all dressed in women's clothes, and each corpse had a piece of crystal-clear and plump braised Peppa Pig meat stuffed in its mouth.
On the wooden sign under the three corpses, the words "Burke, King of Yingchun Castle" were thoughtfully written in Turkic language.
For any Tianfang believer to dress a man in women's clothing and eat Peppa meat, this is an intolerable insult and must be washed away with blood.
Especially when Salal looked at the doubtful eyes of the twenty or so leading party, he had no choice.
Originally, two hundred people were attacked by more than twenty people, and they were so frightened that they ran away for more than ten miles. The loss of seven or eight people was already very embarrassing.
Now if you are so insulted by others and you still dare not resist, then there is no need to go to Zhenhu Fort, because if you can't get to Zhenhu Fort, the leading party will have to flee.
Chen Sanlang turned to look at his stepfather, and after a while he whispered: "These people are not simple. You can see that none of their elite soldiers have moved. There are at least eighty people. If we act together, there will be only twenty in our fortress." People cannot resist it.”
After saying that, Chen Sanlang was silent for a while, then took a deep breath and said slowly: "I know you left a fast horse in the backyard. After the fight, you should leave quickly. Don't let everyone die here. .”
Wang Liu looked at his stepson in surprise, and then shook his head happily, "That's for you. Chen Laodao is your only son. If you die, he will have no descendants.
Besides, if I run away, how can I have the nerve to see your mother when I end up under Jiuquan in the future? "
Wang Liu had four sons. The eldest son died in Liangzhou, the second son died in infancy, Chen Sanlang was in front of him, and the youngest son was studying in Wanli City, so he would not be extinct.
Chen Sanlang's father could be regarded as his former brother-in-law. The two of them could not be said to have a deep relationship, but they still couldn't help but watch the old man succeed.
"I injured my foot and can't use the stirrups. Even if I run, I can't run far. There's no need to waste an opportunity to escape. Sir, go and get ready."
Chen Sanlang still stubbornly shook his head, but at the critical moment of life and death, he seemed to think about it.
Wang Liu suddenly laughed twice and patted his stepson Chen Sanlang on the shoulder, "Then there's no need to fight. You and I, father and son, stand side by side. Even if we die, we will die as heroes!"
"I think you've lost your mind and gone crazy!" Chen Sanlang was stunned for a moment, then cursed lightly and turned away from Wang Liu.
Wang Liu ignored him and waved to a few Han-looking armored soldiers beside him, "The thieves are barging their hands, it seems they are going to attack by force.
Yingchun Fort is only forty miles away from Wanli City. The news should have been received by now. Even if it takes some time to assemble, people should arrive in an hour.
In other words, we can survive as long as we withstand it for an hour. "
A bow-legged man who spoke broken Chinese and looked like he was a returnee from the grassland shook his head and said in a low voice: "I can't stand it. Those thieves who don't come in have at least thirty or forty sets of iron armor. We are only five years old." set.
The inspection team should advise your Sanlang more. He is unparalleled and will definitely have a great future in the future. The next generation of the fifteen families in Yingchun Fort must rely on him to promote him. "
"Hu Shang is right. Saburo has not injured his leg, so he will never return to Yingchun Castle to recuperate. He still has a bright future, and we cannot let him die here with us old guys."
Hu Shang refers to the bow-legged man who just spoke. He is a fortune teller and a devout believer in the Six Methods Sect. He often likes to preach to the natives below like a monk, so he simply changed his surname to Hu, taking the monk's character "Shang", and called him Hu Shang. .
Wang Liu looked at the back of his stepson Chen Sanlang in the distance, shook his head and said helplessly and proudly:
"There's no need to persuade him, he won't leave. Chen Laodao is a descendant of Wang Liujiao, so he can't abandon his robe and run away on his own!"
After that, Wang Liu looked at Hu Shang and said: "Recruit all the men in the fort, lock their families in the granary, and pour kerosene on the firewood.
Tell those men that whoever dares not to fight to the death will have their whole family burned to ashes before the city is broken.
If the fortress can be defended, the whole family will be exempted from the autumn tax, the injured father will be given money and food as a pension, and the dead father will be responsible for raising their children and giving them death to his parents. "
You see, this is called professionalism. If an inexperienced person comes, the locals in the fort will probably be fooled and sell them out directly.
But for a ruthless old soldier like Wang Liu, this method is easy to come by.
. . . .
Salar looked in the direction of Yingchun Castle in silence. He didn't care at all about the casualties of the two Iqta auxiliary knights.
He also knew that he was probably exposed now, so it was best not to stay in this place for too long.
No, it's best not to go to Yingchun Fort, but to go to Zhenhu Fort as planned.
However, when he looked at the silver-white king flag fluttering in the wind on Yingchun Castle, he could no longer suppress the anger and disgust in his heart.
Salar took out a very delicate crystal hourglass and adjusted it before waving his hand.
"If we can't take it in half an hour, we'll leave."
"Woah! Woah!" A strange cry suddenly sounded. The Persian cavalry in the distance wore their white-striped chainmail armor, five or six steps away from each other, howling and galloping, deliberately rolling their horses. There was overwhelming yellow sand, and he looked like he was about to rush in.
But Chen Sanlang didn't even raise his hand, and the Han soldiers on the earth wall didn't move either.
Only Wang Liu held a wooden stick and beat the natives who were so frightened that they began to scream, fight, and even turn around and run away.
Seeing that this strategy was ineffective, the two hundred Persian armored cavalry began to gallop back and forth around Yingchun Fort. Occasionally, they would symbolically shoot an arrow at the city wall to test the reality of various places, but still no one of the Han soldiers took action.
They are all old friends and no one will be fooled like this.
Persian A rode a few laps and found no flaws, so he returned dejectedly and changed horses.
Salar was not surprised, because if these Zhou people didn't have this ability, it would be impossible for them to be able to confront their millions of people with a core tribe of hundreds of thousands.
"Fight the east, all go to the east!" Salar quickly made a choice, and several of the accompanying cavalrymen also took out the small drums on their spare horses and began to beat them.
There are twelve real Iqta knights in this small cavalry team. With the help of auxiliaries, they put on iron plate armor and iron armor that were stronger than chain mail.
A sound similar to a recorder sounded, and the Persian knights who had already rode their horses slowly to about 80 paces to Yingchun Castle suddenly accelerated to about 40 paces.
There were almost fifty riders in this wave, and they shot all their arrows at the earthen wall where Chen Sanlang was.
It seems that they also know how powerful Chen Sanlang is and want to eliminate the sharpshooter on the opposite side in one fell swoop.
Chen Sanlang was unable to move and did not choose to fight back with a bow. He had fired five arrows just now and now he needed to save his energy.
Because in the Yingchun Fort where a large number of elites have gone to the front line, he is the only one with the ability to use a hard bow to break armor.
The others were all old men like their stepfather Wang Liu. They didn't have much problem with melee combat, but they were no longer very good at tasks that required explosive power such as firing a hard bow continuously.
Wang Liu howled, wearing armor and holding a shield, he rushed in front of Chen Sanlang.
The arrow rain rushed in like a swarm of bees, and arrows continued to pass through the gaps in the shield and hit them one after another.
The father and son felt a sharp pain in their bodies. The arrows fired from the horse's bow and arrows at thirty or forty paces were also boosted by the horse's speed. Although they could not break armor, they were quite powerful.
One wave, another wave, and another wave.
The rain of arrows kept pouring down, making Huang Huhu's Yingchun Fort's earthen wall seem to suddenly grow hair.
Wang Liu and Chen Sanlang, father and son, were like hedgehogs, with blood slowly seeping out of their bodies, but they were all fine.
While the father and son were being shot, three or four Persian cavalrymen who kept attacking the earth wall were also shot down. Then both parties wisely gave up this boring temptation.
The protection of the Han soldiers on the earth wall was sufficient, and at the same time, it was difficult for the Han soldiers to hit these high-speed Persian cavalry on the earth wall, so both sides chose to fight directly.
The battle instantly became fierce. The Persian knights jumped off their horses and gathered at the east gate wearing chainmail and holding round shields and scimitars.
Yingchun Castle is just a small castle, with only three to four hundred people living there. It cannot have a moat, nor can it have such things as rolling stones and hammers. The city gate is just a thicker door panel.
Hu Shang and others screamed and kept throwing down the bottles of fire oil, but there were not many bottles of fire oil. After burning two or three Persians to death, they ran out. Then he could only put on his armor and go to the city gate to block it with his body. Door.
Bang, bang! The thin wooden door could not withstand the blows of a large axe. The Persians finally opened the east gate after losing more than a dozen lives.
The moment the wooden door fell, both sides howled and rushed toward each other. Their spears and axes made dull sounds amidst the roars and screams.
The six-legged rat usually hunched over and swooped in, then began to stab at the Persians' unarmored calves with short knives.
The Persians were caught off guard by this armored rat, which was 1.58 meters tall and weighed 150 kilograms. They suffered a big loss immediately and were killed by Wang Liu alone, screaming in agony.
Many soldiers wearing chainmail were not knocked over by the spears from the opposite side, but they were stabbed in the calf by Wang Liu. They fell to the ground and were held down alive and stabbed to death.
Chen Sanlang also exhaled loudly on the earthen wall. He had already seen the dozen or so Persian Iktars wearing gorgeous iron armor. They were almost approaching the east gate.
"Auntie, I won't die here. I will live happily. I will live on behalf of you and my sister thousands of miles away. I will have food and wine every day!"
Chen Sanlang shouted loudly after praying, and raised his hands like eagles. Inhaling was to draw the bow, and exhaling was to shoot. The bowstring vibrated and crackled like thunderbolts.
An Iqta warrior had just rushed to the front when he suddenly felt like he was punched in the chest. He didn't care at all, and it wasn't like he had never been hit by an arrow before.
But after running two steps, he suddenly felt his body go limp. Before he could even scream, his vision went dark, and he fell straight to the ground.
Chen Sanlang used a powerful one-stone bow. At a distance of more than thirty steps, if it were not for two layers of cloth-covered iron armor, the winner would be killed immediately!
The other Ikta saw the comrade in front of him fall and couldn't help but look up at the earth wall. Then he felt a flash of silver light and his neck shook involuntarily.
An arrow pierced his neck and penetrated his neck for more than two inches.
Ikta screamed, threw away the force in his hand, knelt on the ground, and covered his neck with both hands.
Although he wanted to save himself, the power of life quickly disappeared with the rustling sound after the water pipe broke, until the last one was buried in the dust.
The battle was extremely fierce. Although Chen Sanlang was a master of shooting, after seven or eight arrows, he could only look at his sore arms and blame himself.
Wang Liu's fighting power is indeed strong, but they are nineteen people fighting against one hundred, fifty or sixty people.
After killing more than a dozen people on the opposite side, Wang Liu was almost knocked over by a Persian ax several times, or was pressed to the ground by the crowd coming up.
Outnumbered and outnumbered, these old soldiers were beaten back and forth.
Amid the screams, Salar kept staring at the hourglass in his hand. After half an hour of running through the hourglass, this resolute and cold-hearted officer from Damascus, who was also a fanatical god warrior, gave the order to retreat.
No matter how many people have been lost now, they cannot be surrounded because he has a valuable leading party in his hands.
As long as we can retreat, we can find ways to boost the morale of the leading party in a few days, and then sneak to Fort Zhenhu.
Hu Shang died. He was struck in the neck by a Persian axe. Although Dunxiang protected his flesh, the huge impact broke his cervical vertebrae, and the broken bones of his cervical vertebrae pierced his trachea. He struggled He lost his life in a short time.
At the same time, nine Han soldiers were killed in the battle, and almost all of the others were injured.
Almost two-thirds of the indigenous auxiliaries were killed in battle, either killed by the Persians or stabbed to death by Han soldiers when they tried to escape.
Wang Liu took a deep breath. One of his legs was broken. There was a dull pain in his chest. There must be something wrong with his ribs. Maybe they were about to break.
But when he saw the Persians starting to plan to retreat, the inexplicable madness and arrogance of the fifth-generation warrior suddenly rushed over his head.
"Leave? I want to see if you have the nerve to leave. You have killed so many of my colleagues and you still want to leave!"
Wang Liu shouted loudly, and the rest of the old soldiers from Qingzhou Pinglu Army and Yunzhou Tianping Army were in agreement.
They roared angrily, shoulder to shoulder, and walked forward slowly but firmly. They walked more than 20 steps outside the east gate, and formed a lonely but scornful formation.
"Come on! If you're a donkey, come here if you still have seed. If you don't have the guts, just drink up all this piss. Yeah, let you go!"
Wang Liu shouted insults at the retreating Persians two hundred steps away, and even untied his robe and actually peed on the ground.
"Hahahaha!" The old soldiers, whose average age was over forty, laughed wildly.
Salal's face was ashen, as if the urine had been poured directly on his face, and his anger completely defeated his reason at this moment.
The young Damascus nobleman slammed the crystal hourglass in his hand to the ground, then drew out his scimitar and pointed forward.
"Kill them, kill them all for the sake of Allah!"
Chen Sanlang's tears finally flowed out, because Wang Liu and the others were soon submerged in the dust brought by the Persian cavalry, and he didn't know how many people could survive.
He roared, and the pain in his arms seemed to be getting better all at once, and at the same time, his back straightened even more. He secretly swore in his heart that as long as he was around, even if only this section of the Yingchun Fort was left with its earthen wall, it would not fall.
At this moment, through his eyelashes that were wet with tears, Chen Sanlang suddenly noticed a touch of silver in the distance, shining in the sunlight.
Under that touch of silver, hundreds of war horses were running towards me at great speed!
(End of chapter)
