The weather was surprisingly good, the sky was clear and blue, without a trace of cloud, and the rising sun sprinkled golden light on the earth without hesitation, dazzling and hurting.
Under the rising sun, the main force of the Dou army, who was harassed by the tactics of the Sui army and gnashed their teeth, only left more than 10,000 auxiliary troops to guard the camp, and more than 80,000 armed troops were dispatched. The huge army stretches from the Yellow River in the north, to Sishui in the west, and to Queshan in the south. The ranks of the queues are five miles thick from east to west, and more than ten miles long from north to south.
After receiving the scout report, before Chen Sangliang gave an order, the generals of the Sui Army could not wait to assemble the participating teams to prepare for the battle. However, after carefully observing the weather conditions, the Sui Army coach Chen Sangliang ordered loudly, "Send the order and join the battle!" All the soldiers retreated to the barracks to rest, and each prepared a gourd of fresh salt water. There is no order from each army or school, and no one is allowed to assemble without authorization! Master Li Ke and Yin Kaishan's army, continue to guard the city strictly, and beware of the bandit army taking the opportunity to attack the city!"
All the generals of the Sui army who were ready to fight today looked at each other in dismay, and asked Chen Sangliang together: "Your Highness, why? Have you changed your mind and don't want to fight the Dou thief today?"
"Of course not." Chen Sangliang smiled and said, "Today's decisive battle will definitely be fought, but I saw today's weather and suddenly remembered an incident from the past, so I temporarily decided to postpone the decisive battle. "
After all, without waiting for the generals to ask Chen Sangliang what he remembered, Chen Sangliang turned to Guo Feng and the other four generals of the national army, and asked with a smile: "Guo Feng, Zhao Yu, seeing today's weather, don't you have any ideas?" Remember what happened?"
"What do you remember?"
Guo Feng, Zhao Yu and other generals of the Nationalist Army were at a loss. While trying to remember, Chen Ci came to his senses first, and blurted out: "Our first battle! Your Highness, you took us to the first battle of the Nationalist Army! At that time The weather is the same, the sun is very bright, and then suddenly there is a heavy rain!"
After being reminded by Chen Ci, the three generals Guo Feng, Zhao Yu and Yu Le also remembered, and they all echoed: "Yes! It was that time, and the weather was the same as now! I still remember, Your Highness, you begged Mr. Fan to stay behind Postpone the attack time, let us hide in the shade to rest, and let Yang Xuangan's rebel army bask outside the city for a long time, and then you take us out of the city to fight Yang's rebel army."
Hearing the introduction of the four generals of the Baoguo Army, the generals of the Sui Army came to their senses. Chen Sangliang also smiled and said: "Since the weather is so favorable for us, why should we rush out of the city to fight? Let the Dou thief army stand outside the city. After a few hours in the sun, they will be exhausted and sweaty, and then we will send troops to fight them decisively, won’t it be a big deal?”
All the generals of the Sui Army laughed and said yes, there is no need to rush out of the city for a decisive battle, but the serious Wang Fubao said suspiciously: "But Your Highness, we have already agreed with Dou Jiande for today's decisive battle? Dou Jiande has already dispatched troops as promised, but we have not moved. Didn't you lose your trust in the world?"
Hearing Wang Fubao's question, Chen Sangliang laughed again, in an incomparably obscene and treacherous way...
…
At the same time when Chen Sangliang was smiling lewdly and wickedly, Dou Jun's vanguard, who was advancing slowly to the sound of drums, also discovered a strange thing on a rock by the Sishui River - a large group of ants came out from there, unexpectedly Crawling on the rocks formed four big characters—beans into the cow's mouth!
Many people have never even heard of the strange thing about ants forming characters, so of course this spectacle has attracted the attention of countless generals and soldiers of the Dou Army. Afterwards, General Dou Jun who was present at the scene was at a loss for a while and did not understand what the sign was. However, General Dou Jun Fan Yuan, who was in charge of leading the former army, came to the scene. Ominous words when crossing the river at Niuzhukou. Shocked, Fan Yuan didn't dare to neglect, and hurriedly sent someone to report the matter in front of Dou Jiande.
As a bumpkin nouveau riche who has been impoverished for generations, Dou Jiande is as superstitious as he wants. He was shocked when he heard the news, and quickly got off the imperial chariot and flew to the scene to check the situation. When the big characters were formed by ants, Dou Jiande's face turned pale, and an ominous premonition suddenly rose in his heart, and he couldn't help asking to the left and right: "What is this sign? Have you heard about the ants crawling into characters before?" ever said?"
Most of the generals of Dou Jun who were illiterate shook their heads, but Liu Bin, Dou Jiande's trusted adviser, said: "I have heard about it. I heard that when Chen Yingliang's traitor and Yang Xuangan fought in the Hongnong decisive battle, such a strange thing happened before the battle. Ants crawled into I added the words 'Yang Xuangan died in Hongnong', then..., then..., Yang Xuangan just..., just...."
Hesitating to this point, Liu Bin did not dare to continue talking no matter what, but the faces of Dou Jun's generals still changed color, and their hearts were terrified, and Dou Jiande's dark face was also full of surprise and confusion , I was extremely anxious. After a long time, Dou Jiande forced a smile and said: "It's okay, this place is no longer called Niukou. I have already changed the name of this ferry to Fakou. Besides, my surname is Dou, and Dou is just Bean sounds the same, but the meaning is completely different. So it’s okay, it’s okay.”
After all, Dou Jiande laughed heartily, but every civil and military official of Dou Jun present could hear that there was no smile in Dou Jiande's laughter, it was a forced laugh. Then, although Dou Jiande ordered these damn ants to be set on fire, it was strictly prohibited to spread and talk about it. However, the four extremely unlucky words of "beans into the mouth of the cow" were gradually spread among Dou Jun soldiers through word of mouth, and directly affected the morale of Dou Jun's main force, which was not very high. .
In front of Dou Jiande, there is not only the problem of ants forming characters, but another problem is that the Sui army who took the initiative to make an appointment with the Eastern Expedition has not made any movement. At the beginning of time, the east gate of Hulao Pass was still motionless, and not a single Sui soldier came out. Dou Jiande felt strange, so he simply sent an envoy with a white flag to shout at the Hulaoguan city, asking why Chen Sangliang didn't keep his word, and still hasn't come out of the city to fight Dou Jun
It was Chen Sangliang's cousin Li Keshi who came forward to answer Dou Jun's emissary, and said loudly, "Go back and tell Dou Jiande what's his hurry? We agreed with him to fight at the end of the day today, and it's only the beginning of the hour." , it's still early before the decisive battle, our army is still preparing, and we can't leave the city yet!"
"Is it agreed to fight in the future?"
Dou Jun's envoy was puzzled, and hurried back to Dou Jiande's imperial chariot to report the situation. Dou Jiande was also confused when he heard it, so he quickly sent someone back to the camp to fetch Chen Sangliang's letter of credence, and finally took a closer look. When it came to the content of the letter, Dou Jiande was even more confused when he discovered that Chen Sangliang had only made an appointment for a decisive battle today in the letter of credence, and did not agree on a specific time. After carefully recalling that Chen Sangliang's envoy Zhang Yongtong did not say the specific time of the battle, Dou Jiande quickly sent another envoy to the city to negotiate with the Sui army and question the specific reasons.
Zhang Yongtong was pushed out as a scapegoat. On the city wall, Zhang Yongtong frankly admitted that he forgot to explain the exact time of today's decisive battle with Dou Jiande, and apologized to the Dou Jun envoy. Public whipping at the top of the city - of course, Zhang Yongtong's clothes must be covered with a leather cushion. Dou Jun's envoy had no choice but to fly back to Dou Jiande and report the specific situation to Dou Jiande.
After receiving such an answer, Dou Jiande and all the civil and military personnel of Dou Jun were of course all furious and yelling at each other, and some civil and military officials of Dou Jun also took the opportunity to persuade Dou Jiande to withdraw, but Dou Jiande refused to comply, and shouted: "There will be no time before the time is too late!" Time, there is not much time anyway! Order the whole army to stay where they are, and wait until the thief Chen sends troops, and then we will fight him to the death!"
After the decree was conveyed, the generals and soldiers of the Dou army, who had gradually become unbearably exposed to the sun, were of course complaining, but they did not dare to resist the order, so they could only continue to stand under the scorching sun and suffer from the sun exposure, while Dou Jiande sat high under the imperial cover With his eyes closed, he waited patiently for the time for the decisive battle. Because he hadn't slept all night the first night, Dou Jiande quickly dozed off and fell asleep. It is also slowly declining. Several Dou Jun officials next to him also planned to remind Dou Jiande of this point, but seeing that Dou Jiande was already fast asleep, none of them dared to wake up Dou Jiande, who became more and more tempered after proclaiming himself emperor.
The time was difficult for the generals of the Dou army under the scorching sun, but for the generals of the Sui army hiding in the shade of the barracks, it passed quickly. It was already noon in one turn, and Chen Sangliang, who kept his promise, ordered all The soldiers of the army received their lunch and let the soldiers eat and drink enough, and the preparations for the battle were completed before 2:00 noon. At the same time, Chen Sangliang also arranged the order of going out of the city early, ordering Wang Fubao to lead the infantry to lead the way, cover the artillery team led by Qian Xiangmin and serve as the vanguard, and Chen Sangliang unexpectedly arranged for the national army to be in the second team , the third team is Qin Qiong's three thousand cavalry, Yuchi Jingde, Luo Shixin, Shi Wanbao and He Yanyu will lead the main force to leave the city finally.
At 2:00 noon, the main force of the Sui army with a number of about 25,000 was assembled, and Chen Sangliang ordered the generals to be summoned in front of the Baoguo army for the final pre-war mobilization. All the generals of the Sui army arrived quickly, but Chen Sangliang did not hurry to give a lecture, but suddenly shouted to the Nationalist Army team: "In the ninth year of Daye, all the soldiers of the Nationalist Army who participated in the Hongnong War came out! "
"promise!"
There were very few replies, and it was only when all the soldiers of the Patriotic Army who had been ordered to come out that the generals and soldiers of the Sui Army were surprised to find that the more than 800 veterans of the Patriotic Army who had participated in the Hongnong War eight years ago, including Including Guo Feng, Chen Ci and other four lieutenants, there are only twenty-three people left!
"Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three..." Chen Sangliang counted the number loudly, and when he counted to twenty-three, tears welled up in Chen Sangliang's eyes, and he said in a choked voice: "Twenty-three, more than eight hundred brothers, only twenty-three of you are left alive today."
Speaking of this, Chen Sangliang suddenly knelt down to the twenty-three soldiers of the Nationalist Army, and said loudly: "Brothers, I am sorry for you! Eight years ago, I told you in Hongnong City that after defeating Yang Xuangan , you can go home and reunite with your family, but almost eight years have passed, and you still have to fight with me, fight south and north, suffer from the military, and rarely get together with your wives and children! I broke my promise I'm sorry for you! Don't blame me!"
Speaking loudly, tears flowed from Chen Sangliang's eyes, and the twenty-three veterans who served the national army had already paid back their salutes to Chen Sangliang. Hearing Chen Sangliang's sincere words, Guo Feng, Chen Ci and others couldn't bear it. All of them burst into tears, desperately kowtowed to Chen Sangliang in return, crying and said: "Your Highness, the last general dare not wait, dare not."
Chen Sangliang stood up, helped the twenty-three old people up one by one with tears in his eyes, and then walked to the other soldiers of the National Defense Army. , Brothers of the Baoguo Army that I formed with my own hands, you may or may not have heard of it. Eight years ago, when I led the Baoguo Army and Yang Xuangan in a decisive battle, I once recited a poem. Return at eighty. After I finished reading this poem, I told the soldiers of the Patriotic Army at that time that after the battle, I could let them go home and reunite with their families, but I never did it.”
"It's not that I don't want to keep my promise. It's not that I want to disappoint my old brothers. It's because of this troubled world! After fighting Yang Xuangan, I beat Goguryeo. Wang Shichong, now come to fight Dou Jiande again! One battle after another, there is no time to rest at all, and I have never dared to let you, my most trusted and most dependent soldiers, leave my side, so your return home is the only time It has always been far away, and there will never be an end in sight!"
"But!" Chen Sangliang stopped in his tracks, and stood in the crowd of soldiers serving the country and said loudly: "I can tell you today that the time for you to go home and reunite with your parents, wives and children is just around the corner! For today's battle, we only need Destroy the main force of the Dou bandits in one fell swoop, capture and kill the leader of the bandits Dou Jiande, and you can go home!"
"Because among the thieves in the world, Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande are the two biggest thieves. Now Wang Shichong has been surrounded by us, and his complete destruction will only happen sooner or later! Dou Jiande is looking for a dead end and personally brought his whole army to this tiger prison. We are looking for a dead end outside the customs. As long as we destroy Dou Jiande, we can free up our hands to eradicate Wang Shichong with all our strength! After killing these two thieves, it is only a matter of time before this chaotic world ends, and you don’t have to tie your heads to your belt anymore Go to the front line, you can go home and enjoy the family happiness with your parents and family, and enjoy the pastoral happiness!"
"However, if we can't eradicate the main force of the Dou thief today, we can't kill the thief Dou Jiande in one fell swoop! Let this thief escape back to the lair..." Chen Sangliang raised his voice again, and shouted: "Then, we don't know How many battles will we have to fight? I don’t know how much time it will take to eradicate this culprit and end this troubled world! Our future destiny is already in our hands. The hope of returning home early, the hope of ending this troubled world early!"
"Defeat the thief army! Capture and kill the sinus thief!"
Guo Feng and Chen Ci, who were familiar with Chen Sangliang's methods, and the four lieutenants of the Nationalist Army shouted in unison, leading more than a thousand soldiers of the Nationalist Army to shout together, "Break the bandit army! Capture and kill Dou bandit! Break the bandit army! Capture and kill the sinus thief!"
After the soldiers of the Nationalist Army repeatedly chanted this slogan many times and stopped by themselves, Chen Sangliang spoke again and said: "According to the usual practice, we should sing the military song next. Before singing the military song this time, there is something I have to tell you something. In fact, like you, after receiving the news of the death of the late emperor, I was also confused. His Majesty the emperor is no longer here. What country should we serve? To whom will we be loyal? This question has troubled Been with me for a long time."
"Later, I figured it out!" Chen Sangliang raised his voice again, and shouted: "The object of our allegiance is the country! It is the land where we were born and raised! It is the people of this country! It is this country It provides us with the environment to be born and grow up. It is the food and vegetables that grow on the land of China to raise us up. It is the people in this country who work hard and provide us with food and clothing! Without this country, there would be no This land, without these hard-working people, would not have us! Therefore, we must first repay our loyalty to this country, this land, and the people of Li who worked so hard to support us! You think, don’t you?!”
"Yes!" More than a thousand soldiers of the Nationalist Army replied in unison, their voices were like thunder.
"Very good!" Chen Sangliang nodded in satisfaction, and said loudly: "Soldiers, soldiers who serve the national army, the time has come to repay this country, this land and the common people! Sing our army song! Sing our army song! Go out of the city to defeat the enemies outside the city, capture and kill Dou Jiande, the chief culprit who tried to perpetuate this cruel and chaotic world! Serve the country faithfully! End this chaotic world in one fell swoop! End this bloody chaotic world!"
"Wolf smoke rises from the mountains and rivers and looks north
The dragon rolls up, the horse neighs, the sword is like frost
The heart is like the water of the Yellow River
Who can resist in thousands of years
How many loyal brothers and sisters have their bones buried in foreign lands..."
Driven by Chen Sangliang himself, the soldiers of the Baoguo Army once again sang the long-lost military song. It was also in this loud and clear military song that Chen Sangliang issued a combat order and told the generals of the Sui Army: "This The tactics of the First World War are very simple. After the whole army leaves the city, first bombard the enemy’s front with artillery. The artillery only needs to fire three rounds to frighten the enemy’s heart. Then, Wang Fubao, you directly jump through the Sishui and attack the front of the bandit army, completely disrupting the bandit army’s defensive positions. , to open the way forward for the Nationalist Army and the cavalry. I personally lead the Nationalist Army, Qin Qiong, you lead the cavalry, and directly attack Dou Jiande's flag formation one after the other! Yuchi Jingde and Luo Shixin followed with the infantry, and marched in four directions. No formation, no reserve team, go forward with all your strength!"
"promise!"
The generals of the Sui Army sang promises in unison, and Mulan asked to accompany Chen Sangliang, Chen Sangliang nodded in agreement, and then carefully noticed that Mulan's eyes were red, obviously she had just cried, and Chen Sangliang let the generals disperse Opening the opportunity to return to the team, he whispered to Mulan: "Girl, after this battle is over and Wang Shichong has been eradicated, let me give you a home, okay?"
Mulan wanted to nod subconsciously, but turned her face away halfway through the nod, and hummed, "We'll talk about it later."
Chen Sangliang smiled, seeing that the generals had quickly returned to the team, he ordered: "Send the order, open the city gate, and the whole army will leave the city!"