"Spartacus, Spartacus..." I muttered to myself. Although this last name sounds strange, it is very powerful.
"Brother Wendong, Ziyu, ... Spartacus, where are you discussing military intelligence? Take me there quickly to discuss something with you." Thinking that I still had to do the business, after muttering the name of this alien, I also got down to business.
In the tower at the north gate, it was no longer the time to keep it secret from them, but I asked Ziyu to send Spartacus away for a while. I was still not very confident about this person who I just discovered had a pair of blue eyes.
"Brother Wendong, who is he and how come he is under your command? Most importantly, is he reliable?" I did not shy away from expressing my doubts. At a time when a great war was approaching, the presence of such a person in our army would make any commander happy.
"I think it's very reliable." Chen Liang nodded confidently.
"That's fine."
"Zirui, don't you want to at least check and ask about his background? Is it enough for you to just rely on my words?" Obviously, my relaxation made him uneasy.
"There is no time. The thief Dong can arrive at any time. And with your vision and knowledge, you think he is reliable, so there should be no problem with him. Let someone gather all our main generals." At this time of recruiting people, it is extremely important to have one more capable and battle-hardened general.
"Do you have any other opinions?" I asked after I arranged everything for them. Except for my sister who already knew the plan and remained calm, everyone else was whispering.
"Will it succeed?" Brother Wen Zheng was not very sure, his face was full of worry. Hu Yujun held his hand with concern, and he also felt this concern, turned his face, and then I saw her face blushed.
"Well, can you two please be a little more careful? I can't stand it anymore." Li Zhen was sitting next to them.
"Then just close your eyes." Hu Yujun's serious words dispelled everyone's nervousness.
I smiled, "It can be successful, but we have to win a few battles, otherwise Dong Zhuo will be so angry that he won't listen to any counsellors and will do everything he can to kill us." I thought the sentence was too long, and I looked at the two foreigners present. Spartacus actually understood and nodded with a smile. But my sister-in-law seemed to have a hard time. She looked at Brother Wen Zheng with a questioning and inquiring look, and Brother Wen Zheng slowly explained to her by putting her ear close to his until she nodded.
The sound of someone hurriedly coming up the stairs interrupted everyone's discussion. All the main generals were here, so there was only one kind of person who could come up: the messenger. And he came up for one reason: Dong Zhuo was coming soon.
"General, Dong Zhuo's army offered sacrifices to the heavens in Tianshui two days ago..." I interrupted him.
"When will it arrive?" This is what I am most concerned about. As for whether Dong Zhuo took the meat while distributing the sacrificial meat, I don't know and I don't care. I even gritted my teeth as I thought about it.
"The vanguard camp will probably arrive tomorrow morning, and the main army will arrive the day after that."
"Tomorrow morning, go out of the city to meet the enemy and give his vanguard battalion a hard time first." This is my final order.
"Thank you, big brother!" Fortunately, I am not Li Zhen, otherwise I will be annoyed to death by this devilish girl one day. But this time, it seems that she came to say hello with good intentions.
"What do you want to see me about?" Everything is best done with the heart.
"I haven't seen Brother Peigang since he arrived in Chencang, and he wasn't among the people you assigned just now. What was he doing?"
"Li Zhen, Li Zhen, where did you go?" Zhou Yu couldn't possibly notice so many details, there must be someone behind the scenes. "If you want to ask, come out now?"
"Zirui, why are you looking for me?" Li Zhen pretended very well, but I believed that someone would expose the secret for him. At this time, I am always lucky.
"I didn't betray you. He already knows everything." I patted Li Zhen who was bowing his head and comforted him with sympathy. It was hard to imagine that the handsome, suave, and talented Li Zhen would end up marrying such a brainless woman whose body structure was not good. Of course, time would change her structure, but I guess her brain would remain empty forever.
It's not dark yet. Before dinner, I want to take a closer look at the city. It's almost the beginning of summer, but the road is still icy. The weather this year is really bad. After the snow, I'm afraid Jingzhou can only grow buckwheat. There will be a harvest in autumn. No, if it rains so much during the plum rain, there will be no buckwheat. We are doomed to have a poor harvest this year. Usually, disasters are easy to happen in years. The Yellow Turban Rebellion was caused by a severe drought the year before. This spring, we fought Dong Zhuo. After autumn, I don't know who we will fight next time when spring begins next year.
The walls of Hanzhong were fairly solid, but the city was in a state of disrepair, with ruins everywhere. I didn't see many civilians, only the army moving around constantly. I've heard the reason for this. Last year, there was a Yellow Turban faction here, and Han Sui from Liangzhou attacked. The battle was extremely fierce, and the city gates had been opened. The battle turned into street fighting, and finally Han Sui was defeated and dismissed. As a result, Dong Zhuo got an advantage. When he came again, the entire Hanzhong didn't even have enough soldiers on the city walls. Dong Zhuo slaughtered all the Yellow Turban soldiers, and felt that the number of heads was not enough to win great merit, so he slaughtered the city that night and reported the heads of all the people in the city to win credit. In addition, he repeated the same trick in Nanyang a month later, and then he became a duke together with his teacher.
Today's sun has finally set, and when it rises tomorrow, the area outside Hanzhong City will once again become a killing field.
Dinner was very simple, and no one talked much. Everyone wanted to eat and rest early. My sister and I only had a few words. I asked my sister to be in charge of dispatching and commanding the rear on the tower tomorrow morning. My heart was flying; my sister agreed and asked me to rest early. I nodded. In addition, Zhou Yu gave Li Zhen an elbow, and I didn't know why.
After dinner, Hu Yujun felt a headache. The master's wife looked at her face, asked her if she slept well last night, and then took her pulse. She laughed, then pulled the beautiful barbarian woman's feet and touched the soles of her feet with her hands.
"My feet are frozen."
"Master's wife, Yu Jun has a headache, not a foot pain." Brother Wen Zheng was very surprised, and I think almost everyone else present was also surprised. Everyone was very happy to come together to see Master's wife's treatment. However, it is unknown whether Brother Wen Zheng was satisfied. Master's wife did not ask anyone to take her medicine box. From her sleeve, she took out a bag with several needles arranged side by side. Master's wife also picked up some leaves at random, twisted them into a ball, and roasted them under the lamp. Then she took them out and said to the young woman with a frightened face: "It doesn't hurt, it's hot, and it will be healed soon." The young woman nodded. Master's wife's hand quickly left the barbarian woman's foot, leaving two silver needles and the smoking medicine leaf ball attached to the sole of the foot and the Valkyrie with a stiff face and neck. Then I asked Brother Wen Zheng: "Jiang Zheng, what did you do in the car these days?" Brother Wen Zheng was embarrassed, but everyone heard the signs and started to make noises. However, my sister quickly pulled my hair and I was pulled away from the noise. Li Zhen just stopped making noises and looked back at Zhou Yu. The others saw that the noises suddenly became less frequent and quickly shut up. "Did you help Yu Jun cover her feet in the car?" Jiang Zheng was shocked. He nodded repeatedly. "I did." After that, the master's wife pulled out the needle, "It's fine now." Sister-in-law nodded and hurriedly nodded. The master's wife was not interrupted by everyone's exclamation, and continued to talk to the couple: "The Yongquan point in the center of the foot is the beginning of the six meridians. Among these six meridians, three meridians converge in the liver, spleen and stomach in the abdomen, and another six meridians converge in the Lingtai Baihui point on the head, and another three meridians begin in the liver, spleen and stomach. Jiang Zheng covered Yu Jun's feet with good intentions, but it made Yu Jun's feet hot and cold, and the blood and qi flowed poorly. In the past few days, the six meridians in the feet have been stagnant and become sick. At dinner today, because the blood and qi flowed freely in the abdomen, the diseases of the liver, spleen and stomach meridians were affected by the blood and qi flow. The three meridians are transmitted to Lingtai Baihui, and these two points are the most sensitive, so Yujun has a headache. I am now moxibustioning the Yongquan point with silver needles and moxa leaves to disperse the stagnation. Since there is no source of disease, there is no pain. Fortunately, Yujun is in good health and will be fine after a good sleep. However, Jiang Zheng, this place is located in the northwest, and it is the season of melting snow. It is better to make a pair of boots for her. If she is not used to it, she can change it when she goes back. "I felt that the master's wife was trying to make it as simple as possible, but I was still confused. It seems that not many people understood it. For example, Brother Wen Zheng, the straightforward one, just pretended to understand, or he just understood to make a pair of boots for his sister-in-law.
After dinner, I invited Brother Chen Liang to go on an inspection tour with me. I no longer blame him for pretending to be a Yellow Turban and looting, because if it weren't for him, Jingzhou would never be like this today. And compared with Dong Zhuo, what Brother Chen Liang did is completely understandable. And the most important thing is that Brother Chen Liang protected most of the people, while Dong Zhuo slaughtered most of them. However, we didn't talk about that incident in order to avoid being upset.
"How did that Denspartacus become your general?" I just asked casually, and I happened to have nothing to do along the way. There were shabby scenes everywhere. The city was no different from what I saw at the north city. Many soldiers had to set up tents where the houses were originally, but there was an extra wall to help block the northwest wind that started to blow at night. There was an extremely majestic mountain range to the west of Hanzhong, and a vast mountain forest not far from the city to the east. It went straight from the northwest to Jingzhou in the southeast. Hanzhong City was at a pass, or it could be said to be a wind outlet. Fortunately, we were not camping in the wild, and the ruins in the city could shield us from the abnormal cold wind at the end of spring.
"Let's find him and talk to him. Tomorrow we will use infantry to defeat the cavalry, and we will also need his clansmen. We can go and discuss some details with him. In addition, you are interested in all kinds of strange things, so it would be nice to let him tell you stories about his family later." Brother Chen Liang said to me with a smile.
"He has a way to defeat cavalry with infantry?" This is the first time I've heard of infantry defeating cavalry. "Really?"
"You'll know tomorrow." Brother Chen followed my lead and kept the secret. "Tomorrow morning, put the people who are going to climb the mountain in the front, and the others will wait in the back to kill the cavalry."
"It's too easy, this..." I knew he was determined not to tell me, and there was no way I could know it. Well, it was because I kept it back, and I deserved it. I smiled and didn't ask any more questions.
"We're here, get off your horses, don't step on the sleeping people." Brother Chen told me in a low voice, and I realized that there were many people sleeping on this street of the southern city wall. We got off our horses together, tied the horses, and walked forward carefully. Fortunately, although there was no firelight here, it was sunny tonight and it was almost mid-moon, so the moonlight was enough for me to see clearly and not step on people in the next step. We walked slowly like this for about an incense stick of time, and suddenly the view in front of us became wider and noisy, with people everywhere chatting and laughing around the fire to keep warm. After dinner, we often gathered together to compose poems and sing songs for entertainment. Brother Wen Zheng told us that people in Yujun Mountain Village danced around the fire, and the master also went with us to the Lingnan area, where they sang across the river under the moon. The habits of the Spartacus tribe seemed to be different from everyone else. They stood in a circle and watched the middlemen fight!
Brother Chen Liang was not urging me to look around with great interest. I walked to the center of the square. In front of a big tent, there were two people fighting. One of them was Deng, and the other was a tall and strong bald man. The two were hitting each other with wooden sticks and round shields. Deng, who was facing us, suddenly noticed us, stopped, and stood up. The man swung his right stick and was about to hit, but suddenly found that Deng was not right, so he stopped abruptly and looked back at us. At this time, Deng suddenly took action, took a quick step forward, and gently hit the tall young man on the neck with the wooden stick. Peacefully: "I won."
"You are cheating." The tall man was not convinced, but he could do nothing about it. Deng patted his shoulder and hugged him in a friendly way, which made the tall man laugh again. He then invited us into the big tent.
"You just won by being cunning." I had to say this first.
"I noticed you guys. I guess you have something to do with me, but it's light. That big guy you saw, my good brother, is about the same age as me. It will be difficult to defeat him in a short time, so I came up with this idea. According to the rules, you can't be distracted during a fight. But it can only be my brother, and he will be fooled because he is afraid that I will be seriously injured. He is still a Spartan, and he deserves to lose. You have to be cunning in a fight." He said it very relaxedly, but I had to re-evaluate this blue-eyed and high-nosed man. In such a tense situation, he could still think about such a complicated problem.
"How did you get here, Brother Chen?"
"We live in that mountain." Spartacus pointed to the west. "Four days ago, a general came to us with a few guards."
"Chen Ou." Chen Liang explained, "Let me take over. Five days ago, we occupied Hanzhong. This place was almost an empty city. The local officials couldn't stand the hardship and had long since fled. The next day, I sent Chen Ou to survey the terrain at the western foot of the Qilian Mountains. I encountered this large tribe of theirs in that hidden valley. Because you know what kind of person Dong Zhuo is, he found their leader, Deng, and asked him to take the tribe to a place farther away in the mountains for refuge. There was going to be a big battle in the Hanzhong area, so he was relieved."
Deng took over the conversation again, "I am very grateful to him, but we just settled there last winter. We are reluctant to leave again, but I am still worried, so I sent people to inquire around. If this is true, we have also heard a lot about the evil deeds done by Dong Zhuo who came this time. If Hanzhong is occupied by this man, we will no longer have a place to live in peace. Therefore, we are willing to help the general defend the city with our entire family."
"After Chen Ou came back, he told me about this, but I didn't take it seriously at the time. Most of the other villages we notified had already taken refuge in the mountains. I didn't expect that they would come with their entire tribe two days ago, and I also found that they were very good at infantry combat, which really made us overjoyed. So I recruited him as a general to help us resist the Dong bandit."
That night, we talked for a long time about the details of how to fight against the Dong bandits. I didn't have time to ask about the origins of their clan. I just asked before leaving whether they could bear to live on the street like this. His answer surprised us, "Except for the elderly and children, all those who can fight, all live outside, including me. If you can't even bear this hardship, how can you fight?"
He came out of the tent and pointed to a nearby mat. He slept there. When we left the square, he asked Qing to lie down next to him to make room for him. Qing was obviously asleep, and after being woken up, he moved away with a reluctant grumble.
I couldn't sleep in the tent and woke up many times. I often woke up suddenly when I fell asleep. The whole Hanzhong was like a military camp. There were no night watchmen, only patrolmen constantly patrolling back and forth. The sound of armor colliding made me feel a little panic and uneasy. Before dawn, I couldn't sleep again. I got up and went to the tower of the north city. I asked someone to light a lamp for me, and I looked at the map alone inside, asking to inform me as soon as possible if there was any news. My sister and I planned this plan many times, and I talked with Chen Liang and Deng all night. It should be very detailed, but I still unconsciously began to consider whether there were any flaws.
At the fourth watch, the scouts reported that Dong Zhuo's vanguard troops, about 50,000 in number, had set out at the third watch and were about 120 miles away from us. All of them were Xiliang cavalry. In order to avoid the danger of traveling at night, the troops did not advance at full speed and arrived at the city at about noon. It was just as Chen Liang said. Although the Xiliang Dong Zhuo army was abusive, the army was well disciplined and the laws were strict. The generals under his command were good at using troops. If we attack the camp, it would be almost impossible to succeed. It would be more cost-effective to let them be cautious for one night and let us rest and gather our strength for one night.
"The signal will sound at three quarters past three in the morning." I made the final assembly time.
On March 12, the second year of Zhongping, at 1:00 a.m., I watched Chen Liang command the troops to take their positions outside the city. My sister on the city wall also kept raising various flags to command the troops to move from one place to another. At one time, various trumpets sounded, and everyone was very excited. It was the first time to fight a real battle. Although they were nervous, they felt relieved when they saw so many of us. The soldiers were much calmer than us. They seemed to have seen this kind of scene many times. We arranged about 100,000 troops under the city, and the other tens of thousands of people went to the designated places to arrange themselves according to the plan. The first in line were about 5,000 people from Spartacus' clan. Their armor was very different from ours. We were mainly black and brown, but they were red. Everyone was unified. All young and middle-aged men were braided together, wearing masks and no helmets. They held a very huge square shield almost as tall as a person in their left hand, which made everyone stunned. They held an iron spear about 12 feet long in their right hand, and each of them had a short sword about two feet long on their waist. There are leather arm guards and shoulder guards from the right arm to the neck, iron breastplates on the left, and iron greaves on the toes. The rest are no longer armored. There are 3,500 people in this lineup, and 1,500 of them are female soldiers. They wear slightly more armor, hold a short sword, and all shields are round shields, which are much larger than those of male soldiers. Wearing helmets, no masks. This makes Chen Ou happy. He pretends to inspect and shuttle back and forth in the team. I know that some people also want to watch, including me, but I am the commander, so it seems not good. Li Zhen has a... Jiang Zheng... So, he can only go alone. However, after Brother Wendong finished organizing the team, he called him back and scolded him, which made everyone cheer in their hearts. Brother Wendong ran to the front of the formation, ran again, and turned back to greet me. I also returned the greeting. Thanks to people like Brother Chen in the formation, so that so many people can form a formation so quickly in such a completely unfamiliar place.
"It's more pleasing to the eyes," I almost fell off my horse when I heard the middle-aged Chen brother say, "We should also have female soldiers, like their tribe. This way our combat effectiveness may be improved." He said to me almost mischievously, and this was the first time I saw him smile like this. It was time to go to war, so I had to act serious. I smiled at him and turned my face away.
"Brother Wen Zheng, why are you here?" I transferred Jiang Zheng here because Hu Yujunting is a fierce general. I can't let my sister-in-law come here alone. Although Brother Zheng is not a nerd who can't do anything, he is definitely just a scholar and a strategist. "You are not in the city, or sitting in the chariot behind, why did you ride here? You also brought a sword. You also wore a black armor. Oh, and it's the same as my sister-in-law's."
"What are you looking at? What are you looking at? You don't want to live anymore, what?" This guy is really energetic, even his delicate face doesn't show any murderous intent. "You haven't seen it, this is called husband and wife military uniforms, very new. Natives! My wife is fighting in front, how can I not come?"
Even at a distance, Zhou Yu was chattering and annoying Li Zhen. Deng and Qing came from behind on horseback. They were dressed the same as the rest of their tribe. Deng was still the same, but after putting on this outfit, he showed his leadership and heroic spirit. Qing was not bald, but his hair was very short. He was very strong, with a neck as thick as his head. He looked similar to the people in the Central Plains, but his face was angular, which should be very different from the so-called handsome young men we talked about. However, I still looked back at Zhou Yu. It seemed that these two people were the type that girls liked.
They greeted us, dismounted, put on masks, and stood in their front row.
Suddenly, there was a sharp whistle in front of us, like the groan of a wounded bird. A knight in black armor appeared on a hillside in the distance. He looked at us. Although he was far away, I felt that he was watching us. The whole battlefield was silent. Everyone was looking at the black-armored man. He was carried by the fierce horse on the slope and turned around a few times, but I still felt that he was watching us. Suddenly, he raised his weapon. A moment later, with a roar, a dark cloud quickly swept over from the hillside!