The front line is not what I imagined, and it is different from the expedition to the Southern Han Kingdom. It is very hard and boring here.
The army of Yu Liang and another nearby army had a total of about 200 people stationed in a fortress north of Jinzhou, which was numbered Jinliu.
They came wearing clean and tidy clothes and armor, and at first they did hard labor to build various fortifications. Of course, they did not wear armor, and their military uniforms soon became dirty and torn. Working every day, everyone almost forgot whether they came to fight or to do corvée labor.
It was the first winter snow in Jinzhou. The weather was getting colder. It was not far from the east coast and the sea breeze was strong. Yu Liang wore linen gloves, but he could not stand the cold wind. His hands and face were cracked and they hurt a little when the wind blew.
The days were short and the nights were long, so everyone finished work early. The night watchmen had a harder time, but fortunately Yu Liang was not the officer on duty tonight.
Even Zhang Dadu grumbled: Even in our remote countryside, we don't work when it snows in winter. Fortunately, we have enough food here.
There were a dozen low houses in the middle of the camp, short and solid, with rammed earth walls and thick wooden boards covered with felt. Not far away there was an earthen tower, on which stood two men wrapped in furs, warming themselves by a fire.
Living in this kind of house seems to be much better than living in a tent, but more than 30 people sleeping in one house is really too much work to build fortifications.
After Yu Liang and his thirty men finished their meal, they all retreated into the low house. Most of them went straight to the kang, which was warm. This was the first time they had seen such a kang. It was said that it was specially designed by the government out of consideration for the soldiers. Coal was burned under the house, so the whole kang was warm.
Some people wiped their bodies behind the curtain. No matter how much work they did, taking a bath was a very troublesome thing. There were too many people and the place was too small. They just boiled some water and wiped themselves with a towel.
The house was dimly lit and filled with a complex smell of smelly feet, sweat, and farts.
Yu Liang took out a copy of In Search of the Gods from the package and flipped through it with boredom. It was a casual book, but he had read it all. The bustling and comfortable Tokyo appeared in his mind, as if he heard a beautiful woman's sweet little song.
Zhang San, who was not far away, stretched his neck and looked at Yu Liang in worship.
At this moment, someone whispered: What does it feel like to touch breasts
Immediately, someone responded and started talking, occasionally making a sound of laughter. Zhang San stared and listened attentively. He heard another voice saying: This time when I go back, I must go to Zuihonglou to have a taste.
Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard a voice outside the door saying: Li Dutou has arrived.
Everyone immediately stopped laughing, stood up from the kang, and hurried to put on their clothes. A young and strong man who looked about the same age as Yu Liang opened the thick leather curtain and walked in. He behaved completely differently from when he was visiting prostitutes. He had a sullen face, which made everyone a little scared.
All the soldiers stood facing Captain Li. Yu Liang led everyone to clasp their fists and salute, and said together: "Greetings, Captain Li."
Li Dutou nodded and said: The herald army has issued a report that the main force of the Liao army has arrived in Youzhou. Starting tomorrow, Jinliu Fort will begin preparations for war. After he said that, he turned his head and looked at a civil servant, asking him to confirm, "Wang Siwu, is the herald army's report like this?"
The civil servant said: What Captain Li said is absolutely correct.
Li Dutou said: "In addition, tomorrow morning's drill will be cancelled. Everyone should take a bath and change into clean linings. The superiors said that this will prevent injuries from festering and will help you survive." At night, the soldiers of the two cities will take turns not to take off their armor.
After saying this, Li Dutou turned and left.
The barracks were quiet for a while, but soon everyone started to shout excitedly. People seemed to be tired of working every day these days, and instead looked forward to the war. The battlefield of Southern Han was the one. Once the war started, they could get rewards and go home after the battle.
These days were obviously not so boring. There were often cavalrymen coming in and out of the fortress. Sometimes we heard that the scouts had a conflict and died, and sometimes we heard that the Liao army was coming from somewhere. But it was just hearsay. No one had ever seen even a single Liao army cavalryman.
The sky and the earth gradually darkened. Yu Liang carried a bucket of water and slowly climbed up the earthen wall, which was more than one meter high. There were densely rammed wooden stakes on the wall, which were pointed. He poured water along the outside of the stakes onto the outer wall, and by the evening, a layer of hard thin ice would form. Some soldiers were also pouring water nearby.
Yu Liang looked back and saw several of his men waiting to draw water by the well, so he stretched his body and looked into the distance. The endless wilderness seemed like a wasteland in winter, and the houses of the village could be seen faintly. There seemed to be nothing around, so he turned his head to the right and saw a standing mound of earth not far away, and two wooden frame-like towers, which were sentry towers in a nearby fortress.
Another day passed like this.
At night, according to the rotation order, Yu Liang and others were not allowed to take off their armor and lay down on the bed to sleep. The plate armor on their bodies was uneven and the bed was hard, so it was not very comfortable to lie there for a long time, but they still fell asleep in a daze.
After an unknown amount of time, Yu Liang was suddenly awakened by a loud scream, and then he heard the sound of gongs and drums. He was startled and sat up abruptly, his mind still confused as to what had happened.
At this time, a soldier banged open the wooden door, ran in and shouted: The enemy is attacking the camp, hurry up, everyone quickly climb the wall and find your position!
Yu Liang gradually came to his senses, and he got up and shouted: "Hurry up, take your weapons and stand still!"
He quickly grabbed a sword from the bedside and hung it on his waist, then picked up the crossbow and quiver. The more than 30 people in the house suddenly became noisy, and there were even more shouts outside.
Everyone prepared their weapons, put on their helmets, and quickly stood in the middle of the house. Yu Liang's mind was a little confused, and only then did he remember where his team should be. He immediately led everyone out of the house.
There was a lot of noise outside, and it seemed a bit chaotic. At this time, Li Dutou came out of his room with a sword in hand. He shouted: "People from the First City, go up to the wall and prepare for battle!"
Li Dutou looked up at the earthen watchtower again and cursed loudly: "What are you doing lighting the beacon?"
The soldiers on top quickly smashed a clay pot and threw a torch on it. A big fire broke out and the camp suddenly became brighter.
Yu Liang's heart was pounding, but his brain finally worked better. He recalled the training process, drew out his sword, pointed at the ladders on the left and said: First fire, go up!
He also trotted up the middle earthen steps, and the soldiers saw him and followed him up the wall.
Yu Liang opened his eyes wide and climbed to the top of the ladder. He saw that it was pitch black outside and no one was in sight. In the distance, piles of bonfires were flickering in the dark. At this time, a horseman appeared at the edge of the fire. The horseman held a triangular red flag and shouted: "We are one of you. Don't shoot arrows!"
Li Dutou below shouted: "Every team, string your crossbows and load your firearms with powder!"
After a while, I saw ghostly shadows flashing past the fire in the distance. Some people lit torches directly from the fire, and I saw that the light was full of cavalry.
The firelight illuminated a limited area, and it looked as if there were people outside and the entire fortress was surrounded by a flood of people.
The cavalrymen dismounted, holding wooden shields and crude wooden ladders, and climbed over the barricades outside and rushed in. The scene was very frightening, because the enemy had many soldiers and the more than 100 men on the wall were weak.
Yu Liang yelled, his voice was out of tune. His heart was stretched to a thread, and everyone was working very hard on matters related to life and death.
But soon screams were heard. Some enemy soldiers were squeezed into the outermost trench, which was full of sharpened wooden stakes and nails. One can imagine what would happen if they fell into the darkness.
The tide outside was blocked by the ditch, and the enemy soldiers began to put ladders flat on the ditch, and then walked over carefully, very slowly. The enemy soldiers behind took shovels and started to dig soil to fill the pit.
The scene outside was endless, and the menacing momentum was suddenly suppressed there. When Yu Liang looked back, the troops of the Second Capital had already assembled, and soon the general shouted, and everyone went up the wall in batches.
Yu Liang heard the drums beating rhythmically again, and the generals shouted: "First City, gather your forces and make way for Second City!"
So more than ten people on each side of Yu Liang lined up in the middle, and the troops on the wall formed three rows, which suddenly became much thicker, which gave Yu Liang more confidence.
After tinkering for a long time, the enemy soldiers wearing fur hats threw their shields out and swarmed up from the edge of the second trench. In a hurry, the enemy soldiers could not fill the deep trench, so they may have destroyed the sharp stakes and nails in the trench, and dug a place to stand on the hook wall, so that they could climb out of the trench.
Let Yu Liang point his sword downwards.
Suddenly, there was a crackling sound of the crossbow string, and the crossbow arrow flew down diagonally in the dim firelight, with screams from below. The crossbow arrow had good accuracy. Yu Liang saw that the enemy soldiers were not dead, so he quickly grabbed the wooden shield and squatted there, not daring to move forward.
Yu Liang saw it clearly and said: Don't change teams, the firearms are out of reach, reload the crossbows in the front row.
At this moment, there was a sound of wood rubbing against each other, and then a stone bullet with a flashing fuse flew out of the camp. Not long after, there was a bang, a splash of fire in the distance, and a voice calling out.
The several crossbows on the wall also trembled vigorously, and crossbow arrows as thick as arms flew in the air with a whirring wind. The enemy soldiers could climb over the two trenches on foot, but their horses could not climb up. They shot arrows randomly from below, but the effect was not good. The elevation angle was too large, the wall was relatively narrow and blocked by wooden stakes, making it difficult to hit people.
The enemy soldiers' wooden shields were defended in the distance, and they endured the casualties caused by crossbows and crossbow arrows. They finally accumulated some manpower. Suddenly, those people screamed and rushed over with wooden shields and simple ladders.