Chapter 60 The army sets out
On the third day of the sixth lunar month in the twenty-third year of Chengping.
A hundred thousand troops from Chongshan Town went out of the pass, claiming to have an army of two hundred thousand.
With General Zhang Shouwang as the General of the Northern Expedition, and Deputy General Ji Feiyu as the General of Yang Wei, the troops were divided into two routes to conquer the Hu tribe in Donghai.
The eunuch Zhang Yude, who was in charge of the town, followed the army to the expedition, and the governor Sun Xincheng was the imperial envoy to inspect the military affairs of Chongshan Town. There was also the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue Wu Mingzhen to supervise the collection and expenditure of food and salaries for various routes.
On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month in the twenty-third year of Chengping.
Zhang Shouwang led five battalions of the town flag, four battalions of reinforcements, and seven battalions of mobile troops, a total of 60,000 troops, marched straight into the Black Cloud Mountain.
Black Cloud Mountain, the battle of Black Cloud Mountain twenty years ago was the most glorious battle of Chongshan Town.
With this battle alone, the northeastern border of Darong remained peaceful for twenty years.
Now, the army of Chongshan Town has come to Black Cloud Mountain again. I wonder if it can create the glory of twenty years ago again.
Yang Zhengshan went to the battle with the Zhenbiao Zuoying. The Zhenbiao Zuoying had three thousand soldiers, a baggage team led by a battalion commander, four hundred battalion guard cavalry, and two hundred night-time elite cavalry, totaling about 4,300 people.
In addition, the Zhenbiao Zuoying also had a thousand civilians who were temporarily recruited to help the baggage team transport food and supplies.
Yang Zhengshan was the deputy battalion commander of the baggage team. At this time, he was escorting more than a hundred mule, horse and ox carts with a hundred soldiers and three hundred civilians from Linguan Fort, following the army of the Zhenbiao Zuoying.
Escorting food and grass is a hard job. Outside the Chongshan Pass are endless hills and grasslands, and there are no roads at all.
The only road is the road trampled by the army in front, which is bumpy and extremely difficult to travel.
The key is that military orders are like mountains. They must transport food and grass to the specified place within the specified time. If there is any mistake, everyone will be punished.
Even though Yang Zhengshan had Zhou Lan's support, he didn't dare to slack off.
Fortunately, it didn't rain in the past few days. Although they had a hard time along the way, they caught up with the large army in front.
Standing at the foot of Black Cloud Mountain, Yang Zhengshan looked up at the not-so-high mountain, and the scene of the original body fighting here emerged in his mind.
In the battle twenty years ago, the original body was just a small soldier, and had no idea about the overall battle situation. He only knew to fight desperately on the chaotic battlefield.
The bloody battlefield appeared in Yang Zhengshan's mind, making him tremble all over.
Although it was just a dream like watching a movie, he still felt extremely tragic.
That was a real battlefield, a battlefield that could not be accurately described by blood flowing into rivers and corpses everywhere.
The original body was very lucky to survive that battle.
And now Yang Zhengshan himself came here, wondering if he would also experience such a tragic battle.
…
The Hu tribe of Donghai is a nation that lives on nomadism and hunting. They occupy the hills and grasslands two thousand miles northeast of Darong. Most tribes live a nomadic life, and only a small number of tribesmen live in Fushan City.
If the Hu tribe of Donghai is a kingdom, then Fushan City is their capital.
And Fushan City is five hundred miles northeast of Heiyun Mountain. The battle of Heiyun Mountain twenty years ago was because the army of Chongshan Town threatened the safety of Fushan City, which forced the Hu tribe of Donghai to come to fight with all their strength.
Unfortunately, in that battle, Chongshan Town also suffered heavy losses and was unable to continue attacking Fushan City. In addition, there were disagreements in the court of Darong, otherwise the Hu tribe of Donghai would have become history long ago.
This time, Chongshan Town’s expedition to the Hu tribe of Donghai used the same strategy as twenty years ago, also splitting the troops into two groups and approaching the foot of Heiyun Mountain, just to force the Hu tribe of Donghai to come to Heiyun Mountain for a decisive battle again.
If the Donghai Hu tribe cannot be forced to take the initiative to fight, the Chongshan Town army will spend dozens of times more time and materials to find those migrating tribes in this vast northern border.
However, the Donghai Hu tribe is not a fool. They have learned a lesson. Twenty years ago, they had suffered a big loss at the foot of the Black Cloud Mountain. How could they repeat the same mistake now?
At the foot of the Black Cloud Mountain, the tents stretched for several miles, and the solemn atmosphere rushed straight to the dark sky.
The army has been camped here for more than ten days, but the main force of the Donghai Hu tribe has not appeared. Only some scouts and elite cavalry are constantly harassing around.
In the main camp.
The general of Chongshan Town, the general of the expedition to the north, Zhang Shouwang, frowned and looked at the map hanging on the screen.
Next to him sat a white-faced eunuch with wrinkles on the corners of his eyes. It was the eunuch Zhang Yude who guarded the town.
In addition, there were more than a dozen lieutenants and guerrilla generals wearing iron armor gathered behind Zhang Shouwang, staring at the map. Zhou Lan was naturally among them.
"It seems that they will not take the initiative to fight!" Zhang Shouwang said with a somewhat difficult tone.
To be honest, this time he agreed to conquer the Donghai Hu tribe, because he was very clear about the current situation of Chongshan Town. Today's Chongshan Town is no longer the Chongshan Town of 20 years ago.
The entire Chongshan Town is said to have 200,000 troops, but the real elite is only the five battalions of the town flag. As for the soldiers who can fight, it is estimated that there are only 50,000, and the rest are all fillers.
Perhaps the current Donghai Hu tribe is not as good as the Donghai Hu tribe back then, but in the past 20 years, Chongshan Town has declined too much.
If the Donghai Hu tribe takes the initiative to fight, he still has some confidence, but now the Donghai Hu tribe avoids fighting, he has no confidence at all.
"General, why don't we attack Fushan City directly!" Liu Nanbo, the Guangning vanguard of Chongshan Town North Road, couldn't help but say.
"The city wall of Fushan is three zhang high, not much different from our Chongshan Pass. If we attack by force, our troops will need to be ten times more than the enemy. If we besiege them, we don't have that much time!" said Wang Bin, Lieutenant General of Songzhou Guard on the east route of Chongshan Town, shaking his head slightly.
They missed the right time to go out in June. If they besiege Fushan City at this time, as long as the enemy drags on for two months, they must retreat. Otherwise, in winter, there is no need to fight, and the soldiers will be frozen to death.
"What should we do? It's not good to advance or retreat!"
"If you ask me, it's better to attack by force, which is better than staying here all the time!"
"Won't it be a waste of life to attack by force? It's better to retreat first and make a long-term plan!"
...
For a while, everyone in the tent whispered to each other.
Zhang Shouwang heard their discussion and his expression became more gloomy. "Okay, if you have anything to say, say it loudly, don't whisper in private!"
However, when he opened his mouth, everyone stopped talking and there was no sound.
Zhang Shouwang saw this and couldn't hide the disappointment in his eyes
These useless trash are arrogant and domineering on weekdays, as if they are fearless, but when they really get to the battlefield, they lock their necks like quails.
His eyes swept over everyone, causing them to lower their heads and not dare to look at him.
Finally, his eyes fell on Zhang Yude, "Does Eunuch Zhang have any good ideas?"
Zhang Yude was cleaning his fingernails with his head down, and was suddenly asked by Zhang Shouwang. He said without even raising his head: "I am just a military supervisor, and I dare not talk about military and national affairs, but I have something to remind the general!"
"Please speak, Eunuch Zhang!"
"Your Majesty is waiting for the general's victory report in the capital! This war should not be delayed too long!"
The first sentence still dared not talk about military and national affairs, and the second sentence forced Zhang Shouwang to go to war as soon as possible.
Zhang Shouwang took a deep breath, and he knew what this dead eunuch was thinking.
The dead eunuch didn't care whether they won or lost, nor did he care about the lives of the soldiers.
He only cared about whether he could take the opportunity to make more money.
The dead eunuch could scrape a layer of oil when the military rations came in and out, and the dead eunuch could also take the opportunity to make a fortune when the soldiers died.
As for the others, aren't there the generals in front of them?
"Then let's attack the city!" Zhang Shouwang said helplessly.
He hated Zhang Yude, the dead eunuch, but Zhang Yude was right that the emperor was waiting for their victory report in Kyoto.
Thinking of the impatient emperor, Zhang Shouwang knew he couldn't delay any longer.
"Three days later, we will set out to recover Shancheng!"
