In early June, four or five days had passed since the gang's big decision. In the morning, at the junction of Jiyin County and Dongping County, a medium-sized army stretching for more than a mile was taking advantage of the lack of sunshine.

As they hurried along the water flowing from Heze, the heavy dew mist and sweat made all the marchers a little irritable.

As a time traveler, Zhang Xing certainly has not lost the traditional advantages of a time traveler. At the very least, he can always share the joys and sorrows. He personally carried a huge Zhangqiu iron pot, hung it with a vinegar cloth bag and a

He piled up wooden spoons and marched on foot with the crowd. The yellow gelding behind him also carried four or five pairs of armor and hung two bags of salt.

However, the cultivation level is here, and the so-called suffering is just like this. The most suffering is a yellow gelding.

By morning, all the dew and mist had quickly dissipated, and there were no clouds overhead. After an argument, the Hebei First Battalion led by Jia Yue, who was accompanying Zhang Xing, gave up resting and gritted his teeth and marched another seven or eight miles.

Then we arrived at our destination, Jinxiang County, before noon, and entered a camp next to the woods to rest.

Jinxiang is the southeastern county of Jiyin County. Further along the He River, it is Fangyu County, the most westerly of Pengcheng County and the northwestmost of the three counties in Xuzhou. Fangyu County, as well as Fengxian County and Peixian County behind it,

, Xiao County is the scheduled battlefield.

"How about White Bear?"

Of course Zhang Xing didn't sweat, but he first came to care about the surrounding warriors. "Can you adapt to the climate here?"

"Reporting to the Chief... I am indeed a little ignorant." Bai Peixiong, sweating profusely, sat on the ground and just wilted to answer. "It was too stuffy in the morning and too hot now, but it's because I'm not good at cultivation. It's really here.

Ningdan, where did all these things come from?"

"I'm afraid it has nothing to do with spiritual practice. It's just a lack of experience." Jia Yue, who walked over from the side, said a few more words to the fellow villager. "As long as you have some experience in the wild, you should know that you need to save energy.

Just use it. It’s just damp and stuffy in the morning, so you can’t help but use your zhenqi. When it gets really hot, there won’t be much zhenqi available..."

Bai Peixiong wanted to speak but stopped.

Da Hong, who was standing next to him, laughed: "Jia Yingtou doesn't know that his job in Beidi is to lead people in Thudao Ridge, and he prides himself on being the best in the wild!"

Jia Yue was immediately speechless.

Thudao Ridge, also called Luandaoling, is said to be another clear evidence of the change of geography by master practitioners outside of Hongshan, Hanshui and Baidi City. It is also an important evidence that some people believe that the ancestor emperor finally became a dragon and left.

.

In other words, on that day, the Ancestral Emperor marched eastwards and rushed all the way. When he came to the Central Plains, he encountered the Dongchu Kingdom and the pair of dragons and phoenixes who had reintegrated the remnants of the demon clan.

, the south also tried to enter from Huainan, but was still unable to capture Dongchu, which had the support of two supremes and the control of a pair of peerless prides. In the end, both sides suffered from tuberculosis and seven injuries, and each was exhausted mentally and physically. The emperor himself also chose to return to Hebei with his army.

Temporarily cultivate and confront it.

During this period, a landmark thing happened. Qian Yi triggered a major rebellion in Beihuang through diplomacy and bribery. Emperor Zu immediately led his army north to quell the rebellion. Although he suppressed it quickly, he returned to the north of Yanshan Mountain.

But he suddenly fell ill. At that time, he knew that his trip to the north had given Dongchu a chance to breathe. However, he had been fighting for more than ten years, his horse could not unsaddle, and he was already exhausted mentally and physically, but he had missed the last chance.

Chances are, it will be difficult to achieve hegemony in this life and repeat the path of the four emperors.

In grief and anger, he threw a knife at Yanshan Mountain, dividing the north and the south.

Of course, according to the description, the mountainous area in the northern part of Yanshan and deep into the northern border is not so much a knife thrown by someone, but more like it was cut by a madman more than ten times, so that the cliffs and deep ditches are as crisscrossed as knives.

This is why Thudao Ridge is also called Luandaoling. Because of this, professional guides are often needed to access the place.

Then turning back to the present, a person like Bai Peixiong who doesn't even know how to save his energy is actually the wild guide of Luandaoling. It's no wonder that Jia Yue was choked to death.

In desperation, Jia Yue could only turn to Zhang Xing: "Chief Long... Chief, several leaders are waiting for you in front, and Mr. Li is also here."

Zhang Xing nodded, put down the iron pot and wooden spoon, took off the armor from the yellow gelding, then led the horse and followed him forward.

After walking a few hundred steps, a large group of people came to meet me.

Before they could exchange greetings, the leader Li Shu sighed from afar: "Chief Zhang, it's fortunate that we are marching from here. Most of the march is in our hinterland. If we really walked a long mountain road, we would not say that we were ambushed, but just raided, or that we were waiting for work."

, I am afraid that the whole army will be annihilated..."

"The situation is indeed too bad. Our estimate of the situation is still insufficient." Zhang Xing nodded, not feeling that the other party was exaggerating or saying anything depressing.

In fact, as long as you look around at the head of Jia Yue's camp, you will know that Zhang Xing and Li Shu are not talking nonsense.

You must know that Jia Yue is the big leader, and he is currently the only big leader among the battalions directly under Zhang Xing. Therefore, his battalion head is definitely at the forefront among many troops in terms of troop resources, combat experience, and equipment priority.

A group, in other words, this battalion is one of the most elite battalion leaders in the gang.

But even this battalion, after many days of marching in the hot summer, even if it was marching within the core control area, even if it tried to set off as early as possible and as late as possible to avoid the scorching sun, it still lost the basic marching order. As soon as it stopped, it was clear that in front of it was

The troops were paralyzed in the woods next to the camp, and the entire camp was lying down, completely losing their mobility.

Not to mention, Zhang Xing followed this army from Heze and marched together for two days. He knew very well that the infantry battalion of 2,500 people came from Hebei, but only less than 2,000 people gathered when they crossed the river.

, and then during the next four or five days of marching, hundreds of troops were left behind due to the heat. By this time, the actual number of troops arriving was only more than a thousand.

how to say?

Although Zhang Xing did not forget to tell jokes to the people around him when he was marching, and even just now he did not forget to care about and tease his subordinates, but in fact, he had already begun to panic... This panic was not fear of the enemy, but

It is the fear of the weather and doubts about the true combat effectiveness of his own troops.

War is a thing with too many uncontrollable variables.

Plague, water and fire, people's hearts, equipment, and there is always an opponent in front. You never know which variable among each other suddenly exceeds the critical value, leading to an all-round collapse.

If strength on paper really determined everything, Dongyi should have surrendered to the Wei Dynasty long ago, let alone the common people who rebelled and caused the whole territory to lose control.

What's more, even in terms of paper strength, Zhang Xing also knew to some extent that the gang's troops could not be called the best soldiers in the world, especially this time, in order to facilitate the war, a large number of troops who had not experienced the war and reorganization in Hebei were mobilized.

troops. On the other side, although the Wei Dynasty has been pulled back, those extremely aggressive warriors from the Eastern Capital may not be unable to play their role in the war.

If you are struck by a sword, you will not die just because you are a rebel. He will die if he is a collaborator.

"How do you say the most important anti-heat medicine?" These thoughts flashed through Zhang Xing's mind, and he kept asking questions.

"I've prepared as much as I can, but I still can't estimate it right now..." The answer came from Bing Yuanzheng, who had just become the prefect of Dongping. "However, if we can wait a little longer and purchase pickled plums from the folk, maybe we can still

Even better, according to the experience of the past two days, sour plum soup plus herbal tea is the best, and tea is sold in bulk. After this order, it has been purchased directly in various major markets and entry points. And sour plum soup

There are two types, one is green plums, which are in large quantities and available in stock, but difficult to store and suffer too much loss during transportation; the other is pickled prunes, which are few and scattered among the people, but are convenient for transporting supplies with the army."

Everyone was stunned for a while, then Wu Jingfeng hugged his arms and sneered: "Who would have thought that pickled prunes would be military supplies, and the most important military supplies?"

"Let's make a note of it today. From now on, the army will have to purchase rations." Zhang Xing answered casually. "If you don't have tea and sour plums, you must boil water and add some salt to it."

"Yes." Bing Yuanzheng agreed immediately.

"How long does it take to harvest the sour plums?" Zhai Qian asked in a loud voice.

"You still have to wait another four or five days to see the effect..." Bing Yuanzheng replied seriously.

"Tea must be paid at par." Zhang Xing has another focus, and it is always slightly deviated from the others. "Don't ruin your reputation."

"Of course it is." Li Shu added from the side. "We still expect these people to continue to transport goods to us."

"Do you want the entire army to rest here for a while? Or simply stay here?" At this moment, Fang Yanlang, the prefect of this county, wiped his sweat and suddenly made a suggestion. "If the army gathers at the border, it can also force

Is Sima Zheng moving his troops to confront him?"

"What if he doesn't move?" Xu Shiying, who had only lowered his head to exude a faint vitality of immortality without speaking from the beginning, suddenly raised his head and asked.

"If the troops don't leave their own territory, they will consume much less food." Fang Yanlang explained seriously. Obviously, he thought that the other party was worried about the most serious problem of food consumption.

"What if he doesn't move?" Xu Shiying looked indifferent and asked again.

Fang Yanlang was obviously confused.

"Indeed." Zhang Xing had already reacted. "What if he doesn't move? So we still have to continue marching, and we can't stop or show hesitation. We can go slowly, but we must step into Pengcheng resolutely and approach.

Only in Xuzhou can we truly force the other party to return support and achieve our goal."

Everyone reacted when they heard this, so no one objected, but almost everyone looked up at the sun above their heads.

"How many soldiers are on the front line now?" Zhang Xing was silent for a moment, but he still made a decision in his mind and came to ask. "Not only here, but also in Shanxian County on the Bian River in the west."

"Sixteen camps." Li Shu blurted out.

"I'm talking about the number of soldiers and horses." Zhang Xing emphasized.

"It's really hard to say..." Li Shu reacted, but he was also a little confused. It was obvious that the attrition of the army was very chaotic.

"I don't know where Shan County is, but judging from the food consumption, there should be 16,700 soldiers in the 13 battalions here." Ordinary leader Xu Shiying gave the answer.

Zhang Xingmo did some calculations. Based on the current full strength of a battalion of 2,000 people, the troop occupancy rate actually dropped to almost 60%. However, he soon realized that he might have made a mistake in his calculations, so he asked again: "Arrived

How many cavalry battalions are there in sixteen battalions?”

According to the general strategy of helping Hebei's second army reorganization, a battalion of infantry has 2,000 soldiers. However, due to the limitations of horses and horses, the number of soldiers and horses in the cavalry battalion is very unstable. The number of light cavalry is 1,700, and the number of armored cavalry is 1,700.

Each battalion has 1,200 soldiers, and when it comes time to go to the battlefield, the auxiliary troops assigned to them often far exceed those of the infantry battalions.

"Only one." Xu Shiying answered with a slight eyebrow raise. "Shan Dalang crossed the river before his camp decision was made, and Shanfu County is his hometown, so he left early."

"How could this be so?" Zhang Xing was a little confused. "When I arrived in Heze, I heard them say that several cavalry battalions had crossed the river. I thought they would pass through the official road in the middle..."

"It's too hot, and the horses are so precious that they can't bear to part with them, so they walk even slower." At this time, Xu Shiying was basically the only one who answered. "But I estimate that the armored cavalry battalion that traveled to Fan last week will be able to arrive tonight, and the other battalions will also be able to arrive in two weeks."

Arrive within the day.”

"That's good." Zhang Xing was silent for a moment and made a decision. "Two days...two days at most, no matter how many battalions there are, as long as Shan County and here can gather 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, we will set off immediately.

...Then Li Gong stayed here and continued to expand the camp here, which was both a response and a transit. The follow-up troops were gathered together, and the supplies were gathered and sent to the front."

"That's all we have to do." Li Shu agreed simply.
To be continued...