choke element

Chapter 425 Long Sword

"Bossan Anzhen and Guo Ning, one is a national heavy general that the court relies on, and the other is a reckless murderer that the court has to be generous with. Each of the two families has elite soldiers and strong generals, and their strength is enough to shake the situation in the Kingdom of Jin Therefore, if the two families want to meet, the location must have been well thought out."

Speaking of this, suddenly a violent autumn wind blew past.In the past few days, the autumn wind has become more and more violent.It roared, blowing the large area of ​​withered and yellow trees and reeds up and down like waves, making a strange sound like howling ghosts and gods, covering Li Quan's voice.

Li Quan stopped speaking, straightened his body and looked out.

The season for the reeds to bloom has passed, and the white reed flowers rolled up by the wind are no longer as thick and continuous as the clouds before, only a few scattered ones remain, which cannot block the sight.Tens of miles away, you can see everything at a glance.

Li Quan swept across his family's camp in Anding Town by the Beiqing River, turned to the west, and could clearly distinguish Tieling, which was due to the west and was scheduled to be the meeting place for Guo Ning and Pu San Anzhen.

Li Quan couldn't help but take a few steps forward. The depth of the swamp was deep and muddy. He was standing on the flat ground where the reeds were sparse.But after taking two steps forward, his footsteps stepped into the water surface. With his vigorous steps, a large amount of sludge was turned up, making the water surface muddy.

Li Quan didn't mind these things, just looked around.It wasn't until the violent wind whizzed past that he stepped on the muddy water, turned back and continued the topic just now.

"This location, first of all, can't be too close to Dinghai's garrison. Not long after thousands of soldiers under Pusan ​​Anzhen died in Guo Ning's hands, the Hebei Jin Army's hostility towards Dinghai is at its peak. Even if Pusan ​​Anzhen I have the guts, and his subordinates will never allow him to take risks easily."

"This place can't be placed near the camp of the Hebei Jin Army. Guo Ning has always been suspicious of the court. If he wants him to go lightly to the encirclement of Pu San Anzhen's army, it will be like letting him die."

"So, Tieling is the most suitable location."

"Look."

"Tieling is fifteen miles away from Beiqing River. Along the Beiqing River, there are many swamps and depressions. Only between Tieling and the river is a small solid plain. Previously, the cavalry under the command of Pu San Anzhen practiced here every other day. , you have all seen it. Therefore, if there is any special situation when the two families meet later, the cavalry commanded by the Pu Sanliu family can easily go straight to the ridge. Well, even if the Pu Sanliu family is not enough to solve the problem, Hebei It won't take long for the Jin army to dispatch directly from the barracks, cross the pontoon bridge, and attack Tieling."

Li Quan lightly lifted the [-]-jin iron gun, pointed the tip of the gun at the long stone representing Tieling, poked twice on one side of the stone, and then turned to the other side.

"To the south of Tieling, there are continuous hills and gentle slopes. Five miles to the south is Yinling, and another five miles is Jinling. Between Jinling and Yinling is the former site of Dicheng, the capital of Jiaoxi Kingdom in Han Dynasty. This area , there are often complex landforms after river breaches, rivers and swamps are intertwined, and jungles are widely distributed. This is the best terrain for soldiers and horses to lurk and approach. Forty miles to the south is Shangshan Tieye, which was captured by the Ding Navy five days ago , the main force of the navy will set out from Shangshan, and it will be possible to arrive in one day."

"So, Tieling is very suitable for the negotiation between the two. On the north and south sides of Tieling, the Hebei Jin Army and Ding Navy must have considerable arrangements, and we can only avoid them."

Hearing what he said, Tian Si bared his teeth: "North of Tieling, there is a flat river, that's all. How come there is a Dinghai arrangement for the complex terrain in the south? They..."

"You are right. This area was originally very suitable for our operations. However, after Guo Ning gained a foothold in Shandong, he introduced a group of local heroes. For example, the one who led him at this time was a famous man in the Changshan area. In addition, Zhang Rong and Liu Bin, the salt smugglers, are likely to accompany them. These people are well versed in geography, and their understanding of the surrounding terrain of Beiqing River is at least as good as ours. Therefore, the south of Tieling is not suitable. , Where there is a slight flaw, it will immediately arouse the vigilance of the Dinghai Navy."

Li Quan supported the iron gun, sighed with emotion, and leaned heavily on the ground with the gun, causing the sound of rushing water.

The water was very dirty, and it was salt water. Li Quan trekked for two days, and his arms and legs were cut with many wounds by sharp reed leaves.The wound was soaked in salt water, excruciatingly painful.

But Li Quan didn't care at all.He even deliberately carried the wound on his foot, running back and forth among the soldiers to boost their morale, and this extremely resolute and tough guy style really made the soldiers admire.

"That's why we came here." Li Quan leveled his iron gun: "Look! This patch of reeds happens to be our cover, and the end of the reeds is the Golden Ridge. When the time comes, we will climb up the slope to resist the battle. The sentry cavalry didn't have time to react. And we took the captives back to the depths of the reeds, and we only needed to cross the river to the north to join the army... Neither of these two families can do anything to us!"

In the lower reaches of the Beiqing River, past Anding Town, there is no longer a village in the usual sense.In a wide area of ​​seventy or eighty miles from north to south and thirty miles from east to west, there are only tidal flats, swamps and reeds that can't be seen at a glance.

This area is also located at the junction of the two salt divisions in Cangzhou and Shandong. Over the years, many salt people have gathered here, using the cover of continuous tidal flats to set up their own salt farms to produce "sun-burned salt".The so-called sun-burning means that although there are procedures such as soaking brine and scraping alkali, but skipping the steps of decocting to make salt, and using the sun to make salt.

This method of producing salt has been strictly prohibited because it is easy to escape the monitoring of the Salt Commissioner.But the more it is prohibited, the more this method will be liked by the salt people.The output of sun-burned salt has always been continuous, and salt roads have been naturally formed between the swamps and tidal flats for private salt dealers to travel.

Although the salt road is difficult, the tidal flats and swamps beyond the salt road are even more dangerous. Under normal circumstances, there is no one inhabited within dozens of miles, and it is completely impassable.

This time, Li Quan promised a lot of benefits to Yin Chang, a local tycoon in Binzhou, so Yin Chang sent his fine subordinates to help, and took them along a remote path that no outsider knew about.This path is close to the embankment on the south bank of the Beiqing River, passing through the continuous swamp, and its end is just below the east slope of Tieling Mountain.

But this small road had only carried Yin Chang's own cronies and subordinates before, and it was only the actions of more than a hundred people at most.Li Quan led more than 2000 people through the journey, and the difficulty was beyond imagination.

Hearing what Li Quan said, several generals also stood up and pushed aside the reeds to look around.

Everyone is a veteran in the fighting arena, and after a few glances, they know that their side is really in an extremely favorable position at this moment.At the moment, someone was excited and nodded repeatedly.

But there were also people who smiled wryly. For example, Tian Si touched his face: "I'm just waiting to kill the enemy today! Alas, it's just that the march was really difficult. In two days, more than 50 soldiers were lost."

When resting in the swamp last night, Tian Si slept soundly and deeply, accidentally bitten by poisonous insects.The venom of this poisonous insect was so violent that it made his scorched face swollen the size of a child's fist, and his hideous blind eye was pushed close to the bridge of his nose.

If the generals are like this, the soldiers will only suffer more.Not to mention the Tiansi Division as the rear team, the soldiers of the Changdao Battalion directly under Li Quan are the front team, some people even encountered wild wolves in the middle of the night, and some were bitten by water snakes while sleeping. Fat death, people are completely cold.

For the sake of concealment, Li Quan strictly ordered that no fires be lit along the way. The soldiers walked through the complex terrain at night, and if they were negligent, they would be separated from the brigade.Tian Si said that it was damaged by more than 50 yuan, so it should be calculated in the less.

"But it's worth it!" Li Quan said in a deep voice: "Bossan Anzhen and Guo Ning didn't expect us to be so close! Their necks are already under our sword! When these two people appear, we only need to Swing a knife..."

He was about to raise his voice when, out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the top of the high slope of Tieling, and there was a faint figure flickering.

Li Quan suddenly lowered his body and waved continuously.

The soldiers behind him are almost all the confidantes and veterans who have been collected by Li Quan for a long time.

When Li Quan talked with the generals, the veterans neither moved nor spoke, and they all used their most comfortable postures to lie or sit on the slightly dry ground in the swamp.

Seeing Li Quan's movements at this moment, the soldiers in the front row were lowering their heads more and more, followed by the soldiers in the back row. More than a thousand soldiers in armor and with long knives in their belts were like wild animals about to prey, and they were extremely silent.The autumn wind swept by, and occasionally blew over their military robes, making a slight noise, which was immediately submerged in the wind and could no longer be distinguished.

(End of this chapter)