Song Emperor Jiangshan

In the 21st year of Shaoxing, Xia June.

Xinyang Army on the border of Song and Jin Dynasties.

This is a hilly area, with endless wilderness in the north and rolling mountains in the south. It is midsummer, and a heavy rain three days ago solved the severe drought of the previous days.The vegetation is revived and green everywhere. The weeds that had died a few days ago have sprung up again after a night of heavy rain, and are now swaying in the wind on the side of the road.

A three-person-wide dirt road winds out of the valley and leads straight to the wilderness in the north. There are children in twos and threes on the side of the road, carrying bamboo baskets and holding small shovels, digging wild vegetables and weeds on the side of the road.

The sound of horseshoes came from the other end of the dirt road, and the children all looked towards the other end of the dirt road.The hillsides on both sides are gentle, and the dirt road turns around at the end, only the sound of horseshoes can be heard, but no people can be seen.

The children were all looking forward, waiting for the rider.

The sound of horseshoes approached, and a group of cavalrymen slowly came out from the valley. The leader was wearing iron armor, red tassels on his head, a longbow on his back, and an iron gun in his hand. Behind him were more than 20 cavalrymen in military uniforms. They were all dressed in the same way, divided into two teams, and moved neatly. The word "Xinyang" was engraved on the chest mirror.

As soon as the child saw the leader, he immediately surrounded him and shouted at the group of cavalry: "General Xiao, General Xiao!"

The leader reined in his horse, with a reproachful expression on his face, and a serious tone: "This is already the border of Xinyang, it is very dangerous, didn't you tell me not to come here to dig wild vegetables?"

A child who hadn't grown his head stuck out his tongue, and said with some embarrassment: "All the wild vegetables near my house have been dug up, so I can only come here!"

Another child with pigtails raised the small shovel in his hand, and the sun shone a white and dazzling light on the small shovel in his hand. The child pouted: "If the golden man dares to come, I will give him a slap in the face." A shovel! Here, it's like this!" He said, making a gesture of shoveling wild vegetables, "Shovel all the golden dogs out!"

All the cavalrymen laughed, and one of them bent down and touched the heads of the group of children: "You are too young, let's talk about it when you grow up!"

The children were immediately unconvinced, with their hips crossed, their cheeks puffed out, and they clenched their fists and showed their arms: "I can kill a wild wolf!"

The leading general was not amused by the children's innocent words, but the expression on his face became more serious: "This is not the place for you, go back quickly!"

The children stuck out their tongues together, and walked back reluctantly.

After the group of children disappeared, a good-looking cavalryman stepped forward and smiled at the leading general: "General, although this is the border between Song and Jin, there has been no conflict for more than ten years. It’s not a big mistake for the kids to come over once in a while.”

The leading general looked solemn: "Vice General Wu, don't be careless."

"Yes!" The young cavalryman saluted on horseback, his eyes fell on the leading general, and the admiration and reverence in him could be seen at a glance.

The leading general is Xiao Shan. He was transferred to the border Xinyang Army a month ago to garrison. The deputy general is the young man he met in Lin'an in the early years, and later joined the army to practice martial arts. Now he has become Xiao Shan's deputy general Wu Luan.

This time it was their routine patrol. Xiao Shan led the team on horseback and circled around the foot of the mountain. In the valley, in the grass, beside the trees, in places where no one can be seen, there will be a group of people. The two lurking soldiers signed Xiao Shan in their own way to express that everything was normal.

"Report to the general, everything is normal!"

"Report, everything is normal!"

A series of silent reports came to Xiao Shan's eyes from the lurking spot, and he remained calm and continued to patrol along the foot of the mountain.

But suddenly, there was a branch shaking gently in the grass, which indicated that the people lurking here had discovered something suspicious.

Xiao Shan got off his horse and walked into the jungle, while the rest of the soldiers continued to patrol under the leadership of Wu Luan.

When he was only three steps away from the secret sentry, Xiao Shan pretended to be relieved, and asked in a low voice, "What's the situation?"

Even though it is such a close distance, there is still no sign of anyone lurking, but the low voice reached Xiao Shan's ears: "At noon, a fellow villager came and walked around, as if he was here to dig wild vegetables. Yes, I dug a basket of grass over there and went back.”

Xiao Shan frowned, the sun was scorching at noon, so he went out to dig wild vegetables at this time?

"What does it look like?"

"Young and middle-aged, not tall, without shaved head."

Xiao Shan felt that there was even more of a problem. Usually it was the elderly and children who came out to dig wild vegetables, a job that didn't require much physical strength. What did the young and middle-aged come here for?Moreover, the other party came from the border of the Kingdom of Jin and had not shaved his head, which was even more suspicious.

"Have you been found?"

The grass in the grass swayed three times, indicating that no one was disturbed.

Xiao Shan nodded, straightened his trouser pockets, straightened his clothes, and gave him the usual order to lurk: "The wind is too strong, so don't move the grass."

There was no movement around, only the swishing sound of Xiao Shan coming out of the grass alone, and the crowing of sparrows on the branches.

Xiao Shan walked to the side of the road, got on his horse, caught up with his team, and ordered in a low voice to the surrounding soldiers: "Wu Luan, take two people and go over to have a look. There is something wrong today. Don't ride a horse, go over secretly. "

Wu Luan answered, then turned around and left with the two of them, leaving Xiao Shan to continue patrolling with the team.

After a while, three beggars in ragged clothes came out from the mountain path, their bodies and heads were covered with ashes, holding a bamboo pole in one hand and a broken bowl in the other, walking towards Zhengyang City opposite.

Xiao Shan patrolled as usual, and when the sun was about to set, he saw Wu Luan and other three people dressed as beggars coming back.

"Any change?" Xiao Shan didn't expect that they would rush back when the sun was setting, and he was already preparing to bring people back.

Wu Luan nodded and reported: "I can't get into the city, so I only looked around outside and saw that the weeds on the ground seemed to have traces of horses gnawing, and then looked further north. According to the traces left by horses on the road, Judging from the excrement, there should be no less than a thousand horses transferred to the opposite city today!"

A thousand horses!As soon as this sentence was said, everyone was taken aback.

Because it was the border between Song and Jin, both sides sent people to garrison. The Song Dynasty strictly followed the peace agreement. In Xinyang City on the border, there were only a thousand soldiers and no more than twenty horses.

The Kingdom of Jin has a little more, with five or six hundred horses and two or three thousand generals all year round.

Today, a thousand horses were suddenly transferred to the opposite side, and it is self-deception to say that there is no action.

What is Jin Guo going to do?Xiao Shan pondered for a moment, then immediately made a judgment: "Wu Luan, hurry back to Xinyang City, report to the Xinyang Zhijun what he found today, and ask him to send 300 people over, and at the same time make preparations for the Jin army to attack the city. Niu Yong, you take six more soldiers and go to find out their movements. The rest of them don't go back, they are ready to fight at any time!"

Wu Luan immediately returned alone, and a black-and-white soldier named Niu Yong stepped out, saluted Xiao Shan, shouted "Yes!" and headed north with more than a dozen cavalry.

Xiao Shan and the rest of the people dispersed in place, occupied the high ground, loaded up their bows and arrows, and ambushed on the top of the mountain.

In the dark night of summer, the whole sky is dyed red by the setting sun. On the top of the mountain, Xiaoshan can see the smoke rising from his own village in the distance.

Since he was transferred to Ezhou, he had also fought against Jin Bing twice, but most of them were puppet troops, and it was a small-scale conflict with more than ten people. He had never encountered such a big move like today.

Thinking of this, Xiao Shan not only cursed secretly in his heart, how could the Kingdom of Jin send so many horses to hide it from people's eyes and ears, if more spies were sent to inquire, I'm afraid they would have already known what happened!Reluctantly, Zhao Gou ordered several times that no one was allowed to cross the boundary.Xiao Shan didn't dare to make it too obvious, after discussing with the Zhijun of Xinyang, he could only send two or three spies to lurk in the opponent's city to spy on the news.

But this time, his secret operations failed to send any news, and he didn't know whether those secret operations had already encountered an accident, or the situation was urgently under strict supervision and could not transmit information.

Time passed little by little, and the sun finally disappeared completely. When the last ray of light disappeared, Xiao Shan felt sweat oozing out of his palms—the one who came to dig wild vegetables at noon was undoubtedly stepping on the spot, so the other party was there. Are you going to sneak attack at night?

On the road in the valley, a soldier's ear was attached to the bamboo tube inserted into the ground, listening to the movement in the distance.

The night gradually deepened, and an hour had passed since the sun set. Wu Luan, who went back to report the letter, should still be halfway, and it would take another hour before he could rush back.It was already the hour of the day, and the surroundings were quiet, and no movement could be heard.

However, in the midst of this silence, the soldiers who had been lying on the ground listening to the movement on the valley road suddenly jumped up from the ground, ran towards the mountain, and rushed in front of Xiao Shan: "Here we come! There should be hundreds of riders from the sound!"

Xiao Shan's heart trembled, the enemy was really planning to launch a sneak attack in the middle of the night, hundreds of horsemen could not be the main force of the enemy, they should just be sent by the other party to scout the way.

Niu Yong, who was sent to spy on the news, hadn't come back yet, and he still didn't know what was going on. Xiao Shan waved his hand and said in a low voice, "Hidden! Listen to my password and act!"

More than a dozen soldiers immediately stretched their bows and set up an ambush on the hills on both sides.

The horse was also covered with a mask and lay down in the grass.It is obviously unrealistic for more than a dozen soldiers to ambush more than a hundred cavalry, and if this is the enemy's vanguard team, it is even more difficult to alarm.

Xiao Shan also opened his iron bow, squinted one eye, and waited quietly.He used a special arrow that could make a sound to send a warning. If he decided to take action, the arrow would make a sharp whistle when it pierced the air.

He waited quietly, and after a quarter of an hour, he could already hear the faint sound of horseshoes approaching, as well as the sound of killing and shouting.

There was already a soldier at the side who couldn't hold his breath, and slightly poked his head out. Xiao Shan shook his head at the soldier, signaling him not to move.

At this time the moon gradually rose and hung in the sky, the sound of horseshoes came very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was already in front of us, and there were waves of dust rising in the distance, Xiao Shan could see clearly that it was actually more than a dozen people he had sent out The spies were being chased by more than a hundred cavalrymen—their spies had been discovered.

Niu Yong had already been shot by an arrow in his shoulder, and he was galloping under the moonlight. Behind him were three or four light cavalrymen, all of whom were blood-stained, their hair was loose, and their helmets were gone. It seemed that they had gone through a fierce battle.A small group of people rushed to the place where Xiao Shan was in ambush, the pursuers hesitated for a moment behind him, and then followed suit.

Jin Bing, crossed the line.

To save or not to save?

Save, I have few people, so I am definitely not an opponent.Do not save?Let alone the team that was sent out, it was too late to go back to warn.

Only a centurion headed by the enemy shouted: "Kill those four spies, don't let them report back!"

At the same time, an ear-piercing sound came across the valley, and Xiao Shan shot the arrow in his hand.

The shouts of killing sounded immediately, the vegetation on the valley trembled, smoke and dust billowed, and the cavalry ambushing on both sides of the valley rushed down from the hillside like several sharp knives piercing the heart.

Xiao Shan rushed all the way down, shot and killed five or six pursuers, and had already reached the dirt road in the valley.The Jin chasers were suddenly ambushed, and they were startled. When they saw that there were only a dozen or so riders, the centurion laughed loudly: "Everyone, kill all these Nanchao pigs!"

In an instant, three or four cavalry surrounded Xiao Shan.

Xiao Shan gave a loud order: "Break out to the south!" The dozen or so soldiers he led immediately gathered towards the south, and the golden soldiers rushed up to block the way. Killed the three golden soldiers surrounding him.

The sound of oops and wailing continued, hot blood splashed everywhere, Xiao Shan galloped on his horse, wielding an iron spear in his hand, no one dared to step forward wherever he went.

A hole was quickly torn open in the south surrounded by the golden people, Xiao Shan reined in his horse and stayed at the end, and turned around and ordered: "Hurry back and report!"

Centurion Jin Bing shouted loudly, and in an instant, arrows rained all over the sky and shot towards Xiao Shan.

Xiao Shan waved his long spear and opened all the arrows that shot around his body. Until now, he was glad that his usual kung fu was not perfect. Although the spear is the most difficult, it is also the king of weapons. It is impenetrable, guarding people up and horses down, not a single arrow slips through the net.

"Hurry up!" Xiao Shan yelled, at the same time he turned his horse's head, took off his cloak, waved it with his hands, and danced it into a round shield to prevent the arrow from being shot in the back.

The hundred or so golden soldiers behind them refused to relax, clenching their teeth tightly. Under the moonlight, more than a dozen cavalrymen covered in blood followed closely behind hundreds of tigers and wolves.

Seeing that the ten or so cavalry brought by Xiao Shan were exhausted, they were getting slower and slower, and when they were about to be overtaken by the enemy, they suddenly heard the faint sound of horseshoes, but it came from the south, and it was the two hundred cavalry brought by Wu Luan. Buqi arrived.

Rescue came so fast!Xiao Shan thought to himself, then suddenly turned his horse's head and said loudly: "Now I can't run away, who will fight me to the death?!"

More than ten riders shouted at the same time: "Kill all the gold thieves!"

The centurion of the golden man laughed loudly. When he saw that the opponent dared to hit the stone with an egg, he also ordered loudly: "Don't shoot the arrow, catch me alive!"

The two sides fell into a fight again, this time it was more brutal than the previous attack at the mouth of the valley, the horses dashed back and forth, the knives and guns collided in the night, shooting out a series of sparks, Xiao Shan and dozens of cavalrymen around him were already covered in blood, even His eyes were covered with blood, and he stretched out his hand to wipe it away before fighting.

Holding a long-handled machete, Niu Yong rushed forward screaming, and cut down three or four enemies in an instant.

The valley, which was still peaceful during the day, has now become a bloody slaughterhouse.The iron gun shaft in Xiao Shan's hand was made of poplar wood, and it had been broken at this moment. He took out the iron sword at his waist and swung it on the horse's back. The heavy sword fell, and the enemy's head rolled on the ground. After dozens of rounds, no one can resist.

In this kind of fighting, the sound of horseshoes and footsteps of the rescuers could not be heard.The centurion of the Jin Bing also noticed something was wrong and wanted to retreat, but unexpectedly the valley was narrow, and it was difficult for more than a hundred cavalry to turn back for a while.

But when he turned back in a hurry, a cannon shot suddenly sounded at the mouth of the valley, and a red lantern was raised on the top of the mountain. Seeing this, Xiao Shan immediately ordered: "Hidden!"

Before the sound fell, another burst of dense arrows shot over, and the golden soldiers who had not had time to dismount and hide were shot one after another.

The war horse was frightened at this moment, running around, and trampled on many people who had no time to get up to avoid it.

It was Wu Luan who arrived with the team.

Although there are only [-] infantry, they are well equipped and occupy an advantage in terrain. This kind of place can fight against cavalry.

Xiao Shan had already got on his horse, jumped up the hill, and commanded loudly: "Both sides outflank, don't let one go!"

Then a signal light was lit in the night, conveying the command of the general.

"Only kill people, don't hurt horses!"

Wu Luan's rescuers and Xiao Shan's joined together, and wiped out all the hundred golden soldiers who fell into the valley, and none of them escaped.

This was a small-scale battle. From the beginning to the end, the total time did not exceed half an hour, but the valley was already blood-stained.

It wasn't until cleaning the battlefield that Xiao Shan felt a little pain in his arm. He looked down and saw that the chain mail he was wearing had been cut, and blood was still gushing out from the wound.

He tore off a corner of his robe to cover the wound hastily, and then began to clean up the enemies who were not completely dead one by one, and repaired the knife on those people.

During this process, he saw that several of his soldiers had their heads cracked, their helmets were smashed to the wrong side, white brains were flowing out, and the air was filled with this bloody smell.

Golden soldiers often use heavy weapons such as maces and sledgehammers, and they are greeted by such things, even wearing armor is useless.

It took an hour to clean the battlefield, and Xiao Shan started counting the horses again. In this small-scale battle, a total of fifty horses were captured, and they were all war horses, and there were some armors and weapons made of pig iron.

Xiao Shan ordered people to drag the corpses away and bury them on the spot, so as not to infect the plague due to the hot weather and stench; he also pulled out the arrows stuck on the corpses, because weapons, especially the consumable arrows, Zhao Gou, etc. Years are not offered much and what is available is very limited.

On the way back, Xiao Shan had time to ask the spies what was going on.

Niu Yong received two sword strikes on his body and a stray arrow on his ass, but because of his strong physique, he seemed to be fine, so he reported to Xiao Shan the information he found today——Wan Yanliang personally sat in the town, dispatched 1 troops, and prepared to go south.The Jin people are only attacking tentatively now, and there are more than [-] troops outside Xinyang City. Without these vanguard troops going back to report the news, they may move a little slower, but at most they will launch an attack at dawn tomorrow.The dozen or so people brought by Niu Yong got closer because they wanted to find out more. When they came back, they were chased by the enemy. If it wasn't for Xiao Shan's ambush to rescue them, they might not be able to come back at all.

Xiao Shan silently calculated in his heart for a while, Xinyang City only had a thousand generals brought by him in total, even though he had seized about fifty horses, all the horses in total were only sixty, and the rest were all All infantry.

If the enemy attacks the city, you will face ten times as many enemies!However, Xinyang City is not high and not strong. It was reinforced when Yue Fei was stationed in this generation, but after the Song and Jin Dynasties, many stones from the city wall were taken by the local officials to build other courtyards. use.

Xiao Shan nodded, and he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his hand, but it was all blood—other people's blood.

"Hurry back to the city, strengthen your defenses, and report this matter to the imperial court."

After all these questions were asked, Xiao Shan turned his head and looked towards Wu Luan.

Wu Luan's body was also covered in blood, and his shoulder was wrapped in a bandage, so he must have been injured a little bit.Xiao Shan smiled at Wu Luan and said, "I just heard a cannon fire, where did you get the cannon?"

Wu Luan walked up to Xiao Shan, showing a smile: "The one who used the firecrackers in the city to scare people, there are only two heavy artillery in Xinyang City, how can they move them?"

When the people around heard what Wu Luan said, they also laughed. Xiao Shan praised: "Very good! Just now when the Jin people heard the cannon fire, they all looked terrified. We all took the opportunity to kill a few more."

Wu Luan was very happy to be praised by Xiao Shan, looking at Xiao Shan with a pair of shining eyes, and grinned his mouth, revealing two small canine teeth.

A group of people led the captured horses and galloped towards Xinyang City.

When Xiao Shan arrived at Xinyang City, it was already late at night, the city wall was not high, and the city gate was not too strong, but at the moment the city gate opened, there was a person standing outside the city gate, that person was wearing a dark green official robe, Wearing a black fan-footed official hat, with a slender figure and fair complexion, he was waiting quietly outside.

Xiao Shan ran up to the man, jumped off his horse, and said in a reproachful tone: "Master Zhijun, why is he here alone? He also opened the city gate wide. If the golden soldiers came to attack, wouldn't it be dangerous?" ?”

The man smiled slightly, and the light of the torch illuminated his whole body. He was a very young official, and he seemed to be only in his twenties this year. "General Xiao personally led the troops on patrol. If we encounter an ambush, we must come back first. The reason for opening the city gate is to make it easier for our troops to enter the city. As for waiting here..." The young official paused and said, " I’m not too worried, so come out and have a look.”

Xiao Shan laughed, and threw his cloak, which had been riddled with arrows, into Wu Luan's hands, and said, "Master Zhijun, don't worry, when you meet more than 100 vanguard cavalry, they have already been dealt with. Don't worry, the battlefield It has been cleaned up, and no news has been leaked. Tonight, the Jin soldiers don’t know the truth, so they dare not attack lightly, but I’m afraid they will come tomorrow morning!”

The young official smiled slightly, seeing that Xiao Shan was covered in blood, he couldn't help feeling a little worried: "Are you injured?"

Xiao Shan shook his head: "No, a little injury doesn't matter, the blood belongs to the golden soldiers."

The official nodded and said seriously: "A letter from the capital."

Xiao Shan's whole body was shaken, and the fire in his heart immediately ignited: "Whose is it?"

He was looking forward to the letter from Zhao Yuan, Zhao Yuan hadn't passed any letter to him for two months.However, he was slightly disappointed by the answer he got: "It's a letter from Brother Yu."

As the young official said, he took out the letter from his bosom and handed it to Xiao Shan, then said: "You are tired in the middle of the night, go and rest first, I have already arranged the affairs in the city, Jinren's Just let them tell me the situation!" He said while pointing at Wu Luan, Niu Yong and others.

Xiao Shan also felt a little tired, there would definitely be a hard fight tomorrow, so he should take a good rest.He was not too polite, took the letter and returned to his room.

His residence is next to the Xinyang Army Mansion Yamen, and he is the neighbor of this young Xinyang Army Zhijun Zhang Xiaoxiang.

He walked into his own small courtyard, scooped a bucket of cold water from the water tank in the courtyard, and splashed it on himself, the blood snaked down along the water and flowed on the ground.The stimulation of the cold water made him sober up a lot. He flushed two or three buckets of cold water to wash off all the blood on his body before returning to his room. Lying on the bed, he opened Yu Yunwen's letter.

The content of the letter was quite ordinary, but it was just asking how Xiao Shan was doing in Xinyang, and mentioned Zhang Xiaoxiang, the Zhijun of Xinyang, and said that you two were appointed at the same time, you are both young talents, and you should get along happily.

When Xiao Shan saw this, he couldn't help laughing.

Under his own persuasion, Yu Yunwen took the imperial examination early, but he never expected that Yu Yunwen also met a friend on the way to Beijing to catch the exam.

At that time, Zhang Xiaoxiang was studying in Jiankang Mansion, but because he passed the provincial examination at the age of 16, he was already known as a child prodigy. The two hit it off and became friends.Yu Yunwen persuaded Zhang Xiaoxiang: "You are a talented brother, what books do you need to study? Let's go to Beijing together to catch the exam!"

So the two went to Beijing to take the imperial examination together, and went to high school in the same subject.The difference is that Yu Yunwen only won the rank of Jinshi, but Zhang Xiaoxiang was the number one scholar in that subject, and was recruited by Zhao Gou to the imperial court to question him.

Three months ago, Zhang Xiaoxiang was transferred to the Xinyang Army one day earlier than Xiao Shan. This time, Zhang Xiaoxiang's official position was promoted again, and he became the Zhijun of the Xinyang Army.Because the position of the highest military and political officer has always been held by civil servants, when Xiao Shan came here to report, he thought that Lord Zhijun was still an old man before, but when he looked up, he did not expect that his immediate boss was such a young scholar.

Xiao Shan didn't know what the other party's original historical trajectory was like, but since he was touched by Yu Yunwen who was fanned by his butterfly wings, it is estimated that his life trajectory has also changed.

After reading the letter, although Xiao Shan was not exhausted, he knew that there would be a big battle soon, so he closed his eyes and lay down on the bed. At this moment, Xiao Shan had been with Zhang Xiaoxiang for more than three months, and he knew very well that this young Zhijun lord It's not a waste of fame, and it's definitely not a young and ignorant generation. He said that if he can arrange it well, then it's almost the same.Thinking of this, Xiao Shan gradually fell asleep. Tomorrow will be a more cruel test, but now, he needs to rest.