The Monk

Chapter 719 Border Warfare

The more than 300 cavalrymen I met in the morning, together with the more than 30 people killed last night, all came from a county west of Yue State. The army was hastily formed, and the quality was mixed, with good and bad soldiers. Because of the looting, more than 30 bad soldiers were killed by him, but the other soldiers did not have too many bad deeds. It was inevitable that they were arrogant and domineering, but they were not guilty of death. It was just because the generals were greedy and issued a wrong order, adding hundreds of souls to the dead. It is a bit sad to say it, so Zhang was afraid that he would not make things difficult for the remaining cavalry and let them go back.

This time it was a nationwide troop mobilization, with a total of 1.6 million. The northern soldiers met in the capital and set off to the south in batches. The southern soldiers gathered and reorganized nearby and headed to the front line.

As for where the front line is, why the troops were mobilized, and why it was difficult to go to Jing, the answer is very simple, the Wu soldiers are coming.

The terrain of the continent is very irregular. Yue borders Qi to the south, and Wu and the sea to the south of Qi. However, Yue also has an estuary and borders Wu.

To put it simply, the southeast of the continent is like a diagonal line, and below the diagonal line is the sea. The diagonal line is occupied by many countries, and the country that occupies the most is Wu.

Wu has the longest coastline. The entire Wu is like a crescent moon attached to the seashore. On one side is the sea, and on the other side is the Death Mountains, one of the two strange places on the continent. The sea and the mountains sandwich a narrow Wu, with a road at each end, leading to Qi and Yue respectively.

The border between Wu and Yue is a pass. A five-mile long and five-mile wide passage is split near the sea of ​​the Death Mountains. On both sides of the passage, Yue and Wu have heavy troops stationed.

Wu is the country with the most wars on the continent. There have been civil unrest for many years. It is divided into thirteen forces, all of which are named Wu. For the convenience of distinction, they are named Shang Wu, Xing Wu, etc. The one bordering Yue is Bai Wu.

Wu was in constant war, and cultivators fought in chaos. As the thirteen major forces gradually unified various places, cultivators also formed thirteen major cultivation sects, and each cultivation sect was the pillar of a country. The pillar of Bai Wu was the Bai Lian Sword Sect. Outsiders were used to calling it, so they directly called it the Bai Wu Sword Sect.

Yue bordered many countries, but the only countries that were constantly at war were the northern barbarians and the southern Bai Wu. The northern barbarians and Song were great enemies, so they rarely sent troops to Yue. Later, when monsters and beasts were causing chaos, they stopped the war directly. For hundreds of years since then, the border defense of the entire Yue was Bai Wu. There were no less than 600,000 troops stationed on the border.

Just to guard a mountain road that was five miles long and five miles wide, 600,000 troops were stationed, which showed how fierce the Bai Wu army was.

In the thirteen Wus in the south, men began to receive combat training since childhood. After adulthood, they experienced wars. Those who survived were all elite soldiers in the army. The whole country was full of such soldiers, and the soldiers of Yue could not compete at all.

The court of Yue State had a clear idea. If they couldn't win, they would use human lives to fill the gap. They used soldiers several times more than the Bai Wu army to guard the pass. Who would have thought that Bai Wu looked down on Yue State at all, and just used Yue State soldiers to train, and sent all the new soldiers here to hone their skills, and trained them into brave soldiers to fight against Lie Wu and Jin Wu in the west. This situation existed for a long time, until this year, when the Western Lie Wu and Jin Wu joined forces to attack and defeated Bai Wu. They fought 70 battles in a row, broke 70 cities in a row, and reduced Bai Wu's territory by one third.

The Wu people were fearless in fighting. Soldiers fought with soldiers, and cultivators fought with cultivators. The 70 consecutive defeats dealt a huge blow to the Bailian Sword School and Bai Wu. Finally, they had to invite two sword masters of the Bailian Sword School. It was all thanks to these two masters who fought hard and finally stopped Bai Wu's defeat. A stalemate was formed again with Lie Wu and Jin Wu.

With Bai Wu's soldiers, it was impossible to defeat the coalition forces of the two countries and regain lost territory in a short period of time. However, if the lost territory is not recovered, not only will the national fortune deteriorate, but the number of soldiers will also be greatly reduced. So a minister suggested that they should attack Yue State, occupy its territory, collect its elite soldiers, develop and expand as soon as possible, use the surrendered soldiers of Yue State to contain the armies of Lie Wu and Jin Wu, and then gather the elite soldiers of Bai Wu to attack, and recover as much lost territory as possible.

The king adopted this suggestion and expanded the war between Yue and Wu. At the beginning, there were several major battles, and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Bai Wu saw that this would not work. Wouldn't it be a fight on both sides and losses on both sides? Invite the sword cultivators of the White Lotus Sword Sect to help defeat the enemy.

The cultivators of the White Lotus Sword Sect have the pride of cultivators and are unwilling to bully ordinary people. They sent a dozen people at random, thinking that they would retreat if they met the cultivators of Yue State. However, the demon sect in the south of Yue State was hidden, and the small sects did not dare to compete with it. These dozen low-level sword cultivators became the supreme existence at the border, and by the way, they determined the outcome of the war between Yue and Wu.

In addition to those who died in battle and fled, the number of captured soldiers of Yue State reached 400,000. The whole court was shocked by the result, so the Jingnan Army was established. The Dai Viet Dynasty gathered 1.6 million troops to take back the captives and the pass.

But they didn't expect that there were too many soldiers and bandits, which disturbed the people along the way. Zhang Pa happened to meet them along the way. So he had to go to the barracks to see if there were other bastards who were also doing evil. In addition, he also had to go to the pass.

Bai Wu raised troops, and the unlucky people of Yue were the ones. Zhang Pa certainly couldn't stand it. He would personally rescue the lost 3,000 children, not to mention the lives of hundreds of thousands or millions of soldiers. How could he not care? Buddha asked, if I don't go to hell, who will? Answer: Zhang Pa went, he had the courage to go to hell.

There were a total of 81 horses in their group. Including Zhang Pa, there were 65 horses, and 16 horses were left. Except for one horse pretending to pull a small carriage, the rest did not need reins or control, and automatically followed the carriage.

Who wouldn't be jealous of this team? Even if you don't know much about horses, you will still praise such a brave dragon. But it's a pity that all the riders are children, which makes people sigh again and again.

When they left the city gate, the common people and the soldiers guarding the city were very jealous. When they walked to the military camp fifteen miles away, they were directly surrounded by the knights.

They were not ordinary soldiers, but officers. At first there was one, then two, and then more and more people gathered. They stopped Zhang Pa and said they wanted to buy horses. It seemed that if Zhang Pa didn't sell, they would rob him.

Zhang Pa ignored them and looked into the camp. The soldiers were either lining up or packing up their tents, preparing to move south. There were more than 6,000 people in total. Because they had joined forces not long ago, the generals' orders could not be carried out smoothly. They were not unified in doing things, which showed their combat effectiveness.

This place is in the Ninghe River Basin. Zhang Pa still remembers that when he came out of the Yuewu Pass and went west, he arrived at the Ninghe River two days later. It was not long after he went south along the Ninghe River that he reached the estuary, and it was this city when he went upstream along the Ninghe River.

He thought about it while riding on the horse. Seeing that the camp was moving slowly, the situation in the south should not be too tense.

He didn't say anything, and an officer was angry, stretched out his hand to grab him, and shouted: "Sell the horse!"

Zhang Pa didn't say anything, and the dragon horse under his seat raised its hooves and kicked the man's chest. He didn't use any force, just a light touch, and the officer flew three meters backwards and fell to the ground.

This kick made all the officers angry, and some of them drew their swords to cut. Zhang Pa rolled his eyes at them and whispered: "Get out of here." In a tent that was about to be folded, there was a wooden frame on which hung the generals he had seen in the morning. His back was covered with scars and blood, all traces of whipping. But no soldiers were punished.

He scolded the officers, and the officers were of course angry. At that time, some people wanted to raise their knives to kill people. At this time, a lieutenant ran out of the barracks, holding a flag and shouting: "The general ordered that all generals return to the camp to lead their own soldiers and move the camp at noon." A group of officers received the order, glared at Zhang Pa, and then turned back to the camp.

Zhang Pa was very curious. This was the first time he heard of an army setting out in the afternoon since he was a child. This general was interesting.

After the officers left, the lieutenant said, "According to the general's order, we are recruiting civilian horses into the army. Please leave your name and place of origin. I will report to the court and the government will buy these horses. The money will be delivered to your door." Zhang Pa Yile was still cruel. The general was ruthless. He directly took all the horses for nothing. His men at least wanted to spend some money to show their appreciation. Not only did the old man not pay, but he also put the hat of the court on me. Damn it. He came to the camp to see if there were any poor people like the four women in the morning. Unexpectedly, he did not see any poor people, but instead attracted a group of greedy people. Alas, this is the soldier, this is the soldier of the common people today. From the Ninghe flood a few years ago, he killed many corrupt officials, to the current soldiers using force, what is the emperor of Dai Viet doing all day long? Can't he manage his men well? He sighed and shook his head, waved his hand, and the horse team set off, moving slowly along the way. Seeing that Zhang Pa ignored him and treated the military order as nothing, the lieutenant shouted: "Disobeying military orders during wartime is equivalent to treason. Come on, stop them." He had made preparations in advance. With a shout, a hundred strong soldiers rushed out from the camp gate, each holding a sword and a gun and blocking the road ahead.

Zhang Pa didn't want to get angry with this group of soldiers and bandits, so he raised his hand and pointed at the general hanging on the wooden frame in the camp and said: "Go ask him why he was whipped."

The lieutenant's face changed slightly when he heard it. Others couldn't understand what he meant, but he understood it very well. In the early morning, the general led 300 people out of the camp to look for the escaped soldiers, and in the morning he brought 200 people back, saying that the rest of the soldiers were dead. The general was furious, because he was worried that killing the general before the battle would be disadvantageous to the war, so he spared his life, but ordered him to be whipped for ten days, but not to be beaten to death, just to make him suffer every day.

This order was passed by the lieutenant. After hearing what Zhang Pa said, the lieutenant doubted in his heart, could it be that he killed more than a hundred soldiers?

He was just a messenger. He knew that the general's men were killed, but he didn't know the details. Otherwise, he would have known that Zhang Pa did it. He was accompanied by a bunch of children and a bunch of horses. How could he make a mistake with such obvious signs?

The general knew these things, and knew that Zhang Pa and a group of children were outside the camp, but he didn't believe what the general said. He didn't believe that a young man could kill a hundred soldiers in a moment, so he sent people out to rob horses and kill people by the way.

There were soldiers blocking the road in front, each of them had a fierce face and murderous look, which scared dozens of children. Some were timid or avoided, and some children shouted loudly. Zhang Pa looked back at them and said clearly word by word: "There is nothing in this world that can scare you. Remember, nothing is scary!" The children looked at him in confusion. Those people in front were holding knives. Isn't it scary?