Chapter 1117 The Price to Pay

The fact that human heads can be registered as military merits also shocked the troops who originally surrendered in Tongguan. To be honest, for these people, being a soldier is just a way to earn a living, but they have never thought that being a soldier can also make a fortune and change their lives!

What people fear most is not knowing their future direction, or even knowing where to go next...

Therefore, when the troops who surrendered from Tongguan expressed their willingness to fight for the great cause of General Conquering the West for their whole life with great enthusiasm and motivation, Li Xian had to smile bitterly, worry, and talk to several middle and high-level officials. The non-commissioned officer was placed under house arrest in a small dark room and was in panic all day long.

The house is not big, with one door and one window, and nothing else. Well, if I have to say it, the mats on the floor, the thin Gebu bedding, and the smelly toilet in the corner are the only furniture in the house...

Because the ventilation in the house is not very good, and the toilet is only cleaned once a day, the four big men, including Li Xian, are either standing in front of the window or sitting in front of the door.

As for sleeping at night, there is no other way. I can only rely on one word of motto to block the smell.

Tolerate.

"Damn it, we surrendered soldiers, we have to kill two soldiers! Tsk tsk..." A military prince stood in front of the window, talking about the news he heard, "...it takes a soldier's head to be transformed into a soldier." Preliminary pawns, the heads of two soldiers are considered the main pawns..."

"And when fighting, we Yi Cong soldiers... aren't we just 'Yi Cong'? We still need to stand in front of the formation, with only weapons and no armor..." Another song leader also whispered in the interface.

In the past few days, the soldiers of General Zhengxi who were stationed outside kept shouting to the surrendered soldiers. Then it was not too difficult for someone to know the news.

Another military lord who was sitting at the door like Li Xian said lukewarmly: "What's wrong? Are you still disgusted? Do you know how many people are willing to be this 'Yi Congbing' in the past two days? They are already halfway there." ! I estimate that in two days the remaining half will be almost enough..."

"What can be done about this?" said the military lord standing in front of the window, "This is a matter of course... Our soldiers were also recruited. Now they have a better place to go and a better future..."

And Qian Cheng.

Military merit can be exchanged for land, money, cattle and horses, or even official positions. Some of these recruited soldiers are tenant farmers under the gentry in Hongnong County, and most of them can no longer live in the local area. People can only come to join the army and get food and clothing. In comparison, these most basic soldiers originally had little loyalty to the Hongnong Yang family, but they were quickly replaced by the new and more promising road. replaced.

Li Xian was silent for a while, and then slowly said: "This is an old method from the pre-Qin Dynasty. It was also used by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty before... I didn't expect that Zhengxi would use it again..."

While he was talking, suddenly the light in the corridor outside the house dimmed, and several soldiers came over. One of them was wearing leather armor and stood in front of the door of Li Xian and others' room...

After Xu Shu burned Yang Jun's troops and horses with kerosene, Yang Jun knew that it was difficult to attack. On the one hand, he had no siege equipment, and on the other hand, he had to wait for Yang Biao to make a corresponding decision and reply, so he spent the past two days on the Hangu Mountain Road. When they set up camp on the road and blocked the intersection, they faced Xu Shu from a distance. They did not launch an offensive. They just sent people to the rear to cut down trees and make preparations.

There is still some distance between Tongguan and Luoyang. Even if we use fast horses and rush 300 miles, it will take four or five days to go there and back. Hongnong's post system has been basically abolished due to Dong Zhuo's destruction, so even if you want to use a six hundred-mile express delivery, it's not that you are not good enough, but that you don't have the conditions.

Along this way, there are not many inns that have been put back into use, and most of them do not have spare fast horses, so a six hundred-mile express delivery has become a luxury...

In addition, Yang Biao also needs to weigh and consider. If he comes to Yang Jun, even if he attacks again, it will definitely be three days later. Therefore, in the past two days, Xu Shu has been allocating resources so that Ma Yan can be more effective. In addition to the good repair and defense of Tongguan City Wall, there is another very important thing...

"How are you thinking about it?"

Xu Shu didn't talk nonsense, but stood in front of the house and asked directly.

For a moment, the three people in the room looked at Li Xian.

As an ordinary soldier, there is no problem. You are a soldier everywhere anyway, not to mention that the treatment here in Zhengxi is better and there is more hope.

But for middle-level generals like Yu Li Xian, there is a bit of a dilemma. Because normally, it is impossible for most of them to be arranged according to their original positions, and naturally it is impossible to give them the original soldiers to lead them. They will at least be deployed or even demoted.

Xu Shu, on the other hand, gave another option, one that did not require downgrading.

After Yang Tong's death, Li Xian had the highest position, so the two remaining princes and Qu Chang respected Li Xian and hoped that Li Xian could continue to take them with him.

But if you want to achieve this, you must pay a price.

And this price may be paid by oneself, or others may be paid...

Li Xian was silent for a long time, and finally sighed, prostrated himself on the ground and said: "Someone...is willing to be driven..."

…………………………

In Suyi County, Zhao Wen has been somewhat uneasy these past two days.

Neither the scouts nor the messengers sent out were able to obtain the information Zhao Wen needed. Neither Chang'an nor Hongnong knew anything about it.

Except for the Suyi city in front of him, Zhao Wen could see nothing and hear nothing on this battlefield. Although the sun was rising and setting around him, it was actually dark for Zhao Wen. Such unknown fear is engulfing Zhao Wen's heart all the time, making him, who was still very confident, now worried about gains and losses.

Is this old guy Zhong Shao dead now?

Has Lingyi been captured?

Although Xia Mou had already betrayed Zhong Shao once, and his own people were watching from the side, what if Xia Mou rebelled again, and what if his own people were negligent?

There has been no news from Tongguan for a long time. Is there anything unexpected?

What if Mr. Yang is busy with Guandong affairs and doesn't have time to send troops?

All kinds of questions were endlessly tumbling in Zhao Wen's mind.

There are cavalry in the city, but the number is not large, that is, about a thousand, which is only slightly more than the front troops of General Zhengxi. In other words, unless you send them all out to open up a communication road, there will be no cavalry in the city. Under the current situation, there is no need to know the information about Chang'an and Tongguan...

But a thousand cavalry can only open up the road at most. If they want to defeat them, they have to pay a high price. And this price is something Zhao Wen is reluctant to bear.

After all, these are the only cavalry on hand...

So use one thousand against eight hundred, not seeking victory, but to ensure the smooth flow of communication roads, and then pull and contain the opponent's cavalry. If General Zhengxi's cavalry dares to attack, that would be even better. Come back and fight with the infantry. By working together, he would have the opportunity to catch all the troublesome Zhengxi cavalry wandering around Suyi.

However, such a situation is unlikely to occur. It is more of a stalemate and then the other party retreats.

Now is the time to make a decision. Otherwise, if he really wants to do this once the follow-up cavalry troops of General Zhengxi arrive, he may not be able to carry out such a strategy due to the strength of his troops.

However, whether to go east or west and focus on which direction is still a question.

As a result of the division of troops, it is very likely that nothing will be gained and losses will be in vain. After all, the combat power of General Zhengxi's cavalry was fully demonstrated in front of Zhao Wen and should not be underestimated.

General Zhengxi's purpose of disrupting the surrounding areas and cutting off communications, Zhao Wen could more or less guess, was simply to implicate himself and worry that he would send his soldiers to attack the part of the Suyi garrison heading east.

However, in Zhao Wen's mind, the three to four thousand defenders originally stationed in Suyi during the Western Expedition were not considered the most thorny and urgent issue at the moment. The most important issue was Chang'an.

It can only be Chang'an.

After thinking about it, Zhao Wen finally chose to protect himself first.

Although sending soldiers to Tongguan, it is possible to work in tandem with Hongnong's Yang soldiers to attack the soldiers sent to Tongguan from Zhengxi. Although this is an absolute advantage in Tongguan, it is also a situation for Zhao Wen. It was tantamount to losing hope of contacting Chang'an. Even if he could defeat the part of General Zhengxi's troops in Suyi, if he lost control of Chang'an, wouldn't Zhao Wen's title of Jingzhao Yin be an empty title?

Furthermore, since he was in contact with Chang'an's troops, even if Tongguan was lost, he could rely on the troops on hand to compete. What's more, Zhao Wen still didn't believe that Tongguan would be lost so quickly.

The reason why I am here is simply to cut off the food route of the troops headed west to Tongguan by General Fei Qian of the Expedition to the West!

Without the support of food and grass, even if the front troops of General Zhengxi can take Tongguan, what can they do?

What's more, Tongguan will never be lost.

Even if there are four thousand soldiers, how can it be so easy to attack a pass with two thousand guards?

Normally, if you don't have more than five times the strength of the troops, if you want to attack the city pass, even if you can win, you will still lose miserably!

Zhao Wen still knew this.

Before he attacked Zhongshao, he had an affair with Yang Biao, and Yang Biao also said that he would send a troop of soldiers and horses to assist him in defending against General Yu Zhengxi. Calculating the time, he should have basically arrived at Tongguan.

Therefore, no matter how you calculate it, with such a superior force, it is impossible for Tongguan to lose!

So there is no need to rescue Tongguan by myself...

For me, Chang'an and Suyi are the two most important places!

Zhao Wen finally made up his mind and dispatched the cavalry troops on hand to drive away Zhang Ji's cavalry troops in the surrounding area and open up an information channel to Chang'an.

Thousands of rumbling cavalry rushed out of Suyi and drove away Zhang Ji's scattered cavalry. In this way, Zhang Ji could no longer disperse his troops, so he gathered his cavalry accordingly, and then slowly retreated north.

As for Zhao Wen's cavalry troops, they did not dare to pursue excessively, but just followed from a distance...

Seeing that he finally drove away the disturbing Fei Qian's front cavalry, Zhao Wen breathed a sigh of relief, and then re-sent the messenger towards Chang'an and Tongguan...

…………………………

Zhao Wen's cavalry who came out of Suyi ran out for more than 20 miles in fear. They saw one or two headless corpses of the messengers who had died before, lying scattered on the left and right sides of the road...

This is something new.

Not even had time to be eaten...

Those who were earlier had basically fallen into the bellies of the beasts on the ground. After all, it is not easy to find some food in winter, whether for humans or beasts. This suddenly provided a lot more food sources, which attracted the surrounding wild dogs and wolves, as well as some scavenging birds.

Fortunately, in Guanzhong, there are no large-scale wolf packs due to human activities, and most of the big cats live in remote mountainous areas and will not easily move on the plains of Guanzhong, so these animals were given. The wild dogs left behind these precious ingredients.

A few wild dogs who were having a dinner together heard the sound of horse hooves and raised their heads from the corpse. They stared at it with their red eyes and showed no intention of retreating. They just stood and stared at it.

One of the wild dogs may have felt that the large intestine in the belly of the corpse in front of him was more greasy and chewy, so he quickly gave up the desire to continue staring at the messengers galloping on the road, lowered his head and pulled out the intestines of the corpse. Then several others quickly joined the rush, leaving only one on the periphery, still on guard.

The liver and spleen are the first ones to be eaten, while flesh, blood and limbs are the last to be eaten...

On the fork of the tree near the corpse, a dozen black crows gathered from nowhere and were cawing, as if protesting the tyrannical behavior of wild dogs, or announcing the departure of these new messengers. Entering death...

"unlucky!"

A cavalryman who was marching cursed in a low voice. Perhaps to vent his anger at the wild dogs, or to declare his disdain for these deaths, he took off his bow and arrow from his horse and pointed at the eating wild dogs. The dog shot an arrow straight away.

With a whoosh, the long arrow streaked across the sky, but with a whoosh, it pierced a wild dog that was pulling its intestines, startling it. Immediately, the large intestine in its mouth was snatched away by another wild dog, and it suddenly It howled angrily at the cavalry who had disturbed its feeding, then turned around and continued to search for a new target in the belly of the corpse.

"Okay! Let's go! Business is important!"

The one at the front saw that the cavalry behind him who had missed his shot wanted to shoot again, so he stopped him.

When several cavalrymen saw this situation, they also fell silent and continued to rush towards Tongguan with their heads down.

These are the prices humans pay for war.

After leaving the county seat of Suyi, they walked for another day. In the early morning of the next day, not long after the cavalry had started their journey, they discovered a plume of smoke rising far to the east... …

Several people quickly rode up to the small slope beside the road and looked into the distance.

After a while, the sharp-eyed soldier among them shouted: "I seem to have seen Duke Yang's flag! It must be Duke Yang's soldiers and horses coming!"

The cavalryman who led the team carefully identified it for a while, and then said: "...it seems to be really Yang Gong's flag...there are about a thousand people...So, it should be the vanguard from the front...Xiaozi, You can take someone to unfurl the flag and go up to have a look..."

Immediately, two people unfolded a small identification flag, stuck it on their lower backs, and rode forward. Not long after, one of them ran back happily, shouting loudly and shaking something in his hand, "It's really Duke Yang's soldiers and horses! The captain leading the team is named Li! There are a thousand soldiers and horses at the front. It is said that there are still three thousand troops behind! The seal is correct..."