Time flies, and the Spring Festival of Jiayou’s tenth year has passed quietly without even realizing it.

Due to the sudden rebellion in the Huaihe River, the surrounding states and counties were in danger. The governors of each state and county called on the large households in the county to contribute money and food, recruit local warriors, and train them to prepare for the incoming rebels.

The local wealthy gentry either fled into the city or fled to the surrounding areas to temporarily avoid the rebels.

Gu Er had been arriving at Wuwei Army for some time, and took charge of Wuwei Army as the Marquis of Yu for the time being.

However, Xie Bingde has already transferred the main force of the Wuwei Army to Haozhou, and now there are only more than a thousand troops left in the Wuwei Army.

Gu Er took the transfer order and official seal and called on the wealthy gentry in the Wuwei Army to contribute money and food. He also recruited more than a thousand rural warriors, plus some defeated soldiers who had returned from Haozhou, totaling 3,000 soldiers, including 2,000.

Five hundred regular soldiers, five hundred auxiliary soldiers, and five hundred civilians were recruited to collect food, grass and weapons on the spot. While training, they slowly headed north towards Haozhou.

The army marched lightly and simply, passing through Chao County, bypassing Chao Lake, and stopped at Tuogao Town in the north of Chao Lake. Tuogao Town is located at the northernmost point of Wuwei Army, with access to Luzhou to the west and Hezhou to the east.

Gu Er's army was stationed in Tuogao and was not in a hurry to rush to Luzhou to fight the rebels who were attacking Luzhou. Instead, they started training on the spot.

It wasn't that Gu Er didn't want to go to war immediately, but it was because the soldiers under his command were ineffective. Most of the elite members of the Wuwei Army were taken away by Xie Bingde and lost in the battle with the rebels. The rest were either old and weak or just recruited by Gu Er.

Xiangyong.

If the rebels had just started, these village warriors might not be useless, but now the rebels have been fighting with the official army for several months. The rebels have gained the upper hand. Even the Wuwei Army was defeated by them. The commander Xie Bingde was

After being captured, their heads were chopped off and used to sacrifice the flag. Now that the morale of the rebels is strong, the original mob must have changed after each battle.

Now that the enemy is strong and we are weak, how dare Gu Er underestimate the enemy and advance rashly?

Fortunately, with the support of the entire Wuwei Army, there is no need to worry about the problem of food and grass. The soldiers' cotton-padded clothes and quilts are all ready. Although it is the twelfth month of winter, Gu Er still leads his soldiers to train every day. The twenty soldiers he brought from Quanzhou

Several elites have already been incorporated into the army and serve as grassroots generals in the army.

On the night of the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, it snowed heavily.

In the military tent, the lights were bright, and Gu Er, dressed in military uniform, sat in front of the table, using the oil lamp to look at the map on the table carefully, frowning slightly.

"Report!" A familiar voice suddenly came from outside.

"Come in!" Gu Er raised his eyebrows slightly, turned his eyes to the entrance of the camp, and said hurriedly.

The curtain was opened, and Shi Shi, who was dressed in coarse linen, took off his bamboo hat from his head, patted the snowflakes on his body, walked quickly to Gu Er, cupped his hands and said: "House of Yu, this morning, there are people in Shen County and Yong'an Town.

A large number of bandit troops are mobilized, and looking at the direction they are marching, they are heading towards Luzhou."

"How many troops did Shen County dispatch?" Gu Er asked hurriedly.

"At least five thousand!" Shitou said calmly.

Gu Er asked again: "Can you see clearly?"

"The general can clearly see that the bandit flags stretch for miles!" Shitou replied affirmatively.

Most of Gu Er's men were new troops, and the requirements for scouts were quite high. Gu Er could only let Shitou and a few old soldiers brought from Quanzhou lead the team in person, disguise themselves and go to investigate the movements of the rebels.

"It has only been half a month since the rebel army captured Shen County. Shen County is a central county with only two thousand households and more than ten thousand people at most. There are only a few thousand young and strong people. The bandit army of six thousand, including the people they conquered and bewitched in Shen County,

At most there are no more than eight thousand people, and now we have sent five thousand people, so the bandit army in Shen County is no more than three thousand people?"

Gu Er looked at the map and analyzed it calmly.

"The whole territory of Haozhou fell. The bandit army did not go north, but went west and south. Now they have occupied the three counties of Xiacai, Shouchun, and Anfeng. Shouzhou has been nearly halfway. They want to go to Luzhou.

and Hefei, Shouzhou and Luzhou will be included in the bag, and then slowly eat away at the entire West Huainan Road, then go west to Jinghu, hold the granary of Jinghu in your hands, with Bashu as your back, then you can go south to Jiangnan

, Guangnan Road, and to the north is Jingxi, Qinfeng..."

As he spoke, Gu Er frowned, with a bit of surprise in his eyes. If this was true as he thought, then there really was something about these rebels.

Although the Song Dynasty has had a truce with Liao and Xia for many years, there are many frictions in the border areas, and Xixia often jumps up and down. Moreover, these two tiger and wolf countries are both powerful. The rebels do not want to attack the capital, but start from the Huaihe River.

, heading south all the way, it is clear that they want to use the imperial court as a weapon to block the pressure from the west and north.

No matter what the strength of this group of rebels is, if they really think so, then the idea is indeed feasible.

Maybe there are already rebels in Jinghu, Bashu, Jiangnan and other places, and they are just waiting for the opportunity to rise up...

However, this idea only flashed through Gu Er's mind, and was quickly rejected. Today's officials are kind and generous. In the past ten years, they have neglected corvee and neglected taxes, and vigorously developed people's livelihood. When the people live and work in peace and contentment, there will be natural disasters.

They have always distributed money and food relief as soon as possible, eliminating taxes for several years so that the people can recuperate and recuperate.

The government and the public still respect and recognize the officials. Now, this group of rebels just took advantage of the severe drought in Haozhou and the locust plague. In addition, the local gentry and the wealthy local gentry concealed their superiors and bullied their subordinates and took advantage of the opportunity to exploit them. This made the people's resentment boiling over.

Thieves can take advantage of this opportunity.

However, it is rare for other officials to govern the Qingming Land. It is just that the people are ignorant and can easily be seduced and coerced by thieves...

With his mind settled, Gu Er slowly calmed down, his eyes flashing as he thought about strategies to defeat the enemy.

The next day, the scouts reported again that the rebel army had moved to a place thirty miles away from Luzhou City and was stationed there.

Gu Er immediately called Shitou and said, "Come down and get the whole army ready to go. Let the gang leader prepare meals. The soldiers will be energetic and ready to set off to rescue Luzhou at any time!"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "I will obey your orders!" Shitou responded and bowed out.

Now that the Wuwei Army has just been reorganized, and Gu Er has just arrived, there are very few people available under his command, so naturally he can only rely on the "elite" brought from Quanzhou, and Shitou is naturally a close confidant of Gu Er's.

On the early morning of the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, the sky was getting brighter. New Year's Eve was approaching and the Spring Festival was approaching. However, all the prefectures and counties in Luzhou were heavily guarded. As soon as night fell, the city gates were locked and a curfew was implemented. People were not allowed to go to the streets.

The city gates have been strengthened and guarded, and there are sergeants patrolling day and night.

The defenders on the tower had been on guard all night, feeling cold and hungry. As the sky was getting brighter, it was finally time to change shifts. A rare smile appeared on the almost frozen faces.

On the edge of the battlements and beside the brazier, several soldiers wearing simple leather armor and carrying spears huddled together, relying on each other's body heat and the brazier in front of them to dispel the biting chill.

A hint of fish belly white had just appeared on the horizon, and the defenders who had been guarding the city wall all night were already exhausted physically and mentally. It was the time when they were most tired. If it hadn't been for the cold weather, they would have already dozed off by now.

An old sergeant with gray hair on his temples stayed by the fire all night. He was awakened by a strong urge to urinate. He stood up and was about to find a place to urinate. When he was sleepy, he saw the densely packed city below, like locusts passing through.

, at first I didn’t take it seriously, thinking it was a dream, but suddenly a cold wind blew in my face, making the old soldier shiver all over, and most of his sleep was gone.

Then he suddenly reacted, frowning at first, and took out a torch from the brazier in confusion, and stuck his head out from the battlements, holding the torch and looking out of the city. Before he could see clearly, he could only hear howling.

The sound of breaking wind suddenly sounded, and when the old soldier was confused, an arrow was accurately inserted into his throat.

The old soldier's eyes suddenly widened, and he stretched out his hand in disbelief to grab the feathered arrow, but his throat was shot through by an arrow, and his whole body seemed to be soaked in a quagmire. He couldn't exert any strength at all, and his blood couldn't be stopped.

The blood trough broken by the arrow spurted out.

"Lao Xing! Lao Xing!"

Seeing that the old soldier didn't come back for a long time, the companions at the fire couldn't help shouting: "It couldn't be that the weather was too cold and it froze him to death!"

As soon as these words came out, several companions who were still napping next to them woke up one after another and started laughing and teasing the old soldier.

A sharp-eyed man saw the old soldier lying motionless on the battlement, and felt something was wrong. He got up and went to check, calling the old soldier's name as he walked.

"Lao Xing! Lao Xing!"

"You're not too sleepy to lie down here and fall asleep, are you?"

Seeing that the old soldier had no response, the sergeant frowned and patted the old soldier a few times, but there was no response at all. He suddenly felt that something was wrong and pulled the old soldier back from the battlement. Then he saw the stick stuck in the old soldier's mouth.

The feather arrow on his neck naturally saw the blood lying all over the battlements.

"Old Xing is dead!"

"Enemy attack!"

"Enemy attack!"

The sergeant shouted while looking down at the city in shock. He saw the wilderness shrouded in night, and there seemed to be an overwhelming black tide surging in!

The sergeant's shouting immediately woke up the surrounding companions. Everyone gathered around and saw Lao Xing's miserable condition. Even though some people ran to the Drum Tower, someone picked up the gong, banged it vigorously, and shouted: "

Enemy attack!"

Listening to the noise coming from the city wall, the rebel army below the city no longer hid. The rebel leader drew out his long knife, raised his arms and shouted: "Kill!"

Deafening shouts of killing suddenly rang out from the city. The rebels, each wearing a black turban, wearing various clothes, and armed with a variety of weapons, shouted, carried ladders, and pushed door hammers towards the city wall.

The soldiers patrolling the city and keeping vigil rushed to the battlements one after another. The soldiers who were sleeping were awakened one by one. A big battle was about to break out!

I don’t know when the sky has brightened. The gate tower is full of feather arrows. The corridors on the city wall are also full of scattered feather arrows. The mottled city wall is stained with blood. The bottom of the city wall is covered with corpses. The first rebel leader

The Bo attack ended in failure, but the defenders on the city wall also paid a heavy price.

Dozens of miles away, behind a mountain col, a large flag with the Chinese character "Gu" rustled in the cold wind.

On the silver-covered ground, the sergeants wearing hoods, leather armors, carrying swords and guns, and carrying bows and arrows were sitting on the ground. Although they were resting, the overall military affairs were not dispersed.

Gu Er held the map, looked at the surrounding terrain, and confirmed his position with the leader.

Amid the howling cold wind, a scout galloped back on his horse. He reined in his horse and stopped in front of Gu Er.

"General, the first siege of the rebel army has ended. Both sides have suffered heavy losses. Now the rebel army is mobilizing a large number of troops and seems to be organizing a second wave of attacks."

"Explore again!" Gu Er said in a deep voice.

"promise!"

The scout accepted the order, got on his horse again, and galloped away in the direction he came from.

"General, the bandit army is huge. If we go up hastily, we may not be able to get any benefits!" The stone next to him raised his hand and suggested.

"Who said we were going to fight with these rebels!" Gu Er glanced at Shitou and said calmly.
To be continued...