across the Quartet

Chapter Four

dusk.cloud.distant mountains.lonely city.

On the west side of the city tower hangs a large fire cloud, and a row of hunting banners are planted on the battlements.The shadow of the parapet was stretched longer and longer by the setting sun, and behind the shadow stood a row of 24 soldiers holding halberds, all of them were ashen-headed, with dry mouths and chapped lips, and a fine layer of sand covered their armor.

They have stood here motionless for four hours.

Gai Nie is one of these 24 defenders.He is very patient, but he doesn't think it is bitter; he licks the blood when his lips are cracked, and rubs them vigorously when the sand gets in his eyes, until tears stream down his face.Suddenly, he was slapped heavily on the back.

He turned his head, and saw Sima Shang smiling and standing behind him, and a big man he had never met before—this man was wearing armor, with a mustache on his lips, and his beard and hair were a little gray; however, his eyes were still young, and the eye sockets Deep sunken, with piercing eyes, with a compelling aura when he is happy or angry.

Sima Shang smiled and said, "General, this is the little brother Gai I mentioned to you. Gai Nie, this is the General Li Mu you most admire."

Gai Nie was startled, as if the accumulated fatigue of the day flew away from his body in an instant, and quickly gave a military salute: "General——"

Li Mu lifted him up with both hands, and said with a smile, "There is no need for redundant etiquette in the army." This gentle support made Ge Nie feel that something was wrong—it turned out that the world-renowned general of Zhao Guo had his right arm stretched out of his sleeve. What came out was a piece of wood!

Seeing his gaze, Li Mu purposely stretched out his hand and waved it, saying: "When Mu was young, he unfortunately suffered from contractures. Fortunately, he was helped by an expert from the Mo family. After installing this wooden hand, he was able to ride a horse-drawn bow. And don't be rude."

Ge Nie felt his throat sore, he didn't know whether it was moved or sad, but he couldn't match a word.

Sima Shang knew that he was dull, so he changed the topic and said: "I told the general that there is an incomparable talent hidden among the recruits, who is unparalleled in swordsmanship, familiar with strategy, and able to endure hardships and stand hard work. I don't know if it is or not?"

Gaine shook his head.Li Mudao: "This is strange. Although there are many sects in the world, among the hundreds of schools, there are very few people who are proficient in swordsmanship and military art but are willing to be selfless and do not seek to be prominent. Especially the group of so-called strategists Some people who show off their tongues are eager to talk to the king, wishing to reach the sky in one step and become a general, but I haven't seen them do a few practical things."

Gai Nie was so embarrassed that he stared at his toes in shame, not daring to make a sound.

Sima Shang smiled and said, "It's not the same thing. Legendary successors like Su Zhang and others are capable of one person being stronger than a million masters. To overthrow the world while talking and laughing is also a great achievement."

Li Mudao: "I heard that both Su Qin and Zhang Yi came from Guigu, and 'He Zong' and 'Lian Heng' were created by them; and the Guigu School not only has Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, law, military and other world-renowned learning. Dabbled, and able to understand and use freely, there are many strange people such as Li Kui, Le Yi, Pang Juan, Sun Bin, etc., which is worthy of being the number one strange school in the world. Although today's scholars must be called vertical and horizontal, they are not Guigu disciples. If It must be a blessing to have the chance to meet the true descendant of Guigu."

Gai Nie was a little embarrassed, but still stared at his toes.Sima Shang patted him and said: "Let's not talk about these things, little brother doesn't want to mention the school, there must be other reasons. But about the current confrontation between Qin and Zhao, the general wants to hear your opinion."

Gai Nie was overwhelmed by flattery, and hurriedly raised his head and said: "Don't dare. The young man under him has lived in another country for a long time, and he only heard the situation at home and abroad about Zhao and Qin..." Encouraged by Li Mu's eyes, he paused and continued, " However, as far as I have seen and heard in my previous travels, our land is not as large as Qin State, the population is not as large as Qin State, the food, grass and weapon reserves in the treasury are not as good as Qin State, and the soldiers of the whole country are not as good as Qin State; Outnumbered and outnumbered, but if the stalemate persists for a long time, our country—our country—”

Li Mu nodded while listening, and finally showed a wry smile of relief. "Little brother, don't be humble. In Zhao Guo today, there is no one out of ten sober people with your insight." He stomped his feet, waved his hand and pointed to the west of the tower and said, "Here The name of the city is Pingcheng. According to legend, more than 200 years ago, Zhao Jianzi built a city and stationed troops here to protect the birthplace of Zhao's ancestors and the old capital of our country - Jinyang City. However, in the 18th year of King Xiaocheng, Qin Bayuci and others 37 cities, and captured Jinyang in 20 years; since then, the whole Taiyuan has almost fallen into the hands of Qin, and there are only a few small cities left in the west of Taihang, and half of the country of Zhao has been lost. Although the people of the country still call it "Taiyuan", but there has been It's Taiyuan County in Qin State."

Gai Nie felt sad and remained silent.

Li Mu went on to say: "Someone suggested that I give up Pingcheng and retreat to defend Jingxing Pass, so as to protect Handan. Brother Gai, what do you think?"

Gai Nie thought for a while and said, "My subordinates believe that Pingcheng City is less than forty miles away from Jingxing, and it can become a horn in wartime, so it should not be abandoned lightly."

The light in Li Mu's eyes flashed, and he asked again: "According to the reports from our military spies, the main force of the Great Battalion in the pass has not moved since Qin retreated from Feixia. This time there are only veterans from the two counties, at most 5 people. .How do you think they will enter the army?"

Gai Nie felt in a trance that he was being assessed regularly by his master in Ghost Valley, and subconsciously sank into his dantian, his back straightened like a pine, and he said in a clear voice: "This subordinate thinks that the purpose of the Qin people's battle is to test, not to win. Since the Battle of Changping, Qin has seldom been invincible against Zhao; It will easily send out the army. They invade our border with a small number of county soldiers, one can harass our army to build camps and train new soldiers, and the other can test our army’s reaction to surprise attacks, so as to prepare for the future national war.”

Li Mu narrowed his eyes and said, "Then in your opinion, how should our army respond to the battle?"

Gai Nie said: "Although this battle is a trial battle of the Qin army, the speed of the Qin cavalry's actions should not be underestimated. The battle of Yanying many years ago is an example. At that time, King Qin Zhaoxiang ordered Qin general Baiqi to attack Chu. The advantage of the country is that it has a large area and many soldiers, and it is not easy to attack; however, the disadvantage is also that the territory is too large and the troops are scattered. In order to prevent the Chu army from gathering in time, Bai Qi ordered the [-] Qin army to carry only a few days of dry food with them. He smashed the heart of Chu, and seized food from Chu all the way. Later, he flooded the city with water from the long valleys of the Western Mountains, drowning tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Yancheng, threatening Yingdu. King Qingxiang of Chu was forced to move his capital to Chen. Now it is the time of wheat harvest, if Qin The army repeats the old tricks. They do not prepare food and grass, and plan to feed on the enemy. The battle must be fast and the attack must be captured. It may sneak behind our army's defense line and endanger Handan. The subordinates believe that our army should fortify the wall and clear the field, so as to wait It's coming."

Li Mu looked at him in surprise, then burst out laughing, and slapped him hard on the back.

"The little brother is the cone in the bag, and he will stand out soon."

Sima Shang also looked at him with a mixture of kindness and complacency.Ge Nie's face was ironed with excitement, and even his ears were red.

Gai Nie did not expect that his first encounter with Qin Bing would come so quickly.

Three or five days after meeting General Li Mu, Biziying where Gai Nie was located was indeed sent to a nearby county to collect and escort food and grass.A group of about a thousand people drove hundreds of horse-drawn carts full of this year's new wheat to Pingcheng.When they were only seven or eight miles away from the city wall, those with better hearing in the team heard some strange movements and looked up at the sky in unison.

"What's flashing... Could it be that there are hailstones even on a sunny day?"

The leader of the army, Dutong, was a seasoned veteran. He reacted suddenly and shouted: "Hurry up! Get down! The shield soldiers form formation!!!"

Before the words were finished, countless feathered arrows roared towards them, like heavy rain; the shield soldiers raised their double-layer cowhide shields to cover their heads, and some others hid under the shields, and some hid behind the cart, Some even lie under the horse's belly.

After a wave of arrows rained, the animals pulling the carts fell down in sevens and eights, and what was even more unfortunate was that the Dutong just yelled and fell off his horse with arrows, without a sound.

As soon as the person who gave the order fell, the soldiers became more and more flustered; at the same time, people shouted and neighed in the distance, and the ground was rumbled and shaken by countless iron hooves, and thick smoke billowed in.

Most of these infantry were recruits transferred from the Dongyuan camp, and they had never seen such a scene before; they only heard someone in the rebellious army yell "The city is to the east!" A few people followed him, and fled in the direction of Pingcheng.

Suddenly, a person in the crowd shouted: "You can't go! If you go, you will die!!"

This shout was not very loud, but it had a strange penetrating power. Everyone who heard it felt their hearts tremble and their ears buzzed.They followed the sound and turned pale with shock: it was Ge Da who was speaking!That Ge Da who is usually silent and can't make a dull fart with three sticks! !

The recruits didn't understand, but among the experienced veterans like the corporal leader, many of them understood Ge Da's meaning in an instant.Where can a man outrun a horse?Since they can shoot with crossbow arrows, the cavalry is at most three to five hundred paces away; at such a short distance, even if they throw away their helmets and armor and flee with their backs to the Qin army, they will be overtaken by fast horses within half a mile and killed. Absolutely.But judging from the number of arrows just now, there were only a few thousand Qin soldiers attacking; if they turned around and fought to the death, waiting for reinforcements from the city to arrive, there might still be a glimmer of life.

On the battlefield, people who are more afraid of death tend to die sooner.

In the desperate situation, Zhao Ren's courageous and ruthless nature finally gained the upper hand.The chaotic team rang out in unison: "Can't escape—" "Fight for help—" "Fight them!!" The messenger lit a cart of food and grass, and threw in a special powder; A black column of smoke rose into the sky, piercing into the sky, and could be seen from miles away.

A centurion acted as the commander for the time being, commanding the crowd to pile up carts and dead horses in front, to block the charge of the cavalry first.Immediately behind stood a line of long halberd soldiers, their nine-foot-long spears pointed straight out of the formation, and could stab the horse's belly and cut off the horse's legs;

Gai Nie's group happened to be all halberd soldiers, so they were pushed to the front.Looking around, I saw that Aji's pale face was tinged with green, and it seemed that he would fall unconscious at any time; although the two big men, Lao Hu and Niu Er, looked quite imposing because of their angry beards, their calves could not stop beating. Trembling; only the Corporal was soaked in blood after all, and he was extremely calm at critical moments. Except for the slight tremor of the hands holding the halberd due to excitement, the whole body remained motionless as if nailed to the ground, and his eyes were fixed on the front.

After the choking dust, Qin Bing in black clothes and armor appeared in sight.

"So fast!" This was almost exactly the same thought in the hearts of the Zhao soldiers at that moment.The neighing horses seemed to be a hundred paces away, and they reached the top of their heads in the blink of an eye—they had no time to think, and swung their halberds almost instinctively—for many recruits, they still hadn't figured out what happened. All kinds of white and red lights flashed in front of my eyes: either Qin Bing swung his sword and chopped off Zhao Zun's head, or Zhao Bing's long halberd stabbed Qin Jun's horse, or the raised horse's hoof crushed a person's leg. The head, with the remaining warm blood, brain matter and broken bones, splashed around, and the earth changed its color.

Relying on his instincts from many years of martial arts practice, Gai Nie dodged the head-on blow from the first wave of Qin soldiers.The knight on the horse was overturned immediately, and was chopped into meat by Zhao Jun behind him.Before he could catch his breath, one person and one horse followed him, and the iron hooves raised by the fierce horses almost rubbed against his face and stepped on them; fortunately, martial arts practitioners are well aware of the slightest gap. The ground is the most delicate. Ge Nie twisted his body to let the knife wind pass, and the halberd in his hand came out of the hole like a snake, and hit the breastplate of the knight on the horse with a ding - although the tip of the halberd was blocked by the fine armor, no blood could be seen However, this blow was so powerful that it directly sent the Qin soldier flying, falling three feet away.

At this moment, a large number of Qin troops had already galloped into Zhao's army, smashing the barely formed battle formation to pieces.Foot vs. cavalry is already extremely unfavorable; what's more, these recruits are inexperienced. Qin cavalry are condescending, rushing from left to right, killing them completely without knowing how to resist; many of them lost their heads inexplicably before they even had time to swing their weapons.The Qin people are not only fast with horses and sharp swords, but also fearless of death; there are also Qin soldiers who swung their swords in one hand and chopped off people's heads like harvesting crops, and immediately grabbed the bun on the top of the head and tied it to their belts with the other hand-many Qin soldiers at once There are several ferocious heads hanging around their waists, and the smelly blood drips continuously; it may look creepy to others, but these are the proofs they exchanged for Juelu after the war.

Thousands of miles away in Xinzheng, in an unknown small courtyard, Young Master Han is talking with his nephew Wei Zhuang.

"Korea is hopeless——" Wei Zhuang frowned, and asked, "Uncle Fei, why do you say this? Zhuang knows that our country has been weak for a long time, but imagine that after Changping, the whole country of Zhao State was completely ruined, and there were almost no young and strong people left. Out of the old and weak, first defeat Yan, then defeat Qin; the so-called throwing into perdition and then living, sinking into death and then living, how can our country not take advantage of the perilous moment to mobilize its troops and keep the country safe?"

Han Fei sneered and said: "You are in Guigu, did you only learn these military theory? If South Korea wants to strengthen its army, it can find dozens of generals who have practiced martial arts for generations. If farmers are gathered from the fields, It is also possible to assemble an army of tens of thousands of people. The soldiers all swore to die for the country before they went out to fight; Fleeing in panic?" He pressed his chest, as if to calm down his emotions, and his words became slower and slower, but there was a power to shake people's hearts.

"There is no reward for advancing, no punishment for retreating, and if rewards and punishments are not believed, who is willing to die? On the other hand, in Qin State, the law of Shang Jun said: 'The one who cuts off one head is one rank, and the one who wants to be an official should be an official of fifty shi. Cut off two heads Those who want to be officials are officials of a hundred stones'. For the Qin people, the enemy's head is not a head, but a title, which is gold; so only the Qin people in the Seven Kingdoms are "happy when they hear the war." Their rewards and punishments are strict and orderly, so that every soldier of humble origin can go to the battlefield, desperate to die. One man can be against ten, ten can be against a hundred, a hundred can be against a thousand, and a thousand can be against ten thousand , Ten thousand can conquer the world. Such an army that fights to the death and defeats the enemy, how can the six kingdoms of Shandong rebuild and unite, gather millions of soldiers, how can they win!"

Wei Zhuang rubbed the center of his eyebrows with his index finger, and sighed in a low voice: "Guang Zhuang knows that laws and regulations are the foundation of strengthening the country, so he invited Uncle Fei to revive our country's strong Han style."

Young Master Fei sneered. "Look——" He suddenly waved his arm and pointed to the open window of the hut in the courtyard, and he could vaguely see the piles of letters piled up in it, "Over the years, every time I read a book, I will engrave a copy; now it exists here. 20 years, a full 20 years, when I came back from Lanling, when did the King of Han listen to my one, one, one word?! Which, which, which time did I write a letter without getting lost? "Although Han Fei is a son, he was young. But I don’t know why I fell into the problem of stuttering; later, as I grew older, my energy-raising skills became better and better, as long as I talked slowly, I didn’t realize it—it’s a pity that as long as I’m emotional, I can’t restrain myself from stuttering. Therefore, he was often ridiculed maliciously by noble courtiers.He knew that he couldn't argue with others, so he had to write the book repeatedly, combining what he had learned over the years into a piece of extraordinary writing, hoping that Han Wang would be touched after reading it... However, many years have passed, and the ideals and passion of the year have all melted away. Disappeared as a cloud of indifference in the lifeless Han Palace.

Wei Zhuang was still smug when he came, but now he couldn't help but feel a sinking in his heart, like a black cloth wrapped tightly around his chest, and his breathing was hard to express.

However, he is young after all, and his blood is not yet cold.

"Uncle Fei, I also know that the Korean court is in disarray today, the three ministers are fighting for power, and the king's power is declining; but to deal with these people, Zhuang has his own way to fight poison with poison; as long as Uncle Fei is willing to help me, you will be the prime minister in the future and go out of chaos. Politics, the law of governing the country; I am a general, train elite soldiers, and clarify rewards and punishments. In just a few years, South Korea will definitely change into a new look."

Han Fei shook his head and said, "How many years? I'm afraid Qin cannot give us such a long time."

"Could it be that in Uncle Fei's opinion, the Qin people will destroy me only overnight? Our country still has tens of thousands of elite soldiers, and the city of Xinzheng is strong enough; besides, the six countries in Shandong are very aware of Qin's ambitions. Lord Ling is generally cultivated into a coalition army, so it may not be impossible to stop him."

Han Fei said: "In today's world, Qin is like tigers and wolves, but the six kingdoms of Shandong are like a flock of sheep. Just hearing the roar of tigers and wolves makes their legs weak. Even if Sun Wu is reborn and Su Qin is reborn, they will not be able to drive the flock of sheep against tigers and wolves."

Wei Zhuang was silent for a long time this time.He seemed to be unable to find words to move Han Fei, or himself.

The six kingdoms will be destroyed, and the destiny will belong to Qin——you, don’t you want to fight for it?

Han Fei was also silent.In this world, is there any eloquent man like him who speaks so that others are speechless, yet suffers such pain in his heart?

Suddenly Wei Zhuang raised his head and said: "Uncle Fei, have you ever heard of a 'nacona'? It is a giant snake that lives by the water. Its head is like a hanging bell, and its eyes are like copper bells. .I once saw an anaconda capture an elk in Yunmeng Mountain. The elk has no sharp teeth or claws, and was tightly strangled by the anaconda's scale-covered body, motionless, and then swallowed whole. But the swallowed deer It was still alive, but it struggled violently in the anaconda's belly. In the end, an antler just happened to poke out from the soft belly of the snake, and the giant snake also lost its life. Although the elk is weak, it can still take revenge." He stood up and asked Han Fei gave a salute as a farewell.

"Zhuang Bucai, I would like to be the horn of an elk."