Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 51 Trials of Overlord Strategy (5)

Perhaps it was the wild hunting song of the horse thief that stimulated Han Shizhong, and he decided to lead people south to lure the enemy himself.Xiao Yanping still said, "Today's affairs are all up to Mr. Han." Whether it is those who followed Han Shizhong to lure the enemy, or those who were arranged to move to the northern hills with the brigade, they were all in an uneasy mood, but at this moment , no one asked much.

"If there is anything unexpected, please help me look into the matter of Hongyu." Before leaving, Han Shizhong suddenly leaned over and said to Zhao Xingde. Kicking the horse's belly, the war horse shook its head in dissatisfaction, and walked slowly towards the south.

Twelve iron cavalry and five bodyguards capable of riding and shooting followed behind Han Shizhong, followed by the shepherd who had driven hundreds of sheep and several other cavalry.The men and horses luring the enemy were as if they were really going to break out of the encirclement. They carried a piece of grass, a horse with a grass, and no one was holding a torch. They quietly dived south, not even a bird was startled, and disappeared into the darkness.

Xiao Yanping and Zhao Xingde looked at the south together, listened carefully to the movement in the distance, only heard the singing of buzzing insects and several night owls.Xiao Yanping sighed, and said to Xingde in a low voice: "Mr. Zhao, you and Mr. Han have a very close friendship. Brother, I dare to ask, in your opinion, will Mr. Han come back?" What he meant, he pondered for a moment, and said in a deep voice: "I can trust him." Xiao Yanping nodded, sighed again, didn't say anything, turned around and checked the preparations of the porters and other merchants over and over again.

Suddenly, a scream erupted in the darkness of the south, and then several whistles pierced the silence of the night sky with sharp whistles, the sound of arrows piercing the sky, the sound of killing, the sound of metal and iron, and the noise of people. The horses neighed, and the forest that was originally dark was bursting with flames. The cavalry on both sides did not dare to fight at night with fire. Some fired rockets, and some lit torches and threw them far away. The light identifies the terrain and the position of the other party, only to see the shadows of the trees and figures looming amidst the flickering light and shade.

After the two sides fought for a while, suddenly, hundreds of torches were lit one after another in the south, the flames were blazing, and they were constantly moving in all directions.Zhao Xingde knew in his heart that it was Han Shizhong and others who lit the match, and the sheep with their tails on fire ran around, but in the eyes of the horse thieves in the distance, it was the caravan of Song Dynasty who was in a "disordered" formation, and it was difficult to distinguish the direction at night and there was no night battle Experienced merchant porters hurriedly lit torches and fled in all directions.

At this time, the large group of horse thieves gathered in the east finally moved, and before they could extinguish the bonfire, the lights of unsheathed knives were reflected, and the chaotic sound of horse hooves rushed towards the south intensively, and the wind was still blowing. There was a loud sound of urging the horse.In the distance on both sides of the northwest, the originally dotted flames swayed a few times almost instantly, and then dimmed a lot. It was the horse thief who was waving the torch seeing that the leader had made up his mind. He immediately threw the torch and rode his horse to the south. The direction intercepts the merchants who choose the way to escape. The more scattered these merchants are, the more effort it will take to catch them all. This is also the common sense of hunting sheep.

"Let's go!" Jie Yuan, the head of the cavalry army, shouted in a low voice.Seven or eight cavalry scouted in front, followed by a large group of merchants, bodyguards, porters and village braves. They put out the torches, connected the front and back with straw ropes, and walked towards the hills in the north in the dark.The night was starry and moonless, even the mud pits in front of him and the withered vines in the mountains could not be seen clearly. People kept stumbling and falling to the ground, because their mouths were restrained with ropes and no one made a sound.With the sound of hooves and croaking from the south, and occasionally one or two screams and sheep, Zhao Xingde groped his way forward in the dark, and felt several scorching pains, which were cut grass half a person's height. The only thing that hangs in my heart is not to bump into a large number of horse thieves. With the current situation of the caravan, they really become yellow sheep who are slaughtered.

The feet were high and low, and the heart was fluctuating. The staggering Song State caravan followed the forest path and climbed halfway up the hill to the north, but they didn't encounter any horse thieves. Zhao Xingde breathed a sigh of relief and didn't pay attention. I was already sweating profusely all over my face, and in a haze, I saw that Dayi and Xie Yuan were both busy, blocking the carriage they had finally brought along on the way up the mountain, and ordered the porter and Xiangyong to hurry up. Pit pits and antlers were set up, and three bonfires were not allowed to be lit until the fortifications were mostly completed.Under the light of the fire, Yu Dayi looked around at the people behind him, and saw that Zhao Xingde, who was resting by the side of the road, had bloodshot eyes, his face was flushed as if he was drunk, but his cheeks were sunken, and he couldn't help saying in surprise: "Zhao Xingde Sir, what's the matter with you?"

Zhao Xingde's mind was muddled, and when he asked, he also said: "What's wrong with me?" He stroked his forehead with his hands, and when he thought about it again, he only felt top-heavy, and quickly stretched out his hands to support the people beside him, others gathered around, Zhao Xingde But his eyes went dark, he fell to the ground, and passed out.

This sleep was extremely deep, and I don't know how long it took before Zhao Xingde woke up slowly, his eyes just opened a crack, and he could only see a blurry figure, and a pleasant voice came from his ears: "Mr. Zhao is awake." !" "Lord Han, Mr. Zhao has been saved!"

"Han Shizhong?" Zhao Xingde thought in a daze, "Didn't he go to lure the enemy? By the way, he also entrusted me to take care of Li Hongyu, but I already have Ruoxue." He opened his mouth, and someone came The water sac moved to his mouth, and poured a very bitter medicine into his mouth little by little. "Cough, cough, cough..." Zhao Xingde took a few sips and then coughed violently. After a while, he finally woke up completely. He turned his head and looked around, only to see that he was still lying on the mountain road with a sheepskin mattress under him. , Xiao Yanping, Yu Dayi and others were all looking at him.

Zhao Xingde came to his senses and asked: "Have all the horse thieves retreated?" "Yes!" Xiao Yanping said with a smile: "Thanks to Mr. Han's ingenious plan and his sacrifice to lure the enemy, the leader of the horse thieves saw that we had already occupied the territory, so he felt that he couldn't get it back. What's cheap, there has been no attack, Mr. Han has sent scouts to patrol around, maybe the horse thief has retreated." Han Shizhong also nodded, but his face was not very good-looking.

It was later learned that Dong Ming, the leader of the cavalry army who went to lure the enemy with Han Shizhong, died in battle. When several horse thieves attacked Han Shizhong, Dong Ming lost his life to cover his back.Dong Ming, like Han Shizhong, is a son of a military family who has been in the army for generations. His hometown is Guanzhong, and he grew up in the Forbidden Army camp in Bianliang.

For fear of being eaten by birds and beasts, the corpses of the cavalry soldiers who died in battle were wrapped in leather blankets and carried in carriages.Another carriage carried dozens of heads. This time, Han Shizhong's business protection business was reported as a patrol job. These cavalry comrades died in the battle with horse thieves. The court should have a pension, and those horse thieves heads Level, is the evidence of battle and meritorious deeds.The horse thieves took away the heavy goods left by the merchants, the sheep used to lure the enemy, and the clothes on the sheep, except that they did not take away the corpses of their accomplices, leaving them to die in the wilderness.After the horse thief retreated, Han Shizhong inspected the body of the horse thief carefully and found a lot of tattoos of wolf heads. He was going to go back and find out which bandit's mark it was, and then he personally brought the iron cavalry to avenge the vengeance.

"I don't know what filth was smeared on the knife that the thief stabbed you." Han Shizhong said to Zhao Xingde, "Fortunately, the doctor's antidote works, I have already thanked him twice for you." Zhao Xingde nodded with a hoarse voice The ground voice said: "I'm sorry, brother Han."

This time he survived a catastrophe, and after that, no matter whether he was marching or going down to the village, the people in the caravan and the soldiers were all extremely cautious. Xiaoxing stayed overnight for dozens of days, and finally passed the border area of ​​Liao and Song Dynasties, and arrived at the border of Hejian Prefecture.

Zhao Xingde's body was quite strong originally, and his mood gradually improved due to the injury. At this time, it was almost the end of the year, and there were firecrackers coming from the barren villages and shops on the road, and the docks and post stations in Hejian Mansion were crowded with vendors from all over the place. Hurrying to return the last batch of northern goods to the Central Plains.There are tall stacks piled up on the fields of farmhouses, no matter how poor the tenants are, they have to prepare to buy new year's goods at this time, and the faces of passers-by on the road are also full of joy for the new year.Zhao Xingde wandered around, only felt the scene of a peaceful and prosperous age, as if separated from the dangerous and unpredictable border.

Passing a ferry, I saw a flat-bottomed river boat moored on the bank, and many farmers were queuing up with empty loads. Several men on the boat were weighing a kind of foul-smelling dirt, and then uprooted the farmers. in the burden.

"What's going on here?" Zhao Xingde frowned, there is a special sale of human and animal feces in Hejian Prefecture, but the stench and filth are so much that the boat is full, which is not what we usually see.

Han Shizhong shook his head, also ignorant, but Xiao Yanping said: "This is bird droppings from overseas islands. It is used to compensate for soil fertility, and it is the most effective."

"Guano?" Zhao Xingde wondered.

"Exactly." Xiao Yanping nodded, "In order to resist the Khitan cavalry, Hebei prefectures and counties are not allowed to cut down trees arbitrarily. In order to keep out the cold, farmers have to use the straw that should have been turned into the field as fertilizer as firewood. The most labor-intensive, if you don’t add bird droppings back and forth to raise the field, in less than 30 to [-] years, the land will not be able to grow crops.”

"The world is so big, there are so many wonders." Han Shizhong said with an unbelievable expression, "It's unexpected that bird droppings can be sold for money."

"Master Han is a noble man. He has been in the capital for a long time. It is natural not to know the truth. On the overseas islands where the birds inhabit, the guano is piled up like a mountain, and people can take it for themselves. However, if it is transported to the Central Plains, the shipping fee is too expensive. It’s not cost-effective, but in the southeast along the coast and in Hebei provinces and counties, they are all used to raising fields with bird droppings, and this thing is very effective, and medium-sized fields can also be supplemented into high-quality fields.”

"The end of the year is approaching, and the poor are still unable to repay their debts. How can they have money to buy these things?"

"It's all rich households and landlords who pay for it, and the tenants pick it up and use it. The land is more fertile, so the rent can be increased in the coming year." Xiao Yanping explained.

"So that's how it is." Han Shizhong suddenly realized, "Sure enough, there is no business and no rape. Those of us who serve as soldiers and eat food, don't fight with our brains and sweat. You can make money by finding a deserted island."

"What's the matter with Mr. Han, because the freight is not cheap, and the bird droppings business is actually not very profitable, but the advantage is that it is stable and the water keeps flowing." Since he escaped from danger, Xiao Yanping's attitude towards Han Shizhong has become more respectful, and he sold it to him. There is a flame-like decoration on the bow of the guano river boat. Xiao Yanping occasionally glanced at it, and his eyes became a little wandering.