Chapter 8 Elk (I)

The north wind blows the white grass breaks.

Although the Taihang Mountains do not belong to the Hu area, the winter tastes bad. The howling north wind scrambles snow particles and drives straight into the distance from the frontier, blows off the tree trunks, crushes the house, and freezes wild beasts that are not strong enough into hard corpses.

This kind of ghost weather is definitely not a good time to rush. Local mountain people hid in adobe houses or caves half a month ago, sealed the doors and windows with wooden boards nailed with thick straw, and then lit a huge brazier in the room. They would never show up until they had no choice.

However, on the mountain road leading to Lingchuan City, there are more than 10,000 middle-aged men, staggering with one foot deep and one foot shallow. The snow on the mountain road is hard and slippery. If you are not careful, you will roll directly into the abyss on the roadside and fall to pieces. The north wind is as cold as ten thousand steel needles. If you are a little lazy, you may be frozen into a zombie after resting under the wild trees beside the mountain road!

"God, you have no conscience!"

"Dog day, the dog day Khitan, the dog day Guo Jiaque, the dog day Murong Yetun..."

"Damn it, all deserve to die, thirty years from Hedong to Hexi..."

The men who were lucky enough to have not yet fallen to death or freeze to death, retracted their necks into the short brown and continued to move forward cursingly. Most of the short browns on their bodies were made of kudzu. After being stained with snow water, they would soon become cold and hard when blown by the wind. More snow particles stick to the surface of the short brown layer by layer, decorating the whole person with silver glitter, like movable earth dolls and wooden stems.

Not everyone is struggling to survive under the armor of ice and snow. In the center of the team, there are more than a dozen guys wearing brocade robes and fox fur hats, all of whom look lively. They are the backbone of this team, and they are much more numerous than the rest of the people, regardless of their seniority or experience in marching and fighting. Therefore, the rest can freeze to death, starve to death, or fall into the valley and fall into flesh paste, but they cannot even miss one of them.

"The third brother, the fifth brother, I will give me an order, and I will shut up! If an avalanche is caused, everyone will have to be buried here today, and no one can escape!" The man in the middle of the team, the most beautifully dressed man suddenly turned his head and ordered the two closest men in brocade robes beside him.

"Yes!" The two leaders who were clicked immediately turned their mounts and, under the protection of their respective iron confidants, walked quickly in the front and back directions of the team. While walking, they waved their whip and slapped the short brown on the brothers around them, "Shut up, shut up if you don't want to die. If an avalanche is triggered, everyone will have to bury them here!"

"Shut up, shut up my mouth. Whoever cries anymore? I stripped naked his clothes first and let him freeze to death. Why is it cold? If you walk faster, you won't be cold. When you leave the mountain, you can drink wine, eat meat, and grab it if you want women!"

"Really? That's good!"

"San Master, San Master, how far do you think we have to go to see the crowd?"

"What do women look like in Hedong? Are they all thin lips and big butts?"

"Xie Wu, if we can grab a woman, the biggest one with the best butt will definitely be sent to you!"

...

The men who were so cold that they were half dead instantly recovered a little more energy. While fantasizing about the life of looting after coming out of the mountain, they whispered to flatter the third leader Xie Zhiyong and the fifth leader Peng Lianfeng.

"Shut up, shut up your mouth. If you want to sleep with Hedong women alive, shut up your mouth!"

"Shut up, if you want to sleep with a woman, you have to have a life! Once you are buried here by snow, you can only sleep with stones for the rest of your life!"

Xie Zhiyong, the third leader, and Peng Lianfeng, the fifth leader, felt relieved. He lowered the whip in his hand and continued to give instructions. At this critical moment, you should not be too kind or too unkind. If you are too kind, you will lose your awe and make the orders issued, and it will be difficult to strictly enforce them. If you are too unkind, it will easily make the subordinates lose their sense of belonging. When you leave the mountain, the team may disperse.

With the concerted efforts of the two of them, the curses in the team gradually became lower. A little bit of life luster surged again on their faces covered with frostbite.

Wine, meat, and women, it makes people feel warm when thinking about it. And the days when wine, meat and women are actually not far away. Three months, two months, or even forty days? If you are unlucky, you will be unlucky. The leader Shi Hongjie was so lucky that he actually stood in the wrong team between the Han and the Liao Dynasty and bet on the wrong place.

Thinking of the glorious days some time ago, everyone couldn't help but sigh and shook their heads. Alas, it's time, momentum, and luck. Who could have expected that the Khitan cavalry who could have entered Bianliang could be squeezed out of the Central Plains by Liu Zhiyuan? Who could have thought that the newly appointed Liao emperor Yelu Ruan had killed the donkey and directly destroyed the entire family of the Southern Privy Councilor Zhao Yanshou? Who could have thought that Du Chongwei was so cowardly? He had tens of thousands of troops and countless military rations and supplies, but suddenly opened the city and surrendered?

It is not a big deal that Du Chongwei surrendered, as long as he sent people to the prefectures and counties around him to call him. At worst, the brothers will follow him to return to the Han Dynasty. Anyway, there are at least six of the ten governors and governors around Yedu, who are self-proclaimed by the Green Forest heroes. As long as someone is responsible for the official position, it doesn’t matter whether they are carrying the banner of the Liao Dynasty or taking the banner of the Han Dynasty.

But the lack of morality is that it is not morality. Du Chongwei surrendered quietly, but he never sent anyone to send letters to his colleagues around him! This time it was tragic. After successfully seizing Yedu, the Han army immediately closed the door to continue surrendering. Then he swept his spear and swept the heroes in Mingzhou, Wu'an, Handan, Weizhou and other places that did not change their doors in time, and killed all the corpses all over the field. He killed the south bank of the Hutuo River. There was no more soldiers or soldiers from the Liao Kingdom, and then he returned home.

It was not until now that the "heroes of troubled times" who escaped into the mountains in time that they finally heard that the Emperor Liu Zhiyuan of the Han Dynasty had suffered a stroke for many days and could not take matters for a long time. In the past half month, all the affairs in the army were controlled by General Guo Wei. Yang Bin, Wang Zhang and Su Fengji were "assaulted for the tiger" and blocked the news that Liu Zhiyuan was terminally ill. I just felt sorry for Du Chongwei. Even though he could hold on for another half a month, he could leapt at the dragon gate, but he was deceived by Guo Wei so hard that he could unarm his armor and let his hands go. From then on, life and death will no longer be controlled by him.

"Oh! Fate, this is fate!" Not only did the minions feel a lot of emotion, the boss Shi Hongjie himself, thinking about his experience in the past year, also kept shaking his head.

He was originally a hero in Lin Lushan Mountain. He had been suppressed by the government army and had nowhere to gain a foothold. Suddenly one day, the government army was defeated without fighting. After sending people to inquire, he found out that Du Chongwei led a 100,000 army to surrender and surrender half of Hebei. The Khitans, led by surrendering general Zhang Yanze, rushed straight to Bianliang. The civil and military officials of the prefectures and counties along the way either surrendered or fled their own lives, but no one dared to stand in front of the Khitans' horses.

Lin County is not far from the foot of Linlu Mountain. Since the county magistrate abandoned his official position and fled, Shi Hongjie felt that he had no need to be polite. He led his remnants to chase the horsetails of the official army and rushed directly into the county town. Then he casually captured a scholar as his master, wrote a letter of loyalty and sent it to a group of Khitan military camps closest to the county town. Later, regardless of whether the other party agreed or not, he granted himself the position of governor of the Tianyi Army and began to issue orders.

After more than a year of chaos, no one could care about Lin County. Shi Hongjie, the self-proclaimed governor of the Tianyi Army, became the local emperor. He recruited soldiers and horses, gathered grass and stored grain, and his team quickly expanded from dozens of dollars to more than 20,000. During this period, he joined other heroes twice and won a great victory. So, no one dared to underestimate him anymore. Even Du Chongwei, the governor of the Tianxiong Army, sent people to express his intention of winning over.

However, the good times did not last long, and soon the wind direction gradually became chaotic. King Liu Zhiyuan of Han suddenly raised a banner to expel the Khitan, and many heroes rose up to respond on the land of Hebei. Du Chongwei, the governor of the Tianxiong Army, fought east and west, and was so busy that he was not stuck. The Khitans also suffered heavy losses because they were caught off guard.

At that time, someone advised Shi Hongjie to follow the current situation quickly, but he was not optimistic about Liu Zhiyuan's Han army and did not think that anyone in the world could stop the Khitan cavalry. So when Gao Xingzhou went north to suppress the rebellion, he stood decisively on Du Chongwei's side. Although he did not send troops to assist in the war, he did not forget to shaking the flag for the Daliao.

With this loyalty, he successfully impressed Zhao Yanshou, the Privy Councilor of the Southern Court of Liao. He successfully replaced the self-proclaimed governor of the Tianyi Army with the Emperor of Liao, and was granted the false position of the Privy Councilor, which was once unparalleled.

This nameless position brought a catastrophe to him and his brothers. After Du Chongwei surrendered, the Han army quickly took over Yedu. In order to avoid the local turmoil after the army, Guo Wei, Murong Yanchao, Gao Xingzhou and others raised their butcher knives to the counties around them without hesitation. A group of "heroes" who had no time to change their ranks were either captured and beheaded by the Han army, or abandoned their nests, and fled into the mountains and forests with their brothers to survive.

Those who are used to living a comfortable life can no longer get used to it when they return to the mountains. Soon, the brothers under Shi Hongjie reduced by about 10,000 from just over 20,000. If they don’t find a way out, they will probably be completely beaten back to their original form before spring blooms, and they will become the thief whom everyone calls to beat, and will never have a chance to make a comeback from now on.
Chapter completed!