…

As the name suggests, Jishan is a mountain like a dustpan.

This is the key place to go east and the must-pass place.

As long as you pass through Jishan, you can go north to Yuncheng and south to Jeju. What’s more important is that you can enter Liangshan and then go wherever you want through the well-connected waterways.

In short, as long as you pass through Jishan, the Northern Song Dynasty's encirclement and suppression of Song Jiang's rebel army this time could be declared failure.

Because of the important geographical location of Jishan, the Northern Song Dynasty built a fortress in Jishan, named "Jishanzhai".

However, because Jishan was located in the mainland and close to the capital, the Northern Song Dynasty court did not pay enough attention to Jishan Village, and only placed five hundred township troops (nominally) in Jishan Village.

The Northern Song Dynasty army was divided into three types - the imperial guards, the wing army, and the village army.

Theoretically, among the three, the only one who is truly combat-capable and can truly go to the battlefield is the imperial guards.

During the Five Dynasties, intrigue and deception, the imperial guards who directly belonged to the king naturally became the target of vigorous development.

The Northern Song Dynasty inherited from the Five Dynasties, and the same is true.

While Zhao Kuangyin released his military power with a cup of wine, he transferred the elite troops from the world into the imperial guards.

This innate advantage determines the absolute status of the imperial guards in garrison and expedition.

Some of the troops of the Xiang army did have certain combat power in the early Northern Song Dynasty, but they deteriorated very significantly over time. Especially after a large number of elite troops were drawn or even reorganized to join the imperial guards, it was more appropriate to use the word "national engineering team" to describe the Xiang army. For example, this time, most of the civilians sent by Zhao Kai to help the Jinwu army transport food, grass and supplies were the Xiang army.

The wing army has not high requirements for recruitment. As long as they are willing to join the army, even criminals and refugees can enter.

The sources of the village army are mainly divided into two types: recruitment and recruitment.

The collection is easy to understand, which means extracting the population proportionally from the household registration.

The recruitment is intended to gather people who are unwilling to leave their hometowns to join the imperial guards and the wing army but have the potential to join the army.

The treatment of the imperial guards, the wing army and the village army is also very different.

The monthly salary of the soldiers of the Xiang army started at 300 coins, with a cap of only 500 coins, and the monthly salary of the Xiang army was only 15,000 coins.

The military pay of the imperial guards is also 300 yuan, which can have a lot of room for improvement. As long as the assessment is excellent and the promotion to the class can reach up to 5,000 yuan. The military pay of an ordinary soldier can be equal to the middle and senior generals of the wing army.

This is especially true in terms of welfare. The clothing and granaries of the soldiers of the Northern Song Dynasty were all under the responsibility of the Northern Song Dynasty court, including cotton, cloth, grain, and even pickles.

The Xiang army often has to be discounted, while the imperial guards can receive the full amount, which is far more than the Xiang army. The daily meal fee can reach 500 yuan in just one month, and the later stage is even more amazing (15 to 200 yuan a day)!

The treatment of the township army was even lower, and there was even a big gap with the Xiang army. The purpose of the Northern Song Dynasty was to transform farmers into soldiers. Naturally, they would not spend too much money and food on them. They had no salary, only food for life, that is, people gave two liters of food per month.

(This is the case with the village army recruited, but not the case with the "strong men" who took the initiative to join the army. In order to win over these people, the Northern Song Dynasty court gave them the treatment of the imperial guards. Of course, these are only a very small number of people.)

However, the township army has a special benefit to make up for this - land.

As long as you join the village army, one family will give you two hectares of land.

However, most of the Northern Song Dynasty courts gave rural soldiers to remote areas and newly reclaimed land, and there was no tax preferential treatment.

This is actually a burden to most rural soldiers.

Let me put it this way, the village army is almost a group of farmers who have fired swords and guns. They are not real troops, they have almost no combat power, and they have no intention of defending their country.

Therefore, although Cai and others had already known that there were some village troops in Jishan Village before they arrived, they did not count them as their own combat power.

In just less than seven hours, the Jinwu army crossed the mountains and rivers and ran more than 60 miles to approach Jishanzhai.

As we walked along the way, under Cai Jian's order, even the cavalry of Madu did not ride horses. All the horses in Madu were used to carry baggage and supplies, and the cavalry of Madu also followed the infantry and marched with both legs (in order to ensure that the horse army had the power to fight in an emergency, and to ensure that the horse army knights, which are crucial to this battle, did not fall behind, the horse army knights could ride horses for a short rest every time).

The horse knights had no complaints about this, because Cai still marched with them on their legs, and after the whole journey, Cai still never rode a horse at once. On the contrary, Cai still resisted his own armor weighing 70 or 80 kilograms.

In this case, who dares to complain, and who is more embarrassed to complain?

Until less than three miles away from Jishan Village, Cai still returned a hundred war horses to Madu, and asked the soldiers of Madu and their war horses to rest for a little, and then rushed towards Jishan Village first.

The village army in Jishan Village didn't know what had happened, but Wang De had already led Ma Du into Jishan Village.

Because of the long-term peace, the villagers in Jishanzhai did not even have any resistance or even a slight reaction during the whole process.

It can be seen from this that if the Song Jiang rebel army came, then Jishanzhai would inevitably fall into the hands of Song Jiang and his gang.

When Cai and the large infantry troops arrived at Jishan Village, Ma had already controlled Jishan Village and had already asked the villagers in Jishan Village to boil water and cook.

Seeing this, Cai still immediately asked someone to count the number of soldiers of the Jinwu Army - how could it be that they were not left behind after marching fiercely? If it was during the training period, Cai could still use "not abandoning or giving up" to lead these people who fell behind in the area, but this is an important moment to seize the fighter jet, and Cai could only use "not abandoning or giving up" to get these soldiers who fell behind to keep up as soon as possible.

After a brief rest, Cai still asked the heads of each capital to count the number of people who arrived in each capital, and at the same time sent Tabai to inquire about the movements of Song Jiang's rebel army.

Soon, everyone counted the number of people and reported to Cai:

"One of them has reached ninety-one, and nine people have not followed!"

"Eighty-two people have arrived, but eleven people have not followed!"

"There are eighty-three people in the three capitals, and twelve people didn't follow!"

"There are seventy-nine people in all four, and seventeen people didn't follow!"

"Everyone is here!"

Cai still asked someone to bring the map and then discussed the defense with several Dutou.

After some discussion, Cai still laid two, three and four ministry in various key points of Jishan Village, and asked the heads of the capital to supervise the township army to repair the fortifications immediately. Then Cai still sent Yidu and Madu to Yuhedian, where the Song Jiang rebel army would definitely pass by, to ambush the Song Jiang rebel army.

Yuhedian was originally a river valley, but now it has dried up into a north-south road. The ground is covered with fine stones and gravel. On both sides of the road are long slopes and large pine forests on the slopes.

As soon as Zhang Xian and Wang De took Yidu and Madu to Yuhedian, they found a good place to lurk, and at the same time let the soldiers and horses of both cities start to rest.

Zhang Xian and Wang Degang sneaked down shortly after they took Yidu and Madu soldiers.

There was a message of horses running in the distance.

Zhang Xian immediately climbed up a tall pine tree and used a telescope to check the situation of the visitor.

Soon, Zhang Xian realized that it was the Jinwu Army's Tabai.

Zhang Xian moved his mind and said to Wang Dedao below: "It's our Jinwu Army's Tabai, he should have come back to send the message."

Wang De reacted very quickly, and he immediately sent someone to cut off the thaibai.

Without Zhang Xian and Wang De's question, the Tabai took the initiative to say: "You two are the heads, and the villain has found out that the vanguard of the rebels has arrived three miles away. At most half an hour, they will be here."

When Wang De heard this, he was happy and said, "Fortunately we came faster, otherwise, this time I would have called this band of bandits to run away again."

Zhang Xian asked calmly: "How many people do the other party have?"

Tabai said: "About one battalion, all infantry, only thirty or twenty war horses, but their weapons are quite complete, unlike the group of rebels we encountered before."

Zhang Xian asked again: "Did they find you?"

Tabai grabbed the telescope around his neck and said, "We have this, how could they find it?"

Now Zhang Xian and Wang De were completely relieved.

After letting Tabai go and let him continue to report to Cai Jian, Zhang Xian said: "Since the vanguard bandit army only has one battalion of troops, we must eat them all. In this way, it will not only reduce our future pressure, but also inspire the morale of our Jinwu Army."

Wang Dedao: "Odd the throne, you must eat them all!"

...

The vanguard of Song Jiang's rebel army was Suo Chao, one of the thirty-six core personnel of Song Jiang's rebel army. "If you march, your attack must be the first. Don't advance sharply, the heavenly soldiers are ahead."

There is a reason why Suo Chao was able to repeatedly serve as the vanguard of Song Jiang's rebel army.

There is no reason for this, just because Suo Chao is particularly good at marching urgently, and he can always seize the initiative for the Song Jiang rebel army.

Just like this time.

Song Jiang said to Suo Chao: "Whether you can seize Jishan Village is related to the life and death of our group, so you must first go to Jishan Village to capture it!"

After Suo Chao received the order, he desperately urged his rebel soldiers.

As a result, they only took thirteen hours to get close to Jishanzhai.

"Compared with speed, who can surpass me with Suo Chao?"

Suo Chao firmly believed that no matter how fast the official army was, it would not be possible to surpass him.

Based on this, when you arrive at Yuhedian, Suo Chao slowed down - after all, there may be a battle to fight later. Although the combat effectiveness of the village army is almost zero, we cannot be taken lightly, right?

When the team entered Yuhedian, Suo Chao felt that the yin energy in the dry valley was heavy, and the situation seemed to be a little bad.

Suo Chao was about to order to wait and advance, but it was too late.

I saw arrows on the slopes on both sides of the river valley, and arrows were like rain.

Song Jiang's rebel army was caught off guard by the Jinwu army. Five or six hundred people were crowded in the narrow river valley, running around and trampling on each other.

Wang De observed for a while and saw that the formation of Song Jiang's rebel army was already in chaos, it was unlikely that he would organize an effective counterattack. He immediately led the horses to rush into the river valley like a tiger going down the mountain and killing Song Jiang's rebel army!

Zhang Xian followed closely behind and led the soldiers of Yidu to rush down with their guns.

The dust is flying in the Jade River, and the sound of killing is shaking the sky.

This bloody battle lasted nearly a cup of tea.

The setting sun shone on the chopped heads, arms, legs and arms, and shone with bright red light.

The horses lying on the ground and the incomplete corpses were terrifying, and their bloody appearance was terrifying.

The air was filled with a strong and disgusting smell of blood.

Some of the seriously injured soldiers of the Song Jiang Yijun were lying on the ground and dying. They looked at the sky for the last time, not knowing whether they were yearning for heaven or fearing hell. They didn't know whether the corners of their mouths were smiling or in pain.

Suo Chao wanted to lead the defeated generals to open a bloody road and rush out of Yuhedian.

Unfortunately, they did not have such force at all. Facing the cavalry of the Jinwu Army, all their counterattacks were so pale and powerless.

In the end, Suo Chao could only urge the bad horse under his crotch to flee with three or five personal troops as if they were dead.

However, how could the inferior horse under Suo Chao run better than the top war horse under Wang De?

What's more, the top-class war horse under Wang De's crotch had been resting for more than an hour, while the inferior horse under Suo Chao had been hunching Suo Chao for more than a dozen hours.

So, before running half a mile away, Suo Chao was pierced by Wang De who was catching up with him and immediately took off his horse. The few defeated generals were also massacred by the horse cavalry brought by Wang De. Only one smart ghost knelt down and surrendered in time, and he was lucky enough to save his life...
Chapter completed!