And among the fine snowflakes that began to fall, Gao Chong, the former deputy general manager of the Xishu Travel Department, the governor of Beichuan and the post-residence in Guan Nei, was also accompanied by a small group of personal guards and messengers, and passed through the Luonan area. The ups and downs of the hilly community and the Xiachang Basin are on the way to Xuzhou Pengcheng for a meeting. Because this time he had to go there in person. In fact, when Huai Town showed its willingness to accept the wounded and sick from Shangzhou and the numerous accompanying people from Shannan, and continued to support and assist his team after it established a foothold in Nanyang, The trend of people's hearts and morale under his command has already undergone huge and irreversible changes, and he has no room to turn around. After all, although this lone army has not yet reached the final step of the dead end, it is not far away, and the vast majority of people are completely tired of this kind of precarious life, but they continue to fight to the end against the superior enemy despite lack of food and clothing. endless daily life, just for a little bit of hope and possibility. And when the last bit of limited hope was completely shattered, even he could not stop the disintegration of military morale and morale. Only the help from deep in Huai Town could restore and remedy their imminent situation. crisis and dilemma. Despite this, there are still a small number of soldiers under his command. Led by those generals who are still loyal to the country or are lucky, they choose to continue south to find friendly forces to join up, or to take a detour to the west and return to Shu. The way out of the country, instead of joining the banner of Huai Town, the northern rebel party, like everyone else. As for Gao Chong himself, in a sense, he is already a dead person in terms of the country and the dynasty, so there is not so much honor and disgrace to care about. So him going there in person was more like a gesture and a disguised guarantee. It was almost with this complex and bumpy mood that he set foot on the land of Henan Province. The atmosphere of desolation and decadence is almost everywhere here, with ruined villages and market towns everywhere, as well as collapsed and abandoned county towns, and untamed white bones can be seen everywhere among the desolate grass on the roadside; and this situation until they After passing through Lushi County in the lower reaches of the Xiluo River, at the southwest foot of Xiong'er Mountain, things improved after seeing the first military camp and Suitai. Although it is still scary to be cold and lonely in the wild, with only the whistling of the cold wind and whispers like crying; but at least those wild animals wandering in groups and almost fearless of people are no longer visible. The colonies of dogs and vultures were replaced by new construction sites of various sizes on the roadside, as well as fields that were not very coherent, but were obviously neatly harvested. Although the people working vaguely among these construction sites may have a shabby appearance or are inevitably sallow and thin, and the exhaustion and toil under the heavy labor are also palpable, but surprisingly there is not much decadence and depression, nor is there any worry about precariousness. and a sense of uncertainty about the future. . Because of their presence, the roads that were originally muddy and bumpy due to the war began to gradually become dry, smooth and hard; sections of new and old rivers and patches of fields that had been filled with water and slurry were also constantly drying up everywhere. Stretching out; beacons, sentry towers and village towers, as well as post stations, barracks, and sieges, also sprung up one after another. What surprised him was that among the construction sites that had begun to take shape, except for a few relatively important core projects that were undertaken by the Jiansheng Army from Huaidi, the rest were almost all built by local construction companies in Duji Province, Henan Province. It was built and developed by the soldiers and civilians recruited from the army and civilians; this also shows that Huai Town¡¯s outstanding reputation and sufficient confidence that it has always been good at management and colonization are not something that comes from nothing; You must know that most of them have just been included in the administration of Huai Town It had only been less than half a month since the next day, and already there was such an obvious change in my mental outlook and atmosphere. Therefore, it is rare for Gao Chong to have some complex thoughts and even take the initiative to come to the cooks at these construction sites while stopping for a moment on the road, wanting to see something more real under the opposite side of these places; For example , Gao Chong found that their daily food supply was a soup made of taro, radish and dried beans; although there was almost no oil, water or meat color in it, it was thick enough and delicious for each person. The portion is full for a small pot. If you need to work longer than the six hours a day, or if you need to add extra work at night, there is even a supply of noodle soup and baked jicama. Well, taking this as a warning to get a glimpse of the leopard, he can confirm that at least with this newly occupied peripheral place as a reference, the general living standards under Huai Town and the salary in the military should not be bad. where it goes. But after Gao Chong crossed the Heyang Bridge and entered Hebei, it took on a different look. Because the river begins toThere were varying degrees of freezing and ice flow, so it was difficult to sail down the river by boat, and we had to make some more detours on land. Here, compared to Duji Road in Henan, which is deserted everywhere, Hebei Road is undoubtedly much more popular. Despite the increasingly cold weather and the falling snow powder from time to time, there are still many lively bridgeheads and intersections that are full of people. There are small markets and wild markets at Dutou, as well as groups of pedestrians, carriages and horses of all kinds coming and going. And the further east you go, the more lively and frequent it becomes. Of course, there were some things that were more eye-catching or less harmonious during this period; some villages and market towns that were obviously partially or completely burned down in Xinjin, traces of being attacked and smoky on the walls of the county town, and other signs of being burned. There are many heads hung on long poles by the roadside, piles of corpses hanged under the city wall at the city gate, unkempt and smelly prisoners wailing and crying in cages, or wearing shackles on The figures working in the mud of the city trenches all indicate that Huai Town's newly occupied place will not be smooth sailing without obstacles and resistance. But this made Gao Chong feel more at ease. As a senior general who had participated in various counter-insurgency operations and Yanbian garrison development in the vast area outside the mountains for many years, he understood better than others the basic principles of using heavy codes in great chaos. It makes sense; and since Huai Town is not hesitant to use these iron-blooded violent methods in the newly occupied areas, it also means some unprecedented determination and firm attitude to fight chaos. Therefore, after arriving at Liping City, the water and land transfer hub in Texas, and then crossing the Yellow River and entering the Huaibei Road in the heartland, his originally ups and downs had completely calmed down and settled down. I also have preliminary thoughts and ideas about my next path and direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . At the same time, the Iron Horse Autumn Wind dispersed, and Guannan, the gateway to Shu and Shannan West Road, had once again been immersed in dust, smoke and blood. The speed of the fall this time was even much faster than the Western Army's invasion of Shu many years ago. The renovated Guancheng was not even of use. The Huangyuan vassal soldiers climbed over one drum and disappeared. Because after losing most of the combat power of the Western Shu troops who went north, Shuzhong, as the land of abundance, has basically no soldiers available, and only some old, weak, sick and disabled people and newly recruited local regiments and villagers are left. The soldiers are struggling to maintain the basic situation. . From then on, in the face of the Western army's frenzy that came in the wind and snow, Xingzhou, Wenzhou, Longzhou, Lizhou, Langzhou, Yangzhou, and Bazhou fell one after another. After surrendering in battle, the overwhelming power once again opened the final door to the hinterland of Sichuan. And this time the Western Army introduced troops to attack with such speed and momentum that even the remaining officers and soldiers who were busy suppressing the endless uprisings and riots in the local area were unexpected. ??