Chapter 277
In San Gong Village, Dabie Mountain, Susong, Zhang Xianzhong woke up from his sleep. It can be said that he had a nightmare, dreaming that Cheng Shijie stepped on his head and made him unable to breathe.
When Zhang Xianzhong's head came to his senses completely, he felt something was wrong.
Zhang Xianzhong is also considered a senior bandit. Since the end of Tianqi, famines have continued throughout Shaanxi. Severe droughts and insect disasters have occurred. The seedlings have withered and starved to death. Unable to survive, farmers had no choice but to take desperate measures. Peasant riots first broke out in northern Shaanxi and soon became a prairie fire.
Zhang Xianzhong was originally from Liushujianbao, Dingbian County. He studied in childhood and later joined the army. He served as a police officer in Yan'an Prefecture and was dismissed from his post due to circumstances, so he went to Yansui Town to join the army. He should be executed for violating the law. The general Chen Hongfan noticed his strange appearance and interceded with the commander-in-chief Wang Wei for mercy. He struck him with a hundred military sticks and was removed from the list. From then on, he lived in the countryside.
When he was in the countryside, Zhang Xianzhong was tall and thin, with a yellowish face and a beard of 1 foot 6 inches. He was a strong-looking man and was known as the "Huang Hu" among people. In the third year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong integrated the eighteen villages in Dingbian and responded to Wang Jiayin and others' uprising, calling himself the "Eight Great Kings".
From the third year of Chongzhen's reign, they have been making trouble until now. They have fought in a circle around Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. Not only have they not been wiped out, they have become more and more joyful and the trouble has become more and more energetic. The army he led based on the Eighteen Villages in Dingbian had strong internal cohesion and fought bravely. It has always been the elite of the rogue army.
Later, Gao Yingxiang became the leader of the rebels all over the world, and Zhang Xianzhong directly invaded Fengyang. He became famous and his power grew stronger. However, when Zhang Xianzhong began to target Macheng, he began to run into trouble. In the battle at Heshun Village, he had tens of thousands of troops, but was defeated by Cheng Shijie's 6,000 elite Ning Haijun cavalry. Now he finally escaped to Susong, but the problem is that this village is so rich.
As Lao Tzu wrote in the "Tao Te Ching": "Misfortune is where blessings depend, and misfortune is where misfortune lies." Although the materials seized in San Gongzhai were larger than those captured in an ordinary county or even a state city, There are even more supplies. But the problem is, these supplies include canned meat, sugar, salt beans, and wine. There is wheat, rice, and dried meat.
Bu Qu, who was extremely tired, naturally ate and drank when he encountered so many supplies. When Zhang Xianzhong got up, the entire large camp was almost drunk. The few bandits who are still awake are also venting their primitive animal desires.
"Your Majesty!"
"Your Majesty!"
Wherever Zhang Xianzhong passed, the bandits saluted one after another.
Zhang Xianzhong asked: "We are not familiar with the place here. Have you arranged sentries? Don't capsize the boat in the gutter!"
"Your Majesty, don't worry, we have already made arrangements!"
Guoshanhu, one of the generals under Zhang Xianzhong, said: "Your Majesty, if you want to get into our camp, unless they turn into flies and fly in, they will definitely be discovered by our people!"
Listening to Guo Shanhu's report, Zhang Xianzhong did not feel at ease. Instead, he felt his heart swell for no reason, and his heart beat faster.
At this moment, Zhang Xianzhong noticed the smell of cooking meat.
Looking in the direction of the aroma, however, the source of the meat aroma is not in San Gong Village.
Don't think that being a bandit is so prestigious. In fact, most people don't have enough to eat. Even if they can barely fill their stomachs, the food is not good. Wowotou made of bran and wild vegetables is the staple food. If you can get some beans, Add some salt and boil it, and it will be a delicious meal without any oil or water in your stomach.
Of course, leaders at the leader level not only have meat to eat, but also wine to drink. Their treatment is actually better than that of ordinary landowners. Just like Zhang Xianzhong's Chinese army, even if he does not rob San Gong Village, he still has a certain amount of meat and wine. Includes rice and flour.
Zhang Xianzhong looked at the piles of bonfires in the distance, looked at the Purple Gold Star and said: "You have good eyesight, how many people are there?"
Zijinxing looked at the piles of bonfires and counted them. He counted them several times but couldn't count them clearly. He sighed and said: "I'm afraid there will be a lot of troops, there must be several thousand people."
Zhang Xianzhong asked: "How many thousand is it? Three thousand or five thousand?"
Zijinxing shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it won't stop!"
Zhang Xianzhong took a breath. So many officers and soldiers came silently, it's trouble!
At this moment, there was a loud noise in the distance, and an orange-red fireball rose into the sky. Several bandits were blown to pieces, and two injured were lying on the ground screaming.
"what happened?"
Zhang Xianzhong walked towards the direction of the explosion. I saw a girl with more than a dozen absentees, holding a tin trumpet and yelling at Zhang Xianzhong's men: "My aunt is right here, come and beat me!"
"Little girl, don't scream now. There will be a chance for you to scream later!"
"You come out to beat us! You are a bunch of cowards, a bunch of cowardly turtles, you are less courageous than a mother-in-law! Go back to your hometown and chew the bark of the tree as soon as possible. How dare you still want to rebel? You are not afraid of making people laugh. !”
Faced with the little girl's scolding, these bandits were naturally not to be outdone and scolded them back one after another: "Don't run away if you have the guts!"
"If I don't run away, you think I'm stupid!"
"We won't bully the minority with more, let's fight one on one!"
"I am fourteen years old. Do you want to lose face if I challenge a fourteen-year-old girl to a duel?"
"I'll beat you three one by one, come here if you dare!"
"Come here if you dare!"
It was night now, and most of the bandits were actually malnourished and unable to fight at night. Even Zhang Xianzhong had mild night blindness, let alone the others.
Zhang Xianzhong was not stupid. He naturally knew that there must be an ambush around these dozen little girls. The two sides exchanged insults in the distance, but no one took action.
About three miles away from the front of San Gong Village, this is the main camp of Ning Haijun.
In front of a bonfire in the camp, Sun Ke looked at the camp of the bandits and breathed a sigh of relief: "We have caught them!"
"It's a pity that Lao Yuan's artillery didn't catch up. Otherwise, with one blast from dozens of cannons, he would have been called the Eight Great Kings and he would have immediately turned into a dead bastard!"
Zhao Wencai smiled softly: "Fortunately, you won't be late for a good meal!"
Sun Ke looked at Zhao Wencai and said: "General Zhao, in my opinion, there is no need to wait until dawn tomorrow. I will launch an attack now and tear a hole in their camp. You can lead the cavalry and rush in. A guy You can defeat them!"
"inappropriate!"
Zhao Wencai said solemnly: "Our commander-in-chief has always been most disgusted with generals who disregard the lives of soldiers. If I dare to do this, the commander-in-chief will take off my uniform even if he doesn't unscrew my head!"
Meng En looked at Sun Kewang and said, "It's a good thing to have energy, but in a war, you can't just rush into the enemy with energy alone!"
Sun Kewang actually had no peace of mind about Zhao Wencai. Of course, he also knew that Meng En and Zhao Wencai were different. Zhao Wencai, like himself, was born in the army. Meng En is a direct descendant of Cheng Shijie.
Sun Kewang dared to trick Zhao Wencai, but he did not dare to be presumptuous with Meng En. He looked at Meng En and said, "Then, in General Meng's opinion, what should we do now?"
Meng En smiled faintly and said: "Tomorrow we will cook at five o'clock and have dinner at six o'clock. At sunrise, the whole army will attack us and force the bandits to fight us! In an open battle, these rabble are no match for us in any case. We can defeat them in just one battle." Defeat them completely!"
Sun Kewang pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "A heavy sword without an edge, great skill but no craftsmanship, wonderful!"
Although Meng Enyi prepared to face Zhang Xianzhong openly, in fact, this was not really fair, but taking advantage of Ning Haijun's equipment advantages and long-range advantages. Although Meng En's infantry unit does not have long-range artillery, it still has support firepower and Franco machine artillery, and its firepower is much stronger than that of the cavalry.
"I hope we can complete the battle tomorrow so that we can be free to support Luzon."
In the night wind, Meng En looked at Sangong Village and said with a worried look on his face: "I don't know what's going on over there in Luzon. It's said that the Spaniards are back!"
Zhao Wencai frowned and asked, "Why, has the Imperial Guard received the order to go to Luzon?"
"The General Staff plans to adopt a rotation system. Our Ninghai Navy's capable soldiers will have to go to Luzon to perform combat missions for one year. Our Guards Command is also among them. Not only the Guards Command, but also Wusongkou , senior officers’ troops are also included in the rotation!”
Zhao Wencai sighed and said: "It seems that the situation in Luzon is not optimistic!"
"What? The situation in Luzon is very good, but the commander-in-chief wants to use the indigenous people in Luzon to train troops!" Meng En said with a smile: "Our Ning Navy has developed too fast, and there are still many soldiers who have been in the army for two or three years. I haven’t had a chance to see blood yet!”
After a day's journey, they were already hungry. Ning's navy soldiers consumed their meals with astonishing efficiency, and then fell asleep. Recharge your batteries and prepare for the fight tomorrow.
Early the next morning, all the bandits climbed out of bed. They didn't sleep well last night. In addition to the harassment from the young men of San Gong Village, it was also because they learned that Ning Haijun, the brigade, was coming. They were only two or three miles away. Who could sleep?
You must know that Ning Haijun's battle in Heshun had already beaten the rogue bandits of Zhang Xianzhong's tribe to the point of being haunted. The sound of gunfire like exploding beans and the artillery like fire dragons were simply their nightmare. They got up early, lay on the fence and looked into the distance, trying to see what was going on.
Two miles away and directly ahead, the Ning Navy cavalry was forming a team. In front of the cavalry formation, more than two hundred large vehicles, which were either Thunderbolt gun vehicles or Fire Dragon II launch vehicles, as well as some ammunition supply vehicles, were forming. Get ready to fire.
Zhang Xianzhong had already seen the combat effectiveness of Ning Haijun's cavalry. Facing Ning Haijun's thunderbolts and rocket launchers, he no longer had the will to resist.
"Catch a few people and ask them how many roads there are in this village!"
The mountain tiger said: "Your Majesty, I have asked before. There are three roads in total. The road in front of us can lead to the county town. Now we can't go because it is blocked by their cavalry!"
Zhang Xianzhong asked directly: "What's the other way?"
"It leads to the pier. The road is in better condition and very wide!"
"Then let's..."
When Zhang Xianzhong came to the south gate of Sangong Village, two miles away from the south gate, Ning Haijun's infantry were also in the entire team, and then they lined up at once, with dozens of Folangji type at the front. Artillery, then dozens of Thunder Gun vehicles, and a defense line formed with baggage vehicles.
On the front line of this vehicle formation is a steel jungle composed of pikemen. If the enemy charges head-on, they will not hesitate to intercept them. The pikemen rely on the shield wall to form a formidable forest of spears. , coupled with the rain of bullets poured out by the gunman, it is guaranteed to make the enemies rushing into the formation unable to eat.
The bandits looked at all this in astonishment, right? The fight was going to start early in the morning? You guys are too positive, we haven’t even had breakfast yet!
Zhang Xianzhong was very desperate at this time. After being kicked and hit by many leaders, the bandits picked up the guy, stuffed something into his mouth randomly, and then drove out of the camp in a mess, preparing to fight.
They still didn't know what kind of medicine the officers and soldiers were selling in the gourds, but since the officers and soldiers were already in a fighting posture, they could only accompany them.
Ning Haijun's infantry advanced at a constant speed of eighty-eight steps per minute, very rhythmically. The most terrifying thing was their silence. Thousands of people were marching at the same time, and no one spoke. Not even the horses barked, which filled the eardrums. Yes, it's their neat and powerful footsteps and the brisk and rhythmic drumbeats.
Thousands of people marched to the beat of the marching drum. As they got closer, the bandits were surprised to see that these officers and soldiers were all wearing black shirts and oval-pointed steel helmets. On the helmets, the blood-red tassels were dancing in the morning wind, like jumping blood-devouring elves. .
Not only that, they are all wearing iron armor. Looking at it, it is simply a sea of metal!
The leaders looked at each other in shock. Which army is this? How come it has such sophisticated equipment? If the cavalry is well equipped, it is understandable. After all, there are few cavalry in the Ming Dynasty, and every cavalry is a treasure.
But the problem is that infantry is a cheap unit. A spear or a knife is enough to make a soldier. As long as there is food, there are as many soldiers as there are soldiers. When Zhang Xianzhong attacked Fengyang, he only had more than 54,000 old battalion troops around him. However, after attacking Fengyang, his troops increased by two or three times.
If it weren't for the fact that there were too many people and not enough food to feed them, Zhang Xianzhong could expand his troops to hundreds of thousands at any time.
Now Ninghai's rangers have opened a powerful warning curtain, pressing towards their two wings to drive away their scouts. In the scout battle, the gap between the two sides was clearly reflected. Amidst the sound of three-foot-three-inch compound bows, the old battalion rangers who waved their scimitars and were about to rush forward to fight Ning Haijun's scouts screamed one after another. Then he fell off his horse.
Although these bandits are brave and skilled with bows and horses, Ning Haijun is rich and powerful, and Sun Chengzong also used his influence to select elite knights from the frontier army. Many of the current Ning Haijun cavalry are knights with superb riding skills. These guys learned to ride horses before they could walk. They have been dealing with nomads on horseback since they were young. Their skills on horseback are as good as those of Jiannu, and their equipment has an absolute advantage. The scouts of Zhang Xianzhong's army Suffered a lot.
Zhang Xianzhong looked a little distressed. These cavalry were all the elites of his direct lineage. He relied on them to control the world. It was good now that the elites he had painstakingly cultivated were used as rabbits by the other side, and they had a great time shooting each one with one arrow.
There is no other way now.
"Where is the third way?"
As soon as Zhang Xianzhong finished speaking, Zijinxing said with a surprised look on his face: "Your Majesty, what do you mean..."
"I mean, this fight can't be fought!"
Ning Haijun's artillery has not yet fired, and the thunderbolts have not yet fired. They have already killed and injured more than 300 people, but Ning Haijun has not killed or injured anyone. How can we fight this battle?
With a record of more than 300 to zero, if we continue to fight, it will be a hole in our heads.
"The opposite side is a completely ragtag group of people. We can defeat them with a single charge. I really don't know why General Zhao refuses to let us charge!"
The cavalry shouted: "Yes, why don't you let us go? This is a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds!"
Qiao Siniang said: "If you go, of course you will have a chance to defeat the bandits in one fell swoop, but the question is, how many people do you plan to lose? Two hundred? Or three hundred?"
"No one will die in a war!"
Qiao Siniang said: "Of course people will die in war, but we must try to minimize the number of deaths. Human heads are not leeks. They can grow back after being cut off. Who is not raised by father and mother?"
Qiao Siniang was very thorough in her training, and all the Ning navy cavalry shut their mouths and stopped complaining.
"Go back and defend the stronghold!"
"Your Majesty, as long as we retreat, their cannons will come up, so how can we fight?"
"Go back when I ask you to go back, stop talking nonsense!"
Zhang Xianzhong made a retreat gesture towards his trusted leader. The bandit leaders understood instantly. They found their scapegoats one after another and patted each other on the shoulders: "Boy, I have always been optimistic about you. Fight this battle well. What will happen in the future?" how!"
A group of uninformed bandits began to retreat in front of the village wall. To be fair, the walls of San Gong Village were quite well built. Most of them were made of stones. There was no other way. Even though Monk Peng was incapable of fighting, he was the best at mining. He was a miner. After making money from phosphate mines, he rebuilt the village.
Seeing the bandits retreating to the stronghold, all the Ning navy cavalry were so angry that they cursed their mothers.
"They're all cowards!"
"I have the guts to fight Grandpa!"
"Damn it, are you a man?"
Without leaving the Walled City to fight in the field, the cavalry would have almost no merit. These merits would be taken away by Ning Haijun's artillery. The cavalry felt that its mouth was flying.
Zhang Xianzhong came to the back mountain of Sangong Village and looked at the so-called road in the back mountain. He felt his scalp numb. This so-called road was almost at an angle of 70 degrees. It was a steep hillside.
"What's going on?"
"Go down the rope ladder!"
Several bandits were lowered down the mountain with rope ladders. Before they could get down, there were bursts of gunfire from behind. Ning Haijun found out that the bandits were retreating to the mountain stronghold. Naturally, they were not polite. The cavalry fired the Fire Dragon Type II rocket launcher, Fo Lang. Machine artillery and shells were thrown towards San Gong Village as if they were free of charge.
Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly climbed down the mountain.
"Boom boom boom..."
Rocket shells and artillery shells fell one after another in San Gong Village. As long as one shell landed on the ground, several or more than a dozen celebrity bandits would be killed.
At this moment, a bandit leader grabbed a Sangongzhai miner who was so frightened that he cried in his arms. His original intention was to use this miner as a human shield. However, more and more bandits reacted, and they Capture the miners you didn't have time to kill and use them as human shields.
It's not that Zhang Xianzhong is kind. Every time they go to a place, they will coerce local people to join them. These more than 4,000 miners, as many as 1,500 to 600 young men, are a new force for Zhang Xianzhong. blood.
A celebrity bandit took the miners, their families, women and children and pushed them against the wall of San Gong Village.
Sun Xiucai watched this scene and hurriedly said to Meng En: "General Meng, stop fighting, those are all our people!"
"Your people?"
"Stop firing!"
As the firing stopped and the smoke was blown away by the wind, you could clearly see dense crowds of miners and miners' families on the walls of the stockade.
"These bastard bandits!"
Meng En is also in a very difficult situation now. If it were other Ming army troops, they would not care about the casualties of the civilians. As long as the bandits are annihilated, it is a great achievement for them. Even if there are no ordinary civilians, some of them will kill good people and take credit for their merits. . But Ning Haijun was different. Ning Haijun always adhered to the purpose of killing as few people as possible.
If Meng En had not owed an indiscriminate punishment and a shelling, even if he won the war, he would still be punished.
Meng En said: "Let them surrender, and I will protect them from death. If they don't surrender, I will make them regret coming to this world!"
There is no such thing as letting these bandits go. Even if he tries to be punished, Meng En will annihilate these bandits.
Sun Xiucai stepped forward to negotiate with the bandits. At this time, Zhang Xianzhong just arrived at the foot of the mountain.
When he heard the cannon fire from the mountain stronghold stop, he knew that the brothers on the mountain were either dead or had surrendered to Ning Haijun.
"Isn't this too fast?"
Zhang Xianzhong breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that the biggest advantage of these wastes was that they helped him escape. However, when Zhang Xianzhong looked around, there were only less than two thousand people around him.
But it was the worst time since he started the army. After all, in this time and space, he has not met Qin Liangyu and has not been dealt with.
"Your Majesty, what should we do now?"
"First find a place to rest and hide from the limelight for a while. After waiting for a while, I will take you to the state and the government, where you can eat well and drink spicy food!"
Before Zhang Xianzhong finished speaking.
"call out!"
A sharp whistle suddenly sounded, and a crossbow arrow about a foot long came through the air, hitting Zijinxing's temple, piercing the entire skull cavity, entering from the left and exiting from the right, and the strong impact knocked him over.
Almost at the same time, there was a loud banging and trembling on the mountain road, and crossbow arrows fell like raindrops. The proud and proud Zhang Xianzhong's thieves were hit by arrows one after another, and once they were hit by arrows, they were all pierced from front to back. There were loud screams on the mountain road. The officers and soldiers walking in front fell on their backs, dead and injured.
Guo Hushan turned pale in horror and shouted sternly: "There is an ambush! There is..."
However, the word "ambush" had just reached the tip of his tongue when Zhang Xianzhong yanked him over and stood in front of him. Immediately afterwards, a crossbow arrow hit his forehead and penetrated the back of his head. The arrowhead protruded from the back of his head with brains and blood. Take a small piece.
Zhang Xianzhong gasped when he saw it, what a terrifying crossbow!
A round of crossbow arrows came over, and more than 200 of Zhang Xianzhong's old thieves were shot over, and they were completely thrown into chaos. Let them bully the refugees. Of course they are one to ten and unstoppable. But if you let them fight against the same well-equipped army, they will most likely drop their weapons and run away without hesitation. Only fools risk their lives. !
Now they were ambushed by Sun Kewang's troops, and more than two hundred of them were shot down in one encounter. It would be a huge miracle if they still didn't urinate. The timid ones lay on the ground trembling, while the smarter ones threw away the loot in their hands and ran away, while some of the bandit leaders were roaring loudly, trying to organize the unsatisfactory subordinates to fight their way out.
The mountain road is so big, so when there are so many people in a mess, they naturally huddle together and no one can move. For a while, screams, screams, and curses can be heard incessantly, and it is extremely embarrassing.
The second round of crossbow arrows came quickly. The powerful crossbows equipped by the old thieves who ambushed them were not only extremely lethal, but a row of crossbow arrows swept through them, killing more than a hundred more of the gangsters, almost without missing a beat. At this time, those gangsters were already heartbroken. Many of them even knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, shouting, "Grandpa, have mercy, Grandpa have mercy, we surrender!"
Zhang Xianzhong yelled: "Who is it? What kind of ability is it to hide your head and show your tail?"
Although crossbows are destined to be eliminated, the problem is that these craftsmen who have made crossbows for generations in the Ming Dynasty are not reconciled. They have improved Ning Haijun's crossbows several times, and now the range has reached 340 steps. To open such a distance The strong crossbow is very difficult, but due to the installation of an extremely cleverly designed pulley set, pulling it open is not much more difficult than pulling a strong bow.
The most amazing thing is that its arrow trough has also been modified into a magazine-type device. This device is made of tin and contains ten crossbow arrows. There is a spring underneath. After one arrow is fired, the spring automatically pushes the next one into the arrow. Arrow trough, the archer only needs to pull open the crossbow to fire, eliminating the need for a series of actions such as taking the arrow from the quiver and inserting it into the arrow trough. The firing process is greatly simplified, and the rate of fire is greatly increased. From the original every Two to three arrows per minute increased to an average of four arrows per minute, and a nimble archer could even shoot five arrows per minute.
"Father, you are safe and sound!"
When Sun Kewang appeared on the avenue, Zhang Xianzhong's eyes instantly turned red: "It's you, you traitor!"
Sun Ke looked at Zhang Xianzhong and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time, foster father, you really want your child to die!"
The bandits around Zhang Xianzhong dropped their weapons one after another to avoid being shot.
Sun Kewang walked towards Zhang Xianzhong step by step.
Zhang Xianzhong looked at his former adopted son and now became very nervous: "What are you going to do?"
"Borrow something from my adoptive father!"
"what?"
Sun Kewang said with a serious face: "Kewang has now taken refuge with Marshal Cheng, and has been appointed as Commander-in-Chief's personal guard, Commander Zuo. However, Kewang has not done anything for himself and is worthy of the position of commander. So, Kewang wants to use his foster father's head to kill him." Use it once!”
Zhang Xianzhong stared at Sun Kewang with a sneer on his face: "You dare to kill me? Aren't you afraid that Cheng Shijie is afraid of repeating the same mistakes as his father? Think about it, is it better to kill your father, or to send your father to Commander Cheng?"
"Send it to the commander-in-chief, and the commander-in-chief won't dare to protect you. What you did is too big. You dug up the emperor's tomb. Once you are sent to the capital, you will be detained. Why bother?"
(End of chapter)
