On the third day of the eighth month of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen reign in the Ming Dynasty, Unity Time passed. The lights were brightly lit on the Deyi Tower not far from the Yongning County Government Office. All the officials and generals in Yongning City gathered here, waiting for the guards at the North Road of Xuanzhen. General, Zhang Cheng, the admiral in charge of North Road military affairs, arrived.
Today, they had almost all rushed outside the city to welcome Zhang Cheng's arrival. They had already seen the power of Zhang Cheng's troops, which they had never felt before.
Although the military horses brought by former deputy commander Zhang Guowei were very strong and mighty, they always felt like there was something missing.
Just as they were talking about it, a thin man was sitting on a round stool, holding a "Yunzhou Brand" cigarette in his hand and puffing away at it. He blew out a puff of green smoke and said two words lightly: Words: "Murderous!"
"right!"
"murderous look!"
"It's murderous intent!"
"Look at their eyes, they are so cold!"
"Why do they all look like hell's underworld soldiers?"
"Yes...yes..."
"...here he comes..."
Under the curious gaze of everyone, Zhang Cheng and others finally galloped over. Guard Tong Shouxin had been waiting here for a long time. He hurriedly stepped forward and took the reins of Zhang Cheng's horse. A sergeant came to greet him. Then he was led to the stable behind the restaurant.
After receiving the letter that Zhang Cheng had arrived, the county magistrate Liu Minshen also came out to greet him. He and Tong Shouxin accompanied Zhang Cheng to the second floor. There were four tables of wine and food in the hall on the second floor.
Tonight's banquet was of great scale. Although Zhang Cheng had not watched it carefully, he could feel that almost all the prominent figures in Yongning City had gathered in this proud building.
Most of them were seated on the first floor. Although none of them caught Zhang Cheng's attention, they would have some bragging rights by attending this banquet tonight.
But the more than 20 people in the hall on the second floor are different. Everyone who can go up to the second floor is Yongning's leader. Even if they can't sit at the same table with Zhang Cheng, they can sit on the side table. People are envious.
Zhang Cheng, Yongning magistrate Liu Minshen, and guard Tong Shouxin were seated at the table by the window. There were also Liang Cixin, a commander of the Yongning Guards, Du Mingli, a Confucian scholar, Fu Yuxi, a Jin gentry, and two wealthy businessmen Zhai Xiaowei and Tian Weiqun, etc. people.
The three people who came with him, including Wu Zhizhong, Wei Zhice, and Gao Jingong, were seated at the other three tables respectively. Another fellow magistrate and two ministers of Yongning Guard, as well as the county magistrate, chief secretary, and dianshi were also present.
Basically, at each table there was one person from the health department and the county government, and the rest were Confucian scholars, medical officers, gentry, merchants, etc. who sat at the table to accompany them. During the dinner, everyone was very interested in Wu Zhizhong's arms.
He also told everyone without hesitation that his arm was broken during the Battle of Julu. Fortunately, he was saved by the commander-in-chief Zhang Cheng, and he was able to be where he is today. Even though he only had one arm left, he still wanted to be loyal to Zhang Cheng.
Because they knew that he had participated in the Battle of King Qin in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, everyone at the table was looking for the Battle of Julu, as well as the story of Zhang Cheng shooting Dorgon with an arrow and beheading Yue Tuo. However, someone on the table next to him soon heard that The coming sound attracted.
It turned out that Wei Zhice at the other table was also being asked about Zhang Cheng's deeds. He was already very eloquent, and what was even more rare was that he could speak in a coherent manner and his narration was extremely vivid.
On the entire second floor, only Zhang Cheng's side was slightly calm. They couldn't let go after all. The county magistrate Liu Minshen and Xuezheng Du Mingli kept chatting with Zhang Cheng about the lyrics he composed called "Military Song", giving them Zhang Cheng also praised him.
Tong Shouxin, the guard, always treated Zhang Cheng as a superior, while Jin Shen Fu Yuxi, Zhai Xiaowei, and Tian Weiqun just kept smiling, praising Zhang Cheng for his good words at one moment, and then praising Zhang for the next. He is sincere and brave, and sometimes he pricks his ears to listen to the stories of Wei Zhice at the next table. He is really busy.
During the banquet, Zhang Cheng solemnly ordered the guard Tong Shouxin in front of everyone. Two days later, he would inspect the defenders under his command, as well as the more than 2,000 troops and horses left by Deputy Commander Zhang Guowei in preparation for the expedition. A thief needs it.
…………
On the fourth day of August in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, at the beginning of Chen hour, the sun had risen and was hanging diagonally in the sky, shining lazily on the people who were preparing to have breakfast.
There is a bandit village hidden in the ditch 25 miles east of Yongning. It is not very large, but the terrain is dangerous. The first gate of the village is stuck on a section of the main road into the mountain.
This is the only passage into the mountain. It is about a mile wide in front and back and only one foot wide. There are stone walls on both sides of the village gate. The village gate is also extremely strong and made of large wood. It is now tightly closed.
There were less than ten bandits inside the village gate, sitting around a fire, smelling the faint aroma of meat floating on the fire. They sat on the rocks one by one, chatting while they waited for the meat porridge to be cooked. With.
But they never saw that on the cliff to their right, there were several groups of black and green shadows that kept moving back and forth. They were less than fifty steps away from them, and they could vaguely see that those shadows were actually big men in disguise.
About one and a half miles further, there is a stream passing through. There is a water gate here, which is also made of large wood. There is a gap on the door that no one can pass through, so that the stream can pass through. There are also water gates on both sides of the gate. A wall made of stacked stones.
There were no less than twenty bandits here, and most of them were inside the water gate. There were only five or six people outside walking toward the first village gate, but the bandits inside were eating breakfast.
It can be seen that it is also meat porridge with dark steamed buns. However, this is already an excellent meal outside the big cities on East Road. At least you can still smell the meat.
Their clothes were all shabby, and five or six of them were wearing cloth armor. All kinds of long and short weapons were scattered around them, and three or four muskets were stuck on the wall piers.
A bandit with a slightly naive face had just finished eating one steamed bun. He was holding a broken bowl with half a bowl of meat porridge in his right hand, and he was wiping it randomly on his clothes with his left hand.
He kept mumbling something, and the other bandit seemed to find it interesting, so he put his ear close to it. He was so frightened that he retracted his neck, his little head turned around, and he looked around. What are you looking at?
"Murderous!"
A bandit leader wearing cloth armor came over and kicked him until he staggered. He staggered forward a long way and lay on the ground like a dog chewing.
The bandit leader cursed angrily: "You bitch, you just called a ball randomly, where did you get the murderous intention..."
Suddenly, he saw a green shadow moving in the grass by the stream more than forty steps away on the right. Then he saw a flash of cold light. Before he had time to react, it had already flown in front of him. It was indeed an arrow. The arrow shot straight through his neck, and the tip of the arrow came out at the back of his neck, close to his cervical spine. Under the sunlight, it shone coldly and dripped with bright red drops.
Then there was a burst of gunfire, and arrows mixed with lead bullets flew towards him. Only when another bandit in cloth armor shouted "Official Army Sneak Attack" was he hit by a lead bullet and killed on the spot.
In this battle, only one person survived, and that was the silly guy who kept muttering "murderous" in his mouth from the very beginning!
