Zheng Zhitai was in a daze, feeling that everywhere he touched his body, it felt as soft as cotton, as if he was floating in the clouds.
"Am I in heaven?"
He asked himself more than once in his mind.
In a trance, his old mother, the virtuous mother-in-law at home, and the son who is growing vigorously appear again, but their images are not as clear as before, blurry... getting blurry...
"Third brother, clean them all, two Tatar heads, one will die and the other will be captured!"
A young rough voice came to his ears, and then he heard: "I don't know which camp's spy it is. It seems that it was ambushed by the Tatars. Let's see if there are any survivors. Don't dare to stay here for long!" "
Zheng Zhitai heard it clearly this time: "Chinese, fluent Chinese. One of our own...is the Ming army..."
His consciousness seemed to have recovered, and he tried hard to get up, but everything within his reach was still limp and he couldn't move. In desperation, he wanted to scream, but found that he was dumb and could not make a sound at all. .
Sweating profusely, the more anxious he became, the less he could scream. Suddenly, he felt that his body was not as floating as before, as if it was being sucked by something, and it was falling straight down.
Falling, with nothing in his tentacles, and darkness all around him. When he was panicking and helpless, he suddenly felt his body shaking violently, and then a beam of light shone into his eyes.
Suddenly enlightenment came from a rough voice: "Brother, can you still breathe?"
"Ah...cough...cough..."
Zheng Zhitai shouted, and he suddenly woke up, coughing heavily, and gasping: "...Tatars...kill...kill the Tartars..."
A big man came over and held him down, and then ordered everyone: "Look around, don't leave behind those who can be brought, and take all the injured brothers with you."
He stood up and kicked the captured Tatar, and then said: "Except for this Tatar's head, the rest are just heads and melon seeds!"
After hearing the order, everyone spread out to search around.
…………
This group of Ming army sentinels who rescued Zheng Zhitai were thirty-four elite sentinels from the first right sentry team in the middle of the Huwei camp under Zhang Cheng, the deputy commander in chief of Xuanzhen.
The team officer is none other than Chang Zhengbiao. He has been following Zhang Cheng for two years since the twelfth year of Chongzhen. Because he was born in Orion, he is already proficient in bow and horse. In addition, he also suppressed bandits in Xuanzhen and fought against intruders in Henan Province. All of them have made meritorious service, and now they have been promoted to team officers.
When the twenty-four cavalrymen in their camp surrendered to the army together, Zhang Cheng organized them into two teams of cavalry, with Chang Zhengxiong, the eldest son, and Chang Zhengbiao, the third eldest son, as team officers. He also arranged for Lao Ye not to accept Liu Jinhai and Li Changsheng. Come and train them.
Chang Zhengxiong is the eldest among them. Before he joined the army, he was already the leader among them. Not only was he proficient in bow and horse, but he also had some rough knowledge of writing. He also had the military knowledge of the camp passed down from his family. Now he has been promoted to the right guard post. The whistleblower.
His younger brothers Chang Zhengfei and Chang Zhengcheng are now the commanders of a team led by Chang Zhengbiao. Their cavalry organization is different from that of infantry with twelve men and one armor, and then there are teams, bureaus, divisions, and departments. prepared by.
Instead, it is based on the team of five people, with one captain inside; the second team has one captain outside, with a total of eleven people; the third team is a team, with one team officer outside, and the whole team has three people. Fourteen people; three teams are sentry. Then set up a sentry officer and four flag and bodyguards, totaling 107 people in total.
Depending on the number of troops in each battalion, three or five sentries will be used as one unit, with one member of the Qian General on the outside, and ten people who will serve as flag bearers and guards.
For example, the light cavalry department under Zhang Guangda's cavalry camp has five posts as one unit, while the heavy cavalry department has three posts as one unit.
Zhang Cheng's Tiger Guard currently has 652 elite cavalrymen, which are divided into three divisions. Each division has only two sentry men and horses for the time being. This is just for the convenience of future expansion. Each division can be directly equipped with three or five sentry elites. Just ride.
Now the troops from all the towns aiding the Liao army are training together around Ningyuan. Many of the camp's sentries are sent out at night to check the distribution and terrain of the slave army between Songjin and Songjin.
However, only Wu Sangui, Zhang Cheng, Yang Guozhu, Cao Bianjiao and other generals under Ye Bushou would go so far and risk their lives to inspect under the noses of the Tatars.
The Yebushou people under the command of the generals such as Wang Pu and Ma Ke were just showing off around Tashan Fort, and did not even dare to step into the territory around Xingshan Fort.
…………
Chang Zhengbiao led his team out five days ago. Thanks to their hunting experience, they had been hiding well and had not been discovered by the spies of the Tatar capture army.
Among the thirty-four people in his team, twenty of them joined the army from Changjiazhai. They are all good at bow hunting, riding, and shooting. After two years of training in the camp, they are good at riding, slashing, and fighting. The battle is also extraordinary.
This time they came out to scout, although they did not dare to hunt blatantly, but as experienced hunters, they were also capable of setting traps and traps.
There were small gains every day, but they just didn't dare to light a fire. Since they were eating hair and drinking blood, they were replenished with fresh flesh and blood, and the physical strength they had lost during the days of sentry scouting was also replenished in time.
Yesterday, they had arrived in the area north of Xingshan Fort. Due to Zhang Cheng's request to conduct a detailed exploration of the Nv'er River Valley, they had long discovered that this group of Tatar Sentinel Riders were moving around, but they were hiding and observing in the distance and never showed up.
Just because before leaving, Zhang Cheng specially ordered that the trip was only to explore the terrain and mountains, as well as the distribution of slave and bandit troops and the location of their camps. If not necessary, try to avoid contact with the Tatars to avoid exposure and cause meaningless casualties.
Therefore, when they encountered Tatar spies many times, they always hid themselves and did not reveal their whereabouts. Moreover, Zhang Cheng's military orders were very strict. Since they clearly asked them not to take advantage of the opportunity to catch people alive to avoid casualties, they did not dare to take credit. heart of.
The sentry cavalry responsible for the observation today discovered that a group of Ming army sentry cavalry was taking the risk to outflank the Tatar sentinels, so he hurriedly reported to the team officer Chang Zhengbiao that he knew.
Although he didn't want to expose his whereabouts and end the sentinel investigation prematurely, he still had to save the friendly troops in danger, so he decided to leave Sanshi Jingqi on the periphery to respond.
He led one or two dozen fine cavalry to outflank them, taking advantage of the fierce battle between the Tatar sentinels and the friendly forces to cut them off and save the friendly forces from trouble.
Because they had to hide their whereabouts to avoid being discovered before they got close, the sneak attack strategy would be in vain, and it took them some effort to reach the foot of the mountain.
Chang Zhengbiao led one of Chang Zhengfei's 1st and 2nd troops to ride down the mountain, while Chang Zhengcheng led his 2nd team of 2shi to stay at the bottom of the mountain to look after their horses.
In order to be able to fight quickly, they also put side cards on their arms, holding short-handed soldiers in their right hands, and each holding a short-handed blunderbuss in their left hands. These weapons can be used in fighting within ten or twenty steps.
In particular, the Yunzhou-made short-hand gun they are equipped with is not only exquisite in workmanship, but all reeds are made of the best soda steel. Coupled with good flint, the firing rate is surprisingly high. The only disadvantage is that it is expensive.
So damn expensive!
However, the handguns issued to the Sentry Riders are all selected from the best. After all, they have to use them to save their lives in times of crisis.
