But when Shan Bayan searched for several nights and finally came to a village where many houses had been burned down, the luck in his heart disappeared.
…
Chapter 206
Although there was no head, Shan Bayan still recognized Bahuta's stature. Looking at the string of cow bones on his left wrist, he was basically certain that this headless corpse was Bahuta's.
The accompanying men quickly dug out the charred corpse from the burned yard. Although the facial features could no longer be seen clearly, the body shape was obviously different from that of the Da Jing Dynasty people, as well as the remaining pieces of cloth and riding boots on the body. It proved that these people were the tribal warriors led by Bahutanari.
Holding torches and under the moonlight, the Shanrong people searched every room and quickly lifted out the corpses one after another from the piles of charred wood.
More than two hundred charred corpses were piled together, which looked extremely scary. Shan Bayan counted them several times and found that, including the headless Bahuta, there were exactly two hundred and thirteen people.
He was so arrogant, but he didn't even leave a single person alive.
Shan Bayan's eyes were about to burst. He covered his heart with his right hand and said loudly to the tribesmen who were looking at him, "A firm head stands on the earth. I, Shan Bayan, am the son of God and a soaring eagle." .Shan Bayan swears an oath here tonight that Bahuta and all the warriors will be avenged."
With that said, Shan Bayan raised his hand and waved, "Let's take Bahuta and the warriors back!"
Everyone in the tribe responded and took off the bristle bags originally intended to contain food from their saddles. They quickly loaded the messy corpses into them, then loaded them onto their horses and rode towards Bald Gorge.
In fact, before leaving, Shan Bayan planned to have his men throw a few torches on the thatched roof as usual. But thinking of the charred warriors in the mane bags, Shan Bayan suddenly felt a little scared. He always felt that the flaming snakes were about to wrap up and eat him.
Thinking that he would be afraid because of this, Shan Bayan swung his riding whip angrily and made a fool of himself. He would lead the tribe warriors to kill him tomorrow.
As for where to kill, Shan Bayan had no idea except Dinghu County, which is the closest place to Tuzixia.
In Shan Bayan's opinion, Dinghu County is separated from Honghu Camp by many roads. It is impossible to move reinforcements if they really want to take action. Shan Bayan still remembers the incident where he killed the magistrate of Dinghu County with a knife last year.
To be honest, if the magistrate hadn't stepped forward to stop him, he wouldn't have killed the people. After all, killing officials is definitely different from killing civilians. Maybe the government would send soldiers to surround them.
But the reality is surprising. Dinghu County and Honghu Camp did not respond at all. Even when they went to the village to grab food later, they encountered no obstacles at all.
To be honest, Shan Bayan didn't understand what was going on until now.
The only explanation that makes sense is that the fate of a small official in the Da Jing Dynasty is the same as that of ordinary people. They all have a mean fate. If they die, they will die. Otherwise, why would no one come to settle accounts with him? Or maybe Dinghu County has no defense capabilities at all and can only let them go into uninhabited territory.
Shan Bayan felt that no matter what it was, it was a good thing for him.
He has already thought about it. When he enters the city tomorrow, he will directly take the heads of the people to commemorate Bahuta and the others.
…
After the temporary escort team was formed, Lin Yuanqiu assigned the young men of the escort team and asked some of them to guard the South City Gate, while the other part went to the North City Gate.
In the past few days, he, Yan Tongzhi, and He Tongpan had been squatting at the south gate.
Speaking of which, Yan Tongzhi and He Tongpan have never experienced this kind of experience of waiting for someone to come to their door and be beaten. It can be said that every time they see the stones piled on the tower, they can't help but feel excited. and expectations.
It's just that it's the night of the fifth day of the lunar month, and I don't know when the Shanrong people will come, or if they won't come at all.
Yan Tongzhi and He Tongpan suddenly found that the waiting time was really tiring, especially when they had already washed the pot and looked forward to someone jumping down as soon as possible.
Compared to Yan and He's eagerness, Lin Yuanqiu was neither hasty nor slow. Anyway, the people under his jurisdiction all live in the city, so he doesn't have to worry about them being harmed.
As for whether the Shanrong people would come, Lin Yuanqiu felt that they would definitely come based on their tendency to pick on weaklings.
Isn't it just picking the weak persimmons? With a radius of more than 100 miles, Dinghu County is not the only county seat, nor is it the only place with villages. However, it is not difficult to see from the handwritten notes of Duzhi County that the Shanrong people have basically been doing evil things in the villages here in recent years.
The reason for this is that Dinghu County and Tuzi Gorge are not far apart. The most important thing is that there is a distance of more than 60 miles from Honghu Camp. As long as no one sends a message to the barracks, no one will notice even if the Shanrong people cause trouble in Dinghu County.
Therefore, the Shanrong people will definitely come.
Lin Yuanqiu's analysis was correct at all. At this time, the enemy's situation had been discovered in Dinghu County.
No, when Wang Yongqing stood on the city wall and saw a group of torches approaching about a hundred meters away, accompanied by the sound of dense horse hooves, he couldn't help but admire him.
Sure enough, Master Zhizhou was right. These Shanrong thieves were not only cruel, but also very cunning. They came here specially in the middle of the night. They were preparing to take advantage of others' unpreparedness and launch a surprise attack.
Phew, I'll let them see who attacks whom later.
Thinking of this, Wang Yongqing quickly ordered everyone in a low voice, "Everyone is on your place, and you will act as ordered later. Do you all hear me?"
"Hear it!" Although the voice was lowered, the voices of nearly two hundred people gathered together, and it sounded unusually powerful.
On the city tower at this moment, a long row of armored soldiers were squatting, each holding a clay bottle with a fuse in their hand, and in front of them, there were many more filled with fire. The oil was placed in an earthenware vase.
For the sake of safety, the men of the fire attack team were all soldiers who came from the barracks, and Wang Yongqing specially arranged for them to have people who handed bottles to them, so as to avoid accidentally breaking the pottery bottles in the rush and causing the fire oil to leak out. .
In addition to the fire attack team, there was also the stone attack team that had been preparing for several days. Opposite the soldiers and guards, there was a whole row of ordinary people who were escorting the soldiers.
At this moment, they were dressed in a somewhat special way. In addition to wearing earthen jars on their heads, they also had wooden boards tied to their vital parts on their chests. The earthen jar on the head, after several days of improvement, has now been replaced by the one with two ears. In this way, the ears of the jar on both sides are tied with cloth ropes, which can be tied around the neck, so there is no need to worry about the earthen jar. It will fall off.
As for the people who improved the earthen jar, it was naturally the family members of the escort team. The husband (son, grandson) wants to kill the Shanrong bandits. At home, in addition to hoping to kill all the Shanrong bandits as soon as possible, the rest must be racking their brains to think of various life-saving tricks.
For example, the method of blocking the key points with wooden boards was thought up by an old carpenter. In order not to delay the flexible use of his hands and feet, the old carpenter also improved the original sleeve-shaped wooden boards into the current one on the front and back. Then I drilled holes in the shoulders, put on the hemp rope, and finally tied it with a cloth belt. In this way, I could lift the stone without any delay.
Since it is a good method, it is inevitable for people to follow it. After seeing this, every household imitated it one after another. The old carpenter was not stingy, not only teaching him step by step, but later even directly helping everyone drill holes. In this way, the common people in the escort team quickly put on the wooden armor.
Immediately afterwards, another smart person came up with the idea of making a large baffle from the shields used by the guards. In this way, when people hide underneath, there would be double protection.
As for the materials, don’t you have a bed board at home? Just improve it and it will come in handy.
So, there was another round of ping-ping-pong-pong, and within a day, there were dozens of wooden bed boards with handles on the tower. As long as you held up the wooden handle and ducked down, you were not afraid of any arrows flying towards them.
Seeing their "results", the common people burst into laughter.
It can be said that in the past few days, not only Wang Yongqing and the others, but also Wang County Cheng felt for the first time what it means for the people of the city to be one family.
Wang County Cheng couldn't help but shed tears again, thinking to himself, it would be great if Master Du was still alive.
The sound of horse hooves was getting closer and closer, so close that Wang Yongqing could vaguely see the face of the leading strong man. Except for a beard, the whole face was covered with a weed-like beard except for a pair of eyes. It looked really sloppy.
At this time, Shan Bayan, who was very motivated, would probably bar his teeth in anger if he knew that his long beard, which he had always been proud of, was seen as slovenly. You know, Shan Bayan calls himself a soaring goshawk, and the beard on his face is often praised as goshawk feathers.
Wang Yongqing, on the other hand, quickly remembered something. He had heard someone say before that the Shanrong leader had a full beard, so this person could not be the bandit leader named Shan Bayan.
Thinking of this, Wang Yongqing couldn't help but feel excited. It seemed that Shan Bayan, the leader of the tribe, had personally brought his people to take revenge.
Well come, come well, Wang Yongqing clenched the bottle of kerosene in his hand, and promised to make sure this bitch never comes back!
Shan Bayan, who was full of confidence and prepared for a complete victory, did not know about the ambush on the city tower.
At this moment, he was riding on the horse with his head half-raised. If he didn't have to keep his eyes open to see the road, Shan Bayan felt that he could raise his head to the sky. You know, today he was the leader. Nearly three thousand tribesmen came. It can be said that the entire tribe, as long as they can coil their horses and bend their bows, all came over.
Originally, Shan Bayan would not have brought so many people here. After all, there was no need for them to come out in full force to clean up such a small county.
But when I went back yesterday, the tribesmen were all angry after seeing the burnt corpses in the mane bags. Everyone came here to massacre the city tonight.
Looking at the continuous torches, Wang Yongqing estimated the approximate number of Shanrong people in his mind. He thought there must be two or three thousand.
This realization made Wang Yongqing suddenly break into a cold sweat, and then he became even more convinced of Lord Zhizhou's wisdom.
Wang Yongqing felt that if Master Zhizhou had not prepared everyone in advance, formed a escort team, and sent himself and thirty soldiers over, then Dinghu County would definitely be breached tonight. As for the consequences after the breach , absolutely unimaginable.
Even now, Wang Yongqing felt that he had to be very alert and must not take it lightly.
The main reason is that there are too many people on the other side. Although there are many people on their side, one strong Shanrong man can hold up two people. What's more, the other party also uses a wall-climbing hook. It really makes the Shanrong people climb up. If they attack the city wall or open the city gate, they may not necessarily be their opponents.
Ten feet, five feet, seeing the Shanrong people holding torches getting closer and closer, Wang Yongqing suddenly had an unexpected idea.
Especially the torches held by each and every one of them, aren't they the fire attack boost sent to them?
Therefore, when Shan Bayan, who was waiting for the troops to approach the city, was thinking about whether to break open the city gate and enter in a big way, or send people to secretly climb over the city wall and kill everyone in their sleep, Wang Yongqing quickly raised his hand and gave the order to the fire attackers, "beat!"
The sound is sonorous and powerful.
As for Shan Bayan and the others, after hearing the orders from the tower, before they could recover, they were frightened by the pottery bottles that seemed to fall from the sky with sparks.
Those who were lucky enough to dodge immediately, while those who were slow to react were hit directly on the head. The broken pottery bottle and the kerosene in the bottle's belly burned unceremoniously, especially with the addition of the torch in the hands of the Shanrong people, and soon the fire was raging.
No matter how fat and strong the horse is, it cannot stand the taste of its hair being burned and then its meat being roasted. Not to mention the Shanrong people riding on horseback, their bodies were still on fire, and they were all thrown off their horses due to the horse going crazy.
As a result, the horses screamed and the Shanrong people cried for their fathers and mothers, and the chaotic scene quickly turned into a hell on earth.
Although the agile Shan Bayan avoided the burning pottery vase as quickly as possible, most of his "goshawk feathers" were inevitably burned by the fire. If Shan Bayan hadn't gritted his teeth and slapped himself hard several times, He slapped the fire out, but he was afraid that the other half of the left side of his face would not be saved either. The smell of burnt hair made Shan Bayan choke and cough several times. When he raised his head again, his eyes were filled with fierceness. , said in a confused tone, "Hurry up and shoot an arrow for me!"
As soon as they heard the leader's instructions to shoot arrows for me, those Shanrong people who were farther away and had not been burned by the fire remembered that they still had bows and arrows on their shoulders, and hurriedly nocked arrows and fired, and then there was a sound of bow strings. With a "bang bang" sound, arrows quickly flew up the city wall like rain.
Seeing this, Wang Yongqing ordered the fire attack team to quickly implement the second plan, which was to squat down and throw the bottle as far away as possible. There were two or three thousand people under the city wall anyway. Even if they didn't have to aim, they would definitely be hit. .
He was worthy of being a Shanrong man who had arrived home on horseback. All the sharp arrows he fired flew up to the city tower. However, the attack power of the arrows that formed a parabola was much smaller than those that walked in a straight line. He squatted on the other side of the city wall. At this time, the young and strong guards who were holding the baffle could only hear the "tat-tat-tat" collision sound coming from the board, but no arrows were seen penetrating the board.
The fire attacker continued to throw bottles, and the cloth fuses lit by the fire sickle swayed in the wind, like a pheasant waving its long tail, flying everywhere.
At this time, the Shanrong people were no longer as menacing as before. They had already extinguished the torches in their hands, and were retreating far away, for fear of being thrown by Huodanzi.
As for the mountain warriors who originally fired their bows, they no longer had the intention to set up arrows.
By the way, this kind of indiscriminate shooting without seeing the target is just crazy, isn't it?
Besides, if they run out of arrows, what will they have to do to save their lives later?
Looking at Shan Bayan again, looking at the pile of human and horse carcasses still surrounded by raging fires not far away, as well as the fire eggs thrown down from the city tower from time to time, he gritted his teeth, and in the end he could only struggle. Shout out the word "withdraw".
withdraw?
Withdrawing so soon?
Oops, why did you withdraw?
The sound of horse hooves getting further and further away made the young men of the escort team unable to accept it for a moment.
Their rock-breaking skills haven't been fully demonstrated yet, so why did they run away so quickly?
Speaking of all kinds of horizontal smashes, vertical smashes, and head-first smashes, they had been practicing for many days.
At this moment, if they weren't afraid of being laughed at by the soldiers and guards, the young men present would have wanted to shout "Don't leave" loudly.
Seeing the disappointed eyes of the young men, Wang Yongqing couldn't help laughing: "Why, do you think it's a pity? Hahaha, if you want to fight the Shanrong people, just come to the military camp. Our military camp is still recruiting guards. , As for military pay, ordinary soldiers and guards earn 500 cash per month and eight sets of clothes for the four seasons of the year. By the way, there are also new year's goods distributed during the Chinese New Year."
After hearing this, several soldiers nodded quickly, "Yes, last month we each received five kilograms of pork and ten kilograms of flour for the New Year."
When they heard that there was pork and flour, the young men present were a little excited. They thought they would discuss it with their families when they got back. If they agreed, they would sign up to serve as soldiers.
After confirming that the living Shanrong people had gone away, Wang Yongning and the soldiers stood up slowly. Then everyone saw that the fire was still burning in the open space in front of the city gate. Inside the fire were the mountain warriors and horses that had long since died.
Not far from the fire, there were many unrecognizable dead bodies. They should have died after running out of the fire.
Although it was almost the end of Yinshi, Wang Yongqing had no intention of opening the city gate and going out to check.
Anyway, how many Shanrong people have been annihilated? We will know when we go out to clean the battlefield at dawn.
