The sound of gongs came from the mountain. This was the bandit leader who was in charge of commanding the mountain. Seeing that the situation was not good, he began to ask the fighting bandits to evacuate. Seeing that they could no longer hold on any longer, the bandits felt relieved when they heard the sound of the gong, and immediately retreated back like a tide.
Seeing that the bandits were retreating, Zeng Yi, who was standing at the rear, beat the war drums loudly again. The officers and soldiers inspired by the war drums were so full of morale that they chased after the bandits, shouting all the way.
It didn't take long for the officers and soldiers to advance to the last fortress of the bandits, and without stopping, they quickly launched an attack on the fortress.
As the saying goes, "a defeat is like a mountain falling." The defeated bandits have no intention of fighting now. The last fortress they carefully built only blocked the officers and soldiers for about an hour.
Seeing more and more officers and soldiers flocking to the fortress, the bandits finally couldn't hold on any longer and fled towards the rear mountain stronghold again. The three lines of defense of Fuhu Mountain that had persisted for such a long time were breached by officers and soldiers.
"Brothers, take down the Flying Eagle Club. We will celebrate at the Shanzhai tonight." Finally, the officers and soldiers were very excited. They shouted loudly and rushed towards the location of the Flying Eagle Club.
In the Eagle Club's cottage, non-combatants have taken the remaining food in the village and fled to the mountains behind the cottage. The mountains here are hundreds of miles apart. Even if tens of thousands of people in the Eagle Society are hiding in it, the officers and soldiers will find them. Coming out is not an easy task.
If Zeng Yi is not in a hurry, even though the mountains are high and the forests are dense, it is easy to hide your whereabouts. The weather there is cold and there is a lack of water and food. With so many people hiding there, they will starve to death or freeze to death in less than a month. . Not to mention that there are often wild beasts in the mountains. These birds and beasts will not be polite to the humans who occupy their homes.
"What? A group of bandits rushed out from our weakest defense road." Zeng Yi didn't believe his ears when he heard the report from his soldiers.
Before attacking the bandits' last line of defense, Zeng Yi had already made arrangements to block every road going down the mountain to prevent a single bandit from escaping.
But when the bandits finally counterattacked, Zeng Yi, who was short of troops, had to draw some people from the soldiers blocking the road, but this was done very secretly. Only a handful of people know the deployment of officers and soldiers blocking each road.
However, a group of officers and soldiers actually escaped. The location where they escaped happened to be the weakest strength of the officers and soldiers. Zeng Yi thought that the officers and soldiers were least likely to break through the route.
No wonder that when they conquered the third fortress, the officers and soldiers suddenly counterattacked crazily as if they had taken stimulants. At first, they thought they were trying to break through from the front. Zeng Yi and his generals laughed at the stupidity of these bandits.
Thinking about it now, the reason why the officers and soldiers made such a crazy breakout was actually to cover the escaped bandits. From the news received, Ye Ying, the leader of the bandits of the Flying Eagle Society, was among the escaped bandits. .
There must be a traitor among the officers and soldiers, otherwise the bandits would not have been able to take such a long detour and evacuate from the Xishan Trail where the officers and soldiers were weakly defended. Because there is a section of road there that is very suitable for an ambush. If there are officers and soldiers ambushing the bandits who break out there, the entire army will be annihilated.
Only a few officers knew about the deployment of the Mad Lion Army, so the person who revealed the information to the bandits must be a general who holds an important position in the army. After determining the direction, Zeng Yi quickly launched an investigation among the officers and soldiers, and found that among these senior officers, only Wang Sidao, the commander of the Shanshan Camp, had ever left the camp.
After finding this step, Zeng Yi's eyes lit up. He had previously thought Wang Sidao's statement was a bit unbelievable, but now it finally dawned on him. It turned out that Wang Sidao's real purpose was to deliver news to the bandits.
After thinking about this clearly, Zeng Yi immediately sent people to search Wang Sidao's camp. As expected, he found a letter written to him by the bandits of the Flying Eagle Society in Wang Sidao's camp. Finally, among the soldiers brought out by Wang Sidao for interrogation, some could not bear the torture. Finally admitted that Wang Sidao disappeared for a while when he asked soldiers to dig the so-called ancient tomb.
What did Wang Sidao do during the period when he disappeared? There was only one possibility. He went to contact the bandits and convey the news of the deployment of officers and soldiers.
After this back and forth, Wang Sidao was found guilty of being a bandit. Although Wang Sidao refused to admit it even after being beaten to death, he was finally convicted, executed the military law of the Mad Lion Army, and was directly beheaded.
"This is a conspiracy, I was framed." Before he died, Wang Sidao desperately shouted this sentence, but it failed to save his life.
In fact, some officers and soldiers also expressed doubts about this matter, but if such a big thing happens, someone must take responsibility. Even the aloof General Guangwei is unwilling to bear this responsibility.
Under this situation, all the generals in the Mad Lion Army chose to remain silent in a tacit understanding, and tried their best to encourage Wang Sidao to acquit himself and be killed. In this way, there was no possibility of reversing the matter.
Although Wang Sidao was beheaded for being a bandit, the escaped bandit leader Ye Ying and his team must be captured.
In order to catch Ye Ying, Zeng Yi sent a large number of informants. Even officials from the nearby Heishan, Caoping, and three counties were involved, and they finally discovered the traces of Ye Ying and others.
After receiving the news, Zeng Yi did not hesitate, except for detaching a small group of people to stay at Feiyinghui's village to intercept the bandits hiding in the mountains. All the other officers and soldiers, even the county soldiers from the three nearby counties, were used to chase and intercept Ye Ying and others who had escaped, and finally surrounded Ye Ying and his men in an area dozens of miles northwest of Fuhu Mountain. rate of bandits.
"Report to the general, the bandit leader Ye Ying fled into a wide grassland with more than two thousand bandits. Due to the continuous rain in recent days, the grassland is very slippery and the soil underground is also very soft. All large combat equipment cannot be brought in." A scout reported to Zeng Yi.
"Give up the large combat equipment and let the brothers go into battle lightly. This time I will take action personally and must catch the bandit leader Ye Ying." Zeng Yi said fiercely. He was very confident in the soldiers he led, even if he didn't use them Large equipment can easily defeat these bandits.
Under Zeng Yi's personal command, all the soldiers of the Mad Lion Army marched from all directions and entered the grassland with a radius of dozens of miles. After walking forward for a few more miles, they finally saw the bandits walking in the grass. Seeing the embarrassed appearance of the bandits, the officers and soldiers felt that they had strength in their bodies and rushed towards the location of the bandits desperately.
Surrounded by officers and soldiers from all sides, the bandits walked in panic towards a high slope in the center of the grassland. There was no hiding place around this high ground. The bandits on all sides rushed forward, all wanting to join in the suppression and stand down. achievement.
At the last high point in the center of the grass, Ye Ying and Zhuge Ying stood side by side, but at this time, their faces were not filled with despair, but with mysterious smiles.
"Let brothers take off all their armor and reduce their body weight as much as possible. Now it's time for us to collect the fruits of victory." Zhuge Ying said to Ye Ying beside him with a smile.
"Okay, now let's let everyone in Daning know, so what about the three major iron armies in Daning? They have become our defeated generals." Ye Ying looked at the bandits in the distance and said with pride.
But Zeng Yi and the officers and soldiers led by him did not know that the game of wolf chasing sheep had reversed. They were about to transform from ferocious wolves into sheep waiting to be slaughtered, and a one-sided massacre was about to begin.
At the beginning, the officers and soldiers also knew that the swamp was dangerous, so they followed the bandits' footprints and were safe. However, as they approached the center of the swamp, due to continuous rain, the water had already overflowed the path taken by the bandits.
In this case, the officers and soldiers had no choice but to follow the direction of the bandits based on their senses. Seeing that the bandits were close at hand, the officers and soldiers who were eager to do their best had already ignored the danger of the swamp.
"Oops, my feet are stuck and I can't walk!"
"Brothers, please help me, I'm going to sink."
The officers and soldiers who were walking towards the middle of the grass suddenly discovered a cruel reality. The calm grass suddenly turned into a murderous demon.
Some bandits' feet were stuck in the mud and could not be pulled out no matter what they tried. Some officers and soldiers who tried to help them even fell into the mud after failing to save them.
What's more serious is that some officers and soldiers' bodies kept sinking. They struggled desperately, but found that the more you struggled in this swamp, the deeper you sank. First, your feet, then your waist, your chest, and finally your head sank into the swamp. Lost his life in a daze.
Many officers and soldiers did not know until their death that this swamp was a place of death near Fuhu Mountain. Even when locals walked here on weekdays, people often accidentally fell into the mud and died.
It has been raining for several days in a row recently, and this swamp has become even more dangerous. The rain has covered the footprints of the people in front, and we can only rely on experience to judge which places are safe and which places are dangerous.
The bandits of the Flying Eagle Society have been living in this area and know the terrain here very well, so they also know which road is the safest. This is why they were able to successfully walk to the center of the grassland.
However, Zeng Yi and his officers and soldiers, who were eager to perform meritorious services, never thought of this problem. By the time they reacted, it was already too late, and many people were already trapped in the quagmire.
Seeing someone stuck in the quagmire, even the soldiers of the Mad Lion Army, who were highly skilled in tactics, began to panic. Some people were busy rescuing people, while others started looking for ways to escape.
The officers and soldiers immediately became confused, but the more this happened, the more soldiers fell into the mire. In the end, most of the soldiers were trapped in the mire. The few remaining soldiers stood there and did not dare to move.
"Take it back, take it back quickly."
Not long after entering the grassland, Zeng Yi had to give up his horse. After walking a little further, he fell into a quagmire. Even though Zeng Yi was a fourth-level warrior, he had nothing to do when faced with such a situation. Seeing that many of his men were submerged in the swamp, he quickly issued an order to withdraw his troops.
Upon hearing the order to retreat, the officers and soldiers desperately retreated to the rear. However, many people realized at this time that the road back was extremely difficult. Every time they pulled out the horns that appeared in the mire, it took a lot of effort.
"Charge, kill, avenge the dead brothers." At this time, something that gave the officers and soldiers a headache happened. The bandits who were originally standing high in the center of the grass actually came to kill them.
"They are bandits. Why are there bandits outside? Aren't they surrounded in Fuhu Mountain?" A dark figure also appeared on the outskirts of the grassland. After seeing who was coming, many of the officers and soldiers let out desperate shouts.
What the officers and soldiers didn't know was that the bandits who were attacking the swamp from the outside were not the three armies of the Flying Eagle Society headquarters, but the Xuanwu Army stationed in Feixing Valley.
