weaving

Zhao Xingguang and the other three people fought and retreated, and gradually descended from the embankment to the dam, but they were still almost 150 steps away from their own connection point.

Zhou Xiaoshan already had an arrow sore and two stab wounds on his body. Yu Zhongtian was not much better. Although he was not hit by the enemy's cold arrows, he also suffered one gunshot wound and one stab wound.

However, fortunately, the injured parts of both of them were not on their legs, so their movements were not affected for the time being. However, Zhao Xingguang's right leg was stained red with blood. An arrow was still stuck in his thigh, and blood flowed from the wound. Still flowing out.

Just when they had just boarded the embankment, they saw a plume of smoke rising into the sky from the south. It was obvious that a large group of horse thieves were galloping towards them. They heard the "rumble" of hoofbeats, and they were still less than two miles away, and they were about to arrive in a blink of an eye. .

Looking back at the more than 30 thieves who were chasing up under the embankment, Zhao Xingguang was extremely anxious. He shouted loudly: "Let's go... you guys leave quickly and escape with your lives first. In the future... you can avenge me... for me... The handsome man kills the thief..."

Even so, Zhou Xiaoshan and Yu Zhongtian were both fellow villagers from Changjiazhai, so how could they bear to abandon him like this? They would rather die than abandon Zhao Xingguang, so they dragged him along with the thieves. The soldiers continued to fight.

They retreated more than twenty steps to the north, and then were entangled by the bandit soldiers again. The bandit army and cavalry running in the distance only had thirty or forty steps left before they advanced in front of them. Zhao Xingguang roared loudly: "Ten thousand enemies." ...Smoke bomb!"

Zhou Xiaoshan and Yu Zhongtian got his reminder and immediately came to their senses. They each took out something from the leather bags they were carrying. They were two black balls, one large and one small. They seemed to be made of iron. !

In fact, they are really not the same thing. The ball in Zhou Xiaoshan's hand is slightly larger, and it is indeed made of iron. This is one of the great weapons that frightened the Tatars in Liaodong - an enemy of ten thousand people.

Because this big guy is too bulky, even the elite Yulin Cavalry only has two people in each group carrying it when they go out on guard duty. Zhou Xiaoshan, who happened to be tall, strong and powerful, took one with him.

The ball in Yu Zhongtian's hand is slightly smaller. It is a shell made of fired clay. There is a fuse at one end containing a little gunpowder to ignite the realgar, saponin, ginger powder and pepper inside. Ba and other objects are used to emit choking smoke, burn the enemy's face, drill into the thieves' orifices, cause confusion, and temporarily lose combat effectiveness.

This slightly lighter smoke bomb is slightly different from the "poison smoke bomb" used by the Shenji Battalion of the Beijing Camp during the Liaodong War. The method of preparing the shell is similar, and both are made of clay and clay. It’s made, but it’s different inside!

The "poison smoke bomb" used by the Beijing Camp contained medicinal powders such as wolf fire, mugwort meat, arsenic, realgar, stone yellow, saponin, ginger powder, polygonum shavings, pepper, sand oil, etc., which were combined according to the law. In the bullet, the cannon is fired, and the smoke is everywhere. It burns the thief's face, which is the smoke; it drills the thief's hole, which is the sand; it burns the thief's clothes and armor, which is the fire.

Its purpose is to disrupt the enemy while also injuring it!

The "smoke bombs" used by the Yongyi Army are slightly different. They are mostly distributed to sentinels for use at night. They are mainly used to disturb and confuse the enemy so that they can take advantage of the chaos and kill them. Or take advantage of the chaos to escape...

Precisely because they are mainly used by sentries at night, these tens of thousands of enemies and smoke bombs are much smaller than those used on the battlefield, just to make it easier for sentries to carry them with them.

I saw Zhou Xiaoshan blocked an incoming arrow with the side card on his left arm, and at the same time, he sent the small number of enemies in his hand to Zhao Xingguang. Zhao Xingguang was also experienced in the battlefield, so how could he not understand what he meant?

He suddenly took out the fire seal and shook it vigorously in front of him, and it immediately ignited. Zhou Xiaoshan protected Zhao Xingguang with his body and quickly sent the ten thousand enemies to the fire seal...

With a sound of "chi...", the fuse ignited instantly!

"what!"

A scream and wail came, and a large gash seven or eight inches long opened up on Zhou Xiaoshan's back, and his entire back was dyed red in an instant.

"kill……!"

Zhou Xiaoshan endured the heartbreaking pain in his back. He roared, used all his remaining strength, turned around in a beautiful movement, and threw the ignited enemy of ten thousand people towards the thieves who were chasing behind him. Got out.

There was a loud bang, dust and gunpowder smoke filled the air, and the chasing bandits were instantly enveloped.

Although it is a miniaturized enemy of ten thousand people, its instantaneous explosion is still very powerful. Even if it is slightly inferior to the ones used on the Liaodong battlefield, it is still terrifying in the eyes of these thieves. Extremely.

For a moment, sand and gravel flew together, and screams and wailings continued. Many rebels were injured by the exploding debris and flying sand, and fell to the ground one after another.

Even though some of them were not injured by the hit, they were frightened by the huge explosion and the wailing around them. For a moment, they were stunned in place, not knowing what to do!

"boom"

Before the soldiers could react, there was another roar. Although it was not as earth-shattering and deafening as before, it still shocked everyone...

Just as they were surprised, a denser gray-yellow smoke billowed up and spread instantly. The area of ​​nearly ten steps on the embankment seemed to be completely shrouded in smoke, like a fairyland. .

It turned out that Yu Zhongtian also ignited the cord of the smoke bomb in his hand. When the thieves were stunned by the shock of thousands of enemies, he also threw the smoke bomb in his hand, which was a stab to the thieves.

However, the cartridge they carried contained realgar, saponin, ginger powder, pepper and other powders. When the cartridge exploded, it would be stimulated by the gunpowder and turn into thick smoke. Disperse and stay for a long time.

Although it does not have the same injurious and disabling effect as "toxic smoke", the gray-yellow smoke it emits can still cause irritation to people's mouth, nose, eyes and other organs, causing the victim to cough, shed tears, and The runny nose won't stop and I can't continue fighting.

After all, most of these smoke bombs are used to escape when the enemy is fighting; or they are used to panic the enemy during a surprise attack, so the gray and yellow smoke they emit is also used by our own people. It may be inhaled, so naturally you cannot use something that can cause death or disability.

…………

The bandit soldiers responsible for defending the interception dam on the Jialu River were part of Tian Jianxiu's battalion. After he led his bandit soldiers to intercept the Jialu River, he followed the orders of Chuang King Li Zicheng and led his elite troops to Weishi County to intercept Ding Qirui and Zuo Liangyu retreats.

At this moment, the person who is guarding the dam is Yuan Zongdi, another general of the camp!

Yuan Zongdi, courtesy name Hanju, is also a general in the bandit army. He and Li Zicheng are fellow Shaanxi fellows and have followed him for a long time. What is even more rare is that he is the most calm and reliable in doing things, and has the courage to kill decisively at critical moments.

Historically, after Li Zicheng died in the Jiugong Mountain in Hubei Province, he, Liu Tichun, Hao Yaoqi and others occupied Zhongzhou. They were also one of the thirteen Kuidong families who persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty. They were defeated and self-immolated more than 20 years later. And die.

Now, he is thirty-four or five years old. He is accustomed to using an iron whip weighing twelve kilograms. He is also a very brave and capable warrior in the camp. However, at this moment, he was not in this bandit camp, but in another camp to the southwest, to prevent Ding Qirui and Zuo Liangyu's troops from coming from the south to destroy the dike.

The news of the discovery of the government spies has not yet reached Yuan Zongdi's ears. After all, there are only less than ten people. Bai Wang, the leader of the bandit soldiers in the camp, thinks that he can handle it.

He first sent a trusted leader to lead a team of more than a hundred cavalry to intercept and kill. Then he calmly cleaned up the troops and prepared to go to see the results of the battle. Of course, he also wanted to prevent officers and soldiers from ambush to meet the troops.

Bai Jingsen, the little leader of the bandits, led the cavalry to gallop all the way, and soon saw the bandits chasing the officers and soldiers on the embankment. He roared at everyone and urged everyone to gallop forward with whips and horses.

But just when he was about to catch up, there was a loud bang, and even the war horse under his crotch was shaken and staggered, and he almost fell on the embankment on the spot. He struggled to rein in the war horse.

I saw a cloud of light smoke rising in front of me, and just as I was about to urge my horse to rush over, I saw another dark thing flashing past in front of me. Bai Jingsen's heart immediately rose to his throat, and he held on to the reins of the horse tightly. Be prepared to be thrown off your horse.

However, the explosion he expected did not come as expected. He only saw a flash of light, followed by a cloud of gray-yellow smoke that quickly spread around.

Although he had been a thief for several years and fought many big battles, Bai Jingsen's knowledge was still very limited. When he saw that there were no more explosions, he thought that the army's spies had exhausted their iron mines.

He yelled "Kill the officers and soldiers!" and took the lead in urging his horse to charge forward!

…………

Looking at the gradually spreading gray smoke, Yu Zhongtian struggled to drag Zhao Xingguang back desperately. Zhou Xiaoshan also endured the pain on his back, holding the steel knife full of blood in his right hand, trying to protect him. Zhao Xingguang and Yu Zhongtian retreated.

He didn't have time to bandage the injury, so he could only let the blood in his body flow out...

While the chasing bandit soldiers were being bombarded by thousands of enemies, and were choked by smoke bombs and panicked, the two of them protected Zhao Xingguang and barely got rid of the bandits, allowing the two sides to stay fifteen or sixteen steps apart.

But before I had time to be happy, I heard the neighing of war horses. I looked closely and saw a team of bandit soldiers and horses rushing out of the gray smoke. In an instant, there were more than ten horsemen.

When Zhao Xingguang saw this, he immediately felt "dead" in his heart. Knowing that he would not be able to escape with his life today, he suddenly struggled to break away from Yu Zhongtian's drag, pushed him and Zhou Xiaoshan and shouted loudly: "Go...go quickly...keep it." Life, avenge me!"

"No...we can't leave you behind."

"The commander-in-chief once said, 'Don't give up, don't give up'!"

"That's right...we must live together and die together, and we will be a good man again after eighteen years."

Yu Zhongtian roared and was about to kill the oncoming bandits and cavalry from the north, but something strange happened suddenly. The bandit leader who was the first to rush through the gray smoke was knocked to the ground by his horse. The war horse also abandoned him and galloped straight down the embankment.

While Zhao Xingguang and the other three were stunned, the same was true for the bandits and cavalry behind them. They were knocked to the ground by the horses one after another. Although some knights could still control the horses, they were all spinning in place and whining.

"That smoke...ahem...in the smoke...ahem...there is...ahem..."

Bai Jingsen stood up hurriedly after falling off his horse, but was unable to stand up. He was half-crouched on the embankment and coughing, and could not even utter a complete sentence.

"It's poisonous... There's poison in this ghost smoke..." A thief knight spoke for Bai Jingsen what was in his heart.

Bai Jingsen looked back behind him and saw that all the brothers who rushed through the thick gray-yellow smoke were coughing. Even the horses that did not run away kept neighing, and their sounds were also sad and uncomfortable.

He turned to look at Zhao Xingguang and the other three people who were not far away, and shouted loudly with red eyes: "Cough cough...it's all the dog officers and soldiers...cough cough...the trouble...cough cough...kill...kill" Bare dog thief...ahem..."

At this time, there were twenty or thirty thieves rushing through the smoke. Although many of them were knocked to the ground by their horses, there were also nearly twenty people riding on Shang Ce's horses.

In the bandit camp, those who can become cavalry are almost all old thieves. Of course, there are also many officers and soldiers who have surrendered to the bandits in the past two years.

Not to mention how ferocious those old thieves are, even these officers and soldiers who have only surrendered to the thieves in the past two years have changed from their previous weakness as if they were reborn. They are all like tigers and hungry wolves, even when facing former friendly forces. , that is also merciless, sometimes even more cruel than those old thieves!

Naturally, there is a reason for showing loyalty in this. After all, the military rules and regulations of the intruders are also very strict. They are also the ones with the best military discipline among the thieves, and they always have clear rewards and punishments. They want to use all their strength in front of the formation. It is normal to perform well in exchange for the reward of King Chuang.

However, they had no other thoughts after all. After all, they were also officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty before. Although they had no choice but to join the ranks of thieves, once they became thieves, they were jealous and resentful of their former colleagues, so when the war came, There was no emotion at all, and he even felt very excited and excited about defeating and killing the army.

Being able to show your current superiority in front of your former peers may be a common problem for most of us!

…………

Seeing dozens of thieves on the opposite side, either on foot or on horseback, rushing towards me, although they were still coughing loudly, their eyes were even red, and tears couldn't stop flowing down, but this was still It failed to stop their perseverance in charging forward.

Although Zhao Xingguang and the other three people showed no fear on their faces, their hearts were filled with despair, knowing that they were doomed today...

Just when they were desperate, they faintly heard another rush of horse hooves behind them. The three of them couldn't help but glance at each other, and they all felt that they were surrounded by thieves, and the last glimmer of hope in their hearts was shattered.

Zhao Xingguang took out the only Xiaowan Enemy from his shoulder bag and shouted: "Huo Zhezi!"

Then, he yelled at Zhou Xiaoshan and Yu Zhongtian: "In the next life... let's be brothers again." (End of Chapter)