weaving

In front of the Tengshe Camp outside Daguantou Village, the sun was still scorching the earth as usual, without a trace of mercy.

It was Tang Xiancheng's first time to fight against bandits as the deputy general of Tengshe Camp. He was excited and nervous, fearing that he would not fight well. Losing face for Yongyi Army was not the most important thing, but he could not bear the trust of Earl Yongning.

He looked through the telescope at the dark shadows approaching slowly in the distance, quietly and carefully dismantling the first flower hedge. Looking at the group of ragged hungry people, a trace of pity flashed through his heart.

  But the button of war has been activated, how can it change because of his momentary kindness!

There was a loud bang, and along with a small cloud of smoke rising and rolling upwards, a black bullet shot out from the muzzle and flew straight towards the enemy opposite.

The iron bullet hit a hungry man who was dismantling a flower hedge right on the forehead. His whole body leaned back involuntarily and he fell straight to the ground with a plop. There was no sound except for a stream of bright red liquid that kept gushing out from the bullet hole.

Although the hungry people had been forced to participate in the action of filling trenches and digging cities before, the officers and soldiers at that time also resisted, but they mostly shot them with bows and crossbows from a distance. Not to mention that the casualties were always limited, the accuracy was also very impressive.

But scenes like today's were unprecedented. They had all forgotten how to be afraid and didn't even think about running away. They all stood stupidly in the distance, staring at the hungry man who had just been shot and fell to the ground.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

A burst of intense explosions came from afar, awakening them from their shock. One of the hungry civilians suddenly shouted, "The government troops are firing cannons!"

They were about to run back like lost dogs, but it was too late. Blood mists were spurting out from their chests, abdomens, backs, shoulders, heads, and faces. The scene was simply dazzling...

Only one hungry man tripped over the wood that had just been dismantled and managed to escape the harvest of death!

The hungry people around had never seen such a horrific scene. In just a moment, ten of their companions died on the spot. Those who were injured but not yet dead let out tragic wails, like the cries of the Yama King in hell, which struck their already fragile hearts.

"The soldiers are firing their cannons..."

"The soldiers are coming out..."

"Run... escape for your life..."

These hungry people were frightened birds. They served as coolies in the rebel army just to get food to eat so that they could survive. How could they be loyal to the rebels?

Although he had not completed the task of removing the first flower hedge, staying alive was the most important thing after all. As for the punishment for escaping back, it would be nothing more than a whipping and an extra meal of hunger.

Compared with being alive, this punishment is so insignificant!

In order to demonstrate his benevolence and righteousness, Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, no longer arbitrarily executed the hungry civilians who failed to fill the trenches. Instead, he used milder methods such as whipping with whips and sticks and starving them as a means of punishing those hungry civilians who were unwilling to work.

Although it does not seem as direct as the threat of death, for the hungry people who have been hungry all year round, being able to have a full meal is more satisfying than anything else.

In fact, they were not so weak before, but the power displayed by the opposing government troops was too terrifying in their eyes, so they were frightened at that moment.

  Just imagine how terrifying it would be to be hit by the Yongyi Army’s most powerful Yunzhou Type 2 gun at a distance of thirty or forty steps?

Even the Jianzhou Tatars who were wearing heavy armor would suffer heavy losses, let alone these starving people who were wearing ragged leather clothes and were skinny.

Those who were hit by bullets had their flesh and blood flying all over the place, and in the blood mist, heart-wrenching screams were heard. Not to mention the hungry people who had never seen the world, even the bandits from the Shanzi Camp who were waiting for the charge a hundred steps behind were stunned by the scene before them.

…………

"What's going on?"

Qi Dakan glanced at Xiao Yunshan and said hesitantly, "I don't know. I only vaguely heard a few crisp sounds, and then the dozen or so hungry people were all dead."

"Ghost... What the hell!"

Fang Zheng first approached an old thief who followed Hao Yaoqi. Although he was not very old, he had been a thief for nearly ten years. He had seen the government army's muskets before, but that thing just made a little louder noise. As for the accuracy, it was almost negligible.

But what happened today?

At this moment, Fang Zhengxian also felt a wave of fear in his heart. He stammered, "Is it... is it a musket... Did the soldiers fire their guns?"

Qi Dakan knew it very well. He knew that this must be a new musket made by the "General", which was why it had such power and accuracy.

  He hadn't heard such a sharp and crisp sound in years!

However, at this moment, he pretended to be very surprised and said, "Damn, these officers and soldiers are really weird. They didn't shoot any arrows, but just fired their guns. Aren't they afraid that the gun barrels will explode and hit themselves?"

Xiao Yunshan and Fang Zhengxian also shook their heads, expressing their doubts.

"Brother Qi, shall we continue to charge?" Xiao Yunshan's tone was clearly hesitant.

This showed that he also felt the terrifying pressure brought by the Xuanfu Army on the opposite side. Although there were only a dozen crisp sounds, ten of his own people fell. Even if they were hungry civilians without any armor, the hit rate was too terrifying.

Qi Dakan's position in the Shan Camp is second only to Bao Jiqiang. He is one of the confidants of Tong Shoushan, the chief leader of the Shan Camp and the general of the Chuang Army. That's why Xiao Yunshan would seek his opinion at this moment.

Bao Jiqiang, Qi Dakan and Yan Mingda in the Shan Camp, as Tong Shoushan's earliest subordinates, are naturally regarded as his most trusted ones. This is also the consensus of everyone and is well known to everyone.

There is also the old camp general Yin Wutang of the Shan Camp and the leader of the right camp Lu Zhen. They are actually Tong Shoushan's confidants, but they are more secretive and not so obvious and ostentatious.

Xiao Yunshan, the leader of the Left Camp, although he also joined the King of Rebellion's army as a soldier, he hated the Ming court, local officials, and the Ming army.

Whenever he participated in the attack on a prefecture, he was known for his ferocity in battle, and he was also known for his cruelty in killing officials appointed by the court and soldiers guarding the city. In addition, Xiao Yunshan also admired Li Chuangwang very much. Therefore, in the Shanzi Camp, he was the only leader, and he was considered an alternative existence. Even Tong Shoushan did not dare to confide in him, and whenever there was a secret, he would hide it from him in every possible way.

At this moment, Qi Dakan raised the corner of his mouth slightly, pointed to the direction of the camp behind him, and said to him carelessly: "If Master Shan didn't tell us to stop, who would dare to stop!"

After saying this, he shouted to his personal soldiers with a fierce face: "Go, kill all those who are escaping in front, and tell them that if they don't tear down the flower fence and fill up the trench, none of them will survive!"

A group of personal soldiers received the order loudly and rushed towards the group of hungry people who had fled back like ferocious monsters.

After Xiao Yunshan watched his personal soldiers go away, he whispered to Qi Dakan, "Brother Qi, the Grand Marshal has issued a strict order not to kill the hungry people at will..."

Qi Dakan narrowed his eyes and looked at him, grinning slyly: "Where... where are the starving people? We are killing deserters. How could we use knives against unarmed starving people? It's impossible... absolutely impossible!"

…………

"Brothers, you fought well. I'll ask General Liu Bai to reward you later!"

Li Mingjiu, the leader of the team, was delighted to see that the soldiers in his team had driven away the hungry people who were dismantling the flower hedges with a wave of shooting, so he spoke to encourage the brothers in his team.

"Boss Li, I'm the only one who didn't hit you. I'm ashamed of you."

"Bullshit." Li Mingjiu cursed, and then continued: "You should have hit him with that shot, but the thief was lucky and happened to stumble and escape."

"But I didn't shoot the thief after all."

"Han Sanniu, why are you so anxious? Looking at the thief's attitude, he won't give in so easily. He will definitely use shockwaves. Are you afraid that you won't have a chance to kill him?"

After hearing what he said, the soldier named Han Sanniu stopped talking and lowered his head to start loading ammunition into his musket.

…………

Li Mingjiu is one of the living recipients of the "Medal of Outstanding Military Merits" in the Yongyi Army. He is also one of the famous musketeers in the Yongyi Army, and is on par with Cheng Sanhu, the most famous "musketeer" in the army.

In fact, Li Mingjiu was originally the apprentice of Cheng Sanhu. Although he was extremely talented in shooting, he had never mastered the technique and was about to stop making progress when Zhang Cheng learned about it. He gathered all the soldiers with shooting talents like Li Mingjiu and handed them over to the "God Gunner" Cheng Sanhu to be responsible for training. These people thus became Cheng Sanhu's apprentices.

Li Mingjiu has a younger brother named Li Mingshi, who also has a strong talent for shooting. However, Li Mingshi likes to use a big gun to shoot the enemy from a long distance. Although this makes aiming difficult, he enjoys doing it.

It was during the Battle of Liaodong that Zhang Cheng discovered this characteristic of Li Mingshi, and he specially formed a large gun team with Li Mingshi as the team leader. The team had 20 soldiers and was directly under his central military headquarters.

When Li Mingjiu was reorganized into the Yongyi Army, he was transferred from Chen Zheng's Dushiying to the Weiyuanying, where he served as a captain on the right side of the Weiyuanying infantry.

This was one of Zhang Cheng's methods. When the troops were reorganized, he would always disband the outstanding soldiers and reorganize them, using this as an excuse to interfere with the newly formed battalions.

Gao Chengshan, the captain of the right wing of the Weiyuan Battalion's infantry, was originally the old captain of the Yongwei Battalion. Because the original Yongwei Battalion was merged into the Weiyuan Battalion as a whole, in order to avoid the situation where soldiers became generals, Zhang Cheng transferred some of the outstanding soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion to other battalions at the time of the merger, and also transferred outstanding soldiers from other camps to fill the vacancies.

This operation has been repeated continuously since Zhang Cheng set out from Zhenbei Road. The generals of all ranks in the Yongyi Army have long been accustomed to it, and the middle and lower-level officers in each camp do not know which camp they will be assigned to in the future, so they are only loyal to Zhang Cheng, the Earl of Yongning, and only execute military orders from their superiors. They do not form the kind of complete dependent relationship that other Ming troops have.

  Li Mingjiu was also awarded the "Medal for Outstanding Military Merits" during the Battle of Liaodong because he hit the Manchu Red Banner's Boshiku with a single shot from a hundred paces away, which boosted the morale of the entire army and also dealt a heavy blow to the Tartar's military spirit!

Therefore, he has always been proud of it.

When he was transferred to the right wing of the Weiyuan Battalion Infantry as a captain, he also set extremely high requirements on the archery skills of the soldiers in his squad and was extremely strict during training. He even took out his own salary to motivate those soldiers with excellent training results.

It was precisely because of this reason that the group he was in was promoted from the third group to the first group, and even became the "champion" group in the Weiyuan Battalion shooting competition. He was highly regarded by Gao Chengshan, the captain of the right wing, and even Wei Zhice admired him very much.

Just now, his first class was ordered to be the first to shoot the hungry people who were tearing down the flower fences because his shooting skills were the best in the army. The purpose was to scare away the more than a thousand hungry people with his extremely terrifying hit rate.

  In this way, they not only prevented the hungry people from dismantling the flower hedges with a small amount of casualties, but also avoided exposing their own strength too early. It can be said to be "killing two birds with one stone"!

According to Wei Zhice's deployment, there were three layers of flower hedges and three trenches outside the camp on the Daguantou side, and the distance between the first layer of flower hedges and the trench was only thirty-five steps.

The reason why Wei Zhice made such an arrangement was to increase the hit rate of the guns and cannons at close range during the enemy's first attack, thereby greatly inflicting damage to the enemy's troops.

  Now it seems that this goal has been achieved. Even if the warriors in other armors are not so accurate, at a distance of thirty-five steps, the hit rate will definitely be quite impressive!

…………

More than half an hour later, battle reports from various parties attacking the Xuanfu military camp were reported to the South Camp where Liu Zongmin was. The situations in the West Camp and the North Camp were very similar to his.

The Xuanfu army had no intention of attacking. They just used the advantage of their muskets to shoot from a long distance to prevent the removal of the flower fence. Although archers were sent in all directions, they could not suppress the government army's muskets at all.

Several generals of the rebel army asked Liu Zongmin whether to continue the offensive.

Liu Zongmin raised his head and glanced at the sky. The sun was already setting and was about to fall below the horizon. It was estimated that it was almost the hour of You. In another hour, it would be dark. There was no point in continuing to fight.

"Order each battalion to send troops!"

Li You immediately went to arrange for his personal soldiers to pass on the order to each camp.

Liu Zongmin also called Liu Tichun to have dinner together. There was a reason why he had prestige second only to Li Zicheng in the rebel army. In every battle, he not only participated in the formulation of military strategies, but also always led the troops in person. Just like today, when the soldiers had not eaten, he would never eat a bite first, and he would not care even if the food was cold.

"Erhu, the Xuanfu Army has not fired any artillery. What do you think about this?" (End of this chapter)