weaving

In the 14th year of Ming Chongzhen, September 25th, early morning.

There are no lights on the city walls of the inner city of Jinzhou, and it is pitch black everywhere. Occasionally, a few lights loom with the sound of "dong-dong".

Only on the tower of Yong'an Gate in the south of Jinzhou, a few strings of lanterns stick out of the city wall, and there are many torches held high inside and outside the gate tower, extending to the walls on both sides.

Zuo Dashou, the commander-in-chief of the five armies of the Ming Dynasty, the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong vanguard, and the general Zu Dashou of the Liaozheng vanguard, is standing upright on the tower of Yonganmen, looking at the wilderness to the south.

As far as the eye can see, except for the flickering lights on the three trench defense lines of the Qing army, it is a dark night, and even the Qing army's company camp farther away, there are only faint lights left, like stars in the sky as insignificant.

Deputy General Zu Dabi led the army to fight outside the city for more than half a day, and he did not return to the camp to rest at this time. He just removed the heavy armor from his body, but he still stayed by Zu Dashou's side, and he also looked at the dark wilderness in the south. .

It turned out that when Zu Dabi broke through to the southwest outside Jinzhou City, he was blocked again in front of the third trench and could not advance an inch. He had no choice but to rush eastward.

However, outside the South Pass of Jinzhou, there was a group of soldiers and horses stationed in the Mongolian Zhengbai Banner of Ibai, and some Han army and two Tartars assisted in the defense. He was still unable to break out of the encirclement, so he had no choice but to retreat to the South Pass and return to Jinzhou from Yonganmen. In the city.

And all this happened to be seen by Zu Dashou, who had been guarding the tower all the time. He was mentally prepared for this ending, so he didn't say much, but told everyone to go back to the camp to rest.

"Big Brother, Eldest Uncle, this kid is really promising. He was able to stand up to Dorgon's tens of thousands of Tartar soldiers and defend the north bank."

Zu Dabi's rough voice continued: "Xuanfu Zhang Cheng is indeed not an idler, he is also guarding the north bank of the Xiaoling River, teaching Daishan that old thief has nothing to do."

He said suddenly: "It seems that tomorrow will definitely be another fierce battle!"

Zu Dashou heard his younger brother's words, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and he said in a very calm tone: "Elder Uncle is like this, it is understandable. The Xuanfu Zhang Cheng boy is indeed even more precious!"

"What do you mean, big brother? Why is that kid Zhang Cheng so precious!"

Facing Zu Dabi's full of doubts, Zu Dashou was not impatient, his eyes still stayed on the dark wilderness in the south of the city, and said indifferently: "You and I are all uncles of the eldest uncle, and we are looking at him growing up again." Da, he has his own affection in it, he marched bravely to fight against the slaves and bandits today, not only for the sake of family affection, but also for his future plan."

Zu Dabi couldn't help nodding his head when he heard his brother's words, but he questioned: "That's right. It's rare for the eldest uncle to fight hard and not retreat. Why is it that Zhang Cheng..."

"Thinking about that Zhang Cheng boy, he was originally a general of the Xuanfu, and he has nothing to do with us. He was able to lead the army to help, but it was only because of the imperial court's face. He was ordered by the emperor and had to do it."

When Zu Dashou said this, he raised his head, looked at the few lonely stars in the night sky, and continued: "He could have put on a show, but he was able to fight bravely in front of the battle, and made great achievements repeatedly. Taking care of the wings, isn't it commendable."

Looking at his younger brother who suddenly realized, Zu Dashou nodded with satisfaction, but then said: "You and I both know that elite soldiers are rare, and this involves not only the investment of money and food, but also a lot of emotions.

Just like these family members Jingqi, they usually eat and live together, all of them are like relatives of you and me, if it is not a critical moment of life and death, how can we bear the risk of loss.Are you right or not? "

Zu Dabi was taken aback when he heard the words, but he murmured unwillingly: "But that Zhang Cheng boy won a lot of military merits because of it."

"hey-hey……"

Zu Dashou sneered: "Military merits? Do you think Zhang Cheng really cares about Xu military merits that much?"

Seeing that his brother still had a stubborn question, Zu Dashou continued with a sneer: "Even if he, Zhang Cheng, is not promoted to the general of the Xuanfu, but with such a strong army in his hands, isn't he also domineering in the Xuanfu? How can it be made?"

Zu Dashou's eyes gradually became gloomy and cold, and he continued with a little hatred: "The imperial court only dared to kill those civil servants and governors, but only military generals with soldiers in their hands. How many people have they killed over the years?"

Only then did Zu Dabi come to his senses, but he asked again: "Brother, what do you think Zhang Cheng of the Xuanfu is planning?"

Zu Dashou didn't answer for a moment, and after a while, he said slowly: "This is exactly what I doubt, what is Zhang Cheng's plan for so bravely fighting the slaves at the expense of his troops and horses?"

In the end, he seemed to be asking himself: "Is it really just loyalty to the emperor and serving the country?"

After a long time of silence, suddenly a gust of night wind came, and Zu Dabi persuaded him: "Brother, the weather has changed and the wind is blowing. It's cold and cold this night. Let's go back to the house to rest, and wait until dawn to see the situation. No."

Zu Dashou shook the cloak on his body. This cloak has turned dark red, it can be seen that he has been with him for many years, and traces of sewing can still be seen in some places.

It can be seen from this that Zu Dashou is indeed a nostalgic person!
He had just turned around when a strong night wind blew up the cloak on his body. The cold night wind immediately pierced through the armor on his body, and the icy chill penetrated directly into his body.

Zu Dashou couldn't help but shuddered, he stopped in his tracks, looked up and saw a few snowflakes falling, he couldn't help being a little stunned, and said stupidly: "Why is it snowing so early?"

Zu Dabi also replied with some doubts: "Yes, big brother. It's really snow. We have rarely seen snow in recent years."

"What time is it?" Zu Dashou asked suddenly.

Zu Dabi looked at the pitch-black sky, but couldn't see anything, only a few snowflakes falling in front of his eyes, faintly visible.

He hurriedly asked the servants who were following him, and after getting an answer, he reported to Zu Dashou: "It's Yinshi, big brother."

"Well. It seems that there is nothing to do tonight, let's go back..." Zu Dashou said and went to the gate tower.

It seemed that tonight he was going to rest again in this dilapidated gatehouse.

…………

At the end of Yin time, in the dead of night, it is the time when sleep is the sweetest.

In the pitch-black sky, sporadic snowflakes began to fall at some point, gusts of cold wind blew by, and the "rustling" sound of weeds falling down with the wind became one piece.

In the wilderness to the east of the Manchuria Xianghuangqi camp, the ground is already pitch-black, covered with a thin layer of white snow, which looks very special and eye-catching even in the dark night.

It turned out that for the safety of the camp, Baiyintu ordered people to ignite the weeds around his camp in order to take advantage of the wind to burn them better.

In this way, there is no weeds covering the outside of the Manchurian Xianghuang Banner camp, and everything nearby can be seen at a glance.

Although the idea was good, the pitch-black night completely blocked their sight. Even though the weeds were no longer there, it was still pitch black at a distance. Coupled with the howling night wind, all audio-visual effects were lost.

There are only a few fires in the camp, emitting a faint light, and the illuminated area is only within a few meters of the surrounding area, while the few fires outside the camp have just been completely extinguished, but no one goes there anymore filler.

The sound of the "dong-dong" clapper was also covered by the howling north wind, and it could not be heard very far. Even the torch held high by the leader was also flickering in the night wind, faltering to be extinguished.

Fortunately, the Qing army has always had strict military orders, not to mention that it is still in wartime. Two miles away is the camp of the Xuanda Army of the Ming Dynasty. The password is used to monitor the guards on duty at various checkpoints.

On the sentry tower on the wall of the camp, there are also lanterns hanging high, and torches are inserted in the four corners. Even if the night wind howled, it could not be extinguished. Through the lights, three soldiers of the Qing army were on duty inside the sentry tower.

However, at this time, their sleepiness also increased sharply. Although they were afraid of military punishment and did not dare to go to sleep, they huddled together in a corner of the sentry tower, and chatted with each other to relieve sleepiness.

From time to time, a soldier of the Qing army could be seen standing up, looking out of the camp, and then retreating back into the sentry tower to avoid the cold night wind.

…………

Just as the sentry of the Qing army retreated to the sentry tower to avoid the wind, more than a dozen black figures walked silently on the snow in the wilderness without weeds.

Their footsteps were so light and fast, each of them was like a rabbit, they quickly passed through this open space, and arrived not far from the wall of the Qing army camp.

"Lintou is relieved. When I was still in Changjiazhai, I would often lead these boys to hunt tigers and leopards on snowy nights. They practiced lightly and quickly on their feet, and they would never surprise the Tartars."

Chang Zhengxiong, the head of the right post in the middle of the Tiger Guard Battalion of the Xuanfu Army, continued softly: "We don't believe that the ears of this Tartar are more sensitive than tigers and leopards?"

Lin Fangping also knew that what he said was true, but her heart was still in her throat, she didn't dare to let it go, her eyes were fixed on the front without blinking.

But the opposite side was pitch black, and as far as the eyes could see, the small area around the sentry tower on the wall could be vaguely seen. Chang Zhengbiao and the others who could sneak up were hidden under the wall at this moment, so how could they see it? .

Besides, Chang Zhengbiao and the other 13 people are all brothers who joined the army with their brothers in Changjiazhai. Because of hunting all year round, all of them have been trained to be agile, and now they are all good at kung fu, but they are ruthless characters who kill the enemy. .

I saw that they were all wearing cotton armor. At this moment, I took out some climbing tools from the small backpack on my back. It was a kind of thing with a small hook, and a sleeve to put it on the sole of the shoe.

In fact, this thing was originally invented by thieves to solve their needs for climbing trees and over walls. Later, it was widely used by spies in various countries, and it was gradually improved to make it lighter. The sound is also more subtle.

The ones used by Chang Zhengbiao and the others are no different from those used by Daming Dongchang and Jinyiwei, except that the ones made by the Yunzhou Craftsman Camp are more sophisticated.

The iron nails on this kind of ancient spiked shoes are different in length and short. It seems that Chang Zhengbiao and the others used short spiked shoe covers tonight. Chang Zhengbiao first used one end to wrap the heel of the shoe, and then lifted two slightly wider ones. The straps are tightly fastened to the original upper.

After he was ready, he lightly tried the feeling in the original place, and then looked at the people around him, and saw that they were all ready and nodding to him.

Chang Zhengbiao first signaled everyone to look over, then made a few hand gestures, and again signaled everyone to climb up separately, trying to quietly kill the tartars on this sentry tower.

After everything was ready, Chang Zhengbiao was the first to step forward and put his body close to the wall of the Qing army's stronghold, then held the outside of a log on the wall with both hands, and lightly stepped on the log with his feet alternately.

After one foot is firmly planted, the other foot is moved, so that the two feet are lifted up alternately, and the body climbs up accordingly. This movement seems simple, but it is actually extremely energy-intensive.

Restricted by the technological level of this era, they do not have sticky gloves like those of later generations. They only smear some sticky liquid on the palms of their hands. Basically, they still rely on the strength of their legs and waist to support their bodies and climb upwards. It just plays the role of maintaining balance and making it close to the wall of the village.

Under the cover of the howling north wind, the six figures climbed up the wall of the Qing army's stronghold under the eyes of the Tartar sentinels. Chang Zhengbiao had a short dagger in his mouth, and a pistol stuck in his waist on each side. There is another black wrought iron mace stuck on the back.

The other three Tiger Guard soldiers had already retreated more than ten steps outside the wall of the village, hiding themselves in the thin white snow. Their cloaks were rather special, black on the outside and white on the inside.

At this moment, after the three of them put on their cloaks backwards, they just blended in with the white snow. If they hadn't walked up to them with lanterns, they would have been hard to find.

The three of them pointed their bows and arrows at the sentry tower not far away. Once Chang Zhengbiao and the others failed in their sneak attack, they could only rely on the bows and arrows in their hands to kill the Tartar sentries on the sentry tower in time.

At the same time, outside the wall under the sentry tower, there were four soldiers from the Huwei Battalion of the Xuanfu Army on standby. Although their bodies were clinging to the wall, their eyes were fixed on the watchtower above their heads.

They are the same as the three soldiers more than a dozen steps away. They are all used as a backup for a failed sneak attack. Once the sneak attack fails, the three archers in the distance will shoot and kill the sentry of the Qing army with bows and arrows. They are responsible for catching the sentry who fell here. dead body, so as not to make too much noise and disturb the other Tartars.

Moreover, if Chang Zhengbiao and the others who were climbing up and attacking failed, the seven people who stayed outside the wall of the village could just meet them and retreat in time to cover them.

Chang Zhengbiao quickly climbed up to the edge of the wall. He stretched his hands upwards and clasped tightly on the top of the wall, but he retracted his head and hid it under the wall as best he could. With his ears pricked up, he held his breath and listened. Movement on the sentry tower.

Rao Chang Zhengbiao has always been bold and reckless, and now he raised his heart to his throat. He tried his best to suppress his breath, and slowly breathed it out. At the same time, he looked at the brothers on the left and right, and briefly communicated with them with their eyes.

Suddenly, a torch on the sentry tower was blown out by the howling north wind, and there was a slight commotion all over the body. The Tartar sentry was obviously shocked by this sudden change.

But they also reacted quickly, hurriedly took off the torch and replaced it with a new one, ignited it and inserted it back to the original position, and everything on the sentry tower was restored to its original state.

However, at the moment when the torch was extinguished, Chang Zhengbiao led three other soldiers, turned over and climbed up the wall of the village amidst the howling night wind.