Daming kill

Chapter 164

On the eighth day of the first lunar month in the 16th year of Chongzhen, in Jingling County (now Tianmen City, Hubei Province), fifty miles west of Shenhu Lake, a small group of cavalry stopped in front of a small river.

There are not many cavalry in this team, only 7 cavalry, and all of them are lightly equipped, but they have 21 horses.

This is a group of highly mobile and capable cavalry.

It's just that their clothes are very messy, with a mix of styles and colors, and it's hard to tell which camp they belong to just from their appearance.

They were led by a bearded man wearing a red leather hat and a green silk arrow jacket.

After stopping, the bearded man kept silently looking at the deserted river bank, and occasionally glanced sideways at the water birds flying slowly among the dry reeds in the distance.

The bearded man didn't speak, neither did the cavalry behind him, they just looked around vigilantly.

"Zhuzi, crossing the river is the boundary of Mianyang Prefecture, that's what the old man said!" The bearded man finally opened his mouth, but he didn't turn his head.

A young man wearing an iron pointed helmet and a plain coarse cloth arrow jacket froze for a moment, straightened his body hastily and replied, "Captain, that old man said so."

The bearded man was silent again.

But after a while, he suddenly turned his horse's head and said, "We won't be exploring today, we'll find a forest to rest. Brothers are tired too, it's time to have fun."

"The captain is wise!"

"Captain, you are so kind!"

Two cavalry immediately echoed exaggeratedly and loudly, and the other cavalry also relaxed with joy on their faces.

"Yes, but there is still some time before dark! In broad daylight, what if the officers and soldiers are watching?" The young man blurted out in confusion.

"What are you afraid of! In the past two days, apart from the defeated soldiers, you can see the shadows of the officers and soldiers. They ran away or escaped. I heard that the Zuo rat fled to Wuchang Mansion early. It is still far away from Wuchang Mansion! There will be no eyes." A man with a wretched face yelled dissatisfied.

After finishing speaking, the wretched man stretched out his hand and patted the ass of a woman lying on the horse's back on the horse next to him, and said with a smile: "My old Hong can't wait a long time ago!" .”

The wretched man's words and actions aroused a roar of laughter.

The young women who had been gagged and tied up like goods on the backs of the two horses all struggled again, especially the woman whose ass was slapped was the worst and almost fell off .

The wretched man had no choice but to whistle and fix her up and down a few times, which drew even louder laughter.

The bearded man who had been watching the show also smiled at this time and said: "Okay, Lao Hong, your wish has been fulfilled, let you eat your fill today! Let's go."

The young man was a little embarrassed, he wanted to say something but he hesitated.

When he was away from the river bank, the bearded man deliberately walked behind, paralleling the young man.

"Zhuzi, you have been with me for a long time. Why have you been restless for the past two days, and you have fallen behind in everything you do. When you robbed these two women and killed their family members in the afternoon, I also noticed that you didn't do anything at all. What are you afraid of?" the bearded man asked seemingly plainly.

The young man looked ahead, and whispered anxiously, "Captain, I, I just don't know what to do. The higher ups are demanding more and more. If we continue to do this, we might be beheaded to punish the military."

"You don't say it, I don't say it, they don't say it, the dead don't say it, who knows? In fact, everyone does it, it's just an open secret, as long as it doesn't get caught.

Besides, the requirements are so strict now that even gold and silver are not allowed to be kept privately.If you don't take advantage of this opportunity to come out alone and be happy, is it possible that everyone will become monks? "The bearded man explained patiently.

The relationship between him and this young man is not ordinary, and it can be seen that they are very close.

"Here, these two women are going to be killed too!" The young man exclaimed in surprise, he actually paid attention to this matter again.

The bearded man frowned, a little dissatisfied.

He said seriously: "These two women must die, only the dead will not talk nonsense."

……

At this time, Ma Lan and Zhao Dongdong had been staring at the bearded cavalry lying behind a small hill far away from the river bank for a long time, and their horses were lying quietly under the hill.

"They came too fast! Jingling County is not yet broken!" Ma Lan frowned with emotion.

"Yes!" Zhao Dongdong echoed with emotion.

The downstream of Zhongxiang County along the river is Jingling County.However, the county seat of Jingling County is in the north, dozens of miles away from Han River.

The scout horses of the Peasant Army were obviously heading east against the Han River.

Moreover, the speed of their military progress in Chengtianfu City has greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.

Li Zicheng's vanguard crossed the Hanshui River on December 26 last year. Wen Ruzhen, the official Sichuan aid and suppression general of the official army who had just been transferred to and hastily deployed outside Zhongxiang City, broke through the encirclement.

On the 28th, Li Zicheng's entire army crossed the river through a pontoon bridge and stormed Zhongxiang. When the attack failed, he began to attack Xianling, the mausoleum of Emperor Chongzhen's grandfather ten miles away from Zhongxiang City on New Year's Eve.

Due to the flat terrain of Xianling, there was really no danger to defend, so the defenders could only erect a wooden fence as a defense. As a result, on New Year's Eve, the peasant army broke it down.

Li Zhensheng, the inspector guarding Xianling, and Qian Zhongxuan, the general soldier, had no choice but to pretend to surrender to the peasant army on the first day of the new year.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the peasant army turned to attack Zhongxiang.The commander-in-chief Qian Zhongxuan took the opportunity of persuading the defenders to surrender and successfully entered Zhongxiang before the battle, while Li Zhensheng, the patrol officer, failed and was captured.

But that night, the gate of Zhongxiang City was opened again by traitors in the city, and the peasant army took the opportunity to attack the city.

In the third day of the war, the peasant army completely conquered Zhongxiang, the prefecture city of Chengtianfu.

Song Yihe, the former governor of Chengtian, shouted "I am a minister, and I can only serve the country with my death!" and then committed suicide.

Yang Yongyu, a doctor of Qin Tianjian, was captured. Wang Ji, the prefect of Chengtian Prefecture, and Wang Dang, the garrison eunuch, surrendered.

Since most officers and soldiers in the city broke through, the news spread and was relatively accurate, which also forced Li Ping's reconnaissance company to scatter far to the west to give early warning.

"There are 7 of them, everyone is carrying a bow, and most of them are wearing archery clothes. They should be very elite. But we just gathered all the people who have never crossed the river, and there are only 10 people, but we are not sure at all!" Zhao Dongdong He expresses his opinion with concern.

Ma Lan spat out all the grass roots she was chewing and playing with in one gulp, and said unwillingly, "But they have 21 horses, don't you itch?"

"Itching is useless! Among us, you are the only one who is good at shooting arrows. We can only make up for it. If we do it hard, they will wipe us all out." Zhao Dongdong moaned very discouraged.

Ma Lan cast a sideways glance at Zhao Dongdong, and cursed, "You're a coward."

Zhao Dongdong's complexion changed immediately, and he retorted with a very ominous feeling: "I'm not cowardly, I'm seeking truth from facts. Moreover, our general also has a clear order that we are strictly prohibited from exploring horses with the enemy's elite without an absolute superior force and absolute certainty." Fighting."

"But we have a chance, and it's still great?" Ma Lan's answer was very disdainful.

"What chance? These people can let us get close to them easily?" Zhao Dongdong's face was covered.

"They rob women, they should be crazy at night, and then they will be very tired, and they will relax their vigilance. Didn't the general say that dawn is the time when people are most likely to be paralyzed and tired! At this time, we approached quietly and attacked them , will definitely succeed." Malan said confidently.

"Company commander, this is gambling!" Zhao Dongdong called out in a low voice.

"If you are afraid, don't go, we volunteer." Malan became vicious.

……

On the ninth day of the first lunar month in the 16th year of Chongzhen, six days had passed since Zhongxiang, the capital of Chengtian Fu, was captured, and Li Ping still stood by the edge of Shenhu Lake without moving a bit.

Ma Yong, Zhou Wen, Hu Zhongshan and others were all anxious.

Li Ping had basically grasped all kinds of news about Chengtian Mansion three days ago, but he just didn't move.

No explanation is given either.

On the contrary, he dragged Song Baolai to the sinking lake to fish every day, and the more he caught the more he got more experience, and roasted a lot of dried fish.

"Haven't you decided yet?" Song Baolai asked uncertainly again.

They are currently on a small boat in the depths of the sunken lake. There are only the two of them on board, and the other boats are far away.

Every time they fish, the two of them have to have such a period of time that they say they want to fish quietly.However, no one has ever seen them catch anything.

What Li Ping was thinking, only Song Baolai knew clearly.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be in the mood to spend time with Li Ping on this sinking lake.

They lost a lot of vehicles during the north crossing a few days ago, and Song Baolai had been rushing to manufacture new vehicles.

Song Baolai felt that Li Ping said that he came to fish, rather he was avoiding the eager persuasion of his subordinates, and pouring out his thoughts to himself that he could not tell outsiders.

"Well, it's hard to make a decision. Don't say that I change my mind every day, I basically change three times a day now." Li Ping was also very frustrated.

The drama and tragedy of Chengtian's battle made his heart even more confused.

The surrender and rebellion of Li Zhensheng and Chief Soldier Qian Zhongxuan made people feel that everything is so unreal. The peasant army will probably take strict precautions against surrendering troops in the future!
Moreover, the heroic sacrifices of so many courtiers of the Ming Dynasty made people feel full of sighs and intolerance towards the Ming Dynasty, which also showed that the elites basically still had a heart for the Ming Dynasty.

But there are too many people who want to sacrifice the city!From Jingzhou to Chengtian, the hearts of ordinary people are clear.

"Then don't think about it! Let's go and vote for the Peasant Army, and vote for the one you think is more promising. It's not an option to hesitate every day, and it's easy to ignore both ends." Song Baolai wanted to make a final decision.

But after Li Ping sighed, he said, "I thought so too last night. But during breakfast, Zhou Wen suddenly scorned Li Zicheng, and I wavered again."

"What did he say?"

"Zhou Wen said that trespassers were hungry people in Shaanxi, mediocre thieves in Shanxi, and big thieves after leaving the chariot gorge. Although they have become powerful and pretend to be heroes after sweeping Henan, they are still thieves. His military law and the relationship with the people Zhengzheng is just trying to trick the common people into giving up their lives, so he probably doesn't think so in his heart.

Henan is so big, but it is only heard in Nanyang that the farmland is a proof.His native nature has not changed in the slightest. "

Song Baolai tilted his head and wondered: "That's not right! I remember he was still talking about the Peasant Army a few days ago! Why did it change so quickly?"

"One moment and another. At that time we were talking about the threat of the Peasant Army, but now we are talking about the future of the Peasant Army. The evaluation is of course different." Li Ping said with a sullen head.

"Did Zhou Wen see something?" Song Baolai was shocked.

Zhou Wen's words were too cryptic, Li Ping tapped lightly, and Song Baolai immediately understood.Song Baolai is not a fool, and his IQ has never been low.

Li Ping smiled helplessly and said: "This guy is very smart, but this is not the point now. The point is that we all know the ending of history, and what he said is not unreasonable.

And his eyes are indeed poisonous.

Only a few dozen days after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, his regime was completely rotten.The nature and aspirations of its leaders and the entire upper class can be said to be exposed, and I am afraid that this is really not something that anyone can change. "

"Then run to Zuo Liangyu! It's still too late." Song Baolai changed sides without hesitation.

"I'll think about it again." Li Ping felt his brain hurt more and more.

So the boat fell into silence, and Song Baolai simply took out the fishing rod and hook that had been prepared.

While drifting quietly with the waves, a small boat suddenly approached quickly.

"Sir, sir, the reconnaissance company and the scouts of the bandit army had a battle this morning." Ma Yongyuan began to shout eagerly.

"what?"

Li Ping and Song Baolai stood up in shock, and the boat under their feet swayed violently.

"The reconnaissance company discovered and focused on the bandits' horses yesterday. There were 7 people on the other side. Malan gathered 10 people to make a surprise attack at dawn today, killed 5 of them, captured 21 of them, and got [-] horses." Ma Yong As soon as Zai's boat came up, he gave a brief introduction.

Li Ping was taken aback, and asked anxiously, "21 horses? How about our casualties?"

"We only injured one, it's not serious." Ma Yong replied casually.

Li Ping was stunned for a moment, and then wondered: "What? The enemy's scouting is at this level?"

"They used to be officers, and it wasn't long before they came here. The intruders were almost besieged to death a few years ago. There are not many old subordinates. In fact, most of them who can fight are newly recruited officers. And the officers That's all there is to the level of the player, there are not many real masters." Ma Yong explained very fluently.

It can be seen that he doesn't take the enemy's combat ability very seriously.

But Li Ping didn't bother about Ma Yong's abnormality, but continued to ask: "That shouldn't be the case! Aren't we all newbies too? Besides, they can have three horses for each of them, and it's not for nothing."

"Those thieves scouted horses and robbed two women yesterday. After tossing all night, they were all exhausted. That's why Ma Lan decided to make a sneak attack, and he won a big victory." Ma Yong replied somewhat irrelevantly.

Li Ping glanced at Ma Yong thoughtfully, but continued to ask other questions: "Are those two women still alive?"

"Alive."

"Come on, let's go back quickly, I want to know the details."

……

Notes:

Note 1:

The river that divides Jingling County and Mianyangzhou to the north of the Han River has not yet been given a very precise name.The modern river no longer exists, but it probably existed in the Ming Dynasty. Some people said it was called Mianshui, but they doubted it and felt it was incorrect.

Note 2:

Zhou Wen's evaluation of Li Zicheng was adapted from the author's evaluation of "Huailing Bandits Always Recorded". After joining Li Zicheng's team, Jin Xing and others worked together, and they actually called themselves heroes."

(End of this chapter)