Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 122 The Burning Crusade

On the streets of Dongchang City where the flow of people was gradually decreasing, a man walked through the crowd, bypassed the hurriedly running government troops, ignored the beggars on the street, walked straight into an inn, greeted the proprietress warmly, and went straight upstairs.

The cloth shoes made a strange creaking sound as they stepped on the stairs. The man returned to his room, fastened the bolt and locked the door, then jumped onto the bed and lay down.

When everything was ready, he raised his hand to call up the system operation interface, slid his finger across a series of buttons, and finally hovered at the end and double-clicked hard.

As a burst of white light enveloped his vision, what came into view was the pre-loading screen of the gaming helmet.

He took off his helmet, climbed out of bed, quickly activated his dormant computer, found the game chat group, and entered the intelligence he had collected over the past few days.

[Sun Chengzong, who retired at home, died in battle, and the entire Sun family was slaughtered by the Jiannu]

[The Jiannu army gathered in the central and southern part of Zhili, and the Jiannu army conquered Hengshui along the way]

Sun Chuanting led his troops to lift the siege of Zhending. Lu Xiangsheng and Gao Qiqian arrived in Dingzhou.

Messages were passed through the chat group to countless players. The brothers who were online at the time took a quick look, memorized all the keywords of the information, and asked where the guide was now.

Players who received a positive answer immediately put on their gaming helmets and entered the game...

In a barracks outside Daming Commercial City, a sleeping officer suddenly woke up.

He ran as fast as he could to the big house where the guide was and relayed the information he had received.

Fortunately, he was the lucky person who delivered the information first, three minutes faster than the second person, and successfully got the generous reward of relaying the information.

After gathering some information, Li Mu concluded:

The Jiannu army divided into two routes and penetrated deep into the interior of China. One route swept across the southwest of Zhili, and the other route flew southeast and entered Shandong. Combined with historical data, the total number of Jiannu troops in this invasion was no less than 60,000, not counting the slaves who accompanied the army.

The Ming Dynasty, weakened by the Qihuo Army, was three points weaker than in history. It was time to send troops north under the pretext of the "Governor's Military Order" to severely defeat the Jiannu and balance the power between the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Always keep everything equal.

Originally, Li Mu planned to dispatch a mixed force of players and combat soldiers to train his own direct troops.

However, the soldiers' performance in several desensitization training sessions was poor, the journey north was long, and it was unrealistic to rely on the government army's supply system, so they were not sent out to hold the players back.

This time, Li Mu decided to send 1,500 players to the battle.

Hundreds of warriors who had been stationed in the mall to kill the Tartars, hundreds of brothers from the Begging Army, hundreds of production and construction, county and village cadres players who were planning to change the gameplay, and hundreds of new and pure new players in recent batches.

After all, this is a long-distance expedition for the elite Jiannu. Even with the convenience of river transportation, the supply line is too long. Therefore, no artillery will be brought on this expedition, but basic firearms will be prepared for players.

Not to mention the "novel" firearms and ordinary bird guns brought by the players themselves, Li Mu also equipped them with two hundred heavy matchlock guns.

The heavy matchlock gun commonly used by the Spanish phalanx was also used in the late Ming Dynasty and was called "Banjiu Gun".

This type of gun is about two meters long, with a maximum range of two to three hundred meters and an effective range of about 120 meters. It can easily penetrate armor within the range.

The expedition's means of transportation was the river boats of Li Mu's merchant caravan. All members set out from the commercial city by boat, entered the Huai River, went downstream into Hongze Lake, and then went north along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to Linqing.

The entire journey is more than 1,700 miles by water. If Linqing falls, they will choose to settle in Dongchang to fight. It is estimated that they will reach the destination in ten to fifteen days.

Because the journey is too long, players with heavy casualties such as the Beggar Army, Huguang Guerrillas, and Assassination Teams still rely on Li Mu's "Resurrection Circle".

If it is too far away, a new base can be established in Shandong area, but the territory conquered by the Qihuo Army and the Huguang Guerrillas may collapse.

Therefore, he did not lead the troops to the battle this time, but instead appointed a captain to lead the troops north to defend the king.

As for the guerrilla general himself, of course he could not fight because his old injuries had not healed.

……

The iron-gray shadows gradually retreated into the background, and the orange-red morning sun rose slowly, occupying half of the sky.

The residents of the shopping city woke up early, and the propaganda team playing musical instruments and singing had already started playing music, suggesting that the people should go out of the city together to see off the warriors on the expedition.

The entire county town and its suburbs were bustling with activity. Citizens and farmers spontaneously walked toward the official road, surrounding the team of warriors who were about to go to the western ferry.

Flags fluttered, musical instruments played, and amid the lively noise, "Huang Zilong" held his head high and followed the pace of his teammates.

He looked around and saw people jogging along with the procession, and children shouting happily to the players.

The common people carried bamboo baskets and vegetable baskets and handed steamed buns and vegetable balls to the Black Flag Army soldiers passing by.

The meals that the people voluntarily feed are all free and are expressions of their heartfelt gratitude.

The officers and soldiers trained by Li Youji seemed to have a different soul. They changed from being thugs who robbed and beat the people to good people who cracked down on gangs and bandits and protected the people.

The people did not understand the overall situation or the big principles. They only knew that this "new official army" was close and friendly to them, just like their own soldiers.

How could they not be worried when more than a thousand kind-hearted men were about to go out to fight against the vicious and brutal Tartars?

"Eat some."

"Good boy, come and eat. The steamed bread is free." Huang Zilong felt the burning gazes and enthusiastic cheers from both sides of the official road.

His head was dizzy, and a burning sense of honor surged in his heart, making him feel full of strength.

Only now did he understand the difference between modern and contemporary armies. The honor and sense of mission of serving the people and the country seemed to give him endless courage to fight to the death!

Although these NPCs were merely passersby made up of game data and dialogue texts, he felt a sense of reality that struck his heart.

It seems that each of them has his or her own name, his or her own emotions, his or her own ups and downs in life, and his or her own relatives and friends.

It’s like the poor people in the late Ming Dynasty who were suffocated by the historical disasters.

He wanted to do something for these ordinary little people.

He wanted to create a peaceful environment so that they could live in peace and stability, no longer threatened by corrupt officials, bandits, bullies, and foreign wolves!

He will fight for all peoples!

Players put on their own customized military uniforms, swords, spears, halberds, guns, sticks and fireworks, making each player look like an elite soldier of the Tang Dynasty.

Common Ming army battle flags, the black flags of the "Li Family Army", and even player-made flags were mixed together, with dozens of flags of various colors fluttering in the wind.

As the common people looked out, they seemed to be able to see an army that was a mixture of countless cultures—

The Six Divisions of the Pre-Qin Dynasty, the Qin Dynasty's Elite Army, the Han Dynasty's Tiger Guards, the Northern Wei Dynasty's Six Garrisons, the Tang Dynasty's White-Haired Army, the Red Turban Army, the Qi Clan's Zhejiang Army...

There were even some "Roman Guards", "French Old Guards", "Cuirassiers", "Lobster Soldiers" that the common people didn't quite understand...

A force of just 1,500 men unleashed an astonishing momentum, a blend of thousands of years of Chinese and Western history and culture. Their coordinated march was like a galloping horse, shaking the earth.

Accompanied by the sounds of Chinese and Western instruments, they seemed to disrupt time and space, stitching together the cultures of all world lines.

The expedition players hummed cheerful and lively military songs loudly, and the tough guys who had been on the battlefield for a long time couldn't help but exude a strong murderous aura.

Li Mu, who was supposed to be pretending to be sick, was waiting at the ferry on his warhorse.

"Marshal! Marshal! Marshal!"

The players passing by Li Mu couldn't help but look sideways and shout, and the loud greetings echoed in Li Mu's ears like an alarm bell.

"Hello!" Li Mu waved to the players, nodded to them and smiled at them.

They are all good men, warriors who have experienced many bloody battles.

Li Mu vaguely thought that the warriors who went to battle in history were also like this -

When the New Year came, those people should have reunited with their families and shared a happy life, but they had to put on military uniforms and leave their hometowns.

Because they are warriors, the pillars of the world, and the iron shield that protects the people of the world from the invasion of brutal enemies.

Players will measure one-third of the country on foot and go to the far north to repel the jackals that have invaded the interior.

This time, Li Mu lifted the "red name ban" for expedition players. As long as the enemy soldiers had an ugly rat tail hanging behind their heads, they would be marked with a red name that would never be removed.

Anyone who kills a slave soldier will have his merit reward doubled!
Li Mu watched more than a thousand players board the river boat until the boat sailed away and became blurry. He still stood in the stirrups and looked into the distance.

River boats were flying flags of all colors, and the music played on the boats gradually faded away. The rising sun was like a bright lamp, illuminating the distant front of the expeditionary force.

……

The news that the Tartars were approaching Shandong spread throughout western Shandong, and officials in prefectures and counties near the provincial border were in a state of panic.

It is said that when there is a small chaos, one should hide in the city; when there is a medium chaos, one should go to the countryside; when there is a big chaos, one should go to the mountains.

The Tartars' repeated invasions left countless psychological traumas on the military and civilians of Zhili and Shandong - the Tartars were like man-eating monsters, killing anyone they saw and stealing money, food, cattle and sheep. There were no mountains around the border of Shandong Province to hide in, and the nearest Mount Tai was more than 200 miles away. The two-legged people could not outrun the four-legged Qing cavalry.

The common people had no choice but to take their families and move south along the canal to avoid the war. Even the government troops who were supposed to defend the land had to compete with the common people for the road and move south.

Before the battle even started, most of the soldiers and defenders had lost their courage.

Shandong Governor Yan Jizu, under the order of Minister of War Yang Sichang, led 3,000 soldiers to move to Linqing.

He issued orders several times to summon Liu Zeqing, Ni Chong and other generals to come, but they stayed behind and did not move forward.

Although the 3,000 soldiers under his command were fed with his money, the Jiannu were powerful and the government troops were shaken. How could they defend western Shandong?
Even if he mobilized all the people in the city to help defend the city, he could only hold out for a few days.

It was a recognized fact within the Great Wall that the Tartars were powerful. It was not that he did not dare to go out of the city to fight in the field, but that he was actually powerless.

Just when he was getting anxious, a horseman came to report that a force of more than a thousand people was approaching Linqing from the direction of the canal west of the city.

The Tangma didn't even dare to get close to conduct reconnaissance, but just hurried to report when they saw the armed personnel's flags.

Yan Jizu immediately exclaimed, could it be that the Tartar vanguard has arrived!
(End of this chapter)