Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 188: The Outnumbered, the Victory is Decided

The black cannons were quietly placed at the gaps in the village wall, like invisible death threats, making the words of those trying to persuade them to surrender even more powerful.

"Brothers, do you still remember the taste of the yellow cake at home?
You have been away from home for many years fighting for your country. Have you ever gone back to see your relatives and know how they are doing?
How long has it been since you sent a letter home? Do you still remember the voices of your family members, the laughter of your children, and the old crooked tree in front of your house?

The beggars are all from poor backgrounds, and they know that you are poor men with miserable lives. Otherwise, if there were a way to make a living these days, who would be willing to be a soldier who is despised by everyone?

You joined the army just to get food, but has the court ever given you enough food and wages?

Come and join the beggar army. The beggar army will provide you with enough food and wages. No matter who you serve as a soldier, you will get food. Why not choose the one that pays you generously!

When the beggar army overthrows the Ming Emperor, we will distribute land to every household and help you overthrow the corrupt officials, local tyrants and evil gentry who oppress your families...

We are all poor people, why should we kill each other and take advantage of the powerful? Come, put down your weapons and come over here. The Beggar Army Marshal is willing to listen to your sufferings over the years.

Surrender now!"

The words of the surrender seekers continued, and the music played by suona and erhu gradually became louder.

Most of the Western Route Army were from Shaanxi and Gansu. They followed their generals in battles and had not been able to return home to visit their families for several years.

As soon as they heard this Northwest-style music, a strong feeling of homesickness suddenly surged in their hearts.

They fought so hard away from home, what for? Wasn't it just for a little silver to provide food for their families?

But even this demand of theirs is not met.

Lower-level soldiers were often owed wages for more than half a year, forcing them to borrow money or even resort to robbery. They were certainly not good people, and they frequently robbed villagers of their food and livestock.

If they could get enough silver and wages and be bound by strict military discipline, most soldiers would not be willing to become thieves or bandits. Isn't the Qi Family Army decades ago the best example?

The artillery threat and the shouting offensive formed a double blow, and sad music spread all around.

The officers and soldiers who planned to hold on and wait for reinforcements were shaken, but they were still kept under strict supervision by the generals around them.

Suddenly, a strong smell of meat attracted the attention of the officers and soldiers. Gao Mingheng, who was hungry, couldn't help but glance around, but found no clues to the source of the meat smell.

I heard an old soldier holding onto the barricades shouting, "Look outside!"

Everyone was shocked and looked out in the direction the old soldier pointed, only to see the enemy army knocking down a section of the village wall.

Dozens of large iron pots were placed outside the wall. The pots in the front row were cooking corn porridge, and the pots in the back row were cooking soft pork or horse meat.

Hundreds of sturdy bandits shouted in the earthy Northwestern dialect, "Poor brothers, come and eat meat and drink porridge," while using their shields as fans to drive away the smell.

The smell of meat and hot porridge mixed together and gradually drifted into the camp along the wind direction, causing the soldiers to become restless.

They were ambushed by the enemy army early in the morning and fought for several hours without having time to eat breakfast or lunch. Now it was almost evening and time for the third meal, so how could they bear it any longer?

Even the most determined veterans couldn't help but salivate, reaching out their hands to grab at the air a few times, or smacking their lips and pretending to tear off a piece of pig's trotter, their mouths full of grease.

When Gao Mingheng smelled the rich aroma of meat, the fantasy scene of eating meat appeared in his mind.

"It smells so good..."

Gao Mingheng couldn't help but sigh, but he didn't expect that his whispers were heard by the personal soldiers next to him. What would happen if his subordinates heard the voice he accidentally leaked?
Gao Mingheng's expression immediately changed, like a hundred miles of dark clouds covering a clear sky. "Hmph, I'd rather die than eat the charity given by the enemy army!"

Gao Mingheng cursed inwardly, there is a master among the bandit army!

The bandits did not start a massacre at the first sign of disagreement, but instead used psychological warfare strategies such as "being surrounded by enemies on all sides" and "meat porridge formation".

This means that the bandit army has completed its ideological transformation, has been promoted from the "bandit mode" to the quasi-regime mode, and has begun to deliberately use non-war strategies to defeat the enemy.

If the more than 20,000 government troops here were all captured by the bandits, their combat effectiveness would be increased in a short period of time, and the situation in Henan would be unimaginable.

Gao Mingheng quickly ordered his personal guards to strengthen surveillance and not allow anyone to talk about the meat porridge.

However, blockade alone was useless against the beast of hunger, and the enemy army's "carrot and stick" tactics soon produced miraculous results.

A starving soldier, with shining eyes, gathered more than ten of his companions and rushed out over the debris obstacles.

When the supervisory soldiers discovered this, the dozen or so strong men ran out dozens of steps.

"Stop right there, you bastard!"

The soldiers' superior shouted anxiously and ordered the archers around him to shoot the deserter with arrows. However, the elite archers who had a high hit rate in the past could not hit the deserter at all after shooting four arrows.

The exemplary role model is like a collapsed dam, which destroys the morale of soldiers. Cases of collapse and escape continue to occur, and some officers even take the lead in escaping.

Perhaps he was starving from not having eaten for two meals, or perhaps it was because the arrogant governor had never sympathized with the lower-class soldiers. He hurriedly waved his hands to stop them, "Stop them!"

The personal soldiers, who were fed with silver, drew their swords and killed people, and blood splattered along with shrill screams.

However, the officers and soldiers who had suffered a defeat and were hungry were already full of anger, and the words of those who tried to persuade them to surrender aroused even more anger.

At this time, they were hacked to death by the official's personal soldiers, which proved the saying that "the soldiers are all from poor backgrounds, and the officials and gentry treat you like cattle and horses."

"Dog thief!"

Dozens of extremely enraged officers and soldiers rushed forward, swords drawn and slashing, as if to pour out all the injustice and humiliation they had suffered over the past decade. "What are you doing!"

Gao Mingheng was protected by his personal guards as he fought and retreated. He was shocked that this group of soldiers were pointing swords at him, as if he saw a group of ants biting his feet.

"I've endured enough, I don't want to endure it anymore!"

More and more "surrendered soldiers" flocked in, and hundreds of them surrounded Gao Mingheng and a group of civil servants, and killed these once high-ranking masters one by one with swords and spears.

Even though some people cried and begged for mercy, with snot and tears mixed together, and knelt on the ground and kowtowed, they could not gain the sympathy of the officers and soldiers.

"Kill!" The sword fell and the head fell to the ground.

In order to claim Gao Mingheng's body as a reward, the surrendered soldiers even cut him into several pieces. A soldier named Yang was lucky enough to grab a thigh and shouted to the beggars, "I killed Governor Gao Mingheng! I surrender!"

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the officers and soldiers who would rather die than surrender organized a final breakout, but were completely wiped out by the arrows and gunfire of the volunteers standing on the wooden walls and earthen platforms.

"Everyone, drop your weapons and armor and line up in an orderly fashion! Slowly and in a row, pass through the gap in the wall. Everyone will receive a portion of meat porridge!"

The defeated soldiers who were determined to change their allegiance did so obediently.

They formed into more than a dozen long lines, slowly moving forward while removing their helmets and armor and throwing them away. The weapons, armor, and staffs gradually piled up into a mountain.

……

The intense experience of several hours was so thrilling that Lu Xiaowu once thought he was going to die.

Fortunately, he was spared.

Although he was a local militiaman, he was actually a poor fellow who was forcibly conscripted to transport food and carry other things for the government army. The broken spear he was given had long been lost.

The moment he lined up and walked out of the camp, he suddenly felt that the world outside the camp was like a different world - corpses were scattered all over the camp and the stench was overwhelming, while outside the camp, the aroma of porridge stewed in an iron pot was tangy.

The rebels searched the defeated soldiers like airport security, carefully searching every corner of their clothes to prevent them from hiding weapons.

Lu Xiaowu was also groped up and down and left and right.

Perhaps he had displeased the rebels in some way, for they pointed coldly to a distant spot where an orange-red flag had the Chinese character for nine written underneath it. "Go over there."

Lu Xiaowu didn't dare ask any more questions. He hurriedly dragged his hungry and tired body to the designated location and naturally lined up behind the queue to receive food.

As promised, the rebels gave each person one or two taels of silver, a steamed bun made of mixed grains, and a bowl of meat porridge.

Not to mention one or two taels of silver, just the steamed bread and meat porridge were the "rare things" that he had been longing for for months but could not get.

He ate voraciously, thinking that the rebels had defeated them and yet were still able to forgive them and give them enough to eat.

It is a blessing from God that there are such benevolent and righteous troops in this world.

The rebels did what they said, which is admirable.

If that's the case, then if you follow the rebel army to conquer the world, you might be able to get some land and live a stable life in the future.

But would anyone want a coward like me who has never been trained, hides behind a carriage in a battle, and doesn't even dare to kill chickens or ducks?
Lu Xiaowu changed his mind and realized that it would not be good to be a traitor.

No one knows how long the Beggar Army can hold up its flag. Now it seems impressive that it has defeated the government troops, but one day they may be wiped out by the government troops with huge numbers of people.

After finishing his multi-grain steamed bread and drinking his meat porridge, Lu Xiaowu licked the ceramic bowl back and forth, as if he wanted to take in all the flavor remaining at the bottom of the bowl.

Even after all the preparation, he still felt unsatisfied. He held the empty bowl and stared at the iron pot that was overflowing with fragrance, wanting to have another bowl.

However, he also knew that the one ounce of silver and a bowl of porridge was a favor from the rebels, and asking for more would only incur their resentment. Other defeated soldiers who wanted such post-war treatment were not so lucky.

Although the meat porridge didn't refill automatically, Lu Xiaowu heard a few sturdy rebels say, "Five hundred new players joined the game in this battle, and four hundred players are willing to join the beggars. They will arrive in Henan in a few days."

Lu Xiaowu couldn't hear the words "new player" or "entering the game", it was as if he heard the swear word "I will feed your whole family", which was automatically harmonized into "I and your whole family".

Although the sentence is a bit strange, but considering the context, we can understand whether it is four hundred war horses or four hundred fat pigs that will be delivered to central Henan.

As the generals, officers, nephews of gentry, and militia leaders were singled out and killed individually, all the defeated soldiers were incorporated.

In this battle, the Qihuo Army recruited a total of 22,000 officers, soldiers and militiamen.

Those former government troops and current auxiliary troops who followed the Qihuo Army in battle for several months have undergone a test of loyalty.

Now the player decides to abolish the "auxiliary soldiers" sequence and promote all auxiliary soldiers participating in this battle to "infantry attendants".

Auxiliary soldiers who did not participate in the assault will retain their treatment temporarily, but will be nominally downgraded to the militia sequence. Newly recruited surrendered soldiers will also be incorporated into the "militia" sequence and await testing.

In addition, the Qihuo Army added the 8th to 12th Infantry Regiments, and Lu Xiaowu was incorporated into the 9th Infantry Regiment.

He finally had a full meal and slept well in the camp. Early in the morning, he heard that the Beggar Army was going to break camp and march south to meet the government troops in the south.

Lu Xiaowu thought to himself, didn’t your beggar army just win a great victory?

Why don't you take a few days' rest and calm down before going into battle? Do you have to be in such a hurry?

(End of this chapter)