Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 347: I can’t think of a good chapter title
The four-person barracks was silent as Guo Ziyi was reading a crudely printed novel.

The three teammates beside him were fast asleep, like dead pigs in a pigsty. All three of them found the idle time boring, so they all logged off to play a group shooting game.

Three crashing sounds were heard, and the three "dead pigs" suddenly jumped up from their beds as if they had heard the call for dinner. One of them shouted excitedly, "The cavalry is going to fight! Our Tiger and Leopard Cavalry Guild is also among those being recruited!"

Upon hearing this, Guo Ziyi smiled happily and quickly opened his personal storage box to take out his equipment and put it on himself.

The straight, double-breasted armor, like fish scales, covers the shoulders and reaches the calves, with a palm-sized round bronze mirror nailed to the chest.

A silver-white cape extends from the back of the neck to the wrists, and a military belt is wrapped around the waist, buckled with a short stick, a hemp rope waist knife, a dry food bag, a gunpowder pot, and a few purchased small props.

Wearing a silver-white pointed iron helmet and a ferocious mask covering his handsome face, he put on a majestic "civil and military sleeves", picked up a spear from the wall and strode out of the barracks. The whole camp was suddenly filled with the clang of metal colliding.

There are hundreds of players temporarily staying in this camp. Although a considerable number of them belong to the "Tiger and Leopard Cavalry Guild", their dressing styles are very different.

There's armor from the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties. There's line-filling infantrymen who've traveled through Germany from World War I. There's the slacker-looking Caribbean pirate. There's the Shang dynasty, wearing feather crowns and quivers. And there's the guy who padded his leather armor with straw to look like a Space Marine.

Guo Ziyi thought that this group of people were really good at making things happen.

Originally, the sand sculpture players only "made a fuss" about flags and decorations, but after a trip to North Korea, they changed their clothes and made weird things in various ways, developing countless hairstyles, masks, and accessories...

Now that he has become the ruler of a separatist force, he is no longer subject to many constraints, so he has completely let himself go.

Guo Ziyi thought to himself that if the game completely lifted the "face-shaping restrictions", these players would be able to create alien races, bizarre alien creatures, the appearance of ancient gods, and servants of evil gods, turning the historical game into a fantasy game.

By then, all the history books in the world will be turned into a mess, right?

With a strange idea in mind, Guo Ziyi followed the recruited rider to the stable. On the way, he could already see the dust raised by the horses.

Unexpectedly, another group of players was even more bizarre. There were almost three of them sharing one battle flag, and the custom-made human skins were so lifelike that monsters and beasts gathered together. It was like a combination of Journey to the West and The Lord of the Rings, with three more alien species added in. It was as weird as it could be.

If these hundreds of riders suddenly appeared at a modern comic convention, everyone would have to stop and watch for half an hour.

This expedition assembled six hundred player riders, plus one hundred mounted squires to assist them. Each rider was assigned two horses: a packhorse and a warhorse.

As the footsteps on the street became more hurried, Guo Ziyi was tightening the belly belt of his "old friend".

The young horse pawed its hooves impatiently, and the iron horseshoes sent sparks flying on the bluestone slabs.

This horse accompanied him in training in Liaodong for several months, and then he set out to fight in Korea. Then, during the Liaodong Uprising, it went all the way south and landed in Shandong. They were almost close old comrades.

Although his riding skills were not as good as those of the horse-riding peoples, they were much better than those of ordinary mounted infantry.

He and his brothers also practiced formations together on the Liaodong Plain for hundreds of times, and were already familiar with many cavalry warfare tactics.

Guo Ziyi jumped onto his horse and subconsciously spun his spear around. When others saw him wielding the spear with great vigor, they immediately decided to imitate him. However, this person's skills were not good and the spear flew out after just three turns.

With a cracking sound, one of the teammates felt something stuck in his left leg. He looked down and saw a spear stuck in his knee. He immediately roared, "Damn it! I'm injured before I even go to battle!"

The man with the spear in his knee was then forced to stay, and the accused also stayed to be punished.

Two reserve cavalry players were lucky enough to join the action, and one of them didn't forget to taunt the defendant, "Thanks for your unintentional act, brother. I owe you a barbecue."

The defendant could only kneel helplessly on the ground, screaming at the sky, "No!" The brother next to him took out his flute and played a song for him...

The real "culprit" Xiao Guo quickly turned his head away, fearing that he would be implicated and left behind.

He turned his head and glanced around. Everyone was armed with cold weapons like swords, spears, and several sets of bows, crossbows, and quivers. Only about a hundred people were equipped with firearms.

That is not a bird gun or a spring-loaded gun. Judging from the special color of its appearance, it should be a flintlock rifle, which is what the NPC and players jointly named "Thunder Gun".

The players didn't carry many firearms, but they had quite a lot of portable musical instruments. It seemed that they were not going on a military reconnaissance, but rather on an outdoor outing to practice a large ensemble.

Of course, Guo Ziyi himself was not in a good situation either. A corner of a suona was sticking out of the packhorse's backpack.

Listening to the flute sound of Yi Jian Mei beside his ears, Guo Ziyi had the urge to take out the "instrument gangster" to overwhelm everything.

But just as he had this thought, he suddenly saw a flaming game subtitle flash across his vision—"You have been selected as the commander of the Vanguard Cavalry."

"what?"

Guo Ziyi thought to himself, how could he, an ordinary horse riding enthusiast, suddenly become the commander of the vanguard cavalry?
However, when he saw a brother posing for a photo, a strong desire to perform instantly took over his mind.

"Cough cough."

He cleared his throat with a cough, then grasped the reins of both horses in his hands, quickly comparing the camera angles with the corner of his eyes. While taking off his hideous mask, he slightly adjusted his face to keep the perfect angle for his handsome profile.

Having already taken enough photos of handsome faces, Guo Ziyi immediately closed his mask, raised his right hand, and shouted, "Attack!"

At a command, hundreds of cavalrymen galloped out of the camp.

The people who had just finished watching the trial were about to return home when they saw a group of cavalrymen holding hundreds of flags pouring out of the barracks and passing by the mound in front of them.

The people who were nearby were so frightened by the bizarre attire that they screamed on the spot, thinking that the monsters in the novel had run out of the cave.

The civilians who had seen this tried their best to appease them, saying that this was a characteristic of the Red Turban Army's performance and they had to appreciate it. The Red Turban Army generals liked things like dancing, music, and opera troupes.

Those standing far away could only see flags fluttering in the wind, with various names written on them, so fancy that it was hard to understand their true intentions.

'Han and Qin Army', 'Roman Guards', 'Yankee Continental Army', 'Nuwa's Clay Doll', 'Dashun Army', 'Your Father is Here', 'Six Beiyang Towns', 'I Will Kill Bad Officers and Soldiers', 'Second Empire, Bang'...

Zhang Rong couldn't understand the flags, but he knew that these Red Turban Army must be shouldering an important mission.

Thinking back to the uneasiness I felt before filing the complaint, and then looking at myself now that I have avenged myself.

He looked down at his bloodstained hands. Although he felt a sense of emptiness in his heart, he felt more relaxed as if he had let go of the burden and was ready to welcome a new life.

Zhang Rong looked at the backs of the people returning to cities and towns, feeling mixed emotions.

The Red Turban Army generals really did what they said and practiced what they preached, just as the rumors said. They really cared about the common people and protected the civilians very well.

The trial had just ended when they hurried off to another place.

These generals must have come from poor backgrounds. Only the working class, born into poor families, can understand the toil and fatigue of the poor, the torment of suffering injustice but not being able to speak out, and know that all the people want is "fairness."

Zhang Rong looked into the distance, at Jinan, the capital, and even the whole world beyond his sight.

Now that the Red Turban Army has arrived, maybe this damn world will become different?

……

"Drum roll!"

Twelve cowhide war drums beat simultaneously, and a group of civil and military officials stood on either side. Yang Wenyue stared at the nearby mound. The shrunken tarpaulins on three sides began to fill up at a visible speed. The tarpaulins unfolded like umbrellas, dragging the narrow bamboo basket with them as they floated towards the sky.

Three thick hemp ropes extended from the bottom of the bamboo basket and wrapped around the iron hooks on the ground, as if locking up three eagles that were about to spread their wings and fly high.

As the tarpaulin rose higher than the watchtower, the civil and military officials around Yang Wenyue couldn't help but let out low cries of joy.

It worked.

Yang Wenyue breathed a sigh of relief.

This thing is a "large Kongming lantern" recently imitated by the government army from the bandits. Although it cannot accommodate four or five people, it is enough for one soldier to take off.

This can not only alert the enemy in advance, but also report information through flag signals and signal arrows, and can also use pulleys to transport firearms such as the Divine Fire Flying Crow and the Divine Machine Arrow onto bamboo baskets to attack the enemy.

Thanks to the officers and soldiers who had fought side by side with the Beiwei Army, they retreated to the northern garrison after retaking Liaodong, and also brought back the Beiwei Army's secret techniques that they had learned from them. Combining them with the basic principles of the Kongming lantern, they were a great success after several experiments.

He personally led an army of 70,000 troops gathered from various places out of Jinan. In fact, he was not completely sure of defeating the bandits in one battle, but now he had an extra "magic weapon", which increased his chances of successfully suppressing the bandits. He even threw away his original worries about the rebels.

Seeing that this thing spewed fire like a stove, Yang Wenyue named it "Zhuge Stove", which not only had the meaning of distinction, but also reminded people of the Kongming lantern.

It's just that he was happy a little too early.

It seemed as if the bamboo basket was tied up with a hemp rope. The Zhuge furnace only surpassed the watchtower by a few steps and then did not improve any further.

So Governor Yang ordered the rope to be loosened ten feet, wanting to see how high this thing could climb.

However, this Zhuge furnace was like a proud tabby cat, and it only climbed three feet before it became silent.

That's a bit bad.

You should know that the bandits' Zhuge Furnace can easily surpass twenty times the height of the tallest pagoda in the world, so far that bird guns and artillery can't reach it.

In contrast, the "fakes" made by officers and soldiers were still within the range of artillery and crossbows. If they were placed on the front line and raised up, they would definitely be destroyed by artillery and crossbows.

The dreams of a group of generals who wanted to perform "Air Force Shooting" were shattered.

What went wrong? Or did the Beiwei Army deliberately keep it a secret and not worry about others imitating it?

Although the Zhuge furnace became a defective product, the imitation of the Molotov cocktail also failed.

The incendiary bombs imitated by the officers and soldiers were indeed far better than those in the past, but they always felt a little inferior to those of the Beiwei Army.

If the incendiary bombs imitated by the officers and soldiers were ordinary flame techniques, then those of the Beiwei Army were Samadhi True Fire.

The Beiwei Army's incendiary bombs not only come in various colors, but when they explode on the battlefield they will inevitably stick to the soldiers' coats and armor, making them difficult to extinguish for a while. Some flames can even burn through the armor.

The officers and soldiers also imitated the so-called "heartless cannon".

However, there are certain techniques for determining the depth of the pit to bury the iron barrel, the amount of gunpowder to fill, and the length of the fuse.

The officers and soldiers tried many times, but countless auxiliary soldiers were killed or injured by gunpowder, which made the auxiliary soldiers no longer dare to fire the cannon. They had no choice but to give up the research and development.

Yang Wenyue couldn't help but sigh that the rebels' secret techniques were indeed exquisite and it was difficult to imitate the real thing!

It feels like a carpenter or blacksmith always has a unique skill, and as long as they don't teach it to the apprentice, the apprentice will always be missing something.

I heard that the Liaoxi Army also imitated it on their own and also produced a lot of defective products. Yang Wenyue originally thought that the civil servants and craftsmen in the interior could not be inferior to the soldiers in Liaoxi.

Who would have thought that no one could make a genuine product, and only the source of the secret technique still holds the "truth".

Unfortunately, the loyal minister in the past has become the mortal enemy today.

If the Beiwei Army had not yet rebelled and had been dispatched by the imperial court to the interior to suppress the beggar bandits, the world would have been stabilized soon.

What a pity. What a pity.

Since the original was so exquisite and difficult to imitate, Yang Wenyue and others devised many ways to crack it and prepared a considerable number of novel props, ready to fight the rebels.

It is about three hundred miles from Jinan to Qingzhou, and he has led the army through three-quarters of the distance.

When he commanded the three armies to march, he would always camp in the county before nightfall every day and never sleep in the wild, even if it meant detouring around several counties, for fear of encountering the rebel army in a hurry.

Fortunately, there had been no trouble during these days, and the vanguard troops he sent out were quite capable and always sent back the news that "there is no trouble at the front" in a timely manner.

But something went wrong recently, and there has been no news from Tangma, who was supposed to report on time.

……

A vanguard force of 6,000 people marched on the official road, with light vans mixed in the ranks.

As a pathfinder, this unit did not carry any slow-moving artillery, and even had few firearms.

Hejian General Wen Tong was the chief commander, and Xuanfu Deputy General Liu Qin was the deputy commander. The two of them commanded 73% of the troops.

The latter had fought together with the Black Flag Battalion and the Beiwei Army many times, but this was the first time for the former to come into contact with the notorious rebels.

The reputation of the rebels was known to everyone in Zhili and Shandong. Although Wen Tong was quite afraid of the rebels, he did not suffer from "fear of darkness" like other troops.

Even though the bandits had enough food and pay, were well-trained, and had strong combat effectiveness, Wen Tongxin said that he was strict in military discipline, with less than 30% of his troops missing, and he had used the garrison troops to temporarily make up the number.

Wen Tong could barely be considered capable of fighting three bandits at once. As long as he didn't encounter bandits numbering around two thousand, he would still be able to fight.

It is impossible for a military general of the Ming Dynasty to be like the civil servant Lu Wenjin, who lost Denglai and Qingzhou without firing a single shot, and fled for hundreds of miles in fear, right?
Just as Wen Tong was suspicious of the bandits, he suddenly saw Liu Qin riding his horse closer, pointing to the distant horizon and shouting, "Look there!"

Wen Tong looked in the direction of the sound and saw a vague "spherical object" floating in the sky, gradually drifting towards the northern ocean.

"I've heard the enemy's Kongming lanterns can carry four or five soldiers."

"It's true, bandits..." Liu Qin paused, remembering the days when he fought alongside the Beiwei Army, and then changed the word "bandits" to "bandits". "The Beiwei Army loves to use lanterns to scout the enemy, and from their high ground they can even fire guns and arrows to attack the enemy..."

"Doesn't that mean our vanguard's movements are all visible to the enemy soldiers?" Wen Tong looked nonchalant, laughing as if he was listening to a joke.

But his laughter soon stopped, and rows of blurry figures suddenly appeared on the distant mound.

Wen Tong quickly took out a telescope and looked into the distance, and sure enough, he saw a cavalry unit holding hundreds of flags.

Liu Qin, who also picked up the telescope, saw the familiar flags and the familiar funny style, and said with certainty, "It's the Red Turban Army, they are coming."

(End of this chapter)