There are many rivers and mountain roads in Nagano on the way to Kaiping Station. The Ji family's carriages and horses ran in silence without any rest or communication on the way.
A long wind came with a cold breath, stirring up the blood stained on their bodies. The farther they went to Kaipingyi, the stronger the wind became, and there were faint raindrops falling from the sky. Ji Zhongchuan stopped his horse, turned to look behind him, and ordered someone to light the torch.
The pale-faced guard handed over the lit torch, and the flames turned from weak to bright. The tung oil wrapped the flammable vegetation on the top, making a soft crackling sound, and the smell spread in the air, briefly washing away the fishy smell lingering under the tip of the nose.
"Let's go." Ji Zhongchuan said.
Everything was calm, like nothing happened.
The three cavalrymen who had been guarding Kaiping Post in the distance for a long time kept raising their heads, and finally saw the cavalry under the firelight clearly on the dark horizon. They breathed a sigh of relief, turned around immediately, and ran towards Du'ankou.
Ji Wenhuai sat in the carriage, looking at the torches outside through the curtains. His cloudy eyes narrowed slightly, and his left hand hanging on his thigh clenched the four fingers of his right hand.
Everything today is absurd, but it also creates great lightness.
There is no ethical code in troubled times. As long as you can survive and keep the family's biggest fire, there is no need for reason in anything you do.
Just a few women, Ji Wenhuai closed his eyes, and that was it.
·
It was already the third quarter of the Yin hour, and the sky was slightly blue. The cavalry were moving very fast. It took less than two quarters of an hour to go from Kaipingyi to Du'ankou.
Xiong Kai actually led his troops and horses to wait for the next news to arrive before giving the order.
The waiting process was long and agonizing, and now was the time when he was most likely to get sleepy. Xiong Kai even yawned himself.
However, as soon as the cavalry sent back the news, he immediately regained his energy, patted his horse and walked out of the crowd, took out the big knife in his hand, turned around and shouted: "Cheer up, everyone!!"
Ji Xiahe sat on the earthen steps, his head resting on Shen Lie's shoulder. He was groggy and full of tears. Hearing this, he sat up in excitement and subconsciously touched his sidearm: "What happened?"
There was a "bang" sound beside him. Shen Lie sheathed the dagger he was playing with, stood up and said, "Let's go."
Ji Xiahe was still sleepy, so he tried to cheer up, grabbed his weapon, climbed up, followed Shen Lie, and walked towards his mount.
More than three hundred people mounted their horses. Although not large in scale, they were still a very impressive raiding force.
Xiong Kai actually gave them half a cup of tea to rest, and then said: "You have nothing to say, just give it to me! Kill people when you see them, chop them when you need to, don't be like the old ladies! Not allowed tonight
If you don’t have fun, we will compete with whoever kills more people!! Let’s go! Come with me and charge!!”
His voice was loud and powerful, ringing out in the empty world with a rough murderous intent.
After saying that, he reined in his horse and turned around, running towards the open Duankou in the distance.
"Drive!" The soldiers immediately clapped their horses and rushed up after him.
Du'ankou is located at the foot of the North Cliff of Xinghua Mountain. It is a pass with a long history of 600 years. There are not many famous battles in history. But wherever a pass is located, it must have its advantageous terrain. In addition, Songzhou is where Songzhou is now.
Due to its strategic position, Song Zhiyi carried out large-scale defensive position repairs on all the passes in Songzhou over the years, and stationed a large number of additional troops and horses. Today, there are at least two thousand defenders crossing Ankou.
But it is a pity that the high wall of this pass is in the west, not in the east. The east side is open to the inside and surrounds the entire Nagano.
Today, Du'ankou, like other passes, received military letters from flying pigeons. The guard at Du'ankou specially strengthened the defenses on the east side, sent more manpower, built a wall with sandbags, set up two rows of carbine guns, and dug holes
moat.
But time was limited, sandbags were limited, the walls were not very high, and the trenches were only half dug.
At present, the lights around the pass are bright, and the twenty newly added sentries are cheering up, but they are still unable to compete with the boring sentries at night. Many people are extremely sleepy, just waiting for the change of guard at midnight.
A sentry yawned quietly and suddenly felt something was wrong. Something seemed to be trembling under his feet.
He calmed down, turned around and climbed up to the marching tower. In the dim light in the distance, a group of at least a hundred soldiers and horses rushed towards him.
Seeing the armor on the man's body clearly, the sentry felt familiar and breathed a sigh of relief. However, he immediately remembered the strict order given by the guard today. He immediately turned around and ran to the big gong not far away, shouting loudly as he ran: "Yes."
The enemy is attacking! The enemy is attacking!"
The gong that was half as tall as it fell to the ground was struck, and the night was filled with thunderous echoes.
The other sentries looked out one after another, and saw that a menacing group of soldiers and horses were approaching. They rushed to greet them with their guns, and at the same time some people ran to call for help.
The newcomers directly bypassed the half-completed trench. The big man in the lead jumped off his horse, jumped over the horse rifle and sandbags, and each of them had a knife and slashed at the nearest sentry.
There was a lot of blood spattered, but the sentry, who was still sleepy and waiting to go back to sleep, immediately fell to the ground and slept.
"Kill me!!" Xiong Kai shouted loudly and slashed at the next person with his big knife.
Dozens of soldiers dismounted and followed Xiong Kai and rushed in, killing anyone they saw. The remaining soldiers who dismounted quickly ran to remove the horse guns and kicked away the sandbags, allowing those who came after them to ride in.
The simple fortifications instantly seemed to be gone, and many braziers on wooden stands were kicked open. Some fires were extinguished on the spot, and some started to burn more intense fires.
A large group of cavalry rushed in, and the dismounted soldiers immediately returned to their horses and followed the army to charge.
Ji Xiahe held the sword in his hand. Seeing Dai Yu kill a soldier who just woke up and ran out, he felt that the sword in his hand was about to fall to the ground.
"I, I can't do it!" Ji Xiahe looked at Shen Lie.
Shen Lie looked at the fighting all over the ground, his eyebrows were cold, and he said softly: "They are rushing to kill today, but it is for your Ji family."
"I know, but I don't want to kill anyone," Ji Xiahe said with tears in his eyes, "What should I do?"
"Then wait to be killed." Shen Lie said, riding his horse forward.
"Kill them quickly!" Xiong Kai shouted from afar with his eyes red, "Kill them all!"
There were screams and cries for mercy everywhere. Only a few people fought back, but it was of no use.
Seeing that the situation was over, the guard at Du'ankou fled with dozens of guards on horseback. Many people fled with him. Some of them started running on foot, but were hacked to death by those who caught up.
The fire was raging, and the entire marching building immediately turned into a sea of flames. The people of the Ji family came from Kaipingyi and saw the soaring fire swaying in the night in the distance, with bright flames, welcoming them.
"Great!" Ji Zhongchuan shouted, "Hurry up! Hurry up!"
The haze hanging over the heads of the Ji family finally began to dissipate due to the fire, and freedom and joy were about to come out. I don't know who it was, shouted: "You can go back to Zuilu! You can finally leave this bad place! Let's go!"
