In the seventh year of Yuansui, on the tenth day of the third month, the twin moons rose and the stars dimmed.
On the south bank of Jade Bone Lake, under the camp gate of Ye Guo Zhou Division, a burst of rapid drumbeats suddenly sounded. Then a sentry shouted "urgent report" and broke into the Chinese army's tent, almost trampling over the items placed in the tent.
The basin of charcoal fire next to the door for heating was startled on the spot. The general who was lying next to the table while drinking and having fun jumped.
The general was the consort of Princess Ye who had been married for many years, and his name was Dou Kuo. His interest was disturbed at this moment, and he waved his hand impatiently, gesturing to several thinly dressed singers around him to step back, and then raised his eyebrows and shouted:
"What a shame! What happened to make you panic like this!"
"My lord, forgive me! Yes, it's the scouts who were sent out earlier, who are back!"
The sentry guard was dripping with cold sweat, and the color had already drained from his face.
Seeing this situation, the Prince Consort finally realized that something was wrong. He struggled to lift his drunken body off the ground. In his haste, he knocked over the cups and dishes on the table and poured the full bottle of wine over them.
It was all over his body, and the tent was immediately turned into a mess. But he didn't even bother to order someone to wipe it, he just stared into the other person's eyes:
"You mean, the war at the foot of Qinglan Mountain finally reached Jade Bone Lake?!"
Qinglan Mountain is located on the border of Wan and Si states. It is located at the border of Weiliang, Huaiyou, Nanhua and Chengguo. There are constant swordsmen. However, although the countries have been fighting fiercely for many years before, Ye State has been defeated by the jade bones at the foot of the mountain.
The barrier between the lake and Mingshui prevented the disaster of war and made it a peaceful place.
Jade Bone Lake is so named because the lakeside is covered with patches of red and white plums. However, in recent years, Huaiyou has been retreating towards the western foot of Qinglan Mountain, and the dark clouds of war have descended over Wanzhou. And at this time of year,
By the Jade Bone Lake, where the fragrance of spring plums should be flowing, you can sometimes smell the smell of blood mixed with the south wind.
The sentry did not respond, but shook his head in fear. When Dou Kuo saw this, he also knew that the situation was not good. He did not even bother to put on his half-open clothes and armor, so he hurriedly pushed him away, lifted the tent door and looked out.
Look.
Under the moonlight, an injured war horse was dragging the body of its owner standing in front of the Chinese army's tent. The horse was obviously frightened, and it took four or five strong soldiers to pull it back. But the horse was still hanging on the horse.
There was not a single fatal wound on the body of the corpse, only an irregular circular blood hole was exposed on the forehead.
"We sent out more than ten cavalry, but only one person came back?!"
Seeing that the elite scouts under his command were killed in such a strange way, the general sobered up from his drunkenness. He quickly walked into the account, picked up the bamboo tube with the tokens on the table, and poured them all down with a crash.
On the ground:
"After hearing the order, the Hussar Battalion immediately dispatched ten commanders and five officials, led by Lieutenant Zuo, and then led hundreds of heavy armored cavalry to look for them! If you want to see people alive, you will see corpses if you die!"
Ye Guo's military orders were strict. After the troops and horses in the camp were ordered, they were ready in a short time. But until the moon went up, there was silence on the branches, and hundreds of cavalry troops turned back empty-handed.
"Tell me, what happened at the foot of Qinglan Mountain?"
Seeing Captain Zuo enter the account, the prince-in-law, who was restless in front of the case, immediately asked angrily.
Captain Zuo raised his hands and reported, but he could not hide his panic:
"My subordinates are incompetent. There are mountains of corpses under Qinglan Mountain. Only some stumps wearing the uniforms of the Ye Kingdom army were found. I am afraid that the remaining nine scouts have already been buried in the rebel army by now."
"They just went to the front line to spy on the war situation. How could they easily get involved in the military formations of both warring parties? What was the result of the battle between Wei Liang and Huai You? Who won in the end?"
"Subordinate, I don't know."
"How can you not know? You are really a loser! You have been with me for so many years and have seen many battles. Don't you even know some basic judgments on the battlefield?" Dou Kuo was obviously not satisfied with this answer from his subordinate.
Satisfied, "If the country of Ye is involved in a war that does not belong to us because of these scouts today, the leader of the country will hold you and me accountable!"
Hearing what Shangguan said, Lieutenant Zuo immediately trembled in fright. He knelt down on the ground and revealed all the military information on the front line that he had previously reserved:
"Please be bold and speak frankly. Judging from various traces on today's battlefield, it seems that Wei Liang and Huai You were completely wiped out before they even had a confrontation! The general just thought it was too unbelievable, so he didn't dare to report it."
Before he finished speaking, the general realized that something was wrong, and the next words were no longer suitable to be spoken in front of the attendants in the tent. He waved his hands vigorously to make them retreat, and then continued to question in a lower voice:
"What nonsense are you talking about! What do you mean there is no confrontation? Is there a third party ambushing and attacking in this battle, and the fisherman will benefit?"
"Everything the last general said is true, please tell me, general! Almost all the soldiers who died at the foot of Qinglan Mountain died in their respective formations. There were at least a thousand steps between the formations of both sides. And there were no corpses on the bodies.
The knife wounds, on the other hand, left the same blood holes as those on the foreheads of our Chinese scouts, ranging from two or three to as many as ten. The death state was hideous and terrifying, and some even turned into a pile of blackened flesh! At first
The subordinates didn’t believe it either, but in the end they found this in the wounds of some corpses——”
As Captain Zuo spoke, he took out an iron-black object from under his belt with his index finger, held it in his palm and handed it to the other party.
The prince-in-law frowned, and picked up the blood-stained object with two fingers in disgust - the blood on the object had long since dried, but underneath the dirt, he could still tell that it seemed to be a lead bullet.
, glowing gray under the candlelight, showing a slightly irregular shape.
"What is so weird about this thing?"
"I don't know for sure. But it seems that it was the one that caused Wei Liang and Huaiyou's army to annihilate the foot of Qinglan Mountain."
After Captain Zuo finished speaking, the room suddenly fell into a long silence. Dou Kuo raised his eyes and looked at his bloodless subordinate, knowing that what he said was true, he tilted his body involuntarily and sat down heavily on the small table next to him, holding his palm
However, a slender wound was made on it by a piece of luminous glass cup that was previously broken, and it was bleeding.
He immediately took a breath of air, cursed in a low voice and pressed the wound to stop the bleeding. Suddenly he heard a loud bang from outside the door, and the drums under the camp door sounded again like a heavy rain. Then a sergeant stumbled into the tent,
His whole body was covered in blood, and his exposed face and hands had been burned to the point where there were not even a few intact skin left!
The sergeant couldn't say a word, he just opened his eyes full of fear, pointed outside the tent and died.
The general and Lieutenant Zuo looked at each other and rushed out of the tent one after the other. They saw a huge fire in the camp, which reflected the night sky red. The fire that started from nowhere had spread to the nearby tents and stables.
, causing the entire camp to become chaotic——
Hundreds of frightened horses rushed out of the burning stables and ran rampant in the camp. The soldiers suffered from lack of water to put out the fire. Some of them were burned alive in the tent while they were still sleeping. Others were lucky.
He escaped the fire, but fell under the iron hooves of his own horse. In the blink of an eye, more than half of them were killed or injured.
Dou Kuo didn't know how to deal with it for a moment. In the dim light, he suddenly saw a group of soldiers who were obviously not under his command rushing in quickly - they were holding strange weapons of different lengths, as slender as bamboo tubes.
It was the culprit that caused that loud noise.
"Enemy attack, enemy attack! Prepare for battle quickly!"
The prince-in-law finally reacted, and with a swish, he pulled out his saber from his waist. He shouted loudly and wanted to lead his soldiers forward. However, as soon as he took two steps, he heard a "bang" coming from the darkness not far away.
With a sound, he turned his head and saw that Lieutenant Zuo standing next to him had been shot between the eyebrows by the enemy. His whole head exploded inside his helmet, and the viscous liquid mixed with brains and blood was sprayed on him on the spot.
All over the face.
At this time, Captain Zuo was still far away from the group of enemy soldiers. Even a sharpshooter with a hundred steps and the most powerful crossbow machine in the world could not cause such powerful damage at this distance. Fear made Dou Kuo quickly realize,
The enemies who broke into the camp were actually using weapons that they had never seen before, but were more powerful than ordinary bows and crossbows!
He didn't dare to rush forward rashly, and quickly turned around and got back into his tent. The fire had spread to the nearby area, and the tent was as hot as a steamer. There was no pen and ink everywhere, but he even endured the pain and reprinted the bloody scab on the wound on his palm.
He tore it open, dipped his fingers in blood, and wrote an urgent message of only four words on a piece of silk:
The camp is broken and rescued quickly!
Immediately, he rolled the piece of silk tightly into a small roll, stuffed it into the thin bamboo tube tied to the feet of the ink crow in the cage, and released it outside the tent.
At the same time, there was another roar of firearms in the distance. The prince-in-law standing in front of the tent suddenly felt that his chest was burned by hot flames, and there was a sharp pain in the spine. He lowered his head and saw the armor on his chest and abdomen.
There were actually several irregular small holes on it, and blood was gurgling uncontrollably from those holes.
The rapid blood loss made Dou Kuo unsteady on his feet, and his legs weakened and he fell to the ground. Still breathing, he watched the blurry figure of an enemy soldier holding a firearm running towards him. The deadly gun in his hand
The strange cylindrical weapon glowed with a fierce red light in the firelight that reflected the sky.
Then the enemy soldier raised the cylinder and aimed it at the sky, and with a "boom" sound, a tongue of fire half a foot high was spurted out. Fortunately, the ink crow that had been released earlier had already soared into the sky and merged into the deep black night.
, can no longer hit the target.
What the enemy used was indeed a mysterious firearm that Ye Guojun had never seen before!
"Did you find anything?"
Another person walked forward quickly, with a large cloak covering his head and face. He looked like the leader of this group of sneak attackers.
The enemy soldier holding the firearm shook his head: "There is not even a clue in the camp. It seems that our information is wrong. It seems that the map has never been sent here."
"Then withdraw first, before reinforcements arrive."
"Where did you learn about the map?"
Before dying, the Prince Consort used his last bit of strength to ask. He knew that the other party could not answer his question, but he still tried hard to raise his head, trying to see the other party's face clearly before dying. But what he saw in his blurred vision was
A firearm with a black hole of death on his forehead, and a ferocious sea snake mask on the face of the wielder!