Chapter 742: One Person Can Be One Hundred Thousand Soldiers (Part 1)
Deng Zong, a native of Ruyin, followed the crowd and rushed out of the camp. He took off his clothes and rolled on the ground before extinguishing the fire on his body.
Then he looked back and saw a fire in Manying. Many villagers were burned, and some people were trapped in the fire scene and could not get out. Deng Zong's lungs almost exploded with anger!
"Your mother is a maid!"
After all, he was a garrison commander, and he knew that Wuchang Camp was built by General Wei two years ago and was originally used to train new recruits for the Second Southern Expedition. In the thirty-sixth year, the recruits were trained to fight southward, and Wuchang Camp was empty for a while.
, but soon, 20,000 old soldiers from the Chen (hēn) County Battalion were transferred north in rotation and settled here to engage in farming and other tasks, providing a steady stream of food for the army.
After Lingnan was pacified, tens of thousands of soldiers came north one after another. They were all veteran soldiers who had served for a long time. The longest one had not returned home for more than four years. General Wei promised that once the court relented, they would be the first batch to win the war.
Returning soldiers.
But 30,000 people were looking forward to the stars and the moon, but what they were looking forward to was not the disbandment order from the imperial court, but the sad news that General Wei died in the battle in Lingnan, and the new general who led the arrogant Guanzhong soldiers and took away all their armor and weapons without any explanation...
…
"You will be able to return home soon."
The official kept talking and made promises several times, but no one believed them at all.
In the next few days, Deng Zong noticed something was wrong: it was clearly the busy farming season for plowing the fields and preparing to transplant rice seedlings, but the soldiers were restricted to the camp and were not allowed to go out at will. Seeing weeds growing in the fields, as an old farmer in Ruyin,
Deng Zong has been regretting missing the farming season.
What's even more outrageous is that they seemed to have really become prisoners. A five-hundred-year-old woman wanted to go to the nearby Shaxian City because she was an official, but she was held back by the Guanzhong soldiers at the gate of the camp and rudely
Pushed to the ground.
"No one is allowed to go out without the general's order!"
Everyone felt strange now, and vaguely felt that something big had happened.
The bold people, such as Ge Ying from Fuli in the neighboring village, thought they could not return home and were secretly planning to escape. The timid and honest people, such as Deng Zong, decided to wait and see.
But in the end, what they were waiting for was a fire that almost burned everyone to death in their sleep!
"My maidservant! Do you want to burn us all to death to save food for your position as an official?"
An honest man like Deng Zong couldn't help but curse, apparently forgetting that hundreds of thousands of stones of food in the camp were also burned in the fire.
He heard from those who escaped that General Yang, General Xin, and thousands of Guanzhong Qin soldiers had already evacuated in advance, and they were the ones who released Huo Bazheng!
"We were recruited into the army, served as garrison soldiers, shed blood in Lingnan, farmed in Wuchang, and all we got in exchange was a fire?"
Everyone was filled with indignation, their faces twisted with anger, and they didn't even notice that the Yellow Crane Mountain in the distance was also set on fire.
"Take this opportunity and run away!"
Another village chief, Ge Ying, shouted again in Chu dialect: "Even if you escape into the lake and become a bandit, you can survive, but it is better than being burned to death by the Qin people in your sleep!"
Many people responded to him. The more than 20,000 people who escaped were completely disorganized and could only gather together based on their accents and place of origin to stick together.
Even though Qin's laws were strict, everyone's hearts were cold when something like this happened. Many people supported Ge Ying's proposal and fled far away, but most people still haven't recovered from this drastic change.
He stared blankly at the fire soaring into the sky.
It wasn't until dozens of horsemen with white flags on their backs galloped from afar, blowing copper whistles and shouting loudly in the Xichu dialect of Nanjun that the confused China and Japan found a direction.
"There is a traitor in the court who plots to kill Zhongliang and colludes with the Yue people to attack and kill General Wei!"
"The treacherous minister also committed regicide to seize the throne and killed Your Majesty. I will not announce the funeral secretly now, and I even want to execute all the officers and soldiers of the Southern Expedition Army."
"General Jin has sent his troops north to rescue the two or three sons. Follow us to Huanghe Mountain quickly!"
These people are among Heifu's three thousand short soldiers, those with excellent riding skills. Hundreds of them rode horses, passing the news around the huge Wuchang Camp, telling everyone who escaped Heifu's words!
The soldiers reacted differently to this.
"There are indeed treacherous ministers in the imperial court."
"Didn't General Wei die in battle?"
"How can a general die so easily after a hundred battles?"
"Anyway, that fire was set by Yang Xiong. He really wanted to burn us all to death!"
"The imperial court is not trustworthy, but General Shi Wu and others left Lingnan and came here to rest and recuperate. He is trustworthy!"
"Let's go and have a look?"
It was like a light was turned on in the pitch-black night, and most people subconsciously followed the knights, supporting the burnt villagers, and headed towards Huanghe Mountain in the west.
But some people, after thinking about it, dispersed.
The beacon used to warn people on the top of the mountain has now become a beacon that gathers people.
There were so many people that the water that was supposed to flow from high to low all turned around and flowed in the opposite direction. The wave was so big that even Ge Ying and others, who had been clamoring for everyone to escape and become bandits, were also
Trapped in it, we could only walk westward step by step.
They walked all the way to the place where the flames of the Huanghe Mountain beacon were reflected, and saw on a high stone a general wearing eye-catching armor, a crown on his head, and a white cloth wrapped around his forehead.
He personally held a large plain white flag, and the short soldiers on the left and right sides were the flag of Jiaolong and the flag of Wei! As an old acquaintance of Jianghuai Chu people, Lu Jia was also beside him.
Deng Zong, Ge Ying and others were far away, but several leaders and five hundred masters were able to step forward. When they reached a few steps away from the general, they were so excited that they knelt down on one knee.
"It's really General Wei!"
"The general personally beheaded Jia He on the head of Chenxian County that day. We have seen him once before!"
After getting the confirmation, You Bingyouzi shouted, "General, aren't you dead? I heard that the emperor still mourned for you, why are you alive again? Are you a human or a ghost?"
"Hahaha!"
Heifu burst out laughing, making everyone confused and stopped making noise.
But his next words made everyone feel nervous.
"I'm a ghost!"
…
"ah?"
But I heard Heifu say: "Many years ago, a king of the Zhou Dynasty killed his minister Du Bo, but Du Bo was not guilty. So before he died, he said that if the deceased was ignorant, that would be fine, but if
The deceased knows that within three years, you will definitely let your Majesty know the consequences!"
"Three years later, King Xuan of Zhou gathered the princes to hunt in the fields. There were hundreds of hunting vehicles and thousands of followers. The crowds filled the mountains and fields. When the sun was at the middle of the sun, Du Bo rode in a white horse chariot, wearing red clothes and holding a red bow.
Chasing King Xuan of Zhou, he shot an arrow from the chariot and hit King Xuan in the heart, causing him to break his spine and fall down on the bow bag and die!"
This story is bizarre, but everyone keeps nodding. Feudal superstition is very effective for the soldiers at the bottom.
But Hei Fu changed his words: "Du Bo is like this. I was attacked by traitors colluding with the Yue people. Don't say that I was lucky enough to survive under the protection of my bodyguards. Even if I die, I will turn into a ghost again. What's wrong with me?"
They will punish you!"
Everyone was relieved. So, is General Wei still a human being?
But Hei Fu said again: "The treacherous minister Zhao Gao and the rebellious son Hu Hai plotted to kill Zhongliang and forced the young master Fusu away. They also colluded with the Yue people to assassinate this general."
"Fortunately, I am not dead. I immediately went north to warn His Majesty."
"However, Your Majesty thought that Mr. Hei was dead, and he only had time to make me the Marquis of Wu Zhong. Then he was robbed by the traitorous minister and even killed by his traitorous son!"
"They are guilty of being thieves, and they want to eliminate the soldiers of the Southern Expedition."
He pointed to the growing flames in Wuchang Camp in the distance: "This fire is evidence!"
With their own survival at stake, the crowd of more than 20,000 people became excited and their voices became noisy.
Therefore, Deng Zong, who was illiterate, could not remember clearly what else Wu Zhonghou said that day. He only remembered the three questions he finally asked everyone.
"Do you want to live?"
"Do you want to avoid being harmed by treacherous ministers and dying from water, fire, swords, axes, poisons without knowing why?"
"Want... to go home?"
Compared with whether the emperor was killed or whether the court was reorganized, these three issues are obviously more practical.
After being bored for a long time, 20,000 people shouted that word in varying degrees:
"think!"
Holding the plain flag in his hand, Hei Fu smiled.
The enemy was near the Wuchangying Pier. After the Huangheshan beacon was lit, the Xiakou garrison on the other side immediately took a boat to cross the river and now reached the south bank.
They were landing on land one after another, joining Yang Xiong and arranging their troops. Looking at their posture, they were going to fight at night!
Heifu knew that life and death depended on today's battle and whether the twenty thousand soldiers of the Southern Expedition Army who had not recovered from their fear could stand firmly on his side!
"This is why I will return."
"I'm here to fulfill the promise I made in the past!"
"I'll take you home!"
He raised his right arm and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"If you want to, pick up the armor and follow me to face the enemy!"
…
Without delay, Dongmen Leopard, Wu Chen and others had already brought out the armored soldiers from the arsenal. First of all, there were chariots tied to four horses: there was the "general chariot" as a command vehicle, which was used to attack the enemy.
There are light vehicles for entering the formation, heavy vehicles carrying ordnance, rations, uniforms and other military supplies, theater vehicles equipped with command flags, drum vehicles to boost morale, and even many military musical instruments.
Next, there were bundles of Qin army standard armor, which were piled up like a mountain at the foot of the mountain. There were ten thousand pairs in total. In addition, there were ten thousand pairs of armor, nearly a thousand bronze armors, and three thousand skinned shields.
…
Finally, there are weapons. Most of them come from the two arsenals of Tonglu Mountain and Tieshan in nearby Hubei. In addition to ordinary swords, daggers, spears, and halberds, there are also chieftains' spears and barbarians' spears, as well as boxes of arrow clusters.
The short-soldier guards ran forward and backward holding the armored soldiers and distributed them to everyone one by one.
Wearing thick armor and holding cold weapons, the soldiers of the Southern Expedition, who had lost them for a time, found a long-lost sense of security.
But even so, everyone is an unpopular miscellaneous army. They have not fought in a long time. They have been farming for two years. They are more familiar with hoes than weapons. They have almost lost their organization due to chaos. Even though there are 20,000 of them in disarray,
Can people really fight head-on with eight thousand or even ten thousand elite Qin soldiers in the pass?
"Don't be afraid."
General Wei's voice sounded.
After a simple decoration, the white-horse chariot just like when Du Bo shot King Xuan drove to the front of the array.
Heifu stood on the general's military vehicle, looking at the torches gathering at the pier in the distance. Over there, Yang Xi and Xinyi finally waited for reinforcements and had arranged their formations, but still did not move, perhaps because they did not know about the "rebels."
How many people were there, so he hesitated to come over, which gave Heifu precious time...
"It's not you who should be afraid, it's them."
Dawn is approaching and the battle is imminent, but Hei Fu is still talking and laughing freely. He has already seen the suspicion of the other party:
"Because, we don't just have this few men and horses. Behind me, there is also a hundred thousand troops from the Southern Expeditionary Army. They have all moved north. Reinforcements will come at dawn!"