Chapter 27 Bloody Battle on Nameless Mountain (Part 2)
The sun has set on the other side of the ridge, and the reflection caused by the thin frost has naturally weakened a lot. This created some favorable conditions for the officers and soldiers to attack. A Ming army guard wearing an armored smock pointed at the occupied area with a waist knife.
The camp formation on the side of the ridge was shouting loudly.
"Everyone, rush up to me! Master Zheng has spoken. The first one to get to the top of the mountain will be given fifty taels of grain silver!"
There must be a brave man with a lot of money. Zheng Guodong's ever-increasing reward finally inspired the fighting spirit of the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers. They were breathing heavily and their eyes were bloodshot. The fatigue caused by climbing the ridge and the pain caused by the high reward
The excitement stimulates the body together.
"Charge, charge... charge forward! Kill all the bandits!" The officers and soldiers swallowed the saliva in their mouths and breathed violently. Their eyes were mixed with excitement, panic and an impressive sense of blood.
Long knives and spears flashed with astonishing murderous aura under the sunlight. The officers and soldiers' combat boots crushed the layers of white frost on the mountain road, and some melted frost water was mixed with the soil.
The road became slightly muddy, but this did not hinder the progress of the Ming soldiers, but instead inspired the primitive and boiling desire to kill in their hearts.
"Kill me!"
Accompanied by a hysterical roar from the officers and soldiers on guard, the officers and soldiers huddled together finally rushed up the ridge again.
The officer and soldier who rushed at the front looked quite old, maybe in his thirties. His beard was as messy as the weeds and branches that had been trampled on the mountain road.
The instinctive scream made the muscles on both sides of his cheeks tremble.
Opposite this officer and soldier was a soldier who was much younger than him. This soldier was only wearing a thin piece of coarse cloth, but the hands he held tightly on the Yanling knife were unusually calm and powerful.
.
The two people's eyes met together. Accompanied by the roars of officers, soldiers and bandits fighting from all directions, the two men waved their weapons at the same time. The older officer and soldier slashed out with his waist knife first, and he used great force.
The blade was not so much a chop as it was a hit on the shoulder of the rogue on the opposite side.
The younger soldier who broke into the camp groaned in pain. He felt the sharp pain from his shoulder, but he also felt that the officer's waist knife seemed to be clamped on the shoulder bone and could not be pulled out for a while. He knew that this was a good opportunity that could not be missed.
, he endured the severe pain caused by the knife wound on his shoulder, held the handle of the Yanling knife with both hands, and stabbed the long knife out from his right waist.
With a puff, the Yanling knife pierced the cloth armor of the officer and soldier, and the blade penetrated about a third of the way. Some blood spattered on the clothes and face of the soldier who broke into the camp. He remained unmoved.
Very calmly, he rotated the tip of the knife about ninety degrees, pulled it out a little, and then stabbed it in again.
"Ah!" The officer and soldier who was stabbed through the abdomen by the Yan Ling knife screamed in pain. A lot of blood gushed out from his mouth. His right hand gradually lost strength, and he had to let go of the waist knife and take a step back.
Poof, the young soldier who broke into the camp pulled out the entire tip of the Yan Ling Dao, and took out half a string of flowing intestines from the soldier's abdomen.
"Hoo, ho."
After killing the officers and soldiers in front of him, he began to breathe heavily. They were not enemies. The officers and soldiers who were assassinated in front of him were strangers to him. The soldiers who broke into the camp knew that this officer and soldier also had his own parents, and perhaps a virtuous man.
He had a wife and a pair of lovely children. When he was killed by himself, it was difficult for his family to continue living in this cruel and troubled world.
They don't have any deep hatred.
But what prompted him to kill the officers and soldiers in front of him? In other words, what compelled him to leave his hometown in Mizhi and make a living as a bandit?
"Nine dragons! Charge with me and drive all the officers and soldiers down the mountain!"
He didn't have time to continue thinking about this problem. He only heard Liu Zongmin shouting his nickname "Nine Dragons" loudly. "Nine Dragons" looked up and saw Liu Zongmin leading four or five soldiers, waving short soldiers and rushing over condescendingly. They gathered into a small battle formation and relied on the power of rushing down from the mountain to disperse seven or eight officers and soldiers.
"Come on! Follow General Liu and drive all the officers and soldiers down!"
The real name of "Nine Dragons" is Gu Kecheng. He is a fellow villager of Mizhi of Li Zicheng. Although he is young, he is extremely brave and good at fighting. He often takes the vanguard in the camp and is called the "leader". Gu Kecheng ignores the burden on his shoulders. He was wounded by a knife, and shouted loudly, encouraging the soldiers around him and behind him to rush out together with Liu Zongmin.
As a result, the number of soldiers around Liu Zongmin gradually increased, from four or five to seven or eight, and from seven or eight to more than ten. These dozen people were all famous for their bravery in the camp. Of the characters, the most powerful among them is naturally Liu Zongmin. Liu Zongmin’s curly beard has long been wet with blood and is tangled together randomly, resembling the angry-eyed king often seen on temple murals.
The other dozen or so people were also brave. Gu Kecheng, who still had a knife wound on his shoulder, was almost as brave as Liu Zongmin. He used the Yanling knife to block the spears thrust by the officers and soldiers in front of him, then rushed in and quickly pulled Close the distance to the enemy.
Gu Kecheng stepped firmly into the soil with every step, like a war elephant or tiger, ferocious to the point of being unstoppable. The officers and soldiers whose spears were blocked gradually showed a look of fear, and his face was filled with fright. Becoming a little twisted with resentment, the officer and soldier tried to throw away the spear in his hand, pulled out the short knife from his waist and fought with Gu Kecheng. But the time was too short, and Gu Kecheng rushed over so fast. Before he could draw his weapon, he was knocked down by Gu Kecheng so hard that even his helmet was knocked off.
The moment he knocked the officers and soldiers away, Gu Kecheng used the Yanling knife to cut from the bottom up. With a hiss, a large amount of blood spurted out from the necks of the officers and soldiers, like a bloody snake, cruel and terrifying. .
"Block it, block it, block it for me! Can't you fucking hear the reward I said!"
When the Ming army garrison saw a new wave of offensive, not only did they not rely on the morale inspired by the high bounties to break through the array of thieves as he expected. Instead, a large number of officers and soldiers were led by the bearded thief with more than a dozen people. The capable thieves were driven down in one breath.
The thieves relied on the terrain and waited for work. They had a great advantage in physical strength. When the officers and soldiers rushed up the ridge, most of them were out of breath. However, the thieves were able to take advantage of the opportunity to counterattack. Moreover, the thieves were condescending, formed a military formation, and launched During a counter-assault, you can rely on the impact of the terrain to quickly disperse the formation of officers and soldiers.
This caused the officers and soldiers to launch multiple offensives in succession, but none of them achieved any results worth mentioning. Even now, they were driven down the mountain by the bearded bandit leader. The defender was extremely angry, and he wanted to chop down several people with his long sword. There were officers and soldiers who were defeated, but they were worried that these defeated soldiers might be related to their colleagues or even Shangfeng, so they could only endure their anger and yell.
It's a pity that the screams and curses are no match for Liu Zongmin's blade. The officers and soldiers are far more afraid of the thieves rushing to kill them than they are of the guards shouting and cursing.
Zheng Guodong, who was further back, could also see the fierce battles and battles on the hilltop. He was riding a tall horse and had a better view, which made him even angrier.
"What kind of bullshit fight is this! It's been fighting for so long, and we can't even get up a hill!"
Zheng Guodong, who was extremely angry, waved his riding crop and hit the head of a messenger next to the horse hard, leaving a red blood mark, but this could not fully express Zheng Guodong's anger.
"You, you, you bring the servants and help me get on top!"
Zheng Guodong pointed his horsewhip at two military officers. One of them was the Mongolian servant who had informed Zheng Guodong and Ai Guobin of the military situation at Longju Village. He ordered these two burly and murderous military generals to lead his men.
The most capable group of servants took the lead in charging into the battle, making sure to capture a mountain top and boost the morale of the entire army.
Since the Ming Dynasty, the divisions have been undisciplined, and the Ming army system formulated by Emperor Hongwu has long been a piece of paper. Generals like Zheng Guodong, who was born as a general and has been in the army for generations, often leave a large number of rated soldiers in the army vacant. A force of 10,000 may only have 4,000
The real strength of the remaining 6,000 men only existed on paper. The military salaries of these 6,000 men naturally fell into the pockets of a group of generals and officers such as Zheng Guodong.
The remaining 4,000 real soldiers are often treated very poorly, and it is common for officials and generals at all levels to have their salaries deducted and exploited. Zheng Guodong relied on a large number of troops to drink blood while deducting the remaining soldiers.
Of course, he would not completely dry up his salary and money, and even embezzled military camps and enslaved sergeants to make a fortune. In order to cope with the war, Zheng Guodong took part of the large amount of wealth he had gained from exploitation and embezzlement, and used it specifically to support an elite servant group.
force.
Some of these servants were affiliated with the imperial army and were incorporated into the battalion to receive pay, but most of them really existed in the name of Zheng family servants. They had no legal or institutional connection with the Ming Dynasty court and were only valid for Zheng Guodong personally.
Loyal relationship.
If the imperial court had a whim one day and wanted to investigate Zheng Guodong's embezzlement of military salaries and military camps and remove him from his post, then Zheng Guodong could naturally take his servants and leave the army, leaving only an empty army for the imperial court.
An army with fighting capabilities is coming.
Among the border armies, almost all generals are using this method. While embezzling the imperial military camps and salary money, they are also using the imperial court's tax money and official land to support their own private armed forces. Therefore, the imperial court has no way to track down the border armies.
Everyone is aware of the problems of embezzlement and vacancies. At worst, the generals will leave with their personal servants. If the imperial court loses these servants, how can the army fight with those vacancies?
Therefore, the servants are the frontier generals' biggest support for leading the battle and ups and downs of the officialdom. Zheng Guodong's determination to throw the servant troops into the battlefield also shows that his patience and anger have really reached their limits.
Most of his servants are capable soldiers who have experienced battles for a long time, and some of them have Mongolian Yiding with weird accents. They wear obviously better armor than other soldiers, and the weapons they use are also of better quality. Some musketeers use
It is not the kind of fire gate gun with a short range and weak power, but a bird gun that is many times finer in workmanship.
Zheng Guodong looked at the strong lineup in front of him, and his confidence greatly increased. He raised his chin and motioned to the two officers and their servants to attack quickly and destroy the imperial eclipse.
"Capture that mountain top for me, and the reward will be doubled!"