weaving

Chapter 53 As Long as Carts and Women

Xuanfu Town, on the official road near the junction of Huailaiwei and Baoanwei.

He Shihui and Liu Quan, the team officers under Zhang Cheng's command, are leading dozens of wounded soldiers, plus more than a thousand refugees, waiting in full force.

In the direction of Huailaiwei on the west side of the official road, nearly a hundred horse bandits are coming from the wasteland north of the official road, riding their horses towards the direction of the official road. Touch the hearts of the refugees on the official road.

Nearly a hundred fine horses galloped up, already quite powerful.

Liu Quan, who was sitting on the cart, took the opportunity to glance at the young men who were preparing to defend behind the cart, and saw that many of them had changed faces and looked a little frightened.

He squinted at He Shihui, and saw the same serious expression on his face.

Liu Quan stabbed He Shihui once, and said softly: "Boss Hui, the bandit was just interrogated. These are bandits from nearby mountains, such as Beiwaitou Mountain, Taishan Mountain, Muzhajian, and Beiliangtou. These four groups of bandits were assembled temporarily, there are 82 horse bandits in the inner horse bandits, and more than a hundred bandits in the foot bandits backbone."

He Shihui also had a dignified expression. He nodded and said softly, "The mob is nothing to worry about. It's just that these refugees, I'm afraid they will mess up by themselves and miss our business instead."

Liu Quan also nodded, and said: "The horse bandit is also difficult to deal with, there are almost a hundred horses at the moment."

"Well, you can lure the enemy to charge, shoot him with a bow, arrow, and blunderbuss, and then counterattack, capture the thief first and capture the king first." He Shihui finally said in a deep voice.

He stood up suddenly, shouted loudly, and after attracting everyone's attention, he shouted loudly again: "Listen everyone, I ask you, do you people want to live or die?"

"I want to live... I want to live... I don't want to die... I want to live..."

He Shihui raised his hands high, waved them in the air, stopped everyone's shouting, and then shouted loudly: "If you want to live, you can listen to me! These bandits are nothing, we are full of them!" You can kill all the Tartars, how can you not deal with these bandits?"

After he finished yelling, the official road was completely silent, and everyone looked up at him. Now He Shihui was a little anxious, and hurriedly asked, "Understand? You are all farting."

Shi Zhuzi, who was originally in charge of guarding the official road in the east, saw that there were no bandits over there, and ran back dragging a big hammer, just in time to hear He Shihui's question, and he responded loudly in a broken voice: "Understood, Hear everything."

After he reminded, the refugees who were full of officialdom came to their senses and began to respond to He Shihui loudly and chaotically.

Sitting up, Liu Quan stretched out his hand, pulled He Shihui's trouser leg, and said, "Help me."

He Shihui helped him up, and they looked at the situation together, Liu Quan said again: "The main thing is the horse bandits, we can't let them rush in from the east."

He Shihui nodded and said, "I'll go to the official road in the east. I'll leave the bandits in the north to you. I'll transfer Shi Zhuzi and the Minyong left team back to you. There's no danger in the west for now."

Liu Quan nodded, and said: "Go, take these two cavalry teams over there, and you must not let the horse bandits rush in."

He Shihui patted Liu Quan on the shoulder and said, "Be careful here, some of the bandits are carrying bows and crossbows. I'll leave you ten cavalrymen."

Liu Quan took He Shihui's hand and said: "Old He, you take all these forty cavalry. The horse bandits and many old infantry bandits are on your side. I have a big rock here, and I can hold it. .”

…………

Finally, a group of horse bandits rushed to the official road in a show of power.

The billowing cavalry team of horse bandits came from the east of the official road, and they rushed into the weeds and wilderness in the south. They rode their horses more than a hundred steps away from the barrier of vehicles arranged by He Shihui, screaming strangely. He yelled, and then there was a rein in the horse, and there was a rhythmic snorting sound.

There are even some bandits showing off their horsemanship, deliberately beat their horses hard to gallop, and then raised the reins suddenly, so that the front hooves of the mounts were raised high, all the horses snorted, and a thick white air was blown out.

The chaotic sound resounded in the wilderness north of the official road, and the bandits had already caught up. Their team spread out in a fan shape, and gradually joined the horse bandits on the official road in the east, surrounding He Shihui's north and east .

He Shihui stood on a cart on the east side of the official road and looked intently at the horse bandit on the opposite side.

The horse bandits on the opposite side are all dressed in red clothes, with red scarves wrapped around their heads, and cloaks or capes. Most of them have armor, double bayonets and sabers.

It's just that they don't know how strong their bows are. He Shihui guesses that it should be between five and six, which is the most suitable range for bows on horseback.

However, from a distance, there are also a small number of horse bandits who appear to be more powerful, and their bows may be stronger, and their weapons are also more powerful, such as heavy axes and sticks, long knives and spears.

There are nearly [-] bandits who have run to the official road in the east. Dozens of them should not be underestimated. Most of them are wearing red hats or red tasseled felt hats. They are probably fleeing from various places in Xuanzhen. Soldiers, they are equipped with bows and arrows, or shields, and even some of them are equipped with firearms, three-eyed guns, bird guns and so on.

In the border towns of the Ming Dynasty, military pay was heavily deducted, and management was also chaotic. Deserters often fled to the surrounding barren mountains to do evil.

He Shihui guessed that these four groups of bandits should have chosen the east of the official road as their main attack direction.

After all, attacking the official road from the north, on the surface, the attack surface is wide, easy to attack, and not good for defense, but the official road is much higher than the wilderness in the north, forming a steep slope. He Shihui and others guard the official road, from top to bottom, Occupy the best location.

And if the bandits attack from the east of the official road, there is not so much to say. The official road is also very wide and relatively flat. A simple barrier erected, but in the eyes of the bandits, that was nothing.

He Shihui stared at the opposite side with all his attention, and secretly calculated in his heart that there were 82 horse bandits and more than 370 infantry bandits. Judging by their attire, there should be about a hundred of them, and they looked quite powerful.

These more than 180 horse bandits and infantry bandits should be the backbone and essence of this group of bandits, similar to the existence of servants under the command of the generals in the Ming army. If they are effectively defeated, then these remaining bandits will naturally collapse .

The bandits gathered, except for the backbone of the horses, the rest of them stole all kinds of weapons, such as spears, clubs, short knives, hatchets, iron rulers, and even shovels, picks, nails and rakes.

They were clamoring and clamoring on the official road, bursting into bursts of wild laughter from time to time, while pointing at He Shihui, their eyes were full of cruelty and ruthlessness, full of ferocity.

They stopped about [-] paces away from the barrier of vehicles arranged by He Shihui, and began to rearrange their formation in a messy manner.

…………

He Shihui issued a military order in a deep voice: "Junior Ma Hui, you Minyong stand in two rows, leaving a gap between the front and the big workshop; Baishanzi, you organize the young and strong into two teams, each with 50 people, and guard the two wings of the Minyong. "Sun Dashan, you lead the thirty soldiers off your horses, hold bows and arrows, and line up behind the cart."

At this time, a horse bandit on the opposite side galloped forward, about fifty steps in front of He Shihui, suddenly lifted the reins, strangling the horse's front hooves high, and then fell heavily on the ground, in an extremely majestic and majestic posture.

After he stopped, he turned to He Shihui's side and shouted loudly: "Listen up, the other side, we only want the big car and the woman, you leave the big car and the woman, we let you go on."

While he was shouting, He Shihui asked Sun Dashan in a low voice: "Dashan, can you shoot his mother?"

Sun Dashan checked the distance and wind force with his eyes, and said with confidence: "He Tou, no problem."

"It must be shot with one arrow, there is no second arrow." He Shihui lowered his body and reminded Sun Dashan again in a deep voice.

Sun Dashan had his bow in his hand, took out a heavy arrow, changed his footsteps, hid himself behind a sergeant, put the arrow on the bow, poked it out from the sergeant's neck, aimed at the opposite side fifty paces away, The horse bandit who is shouting.

He said in his mouth: "He Tou, look well."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a "bang", and the arrow flew away from the string, shooting directly at the horse bandits who were shouting in front of them.

At this moment, the horse bandit had already shouted for the third time, and he was also a little irritable, shouting loudly: "...as long as the cart and the woman... mother's idea is right..."

Suddenly, he saw a cold star flashing in the slanting light of the setting sun above the opposite vehicle array. Before he could take a closer look, the arrow pierced through the wind and shot through his throat.

His voice of yelling and persuading him to surrender came to an abrupt end, and this moment of time was frozen in his life, which freed him, and he no longer had to struggle to survive in troubled times.

The moment he was hit by the arrow, he let go of the reins abruptly, and grabbed his throat with both hands, but he couldn't exert any strength, his hands scratched weakly between his neck, his face was as pale as snow.

Suddenly, he opened his mouth wide, and a mouthful of bright red blood spewed out, splashing in front of him, his body could no longer maintain his balance, and his horse fell heavily to the ground with a "boom".

The war horse was frightened by the sound, its four hooves exerted strength, and with a jerk, it jumped out, ran down the official road, and ran wildly to the north.

All of a sudden, there was a commotion on the bandit side, four horsemen rode out more and more, and galloped 150 steps away, looking around and observing, while the remaining [-] or so horsemen surrounded the four horsemen, They all made gestures to He Shihui.

The bandits behind were running forward at a fast pace, and the noisy and chaotic voices came from afar.

It was obvious that they dared to shoot and kill the horse bandit here, which surprised them a little.

He Shihui stood upright on the cart at this time, and asked loudly: "Did you hear that? The bandits want the grain on the cart, and this is for your life. If you don't want to starve to death, just listen to me. Kill all the bandits and leave them behind." Grain and grain, let's survive together."

Here Sun Dashan was the first to shout: "Kill all the bandits, let's live together...Kill all the bandits..."

Driven by him, one after another voices followed.

"...Kill all the bandits, let's live together...Kill all the bandits, let's live together..."

First, the cavalry on He Shihui's side and Minyong shouted in unison, and then the young and strong also started to shout, which further drove the Minyong and young men on Liu Quan's side, and finally even the old, weak and women in the official way shouted wildly stand up.

From chaos at the beginning, to a neat roar at the end.

"...Kill all the bandits, let's live together...Kill all the bandits, let's live together..."

The sound spread throughout the entire section of the official road, and also shocked the Mabu mountain bandits in the east, and even some of the bandits in the wilderness north of the official road were shocked by the unanimous roar, and quietly stepped back a few steps.

"...to live together...to live together..."

More than 500 people roared in unison, resounding through the sky.

This is due to the desire to survive in troubled times, and it is also their expectation for a new life in the future...

(End of this chapter)