Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 105 Night Attack
In the early hours of the morning, when a person feels the most tired and sleeps most deeply, the bandit camp outside the city is pitch black, and a few bandit soldiers on duty patrolling the camp have also found a place to sleep.The camp without a camp fence is like a big girl without clothes, exposed to everyone's sight.

The moon in the sky was covered by a dark cloud, and the breeze was blowing, bringing a sense of coolness to people.As soon as Choushi arrived, the south gate of Shouzhou quietly opened.The masonry and wood that had previously blocked the city gate were cleaned up, and groups of officers and soldiers in armor and armed with blades quietly filed out of the city.

These are one hundred soldiers selected by Huang Degong from the army, led by Wu Qun from thousands of households.Huang Degong wanted to lead the team to fight in person, but was forcibly dismissed by several thousand households on the grounds that they could not set up the general and the dangerous place.Because several thousand households all want to be rewarded for their meritorious service, in the case of disputes, the only way to decide who to lead the army is to roll dice.In the end, Wu Qun triumphantly got the right to lead the army amidst the other people's angry scolding of "outing a thousand!" and "fraudulent".

The 100 people are all short soldiers with long knives, hammers and axes.After all, it is not an array battle, short soldiers are more conducive to hand-to-hand combat.Because of the fear of reflection, ink was applied to the sharp blades of the knife and axe, and there was a strong smell when it was close.

Most of the soldiers carried the fire medium hidden in the bamboo tube, and when they needed it, they took off the lower cover, took out the fire medium and blew on it.

A dozen other people carefully carried bamboo baskets. Inside the basket was a clay pot wrapped in thick cotton cloth, which contained vegetable oil that was cooling after boiling.There are more than a dozen people each carrying several paper bags, which contain gunpowder. The addition of vegetable oil and gunpowder is enough to make the fire more intense.

During the day, Huang Degong watched the bandit camp carefully in the watchtower.Although they couldn't find where the thief cavalry team was, they didn't see Gao Yingxiang's tent either.However, he noticed that there was a campsite in the northwest of the bandit camp with fences and camp gates, and the tents were quite neat, which was particularly eye-catching in the messy bandit camp. It seemed that this place was where the elite bandits were.

The place Huang Degong saw was where a team of [-] cavalry broke into the camp. It was Gao Yingxiang who ordered Gao Yingen to set up a camp here to monitor the Xian camp in order to guard against Zhang Xianzhong.

As for Gao Yingxiang's big tent, it was located in the center of the camp outside the South Gate, five miles away from Shouzhou City, which was beyond the sight of normal people, so Huang Degong didn't notice it.

The 100 people selected this time are all soldiers who can see at night, are bold and careful, and are willing to use their lives to win rewards.

After all the night raiders left the city, the city gate was not closed.A thousand officials and soldiers in the city gate and the city sat on the ground to rest, preparing to meet the returning officers and soldiers from the night attack.On the walls on both sides of the city gate, five hundred archers were also ready, waiting for the return of the night raiders.

It has to be said that Huang Degong is very courageous, so Si Liang opened the city gate wide open, not afraid of the bandits who would counterattack and attack the government army at night and then take advantage of the situation to enter through the city gate.Huang Chuangzi's nickname was not wrong, he really didn't think highly of the fighting power of the thief.

Wu Qun was at the front row of the team. After seeing everyone had arrived, he held a hatchet and walked northwestward without saying a word. 100 people fanned out and followed closely behind him.

The night before dawn was as dark as thick ink, and Wu Qun and the others could only grope forward, heading towards the direction of the faint light in the distance.The light was emitted by the lanterns hung by the bandit soldiers at the gate of the camp, two or three miles away.

But the night also gave them a good cover. Hundreds of people marched quietly. Occasionally, someone tripped over the debris on the ground and made a sound, but there was no other sound.

About a quarter of an hour later, Wu Qun and others approached the outermost bandit camp.In the messy tents, huts, and shacks, there were one after another snoring sounds.The thieves were sleeping soundly, and no one noticed or found the officers and soldiers crouching on the ground in the night more than ten steps away.

At the end of a passage about tens of steps wide and hundreds of steps long is the elite bandit camp.

A lantern was hung on each of the camp gates. Under the dim light, two sentry soldiers were leaning on the camp fence with crooked helmets, sleeping soundly with their spears in their arms.

Then the dim light came on, Wu Qun waved his hands, and several soldiers behind him stooped forward and touched the surrounding tents from both sides of the passage. These people were all proficient in martial arts and good at close combat.

It was midsummer, needless to say it was hot during the day, and even the night was so hot that it was hard to sleep, and it didn't cool down until the middle of the night.

The two thieves who were on duty changed their guards at a short while, and after standing for half an hour, they yawned, and finally couldn't hold on anymore, so they simply leaned on the barracks and fell asleep.

Rogues have no military discipline in daily life, Gao Yingxiang and others are all civilians, and they don't know how to serve in the army.In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of thieves at every turn, and most of them are farmers digging in the soil. They can't be controlled at all, so they are left like herding sheep.

The composition of the cavalry that broke into the camp was also relatively complicated, including horse thieves, Hu Fan from outside the Great Wall, and defected frontier soldiers.As the combat power that Gao Yingxiang relies on most, he still attaches great importance to the cavalry.He also knew that he was not good at what he was doing, so the leaders of the cavalry were basically the original officers and soldiers.These frontier troops are all old battalions, so they naturally brought over some of the rules of the official army, set up camps, and patrolling the camps was one of them.It's a pity that the thieves have become a habit of laziness and slack, and many rules have their shapes but their spirits.Now that there is a fortified city in front and pursuers behind, even the most basic patrol battalion has been neglected.

One of the most important factors is: since Gao Yingxiang started his army, he has fought countless battles with various government troops in the past few years, and the government army has never carried out a night attack on the thieves.

A few soldiers touched near the gate of the camp, their figures were hidden in the shadow of the camp tent, after looking around, two figures rushed over, covered the thief's mouth with one hand, and then inserted the sharp short blade into the thief's One side of the neck was pulled down suddenly, the thief soldier's aorta and trachea were cut open, a large stream of blood spewed out rapidly, and he entered the boundless eternal night in a sweet dream.

After clearing the sentry post, several soldiers immediately opened the gate of the camp, and Wu Qun led the rest of the soldiers to move towards the gate quickly.

After entering the gate of the camp, Wu Qun made a sign, and he led dozens of people to the rear along the right camp fence, and the rest of the dozens of people were led by a hundred households, and walked back along the left side. Go, the goal is to find the stables and fodder of the bandit cavalry, and then set fire to startle the horses.

Wu Qun led the people along the camp fence and hurried back. After turning a corner, the light of the lantern at the camp gate was no longer visible, and everyone returned to the state of walking in the dark.

Wu Qun, who was walking in front, suddenly stepped on something, suddenly couldn't stand steadily, fell forward and fell to the ground, and the hatchet in his hand flew out.Immediately there was a resounding voice of shouting and cursing: "Oh! Damn you! Blind! Damn you!"

It turned out to be a bandit soldier who couldn't stand the heat, and felt that the camp was too crowded and too hot, so he ran here in the middle of the night to enjoy the cool and sleep soundly.

Wu Qun reached out to fumble for the weapon, and a soldier raised his knife to slash downwards. It was impossible to see clearly in the darkness. He slashed at the bandit's thigh. out far.

Wu Qun hurriedly rolled forward, for fear of being accidentally injured by his subordinates.Several officers, soldiers and soldiers came down with swords and axes, and the thief screamed a few more times before he was finally hit in the neck with an ax and died.

Although it was only a few breaths, the screams still alarmed the bandits in the nearby camp.The thieves who were awakened jumped up one after another, some searched for weapons in the dark, some ran out of the tent to watch, some groped for the fire and turned to light the oil lamp.

Wu Qun got up and shouted in a low voice: "Ten people in the front row stay here! Sun San! Light the tent! The rest follow me!"

The corps leader named Sun San was Wu Qun's subordinate. After receiving the order, he rushed forward with a long knife in his hand. The ten soldiers in the front row followed behind him. go.

In summer, the days are long and the nights are short. It is already the middle of the ugly season, and the sky has already brightened slightly.Although the faces of people could not be seen clearly a few steps away, they could already see the general outline.

Several bandits ran out of the front tent, some with knives, some empty-handed, clamoring and looking around.

Sun San exerted all his strength on his waist and legs, and rushed towards the bandits who made noises.

Although the several thieves who were alarmed by the screams ran out of the tent, they couldn't see far in the darkness, and they didn't know what happened. When they were standing outside the tent door asking each other, several figures suddenly appeared in the darkness in front of them.

"who is it?"

"Stop!"

As soon as the shouting and questioning stopped, several thieves who were in shock were struck by knives and axes, and several screams sounded one after another, and several thieves were chopped to the ground.

"Pour oil! Start fire!" Sun San shouted.

A soldier pulled out the cork of the clay pot wrapped in cotton cloth, held the pot and started pouring oil into the tent in front of him. After several sticks of fire were ignited, the oiled tent was ignited.With the input of a few packs of gunpowder, the flames surged up, and with the help of the breeze, they burned blazingly.

With the rising of the fire, the surrounding things could not be hidden, and the thieves from dozens of tents in the surrounding area ran out one after another.

"It's the official army!"

"Go away!"

Kill them all! "

"Quickly put out the fire!"

Amidst the yelling and roaring, dozens of people with weapons rushed over.

"Hurry up! Light the fire!" Sun San roared and raised his sword to meet the rushing bandit soldiers. After setting a few tents on fire one after another, the rest of the soldiers charged at the bandit soldiers with their weapons in their hands.

When Wu Qun and his men were about to arrive at the rear camp, there was a burst of neighing from war horses, and a faint light of fire appeared in the rear camp of the bandit army.

Wu Qun was overjoyed, the soldiers on the left had already succeeded!

He shouted: "Quick!" Then he rushed towards the fire with all his strength, followed by dozens of soldiers.

At this time, the camp of the bandits was in chaos, and all the sleeping bandits were awakened, and the camp was full of panicked bandits running around.

When Wu Qun arrived at the fire point, the fire was already burning rapidly.Several piles of fodder taller than a person have been set on fire, and in the flames there are many figures, and hundreds of refugees feeding war horses are running for their lives in panic.

More than [-] war horses in more than ten stables were neighing and avoiding the frightened fire. Zhang Shuangquan from a hundred households was leading people to cut off the reins of the horses. Hundreds of war horses with broken reins fled around. He fell to the ground with broken bones and tendons, spitting out blood.

Wu Qun raised his eyes and saw that the place where Sun San left behind also had flames, and a large group of bandits was rushing towards this side.He yelled, "Light the stables! Quick! Come and follow me!"

After Wu Qun led the team to leave, Huang Degong stood motionless on the top of the city, looking northwest with his hands behind his back. Several thousand households were at the city gate, waiting for the command to respond.

Time seemed to be at a standstill. It seemed that the night raiders had been out of the city for several days, but the rogue camp in the distance was still silent.

Suddenly, a mass of orange-red flames ignited, and there seemed to be human figures flickering in the flames.

It's done!Huang Degong was overjoyed.

But the fire was not as big as expected.wrong!If it was really a horse team of bandits, the forage should be lit up with flames.Although the current fire is not small and is spreading in all directions, the flames are not high.

Could it be that his judgment was wrong?The place where the fire is not the cavalry camp of the bandit army, but an ordinary bandit camp?But ordinary thieves rarely set up camps, what is the situation?Don't fold in these 100 people!
Just when Huang Degong was full of annoyance, the sky in the distance suddenly lit up, and then the flames shot into the sky, and the faint sounds of people shouting and neighing in the bandit camp could be heard far away under the quiet night sky.

It really did!

Huang Degong clenched his fist into the palm of his hand, and excitedly ordered loudly: "Prepare for battle!"

　The writing is too unreal, not exciting at all, and readers can't get excited.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)