Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 134
Sun Chuanting was talking with Yang Mingsheng in a thatched shed on the mountainside outside the valley entrance at the northern end of Heishuiyu, and occasionally raindrops dripped from the roof of the shed.

After Yang Mingsheng dropped a piece of white stone, he raised his eyes and looked towards the valley.Under the shroud of rain and fog, the endless grass sheds on the mountainside on both sides extend to places that cannot be seen in the valley. Eyes repose.Five days ago, the Qin army pulled out their camp and came to Heishuiyu. After choosing the terrain, they waited for the arrival of the camp.

Yang Mingsheng turned his head to look at Sun Chuanting, who was thinking hard, and said worriedly: "My lord, it has been raining heavily for four days, but there is no sign of the burglar. Could it be that the burglar went to attack Hanzhong? My lord Didn't the layout fall into the void?"

Sun Chuanting thought for a long time, and finally dropped the sunspot in his hand.He raised his head and said with a smile: "Boxuan, your skill in nourishing Qi is still a little lacking! The road from Shiquan to Hanzhong is long and narrow and dangerous, easy to defend but difficult to attack. If the general of the Sichuan army is not mediocre, he will come out of Hanzhong to choose a place to defend according to danger. If the thief is heading west , Seeing that the situation is difficult to break through, I will definitely retreat without a fight. It is no secret that there is a road leading to Xi'an in the Meridian Valley. Choose!"

Yang Mingsheng clasped his hands and said with a smile: "Thank you, Mr. Futai, for your teaching! The students naturally take you as an example, and imitate your steady and solemn style everywhere. It's a pity that Handan is a toddler, and he didn't get the samadhi!"

Sun Chuanting laughed loudly: "Bo Xuan's words are like a picture scroll unfolding in front of my eyes, and I can vaguely see Boxuan crawling forward with his hands and feet on the ground! Hahaha!"

Yang Mingsheng said with a wry smile: "My lord, don't make fun of the students. My lord is knowledgeable and resourceful. Students benefit a lot by relying on my lord's side. But I hope that if I can learn two or three out of ten, I will be satisfied!"

Sun Chuanting put away his smile and said, "Fang Chen has already gone to the capital to participate in the Spring Festival next year. If there is no accident, he will definitely be able to enter high school next year! You, Yichen, and Luzhong are all people who are optimistic about you! You must work harder and win the gold list as soon as possible." Title, only then can there be a chance to display your talents!"

Just as Yang Mingsheng was about to reply, there was a sound of horseshoes coming from the direction of Heishuiyu. The two looked down, and there was a figure of a soldier wearing a coir raincoat in the rain and fog.

After a while, he rode to the foot of the mountain where Sun Chuanting was, got off his horse and climbed up the slippery steps.

Sun Chuanting said with a smile: "It must be a thief!"

The visitor climbed the hillside and entered the canopy, knelt down on one knee with his raincoat and rain hat on, clasped his fists with both hands and reported loudly: "Master Futai, the vanguard of the burglars has arrived! It is about ten miles away from you! Zongbing Zhou asked for instructions on how to meet the enemy !"

Sun Chuanting yelled sharply: "Let the vanguard go, hit the middle! Tell Zhou Yuji, this battle must not teach Gao Chuang to escape! Live to see people! Die to see corpses! Otherwise, come and see!"

Liu San led the way with two thousand thieves under his command, and Guo Tianxing led his troops to follow as the vanguard. They entered Ziwu Valley from Shiquan and turned into Heishuiyu.Then Gao Yingxiang led a large group of people into the valley. Tens of thousands of horses and horses carried carts and walked for a long time before they all entered the valley.

Not long after the whole army entered Heishuiyu, as a black cloud enveloped the canyon, it began to rain lightly.Gao Yingxiang ordered to advance at full speed, for fear that the rain would increase and the horses and vehicles would be difficult to move.

Not long after, the dark clouds above the canyon gradually spread to the entire sky, and the light rain turned into a torrential rain.The fairly wide mountain road became extremely muddy, and the speed of the team that stretched for more than twenty miles suddenly slowed down.

At this time, the forward had traveled more than [-] miles, and it was very difficult to turn around and return, so he could only bite the bullet and move forward, hoping to get out of Heishuiyu sooner.

When camping at night, tens of thousands of horses could only pitch tents in the muddy water. The heavy rain had soaked the trees, and they couldn't find dry wood to make a fire and boil water.Fortunately, the thieves brought cold water from the Ziwu River on the west side of the road with the noodle cakes that had been steamed a long time ago, and ate the food with a sip of water.Before lying down on the wet ground to sleep, many people think that when they open their eyes tomorrow, the sky will clear up.

Who knew that when he woke up the next morning, the heavy rain continued to fall without any sign of weakening.

Amidst the scolding voices from the big and small leaders, the thieves had no choice but to move forward while cursing.

On the fourth day, the camp ran out of food.

Although a lot of food was robbed after breaking through the three county towns, more refugees joined in either by force or voluntarily.Originally, there were only more than 1 thieves in the team, but it quickly expanded to more than 3, which was doubled.With so many mouths to eat at once, it is tantamount to robbing the recently robbed food for nothing.

Gao Yingxiang originally thought that he would be able to walk out of Heishuiyu in three days, and then he would go straight to Xingping County, and there would be food again soon, but it was already the fourth day, and he hadn't left Heishuiyu.

He wanted to send someone to urge the forward to speed up the march, but the soldiers and vehicles on the road ahead blocked the road, and they might walk out after a while.

Gao Yingxiang asked people to transport the few hundred bags of dry biscuits to the old camp of the Chinese army, and then ordered the moldy dry biscuits that had been soaked in the rain to be distributed to the leaders of the team, and told them that each person could only eat half of a meal. dry biscuits.These thousands of old battalion soldiers are his foundation, no one can starve them if they are hungry, and he doesn't care about the life and death of other people at all.

Nearly half of the more than [-] war horses fell down, and they could have been slaughtered for meat, but where to find dry firewood?Gao Yingxiang could only reluctantly give up.The rest of the war horses also lost weight severely, and they could not be ridden at all in a short period of time, so they could only be led forward.

The hungry thieves could only move on.Gao Yingxiang sent people everywhere to announce that tomorrow he will be able to leave Heishuiyu, and then break the county, and everyone can eat whatever they want.

This one really worked, and the rising resentment of the soldiers quickly subsided, and everyone entered the city with a shield and a full meal.

After the fifth day, when Tianxing sent someone to send a letter to walk out of Heishuiyu immediately, Gao Yingxiang contracted a cold due to the heavy rain, and lay down on a stretcher.

Not only him, marching in the rain for several days in a row, [-]% of the team of tens of thousands of people fell ill, and hundreds of people fell into the muddy water and never got up again.The combat effectiveness of the entire bandit team dropped sharply. Even if most of them walked out of the Black Water Valley, it would probably take a whole day to recover.

Liu San walked into the ambush circle of the government army with nearly 2000 exhausted people.Because the rain and fog obscured the sight, and the thieves at this time had no energy to search for the sentry on the mountain, what's more, the thieves never thought that the officers and soldiers would be waiting for them here, and the thieves who just wanted to get out of the valley were completely lost. He became alert, and continued to move forward under the watchful eyes of the officers and soldiers halfway up the mountain on both sides.

When most of Gao Yingxiang's Chinese army completely entered the ambush circle, with the sound of sharp horns, arrows rained down on both sides of the mountain along with raindrops.

The huts set up by the officers and soldiers kept the bowstrings from getting wet. Although the force of the arrows was lower than usual, the arrows they fired were enough to kill most of the thieves who only wore cloth armor and cloth clothes.

The thieves who were blinded by the sudden bows and arrows could only hide in the screams, their bows and arrows were already soaked, and they couldn't fight back.It is easier for the army's thousand archers to shoot a target than usual. There is no need to aim in a dense crowd, just shoot directly into the crowd.

After the archers shot eight rounds, the short trumpet sound turned into a long tone. More than 1 Qin troops, led by their respective generals, walked slowly down the mountain from the canopy with guns and knives.

After receiving the order, Xu Zhong and Liu Yingjie at Yukou rushed towards the valley with their soldiers.

The reason why the officers and soldiers walked slowly was because the ground was too slippery, especially when walking down the mountainside, if they wanted to charge hard, they would definitely fall all over the place.

In order to prevent officers and soldiers from falling due to the slippery muddy ground, Yang Mingsheng thought of a way - tie a rope to the shoes.There are several thick ropes on the sole of the shoe, so that the foot can hold the ground more firmly.

This method is simple and feasible. After trial, as long as you don't run fast, the chance of falling is greatly reduced.

Most of the thieves hadn't eaten for more than a day, and with the heavy rain for several days, the temperature in the mountains dropped a lot, and the thieves in a half-starved state had no ability to resist.Only Gao Yingxiang's old battalion put up fierce resistance in the face of the government troops all over the mountains and plains, and the rest of the thieves knelt down and waited for death except to run away in all directions.

Luo Shifang led hundreds of people from one side of the mountain to march towards the old barracks, and on the other side, hundreds of people also marched towards the thieves. The two teams formed a flanking situation.

There were originally more than 4000 old soldiers who broke into the camp, but they reacted when the officers and soldiers shot their bows and arrows for the third round. Some hid behind rocks and trees, some raised shields to cover them, and some simply used the corpses of their companions as shields.The two rounds of hundreds of long arrows aimed at them only killed more than a hundred soldiers.

After the officers and soldiers came down, they didn't have time to line up. The thieves had exhausted their last strength to meet them.

Qin Jun, who had never seen such a big scene, was a little panicked after being stabbed and wounded by an old soldier who broke into the camp with knives, slashes and guns, and some people wanted to turn around and run away.

Luo Shifang didn't use the long spear he used when riding a war, but instead used a long iron rod weighing about twenty catties.

He rushed forward from the crowd to the front of the team, swiped the round iron bar with both hands horizontally, and with a few clicks, the fierce thieves in front broke their bones and fell to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the iron rod in his hand slammed on the top of a thief's head. The head of the thief was instantly shattered, white and red brains splashed everywhere, and the body suddenly fell to the ground.

Seeing how fierce he was, the thieves around couldn't help dodging to the sides.The officers and soldiers behind Luo Shifang saw that the general was showing great power, and their already timid morale immediately rose, and their blank minds recalled the usual actions during training.Following the shouts of the team officers, the officers and soldiers lined up in an untidy formation, and the long spears that were more than one foot long gleamed coldly and moved forward.

The battle basically ended after an hour or so.The thieves had neither physical strength nor morale. After being strangled by most of the officers and soldiers who surrounded the old battalion, the rest knelt down and begged to surrender, but Gao Yingxiang was not among them.

Zhou Yuji held a big knife dripping with blood, and after briefly interrogating an old battalion leader, he cut off his head with one knife, and then he greeted, hundreds of soldiers followed him and ran towards the direction when the bandit army came.

Gao Yingxiang was lying in a cave on the hillside a few miles away, with a few sheepskin mattresses spread on a simple stretcher under him, Hu Shiwan and Gao Yingen were squatting beside him, hundreds of guards were scattered outside the cave , Dozens of horses that can run are still tied to the trees at the foot of the mountain, and dozens of bandit soldiers are watching.

Hearing the faint shouts coming from a distance, Gao Yingxiang struggled to open his closed eyes, and two blushes appeared on his cheeks that had lost weight rapidly in the past few days.

He started to have a high fever since last night, and his sanity has also become confused. Due to the lack of medical care and medicine, the gangsters are helpless. Seeing that the heavy rain is still going on, Gao Yingxiang is afraid that he will not be able to hold on if he is walking down in the rain up.In desperation, the soldiers found a cave and temporarily left him here to rest and hide from the rain, and luckily escaped the ambush of the officers and soldiers.

The corner of Gao Yingxiang's mouth twitched, a wry smile appeared on his face, and he said with difficulty: "I didn't expect to be ambushed by the officers and soldiers. It seems that this is the place where I, Gao Yingxiang, are buried! The two of you take someone away, I'm afraid it will be too late Already!"

Gao Yingen said with tears: "Brother, stop talking! Save some strength! I'll take you away right now!"

After speaking, he got up and shouted outside the cave: "Come and carry King Chuang!"

Several personal soldiers dodged into the cave, bent over and lifted the stretcher and walked out.

At this moment, there were several whistles from the foot of the mountain, and then several screams.

Hun Shiwan and Gao Yingen's expressions changed: The officers and soldiers are coming!
When Zhou Yuji led his soldiers to the vicinity of the cave, there were only a few dozen of the original hundreds of bandit soldiers, and they were all killed by the officers after a while.The rest had already followed Hun Shiwan and fled across the mountains, leaving only Gao Yingen and Gao Yingxiang lying on a stretcher in the cave.

Before the officers and soldiers arrived, Gao Yingxiang felt sad, indignant and helpless when he saw Hun Shiwan abandoning him.This is the old brother who is very respectful to himself on weekdays, shouting to the prince one by one, and he only sees his true colors when things happen.

He looked at his younger brother with pleading and reluctance mixed with love, and said in a weak but firm tone: "Third brother, kill me! You go away! Leave some incense for my Gao family!" What kind of fate will be greeted by the imperial court.

Gao Yingen naturally understood what his brother meant.They had three brothers, the second elder brother died, and his parents passed away when he was five years old. It was Gao Yingxiang who brought him up since he was a child, and the two depended on each other and struggled in the world.

He also didn't want his elder brother, who loved him like a father, to fall into the hands of the officers and soldiers. That would be a huge humiliation to the proud elder brother.With tears in Gao Yingen's eyes, he raised his long knife with trembling arms.

Thinking of the hardships of running around with his elder brother to earn a living since he was a child, thinking of his elder brother's care and care for him for many years, the prosperity, wealth, wine and beauties he enjoyed after the rebellion, every bit of the past appeared in his mind.While his body was shaking violently like a leaf in the autumn wind, tears flowed down involuntarily, he really couldn't let go!

With a bang, Gao Yingen threw away the long knife and threw himself on Gao Yingxiang's body and cried bitterly. He couldn't help feeling a bit of regret in his heart: If his elder brother hadn't rebelled, the two brothers should have lived a life of hard work but no worries about food and clothing.Both of them should have children under their knees, and then there will be weddings and funerals until the day they die of old age.If I had known it now, I would regret it!
When Zhou Yuji escorted Gao Yingxiang and his brothers to appear in front of Sun Chuanting, Sun Chuanting glanced at Gao Yingxiang, who was on the stretcher with his hands behind his back, and suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed out loud, full of complacency.

At this point, Gao Yingxiang, the banner figure of the bandits and the gangster who had been rampant in the Ming Dynasty for nine years, disappeared and became a stepping stone for the promotion of civil servants and generals headed by Sun Chuanting.

(End of this chapter)