Tang Qi Tan

Chapter 629 The Rain Zone
The rain, the endless rain, the lead-black rain clouds that always cover the sky; it is easy to blur the concept of time and space in the senses.The extremely humid air can almost grab water out, and it seems to be everywhere, always sticking to people's skin.

It seeps into the gaps of the robe, outer armor, and inner lining all-pervasively, making people feel wet forever, losing body temperature and vitality little by little.And this is the intuitive feeling of Wang Shihong, a layman from the Fifth Battalion, among the small group of people who were trapped in the rain and temporarily lost their direction.

"The temperature has dropped again." He exhaled a puff of smoke, sprayed it on his gauntlet, carefully observed the process of the condensation of water droplets, and said softly: "Go on, pay attention to keeping yourself warm, and urge the rear team to speed up. Through this low-lying ground, find a high place to rest."

As a veteran who has been in the army for more than ten years, he originally belonged to Shannan West Road and was in charge of Yinping Town, one of the four towns in Xishan to suppress the Qiang Rong. He lived on a monthly salary of six min.But the Battle of Beishan that took place in Xingyuan Mansion a few years ago directly changed his fate and future.

It was the first time he saw hundreds of beasts rushing in, and even more so, he was on the front line fighting bloody monsters with all kinds of methods.Also because of his extraordinary courage and luck to persevere until the last breath, he was favored by the big figure in the secret censor department and became a recruited soldier to join the layman's army.

And this can be regarded as a practice of the various ministries who have fought side by side with Xijing Lixingyuan.In addition to selecting some outstanding soldiers, a certain number of recommended places will be given to the troops as a supplementary source.As we all know, the treatment of the Datang army is also divided into three, six, and nine grades.

The last ones waiting are the half-full-time local regiments and township soldiers in various counties; they are not regular military figures, and there is no specific grain and salary;The second is the state guards and united soldiers; the imperial court only provides clothing, food, salt and vegetables, and the local governments raise their own salaries.

Then, there are the Long March athletes from the armies, cities, towns, and garrisons on the nine borders of the barbarians, and the children of military households who have been stationed for generations; Salary, clothing, food and materials also represent the average level of most of Datang's army.

Finally, the sixteen guards of Nanya directly under the central government, and the various military government offices to which they belonged, also represented the pinnacle of military treatment in the whole country.Among them, it is divided into the states of Bibian, berth and Beijing, and the income is slightly different.As for the Sixth Army of the Beiya, which was banned by the guards, that belonged to another system.

But the treatment of laymen is obviously more favorable.In addition to the standard military pay and material rations of the sixteen guards in Beijing and the Lingwei mansions, they also enjoy service allowances, subsidies, and pensions that are one and a half times to several times that; Exclusive benefits.

For example, the magical medical methods of amputated limbs and organ regeneration; the strengthening secret medicine that can stimulate the potential of human blood vessels to re-grow and develop, and even the special implant surgery that makes people have various abnormal abilities; One of the magical props.

In fact, as a member of lay sergeants, the vast majority of them have received a bloodline stimulation, and have obtained varying degrees of gradual physical fitness and sensory enhancement, but there are a few people who have received a second or even a third bloodline stimulation. Strengthen and awaken personal special abilities.

However, just the first blood stimulation and the subsequent gradual strengthening are enough for Wang Shihong to benefit from it endlessly.Because in addition to basic strength, stamina and reaction, and perception enhancement; he can even keep energetic by stimulating his body's potential for several days without eating or drinking.

Then, after the effect ends, the body becomes thin, and it needs to gradually recover through a lot of eating and drinking.Of course, this kind of bloodline triggers known sequelae and side effects, that is, there is a certain probability that it will lead to difficulties in the reproduction of offspring, or the risk of life loss due to excessive use.

But for these soldiers, it is simply a great thing that they can get a stronger body and sharper senses by paying this tiny probability.But the corresponding price and exchange condition is to face all kinds of dangerous and abnormal monsters with a lot of means.

Wang Shihong also quickly grasped the mysteries of his own blood in the battles on the verge of life and death; also relying on his rich experience in dealing with affairs, he finally became the fire chief of one of the several detection teams of the fifth battalion; Generous salaries and exceptionally adequate material rations.

Therefore, in the early years, he shot and killed ghosts with his own hands in raids, and cut off the heads of strange beasts with a big knife; he also nailed lizards to death with his colleagues, and used iron whips and nail sticks in the array to kill them. Dozens of deformed people; even set fire to death the bewitching monster in the mist.

But this time, he was somewhat caught off guard.Because their team originally did not intend to enter the rain curtain, which was regarded as an anomaly, but only carried out investigations on the periphery, and commanded the local regiments and township soldiers to set up checkpoints, gather and interrogate the survivors who escaped.

However, just after a strange whistling sound and blinding strong wind, they, together with the temporary checkpoints they set up, were shrouded in the overwhelming rain.And there were at least a hundred Tuantuan and rural soldiers, and there were only a dozen or so people gathered around them.

Every squeaking foot stepped on, as if stepping on the swaying, lacking solid support of the mud; but when pulling up the feet, the muddy water had a huge adsorption force, and I wanted to pull out the boots forcibly; It is impossible to move fast in such an environment.

What's more, everyone has to maintain a certain degree of vigilance.The terrain always seems to be changing slightly, so the positions where marks and road signs were originally placed, whether it is placed trees, stones, or carved earth walls, wooden fences; all have shifted and misplaced to varying degrees.

And what is surprising is that after so much rainwater fell into the ground, it has never been able to accumulate into a corresponding flood of sufficient scale, or a large-scale waterlogging; it seems to be quickly absorbed by the earth; only There is mud of varying shades everywhere under the feet.

And in the rain curtain, there are also traces of heterogeneous activities.Those are jelly-shaped monsters covered in mud, hiding in the muddy water under their feet; they can also turn into human-shaped silhouettes, lure others to get close to them, and then stick to their bodies to slowly devour them.

Although, this kind of jelly-shaped monster covered in mud does not move quickly and has no other means; after being cut by a weapon to reveal the inside full of grass roots and branches, it will quickly disintegrate.But as long as it takes a while, it will recover again, and occasionally it will explode a piece of mud by itself.

It takes a lot of effort to clean people's heads, faces and bodies everywhere; otherwise, the more the mud sticks, the easier it is to get tired and weak, and even lose their basic ability to move; some people just because of this Quietly left behind, and then disappeared.

But the biggest danger still comes after dark, without the reflection of moonlight and other natural light sources, in the darkness where you can't see your fingers, it is easy to be swallowed up, survivors one after another.In the dense rain and humid air, it is also difficult to start a fire.

Instead, the jellybeans will come alive.These monsters seem to have no sense of sight and smell, and are only driven by sound and vibration.If there is not enough hard and dry ground, as a temporary resting place/shelter; don't even think about taking turns vigil to alternate rest and feeding.

Although they had prepared relatively complete supplies before they came in; such as compressed rations, medicine, and fire oil.However, after successive losses of pack horses and mounts, they had to abandon some armor parts, and only kept the inner armor and chest protector to reduce the load and increase the flexibility of the strain.

Then, some people encountered and rescued one after another, and the people who escaped from the depths of the rain area also got more news.According to their words, the familiar homeland in the past has long since become a dead place where demons dance wildly.Most people are trapped in villages and towns like isolated islands.

Almost none of the people sent out for help and contact have ever returned.Although, there are temporary protections of simple fences and wooden fences.But he could only sit and eat in the sky, watching the ground under his feet, which was slowly rising and covered layer by layer by the rising sewage and mud.

Then until everything was eaten up, people's hearts collapsed and they fled out desperately.In some villages, under the organization of the village head, they took the initiative to march towards the nearest town; then lost their way during the trek, no matter how far they went, they could not find the place, and instead lost all the people in the team.

And when facing those jelly-shaped monsters that emerge endlessly, if they are strong young men, they may still have a chance to struggle and escape; but for weak and sick women and children, once they are entangled, they will be unthinkable.I can only watch helplessly as my parents, wives, children and sisters are dragged into the quagmire little by little.

But what is even more frightening is the ugliness of the human heart in the face of desperation; for example, a large family with a manor did not hesitate to instruct the servants to protect the courtyard and reject the neighbors who came to seek asylum; sit and watch them be swallowed by mud; , The rammed earth courtyard wall also softened and collapsed into mud waves.

But when the abnormal situation has developed to this stage, it is no longer Wang Shihong's team that can easily handle and respond to it.According to the regulations of Lixingyuan, what they need to do after they fall into the rain area is to try their best to collect information and survey the terrain while protecting themselves as much as possible...

Then, before the supply is exhausted, wait for the opportunity to leave the abnormal area, and even before the unfortunate death, try to leave enough identification marks and sealed records.Although the members of the scouting team headed by Wang Shihong are particularly capable, the rest of the followers are not.

The hunger, low temperature, and the exhaustion and heaviness of the whole body soaked in rainwater; they are taking away the vitality of this survivor team bit by bit.The next moment, a huge lump of soil suddenly rose up on the ground, and it burst open like a big blister in no time.

The people who were unable to dodge the splash were covered in muddy water; immediately after the splashing of muddy water, a dozen or so crawling jelly-shaped monsters rushed towards the crowd in the rear with a clattering sound.A thin, tired and numb woman was thrown down and slipped out of the crowd almost without dodging.

This is like a beginning, one after another, people are thrown down by the jelly-shaped monster; then they are covered in mud and struggling, and are dragged into the newly formed mud vortex.The next moment, the knife light of the rain flickered vertically and horizontally; most of the slime monsters fell apart and turned into flowing mud.

After a while, Wang Shihong pulled up the last person trapped in the muddy vortex and threw him back to the team; he let out a slight breath.After all, it was the sensory enhancement brought about by the stimulation of the blood vessels, which made him feel a certain vibration and the sound of water bubbles squeezing from the mud on the ground.

However, even he didn't know how long he could hold on; in this rainy curtain, not only the traditional compass, but also the hourglass for timing were no longer accurate, and it made people feel extraordinarily long and difficult.At this time, someone shouted again: "Ahead, there is Zhuangzi..."

At this time, the rain gradually faded away, and the silhouettes of groups of buildings could be vaguely seen in front of them, and more importantly, there were dim lights.This also means that there are still residents and dry places where fires can be made for food.Someone rushed out of the team immediately, ran away regardless, and disappeared suddenly.

(End of this chapter)