Horse on the World

Chapter 655 Remnants
After Zheng Zhiqiang and a few selected marines disguised themselves, they mingled with the fleeing crowd in the middle of the night. After landing, the marines of the Dingzhou Navy rushed about [-] miles inland and set up camp. But the people along the coast saw the defeat of their family's army, panicked, rolled up their family's treasures, and fled to the inland with their children.On the road leading to the inland, there are refugees carrying big bags, pushing wheelbarrows or driving ox carts everywhere.

Zheng Zhiqiang and these marines can speak Luoyang mandarin. They have lived on the water for a long time, and their skin looks no different from those who live by the sea. It is not noticeable to mix in the crowd.

The mighty crowd headed east all the way. After walking for a long time, Zheng Zhiqiang suddenly saw a group of soldiers standing on the side of the road. The leader was the young general who had fought against the harbor before. His name should be Wei Zhihua. At this moment, he is sitting on a boulder by the roadside with a gloomy face, silently watching the fleeing crowd pass by him.

"General Wei!" A well-dressed old man sitting in a bullock cart saw Wei Zhihua on the side of the road, stopped the bullock cart quickly, and got out of the bullock cart with the help of others.

"Old Master Lu!" It seemed that the two knew each other.Wei Zhihua stood up and cupped his hands.

"General Wei, what the hell is going on here? Where did these troops come to attack us? They are so vicious and they attack us without saying a word!" Old Master Lu supported his waist, feeling a little painful typical.

Wei Zhihua couldn't help but be speechless, he knew some inside information, but how could he tell the person in front of him, he could only keep silent.

His silence made the surrounding people even more panicked. Seeing Wei Zhihua's expression, Old Master Lu's face was very serious, "General Wei, can we win?"

Wei Zhihua remained silent.

Old Master Lu understood, looked at Wei Zhihua, and said: "General Wei, this old man was also an official in the court, can you tell me where these people come from?"

Wei Zhihua swallowed hard, "Old Master Lu, you have read a lot of books, if you know where we come from, what are we most afraid of?"

Old Master Lu's face changed drastically, "How come, how come, hundreds of years, you are still looking for us, why don't you let us go?" Turning around tremblingly, he walked towards the ox cart, raised one foot, and turned around suddenly, "General Wei , your Wei family is the minister of my Great Zhou, you, do you know what your father is going to do? What is the monarch going to do?"

Wei Zhihua smiled wryly, "Old Master Lu, I just reported back on a flying horse. The entire navy was wiped out, and most of my troops were also lost. I believe at this time, the court has already known what the adults have to do. Wait." Old Master Lu may be able to understand when he arrives in Luoyang. I think we will probably fight to the death, we have no way out."

"Fight to the end!" Old Master Lu staggered and climbed into the carriage with difficulty, "So, General Wei, I will take my leave first."

Wei Zhihua clasped his fists and said, "Okay, Old Master Lu, see you in Luoyang!"

After Zheng Zhiqiang, who was in the crowd, heard this conversation, he basically confirmed that Zhong Jing and his brother's guess was accurate, and judging from their tone, this history should only be known to people with a certain status in the Great Zhou Dynasty. It is very clear that other ordinary people have gradually forgotten them in the dust of history, probably over hundreds of years.

In the middle of the night, Zheng Zhiqiang huddled up on the side of the road in his clothes, and around him, several marines were also crowded together.

"We will break up tonight. You will divide into three groups to detect the general topography of this broken island, draw a sketch, and pay attention to specially marking roads, cities, dangerous passes and strategic points."

"Yes, General, how about you, where are you going?" Several people replied in low voices.

"I'll follow these people to the so-called Luoyang to have a look!" Zheng Zhiqiang said with a light smile, "It's an eye-opener, let's find out by the way, how many soldiers and horses are there on this broken island? If so, after getting the news, he should concentrate his forces and transfer most of the troops to defend his capital."

Three days later, Zheng Zhiqiang appeared outside the city of "Luoyang" along with a group of refugees.

With a heavy heart, Wei Zhihua stepped into the Wei Mansion on the East Street. Their family was the prime minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty, with a high position and authority, and the mansion occupied almost half of the street.

"The young master is back!" A servant saluted respectfully, Wei Zhihua asked with a sullen face, "Where is the boss?"

The servant took a careful look at Wei Zhihua, "Master, the master just came back from court, and he seems to be in a bad mood, and he is in the study right now!"

Wei Zhihua nodded and strode away.

"Father!" Wei Zhihua stepped into the door of the study, put his helmet on the table, took off the long knife in his waist, and sat down silently.In the study room, a middle-aged man with three strands of long beard was writing something, when he saw Wei Zhihua, he put down the wolf hair in his hand.This person is Wei Zhihua's father, Wei Gang.

"Are you back? Have all the soldiers who came back with you returned to Jian?"

Wei Zhihua nodded, "Out of more than 1000 soldiers, only about [-] escaped."

"Do you know what the adults in the court were talking about today?" Wei Gang said.

"Are you discussing how to resist?" Wei Zhihua asked.

A mocking smile appeared on the corner of Wei Gang's mouth, "They want to discuss the crime of you and the navy general Zuo Gui, saying that you have humiliated the country by losing your teacher."

Wei Zhihua jumped up suddenly, "This group of bastards, I fought bloody battles, but they are talking irresponsibly in the rear, General Zuo Gui did not retreat in a bloody battle, and the whole army was folded at sea, why, they still want to kill Zuo Gui Is the general's body taken out of the sea and punished?"

"There are a lot of absurd people in the court!" Wei Gang waved his hand, "Don't pay attention to them, there are still plenty of people who are sober, please tell me carefully how these two wars happened."

Wei Zhihua said dejectedly: "Father, I didn't see how General Zuo's navy was defeated, but when I saw the ships of these Dingzhou navy, hum!" Wei Zhihua was sour He smiled and said, "Then Unbeaten is a monster!"

"Wait a minute!" Wei Gang raised his hand, "What are you talking about? Dingzhou navy, Dingzhou is on the verge of barbarism, it is an inland state, how could there be a navy, you are not mistaken?"

"Father, my son is also a general after all, so I would be wrong. The flag flying on the ships of the opposing navy is indeed the Dingzhou flag, and the soldiers who landed and fought shouted Dingzhou Army, Wan Sheng, Obviously, they are the army of Dingzhou!"

Confused, Wei Gang took out a yellowed map of unknown ages from the desk, looked carefully, and it was obvious that this map was only found after the incident happened.

"Dingzhou Army, Dingzhou Navy, what happened to Dachu?" Wei Gang asked in confusion.

"Father, we have blocked the waterway for a long time. As long as the ships approaching this sea area, no matter what they are doing, they will be detained or sunk by us. We have successfully hidden it for so many years, but the same, we have to He also became deaf and blind when he heard the news from outside." Wei Zhihua said dissatisfiedly.

"How about the result, the Great Chu army is still coming!"

"Don't complain, those are the iron rules left by His Majesty Yingzong back then. Didn't you tell me how powerful the opponent's military power is, and you can't even stop it for a day!"

Wei Gang rolled his eyes and roared.

"Father, tell me, how big is the largest naval battleship of General Zuo? How many ships does General Zuo have?"

"You still need to ask Lao Tzu, don't you know!"

"Yeah, I know, General Zuo has thirty warships in total, and there are six out of three thousand warships. I only know that, ten years ago, when I was just an adult, General Zuo's navy was like this. It's been ten years. , or like this, what have we been doing these ten years?"

"You're off topic again!" Wei Gang shouted. "You were vague in the battle report, now tell me bit by bit."

"Our largest battleship is only Sanqianliao, while the other side, Dingzhou Navy, Sanqianliao warship is just a frigate, not their main battleship at all."

Wei Gang was shocked, "Could it be that their main battleship is only a five thousand battleship?"

Wei Zhihua nodded with a wry smile, "That's right, five thousand battleships, the sea is densely packed with their warships, there are five or six of five thousand warships, three thousand warships, hehe, as many as twenty. And in On the sea farther away, there is another huge ship, Dad, his ship is as big as several five thousand warships."

Wei Gang stood up abruptly, then sat down limply, "How is it possible, how is it possible?"

"Why is it impossible?" Wei Zhihua asked back: "This is what I saw with my own eyes. The stone bombs thrown by the trebuchets on their battleships are dense, like rain, and the range is much farther than our trebuchets. Our catapults were basically destroyed before they were launched, and one or two hundred brothers were killed or injured before we had any contact with the enemy."

Wei Gang swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "Then, what about the troops they landed in?"

Wei Zhihua closed his eyes, as if he was recalling the battle scene a few days ago: "Father, each of their soldiers is wearing a solid iron helmet, and their armor is much better than ours. You can't kill them, I once shot an arrow in the helmet of one of their senior generals, do you know the result?"

"he died?"

"It's good to be dead. He was only slightly injured, and he still fought vigorously. Their fighting skills are obviously several grades higher than our soldiers. I can smell it. This is an old army. They It tastes different."

"How many soldiers can they land and fight?"

"I don't know, but when we fought against us the day before yesterday, there were about [-] people who went ashore."

"With so many ships, I'm afraid they carry a lot of troops, including the sailors, there are at least tens of thousands of people." Wei Gang pondered, "We don't suffer in terms of military strength. If the whole country is mobilized, we can gather more than [-] troops." army."

"You want those farmers to take up arms and fight?" Wei Zhihua asked.

"At the last moment, they must fight." Wei Gang said firmly: "Zhihua, for hundreds of years, the aborigines on the island have been assimilated by us, communicated with us, and multiplied. There is me in you, and you in me. , are no longer distinguished from each other, and our ancestors were all brought over from the mainland by Emperor Yingzong back then. Whether it was officials back then or the Imperial Guards back then, they were all traitors in the eyes of these big Chu people, remnants of evil, This is a crime to punish the nine clans, and speaking of it, no one on this island can get away with it. Therefore, in order to survive, these people must fight."

"Tomorrow, when I go to court, I will tell His Majesty that the whole country is mobilized, and soldiers of all ages. In order to survive, we must win this battle."

"So what if we win this battle, if we defeat this batch, the next batch will come even more!" Wei Zhihua looked up to the sky and sighed, "We are finished!"

"Shut up!" Wei Gang yelled angrily: "Is this what a soldier should say? Wen dies to remonstrate, and martial arts fights to the death. We only have to win, and we have to beat the opponent so hard that we can survive."

Wei Zhihua's eyes lit up, "Father, do you want to fight first and then talk? Only by defeating your opponent can you have the capital to negotiate, right?"

Wei Feng said: "Is this something you should take care of? Take a rest today and go back to the barracks tomorrow. Regroup and prepare to fight to the death with the invading enemy!"

(End of this chapter)