On the night of the 26th day of the first month of the first year of Chongzhen, the severe cold of midwinter was slightly relieved. At least the wind no longer makes the faces of people who go out hurt like a knife. After more than a month of soft and hard preparations, the "army" "swore to march" at the foot of Baoyang Mountain in Mancheng County

A total of 35 people, including Zhang Lixin, did not have uniform uniforms, and they were still like a group of migrating armed refugees. Not much time was spent on queues and discipline, and the ranks of the people gathered were so loose.

In addition to the four bows and arrows including Zhang Lixin, there are also eight horses that look decent, and many of the rest only have bamboo spears and wooden spears, or axes that are simply made from inferior farm tools. Only Zhang Lixin and the other four "officers", as well as the other four temporarily appointed "team leaders", had barely decent short spears and axes with iron blades. Because all other resources and capital were invested in the production of the five trebuchets and related pottery bombs.

However, Zhang Lixin also feels that a minimum "sense of ceremony" is indispensable. A blue cotton curtain depicts in ink black the three large characters that are horizontal and vertical, but the handwriting of people in this era is very childish like that of beginners: "New Life Camp" and serve as a flag.

"Now! The freshman camp was officially established. As the name suggests: we want to give the whole world a new lease of life! If you really don't agree with what I'm saying, there's a goal. If you feel that your own life, or your private bloodline, is more important, you can withdraw now. As the saying goes: innovation must be voluntary. If it's just to eat with a mouthful, or to worship the prime minister and seal the wife and son in the future, I advise everyone: try not to follow our team, which is likely to be doomed to death, the goal and the truth, as you explained in detail before... ”

Although it is impossible to truly transform some people's three views in just one month, many people still feel the fear of imminent war and even the bleakness of their future. But perhaps because of the fear of becoming a bird, not many people stood up at this time.

Zhang Lixin also began to understand: The real big waves of sand can only be completed in the real test of blood and fire

Because I did my homework before, I didn't preach too much. In order to overcome their fears, before leaving, the team still sang the "Heroic Story" that was temporarily used as a military song in an ordinary voice: "Say goodbye to my good confidant, and go on the road alone with full of blood; hatred is in the belly, dare to block thousands of knives; I hate the jackal, I will kill the demon and eliminate the violence; Then find my paradise in this yellow earth... ”

The cold wind of early spring is still howling in the mountains, sending the song of determination to eliminate violence and peace drift in all directions. Over the past month or so, the combat readiness activities of the entire contingent have not completely failed to attract the attention of some surrounding villages or bandits. It's just that because people know that this group of people rarely comes out during the day to block other people's money, they don't care much.

Only occasionally in Lijiazhai errand employed by the imperial court of a villager still felt a little uneasy when he heard the faint singing in the wind, and during the day, when some villages and large households began to be on guard, the whole team had already set off at night, marched seventy or eighty miles, and lurked in the countryside around Ansu to sleep in the open.

After less than three days of concealed marching, on the night of the end of the 29th month of the first lunar month, the whole team finally quietly arrived near Yangguanying Village near the Qianhu Station in Zhongtunwei, Hejian.

The panic of approaching the first battle even made some soldiers of the new battalion who did not have much consciousness begin to think about whether to escape at night when facing dangerous siege tasks or tense battles, after all, they felt that it was more important to be alive to beg for food...

About five miles from the head of the camp, horses that were not easy to discipline were gathered and tied, leaving two men to guard them. It took about half an hour or so for the whole team to deploy the pitch-black trebuchets and pottery bombs near a uniquely shaped stone that seemed to have not been moved. That was in the early morning of the previous day, Zhang Lixin rode a horse and approached a place not far from the city to personally measure the distance.

Thanks to the previous more than 20 night marches and drill training, countless operational training. After all, the whole team was able to quietly arrange the five trebuchets along the T-shaped lines of the two city walls in the southeast corner of the camp city in the southeast corner of the camp, forming the ability to strike along the city head.

At this time, the city head of the city where the thousand households were camped in the middle of the river was surprisingly quiet, as if there was not a single soldier on duty at night. gave Zhang Lixin's first feeling: Was this operation discovered in advance because someone told him? Of course, not only Zhang Lixin, but many people, including Li Yi, felt that something was wrong.

"Isn't the atmosphere? Could it be that the ambush soldiers have been waiting for us for a long time? Wang Wei also said with some uneasiness.

Stand up the poles, and you will search with me!" In this way, after arranging the soft soil clods to prevent injuries, Zhang Lixin, Cheng Hai and the other four climbed along the pole of the trebuchet to a height of about five or six meters, which was about the same or slightly higher than the head of the camp city, and carefully observed, only to find that in the direction of the city head not far from the southeast corner, there were only two guards playing cards under the faint light in front of the city gate.

"Haha! You've lost again! A cronie of the Yang family in his forties smiled behind the battlements near the gate of the camp city.

"Master, just spare the little one! This set is lost, and the money for drinking next month is gone... ”

"Huh? What do you mean? You don't know how you're doing it to other people? As if you were some poor jingle farmer... ”

"This... Good! It's time to be filial to the Lord! The young man in front of him couldn't help but say so.

Although it was only a little higher than the head of the camp, Zhang Lixin could see it clearly by the light: this radius could be one hundred and fifty steps, and the circumference of more than a stone's throw could be close to the head of the city of two miles, and there were less than ten absent-minded people on duty at night. Of course, Zhang Lixin at this time was not sure if this was a trick to lure the enemy with a pretense of posture. But now that you've made up your mind, you have to give it a try.

As Zhang Lixin shot the wooden arrow as a signal to the eight warriors who had been ready to set off for a long time. Eight men divided into two groups and quietly carried the wooden poles and flying ropes that had been prepared long ago, approached two places twenty zhang away from the southeast corner, first used wooden poles to top the not very high head of the city, and then hung the wooden "flying lines" on the city heads. At the same time, everyone deliberately shouted in unison in a voice that was not too small: "Alas! After doing all this, Zhang Lixin of course did not decide to let these eight people use Gou Suo to enter the city, and these people quickly withdrew to their true nature.

Such a movement has undoubtedly alarmed the two people on duty near the gate of the camp not far away, and one of the young men was so frightened that he didn't dare to make a sound, and suddenly pointed behind the Yang family, and whispered: "It's not good!" There is a situation ... ”

However, to Zhang Lixin's surprise, these two people were as if they were frightened, and they had no consciousness to report the news at all. At this time, Zhang Lixin had no choice but to personally shoot an arrow at the two with a five-bucket bow.

Zhang Lixin was about 60 steps or 90 meters away from the city, and he was nearly 200 meters away from the target's location. On the pole that shook a little in the wind, Zhang Lixin, who had several years of military experience, did not have the level of a marksman after all. The arrows eventually deviated from their target by at least four feet in the night wind.

This time, the two of them were finally frightened, and they no longer dared to stay far away from the city gate, and climbed down the city with a roll. Then he shouted, "There is a thief! There are thieves attacking at night! "The whole southeast side of the city was then deserted...

According to the "confrontational deduction" conducted by Zhang Lixin and Wang Wei before the war, it should not be like this at all: shouldn't the side defending the city have shields and planks as the most basic covering? I heard that there are actually more than 300 people in a thousand households with 1,100 people, and the people who take turns to be on duty at night must have forty or fifty, right? And it shouldn't take much time to get to the top of the city from the place where the soldiers are hiding under the city? Why did someone report that there was no movement in the time of the half pillar of incense? . .

However, it is clear that Zhang Lixin and even Wang Wei and others regard the fierce confrontation plots of urban defense battles in some novels, or the border armies such as Weiyuan Battalion and Fuzhou Wei who are heavily faced with the threat of the Eastern Captives, as common sense. I don't know how much the garrison of the hinterland, which has no internal and external threats, will be lax and layman in the last years of this dynasty...

In about half an hour, when Zhang Lixin, Wang Wei and other four people arranged the launch preparations and carried out a mud bomb test firing to confirm that it was correct, they boarded the city head without anyone guarding the city, only to see many people holding torches and bustling from under the city head to the city head intensively. There is no basic common sense of warfare or even awareness of the enemy's situation.

At this moment, Zhang Lixin finally understood: why the peasant army, which was not very high in the early stage, could easily break through the county-level defense, and only when it encountered Fucheng seemed to feel a little threshold. Under normal circumstances: there are not many soldiers worthy of battle, and the garrison is not very sufficient in theory for targets such as county towns and camps that are not specially guarded, let alone the situation after slackness.

"Who? Where did the thieves come from? Many of them held torches in the dark and shouted as if they were bold. At least eighty or so who climbed to the top of the city divided into two roads and came along the east and south walls of the camp, and four or five people from time to time launched fire with three-eyed guns, but I don't know why, maybe they were afraid that loading a single live ammunition would be easier to blow up than scattered sand? It seems that although there is a sound of guns, there are no guns. The only thing that makes people look up to it is that these people actually know how to find a few shields in front of them, and they don't make all the tactical mistakes they can make to make people right.

Hiding in the dark, Cheng Hai and Li Yi held mud-coated wooden shields to cover, and Zhang Lixin and Wang Wei respectively pulled away Wudou's bow and arrows with heavier arrows, but they were not completely full. When shooting like this, it has only half the power, and the energy storage is far less than half. However, he was able to barely bypass the shield in front of him, and there was a certain chance that he would shoot into the crowd behind. Although he had just shot a few arrows, he had not killed or injured anyone at all, but he had suddenly slowed down the crowd that had boldly approached.

The gathered crowd continued to cautiously and quietly approach, and when they were only about thirty steps away from Zhang Lixin, Wang Wei and others, even at night, they were about to find that the location of Zhang Lixin and others began to be aimless, as if they were bold. The whistling wind seemed to come from the air suddenly, and more than 60 pottery bullets fired by the three trebuchets landed accurately near the predetermined position on the head of the city under careful preparation, and at least a dozen people were smashed under this fierce blow, and were smashed to the ground on the spot, and four or five people were injured by the rebound at close range.

Almost this round of blows completely collapsed many people who had rushed over from many places in the southern city wall before, and the people behind them fled one after another. At this time, the dozens of people who approached along the east wall of the camp city were suddenly frightened and stopped, and they didn't know whether to retreat or not. At this time, more than 40 pottery bombs projected by two trebuchets from 90 meters away smashed down on their heads and faces, knocking down about a dozen people in front of them, and most of the remaining people were scattered in a panic and fled off the walls of the camp city one after another.

At this time, Yang Qianhu in the Qianhu Office also woke up from his sleep and sat up from the side of a subordinate military family woman. Yang Qianhu heard the panicked shouts outside, but there were not many shouts of killing, and his heart calmed down a little. The previous things were all dealt with by a cronie around him, and he always thought that it was just some ignorant beggars in the surrounding villages, who were not afraid of heaven and earth, and it was not that there had been such a thing before, but he didn't expect that the rout soldiers had fled from the city.

"What's going on? Is it a camp to make trouble? Shouldn't it? There are their own people in the city, and they can't beat a fart with three punches. Seeing one of his cronies knocking on the door in a panic, Yang Qianhu, who was not fully conscious, also felt strange.

The land of Beijing, China, has rarely been invaded by foreign invaders since the Jiajing period, and even in this year, I have not heard of any large bandits in Beizhili, so it is not even imagined that it is possible to encounter a real enemy attack.

"Lord Qianhu's condition is not good, run!" A cronie said in a panic at this time.

"What's going on?"

"Yes ... Be... The vanguard of the East Captives is calling! After calming down a little, another person who was frightened by the previous scene had no choice but to say: "If it weren't for a strong enemy like Dongyu, how could he have the ability to deal with dozens of people who had climbed to the top of the city in the blink of an eye?" ”

However, because after all, he didn't hear the cannons, war drums, horses, or the shouts of the enemy, and more importantly, the hoarding of funds in these thousands of households made this Yang Qianhu still hesitate at this moment. What's more: if you flee without a fight, it is possible to lose your current glory and wealth after all.

"Don't be intimidated! This is Hejian Mansion, and the eastern captives are only skirmishers at the level of meticulous work. Otherwise, how could there be no wind before! Hurry up the panicked people outside again! I want to ask what is going on, the enemy has taken the city... ”

By the time Yang Qianhu reconvened the more than fifty people on duty who could still be summoned, a full quarter of an hour had passed. Zhang Lixin and others have not only boarded the unguarded southeast of the camp, but also directly added a portable small trebuchet pulled up in the southeast of the camp. According to the previous estimate and even the calculated position, a "long shot" of hundreds of throwing distances was launched: the trebuchet moved forward with a larger arm, and at the same time the thrown object was reduced to half of the original size. Because of the abundant measured data and the level of the camp city, I felt that such a decision was made. Even so, five trebuchets can fire fifty pottery bombs weighing more than a dozen taels in one round.

In fact, although I saw the torches in the distance, it seemed that I didn't hit the target accurately at all when I shot blindly with a trebuchet at such a distance, as if they all missed. Then six rounds of test firing in succession, more than 300 pottery bombs were fired, and finally a wave of relatively dense pottery bombs fell to the place where the torches were dense about a stone's throw away, and instantly scattered the dozens of people that Yang Qianhu had just gathered...

Zhang Lixin, Wang Wei and others at the head of the city only saw the people who fled in a panic in the school field of the camp, and no one planned to organize a counterattack...

At this moment, many people in the team who had felt the huge pressure of the battle before had completely put their hearts down.

"If the officers and soldiers are like this, I think the great cause can be accomplished!" Guo Mugong also said with relief.

"Yes, my feeling is not a night attack, but a fair contest in the Great White Heaven. A total of two or three hundred of them, I am afraid that they were also killed and wounded by bows and arrows and stones, and a dozen or so people scattered in a hurry. A soldier in charge of heralding orders beside Zhang Lixin also said with relief.

Hearing such words, Li Yi, Cheng Hai, Wang Wei and other people who had really led the Ming army on the Fuzhou front line to compete with the strong enemy of Houjin were silent. Don't say that compared with the Dengzhou Weiyuan Battalion, that is, compared with the front-line Ming army of Fuzhou Guard, the armament here is not too different from there.

Zhang Lixin didn't feel much joy or relief: he felt some depression and remembered a lot of things. It is said that there are Li Shimin and Wei Chigong in Zizhi Tongjian, who shot back thousands of pursuers on two horses, which was still known as the Sui and Tang dynasties with strong folk customs. I have also heard of the "Baturu" of a certain Qianlong inscription in which a person relied on the woods to shoot back 2,000 people alone. I don't know from what era the temporary mobilized troops on the Central Plains have no combat effectiveness, and if they do not carry out selection and training, or if there are rewards and punishments and temptations to open and close, they seem to have no combat effectiveness at all.