The fierce west wind rolls up the bright red flag. In the warm sunshine, an army on full alert was walking on the land of southern Liaoning. Looking down from more than 300 meters in the air, Zhao Zhiming watched the team of thousands of people divide into two parts. The troops that walked ahead included the rescued Huang Stone and all the cavalry. Under the protection of the dragoon phalanx in the rear, they first quickly advanced a few hundred meters, and then set up an attack formation to cover the dragoons in the rear to get on their horses and hurry. When the dragoons followed, they were covered by the dragoons. In this repeated cycle, the two teams moved slowly under the watchful eye of thousands of slaves.

At this time, it was close to 11 o'clock, and we were still about two kilometers away from Yangguan Fort. This is a critical juncture, and our army has also gone to a critical place. The troops who landed from Yangguanbao had not rested for 12 hours, and the only relaxation was to sit on the ground with their guns on hand for 20 minutes. And the soldiers of the Panshi Battalion who rushed out of the camp at the mouth of the quicksand mouth almost completely lost their energy at this time, and continued to advance with only one breath. Even if everyone has a horse, we have to take into account that horses are not as strong as people, and now they are still strong in the middle.

More than 300 meters ahead, there are two small hills, sandwiched between a narrow road about 15 meters wide. Both knolls are not high, but they stretch for miles to the north and south, but it is still difficult for horses to climb. To pass through here, we would have to line up the path, and the well-kept phalanx would be destroyed.

If Jiannu wants to keep us, this is the last chance. Once we pass through this hill, the Jiannu cavalry will pursue them, and they will still have to pass through this path. By the time they had crossed, we were already able to get close to the Yangguan Fort and receive support from the defenders of the Yangguan Fort.

The Jiannu on the north and south sides are more than 400 meters away. They have an average of one man and two horses, and their maneuverability is far superior to ours. During the morning's pursuit, we were inevitably caught in a semicircle of Jiannu. Fortunately, the tight formation did not show any flaws, and Jiannu never made up his mind to attack.

Suddenly there were cheers from the front team, and the mood in my squad changed suddenly, with a few soldiers nervously pulling the trigger and a few gunshots being heard sporadically.

A cavalryman ran out of the ranks, and when he was halfway there, the front team also rushed out and cheered as they ran towards us: "Reinforcements have arrived!" ”

Both teams cheered and yelled at the same time. The tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and tears welled up in the eyes of many soldiers as they maintained their fighting positions. Amid cheers and roars, dozens of flags appeared on the hillock. On the ridge line of the hundreds of meters of the hillock, bayonets reflecting the cold glow gushed out like wheat in autumn. Under the dense helmet, the red military uniform is extremely bright in the sun, like a burning fire, about to sweep the boundless Liaodong.

In the blink of an eye, the two hillocks were occupied by more than a thousand armed soldiers. More than a dozen three-pounder field guns were dragged out of the trail by the horses and arranged around the trail crossing in a semicircle, with the muzzles aimed at the Jiannu on the north and south sides.

The Jiannu cavalry that had been sporadically blocking us had already fled, and more than a hundred red-clothed cavalry rushed out of the path, exchanged hands with He Baodao in the phalanx in front, and then rushed towards us. Zhu Guobin's voice beside him was a little excited, and he said: "It's my Dengzhou Town, and it seems to be the first regiment deployed in Qingdao." ”

The group of cavalry arrived in front of them, saluted and said loudly: "Report to the commander, the cavalry battalion of the first regiment of Dengzhou Town, report to you!" ”

"Comrade Dai Zhenggang, the commander of the regiment, has arrived at Yangguan Fort, and our department has been ordered to come with the first and second battalions of infantry to meet and ask to accept your moderation!"

I clapped my hands and smiled: "Okay, now I order, the cavalry battalion of your regiment will first join Comrade He Baodao in front, and under the command of He Baodao, line up on the north side of the trail to deal with the possible cavalry attack of Jiannu." ”

"Zhu Guobin," I turned to him, "and now I need you to be cavalrymen." Please begin to line up, moving parallel to us to the south of us, protecting the left flank. ”

"All the wounded, follow me!"

The bright red and iron-gray crowd quickly mixed, changing formations in Jiannu's gaze. Soon, under the protection of the cavalry formations on the north and south sides, hundreds of wounded and tired soldiers in poor condition arrived at the trail crossing and passed in an orderly manner under the command of the officers.

There was news from the hot air balloon that Jiannu's brigade had begun to shrink. Obviously, we avoided the fate of a battle to the death with Houjin here – and of course, Houjin was spared from dying here by two thousand or more.

Standing on the top of the hill, the wind is already full of the salty smell of the sea. The flag of Dengzhou Town rustled overhead, the sun was shining overhead, and our eyes were a little unopen.

Fang Hai handed me the binoculars, and I reached out to take them, lowering the brim of the steel helmet a little to block the sunlight shining on my eyelids. With the help of binoculars, I saw Houjin's troops lined up a kilometer away, forming four barely strong brigades. Based on the color of their flags and armor, we judged that Houjin was divided into camps according to the unit of "flag". Well, there is no queue for the white flag, and eighty percent of them are beaten to the point that they can't queue up.

In hindsight, Hou Jin may have wanted to show their military might in front of us. It's a pity that their kind of team, not to mention the Wehrmacht, is also dwarfed by the army of Changsheng Island and Dengzhou Town... Approximately the same as the rest of the Dongjiang Army?

All in all, we have established that Houjin has no desire to attack. One of them rode out and came on horseback under the gaze of six or seven thousand men on both sides. The knight wore chain mail with yellow flags, and no helmet, revealing a tanned scalp and shriveled braids; A bow and arrow hung on his back, a waist knife hung from his waist, and a mace or axe hung from his saddle. The figure is extremely strong, and he looks quite mature. Considering that the people of Jianzhou are older than the people of Mingguo, that person may not be more than twenty years old.

In full view of the crowd, the man did not hurry to move his horse, and advanced at a uniform speed to a distance of three hundred meters from us. He gently strangled his horse, stopped in front of the battle array, then took the bow from his back, and bent his bow on his horse, drawing it like a full moon.

A sound of breaking through the air sounded, and the arrow slashed through the space of more than two hundred meters, nailed in front of us.

The soldiers of Dengzhou Town on the hill did not move, and the knights of Immortal Island let out a slight exclamation. It can shoot more than 200 meters, and the bow and arrow level should be in the 11-12 force... To be able to pull such a strong bow on a horse, it can be called a hundred enemies in the Middle Ages.

When the knight had finished shooting, he put away his bow and arrows, symbolically drove his horse back a few meters, and then sat down on his horse with his back straight, as calm as an iron tower, and watched us quietly.

In a moment, He Baodao personally put on his strong grip and drove his horse forward to retrieve the arrow shot by the man. There was a letter tied to the arrow, and the signature was Huang Taiji.

I read the envelope, stopped opening it, signaled it to all present, and gave it to the captain of the guard for safekeeping. This letter was written by the Houjinnu chieftain, and although it is not explicitly stated, it is clearly not addressed specifically to me.

He Baodao, who came back, said: "When my subordinates went to get arrows, they saw that guy a little clearly. It should be Aobai. ”

Huang Stone raised his eyebrows subconsciously: "Aobai? ”

"Comrade Huang has heard of this person?" I looked at him with some surprise, "The upper echelons of Eight Banners don't have him. ”

Huang Stone smiled and said, "This person is the grandson of Suoerguo, the leader of the Jurchen Suwan tribe, and the nephew of Fei Yingdong, who is famous for his military force. ”

"Hmm... Fei Yingdong, it doesn't sound like a barbarian. ”

"My lord, Fei Yingdong is the person's name, and the Jiannu is surnamed Guerjia." He Baodao interjected.

"Hmm..."

I sighed, not wanting these quirky names that looked a lot like Europeans. "Fang Hai, rifle."

I stretched out my hand towards Fang Hai and said with a loud smile: "There is no danger today, and you have all made great contributions to Comrade Huang." In this way, I will show you a unique trick of wearing Yang in 100 steps. ”

Fang Hai quickly removed the rifle he was carrying on his back—he had never used this gun in previous battles. I grabbed my rifle, rolled over and dismounted, and knelt on one knee on the top of the hill, with the butt of my rifle resting on my right shoulder. This gun is one of the rifled guns donated to the National Defense Force by the Daming Northeast Trading Company, and the texture of the wooden part of the gun body is very beautiful, reflecting the beauty of strength.

Fang Hai loudly reported the wind direction, wind speed and approximate humidity at that moment, and several artillerymen measured the distance. I adjusted the scale of my rifle, mentally estimated the effect of the relative height of the hillock to the flat ground, and finally closed my left eye. The breathing gradually flattened, and the notch, crosshair, and target formed a straight line. The people around him naturally stopped talking, and even their breathing eased a lot.

Half a minute later, there was a crisp sound, and a little white smoke erupted from the muzzle. The grass in front of the muzzle was blown by the air wave and fell to the ground in an instant.

More than 300 meters away, the tower-like motionless Ao Bai's body shook as if he had been shocked, and a bloody flower splashed on his left chest, and he trembled and fell off his horse. The frightened horses neighed and ran, dragging Aobai, whose feet were stuck in the stirrups, for more than ten meters, and then stopped to bow his head to graze.

Hundreds of soldiers on the hillock cheered at the same time. In the applause of Huang Stone, I breathed a sigh of relief and handed the rifle to Fang Hai.

"When I was in college, I won the first place in rifled gun shooting in the whole school." I couldn't help but smile and said to Fang Hai, "From my freshman year to my senior year, I have won the championship of the school sports for four consecutive years." ”