From Tongguan to Xi'an, from Xi'an to Lanzhou, since hundreds of thousands of Ming troops marched westward, with the sharp power of guns, they attacked cities and plundered land on the battlefield, and were invincible. Trapping Tongguan and Kexi key places, the Manchu Qing Dynasty occupying Shaanxi rushed westward, and tens of thousands of troops attacked the city and plundered the land all the way on the Guanzhong Plain, pressing towards the western part of Shaanxi.

This homeland of the Han people, at this moment, finally returned to its true owner piece by piece and returned to the hands of the Han people. A series of military victories made the atmosphere in the entire Ming Dynasty extremely hot. With the "sun and moon" and the twelve golden mangs of the Ming flag planted one after another in the city, the whole Ming Dynasty is in a frenzy, the whole country is celebrating, celebrating the restoration of the country, celebrating the moment when the Tartars were driven out of the Central Plains, a piece of land opened up in the Spring and Autumn Period, is returning to the hands of its true master.

And correspondingly, on the other side, those Qing soldiers who rely on themselves as "banner people" are in a storm, their hearts are trembling, they are afraid, they are afraid, in their opinion, in front of the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty has no tomorrow, and the Qing Dynasty has been completely shrouded in clouds.

At this time, it was the height of summer, and despite the many diseases in the summer, the attack of the Ming army did not stop, and the fierce attack of the Ming army, the Qing army guarding Tianshui felt an unprecedented pressure. They had to face the Ming army, which was constantly attacking westward, and although the mountain roads were difficult, they could not stop the Ming army's attack.

Out of Baoji to Tianshui, this road can be described as a mountain high road difficult, the mountain road is near Weishui, over the Qinling Mountains, its road is difficult and dangerous even not easier than the Shu road into the Sichuan, and on the side of the mountain road that must pass through to Tianshui, a not too tall fortress stands on the mountain, this fortress is built by the mountain, like an insurmountable natural danger in general, cutting off the road to the west.

This is a European-style fortress, in the past few years, knowing that the Qing army could not defeat the Ming army in the field battle, did not bet on the Guanzhong Plain and Tongguan, but with the help of the Russians, using the complex terrain between Baoji and Lanzhou, built dozens of fortresses of different sizes, and defended the pass with fortresses. In order to contain the offensive footsteps of the Ming army, and after the Ming army began to attack, in the face of the fortress of the mountain pass, the attack was indeed repeatedly frustrated, and the mountain road between Baoji and Tianshui was only more than 300 miles, and it took two months to fail to reach the bottom of Tianshui City, the reason for this is that the fortresses along the way blocked the offensive footsteps of the Ming army.

"It's dawn, it's dawn......"

As soon as the sky was bright, in the narrow passage of the fortress, there were Qing soldiers wearing uniforms running back and forth, shouting while running, waking up the Qing army in their sleep, this small fortress was dim inside, and it was impossible to distinguish day and night in it, and every time it was dawn, someone was always needed to call the bed.

", noisy bear!"

Scolding in his mouth, Li Buting walked towards the platform with a fire hammer hanging his arms, he squinted his eyes and looked out, he could vaguely see the camp of the Ming army not far from the foot of the mountain, the land in front of the fortress was full of craters, in the past half a month, the Ming army launched many attacks, but their attacks were all repulsed without exception. If it weren't for the fact that every time the Ming army would collect the corpses, maybe it would be a stinking place by now.

"Those bright dogs, they're really not afraid of death!"

Staring at the faintly visible red figure in front of him, Li Buting muttered again.

The Ming army is not afraid of death!

For the Qing army, what impressed them the most was probably this, the Ming army was not only not afraid of death, but even eager to die in battle.

"Minggou is not really afraid of death, he really wants to die!"

The seemingly casual words of the brother next to him made everyone fall into silence, they had witnessed how the Ming army rushed forward and then charged towards the fortress, how they charged desperately, and finally died in front of the fortress.

"Oh, these dogs, really, really...... It's insane! ”

"Isn't it just crazy, when they are killed one by one, they are like crazy, and they don't take their lives seriously at all......

Big guy, you talk about those Ming soldiers word by word, talking about how "stupid" and "stupid" they are, but when they say these words, they often have a trace of fear in their eyes. Those eyes stared uneasily into the distance, staring at the faintly visible red figure.

It was another early morning, and when he was gathering after breakfast, Li Yilang shook the fire gun in his hand a little nervously, his eyes were staring at the front, although he was nervous in his heart, but those eyes looked a little excited.

"Ichiro, you won't be scared, will you!"

Suddenly, the squad leader's words reached his ears.

"Look at you, the joints of the hands holding the guns are white."

"No, no ......"

Compared with other people, Li Yilang's Chinese language is blunt, and anyone can hear that he is not Han.

"Ichiro, there's nothing to be afraid of, when you go to the battlefield, just listen to orders......"

Lin Xingguo, the squad leader, continued to comfort him.

"Yes, yes, class, I understand!"

While bowing to show that he understood, Li Yilang, who was afraid that the big guy really thought he was afraid, explained.

"Mine, I'm really not afraid, I'm nervous, but, I'm also happy, I'm really happy, to be able to serve His Majesty the Emperor, yes, if I can die fighting for His Majesty the Emperor, then, that's my glory!"

When Li Yilang spoke, he bowed to the east again, which was the direction of Zhongdu.

Nineteen years ago, after the death of Tokugawa Iemitsu, there was an attempted ronin rebellion (Keiyasu Incident), and the society was in turmoil, although the shogunate finally resolved the incident with the assistance of Masayuki Hoshina and the elder Sakai Tadakatsu, the old Naka Matsudaira Nobutsuna, and Abe Tadaaki. But for the shogunate, ronin was still a hidden danger.

From the end of the Warring States period to the beginning of the shogunate, a drastic political reshuffle caused a large number of samurai to lose their families and become ronin. Fifty-five years ago, Japan entered an era of peace. The feudal classes were relatively fixed, and the demand for samurai was much lower than during the Warring States period. However, the number of ronin did not decrease due to the fact that the number of ronins did not decrease due to the tenxia of Seihei, and even continued to increase, because the shogunate went against the Japanese tradition of adopted son succession and strictly restricted the succession of adopted sons, especially prohibiting the hasty adoption of adopted sons when the daimyo was sick. Although this was due to the fear that the daimyo would not be able to exercise sufficient judgment in choosing an adopted son when he was seriously ill, and it was also intended to prevent the daimyo retainers from playing with power and assassinating their masters, and electing a new master in their favor, the main purpose was to weaken the power of the daimyos.

If there is no heir, the domain of the daimyo can be confiscated, and the first to be changed for this reason was the Okayama feudal lord Kobayakawa Hideaki, who played a role in the Battle of Sekigahara. Kobayakawa Hideaki died of illness, and because he had no heir, his 550,000 stone territory was confiscated, and the Kobayakawa family perished.

In the past few decades, dozens of daimyo have changed due to the loss of heirs. Many daimyo were changed due to the lack of heirs, which really weakened the power of the daimyos. At the same time, due to the change of daimyo, most of his retainers became nowhere to be found

The ronin, who live in poverty, floods the streets and alleys, adding to the factors of social instability.

In the past ten years, in the process of trade with Japan, from the initial secret solicitation of "wind talkers" to the merchants because of their cheapness, privately soliciting ronin, tens of thousands of ronins and their families first took small boats to board the merchant ships of Daming off the coast of Nagasaki.

These ronins who came to Daming lived a miserable and depressing life in Japan, and after arriving in Daming, although the merchants who hired them often only gave a commission of one tael and one stone, their standard of living was still much higher than that of the old days, especially for low-ranking samurai, this commission even exceeded the income of a samurai. These ronins are also reluctant to work that is relatively dangerous, and they are also the best mercenaries, and they have hired ronins in the colonization of the South Seas. Even in the colonization of the Nanyang Zhuxia, the mercenary ronin was the best vanguard. In the Ming Dynasty, this kind of ronin mercenary has even become a business, and there are many firms that specialize in providing ronin mercenaries to help Nanyang Zhuxia Town to appease the barbarians.

However, there are some lucky ones who become naturalized people. Although there were only a few thousand in number, they were undoubtedly lucky compared to their compatriots who became mercenaries. Just like Li Yilang, maybe now because he speaks stiff Chinese, some people will think that he is a naturalized person, but in the future, his brothers and sisters, as well as his descendants, will become Ming people who are no different from Chinese people.

In his opinion, it is the glory of the Li family to be able to serve His Majesty the Emperor, although his actual surname is "Kimura", but it does not prevent him from having a "great heart" and is willing to die for His Majesty.

"In, when I was in the army, my mother once told me that I must fight bravely to kill the enemy, and I must repay Your Majesty with death, I, I understand, I will die nine times today, so I am so excited, so that the squad leader laughs!"

Bowing again, Li Yilang said to the squad leader and his comrades.

"I'm causing you a lot of trouble!"

Looking at Li Yilang, who bowed deeply, Lin Xingguo was speechless for a while, and the brothers in the class also looked at Li Yilang, who was usually working hard and complaining, so that everyone was like a tired donkey.

"Well done!"

Zhang Ming patted Li Yilang on the shoulder hard, and then said to him.

"Ling Ci really understands the righteousness, in the past, I looked down on you because you were a naturalized person, but now, your kid's words opened the eyes of the brothers, from now on, you are your own brother, that is, our Ming people, who the hell dares to say that you are an Oriental son, brother, I will be the first to let him go!"

In this era, the Han people are tolerant, they can open their arms to anyone who is willing to join the group, although this kindness has played out the story of "the farmer and the snake" again and again in history, but they will always open their arms again and again as if they never remember the lesson.

But here, in the eyes of many, the welcome that Li Ichiro received was what he deserved. In the face of the brothers' welcome, Li Yilang once again bowed deeply to express his gratitude, and his eyes were a little red with excitement. He knew that he was truly accepted at this moment, and he was accepted by Da Ming.

Just as he was excitedly trying to say something, the whistle sounded from the other side, and with the whistle sounded, and the drums, again, the troops were about to assemble.

When the troops began to assemble, the whole camp was in chaos, and everyone knew that today would be another unoffensive return, and everyone knew this very well, and because of this, the expressions of the vast majority of officers and men were somewhat helpless.

Even when they left the camp, the brothers who remained in the camp just watched them silently and whispered to them to "take care."

On the battlefield, how can you take care?

Red lines were walking out of the camp towards the foot of the hill that they had captured half a month earlier, and at the foot of the hill, a half-man deep trench was their first point of attack, leaving this trench, and going up 300 fathoms, only on the mountainside there was a breastwork built by the brothers under the fire line to provide protection.

Mountains, back-on-the-tops, fortresses.

The most difficult points of the attack appeared before their eyes. But no matter how difficult it is, for them, there is only one choice, attack!

There is no other option.

The cat bent into the trench under the mountain, across the woods in the mountain, Li Yilang's eyes were staring at the fortress on the top of the mountain, the star-shaped fortress was only a few cannons and a few hundred defenders, but it blocked hundreds of thousands of troops here, if you want to pass from here, you must build this fortress.

"See?"

Lin Xingguo pointed to the stone fortress on the mountain, and then said slowly.

"Our task is to take the fortress, that is the fortress, there is no dead end, and when we attack the city, we will be attacked by the enemy, when the time comes, what we need is to make a good distribution, a team of men and horses to attack, a team of men and horses to cover, and the covering ones must aim at the hole to hit the ......"

Lin Xingguo repeated the captain's orders, and when the captain made these explanations, he once said to the captain, "It's easy to say, but it's not easy to do", in fact, it's not easy, relying on this way of playing to build this fortress is simply a fool's dream.

"Squad leader, I'm afraid we may not have a chance to go down the mountain today!"

Zhang Mingchao glanced at the mountain, and then muttered.

"Yesterday, the three brigades of the 46th battalion attacked, and only one brigade came down well, and today we ...... I'm afraid it's hard to figure it down......"

"It's hard to be a hair, it's dead, it's dead, it's dead, it's filial piety!"

The brothers beside him casually answered, making Zhang Ming smile bitterly, and then nodded vigorously.

"God-damned dog Tartar, today our master will die here, loyal to the country, and filial piety to the family!"

Then he patted Li Yilang on the shoulder and said.

"Ichiro, you kid, this is a wish!"

"Yes. It's ......"

Swallowing nervously, Li Yilang nodded and said.

"Yes, it's really my honor to be able to die here with everyone!"

。 Book Reading House