On the 10th day of the 14th month of Chongzhen, on the same day that all the mobilized troops arrived in Shunqing Mansion, Zhu Pingjin led the mixed cavalry battalion of the Protector Army, the third battalion of Dong Bu cavalry, a company of fire infantry, one and a half companies of artillery battalions, and two companies of baggage soldiers to leave Dingyuan County and march towards Hezhou.

The old rules of driving in, each going his own way. The cavalry rode on horseback, and the infantry rode in boats.

Approaching departure, Zhu Pingjin finally received the news and contacted Li Yongjing, who had been missing for several days.

It turned out that after Li Yongjing escorted the people by the Yuechi River back to Dingyuan County, he immediately took a few cavalry out of the city and headed west without waiting for the screening work to be completed, saying that he had learned the whereabouts of the people of Dingyuan and that he was going to look for them.

Li Yongjing replied that in the big ravine forty or fifty miles southwest of Dingyuan, he found the people of Dingyuan County, the number of which was at least tens of thousands, and maybe more. There is a simple cottage at the mouth of the ditch, and the people guard this cottage to prevent thieves. Li Yongjing also said that they found Dingyuan Zhi County and the big and small officials in the county.

Officials and civilians are now in the same miserable situation - cold and hungry, hungry and cold.

……

From Dingyuan County to Hezhou, there are two roads, the left bank and the right bank, and the distance is almost the same. Hezhou is on the right bank of the Jialing River, and Dingyuan County is also on the right bank of the Jialing River, so there is no need to cross the river back and forth along the right bank, which saves time and is safer. However, Zhu Pingjin unexpectedly rejected the proposal of Yin Jialin and Lee Myung-shi, insisting on the road of the left bank. Zhu Pingjin believed that with three battalions of nearly 800 cavalry, the local tyrant did not dare to touch his tiger whiskers. Even if you want to, you can't catch up. Moreover, the previous reconnaissance from Dingyuan to Hezhou was not exhaustive, and he could use the march to understand the terrain and people's conditions along the way.

As long as the road is easy to walk, the distance of 100 miles is an hour. Zhu Pingjin changed back into the outfit of an ordinary cavalryman and walked easily between the large group of guards.

In the middle of winter, everything is silent, except for the neighing of horses and the rumbling of iron hooves. The air exhaled by the horses and riders quickly condensed into clouds of white smoke, which were dispersed by the men and horses that followed. At the bottom of the slope, large patches of hoarfrost lay in the yellow-brown wilderness, intertwined with the sound of the horse's hooves of the cavalry, outlining a mottled and desolate picture.

It is already close to Chongqing, an international metropolis, and will be a prosperous place in the future. But the scene in front of him was superimposed on the residual memories in Zhu Pingjian's mind, which made him feel a little bizarre.

The forty-mile journey was completed quickly, but the front team had slowed down.

The mountains ahead are getting higher and higher, and the roads are getting narrower. Ramps and curves abound, and the front team had to stretch the formation and send out scouts.

"Report!"

A rider in front of him returned to report to Zhu Pingjin, and the horse in front found more than a dozen corpses and a horse skeleton in the barren grass and bushes on the side of the road. The corpses were stripped to the ground, and there was not a single piece of flesh left on the horse's bones. Based on the remnants of the horse-rejecting stakes and small objects on the side of the bones of the people and horses, Deputy Regiment Commander Gao judged that the officers and soldiers had been ambushed.

There's a thug nearby!

Zhu Pingjin and the guards around him immediately reflexively did what they were supposed to do - enter the combat state. The cavalry changed from a single column to a scattered multi-lane column, advancing as they searched. The Tusi soldiers armed with bows and arrows, and more than a dozen firecracker riders also lit the coals in the small porcelain jar around their waists, and carried the firearms filled with gunpowder iron on their shoulders.

The troops moved on. But after riding out for five or six miles, there was no movement. Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little, a clear sound of brass trumpets was remembered in the col ahead.

"Battle Alert!"

The guards beside Zhu Pingjin repeated this sentence, reminding his companions to prepare for the fight. And Zhu Pingjin clamped the horse's belly and rushed forward.

Damn it!

As soon as Zhu Pingjin arrived at the front, he knew that something was wrong. Ahead squeezed through the pass between two mountain beams. The width of the pass is only three or five zhang, and the length is more than ten zhang, and then the situation after that is not visible because of the turn of the road, and I don't know how long this pass is.

The local tyrants placed a simple rejection horse at the pass, and the black pressed human head filled the entire pass, and I don't know how many people were behind it.

The clothes of these enemies were no different from the White Lotus Sect bandits that had been annihilated on the left bank of Yuechi Water a few days ago, with the same body without a piece of armor and the same rudimentary weapons. The most common weapons are bamboo spears, iron forks and hoes.

Seeing the elite cavalry under Zhu Pingjin, the enemy was equally frightened. But they did not retreat by the resistance of the horses.

What to do?

It is impossible to go back, and that would seriously damage the morale of the army. can hit it directly, and I don't know how many dead and injured people will be killed.

Gao Rongxuan suggested that the cavalry should be dismounted and fought on foot. The two guard companies were originally infantry, and there was no problem with foot combat. Zhu Pingjin agreed, but he asked Gao Rongxuan to send a team of Tusi soldiers, holding shields to cover the front firecrackers.

More than a dozen firearms, along with Zhu Pingjin and the eunuch Zhang Wei's, were placed on the front line, followed by pikemen of nearly 300 men from seven guard platoons. Due to the narrowness of the mountain road and the fact that the front is not wide, there are nearly twenty columns of pikemen in front and behind. The pikemen were followed by the archers composed of the Tusi soldiers.

Under Li Mingshi's command, the attacking troops neatly pressed towards the pass. Zhu Pingjin rode behind the pikemen, nervously observing the mountain beams on both sides. If there is an ambush on the mountain beam, and countless rolling stones and trees fall as soon as the cannon sounds, then the loss will be heavy.

Fortunately, none of this happened.

The musketeers advanced in unison, less than fifty paces from the enemy's rejection, and the enemy still did not release their arrows. Li Mingshi's command did not stop, and Zhu Pingjin understood that he should get as close to the enemy as possible, and it was best to advance to about thirty steps before firing, so that he could achieve maximum damage to the enemy.

Does the enemy have no bow and arrows, or does he have another trick?

Zhu Pingjin became puzzled and began to search the enemy ranks with a telescope. If the enemy does not have a long-range weapon, the Musketeer can use the cover of the pikeman to keep firing until the enemy is defeated or the enemy is unable to bear the casualties and rushes out.

The telescope scanned the enemy camp and saw all the moving human heads. Suddenly, a rapidly fanning white object attracted Zhu Pingjin's attention. He steadied the camera with both hands and looked at it, and it turned out that there was a guy who was desperately fanning his face.

Shake the fan in the cold winter! The corners of Zhu Pingjin's mouth twitched, and he pulled out a downward curved lip line: "Pretend!" ”

But Zhu Pingjin immediately realized something. He removed his binoculars and looked out of the field of guns erected in front of him, and could see that the gunners were already aiming with their guns leveled, waiting for a salvo to be fired.

"No fire! No fire! Zhu Pingjin opened his voice and shouted, "Pass forward, don't fire!" The troops stopped attacking and stood by in place! ”

……

Luckily, none of the guns went out. A scholar pretended to be forced to save the people and save himself. The front quickly asked about the situation, and it turned out that it was the group exercise organized by the nearby Hezhou squires who blocked the way.

Since it is a regimental exercise, why should it block the advance of the officers and soldiers? It turns out that there are often officers and soldiers here who often come out to grab grain.

It's a long way from Bashan, and the thugs can't take it back if they grab too many things. Therefore, apart from grain and silver, the tyrants generally plunder only two things: people and valuable goods. But the official army is local, and it is more humble than the local tyrants. If the tyrants want to rob, they will rob it; If the local thugs don't rob, they still have to rob. They did not spare even the pots and pans that the people used to eat, and the underwear of the women (Note 1).

The situation is clear. But how do you get through the pass?

The two names of the Protector Army and the Protector Caravan have been reported in front, and the answer they got is "Dog Officer Army!" And "Go back!" ”。

Only the name of Wang Fubing has not been tried. The banner of the prince has not been played, who among the soldiers dares to expose the name of the commander?

It seems that only this son himself has come out. Zhu Pingjin looked at the cotton robe on his body and regretted it a little. A cotton robe and the chain mail inside can't stop the spear from stabbing hard, and it's hard to say even a bamboo gun. But when the armor fell in the eyes of the soldiers, it was cowardice.

Zhu Pingjin wore a cotton robe, stubbornly walked through the dense spear array, and came to the front of the formation. Li Mingshi is still struggling to explain to the people, but the people are still scolding him.

"Let your leading scholar come out and pay a visit! It's the one who shook the fan in the winter! Zhu Pingjin shouted to the people. At this time, he was within five paces of the opponent's rejection. And the long bamboo spear is no less than a zhang in length.

There was really no second person to shake the fan in the winter, and the scholar quickly came out of the crowd. But he was still cautious, refusing to escape the protection of the rejection horse. The scholar was about 20 years old, wearing a cotton hat, a cotton robe, and a half-long red robe. Funnily enough, he did have a white folding fan in his hand. The folding fan kept shaking, and when it came to the front of the formation, it snapped shut.

"Would you like to give Ben a look at your fan?" Zhu Pingjin made a joke about him.

"Why?" The scholar rolled his eyes and immediately stopped, "My son relies on this fan to command the army!" Do you want to take the most important weapon of our army? ”

"Could it be that this fan is your baton?" Zhu Pingjin and the soldiers and eunuchs beside him all laughed.

"Exactly! Thou knowest thou not. The scholar looked disdainful of Zhu Pingjian's ignorance, "Besides, my fan is the true work of the master of the Peach Blossom Nunnery (Note 2), and it is very precious." You are a rude soldier, don't you stain this good fan! ”

"The scholar is rude!" The little eunuch jumped out, wanting to open his eyes for the master, "Open your ......"

Zhu Pingjin stopped the little eunuch. He ripped off the mask on his face and revealed his true face.

"The fan of the owner of the peach blossom hermitage, there are also a few pictures in the house of the vulgar man. There are also a few paintings of Wen Zhengming and Zhu Zhishan. Oh, the coarse man's house also has a hanging scroll of the master of the peach blossom hermitage! ”

Zhu Pingjin did not lie. There is indeed a hanging scroll of Tang Yin in the Shu Palace, which was taken down from his father's bedroom. Zhu Pingjin thought about the hanging scroll, and couldn't help laughing. He wanted to wait for him to get married, and hang it in his bedroom. Before going to bed, inviting your wife to enjoy and observe it together will definitely improve the couple's interest index (Note 3).

Note 1: This is the true face of the Sichuan official army in the last years of Chongzhen.

Note 2: Tang Yin, Tang Bohu, the owner of the peach blossom hermitage.

Note 3: Tang Bohu's painting of ladies (you know) is the most famous.