"The walls are intact, but I don't know what happens to the side facing the sea. Those southern barbarians were digging trenches and holding back horses. There are three floors to the rejection of horses. Their rejection is set up very quickly. But their rejection seems to be very strange, it seems to be a few sticks, connected by ropes, Sitku, what do you think is the use of this? It's broken with a single knife? The white-armored soldier Etu Hun hid behind a large rock on the top of a distant mountain, holding a telescope in both hands, and said as he watched.

Behind him, a younger scout was writing down what he had said on paper.

"Haikou isn't that stupid, is he? I think there's probably something wrong with that. Hmm, can you show me? The scout put down his pen. His name is Sitku, and the name means bedwetting child. The Manchurians don't pay much attention to their names, and this man has such a name, probably because he happened to wet the bed on the day he named him.

Etuhun took half a step back, hid behind the stones, and then handed the monoculars to Satku and said, "Be careful, this thing is valuable, don't break it!" Seeing that Sitku had already held it steady with his two hands, he cautiously let go of his hand, but added, "Move lightly, don't touch it." ”

This telescope is indeed expensive. This thing was originally sold by the Zheng family to those military towns, and it was not cheap when it was sold at the beginning, and then it was sold to me in the Qing Dynasty from these military towns, but the price doubled several times. And now, because Liaozhen and the Manchu Qing Dynasty have completely turned their faces, there is no place to buy this thing. But this thing is indeed very useful, it is said that the Great Khan, no, after the emperor used it, said that it was good, and said that it was a militaristic weapon, and even ordered those Nikan craftsmen to imitate it. It's just that until now, the things made by those Nikan craftsmen are still far inferior to the ones they bought from Liaozhen.

Sitting on the stone, he poked the telescope out, looked at it carefully for a while, and suddenly said, "Brother Etuhun, I don't think it's a rope between their horses, but a ...... It's like it's made of iron! Look at their circle-like things, how can the rope look like that? ”

"What? Made of iron? You don't need money to be iron! Etu said incredulously, "Take it and let me see it again......"

Etuhun took the telescope and looked over, but saw something new pulling out from the opposite side. Those rope-like things, but they're very strong and stand up. The pirates planted large wooden stakes at intervals, and then pulled them apart and fastened them to what seemed to be a low wall.

"What's this for? At this height and width, the horse should be able to jump over it if it runs a little faster. Etuhun thought so, but saw that the gorgeously dressed pirates were hanging something on it. Then they pulled out a net next to the net.

"Then the war horse will not be able to jump. But what is the use of such a short two-way net? Although he didn't figure it out, Etuhun instinctively felt that something was wrong, and there must be something wrong with it.

"It's still too far away to see clearly." Etuhun put away the telescope and said.

"Why don't we come closer?" Sitku asked.

"No, if you get closer, maybe they'll see you. It's nothing to see it, but it's better not to be seen by them than not. Well, have you drawn a picture of a trench, a horse rejection, or something? ”

"It's done." Sitku replied.

"Well, then let's rest for a while, and we'll touch it again in the evening and take a closer look." Etuhun said.

……

In fact, it is still a little difficult to touch it at night, because the moon is very large. And now it is the last quarter moon, that is, in the second half of the night, when the average person is most likely to get sleepy, it is the time when the moon is at its brightest. To touch it, you have to ride the time when the sun has set and the moon has not yet risen. It's just that it wasn't dark for long during that time, and most of the sentries on the night vigil hadn't been sleepy. So you need to be extra careful.

Taking advantage of the darkness, Etuhun took Sitku and a few other soldiers to quietly touch Niuzhuang Fort. They had come from the north, so their figures would blend into the dark earth and would be difficult to spot, but the sentinels were standing on the walls, with the sky as the background, which was much easier to see. Of course, Etuhun knew that Haikou might still have an ambush army, but he had to be extra careful.

However, there were no ambush troops along the way, and a few people just touched a place not far from the trenches and strange rope loops of those "pirates". Etuhun suddenly stopped, he stretched out his hand behind him, and several people immediately half-crouched down. In the faint starlight, I saw Etuhun stretch out his hand and touch it under one foot for a while, but he found a black thing.

"There's thistle terrestris on the ground." Etu touched it, leaned into the ears of several people, and said in a low voice.

Tribulus terrestris on the ground was apparently part of the defenses. Just now, Etu Hun stepped on an iron thistle. The sharp thistle immediately pierced the sole of his shoe, making a cut in his foot. However, Etu Hun was very hard, and although he was hit suddenly, he didn't make a sound at all.

Several people half-squatted down, reached out and touched the surroundings, and then touched a few more thistles. On this dark night, it is almost impossible for the thistle terrestris, which is already painted black, to be seen by the naked eye. But this did not stump a few people, they changed the way they walked, and when they walked, they did not really lift their legs, but only kept their feet slightly off the ground, so that they would not be pricked by thistles.

A few people slowly touched the front of the rope loop that stood up to resist the horse. There was a very wide, but not too deep trench in front of the "rope circle to reject horses", and several Manchu scouts knew that this kind of trench was not for stopping people, but its main role was to stop the shield carts that might exist. At this time, the moon had already risen a little in the east, and although it was not too bright, it could barely let a few people see some details of the "rope circle rejecting horses" in front of them. This "rope loop rejection horse" is not really a rope loop, but a wire that is thinner than chopsticks. It's wire, it's made of iron! Sitku reached out and touched it, feeling the coldness of a metal that the wire carried.

"These pirates are really rich, and they even use iron wire to reject horses!" Sitku thought, and noticed that the circular wires were full of sharp barbs. The barbs weren't long enough to pierce the cotton armor commonly used by the Eight Banners, but Sitku knew that if someone hit it, even if the cotton armor could block the spikes, the spikes would hang on the "wire rejection" and immobilize him. And then...... Sitku looked at the blackened Cowtown Fort in the distance, and couldn't help but think: "Thirty paces behind these two layers of 'wire rejection' is a trench and a low wall. The pirates hid behind with their cannons and birds, and opened fire on those who were held back by the horses. With such a salvo, it is extremely difficult to pass such an obstacle. If there is no way to crack it, just this layer of wire rejects the horse, I don't know how many people will be used to fill the Tao! ”

Etu Hun touched it, put his mouth to Sitku's ear and said, "Let's see if I can get a piece of it down and bring it back to the masters." ”

Sitku nodded, pulled the dagger from his lap, grabbed a wire in one hand, and reached through it, trying to cut it back. It's just that this wire is very elastic, and it really can't be cut at once. On the contrary, his actions touched many bells, large and small, hanging from the barbed wire.

There was no wind at this time, and as soon as the bell rang, there was a shouting from that side. Before he could react, he saw several torches flying over, and a pile of firewood that had been poured with fierce oil was immediately ignited. In the firelight, the figures of several people immediately appeared.

As soon as the fire lit up, Etu knew that something was wrong. He immediately shouted, "Hurry up!" Ignoring the pain of his wounded foot, he ran away from the fire.

The others followed and ran into the darkness, and just then, a burst of gunfire came from behind them.

The Marines who were on guard at night used rifled guns, so their shooting accuracy was much higher than that of ordinary flintlock guns. Therefore, when shooting, you can get a good hit rate by no longer relying on salvo shots. The time for a few Qing soldiers to be exposed to the fire was actually very short, so there were not many marines who reacted and shot at them, but just a few shots hit three Qing soldiers and put them on the ground. These Qing soldiers did not die immediately, but only wailed loudly in pain.

Sitku also didn't care about these defeated Qing troops, he knew that he couldn't save them. If you are hit by a pirate shotgun, if you are hit in the torso, it is almost a dead end. Even if you don't die at the time, it is impossible to take out all the broken lead bullets in this era, and those who are shot will die of lead poisoning sooner or later. Of course, maybe he should do those guys a little bit and give them a knife. It's just that the place where those people fell was under the light of the fire, and he didn't dare to go into the firelight.

At this time, some torches were thrown from the "pirates", and more fires were ignited. And the moonlight is getting brighter and brighter. Ignoring the thistles on the ground, Setku spread his legs and ran in the direction he had set out.

After only a few steps, Sitku felt a pain in his foot, apparently he had stepped on thistles, but he continued to run without hesitation, and soon disappeared into the darkness.