Heavy rain poured, with a majestic momentum to the earth, between the heaven and the earth a white mist, lightning and thunder in the air, this rain, as the first flood season since the beginning of the summer, affected the entire Shanxi and North Zhili, it seems that it will rain for a long time.

Between the vast mountains and mountains on the east side of Luliang Mountain, it is also shrouded in wind and rain, the forests are swaying in the wind, the rain falls on the leaves, and hits the ground, and seeps into the soil with dead branches and leaves, the moisture rises up, stubbornly takes off, and turns into mist wandering in the forest, so that the mountains are covered with clouds and mist, adding a bit of mystery.

The march in this weather was very difficult, and a strong force like the Eight Banners was also struggling, and had to stay in the prefectures and counties near Yanmen Pass, and the daily advance was a turtle speed.

Fifty miles west of the capital city of Xinzhou, in the dense forest, a horse galloped like a fly in the rain, the knight was dressed in a robe, wearing a bamboo hat, the black crossbow and scabbard on the waist glowed in the dark with the unique dark light of varnish, the rain hit the horse's head along the horse's momentum, and hit the knight like a bean, bursting out layers of ripple-like water droplets, but the knight's speed did not decrease, like a sword chopping waves in the heavy rain.

The horse's body was full of water, and he couldn't tell whether it was sweat or rain, and the air jets from his nostrils turned into white mist, floating in the rain, and the knight controlled the reins with one hand, and the bamboo hat was pressed very low, so that he couldn't see his face clearly, and the other hand pressed his abdomen tightly, and the inside of the coat was soaked by the oncoming rain, and the leather armor was white, and the new white paint was on.

Bright red blood slowly flowed out from his fingers, staining his white nails red.

The horse was still flying on all fours, shuttling between the trees, the knight's legs kept kicking the horse's belly, desperately raising the horse's speed to the highest, and the white mist sprayed out of the horse's nostrils became more and more, and it had reached the extreme.

Occasionally, the knight would look back sideways, and the face covered by the bamboo hat would be exposed to the light of lightning for a moment, his face would be rainy, and his eyebrows would be anxious, and the rough skin and red face characteristic of the Northwest man would be particularly obvious, and his expression would be distorted in pain because of the wound on his abdomen.

He had been listening attentively to the movement behind him, and he was also feeling the shaking of the ground, but even though the scout's senses were very sharp, in such a heavy rain, it was inevitable that it would be affected, and the sound of the rain covered everything, and he couldn't see or hear anything clearly from a foot away.

Therefore, when a wolf's tooth arrow cut through the water curtain from behind, and knocked countless droplets of water into his vest, he still didn't know that the muscles of his whole body were still tense, and he was concentrating on maintaining the best posture for riding.

The arrows were heavy arrows, and even the iron armor could break through, and the thin cowhide armor could not be stopped at all, and the arrows shot in from the back, through the chest, and the wound could accommodate two fingers to penetrate, and the blood soared.

A mouthful of blood spurted out of the knight's mouth, and the hand covering his abdomen reflexively touched the crossbow at his waist, and as soon as his fingers reached out, his eyes lost their life, his black pupils turned to ashes, and his burly body collapsed like mud, and fell weakly on the horse.

The horse, having lost the knight's grip, slowed down, and rushed out of the darkness behind five horses to catch up with them like a fly.

Light chain mail under the yellow smock, soft leather helmet on the head, longbow and saber, round shield flying axe, rope short spear hanging from the saddle, the standard equipment of the female real yellow flag scout can be seen in the five-person room.

The five men took hold of the horse and circled around the dead knight, who, as if he knew that his master was dead, hissed and stood silently gasping for breath.

Someone kicked him, and the fallen knight was kicked off his horse, and his coat was spread out, revealing his white armor.

"Sure enough, it's a Minggou scout, and he runs quite fast, if it weren't for our horsepower advantage, we almost let him run." Someone scolded, leaned down, and mended the corpse with a short spear.

"Take the horse back, take off his crossbow, and cut off his head." The leader said: "There are a lot of dog spies on this road, be careful, don't go out of the way!" ”

The other four agreed, dismounted, and after a while, the five disappeared into the rain again, the darkness covered the killing, and even the bloody gas in the air was quickly diluted by the rain.

Only a headless corpse was left behind, discarded deep in the woods.

Friction between scouts like this often occurs in heavy rain, sometimes the Ming army has the upper hand, sometimes the Qing soldiers get advantaged, and you come and go with each other, just like an appetizer before a meal, constantly from Ningwu and Daizhou to Taiyuan.

……

"Bump!"

Wang Huan and Ma Wannian worked together to lift a huge stone and put it on the wall with great difficulty.

The stone weighed 100 pounds, mined from a nearby mountain, and was not polished, but cut into a square shape by the quickest and roughest means.

Ma Wannian buried his head in grinding the stone to the correct position, Wang Huan raised his head, wiped a handful of water from his face, and looked at the rain curtain.

Tens of thousands of people were working around him, countless figures were running up and down the city, huge stones and logs were moved up and built on the city wall, the wall that had fallen into disrepair was heightened and reinforced, the blast holes for iron cannon shooting were reserved, and the city defense equipment such as arrows, wolf tooth rackets, rolling logs, and stones were piled up all over the ground.

Under the city wall, the ditches are as wide as a zhang, the sharp horses are placed between the trenches, and the sharpened branches are inserted on the side of the trenches, like hedgehogs, and two earthen walls up to half a man high are built in front of the wall and behind the trenches, and then a wooden fence is erected on the wall, and the wooden fence is composed of a tree trunk cut into a sharp shape, which is solid and firm, and there is a cannon hole on the wall, and the Furlong cannon can be easily erected on it.

In the middle of the wooden wall, there are three passages set aside, each passage is about one zhang and five feet wide, and extends back to the Shiling Pass gate and is one, the two sides of the passage are separated by wooden fences, if someone stands inside the earthen wall, shoots arrows into the passage through the wooden fence, or uses spears to stab, presumably the men and horses who rush hard will die ugly.

On the wall, facing the position of the passage, there is an iron cannon with a black hole facing this side, and the solid iron bullet has a straight trajectory, and a single bullet can plow a passage out of a bloody path.

The water droplets hit his face, one by one it hurt, and the water that had just been wiped off dripped down his eyebrows, Wang Huan had to wave his hand and wipe his face again.

"My lord, it must be very uncomfortable for the Tartars to rain so hard." Ma Wannian washed his hands in the heavy rain, snorted and said, "I guess it won't come soon, right?" ”

"It's hard to say." Wang Huan frowned, shook his head, and threw the water droplets on his head wrapped in white cloth everywhere: "If I were Dolgon, I wouldn't be frightened by this heavy rain." ”

After a pause, he added, "On the contrary, I will be happy." ”

Ma Wannian followed Wang Huan's example and shook his head: "Is it because of our firearms?" But we can't use it, and they can't use it either, and without firearms, will they attack the city? ”

Wang Huan looked out of the city, the mountains in the rain and fog were hazy, and the mountains on both sides seemed to extend their arms to the far distance.

"He can't afford to delay, and every hour that passes is a torment for him." Wang Huan patted the stone that had just been built, and the rain made the stone even colder, as wet as a bloody steel knife.

"He'll come before this rain stops."

(End of chapter)