Chapter 64: Miao Jun (I)

On August 15, in Baiqiling, Jiande Road, tens of thousands of Huguang mountain people wore dog head masks and worshiped the moon.

A few dark yellow bonfires, dancing on the top of the mountain, like stars in the sky, formed a long line of each other. The long, low sound of the horn, followed by the beating of the bonfire, echoed in the mountains, "woo-woo", like the souls of the ancestors calling, soothing the restless hearts on the hillside.

As if guided by the sound of a trumpet, golden moonlight spilled down from mid-air, illuminating the naked upper bodies of the mountain people, as well as the various bone ornaments hanging from their waists. Some of the bones are old, the surface is ground into a layer of dark black, it is difficult to distinguish their parts and sources, and some bone ornaments are flashing with a dazzling white, and the edges are faintly red.

The smell of rotting flesh is certainly not too good. The mountain people, however, did not find the smell of the white bone ornaments strange. Under the leadership of the priests at all levels on the hillside, they constantly worship the moonlight. The ornaments on the waists also collided with each other with their every movement, and the sound of "bang, bang, bang" kept ringing.

Suddenly, the high priest, who was sitting by the fire at the top, opened his eyes and pointed his cane at the halberd in the dense forest not far away. All the horns around changed to another rapid melody at this moment, "Woo woo, woo, woo woo - "

"Ahh Bears, wolves, leopards, tigers, and other predators, baring their teeth and claws into the jungle.

Several of the strongest mountain people who had been selected rushed up with a pitch-black buffalo in their arms. In front of a stone platform facing the forest, he fell to his knees. An elder with countless feathers sticking to his head and hundreds of beast teeth hanging from his neck rushed from the high priest's side, and the sharp blade of the guard stabbed forward, piercing the buffalo's heart right in the shoulders of the strong men.

"Moo-" The dying buffalo let out an extremely short moan. Immediately, the four hooves twitched, and hot blood gushed out along the knife edge. The strong men carrying the buffalo relied entirely on their own strength to control the buffalo's struggle. Keep the knife edge aimed at the full moon overhead.

In an instant, the gushing pillars of blood and the golden full moon painted an extremely strange picture in the mountains and fields. The mountain wind suddenly rose, blowing the blood pillar in mid-air to stagger, splashing in all directions. The scarlet mist of blood stained the moonlight, the sky, and every pair of confused eyes around it.

"Woo-woo-" The sound of the horn became long and desolate again, and the mountain people bowed to the full moon, and bowed again, and worshipped, and everyone's faces were extremely pious.

With the sound of the trumpet, the high priest slowly walked towards the buffalo, which had already died. Pick up another sharp knife, cut open the belly of the buffalo, take out the internal organs, and recite the words. After a while, he raised his head sharply and shouted a spell into the night sky that no one could understand, "Wow, hahaha, no, haha!"

"Wow, hahahaha, no, haha!" Wow, hahaha Wow, hahahaha, no, ha!" The other priests around him sang loudly at the same time. Holding all kinds of bone utensils, dancing around the fire.

"Knock knock, knock knock, knock knock!" The short drum beat exploded, "Dang dang dang, dang dang dang!" "The monotonous sound of gongs harmonizes. Then there are the sounds of horns, singing, chanting, and the resonance of the mountain night breeze blowing through the dense forest.

All the mountain people, as if drunk, twisted their bodies, shook their heads, and danced with their hands to the sound. In an instant, I forgot the moisture in the mountains, the appearance of my hometown, the robes of my brothers that I lost along the way, and the qiē I should have remembered, and in my eyes, only blood was as red as blood.

They originally lived in the mountains of Xiangxi and had little contact with the surrounding ethnic groups. But an edict from the Mengyuan court four years ago completely changed their lives.

They used to fish and hunt for a living, and they didn't know what war was. But Yang Zhengheng, the toast of Feishanzhai, raised his arms and exhaled, but they picked up all kinds of weapons and bid farewell to their hometown forever.

They did not belong to the same mountain, and they never considered each other to be of the same race. However, the number of carts of silk in the Mengyuan official mansion gave them a common name, "Miao Jun".

Those officials and old men didn't have the time to distinguish between the Miao people, the bureaucrats, the servants, the Dong Xi, the Wu Man and the Black Tooth, and they all gave them a name, Zhu Miao. Then let the patriarch and priests lead them to follow behind Yang Zhengheng, the Tusi of Yufei Mountain, and kill the mountains.

Kill from the mountains to the flatland, and then kill from the flat land to Wuchang City. Then follow the father and son of the Yang family and fight thousands of miles. Die a group, and recruit another group from the mountains of your hometown. Recruit a batch, die another batch, and recruit another batch

Over the years, the "Zhu Miao" have used their own blood to extinguish the fire of resistance everywhere in Jiangnan, and also used their own blood to dye the brocade robes on the father and son of the Yang family.

Yang Zhengheng, the official residence of Yang Zhengheng in Huguang Province, was killed in a "glorious" battle. His son Yang Tongguan was given the name Yang Wanzhi by the imperial court, from the volunteer soldier to the deputy marshal of the Huguang Huguang Xuanwei Division, to the Xuanhui envoy and hussar general in western Zhejiang, and the right man of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and his official position rose as quickly as the full moon in the sky. The price paid by the seedlings is that more than 60,000 young people died in battle, more than 10,000 young people disappeared, and more than 3,000 young people were blind, missing arms and legs, and survived on wild vegetables and wild fruits in the mountains.

However, the chiefs, the lords, the cave masters, and the priests said that this was an instruction from the gods. Only by following Yang Tusi's father and son and defeating all the enemies outside the mountains will the gods continue to bless them, let the grains in the fields grow smoothly, let the mother beasts in the mountains give birth to small beasts, and let the mountains and villages continue to multiply. Otherwise, the gods will condemn the heavens and cause wildfires to fall, and the earth to produce black water, and demons and monsters will walk among the mountains, and all the stockades will be crushed to the ground.

The "Zhu Miao" never disobeyed the will of the patriarch and the priests, they could only bury their partners who grew up together from childhood, pull out their knives from the corpses of their enemies, pick up bows and arrows from pools of blood, and continue to run around behind the Yang father and son. From Wuchang to Anqing, from Anqing to Xinzhou, from Xinzhou to Quzhou, and then from Quzhou to Jiande.

Jiande is mountainous, and the terrain is very similar to their hometown. The starry sky of Jiande is low, and the moonlight is bright, which is also very similar to their hometown. It's just that most of them can't go back.

They learned to scavenge from corpses during their years of warfare. In the course of their perennial campaigns, they learned to forcibly eat from the homes of the common people. They learned to deceive each other, betray each other, and be suspicious of each other. They followed behind Yang Wanzhi, the young master of the Yang family, and snatched the place they passed into a blank field. Then he laughed and walked away, not caring about the desperate eyes behind him.

Their purses are getting bigger and bigger, but their souls are getting heavier and heavier. They don't know when they're going to die, and they don't know when the days in front of them will come to an end?!

They were restless every day, eager to extinguish the anger in their hearts with the blood of their companions. They peeled off the whole bones from the corpses of the Red Turbans and made them into all kinds of ornaments and magic weapons, but they could not drive away the unjust souls behind them and let themselves be at peace overnight.

Only on the day of the full moon can they calm themselves down temporarily. On this day, the priests of each village and cave, as well as the high priest appointed by the imperial court, will hold a grand moon worship ceremony, offer sacrifices to the ancestors, and offer treasures to the gods in exchange for the protection of the ancestors and the gods.

When the moonlight sprinkled on their naked chests, each "Zhu Miao" felt as if they had been washed clean, and their bodies and souls became relaxed. Then, the next morning, they picked up their knives again, followed the patriarch and the priests, followed Yang Tusi's battle flag, and pounced on the next target.

"Brother, after this battle, can we go home?" Long after the mad ritual had ended, a weak voice sounded in the shadows somewhere at the foot of the mountain.

"It should be okay, listen to Kong Song's twine, if you win this battle, Yang Tusi will be promoted to the king of ten thousand mountains. He has become the king of all mountains, how can he not go back and take a look! Meng Dan, the ten-division commander known as "Elder Brother", opened his eyes and comforted him in a low voice in a way that the people around him could understand.

The king of all mountains was compiled by him casually. In fact, according to Kong Song twine, it should be the political affairs of Huguang Pingzhang. But Meng Dan doesn't think that there is anything to do in business, the bureaucrats belong to the mountains, and the countless mountains in his hometown are priceless. As for the plains and cities, they were the land of the Han and Mongols, and the people were not accustomed to living and did not know how to adapt to them.

"The statement of Kong Song twine may not be accurate. He still can't listen to Feng Nan's little gong! In the night, another old voice sounded faintly, and it was particularly depressing to the ears.

When the rest of the seedlings heard this, they immediately retorted, "Ada, what are you talking about? Kong Song's twine is not ordinary twine, he can speak the words of the Han people, and he also carried a sliding rod for Zhang Junshi! ”

"That is, he can walk around Zhang Junshi, and he must have heard more things than us!"

"Isn't it, Zhang Junshi knows how to divination, and he can calculate the location of the enemy army with a turtle shell!"

Xiaogong, Twine, and Brother are the people in power in the army. It is equivalent to a thousand households, a hundred households and ten captains on the government side. And the military advisor, in the mother tongue of the "Zhu Miao", has the same meaning as Chinese.

Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a wise military advisor named Zhuge who defeated the king of the mountains, and instead of bringing destruction to the mountains, he brought wheat seeds and hoes to the mountain people. Therefore, in the eyes of the mountain people, the military advisor is second only to the great toast and the high priest, and he has supreme authority in every word and deed.

Their current military advisor is named Zhang Yu, and he is said to be a peerless wise man. Not long ago, the clever plan of the gang to trick tens of thousands of Red Turban soldiers into the woods and burn them alive came from this person. Therefore, many recruits feel that this person has obtained the true inheritance of Zhuge Military Master and is omnipotent. Of course, what is said can certainly be fulfilled. (Note 1) However, in the eyes of the veteran Ada, the authority of his own military division has been greatly discounted. I saw him stretch hard, pouting and adding: "Military advisor, the Han man surnamed Zhang is also worthy?!" Outside Wuchang City, when Da Tusi ordered all their people to be buried alive, he was happier than anyone else when he saw it next to him! This kind of thing, which doesn't even know who his ancestors are, how much credibility does he have when he says it? It's not like a fart, let it go and forget it? (Note 2) Note 1: Zhang Yu, a great talent at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Yang Wanzhi, the leader of the Miao army, heard his name and hired him as a staff member. The military discipline of the Miao army was corrupt, and wherever they passed, they were "worse than the red scarves" to the local disaster. "Miao Man is fierce, killing and plundering every day, and he can't be cured"; "The Miao army has been undisciplined, wantonly plundered, and everything has been lost"; After the rebellion of Yang Wanzhi and Miao Jun in Jiaxing City, "two out of three people were burned in the city, and seven out of ten people were killed." But Zhang Dacai turned a blind eye to this. And every time he composes poems, he praises Yang Wan's world-class martial arts. After Yang Wanzhi was defeated, Zhang Yu went into hiding. Zhu Yuanzhang recruited him out of the mountain, but he thought that Zhu Yuanzhang was from a humble background and refused politely. Zhu Yuanzhang saw that he was old, so he said casually: "It's idle!" And he gave it back. Since then, Zhang Yu has called himself an idle old man, playing this Zhu Yuanzhang's "mouth", and swaggering around. Gao lived at the age of eighty-three and died without illness.

Note 2: The Miao army is not only the Miao people, but the Yuan Dynasty government called the Miao army to the mountain people of all ethnic groups who were recruited. Among them, Yang Wanzhi's combat power and destructive power are the strongest.