Jiangnan in September is as changeable as Huangmei sky. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the dark night sky, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky, and torrential rain poured down.

The torrential rain obscured everything, and the mountains and fields were covered with the sound of "booming" rain.

The sky and the earth were shrouded in darkness and thunder and lightning, and the four fields were vast, and they could not see their fingers. Heavy rain causes the temperature in the mountains to drop rapidly, making people feel extremely chilly.

There were not many houses on the mountain, and a few lonely houses looked weak under the storm, as if they would be blown down by the wind at any moment.

In one room, there lived a family of four. The elder sister hugged her younger brother who was frightened by the thunder and shrunk in the bed, and the mother didn't care to comfort a pair of children not to be afraid, but hurriedly took a bucket to catch the water leaking from the roof, otherwise it wouldn't be long before the house was damp.

The man was not idle, and after setting up a bamboo ladder on the beams of the house, he climbed up cautiously, holding in his hand a bundle of dried straw that the house used to make a fire. The wind and rain outside were too strong for the man to go out, so he could only mend it inside the house and spend the night.

After a period of hard work, the three holes in the roof were finally blocked with straw, the man climbed down the ladder with a sigh of relief, and the woman took a towel to wipe her husband's damp body and complained about why he didn't ask someone to repair the house.

The man smiled, his wife's complaint was only heard, and after drying his face, he walked to the side of the bed and took a closer look, and when he saw that he was not damp by the rain, he couldn't help but put his mind at ease, pinched his son's little face, and told him not to be afraid, it was just thundering outside, not Ma Lao, who came to eat children. (Author's note: Ma Lao, a kind of ghost who eats children in the water in folklore)

"It's raining a lot, and it looks like it's going to fall until tomorrow. When the weather clears, I will go down the mountain to the town and ask someone to get it. The man walked up to his wife and whispered.

The woman nodded, but asked with some concern, "How much will it cost?" ”

"I don't have much money, I will repair it myself, save a salary, mainly the material money, no matter how cheap it is, it will have to be dozens of yuan."

As the man was talking, there was a sudden gust of wind, and the closed window was blown open by the wind, and the rain suddenly hit the house. The man hurriedly stepped forward to close the window, but when he reached out, he was stunned.

"What's wrong?"

The woman felt strange, and she looked outside, and there was nothing in the dark.

The man didn't speak, still stunned.

The woman was a little frightened, could it be that the husband called the ghost to hook the soul?

Just as he was frightened, there was another flash of lightning in the dark night sky. The moment the lightning flashed, the woman was stunned.

She saw that on the path leading to Gaochun County at the bottom of the mountain, there were many people walking.

"Yin soldier aisle!"

The woman's face was so frightened that there was no blood at all, and when she was a child, she had heard the old man say that there were armies fighting under this mountain in the past, and many people died. Later, every time it was windy and rainy, the people on the mountain would see that there was an army aisle at the bottom of the mountain. The old people said it was the ghosts of dead soldiers marching, but they didn't know they were dead and they were still fighting.

The woman was frightened, only to feel that her hands and feet were cold, and the whole person was about to collapse. The man turned his head sharply, made a gesture not to shout, and then whispered: "It's not a Yin soldier, it's a living person!" ”

Her husband's words emboldened the woman a little, and she dared to lean to her husband's side and look out, but the four fields without electric light were still pitch black and could not see anything.

The husband and wife just breathed and looked straight into the distance. When the lightning flashed through the sky again, the husband and wife saw the scene they had just seen - countless soldiers chased me from the path below the mountain to the east!

"It's not a yin soldier, it's a living person, listen, they're singing."

The man was sure that it was not some Yin soldier marching down the hill, but an army of living people, for he heard the song.

The woman listened with her ears pricked up, and sure enough, there was a faint singing voice from the bottom of the mountain.

"What are you singing?" Women don't listen carefully.

The man didn't speak, but listened quietly, and after a moment, his mouth opened slightly, and he said uncertainly: "It seems that what is forward, forward, forward, our team is facing the sun or something?" ...”

"With such a heavy rain, why are they still on the road, are they Qing soldiers?"

A woman is no longer afraid, and being afraid of ghosts does not mean that she is less courageous, because there is no cowardly woman who can live on this low mountain.

The man shook his head, he only knew that it was an army of living people, but he didn't know what it was.

"Sleep, don't look at it, what's there to see about the army passing by."

When the woman regained her composure, she felt that there was nothing to be afraid of, and nothing to be surprised about. The man wanted to watch for a while, but he couldn't resist his wife, so he had to close the window and go to bed to tease his children, but this was always strange in his heart, and he didn't understand why the army under the mountain was marching on this stormy day, couldn't they wait for the rain to stop before setting off?

.......

The mountain road is slippery and rugged, and you will fall if you step on the air, although this is only a hilly and low mountain, even if you fall, you will not be killed. But the dark night was a violent storm, and it was enough to choke if you really fell down, and it was impossible to climb up. Therefore, no one dared to be careless, and all the Anjun envoys and officers were scattered in the middle of the ranks, and they tied the physically exhausted soldiers to their bodies with ropes, and dragged them forward with the last bit of physical strength.

It has been a full eight days of rapid marching, and during these eight days, the Taiping army marching eastward has maintained a marching speed of eighty miles a day, and every moment, everyone is moving fast, and no one can move slowly. Most of the people are exhausted to the limit, and if they fall on this rainy night, they may never get up again.

Life and death together!

Zhou Shixiang is also in this team, as a marshal, he did not stay behind, nor did he ride a horse, let alone let people support him, but always advanced and retreated with his subordinates.

When thirsty, open your mouth to drink rainwater; When he was hungry, he grabbed a handful of raw rice on his back and chewed it while running with the rain.

Going east is a decision to sink the boat!

Zhou Shixiang was gambling, and the Qing army who bet on Nanjing could not have imagined that the Taiping army would march to Nanjing at such a fast speed.

If the bet wins, the southeast will change color.

With howling winds, thunder and lightning, no one would have thought that such an army was rushing towards Nanjing on this night.

After another thunderstorm, Zhou Shixiang opened his throat and sang the loudest song of this era in the face of the storm:

"Forward, forward, forward!

Our procession to the sun,

Stepping on the land of China,

Burdened with the hope of the nation,

We are an invincible force.

We are the sons of the Han family, and we are the sword of revenge.

From fearless,

Never give in,

Heroic battles,

Until the Hulu is wiped out! (To be continued.) )