In the backyard of the Yu family's mansion, there is a semi-independent two-story building, which is quite common in the backyard of the wealthier people in the Ming Dynasty, usually used for the master's lady or concubine and other important female dependents to live, upstairs to live the master's daughter, downstairs is the servant maid. Since this small building is the commanding height of the entire mansion, the Du family's uncles and nephews put their residences downstairs in the small building, and after they were defeated, they fled to this small building with a dozen or so subordinates, preparing to fight to the death here.

"Come on, quickly arrest that old man for me, Lao Tzu is going to kill him alive!" Du Guoying, who was naked, shouted with grinning teeth, his right shoulder was already swollen, and it was estimated that even if he didn't break his bones, he wouldn't need it for a while.

"Wait!" It was Du Ruhu who spoke, and he made a gesture to let the bewildered soldier retreat, saying, "Don't you think this village is a little strange? Those fools should be Qi Nantang Qi Shaobao's mandarin duck formation, the thick branches are wolf stalks, the door panels are long cards, the use of pitchfork flails is short soldiers, and the stones thrown are bird guns and three-eyed guns. But even in the army, this is a secret passed down by word of mouth, how can it be spread to a mountain village? ”

"Qi Shaobao? Mandarin duck array? Uncle, you read that right? Du Guoying was stunned for a moment, and almost forgot the serious injury on his shoulder. It turned out that it had been more than 40 years since Qi Jiguang's death, and Qi Jiguang was one of the very few military generals in ancient China who had both military talent and good cultural accomplishment and writing ability, so he was able to leave behind such highly operational military works as "The New Book of Discipline and Effectiveness" and "The Actual Record of Military Training". But the speed of information dissemination in ancient society is far from imagining in modern society, these military works also belong to confidential materials, although the Du family's uncle and nephew already belong to the middle-level officers of the Ming army, but still belong to semi-literacy, naturally I have not seen these two books, for the famous mandarin duck array only from the mouth of the robe Ze heard some details of the troop arrangement, the equipment used, and the most important thing is how to allocate troops, the specific tactical changes on the battlefield do not know anything.

"I was born late, and I have never seen Qi Shaobao's martial arts, but when I was a hundred households, I had an old man who always came from Xuanda Town, but I once mentioned some anecdotes about Qi Shaobao at the wine table!" Speaking of this, Du Ruhu frowned, and his face showed a look of trying to recall: "There should be no mistake, there are other falsehoods, that wolf is Qi Shaobao's only family, there is no semicolon!" ”

"Isn't there Yu Ze of Qi Shaobao in this village? No wonder it's so difficult! Why don't we stick to this small building with firearms and wait until dawn to see clearly before making a claim? Du Guoying's face showed a solemn look, no wonder he is so, Qi Jiguang is not the only famous general in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but if you talk about the essence of military training, the sharpness of the equipment, and the magic of using soldiers, it is unparalleled, since he successfully trained in Zhejiang in Jiajing 38 years, hundreds of battles of all sizes have not tasted defeat, and each battle is beheaded thousands, their own side is only dozens of dead and wounded, although he has passed away for decades, but in the ears of the Ming army soldiers is still very prestigious.

"I'm afraid the enemy won't let us wait until dawn, don't you think we've been constrained step by step from the beginning? I'm afraid we fell into that trap in the first place. ”

As if to confirm Du Ruhu's speculation, a shout came from outside the window at this time: "You are in a desperate situation, you haven't handed over the hostages, you are bound and waiting, Bao Er and others will not die." If you don't comply, you will be burned later, and you won't regret it! As if to confirm his threat, before the words fell, several torches were raised from the outside, and with the help of the firelight, it could be seen that there were already four door panels more than twenty steps away from the small building, and there were rare figures shaking behind the door panels. Du Guoying was furious when he heard this: "The dog thief is bullying people too much, come on, quickly pull the Franc machine to the window, and wait for a little color to see!" ”

"Wait!" Du Guoying stopped his subordinates and whispered to Du Guoying: "This Franco machine only has three shells in total, how many people can be killed?" This little building is made of pine wood, and if they are provoked to attack us with fire, how can we live? ”

"Uncle, what should I do then? You can't really be caught as they say, right? ”

"Then there is no need, send someone over to talk to them, you will know where their leader is, raise the fire as a trumpet, and then use the furlong machine to fight." Du Ruhu looked at the figure outside, and said to himself: "It's strange, our position is high, so the smoke is a lot thinner, and we can bear it, why are they not afraid of choking people with smoke in low places?" ”

"Hell knows!" Du Guoying is too lazy to care about these things now: "Uncle, who do you think is good to send?" “

"Just let that Du Gu go, this guy has met with that group of people, and he is also a familiar face, so it's better to make a mistake."

Hearing Du Gu's name, Du Guoying's face immediately became gloomy: "It's okay, I originally wanted to kill this fool alive, so I gave him a chance to make meritorious contributions!" “

In the courtyard, Liu Cheng and Huineng are directing their subordinates to remove the clay pots filled with rosin hidden in the shadows, and everyone's faces are covered tightly with cloth towels, which are soaked with water, and they are also wrapped in crushed charcoal, which can play a considerable role in filtration. Before leaving, Liu Cheng asked the villagers to put a small amount of sulfur rosin in dozens of temporarily collected clay pots, and hid these clay pots in the hidden place of the house, which originally belonged to a large family, in order to prevent bandits to build a tunnel, the previous two villagers entered the house from that tunnel, lit the rosin to force the rebels to open the door.

"Master!" A young man ran over and said excitedly: "Someone came out of the building, saying that he wanted to see our leader, can you see it?" Finally, he added: "I know that man, the thief who was brought to the village by you, master." ”

"Dugu?" Huineng frowned and asked Liu Cheng, "What are these thieves up to?" To see or not to see? "Unconsciously, Huineng has given up the position of leader.

"It doesn't hurt to see you! Maybe I can get something out of that guy's mouth. Liu Cheng smiled and played with the three-eyed gun in his hand, which is a unique firearm of the Ming Dynasty, three bamboo-like iron guns are packed together, after the gunpowder and the gun are loaded, they can be fired by lighting the fire rope or knocking on the fire cap at the tail, and the tail also has a long or short wooden handle, which can be used as a blunt weapon such as an iron rod or war hammer after firing.

"Bring him up!" Huineng said in a deep voice, he looked at Liu Cheng, who was indulging in the real Ming Dynasty firearms he saw for the first time, and asked carefully: "Look at Brother Liu like this, could it be that he has seen this kind of firearms before?" “

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng nodded subconsciously: "This thing can be heard at a distance, field combat is not good, defending the city is not bad, the shooter does not need to risk the danger of the enemy shooting to poke out his head to aim, and he can also be used as a hammer, but it is still not as good as a bird's gun, that is the weapon of the militarism." ”

"Brother Liu knows a lot about military affairs?" Huineng asked cautiously: "Could it be that the ancestor is the general?" ”

"Where, where!" Liu Cheng realized that he had missed some words, and hurriedly smiled and covered it up: "It's just some skin, I used to read a lot of miscellaneous books in the temple, just a few nonsense!" ”

"I see, Brother Liu is really knowledgeable!" Huineng nodded, but there were four words clearly written on his face - "Ghosts don't believe it." Liu Cheng lowered his head a little embarrassed, avoiding Huineng's gaze. At this time, Du Gu had already been brought up, compared to the first time he was captured, the arrogance of this person had long been gone, and he knelt on the ground and kowtowed three heads seven or eight steps away from Liu Cheng and Huineng, before he stood up and bowed and said: "The villain sees the two zhangpan (the name of the bandit leader in the middle and late Ming Dynasty)!" “

"Boss?" Liu Cheng was stunned when he heard this, and Huineng on the side explained in a low voice: "I'm afraid that this guy will treat us as strongmen on the road." “

Liu Cheng almost couldn't help laughing out loud when he heard this, but when he thought about it, this misunderstanding was beneficial to him, so he pretended to be quite majestic: "Now that you are in a desperate situation, why don't you hand over people quickly, surrender with your hands tied, and send you over to do something, could it be that there is some conspiracy that cannot be achieved?" ”

Du Gu's mood at this time was very complicated, he was sent before he was sent because he fell into a trap and led himself into a trap and was scolded by Du Guoying, and was sent to undertake this almost mortal task, and when he came, he remembered the wonder of Liu Cheng's "spell" along the way, and his heart was worried and afraid. As a result, Liu Cheng inadvertently revealed his true purpose (delaying time), and a thought flashed in his heart - "It's over". As soon as his knees weakened, he knelt down again, and shouted while kowtowing: "Shangxian is merciful, Shangxian spares my life, I was forced, everything has nothing to do with me!" ”

"Hurry up!" Liu Cheng saw that Du Gu suddenly seemed to be upset, and hurriedly asked someone to pull him up, seeing that this person's face was full of tears, the previous wound on his forehead was cracked again, and blood gushed out, his heart couldn't help but soften, and he instructed others: "Take him down and clean and bandage the wound on his forehead again." ”

Du Gu thought that his life could not be guaranteed this time, but he didn't expect to be treated like this, and his heart couldn't help but warm, and when he came back to Liu Cheng a few minutes later, Du Gu's psychology had undergone subtle changes.

"Say whatever you want!" Liu Cheng changed his posture to make himself sit more comfortably on the chair.

"Two in charge! The villain has something to tell! Du Gu gritted his teeth and pointed to the small building not far away: "There is also a Furlong machine on the small building!" ”

"What?" Liu Cheng couldn't help but be shocked, in order to prevent the birds on the small building, the location he chose was located in a small ear room at the corner of the wing room on the left, and the window was blocked with two door panels, which could be described as airtight. But this kind of artillery is different, the small building controlled by the rebels is the commanding height of the entire courtyard, and the entire house is within its fire control range, and the door panels and tiles cannot block the shells.

"Rest assured! The thieves only had three shells, and they couldn't see clearly at night and didn't dare to fight indiscriminately. Speaking of this, Du Gu groped under his crotch for a while, took out a small bamboo tube, and presented it with both hands:"

The leader let the villain come to the two, and then he sounded the torch, threw it out the window, and instructed the gunner to bombard it with a furron. ”

"Feelings, this is a signal flare!" Liu Cheng weighed the bamboo tube with a strong sulfur smell twice, and a layer of cold sweat couldn't help but break out on his forehead, the thief in the building was not a straw bag, if it weren't for the mistakes in the link, he was afraid that he wouldn't know how he died when he saw Lord Yama. Liu Cheng looked at Du Gu who was kneeling on the ground, and asked in a low voice, "Why are you telling me this!" ”

"The villain doesn't want to die, if he throws this bamboo tube out of the window, even if he is not killed by the cannon, I am afraid that he will die under the knife. And you are a kind-hearted person who deserves to be killed by shelling! ”

"Then you don't hate me when I used a trick to lure you to the village?"

"The two armies are facing each other, naturally they are deceitful and do everything they can, and the weak-minded and short-witted man is defeated, he is incompetent, what do you hate you for?" Du Gu replied: "It's ridiculous that the leader of my family doesn't blame himself for being stupid, but blames me for being the one who led the talk." “

"Oh, I see." Liu Cheng nodded, the meaning of the other party's words was quite interesting, he smiled slightly and asked, "Then tell me how it was arranged over there?" Liu Cheng pointed in the direction of Xiaolou.

"First bombard, and then the rest of the people in the building will take advantage of the chaos to kill your head. As long as you kill your leader, all that remains is a rabble, and there are no more people to fear! “

"Amitabha, sure enough, it's a peck and a drink." Hearing this, Hui Neng on the side smiled and said, "If it weren't for Brother Liu, you treated people with kindness, how could you get this blessing?" “

"The great monk laughed, how do you know that it is not the blessing you get from chanting the scriptures and reciting the Buddha on weekdays?" Liu Cheng was in a very good mood at this time, and joked casually.

"The gods and Buddhas are just clay puppets, they can't take care of themselves when water and fire come, how can they still give people blessings?" Huineng sneered: "The will of heaven is far away, and the one who recites the scriptures and reiterates the Buddha all day long must be a thief who deceives fools and foolish women." ”

On the small floor, the Furlong machine had already been moved to the window, and the sub-medicine fire rope was assembled, waiting for the scheduled signal. The uncle and nephew of the Du family stood sideways by the window, staring intently for the scheduled signal. I don't know how long it had been, but the sky outside had become faint, but the fog in the mountains was still as thick as milk, obscuring their vision.

"Could it be that the torch was found? Or did Du Gu Na be timid and temporarily change his mind? One question after another flashed in Du Guoying's mind, and they disappeared one by one. He knew very well that there were many flaws in this plan, but at this time he had no choice. Du Guoying closed her eyes slightly and prayed in a low voice.

"Firelight! Right there! A few excited voices made Du Guoying open his eyes suddenly, and sure enough, a slightly green fire rose not far away, which was unique to the flare. He hurriedly beckoned his men to aim the muzzle of the cannon in the direction of the fire, and lit the arquebus. With a loud bang, a ball of flame erupted from the muzzle.