At this point, Tartu knew in his heart that as a commander, he had nothing left to do, and unless Bahai could arrive within a quarter of an hour, the only fate that awaited him was to be chopped to pieces and thrown into the wilderness. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info But this determined old warrior was ready to accept his fate, he took up his shield and saber, and walked out like an ordinary soldier. At this time, there was already a slaughter in the round array, and the Jurchen soldiers who had lost their formation and order were torn into seven or eight small pieces and besieged from all sides. Axes, bones, rusty machetes slashed at their helmets and necks, and a dozen beggars who were on horseback and shooting arrows around the perimeter also lowered their bows and arrows, and frantically drove their ponies into the crowd, brandishing axes and blunt weapons and slashing. The woods on both sides of the road poured out fur-clad warriors, clad in animal skins, and their hearts thirsted for the blood of their enemies like wild beasts. Their howls overwhelmed the groans and begs for mercy of the dying, and in desperation the Eight Banners were soldiers dropping their weapons, some trying to flee into the woods, some falling to the ground pretending to be dead, and some were stupid and standing there with pale faces, some pleading to the slaughterer. One of the archers, visibly frightened, smiled and tilted his head and spun in place as if there was something strange in the sky. A beggar charmingly crushed his head with a bone. At this moment, death reigned here, and even the wind stopped.

At this time, Bahai finally arrived, and he was greeted by a miserable scene, the infantry and a handful of cavalry had been reduced to nothing, only a handful of men were still resisting, and from time to time there was the sound of a small group of men and horses fighting in the woods, and from time to time there was an oozing cry, which was the voice of desperate people before they died. Bahai gritted his teeth, kicked the horse's belly twice, and rushed towards the battlefield where the handful was still resisting.

The beggar glamorously spotted the group of latecomers, and began to shoot arrows at the cavalry who were charging towards them, but they were too close, and the cavalry had armor, and the arrows did not do much damage to them. The Jurchen cavalry rushed into the crowd of beggars, slashing with their swords, and a corpse lay in front of their horses, forcing the beggars to retreat. The front row of beggars was exhausted from such a long battle, and many of them were wounded and bleeding. But they could not step aside to rest, because the formation was too dense and their leader lacked experience in fighting cavalry. Soon, their formation became more and more chaotic, and this confusion was exacerbated by the Jurchen warhorses, neighing, kicking, and trampling, forcing the beggar charms to retreat.

Finally, the beggar turned his vest and fled in front of the Jurchens, Bahai didn't care about the pursuit, he was more concerned about the life of his deputy. He jumped off his horse and rushed to the densest concentration of corpses, which was also the core of the circle, and rummaged through the corpses to see if he could still get Tartu out. When he was confronted by Tartu from under a beggar corpse, he hurriedly probed his nose to make sure he was still alive, and then hurriedly dug Tartu out of the pile of corpses, undressed his armor, and examined his wounds.

"You should have fled alone with the cavalry!" This was the first sentence of Tartu's wake-up, and Bahai laughed: "How can this be, leave your companions and run away, this is not a real heroine!" ”

"I'm just a Sauron!" Tartu gasped twice: "And it's too unsafe here, you should go back to Ningguta as soon as possible and tell the commander about the affairs here!" ”

"There's no shortage of effort for a while!" Bahai said with a smile while tearing off his shirt to bandage Tartu's wounds: "Besides, I have beaten these barbarians away, and their courage is broken!" ”

As if to refute Bahai's words, a row of sharp bird guns sounded not far away, and the two of them looked up in surprise, only to see a row of sharp spear tips emerging from the forest—these twelve-foot spears were held in the hands of a row of foot soldiers wearing iron skulls and iron armor, and behind these foot soldiers were several rows of guns, these mysterious soldiers wore camouflage grass rings on their helmets, and the white smoke diagonally above them and the pungent smell of gunpowder in the air proved that none of this was an illusion.

"What's going on!" Bahai stood up and hissed and shouted, his mind was already in chaos, and the huge frustration made him feel unreal.

The beggar charm, who had just been defeated, returned, and they lined up in loose formation, standing on either side of the spearmen and gunners, forming a loose encirclement. Less than a third of the Jurchen cavalry remained in the encirclement. These last gunners hid in the dense forest, and when the Jurchen cavalry pursued the beggars, they suddenly fired a volley, and when the frightened cavalry tried to rein in their horses to observe the enemy, the spearmen in a horizontal line rushed out and stabbed the horsemen who had lost their speed from their horses.

"Anything can happen on the battlefield, it's all over!" Tartu stood up with difficulty, and a wry smile appeared on his resolute face: "Sure enough, I guessed correctly, there is a person behind the scenes who is manipulating all this, but unfortunately we can't tell the Lord Commander in time for this news!" ”

"Kill them all, and give me the commander's head!" Outside the encirclement, Acton looked at the remnants of the encirclement contemptuously and waved his hand.

Ningguta

"Bahai and they haven't come back yet?" Anti-Ba (the Manchu word for "big" can also be extended to "vigorous", strong) asked impatiently.

"No, not yet! Maybe there was a delay on the way, or maybe the tribute was more than expected, and the walk was slow! Goshha replied carefully, the Archon is not a very patient person.

"Impossible, it's already seven days later than scheduled, and several other teams have also been delayed!" Amba reached out and grabbed a few walnuts from the plate, and crushed them with a rattle, although he was in his fifties, his hands were still as strong as iron tongs. "Someone else can, but Tartu won't, he's been here for almost thirty years, and he knows better than anyone how dangerous this is!" Speaking of this, he threw the leftover walnuts back on the plate in annoyance, and shouted: "Quick, send someone to find out, I have a sense of foreboding." ”

Thanks to the literary prison of the Manchu Dynasty, Ningguta was like thunder in the ears of Han intellectuals in later generations. However, in the first half of the 17th century, Ningguta was just a deserted town whose name could not be found on the map of the Ming Army. However, for the Later Jin regime, Ningguta still had special significance - according to legend, the six sons born to Nurhachi's great-grandfather Fuman once lived here, and it was named after it (the six tones in Manchu are Ninggu, and each is a tower, hence the name Ningguta); Moreover, it is also the hometown of Bohai Country and the former site of Longquan Mansion in Shangjing; Whether it is from the Bohai Sea-Jin-Houjin vein; Judging from the line of the development of the Aixin Jueluo family, Ningguta can be said to be the "land of dragon prosperity" in Houjin.

But for the post-Jin regime, in addition to the political symbolism, Ningguta also had two very practical interests: obtaining resources such as mink and ginseng, and replenishing soldiers. Mink and ginseng were among the few commodities that could be exported to the Ming Dynasty by the Later Jin, and the distant war with the Ming required continuous investment of fresh lives. Therefore, in addition to the normal tasks of protecting the northern frontier and appeasing the barbarians, the guards of Ningguta also have these two more responsibilities. But like all generals in non-major battles, Amba, as the commander of Ningguta, is in a forgotten corner - and when it comes to allocating resources, he is always at the end of the line, and only the unlucky and nowhere to go are kicked here, Bahai is a prime example. Born in the Blue Flag, he had a bright future, but unfortunately his family was a relative of Mang Gurtai's eldest son's wife, and after Mang Gurtai's death, his family was also implicated, and as a result, he was kicked to Ningguta, a place where birds don't.

For Amba, he doesn't care about Bahai's background, anyway, there is always something to do here, and manpower is always in short supply, he needs every pair of hands that can draw a bow and swing a knife. It seemed to him that the young man, though his heart had not yet been settled, was a good embryo, and that it would be good if he had experienced it twice, so he sent his most capable veteran, Tartu, as his deputy, to carry out the safer task of collecting mink—summer was safer, food could be found everywhere in the forest, and it was easier to deal with the charming beggars who could eat their bellies. But now it seems that he is a little careless.

Antiba walked to the window and looked down. The height of twenty meters makes the pedestrians on the ground look much shorter, and the entire Ningguta City is about six miles around, and it takes at least 1,500 people to defend, but the entire force under his command is only 1,000 cavalry and 1,200 infantry, and these soldiers are scattered in more than ten city fortresses, and there are less than 1,000 people in Ningguta. The only reason why the situation can be controlled is that the beggars spend their main energy on cannibalism, but what if the situation changes?

"Someone, someone!" Ambar suddenly stopped and shouted loudly, and a moment later a Goshha pushed the door in, saluted, and asked, "My lord, what is the matter?" ”

"You immediately send people to Namdulu and Suifen, and let the people and horses of these two places gather in Ningguta!"

"To Ningguta? What about the two places of Mudulu and Suifen? Goshha asked in surprise, Namudulu and Suifen are the largest strongholds of Houjin in the Heilongjiang River valley except for Ningguta, with a total of about 700 people.

"Only give up, let them come as soon as possible, and set fire to the baggage that can't be taken away!" Amba's expression became more and more worried: "The situation is not good, very bad, I hope my order is not too late." ”

Goshha was frightened by the look on Amba's face, he bowed slightly, he quickly turned around and pushed the door out, Amba could clearly hear the hurried footsteps coming from outside the door, he walked to the window, looked into the distance, and whispered to himself: "It's not too late to hope!" ”

Amba's sigh was answered four hours later, when he was busy carrying all the necessary materials to defend the city onto the walls: bundles of arrows, bags of dirt to fill the gaps, bundles of firewood, buckets of grease, and so on. A pale-faced Goshha ran quickly from the road and shouted in a trembling voice: "Great, great! ”

"What's wrong?" Amba's gaze shifted from Goshha's face to a basket held by his subordinates, covered with a sable skin. Amba snorted dissatisfiedly, and untied the mink, and his breathing stopped all at once.

There were two human heads in the basket, and the mouths of the human heads were stuffed with ginseng, but Bahai and Tartu could still be seen. Amba's breathing became rapid, but he controlled his emotions and re-covered the basket with the mink, asking, "Where did it come from?" ”

"On the stake at the gate of the city, two beggars were charmingly delivered!" Goshha's voice trembled a little: "And they say, and say—" At this point, the Goshha stopped and lowered his head.

"Say what?" Antigua's voice was shockingly calm.

"Say you're going to drink in your room in Ningguta for ten days!"

"Good!" Amba sneered: "Then let's see if they have such a good amount of alcohol!" He wiped his hands and turned to walk towards the city. Nagoshha hesitated for a moment and asked, "My lord, what should I do with this basket?" ”

"Baskets?" Amba turned his head and looked at the basket, and after a moment he said, "Just put it at the head of the city, at least let everyone see what will happen if we lose." ”

That Goshha didn't know where he got the courage, and said loudly to Amba: "My lord, we can't lose, and the reinforcements of Namudulu and Suifen should arrive the day after tomorrow!" ”

"Reinforcements?" Amba glanced at Nagoshha, as if he was looking at a fool: "There will be no reinforcements, we can only rely on ourselves!" ”

Andaba had eaten his supper at the head of the city, like all the soldiers, the broth and the coarse, hard cakes, and he watched as the western sky turned blood-colored bruises, but the cobalt blue on the top of his head gradually darkened and turned purple, and then the stars came out. He sat between the two battlements, and not far away stood four or five of his own soldiers, it was already late at night, but he did not have the slightest sleep, and the past rushed to his heart, from his first hunting, the first girl, the first time he went to battle, the first time he became a father, the first time he killed the enemy. Suddenly, a thought flashed through Amba's mind - maybe this was his last battle.

Suddenly, there was a small sound in the wind, and Amba realized that the enemy had arrived, and these beggars were the best stalkers, and in the forest they could even get close to elk, which were known for their vigilance. But Antigua and Barbuda have been living on this land for more than fifty years. He made a gesture to his own soldiers, and lowered his voice: "The barbarian has arrived, wake everyone up!" (To be continued.) )