readx;? Chapter 3: Cultivation (1)

"Cluck, cluck, cluck......" The winch of the bed crossbow slowly rotated under the combined force of the three oxen. Another rope hanging on the winch www.biquge.info pen & fun & pavilion moved backwards inch by inch, and the crossbow string made of cow tendons was also pulled by the iron hook on the rope, opening inch by inch. The two bow arms, placed opposite each other, gradually bent to form a perfect full moon.

The first person simply raised the teeth of the machine and hooked the crossbow string; the second person quickly placed a crossbow arrow the thickness of an adult's arm and a length of five feet into a special trench; the third person hung a wooden barrel weighing five catties on a specially made iron hook at the front end of the arrow shaft, and then pulled out a fire fold from his waist, shook it in the wind, turned around, and asked Li Shun, who was ten steps behind the ballista, for instructions on the next step.

Li Shun'er, who usually talks and laughs no matter who she meets, is like another person at the moment, with a solemn face. I saw that he first raised the thumb of his right hand, straightened his arm towards the cluster of crossbow arrows, and then followed the cluster of arrows, all the way forward, until it met the wall one hundred and fifty paces away. Suddenly, he shook his head and shouted, "Raise it, raise the pole up two fingers, higher, higher, yes, that's it, steady—"

The first two loaders leaned down and kept adjusting the "pole" at the tip of the bed's crossbow as he asked. The cluster of crossbow arrows quickly cocked upward, pointing far away at the roof of a small building behind the wall. Li Shun'er, who had a straight face, finally showed a smile at the corner of her mouth, and waved her right arm violently, and at the same time shouted loudly, "Ignition!"

The third loader quickly ignited a long, thin fuse under the barrel with a fire breaker. Li Shun'er, the commander of the fourth battalion of the left wing of the Cangzhou Army, picked up a huge wooden hammer with his own hands, rushed forward a few steps, and smashed the hammer on the mechanism behind the ballista. "Phew!" the mechanism fell, and the teeth that held the crossbow string quickly retracted. The bolts that had lost their bonds sharpened, and the arrows were five feet long, along with the sparkling barrels, into the fortress.

"Boom-" There was another loud bang. The bolts hit the eaves of the small building behind the wall, the barrel shattered, and the flammable materials mixed with sulfur and butter flew in all directions, and in the blink of an eye, the small building was shrouded in smoke.

"Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-"

The other four bed-crossbows nearby, under the command of Li Shun, also fired wooden barrels filled with flammable materials into the fortress. The red stars were scurrying, the smoke was billowing out, and the villagers, who had been waiting on the wall, screamed and ran around privately like headless flies.

"Whoosh Whoosh...... The descendants and nephews of several village owners used horned bows and rockets to launch a counterattack against the ballista. Their strategy was very appropriate, however, the distance between the ballista and the wall was beyond the range of the accurate shot of the horn bow in their hand. The hastily fired rocket, instead of bringing any damage to the ballista and crossbowmen, provoked a relaxed laughter, "Haha, shoot the bow and arrow at the bed crossbow, these turtles who have never seen the world!"

"With this little knowledge, I am really impatient to fight with our general!"

"Work hard, open the stockade and have a delicious dinner!"

"Open the stockade, open the stockade ......"

The officers and soldiers of the Cangzhou army laughed, drove the ox, and pulled the crossbow string again. Then quickly load the crossbow bolts into place, hang the barrel, adjust the shooting angle, light the fuse, and the whole set of actions is like flowing water.

Although they themselves were also transferred from Zhuang Ding, they completely crushed their opponents in morale, physical strength, weapon mastery, combat experience, and all other aspects related to the war. These, partly due to the abundant supply of money and food and high-intensity training, and partly due to the battlefield competition with the Youzhou Army. And the Zhuang Ding on the wall, the ordinary "battle" opponent is an honest neighbor.

"Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-" The second round of muffled thunder resounded inside the fortress again. More buildings were lit into torches, and more villagers lost control and fled from the wall with their weapons in tow.

Water and fire are ruthless, they must first go to see if their wives and children are safe, and then they can consider whether to continue to work for the owner of the village. As for whether the owner of the village can hold out until the moment they turn around and come back, it is completely out of their consideration. Anyway, when the owner of the village used them as coolies, he never gave half a penny.

"Stop for a while, raise the pole, raise two fingers, and send the barrel as far as possible!" One hundred and fifty steps outside the wall, the commander Li Shun'er roughly observed the effect of the first two rounds of crossbow arrows, and gave a decisive order.

This time, he did not fire the crossbow arrows himself, but guided the four ballista carts one by one, adjusted the angle and direction of the shot, and pointed the attack target to the same position.

The accuracy of the bed crossbow is actually very limited, and it is often better to concentrate on the same area than to use it alone. In the past confrontation with the Youzhou Army, Li Shun'er learned a lot. Although he is still a little afraid of death, he is no longer the little gangster who only knows how to fart. Even if he doesn't rely on Zheng Ziming's support, he can gain a foothold in any strong army in the world with his own skills alone.

Under his calm command, the ballista was quickly ready. The four commanders smashed the crossbow machine with their mallets at the same time, and the bowstrings tightened in an instant, firing four crossbow arrows and four smoking barrels into the air at the same time.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way——。 The fire can't be shot off at all!" Behind the wall, there was another cry of despair. The villagers, who were being forced by their generals to put out the fire, threw down their buckets and scoops and fled in all directions.

There is no point in continuing to struggle, it is better to surrender sooner. Most of the villagers did not give up any hope of victory. Before Zhujiazhuang, where they lived, there were already four or five fortresses that had been leveled by the newcomer Master Zheng with his men. Two of them are larger than Zhujiazhuang, and the walls of the village are also higher than Zhujiazhuang, but no one has ever heard of which village can be supported until dawn the next day under the attack of the Cangzhou army.

Usually more than two hours, at most three hours is the limit, no matter how strong the fortress is, whether the owner of the village chooses to go out of the field battle, or behind closed doors, the final result does not seem to make much difference. Zheng Ziming, who was killed from the foot of Taihang Mountain, seemed to be a natural demon. He always comes up with unexpected tactics to strike at those who dare to oppose him. And the castle owners and village owners, who usually seem to be powerful, are as weak as a toddler suckling pig in front of him. If you are gently pushed by him, you will fall to the ground!

"Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-" As if confirming the despair in the hearts of the villagers, four wooden barrels fell at the same time about twenty paces behind the gate of the village, and exploded one after another. A small warehouse used to store grain and grass was ignited, and the red fire snake jumped more than half a foot high in an instant.

A general surnamed Zhu, with more than 20 dead soldiers, rushed up to fight the fire. But it can't reduce the height of the flames by the slightest. Another general took his cronies around to catch villagers as coolies, but he caught this and ran away with that, and he couldn't muster enough manpower anyway. Just when they were busy, four more terrifying shadows appeared on the ground.

"Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-" "Boom-" Another string of muffled thunder exploded, the barrels shattered, and more flammable materials fell around the warehouse, lighting more fires. The villagers who had just been captured ran away screaming. The dead soldiers who sacrificed their lives to fight the fire also had to retreat in stride from the enemy. Before they could get away from the danger, a hot courtyard wall suddenly collapsed, burying the slowest dead soldiers directly in the fire.

"Help, help——!" A dead man with a broken leg leaned out of his body from under the broken wall and screamed loudly. No one dared to turn around and go back to save him, only the scarlet flames, constantly moving closer to him. In the blink of an eye, it completely devoured him and turned him into a torch emitting thick smoke.

"Get out, go out and fight with them!" The closed gate of the village was pushed open from the inside, and Zhu Long, the eldest son of the owner of Zhu Village, with a large number of uncles and brothers, roared and rushed towards the ballista.

Tao Dachun with two hundred archers had been waiting for a long time. The sound of a dense bowstring sounded, and it was noisy like a torrential rain. When the "sound of rain" disappeared, there was no longer a single person standing near the walled gate. The nephews and nephews of the lord of Zhu Zhai were shot like hedgehogs one by one, and they were full of feather arrows. Yuan opened his eyes and was out of breath on the spot.

The 1st and 2nd battalions opened the way with swords and shields and seized the gates. The third battalion followed up and controlled the key points in the village. The bow battalion was responsible for cover. The fourth and fifth battalions went in to crush the opponent's resistance. All auxiliaries, ready to put out the fire!" Zheng Ziming's voice suddenly sounded in the ranks of the Cangzhou army, sounding unusually calm, not waiting for the slightest excitement of the victor.

"No!" the commanders of the battalions agreed in unison, and then led the men and horses of the headquarters to quickly pounce on the four wide open gates.

Resistance is negligible, even negligible. Except for the owner of Zhujiazhuang and his descendants and nephews, the vast majority of the recruited generals and the Zhuang Ding who were forcibly conscripted into the army chose to surrender.

The prestige of the Cangzhou Army is prominent, and the name of benevolence and righteousness of the Cangzhou Army has long been spread in the four places. It is said that the defense makes the adults hate only those local tyrants and bullies who have colluded to try to give him a dismount, and will not spare them after being caught. For ordinary people, he and his subordinates did not commit any crimes.

Soon, the flag of the Cangzhou Army was erected on one of the tallest buildings in the center of the fortress. Guo Xin took two battalions of brothers to search the village repeatedly, arresting the cronies of the previous owner of the village and clearing the hidden dangers. Pan Mei skillfully organized auxiliary troops, buckets and water wheels, to control the fire in the stockade and prevent the entire stockade from being burned to a pile of rubble.

"Ziming, do you know what you're doing? If you continue like this, you can indeed quickly take the entire territory of Cangzhou, but you don't want to take another half a step outward!" Although the victory in front of him was brilliant, Han Chongyun did not have any joy on his face. turned his head, looked directly at Zheng Ziming, and asked in a low voice.

The advice he and Zhao Kuangyin gave to Zheng Ziming at the beginning was undoubtedly the most appropriate and worry-free. Unexpectedly, Zheng Ziming did not accept it, and for the sake of a person who should have died a long time ago, he killed all the heroes in Cangzhou.

In just half a month, as the forts have been leveled, families have been uprooted. Zheng Fang's reputation for being brutal and easy to kill quickly spread throughout Hebei. Indeed, in Cangzhou, no one will soon dare to create any obstacles for Zheng Ziming. Indeed, Zheng Ziming, the assassin and defense envoy, will be like a soil emperor. However, the wealthy families in the surrounding places must also be saddened by the death of rabbits and foxes, and then hate him Zheng Ziming to the core.

In those years, the people seldom left their homes forty miles apart from fleeing. A wealthy family is often the backbone of the common people in ten miles and eight towns. Their attitude towards Zheng Ziming will become the attitude of the people in the surrounding ten miles and eight towns towards Zheng Ziming. Their hatred for Zheng Ziming will inevitably spread to the hearts of every ordinary person in ten miles and eight townships.

A hero who has lost the hearts of the people, even if he occasionally makes achievements, it is difficult to go further. Han Chongyun firmly believes this, so he is worried about Zheng Ziming's future. Therefore, regardless of the irritation of his good friends, his words are admonished and reminded over and over again.

This time, the effect he received was no different from before. Zheng Ziming still looked at him a few times, and then said with a smile: "I have broken so many fortresses, and if I can't stop it now, the result will not be the same? As for the future, hehe, I think it's good to be a defender!"