"Just rest here." Jiang Huo called the shepherd Lao Li, who led the way in front of him, because everyone's foot strength was different, so the soldiers behind him had already stretched into a "long snake", supporting each other in twos and threes, struggling to climb the path up the mountain, and the tail of the team could not be seen at a glance.

Jiang Huo and the shepherd walked ahead, and thus took the lead to walk up to the top of the slope, and the ground was already flat. Seeing that the surroundings were open and there was shade to take advantage of, he immediately decided to rest here for half a day, not only to avoid the midday sun, but also to wait for the soldiers who had fallen behind to catch up.

The weather in May and June is a good season for pleasant weather. But the climate in the mountains is very different from the outside world, it is hot and dry from noon, and when the sun goes down, the temperature begins to plummet again, and it is cold and cold when you sleep.

The soldiers walked up to the top of the slope one after another, and each chose a shady place to rest. Slowly, they were placed in the queue, and the family members who were responsible for commanding the ordinary soldiers also gathered in front of Jiang Huo one after another, led by hundreds of households, and reported the details of the camp.

"Lord Commander, after our counting, there are seventy-nine fewer people today, counting those who were sick and left the team four days ago and escaped at night, a total of four hundred and eighty people are missing." He Qiu couldn't help but sigh after speaking, there were fewer and fewer soldiers, and the morale was low, and it was difficult to walk.

Jiang Huo and his men arrived at the boundary of Hunyuan, and according to the plan, they were led by a guide and led into the mountain from Tianfeng, which belongs to the main peak of Heng Mountain. As soon as Ran Fu entered the mountain, he received bad news, the mountain road of Tianfeng Ridge was blocked by rolling down stones due to the rain a few days ago, which caused a landslide.

The crowd had to turn around and go back, detouring dozens of miles away, and entering the mountain through the steeper Spear Peak neckline. In order to reach their destination within the predetermined time, Jiang Huo's troops had to travel more than 120 miles of mountain roads every day. Many of the soldiers couldn't bear it anymore and fled in the dark.

There is a large temperature difference between day and night in the mountains, and some soldiers are disobedient and use raw water without authorization, resulting in a high fever of wind and cold, and they can only be left in place.

"Give the order to go down, rest for an hour, and continue on your way."

Seeing that Jiang Huo did not express his opinion on the desertion and was anxious to continue his journey, He Qiu asked, "Why don't you let the brothers rest for a while?" They really can't walk. ”

"Jiang doesn't know the situation of the brothers, but you must know that if we are slow for half a day, Datong will have to follow for half a day." Jiang Huo spoke earnestly to the lower officials about the pain in his heart.

He Qiu committed stubbornness this time, like a soldier like him, he was closest to the soldiers on the way, so the soldier's every word and deed was in his eyes, if he continued to rush like this, the soldiers would all run away.

"I really don't want to contradict the chief soldier, but the brothers really can't hold on, if the people under him run out, what will we do to fight the Tartars?"

Between the words, the superiors and subordinates looked at each other, but they didn't give an inch, and insisted on asking the officials to take back the order. In the end, Jiang Huo made a compromise and allowed to rest for three hours, but he had to walk at night.

When the family members dispersed, the shepherd Lao Li came to Jiang Huo's side, handed over the water bladder in his hand, and Jiang Huo took it.

"Well, what do you think about being a soldier, you are also in rebellion, and you are the ones who turn around and rehabilitate, what are you trying to do?" Taking advantage of the time to drink water, Lao Li Tou pulled up his free days.

Jiang Huo couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this, as the saying goes, bandits are like combs, and soldiers are like grates. In the eyes of the common people, the reputation of being a soldier is even inferior to that of bandits, what kind of family and country feelings? Whoever comes is burning, killing and looting, and there is no difference between a nest of snakes and rats.

"Well, there are some things we don't understand." Jiang Huo felt the coolness of the tip of his tongue, but his heart was filled with bitterness.

"It's right to be confused, and if you are confused, your life is cheap, and God won't accept it."

"Let's hope so, how far do we have left?"

The shepherd, dressed in a small fur coat and leaning like a shrewd old hound, pointed around and replied, "The most difficult road has passed, go over there, go down the mountain and go out, and we will reach Linguan Village." ”

Jiang Huo nodded and listened silently, and he didn't know what the situation of Datong was now, whether my brother was okay, and Your Majesty was okay?

...........

"Help me up!" Chongzhen shouted at the soldiers beside him, and a cannonball slammed down on him, knocking him unconscious.

The Qing army organized several waves of offensives in two days, and in one fell swoop filled in the moat east of Datong. Subsequently, the ladder rushed to the car and other equipment one after another, and Hedu threw all the non-Manchu troops into the battlefield, intending to break the defense line of the East Gate.

Chongzhen held his head and saw that several soldiers were carrying a giant tree and wanted to throw it to the city, so he hurriedly stepped forward to help.

"Bring the oil here!" The giant tree fell down, smashing down the Qing army who were attached to the outer wall and climbing upward, and seeing that the black and dark under the wall were all thieves, Chongzhen hurriedly ordered the soldiers to bring fire oil.

The ladder of the Qing army was higher than the city wall, and the soldiers cut the ropes, and the huge ladder board fell down and set up on the head of the city of Datong, paving a "heavenly road" that went straight into the city.

Except for the Qing army, which was attached to the hook and lock ants, the rest of the Qing soldiers climbed the ladder to the top, raised their shields in front, jumped on the ladder, and confronted the spears protruding from the city wall. The Qing soldiers in front were a little timid for a while, and they stopped moving, but they were pushed hard by the people behind them, and they fell on the head of the gun opposite with their chests up.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the descendants swarmed up, trampled on the body of the former, flew into the city wall in a few steps, and slashed left and right in the Ming army array defending the city, and the flesh and blood flew in an instant.

Chongzhen saw that the city on the right was unstable, and it seemed that someone had climbed the wall and entered, so he hurriedly led the soldiers to support.

The Qing army that took the opportunity to step into the city wall was obviously outnumbered, but it was fearless. Throwing torches everywhere in his hands, intending to set fire, the Ming soldiers here were caught off guard after being cut down a few people, it was the situation of the spears on the left and right sides to surround a few people, but seeing that the Ming soldiers kept retreating, no one stepped forward.

"Hahahaha! Lord Kansi! Did you see that? They're scared. One of the Qing soldiers was sloppy and spoke Mongolian.

"Go back alive and find Lord Baylor to receive the reward!" Kansi, who was leaning back to him, said in a deep voice.

"Datong officers and soldiers, there is no advance or retreat, kill!" The wall was congested, and Chongzhen saw that the soldiers were shocked by several prisoners, and they raised their arms and shouted wildly. As soon as the main backbone arrived, the Ming army stopped its retreat and approached with its spear.

The sloppy man who was so loud was stabbed to death three times in succession. Kansi roared, threw his axe at the crowd, raised his round shield and slammed into the muzzle of the gun in a bullish posture, and rushed into the crowd with the broken body of the spear, and the soldiers who were broken off the spear fell backwards, and several people were trampled to death by their colleagues.

The crazy behavior of several people in Kanxi cleared a section of open space under their feet, and Qing soldiers continued to step on the ladder to climb the Datong city wall.

"Who would dare to kill this fang for me!?" Chongzhen saw that the comers were turbulent, and there was the courage of ten thousand invincibles, so he shouted loudly, but the soldiers in front only cared about retreating, but no one responded.

"A certain dare!"

The person who came was Zhang Wan, who had been injured in the arrow tower before, and his forehead wrapped in gauze was dripping with blood.

With the permission of the medical officer, he knew that his time was short, so he secretly slipped out of the wounded soldiers' shelter and went straight to the city wall to kill the enemy.

"Get out of the way!" Zhang Wan pulled the retreating foot soldiers apart one by one, pierced through the cracks of the people, and faced Kanxi.

Kanxi "drank" and threw himself at Zhang Wan, but was shaken by a dodge, and Zhang Wan, who was empty-handed, went around behind Kanxi, and used all his strength to hug Kanxi's waist and fall off the city wall together.