Chapter 17: The Trap

That's a little more than a stick of incense (about 30 minutes).

The general Shangguan Fei turned back to restrain his horse, and glanced at the battlefield coldly and condescendingly.

It was not so much a battle as a one-sided massacre.

The vast majority of the enemy has fallen.

Coach Guan Shengyun abandoned the army, the main general Guan Jianlin was killed, the friendly army was defeated, the physical strength was seriously overdrawn, and the strong enemy with absolute superiority was waiting...... All of this came together, and the Breaking Sky Battalion's will to fight began to crumble. The faces of the soldiers who are still resisting have long lost the fierceness they had at the beginning, and they have replaced them with a look of begging, not so much fighting, but just trying their best to cover the blades that are slashing at them - however, they can't stop it, even if they fight with their lives, they may not be able to fight the same personal guard battalion that is the main general of the official army, let alone lose their fighting spirit? Every moment someone screamed and fell......

The massacre soon came to an end.

The battlefield in the twilight gradually fell silent.

The lonely "Guan" word still planted the flag on the ground, and no one went to cut it down. There was only one enemy left, standing with his back to the hunting flag.

Judging from the armor, it should be a thousand totals. The chest rose and fell violently, the helmet was gone, the blood-stained hair was draped and scattered, the left arm hung down weakly, blood gushed out from the sunken arm armor, the long knife in the right hand was horizontal in front of the chest, the tip of the knife had been broken, and two or three gaps had been opened on the knife body, and in front of him were the ambushed corpses of three soldiers under Sun Jie's command. In the face of the armor soldiers who surrounded him, he was not afraid, his eyes were wide open, and he looked like a trapped beast was still fighting and choosing people to devour.

The moment the four eyes met, this person raised the remnant blade and pointed at Shangguan Fei, and shouted: "Brave and gutless, dare to fight with your Grandpa Gu?" ”

The armored soldiers who surrounded the enemy looked back at Shangguan Fei one after another.

The corners of Shangguan Fei's mouth twitched contemptuously, and with a shake of the horse's reins, he was about to step forward, and with a soft call, he rode forward a few steps beside him, and the knight turned over and dismounted.

It is Sun Jie's personal guard Qian, the general history of Erlei.

Cavalry battles require one hand to rein and one hand to hold a weapon, because the arm injury has not healed and it is inconvenient to drive, Shi Erlei did not follow Sun Jie to pursue Guan Shengyun, but stayed in Shangguan Fei's right cavalry.

Shi Erlei turned around and smiled toothily at Shangguan Fei, silently answering the latter's inquiring gaze.

Shangguan Fei nodded slightly, and the armor soldiers surrounding the enemy made way to both sides.

Shi Erlei stood still in front of the enemy's three steps, glanced at the corpse on the ground, raised his head and said in a deep voice: "Good skills!" Heroes, please use your name. ”

The other party said proudly: "Under the command of Guan Dashuai, the horse soldiers are thousands of general Gu Baisong." ”

Gu Baisong is Gu Baihua's cousin and an officer of Guan Shengyun's horse team. The horse team of more than 200 horses has been held in Guan Shengyun's hands for tactical maneuvers, although it is an independent system on the surface, in fact, it can also be regarded as Guan Shengyun's personal guard. In order to block Zhao Sanxi's reinforcements last time, the horse team was temporarily allocated to Gao Tengdou to assist in luring the enemy and blocking the attack. After completing the task and returning to the building, in order to strengthen the slightly thin defense line of Zhang Ding's department, more than half of the cavalry was transferred to the north gate to assist in the defense, and Gu Baisong took sixty cavalry to stay with Guan Shengyun in the big camp.

The morning scout Valley White Pine did not participate. He originally had two horses, and when Sun Zijie counterattacked a while ago, Gu Baihua's mount was injured, so he gave one to his brother who wanted to escort the military division; The other horse had just been handed over to Guan Shengyun's personal guards and taken away, while he led his subordinates who had lost their horses to stay in Guan Jianlin's Broken Sky Camp.

Shi Erlei bowed slightly: "A certain is Shi Erlei, a thousand soldiers under the command of Marshal Sun." As he spoke, he glanced down at his left arm, raised it slightly, and continued, "It's not bullying you." Let's get in. ”

Gu Baisong knew that he would die, and if he didn't answer, he slashed down with a volley on his head.

Shi Erlei didn't dodge, but took a step forward between the lightning and flint, and squirted a loud shout at the face of the other party who was close at hand! Gu Baisong was stunned, and felt a chill in his lower abdomen, Shi Erlei's saber had already penetrated through the situation, and it didn't reach the handle!

The faces of both sides are almost together.

With a bang, Gu Baisong landed the waist knife that touched the top of Shi Erlei's head. Shi Erlei stared intently at Gu Baisong's eyes, and then, taking a step back, he drew his knife.

A stream of bloody arrows burst out.

Gu Baisong staggered forward two steps, holding his lower abdomen and kneeling weakly.

Shi Erlei reluctantly stretched out his left arm that had not healed from his old wound, made a gesture to grab Gu Baisong's loose bun, stretched it halfway, hesitated, retracted his hand and whispered: "Gu Qian is always a good man, there should be a whole corpse." ”

Gu Baisong grinned, and after a while, he replied weakly: "Thank you." ”

After finishing speaking, he used all his strength, closed his eyes and straightened his throat, Zhu Lei waved the knife with his right hand and gently wiped it on the opponent's carotid artery......

At the same time that Zhu Lei raised the steel knife high, Guan Zishuaiqi fell down, announcing the end of the war here.

Cheers and weapons beating shields resounded in the sky.

Almost at the same time, a flame soared into the sky in the Chinese army camp of Guan Shengyun not far away.

Staff General Ishii Sheng led the cavalry on the left, and after completing the circular encirclement, he looked at the battle situation from a distance, and found that he had almost nothing to do - Shangguan Fei's nearly 100 cavalry was enough to cope with the situation, so he led the team to withdraw from the siege and rushed straight to the enemy camp.

At first, General Shi Shen did not have any extravagant hopes: if the camp gate was closed and the horses would not climb the wall, the main force of the attack could only rely on the infantry: forcing the prisoners to brave the fire of the defenders to fill the trench and burn the camp wall, and then the infantry charged, breaking in and opening the camp gate, so that the horse team could be useful. As long as he can prevent the battalion from sending aid in an organized manner, he can do so. At this moment, the remnants of the enemy, who had escaped and scattered their lives in the field, were exhausted and almost collapsed, and were being driven by a dozen or so horsemen to stagger here. After the infantry finished the battle over there, they could first watch the captives fill the trenches and die, and when they were almost dead and the strength of the Changjie battalion could recover some, then they began to attack. Of course, it would be best if you could pick up some heads by the way, pick them on the edge of the gun and drive around the camp a few times, on the one hand to deter the defending enemy and on the other hand to coerce the prisoners to be cannon fodder.

However, when he approached the enemy camp, Ishii was surprised to find that not only was the door of the camp open, but there were also a lot of fires and torches in the camp, and the drawbridge was not even pulled up! Under normal circumstances, according to the camp, the garrison should light a bonfire outside the camp and throw more torches outside the wall - in this way, through the firelight, the attacker can not see the defender's layout clearly, and the camp wall can be illuminated by darkness, taking a big advantage......

was hesitating whether the defending enemy wanted to learn from Zhuge Wuhou's tricks of playing an empty city plan, and one or two hundred guys suddenly ran out of the camp, kneeling in front of the horse and asking for surrender. Looking at the clothes, most of them are miscellaneous soldiers guarding the camp.

It took a lot of effort for General Shi Shen to understand their gossip from the south to the north: Jia Lianwang, the left-behind guerrilla with a special title* guerrilla, said that he would go to ask for help and ran away with a few personal guards, and now the biggest officer in the battalion is a general manager who is not treated by anyone on weekdays, and he has been kidnapped by everyone...... When Ishii Sheng dispelled his doubts and entered the camp, he found that the ground was also full of people—the master of the long shirt, the man in short clothes, and the Lang Zhong with the medicine box on his back all lying on the ground with their heads in their hands: they all knew that as long as they did not threaten each other, they could save their lives in most cases: talents with special skills were welcome everywhere, oh no, at least they were needed.

So General Shi Shen ordered to light a bunch of skyrocketing fires in front of Guan Shengyun's Chinese army tent to inform the friendly troops of the good news that the enemy camp had been broken......

Soon after, the exhausted but morale-boosting Changjie battalion rumbled straight in.

As the name suggests, the headquarters of Ishii Sheng is the Panshi Battalion, which is known for its defense and is also the main force guarding the city wall of Luzhou. Sun Jie poured out of the nest, and Shi Shen, who had nothing to do, was appointed to temporarily bring the left cavalry. Watching the marshal's pro-barracks rushing in front of the camp gate, Ishii Sheng secretly stuck out his tongue: Dashuai's pro-barracks are really all made of iron - they didn't even bring prisoners!

If you don't bring it, you don't have it, and if you don't have it, you don't keep it!

It was too far from the city, so it was simply spent the night in the enemy's camp.

It was impossible to bring auxiliaries in the counterattack assault battle, and the Langzhong men and miscellaneous soldiers of the enemy camp made temporary cameos, some of them treated the wounded, some of them boiled water for cooking, and the largest part returned to the battlefield under the supervision of the armored cavalry, bringing the corpses stacked on both sides back to the camp.

From time to time, the corpses were brought back with seriously wounded people who had their breath left, and without exception, like the wounded soldiers of the Gangfeng Battalion found in the enemy camp, were dragged out and mercilessly slaughtered - who was patient to serve them! What's more, some armor soldiers even forced the captives to torture the wounded in various ways, and the slightest hesitation caused the captives to fall in pools of blood. War distorts human nature. Moreover, in this era, human beings are still in the stage of competing for natural resources by killing each other, and they only know what life and death are, and no one knows what mercy is.

Sun Jie's side also had a dozen or twenty soldiers on his side who were seriously injured and couldn't survive, and they were carried in and side by side in a slightly higher place: in this way, they could see the slaughter of the enemy with their own eyes before they died.

A long-robed master in the enemy camp was dragged over, trembling, and writing down their names one by one.

Guan Shengyun's army has two Luo military divisions, both large and small, and they are two father and son. It's a pity that Lao Luo's military division was seriously ill, and Xiao Luo and Gu Baihua took care of him and sent him to Anqing Mansion for recuperation, and left the camp a few days ago. This master is in his fifties, his name is Yuan Jingzhai, and he was originally a talented man in Runing Mansion, Henan Province, who was kidnapped by Jia Lianwang. That Jia Lianwang's nickname is Jia Yanzi, and when he saw that the situation was not good, he ran away early, so Master Yuan, who had just "become a thief", was left alone in the camp.

Seeing the official army driving in, Master Yuan felt that he was about to die unjustly: What do you say is the use of reading and writing? I can't pass the fame test, and I have spent countless money on the road for decades, and if I don't read, I won't be taken away when the thieves attack me at my age. It's good, I was dragged by a thief while wearing a long shirt, and if I didn't obey, I had to be knifed, and I just got a thief, and the officers and soldiers came again, and if I didn't say it, I would be hacked to death as a thief - there is no way to live! It wasn't until he was dragged over by the back collar to remember his name that Yuan Xiucai's hands were trembling, and his mental arithmetic was completely put down, and he couldn't help but sigh to himself again: It's better to read and write! Whether it's an officer or a thief, it's useful everywhere! Qianzhong Su Yan Ruyu didn't expect anything, but his life was saved, and he escaped again! Well, I'll have to talk to the officials and soldiers in a while, I'm a good citizen.

The names of the brothers who died in battle were reported after the battle. But as long as there is still a breath of air, let them say their names and places of origin in person, which is also the tradition of Sun Jie's troops, which can make the brothers go with peace of mind. The mending team stood aside and waited quietly. After a while, when Lang Zhong fed his brothers and drank the rice wine found in the enemy camp, they would end the suffering of these brothers in the fastest and gentlest way.

*Title

An additional title is an honor, a fictitious title awarded to someone that is higher than his or her own position, similar to today's department-level cadres who "enjoy the treatment of deputy ministers". The well-known "Taishi, Taifu, Young Master, Young Master" is the title of senior civil official; "Taibao, Shaobao" is the title of senior military attaché.

The garrison soldier was added to the guerrilla Jia Lianwang, and his own position was the officer of the Thousand Corps under Gu Baihua. The garrison is similar to the recruit training team, in addition to the garrison battalion, another important purpose is to provide trained recruits for the battalion. Because nominally an independent battalion can better scare recruits, Gu Baihua asked Guan Shengyun for a false title of guerrilla - above guerrilla and below deputy general, he can be called "general".

In the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the highest head & commander of the first army was the chief military officer, and he was the second product. Obtaining the appointment of the chief officer is called "opening the town". Similar to today's "army" or "division" (you can't kill Liha, it is impossible to correspond 100% accurately), and the general officer is about similar to the commander of a military division. The general military positions in the Ming Dynasty were relatively valuable, with only about two dozen in total. The chief officer was called the "Great Marshal".

The deputy general soldier is called "deputy marshal", also called deputy general, from the second rank. Obtaining the appointment of deputy general is called "Kaixi". "Xie" is similar to "brigade" -- in later generations, Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai and others used the Western military system to train the new army, and "Xie" was directly renamed "brigade".

Then the following is the general, the third product. Guerrilla, from the three pins. Both of these can be referred to as "generals". In many cases, there is no strict distinction between the military system of the Ming Dynasty, depending on the military head, that is, the personal ability of the chief military officer: how much food and salary you can get from the military department of the imperial court is your business, and the military department will "inspect" from time to time, that is, the number of heads, and the military department will only pay if the military department recognizes it, and the court does not recognize that you can also raise soldiers by yourself, but the cost is your own - we will talk about this in detail later. Therefore, a general can lead several battalions or just one. Guerrilla can theoretically lead a battalion, and if you have the ability to lead two, no one cares.

The next level is the garrison, which is the fourth grade, but it is not used much, and then in the Qing Dynasty, this official position was gradually abolished. It's even more chaotic below: some troops are thousands of generals, deputy generals, generals (also called hundred generals, it should be an accent problem, they all fall on writing), deputy generals, and fruit chiefs; There are also thousands of generals, and below the general is the chief flag officer and the small flag officer......

The root cause of this confusion lies with Zhu Yuanzhang. Lao Zhu was obsessed with money, hoping that raising soldiers would not cost money, so he established a guard system: When the whole country is peaceful, you all disarm and return to the fields to farm, eat yourself, don't eat my grain. If there is another war, he will put down his hoe and pick up a knife for me to cut down the rebellious ministers and thieves, and when he is done, he will come back and continue to farm...... Therefore, the military system at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was that the provincial-level military leaders were called the commanders (the deputies were called the commanders and commanders according to their ranks), and the military units were called the commanders; Military leaders at the prefectural level (prefecture-level cities) are called commanders (deputies are called commanders and commanders according to their ranks), and military units are called guards, such as Tianjin Wei and Weihaiwei; At the state level (counties directly under the central government of the province), military leaders are called Qianhu (deputy positions are called deputy Qianhu), and military units are called Qianhusuo; The military leader at the county level is called Bai Zong (the deputy position is the deputy Bai Zong), and the military unit is called Bai Hu Office; There is a general flag under the 100 households, and a small flag under the general flag......

The ideal is very plump, and the reality is more skinny. Lao Zhu's beauty changed after a while: the military leaders successively collected the income from the tuntian into their own pockets, and by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the so-called army had completely degenerated into farmers who farmed the fields - because they were hereditary "military households" with personal dependence, they were actually serfs. At this point, the so-called "soldiers" will not fight. This is also a very funny point: the theoretical "soldiers" of the Ming Dynasty actually became "people", peasants.

The hostile forces always have the will to die, and the war must still be fought. If the "soldiers" are not good, then who will fight?

"People".

This is the conscription system, recruiting soldiers from the people. Note that these recruited "soldiers" are not "military registration", they are all civilian nationality! Therefore, in the imperial court, they are all counted as "people". However, many people have become professional soldiers and do not know how to farm. This is the place where the military system of the Ming Dynasty is very speechless: "soldiers" are serfs who can only fight and can only farm, and "people" are "soldiers" who can only fight and cannot farm.

The "soldiers" are serfs, and the "generals" such as the "commanders" will naturally become landlords who cannot fight wars, and who will lead the "people" who can fight? Career officer. Therefore, the general army, deputy generals, and staff generals...... Then another military system came into being.

Originally, this system was temporary and disbanded after the work, but later, the contractors (military leaders) stopped doing it: we are not Durex, why should we use it and abandon it? No, pay for it! If we don't give money, we'll make trouble!

Then, the imperial court could only retain this military system......

This is just a rough introduction, and we will analyze it in depth later.