"Woo woo woo~"

The desolate sound of the bull's horn shattered the silence of the early morning.

The camp of the White Lotus Sect rebels began to assemble on a large scale, and thousands of strong men were driven out of their respective camps by the White Lotus rebel soldiers armed with swords and guns, and walked towards the Ming army camp east of Taihu Lake, where they would make a preliminary assembly.

Some of them had farm tools, hoes, and other items in their hands, others had empty hands, some were completely numb, and some were still wailing.

"What can I do?"

"This herd of animals is going to slaughter us!"

"God will kill me!"

These strong men, who are still valuable and can be used as human shields to resist the powerful arquebuses of the Ming army, are still "lucky" at this moment.

Because compared to the possibility that they would lose their lives later, what happened next was extremely unacceptable.

Some women and children who had lost their husbands, fathers, and sons were frantically trying to pull them back, while others knelt on the ground and hugged the thighs of the rebel soldiers and pleaded.

"I have such a son in my family. Leave him alone! ”

"Please, as long as you spare him, let me do anything!"

"I am willing to marry you as a concubine."

However, such begging will not help at all.

"Get out of here!" One of the rebel soldiers drew his saber and cut off the woman's hand that was gripping her trousers.

Bloody, she still clenched her teeth and didn't let go.

"You" the rebel soldier's face turned pale when he saw this scene.

The woman cried, "My husband is dead, and if my son dies too, what is the point of me living in the world?" ”

The rebel soldier laughed angrily: "Okay, in that case, Lao Tzu will fulfill you!" ”

With that, he pulled out the long knife at his waist and slashed forward.

Blood splattered, and the woman's screams pierced the silence of the morning mist.

The six-year-old girl cried and wanted to pounce on her mother, but was kicked by the rebel soldier in front of her, kicking a ball, and the blood in her mouth spurted out, and after falling to the ground, she spit out a few bloody fragments of internal organs.

But the rebels who passed by seemed to be used to it, and just looked indifferently at the corpses lying at their feet.

One of the hall masters rode by, turned around, and instructed the rest, "Continue on your way, and go to the predetermined position to assemble in formation." ”

All this seems to be a tacit understanding.

Whenever someone prevents them from leaving, these rebels will not hesitate to swing their butcher knives and slaughter them!

Soon, there was no one left here except for the women and children who had lost their souls.

However, in the eyes of the White Lotus rebels, these women and children have lost any use, and if they only waste rations, they will be ruthlessly killed if they try to escape.

Despair spreads through the crowd, and there are always people who are not willing to wait for death.

The women and children, who still had strength, wept and cried, and kept fleeing forward, but soon the rebel soldiers bent their bows and arrows, and fell into a pool of blood from behind.

The women and children who had been expelled from the humble camp turned pale with fright, slumped on the ground and wailed, and some closed their eyes in pain.

The cruelty of the White Lotus Sect's rebels has exceeded the limits of their imagination, and they can't even understand why they have become the way they are now, obviously they were so dignified before!

Didn't the White Lotus Sect say that if they were to take refuge in their motherless mother, they would be able to have food?

However, this was far from over, and when all the strong men had been driven out of the camp, the rebel soldiers took up butcher knives and slaughtered the young children who had been selected as offerings for the White Lotus ritual.

At that moment, blood splattered, countless screams resounded in the sky, and the entire camp was filled with pathos, despair, and bitter weeping......

What a cruel scene!

In front of Bai Yu, the leader of the White Lotus Sect, these White Lotus Sect rebels showed their ruthless and cruel methods, they beheaded those children who had not yet grown up, and piled up their heads into a hill-like Jingguan, and even some of them had their eyes gouged out, leaving only two empty eye sockets.

These followers are even more terrible than the devil, and they are terrifying!

Next to Bai Yu, several tall guards in black armor and spears stood with fierce eyes, and all kinds of prayer objects were placed around them.

The White Lotus Sect can be resurrected in just four or five years, and there is naturally no shortage of prayers for believers to believe.

And what Bai Baiyu is best at is this aspect of content.

Bai Baiyu was wearing a wide robe with big sleeves, his face was withered, his expression was solemn, his eyes were extremely cold, but his lips were constantly moving slightly, as if he was chanting something.

And around, the dense congregation knelt on the ground, a posture of devout worship.

Then, I saw that Bai Tianyu slowly raised his right palm, and there was really a white lotus slowly "growing" out of his big sleeve, which was of course a fake prop, but with the distance and the cover of the robe, it was enough to fool everyone.

Anyway, with this kind of long-term trick, no one can come on stage to debunk him.

In the early morning light, the white lotus exudes a faint and holy light, and from a distance, the sect leader who holds the white lotus in his hand seems to be a god and Buddha.

The leader of the White Lotus Sect held the white lotus with one hand and chanted loudly:

"The silt comes from the Chaos Qi, and the White Lotus is in full bloom!"

The disciples in front of him also chanted in unison.

"The White Lotus is a prosperous event!"

The early morning light sprinkled in the sky, reflecting on the faces of every White Lotus Sect member.

Their expressions were solemn and solemn, as if all this was so sacred.

The atmosphere at this time was mobilized to the extreme, and everyone was so immersed in it that they forgot to breathe.

And this is also the effect that Bai Baiyu wants to achieve.

It had not been many years since he had publicly performed such a large-scale prayer.

"Motherless mother, I have believed in it for many years, and today I hope you can bless my White Lotus Sect to regain its strength, defeat the Ming army, and become the only master of this land in the south of the Yangtze River."

Bai Baiyu looked at the white lotus in his hand and muttered silently.

However, no one noticed that under the cover of the morning fog, the hot air balloon cluster used by the Ming army to reconnoiter the battlefield had begun to fly to the White Lotus Sect's camp.

"What a bunch of goddamn beasts!"

On the hot air balloon of the Ming army, there were three figures, led by a man about twenty-five or sixteen years old, wearing a set of special cold-proof clothing, it was Huo Fei, the test pilot who had never died before!

Now he is the commander of the trio of hot air balloons, and the other two around him are dressed in the same way, the two are new pilots, one for aerial mapping and the other for maneuvering the hot air balloon.

After the national teacher Jiang Xinghuo successfully prayed for rain, the faces of the courtiers who had opposed it before were swollen, and under the Yongle Emperor Long Yan Dayue, he approved the establishment of a separate hot air balloon unit, which was directly under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, named "Flying Eagle Guard", and the future plan was to be assigned to the three major battalions of Beijing.

However, although it is called a guard, the personnel are far from reaching the full establishment of more than 5,000 people, and only a large shelf has been erected, in which there is only the actual establishment of 100 households, which still includes the situation of ground staff.

And Huo Fei, who fell directly from the sky and appeared in front of Emperor Yongle and Rongguo Gong, was himself the test pilot who led the flight in that rain prayer operation, and now he personally got the emperor's promise of promotion, so he naturally became the first hundred household officials of the Flying Eagle Guard.

The hundred-household official is still the hundred-household official of this kind of army destined to have a promising future, naturally he is much stronger than the original craftsman in the war bureau, Huo Fei's situation is quite enviable, and when he returned home, he was praised by his relatives and neighbors who didn't look down on him very much for a while.

Back to the present, Huo Fei, as an official of a hundred households, naturally flew to the forefront.

The Ming pilots who operated the hot air balloon in the Flying Eagle Guard originally rose into the air to overlook the battlefield in order to monitor the traces of the White Lotus Sect rebels, but they didn't expect to see this cruel scene at this time.

Countless heads were piled together and became tools for the White Lotus Sect's prayers, and farther away, there was a massacre going on in the camp.

Only a small number of these pilots were from military backgrounds, and most of them were craftsmen who had been transferred to ordinary people, and they were naturally angry when they saw these civilians on the ground slaughtered.

Naturally, they did not have any mercy and soft-heartedness for the rebels of the White Lotus Sect who rebelled.

"Huo Baihu, what do you think we should do?"

A stocky pilot asked with a frown, looking at the brawny men who were being forced into the wilderness.

Their homes have been destroyed, their wives and daughters have been separated and they have been displaced.

And behind them, the culprit of all this is wantonly abusing the remains of their children.

They hate, hate these demons, but they have no ability to resist, and they can't even control their own fate.

The only person who can rely on them now and help them achieve justice is probably these Ming army pilots above their heads!

Huo Fei pondered for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Revenge these people at any cost!" ”

Hearing this, the two pilots of the Flying Eagle Guard glanced at each other, they knew Huo Fei's character, and he must do what he believes must be done to the end.

"But we don't have any weapons, not even bows." One of the pilots said helplessly.

These hot air balloon pilots are tasked with looking down on the battlefield from a high vantage point, and the pilots who map the charts usually do the math and give them a determination of their current position; The hot air balloon operator is responsible for adding whale oil to the heating device, as well as simple steering and lifting; The group commander was responsible for directing the operation and waving the flag for the Ming army on the ground.

They do not have any ground attack missions.

Therefore, these hot air balloon pilots know almost nothing except a little basic flying, mapping, and flag language, and even the basic archery and knives and guns of the military are not very good - this is mainly because they have not practiced these.

Huo Fei was stunned for a moment when he heard this, he really hadn't considered the issue of weapons and equipment

After all, this time I came to carry out a reconnaissance mission, where did I expect to encounter such a tricky situation?

At this time, the other pilot suddenly thought of something, hurriedly picked up the bag behind him, took out a few cans of whale oil and handed them to Huo Fei.

"You said you used this to light it and threw it on the ground?"

"Not bad! Maybe it has the same effect as the canister thrown by a gun? ”

Of course, these artisan-turned-pilots were exposed to artillery carts (the current version of the Ming army was a counterweight trebuchet), which usually fired solid stone bullets, splash mud bombs, and fire oil cans, a total of three weapons.

Although there is a difference between the fire oil tank and the whale oil tank, at this moment, the difference does not seem to be big, and it can have the effect of igniting the enemy camp.

The other pilot also felt that it made sense, so he nodded.

"Then let's use this first!"

Huo Fei thought for a few breaths before he spoke: "Shoot people first and shoot horses first, capture thieves and capture kings first, I see that the place in the distance where the black pressure is crowded should be the place where they use it to do activities such as sacrificing flags, and maybe there are some leaders of the White Lotus Sect, as long as they can be ignited around, the White Lotus Sect will definitely panic." ”

After listening to this, the two pilots nodded silently, and they agreed with Huo Fei's proposal, which would not harm the people, but also use the only "weapon" to crush the enemy's will to the greatest extent.

"Hmm!"

Huo Fei waved the flag several times to the hot air balloon cluster behind him, and after confirming that they all understood what he meant, he ordered the pilot who operated the hot air balloon to start piloting the hot air balloon cluster.

So, the pilots of the Flying Eagle Guard adjusted their posture, and after Huo Fei's order, they began to descend slowly, and flew directly towards the place of worship where many people had gathered in the southwest corner, which was the target they wanted to blow up.

At the same time, the cluster of hot air balloons of the Ming army that flew out of the mist was also exposed to the field of vision of the White Lotus Sect rebels.

Yesterday, a large number of announcements were sown overhead by these hot air balloons, and of course the rebels of the White Lotus Sect knew what these hot air balloons were for.

In this camp where the prayer ceremony was held, a piercing scream suddenly sounded: "Kong Ming Lantern of the Ming Army!" ”

Immediately afterward, the camp suddenly became a pot of porridge.

And those believers who were originally holding a grand prayer looked around in a panic, where can they care about etiquette and humility?

Soon, before the Ming army's hot-air balloon swarm flew overhead, the entire camp became full of chickens and dogs, and there was an atmosphere of chaos and panic everywhere.

Although they had already seen it once, when the magical magic weapon that could fly came to them again, these ignorant disciples were inevitably panicked.

The White Lotus Sect Helmsman, who was in charge of the guards, ran to the altar and shouted, "Sect Master, please take shelter for the time being!" ”

After hearing this, Bai Yu, who was still immersed in his own world, finally looked up at the sky.

Yesterday, when the hot air balloon of the Ming army came to issue the announcement paperwork, he rested in the big tent and did not see it with his own eyes.

According to Bai Yu's thoughts, this flying thing is to spread leaflets, but there is nothing to fear.

So, he said slowly: "Don't panic, there is no biological mother on top"

——————

The pilots of the Ming Army's Flying Eagle Guard, of course, saw all kinds of tragic conditions on the ground.

The people who were scattered in all directions were chased and killed by the White Lotus Sect rebels armed with knives and guns, and their heads were piled up into a hill.

Full of anger, they wanted to directly throw the whale oil tank in their hands immediately, but now that they had become soldiers, they had to suppress the anger in their hearts and wait for Huo Fei's order.

Huo Fei silently calculated the direction of the flight, closer, closer!

Huo Fei almost jumped out of his clenched teeth word by word.

"Wu, Shi, Three, II, One!"

"—Throw!"

With the last countdown, the ignited whale oil tank crashed down.

And at this time, Bai Baiyu's words had just been exported.

A series of tents were set on fire, and the flames burst out.

The entire camp turned crimson, and a heavy, pungent stench of burnt gas filled the air.

The White Lotus Sect believers who were still praying were suddenly frightened, and threw away all kinds of items that were still in their hands, and the girl ran wildly around, no matter how Bai Tianyu calmed them down, no one listened anymore.

Bai Yu's carefully arranged prayer for the battle was destroyed by the pilots of the Ming Army's Flying Eagle Guard.

Bai Yu watched as the burning items made a violent crackling sound in the air, and the thick black smoke spread out to the surroundings along with the hot heatwave.

And the rebels of the White Lotus Sect did not think that the enemy would use this method against them at all, and before they were caught off guard, more than ten rebels were immediately burned by the blazing fire.

"There's an enemy attack!"

"Be on guard! Alert! ”

"Someone is sneaking up on us!"

Seeing this, some of the White Lotus Sect's hall masters and helmsmen changed their faces slightly, and they hurriedly shouted.

"Whoosh-"

Immediately after, arrows were shot from the crossbows on the ground.

The White Lotus Sect rebels quickly fought back, but the range of their bows and crossbows was only one or two hundred paces away, while the pilots of the Ming army were hiding in the air at an altitude equivalent to five or six hundred paces, and the threat of their bows and crossbows was almost zero.

"Bang bang bang-"

The hot air balloons of the Ming army kept throwing whale oil canisters, and even worse, they directly lifted the stones and sandbags of the ballast and threw them down, smashing all the formations of the White Lotus rebels.

"Boom!"

A huge explosion came, but in the camp next to it, the gunpowder stored by the White Lotus Sect was ignited and exploded, and the entire camp was immediately razed, and the flames were blazing, illuminating the area like the polar sun.

Bai Yu was dizzy from the loud noise, and he was unsteady on his feet for a while.

The surrounding White Lotus Sect leaders hurriedly stepped forward to support him, and this weak performance also cast a shadow on the hearts of the disciples who still insisted on participating in the prayer.

"I'm fine!"

Bai Tianyu shook off the hands of others who were supporting him, the older he was, the less he liked to expose his weakness in front of everyone.

However, the Ming pilots above his head would not get used to him, although they did not dare to get too close to the counterattack of the White Lotus Sect's ground bow and crossbow and other weapons, and there was really no accuracy in throwing whale oil canisters by hand in the flying state, but there were still many pilots, aiming at the only open field in this dense crowd.

"Bang!"

A ballast stone roared and fell.

"Sect Master, be careful!"

The black-armored guards beside him pounced and threw Bai Baiyu to the ground, while he himself was directly smashed by the boulder and his legs were broken, and the bones were split and slipped out of the flesh, and the blurred scene of flesh and blood made people unbearable to look at directly.

Bai Bai Yu fell to the ground with a disgraced face, looking at the Ming Army hot air balloon flying in the sky a little sluggishly.

Paperwork and canisters of fire and oil that fell from the sky, cannons that could move at will, guns that could shoot sixty or seventy paces away.

Bai Baiyu suddenly felt that his opponent, Jiang Xinghuo, the master of the Ming Dynasty, seemed to be using something that he couldn't understand and contend with, repeatedly hammering his originally tenacious heart.

"Jiang Xinghuo, what other means haven't been used?"

In Bai Baiyu's heart, a trace of panic suddenly flashed.

This White Lotus Sect Leader, for the first time, felt that he could, and there was really no possibility of winning Jiang Xinghuo.

In his field of vision, a row of hot air balloons was flying fast, leaving behind all the smoke and flames from the explosion, and then the different pilots on it repeated the same steps as before.

Light the whale oil canister and throw it to the ground to blow up the White Lotus rebel camp!

Inadvertently, they completed the first airdrop bombing in the history of mankind in this world!

And it's carpet bombing!

"Happy!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Avenge these tragic deaths!"

"Stoned these beasts to death!"

The pilots of the Ming Army's Flying Eagle Guard let out all kinds of roars excitedly, and at this moment, they finally felt the pride of being a warrior, which they had never enjoyed before.

These young people are crazy, as if they have forgotten everything.

Huo Fei still maintained his basic sanity, and he looked at the flags of the commanders of the hot air balloon groups behind him.

"Report! The enemy has broken up and fled in all directions! Please instruct! ”

"Ready to throw again and return!"

"Yes!"

The Eagle Guard began a new round of throwing and bombing, and in the wave of fire, a part of the White Lotus rebel camp was completely reduced to ruins.

Then they walked away.

The White Lotus Sect rebels could only watch them leave, but there was nothing they could do.

The people in the camp, on the other hand, reacted in the opposite way.

These people spontaneously knelt down in front of the hot air balloon of the Ming army that gave them a bad breath, and even kowtowed and bowed!

They all know in their hearts that this is the immortal means of the national teacher.

And these people are sincerely grateful that someone can take out this bad breath for themselves who are sinking in a nightmare!

"It's the means of the national teacher! A magic weapon that can fly to the sky with people! ”

"That's right! Anyone who has seen the national teacher praying for rain has said so! ”

"Flying around in the sky so high, isn't it a god?"

"National teacher, please come and save us as soon as possible!"

Of course, the White Lotus Sect rebels saw this scene, but when they wanted to raise their butcher knives, they all hesitated

They are afraid of the retribution that will really come upon them.

Before the decisive battle began, the morale of the White Lotus Sect rebels had already been dealt a heavy blow.

Bai Yu was escorted by black-armored soldiers, and walked out of the flames and ruins on horseback, he looked hatefully at the cluster of hot air balloons of the Ming army that could only see a string of shadows in the distance, and shouted loudly.

"Assemble your troops and prepare to march!"

——————

Just when the pilots of the Ming Army's Flying Eagle Guard showed their might, facing the cold wind of the early morning, Ding Xiaohong and others also guided the hundreds of small boats of the Ming Army's inland water division under Chen Xuan's command to pass through a secret channel known to only a very few local water bandits, and turned a corner and sailed into the vast Taihu Lake.

The more than 100 small boats, lined up in a long line of snakes, sailed in the reeds, carefully avoiding any possible risk of exposure.

In the water warfare of this era, although cannons and artillery carts were carried onto ships, the way was still relatively primitive, and the size of the ship was still the decisive outcome of the battle.

Because the Wusong River and other waterways were blocked by the "sailors" of the White Lotus Sect composed of local water bandit gangs with a large number of sunken ships, the Ming army's ships and fighting ships could not sail in at all, and could only enter these small boats.

And these small boats, which are similar to fishing boats, belong to the collision and capsize, and there is no self-protection ability at all.

Moreover, these small boats were also loaded with large quantities of saltpeter.

Having just finished a month of torrential rains, the weather in Suzhou was relatively cold at this time, and their mission was to block the dock channel with ships and saltpeter, so they were not equipped with too many sailors.

"You said that the method of the national teacher is reliable?"

The sailors (water bandits) beside Ding Xiaohong couldn't help but ask.

Since Ding Xiaohong's identity has been revealed, he is not afraid to hide anything at this time, holding a reed pole in his mouth, and said with a smile.

"You don't know this, do you? The dignitaries and nobles of Nanjing City, every summer, use this thing to make ice! ”

The sailor secretly smacked his tongue, and could only sigh that the life of the powerful and powerful could not be imagined at all.

Just when he was about to say something, Ding Xiaohong suddenly covered his mouth.

"Wait!"

The first ship stopped, and the ships in the long fleet also stopped in turn, hiding in the reeds and not daring to move.

"What is this?"

Ding Xiaohong looked into the distance in surprise through the gap in the reeds.

On the Taihu Lake in the distance, a massive fleet of hundreds of ships is unabashedly heading towards the location of the Wusong River!

And the main force inside is the ships under the banner of the Blue Dragon Gang, and they even have some ultra-small warships!

A chill poured from the soles of Ding Xiaohong's feet to the top of his head.

He realized in an instant what the White Lotus Sect was going to do.

The number of troops in the Ming army is small, and in order to fight a decisive battle, the sailors and soldiers deployed in Chen Xuan's inland river water division and used to fight hand-to-hand combat in peacetime will definitely go ashore to participate in the decisive battle.

This means that the slightly remote water village arranged by the Ming army must be extremely empty.

After all, the frontal front is the most important, which determines the victory or defeat of the battle, and the Ming army will definitely go all out.

And the Wusong River was blocked by a sunken ship, and perhaps no one would think that the White Lotus Church sent a fleet of soldiers to carry out a sneak attack!

And there are many people in the White Lotus Sect, and there are more water bandits of all kinds in Taihu Lake, what they plan is to attack the Ming army's water village through the road when Ding Xiaohong came, and then land around the rear and attack the main camp of the Ming army from behind!

These ships are all medium and large fishing boats, or ultra-small warships!

"What should I do?"

Beads of sweat the size of beans flowed down Ding Xiaohong's forehead.

Will he guide the fleet to carry out the set task assigned to him by the national teacher to block the docks of the White Lotus Sect, or will he have to stop the sneak attack on the fleet with the Blue Dragon Gang as the main force if he wants the weak saltpeter fleet, or find a way to transmit the information back?

(End of chapter)