Chapter 8 Death Battalion
The border wilderness is the northernmost part of the Ming Dynasty, close to the desert, where it stretches for thousands of miles, the climate and environment are extremely poor, and it is a very barren place. If there is any place in the world that is closest to hell, then the Frontier Wilderness is definitely such a place. Here, in addition to war, it is endless wind and sand, if war is cruel killing, then the wind and sand here is the merciless sickle of death, and the people who die under this knife are no less than those who die on the battlefield.
In the desert, there are people from the Northern Barbarian Clan, and in that harsh environment, their physique has long exceeded the limit of ordinary people. They yearn for a better life and want to move to Mingtu, but there is an old saying: "If you are not of my race, your heart will be different." "So the contradictions between the nations have evolved into wars.
The Northern Barbarians are like natural warriors, after years of war, they have become ferocious and blood-hungry, and they will slaughter people of other races everywhere they go. Since the thirteenth year of the Ming Dynasty, in order to resist the invasion of the Northern Barbarians, how many soldiers have died in the border wilderness, and I don't know how many loyal souls and bones have been buried in this land.
Perhaps the heavens were fair, it gave the Northern Barbarians a strong physique but limited their ability to reproduce, and after more than a hundred years of war, their population was drastically reduced, and finally they were defeated by the Ming army and retreated into the desert......
There is one thing in the world that is most inscrutable, and that is the human heart.
Over time, everything in the border wasteland has changed unexpectedly. The victory made those generals get carried away, lured by power and desire, and supported their own troops and betrayed the Ming Dynasty. They began to compete with each other for military power, only for personal interests, the original united army has been completely degenerated, after many battles, the original million army was divided into three major forces, occupy the border wasteland, self-established as kings, at ease, not subject to the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty.
At that time, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was furious when he learned of this and sent troops to conscript. But the three rebel forces of the border wilderness are very strong, although the civil war continues, but when dealing with foreign enemies, the opinions are very unified, and the Ming army has been attacked many times but still has no results.
In order to prevent the rebels from becoming stronger, the emperor sent heavy troops to garrison the border wasteland, vowing to recover the border wasteland. And the "death battalion" was born at this time. Its existence is a secret that is not a secret, because it is too cruel and the emperor prohibits it from being leaked, so except for the people in the army, outsiders do not know the specific situation, so it is also covered with a layer of mysterious outer sand.
As soon as you enter the 'death camp', life and death are inseparable......
The 'death camp' was composed of all death row prisoners and felons, who were originally sent to the battlefield just to fill up their numbers, but later they were sent to the front line of the battlefield as cannon fodder. In order to allow these people to give full play to their personal combat effectiveness, the generals began to train them inhumanly, and it was better to live than to die.
It's not that the people who come here don't want to escape, but those who run away often end up miserable. It is recorded in the decree of the Ming Dynasty that desertion on the battlefield is equivalent to treason, and the perpetrators of the crime are punished by the nine clans. Hardly anyone can afford such a great crime, and even if you want to escape, what chance is there to survive in this desolate place? After a while, they become numb, and their only hope is that they will be able to return to their hometown alive in four years to be with their loved ones.
Although the people inside die quickly, a large number of death row prisoners and felons are sent from all over the country every year, so there is always a strength of about 10,000 people.
The "death camp" can be said to be a gloomy and futureless place, where the people have no status or dignity, and some are only suffering and humiliation, and even the women of the Qinglou can despise them.
Since the day they entered the "death camp", their lives have been filled with endless killing and torture. There is no belief in these people's hearts, and as long as they live, nothing else matters.
The Ming army is stationed in the north gate of the border wilderness, and it has been confronting the other three major forces for more than ten years, but it still has not broken through a city, not that the Ming army is not strong enough, nor is it that the commander is incompetent, but there are too many things to worry about......
There was an independent military camp outside the North Gate, almost all of which were prisoners dressed in black, and from a distance there was an indescribable oppression, all of them were extremely thin but exuded a solemn atmosphere. The cheekbones on his face bulged out, and his eyes were hollow, like a dead man, perhaps less like a dead man, more like a walking dead. This is the legendary "Death Battalion".
Today, the "death camp" ushered in a new group of prisoners, a total of more than 1,000 people, who dragged heavy chains and walked step by step to the camp, not knowing that endless darkness and torture awaited them.
The oldest of them were forty or fifty years old, and the youngest was only eleven or twelve, and not all of them were death row inmates or felons, some of them were sent here because they were involved, and some of them were framed.
After nearly two months of travel, these people were already exhausted, and if it were not for the whipping and urging of the officials, I am afraid that they would have fallen to the ground long ago.
Yue Fan's hands and feet were full of chains, although this was not a burden for him, but after driving for so long, his eyes were still tired. Along the way, he didn't know where he was going, he didn't care where he would go, he only thought about returning home four years later to be with his loved ones. It's just that......
―――――――――――― "You all follow Lao Tzu one by one, don't procrastinate, the official is going to be happy at night...... Hurry the fuck and go, be careful that Lao Tzu whips you. An officer and soldier shouted at these prisoners, the whip in his hand kept waving, and the sound of "Bang Bang!" seemed to hit the hearts of the prisoners, and their hearts jumped when they heard it.
......
The prisoners were taken to the execution chambers one by one.
"Ah~~~" only to hear a scream, and an unconscious prisoner was dragged out and thrown on the training ground to be put ...... Then there were several screams, and several more prisoners were dragged out.
The prisoner on the side was even more frightened, and a slightly trembling voice asked, "You... What the hell do you want to do?"
The officers and soldiers said with a smile: "It's just to give a mark, even if you are at the end of the earth in the future, you will not be afraid of getting lost." ”
......
In the torture room, the official of the execution laughed and said, "Yo! I'm still a white-haired boy, hehe!"
Yue Fan was tied to the shelf, coldly looking at the official who was about to brand him, and held back his anger without saying a word.
"Zi!" and his forehead was branded with a bloody and blurred word "sin".
"It hurts, it hurts......"
In an instant, the burning pain invaded Yue Fan's nerves, but he still managed not to scream, biting his lip and bleeding a trace of blood.
Seeing Yue Fan's reaction like this, the executioner was shocked for a while, and muttered: "I can actually hold back and not scream, it's really a hard bone." But no matter how hard the bones are, they have to be sharpened when they enter here. ”
Untying the rope, the official said impatiently: "This is okay, drag him out!"
Yue Fan gasped and said, "I'll go by myself." ”
After speaking, he covered his forehead and walked out......
......
―――――――――――― the "death camp" was gloomy, and only countless gasps and sudden screams could be heard in the central arena, and a group of prisoners in green clothes were constantly practicing wielding knives.
"Stand up for Lao Tzu, as long as you don't die, you have to practice for Lao Tzu. Damn, it's really a bunch of cheap bones......" The battalion guard commander on the side kept urging and insulting, and as he spoke, he threw out a whip and landed on a middle-aged man, letting out a miserable scream.
The life of the "death camp" was boring for Yue Fan, there was no freedom here, and the prisoners could not go out of the limited range for half a step, otherwise they would be killed by random arrows.
For more than half a month, Yue Fan has become accustomed to life here, and the training here may be cruel to others, but it is nothing to him. In addition to the fixed training every day, the rest of the time he began to practice the "Nine Changes of the Dragon Pole of the Diamond Sutra" passed down by Li Yun. Since the last Great Compassion, the cyan vitality in his body has been controllable, although it is very slow, but he feels very satisfied. Maybe only non-stop cultivation can make time pass faster, Yue Fan said secretly.
There is no dignity here. They have only a small bowl of rice and a little vegetable soup at each meal, and they cannot eat enough at all, and if they want to eat more, they must rob others of the food in their bowls. At first, the prisoners endured it, after all, they were still bound by morality, but it didn't take long for them to endure the erosion of hunger and snatch food from each other. Seeing the prisoners fighting for food like dogs, the soldiers guarding them shouted, laughed, and mocked loudly......
Without self-esteem, are these prisoners still like a person, Yue Fan felt a burst of anger and disgust in his heart whenever he saw such a scene, and finally became helpless.
Looking at a rice ball in his hand, Yue Fan began to remember the scene when his father left the rice for himself, although the life at that time was hard, but he lived a happy life, at least he felt very happy. But now......
Where Yue Fan was sitting, there was no one else around, because those who wanted to come and snatch his food were still given out one by one. Since then, no one has dared to hit the attention of this white-haired teenager again.
...... In the midst of a dull life and brutal training, two months passed quickly, and from today their suffering was just beginning, and hellish days awaited them.
On the field, the battalion guard commander had a serious face and said loudly: "After more than two months of training, you have basically become a qualified soldier, from today on, you will start to conduct actual combat training, all the prisoners in the camp will participate, if there are any dissenters, I will assign the personnel...... "Then take the area as the line, divide all the prisoners into eight groups, each group of about 1,000 people, Yue Fan is in this first group.
"Boom!" the thunder drum sounded, and everyone's spirits were lifted.
"First group, start!" shouted, and the first to do it was the group of black-clothed prisoners, who seemed to be very experienced, and quickly rushed to the side. The fight begins, a thousand men beat each other together, and the bloody scene exaggerates cruelty and fear. To protect themselves, each smashed their clenched fists into each other......
In the fight, although no one died, there was still blood splashing on the field, and almost all the people who fell were left with half a life......
In the tent outside the arena, a man in a red military uniform sat on a chair with his legs crossed and drank leisurely. The battalion guard commander on the side said with a smile: "Master Yu, this time, do you guess how many people in the first group can stand in the end? I think there are about twenty people." ”
The man smiled and said, "Aren't you obviously letting me, the 'Iron Blood' is all in it, I think there must be only about ten people." ”
......
In just half an hour, more than half of the prisoners had fallen to the ground wailing and were dragged down by the soldiers. They didn't know why they were being treated so inhumanely, but no one of them flinched or resisted. Because they saw with their own eyes that the few people who tried to escape were all dead, and they died very miserably, and until now the bodies of those people are still hanging on the doorpost of the big camp, and it makes people shudder to look at them, let alone escape.
After fighting for half an hour, Yue Fan now looks very embarrassed, his clothes are in tatters, his snow-white hair is fluffy and disheveled, and there are still a little blood stains on his body, of course, this blood belongs to someone else.
Yue Fan's combat experience is also rich, and he has been hovering on the brink of death more than once, but it is the first time he wants to fight on such a large scale and in such a chaotic manner.
At the beginning, he could easily deal with it, but it didn't take long for him to feel that the pressure around him was increasing, so he hurriedly ran the "Diamond Sutra: Dragon Pole Nine Changes" to protect his body, and at the same time used his hands and feet to use familiar tricks such as "Grabbing Eighteen Dozen", "Seventy-two Road Bullet Legs", "Breaking the Wind Palm", etc., although he was like a shadow with his fists and feet, and knocked down many besiegers, but just fell down one, and came up two or three.
After all, Yue Fan still lacked experience in group fighting, blocking the people in front, but he was not in a hurry to block the attack behind. Fortunately, he is physically strong and recovers quickly enough, otherwise he would probably be lying on the ground today.
Compared with Yue Fan, in the other group of warbands on the field, there was one person who was much easier than him.
This is a young man in his twenties, dressed in white prison clothes, about six feet tall, with a yellow face and thin muscles, and looks extremely thin. However, he is quite agile, shuttling back and forth through the chaotic crowd, striking when he sees an opportunity, and each attack must be at the vital point, and those who are knocked to the ground lose the ability to fight. Although more than half an hour had passed, his movements did not slow down at all, but his chest rose and fell more and more......
Nearly half an hour passed, and of the more than 1,000 people on the field, there were less than ten left, except for Yue Fan and the thin young man, the others were all dressed in black.
The black-clothed prisoners suddenly moved, and they tacitly left the thin young man behind, and they all rushed towards Yue Fan. "Bump, bump, bump ......" a few times, and the group of men in black fell to the ground.
Yue Fan wiped the blood on his face and fists, looked around, and found that only he and a prisoner dressed in white were left standing in the huge arena, so he looked at the man.
The thin young man also stared at Yue Fan, and after a moment, he cracked his lips and smiled: "'Iron-blooded' winter rain." ”
Although Dong Yu's face was covered with blood and his smile was very hideous, Yue Fan was not disgusted and nodded: "Li Yuefan." ”
At this time, the battalion guard commander came out and said: "The first group of fights is over, the rest of the people can go down to rest, and enjoy more bowls of rice and dinner in the evening, and the rest of the people will have half the rice and grain at night." Hey, hey, the second group starts ......"
......
In the evening, the actual combat training finally came to an end, but there were few of the thousands of prisoners who could still move normally.
After dinner, Yue Fan returned to his tent, found a corner and sat on the ground, and was just about to start cultivating when Dong Yu walked in. He was dressed in a white prison suit, the blood stains on his body had been washed away, and the whole person looked very dry, with his slender body, he was also a little chic, completely different from the competition, but his long hair was coiled around his neck, which was really a little weird. The face is slightly thin but very energetic, and there is a hint of warmth in his cold eyes.
The other prisoners in the tent were all badly wounded, lying on the ground resting, and had no time to care about anything else.
Dongyu walked up to Yue Fan and sat on the ground, and when he saw Yue Fan's white hair, he was stunned in his heart, and said secretly: "Young white hair, interesting." Then he said, "I didn't disturb your rest!"
Yue Fan shook his head and said, "I haven't rested yet, what are you looking for me?"
"I just want to talk to someone. Dongyu shrugged his shoulders and then lay on the ground casually, and said lazily: "You performed well on the field today, you are still the first Tsing Yi prisoner who can hold out to the end in that kind of scene." Look at your martial arts tricks, are you from the rivers and lakes?"
"It's not. Then Yue Fan asked curiously: "They seem to be afraid of you?"
Dongyu was stunned: "You mean those people on the field today!"
Yue Fan nodded.
Dong Yu smiled and said, "They will be very afraid of you in the future...... By the way, how did you get in?"
"Fighting in the streets, sentenced to four years of imprisonment. ”
Dongyu looked a little stunned, and propped himself up and said to Yue Fan: "You can't be in the wrong place!"
"Why?"
"The people who enter here are all death row prisoners or felons, and the crimes you commit, even if you serve in the army, you will go to the baggage camp and other places, and it is impossible to come to this 'death row camp'. ”
"Is there a difference?" Yue Fan didn't quite understand, he had always thought that the army was like this.
Dongyu suddenly had the urge to beat people, he had been here for almost three years, and what he had experienced was far beyond what people could imagine. Under the baptism of blood and fire countless times, he still felt a little strange in retrospect. When he heard Yue Fan's words just now, he was suddenly choked by the words, so he said angrily: "Of course there is a difference, compared to this, this place is no different from hell." So saying, he lay back on the ground.
The tent fell silent......
Dongyu broke the silence and said, "Why don't you ask me how I got here?"
"It's okay with me!" Yue Fan said straight.
Dongyu didn't care either, and said with a smile: "Forget it." I'll talk about it later when you want to know. This time I came to tell you about the "death camp", so that you have a bottom in your heart...... "turned his head to look at Yue Fan"...... lest you not know how you will die. ”
Then he smiled and said, "Do you know why this place is called the 'Death Battalion'?"
After pondering for a moment, Yue Fan frowned and said, "Is it true that no one here has ever gone out alive?"
"That's right, I haven't heard of anyone getting out alive since I came here. I've been here for almost three years, and although I'm still alive, I don't have the confidence to make it out of here alive. ”
Yue Fan couldn't help but say, "Why?"
Dong Yu's face changed, and he said angrily: "Because all the people here are cannon fodder!, damn, those people are really not raised, wait for Lao Tzu to go out...... Hmph!"
"The people here are not as alive as animals. Every time the army attacked the city, they would send us to the front to block the enemy's bows, arrows, swords and guns. On the battlefield, in the face of countless enemies, who dares to guarantee that they will be alive tomorrow, only endless killing and bloody ......" Dong Yu frowned, looking very painful.
It took a long time for him to soothe his brows, and then said: "In order to distinguish the prisoners here, the newcomers who have just come in, all the prisoners like you are wearing blue prison clothes, and the rest of the prisoners are wearing black, but there are a few exceptions, such as the white prison clothes I wear. Different colors represent different levels, and there is also a big difference in treatment, the prisoners in Tsing Yi not only have to sleep on the ground, but they can't even eat enough, the prisoners in black are better, at least they can eat enough, and the prisoners in white can not only eat enough, but also live in a tent alone, and the treatment is the best. However, there are very few people who can become prisoners in white, and now there are only three people left in the camp, in addition to my 'iron blood' Dong Yu, there are also 'spear' Xu Jie and 'fast arrow' Huang Zhenfeng, but I believe it won't be long before you will be one of them. ”
Dongyu sat up suddenly, and the expression on his face became extremely serious: "I think you must have never killed anyone." ”
"Nope. ”
"But the battlefield is a ruthless place, if you have any scruples in your heart, no matter how strong your martial arts are, there is only one way to die, so you must have the consciousness of death now!"
Yue Fan's body shook and nodded lightly.
"It's not too early, I'll go back first, I live in the first camp in the North District opposite, you can come to me if you have something. ”
"Thank you!"
"Don't thank me, I just hope that there will be one more comrade-in-arms on the road in the future, and I think Xu Jie and Huang Zhenfeng will do the same. The road ahead will be difficult, and I don't know if we will be able to get out alive, but I hope we can all live in the future. Then he got up and wanted to go out of the tent.
After the winter rain left, the tent became quiet again. Yue Fan pondered for a moment and then began the cultivation of "Dragon Pole Nine Changes", under the control of spiritual power, the red and cyan vitality in his body began to temper his body continuously, and the muscles on his body became more compact and hard.
Now Yue Fan's comprehension of the "Heart Sutra" has reached a new realm, the method of spitting does not need to be deliberately practiced, it has become a habit of his breathing, although there is not much progress in spiritual power, but the understanding and perception of the seven emotions in the body has become more and more profound.
......
―――――――――――― in the north gate, there are more than 300,000 troops of the Ming Dynasty.
In the center of the barracks is the camp of Mo Zheng, the commander of the crusade against the rebels, in order to prevent the enemy's sneak attack, so his tent is the same as the tent of ordinary soldiers, but the high bed and warm pillow inside are much more comfortable.
"Yu Liang, you went to see the fight of the 'Death Battalion', what do you think of them now?" a gentle voice sounded inside the tent.
"Boss, the overall strength has improved a lot, and I believe it won't be long before the war starts. The battalion's 'Iron Blood', 'Spear' and 'Quick Arrow' were still the best performers. Yu Liang replied respectfully.
"Well, I've always been happy with their performances, and if they make it out there alive, I'll consider promoting them. ”
Yu Liang said again: "But what surprised me was that in this fight, there was a prisoner in Tsing Yi who could be called the last, and he should only be fifteen or sixteen years old, just a white hair, which looked very weird." ”
Mo Zheng was a little surprised, and muttered, "Oh! The young man has white hair, there is such a person." Then he said: "You go and help me find out his secret, and you should pay close attention to his actions, and report any situation directly to me." ”
"Yes!"
"You go down first!"
"Yes!" Yu Liang retreated.
......
The next day, the prisoners dragged their wounded and exhausted bodies to the arena and began a new day of training amid whipping and swearing.
However, this is just the beginning.
......
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