Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 28 Victory
At this time, the second wave of arrows from the archers on the opposite side had arrived, and there was another scream. The thieves in front scattered towards the wasteland on both sides, and the third wave of arrows only shot into the team that rushed up from behind.Only now did the thieves realize that the archers on the opposite side were strong, and they immediately dispersed into the fields on both sides. The three waves of ninety arrows basically hit the target. The thieves were so dense that it was difficult not to hit them.

Mou Da used his eyes to see the thieves and bandits in chaos, and then shouted: "Archers stand back, cover and shoot, spearmen, sword and shield hands move forward, go!"

The achievements of the archers encouraged the bravery behind. They saw that the bandits on the opposite side were not as good as themselves. At least they had knives and guns in their hands.Following the roar of Mou Dayong, the two hundred spearmen were divided into four rows. The front row carried a ten-foot-long spear and marched forward, and the rear rows followed closely with their spears in their hands. Although the pace was chaotic, But it is also considered a little momentum.The sword and shield hands on both sides hold the wooden shield in the left and the waist knife in the right to protect the sides of the spearman.

When passing by the nine dragons under the pressure of the mount, a sword and shield hand cut off the head of the nine dragons who were trying to get out from under the mount with a single knife. hand.

Zuo Erhu rode on the horse, saw the nine dragons killed in battle, and was furious in front of him in chaos. He drew his knife and roared: "Sweeping Tiger, tell the pawns in front to retreat to the two sides. You take the old battalion up, let the musketeers and The archers shoot the formation on the opposite side!"

After Li Hanwa heard the words, she took off her waist knife and waved her hand at the old battalion behind, saying, "Come on!" When the pioneer horse trotted forward, she slashed left and right with the scabbard in her hand to disperse the pawns blocking the road. Swear at them and tell them to go away.

At this moment, most of the infantry in front of the thieves fled to the fields on both sides. After the thieves in front of the official road were driven away, the spear team of the village warriors was only a few dozen steps away from Li Hanwa.Li Hanwa reined in his horse, and more than [-] archers and blunderbussmen arrived behind him. The archers bent their bows and set arrows and threw them at the villagers. The bludgeons blew on the matchsticks and fired the blunderbusses. Suddenly, the smoke enveloped the front, and Xiangyong's spearmen also screamed in distress. More than [-] arrows all fell in the densely advancing array of spearmen. The injured Xiangyong rolled over and fell to the ground, screaming loudly while clutching the part where the arrow was shot.One of the spearmen in the front row was hit in the chest by a blunderbuss and fell to the ground, spitting out blood. His internal organs had been crushed by the bludgeon.

The township warriors panicked immediately, and the formation stopped suddenly. Many people turned their heads and looked around, ready to escape; Mou Dayong rode on the side of the team, so he was not hit. Seeing that the township brave team was about to collapse, his eyes widened, Seeing the color of blood, he shouted: "Go forward, go forward, cut the one who retreats!" After saying that, he clamped the horse's belly fiercely, raised the knife and charged away.

At this time, the bandit's second batch of arrows had arrived, and this time more than a dozen people were shot and fell to the ground. The village warriors saw Master Dian Shi rushing over on horseback. The horse used by Mou Da was about to rush into the group of archers, when a long arrow shot from behind and hit him in the eye socket, the huge impact shot him backwards, and he fell off the horse and died.

A few dozen steps away, Zuo Erhu put down his longbow and looked forward coldly. He wanted to shoot Mou Dayong's horse, but he shot Mou Dayong to death.

Seeing the death of the opponent's general, Li Hanwa shouted excitedly: "The dog magistrate is dead, go!"

At this time, the archers hid on both sides, and the bandit old battalion rushed over. Seeing Dian Shi's death in battle, the village warriors lost all fighting spirit and broke up. , I thought to myself, is this the place to chase after death?

Zuo Erhu knew that he had won this time, and ordered the cavalry behind to pursue him.Seeing the sudden reversal of the situation, the bandit infantry who had fled into the field turned around and ran towards the official road. A large group of infantry began to scramble for the swords, guns and weapons left by Xiangyong on the battlefield, and the road fell into chaos again. The horse team arrived, but was blocked by their own infantry, Zuo Erhu and Li Hanwa cursed, the field was noisy and chaotic, the infantry couldn't hear their curses at all, and the cavalry had no choice but to stop.

At this moment, the ground trembled, Zuo Erhu looked around in panic, the dense sound of horseshoes sounded like heavy hammers beating drums, and a horse team suddenly appeared in his sight more than a hundred steps away from the right side of the official road, Zuo Erhu Shouting loudly: "Official army! It's the official army! The cavalry of the official army! Quickly, quickly, line up!"

The infantry scrambling for weapons were also startled by the sound of hooves coming, straightened up and looked around, just as they saw the dust and smoke from the charge of the horses, the horses of the Yongwei Battalion had already slammed straight into the bandits' path from the flanks with a bang. team.

As the arrow of the cavalry, Luo Shifang rode alone in the front, and the guards on both sides followed him by half a horse behind.

The first to bear the brunt was the one hundred horse team. Luo Shifang let go of the reins and swept forward with both hands holding the guns.

Luo Shifang kept sweeping the spear in his hand, and the bandit cavalry formation was extremely thin, and they were completely killed in the blink of an eye.After the horse rushed forward for a while, Luo Shifang turned the horse's head around and rushed towards the chaotic infantry. Scattering and fleeing, Luo Shifang didn't bother to chase and kill these mobs, so he reined in his horses and ordered the horse team to continue chasing and killing those who knelt down to avoid death.

Xun Wenli was about to draw his sword to commit suicide, when the Yongwei Battalion rushed over, less than a quarter of an hour later, the so-called bandit cavalry and the old battalion had been killed.

Xun Wenli was dumbfounded, and roared loudly regardless of his image for a moment. The fleeing villagers stopped after hearing the sound of roaring horseshoes. When they turned around, they were also stunned by what they saw. They waited for Luo Shifang's soldiers to convey After the order to clean the battlefield, the townspeople cheered and rushed to the battlefield.

Xun Wenli found Mou Dayong's body, touched it and wept.Villagers picked up their discarded knives and guns and searched around. As long as there were wounded and groaning bandits, the hated ones would pierce them with spears and cut off their heads. Some groped for the dead bandits and found money After looking around, no one noticed, and secretly hid in his arms.

Most of the fleeing thieves knelt down on the ground, waiting for the officers and soldiers to deal with them, amidst the shouts of kneeling down and not killing the four-legged cavalry.

The cavalry of the Yongwei Battalion asked the Xiangyong who rushed over to tie his hands behind his back with the belt of the bandit, and drove them to the official road to gather. After counting, 12 people in the Yongwei Battalion were injured and no one was killed.Xiangyong killed 28 people and injured 16 people.A total of more than 38 thieves were killed, more than [-] were captured, [-] horses, three firecrackers, and hundreds of weapons such as knives, guns, bows and arrows were captured.

After being identified by the soldiers of the old battalion captured by the bandits, Zuo Erhu, Li Hanwa and other bandit leaders were killed during the first charge of the Yongwei Camp. Zuo Erhu's body had been trampled to the point of being inhuman, and he was still a bandit from the old battalion. Recognize him by his armor attire.

Luo Shifang did not dismount, and the wounded soldiers would follow the Xiangyong team back to the county for treatment, leaving fifty cavalry to help the Xiangyong take the captives back to the county, and then lead the team to Zuo Erhu's cottage.

When he was approaching the stockade, he met the soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion who were about to come to report that the stockade had been breached, and no one was killed in the battle, only a few people were slightly injured.Luo Shifang ordered 100 people to stay in charge of the horses and guard the horses, and led the rest of the soldiers up the mountain to enter the stockade on foot.

The battle in the village had just ended, and the soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion were escorting the prisoners to clean up the battlefield and bury the corpses.Seeing Luo Shifang's arrival, the leader of the team saluted General Sun Kaizhong and reported: "The humble officer led his headquarters to ambush near the gate of the village, and waited for the brigade of bandits to go down the mountain and then raided the gate of the village. These grassroots are indeed slack. They were not closed, but after a few sentry posts, the humble led a team to rush into the stockade. The elite thieves and bandits had already set off, and the rest were old, weak, women and children. Surrender. The humble officer is torturing the location of the warehouse of the thieves, and the humble officer estimates that the general has won, so he sent someone to report to the general to come and take stock!"

Luo Shifang smiled and said: "What king of neatness, what old camp, who came from the frontier army, but he is like a chicken and a dog! After a few charges, there are no bones left! Xun Zhixian is a knowledgeable person, and he knows what the general came to the cottage. He didn't say a word, it seems that when we report back to Master Sun, we should say a few good words to him, he is a good person, it would be a pity if he goes home to take care of himself!"

At this time, the soldiers came to report that they had found Zuo Erhu's warehouse, and asked the general to go and check it.

Luo Shifang, Sun Kaizhong and other generals came to the back of the cottage. There were several warehouses on a flat ground, and several officers and soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion were guarding with weapons.

Luo Shifang and others walked to the door of the first barn, Sun Kaizhong pulled out his waist knife and cut off the door lock, Luo Shifang led the way, and several people followed inside.

There are more than a dozen wooden boxes of different sizes in the spacious room, all of which are locked. Sun Kaizhong came to a large wooden box, raised a knife and chopped off the lock, and then opened the wooden box with one hand. Suddenly, a white light was dazzling. , Sun Kaizhong gasped hissingly.Luo Shifang and others hurried forward to check, and saw that the huge wooden box was neatly filled with silver ingots, each containing 50 taels. It is estimated that there should be about [-] taels of silver in the box.

Rao is from Luo Shifang's family background, and the monthly routine silver at home was only ten taels before. I have never seen so much silver, and I am shocked at the moment. They are all the color of greed.

Luo Shifang, who came back to his senses first, coughed, and everyone just woke up.Then everyone opened the rest of the boxes. The big box was full of silver, and the small boxes contained some jewelry, jade, and antiques. Some of the jewelry was still stained with blood. Preliminarily, it is estimated that there are as much as 8 to [-] taels of silver. This is the accumulation of Zuo Erhu's looting over the years, which is quite amazing.

Sun Kaizhong came to Luo Shifang with a heavy small box in his hands. After opening it, the golden light shone brightly, and it was full of gold ingots.

After Luo Shifang pondered for a while, he put the box on the ground, knelt down and took out the gold ingots inside, and divided them into several piles of the same number and placed them on the ground. He and the four were exactly 60 taels each.

He stood up and said: "These golds are easy to carry. Each person takes a share. Don't let outsiders know!" Everyone was overjoyed, and they picked up the gold and were waiting to put it in their arms. Sun Kaizhong hesitated, took out twelve taels of gold and handed Give it to Luo Shifang, and said: "The general is the master general, how can the master general and the subordinates share equally, the adults should take more!"

The rest of the people immediately realized that they took out twelve taels from their share and handed them over to the general.

Luo Shifang laughed and scolded: "You have been with me for several years, don't you know who I am? Hurry up and hide and get out, remember, never let outsiders know!"

Sun Kaizhong scratched his head and said with a smile: "It is our duty to give or not, and it is the general's will to accept or not!"

After they put away the gold ingots, they went out of the house and went to several other warehouses to check.

Two of the other warehouses are granaries, which are as much as three thousand stones.One is a warehouse for supplies such as cloth, salt, needles and thread. After all, Zuo Erhu has more than [-] people under him, and the daily consumption is also huge.There was also some weapons and armor and several bags of gunpowder piled up in a warehouse. Naturally, Luo Shifang and others did not notice it. After a few people went out of the house to discuss, Luo Shifang decided to leave everything except the silver to Shanyang County. They brought cavalry, and the food and grass could not be transported back to Xi'an, and it would take a long time to organize the civilian carriages. Luo Shifang couldn't bear this matter, so he simply gave Xun Wenli a favor.

Because the largest group of rebels in Shanyang has been wiped out, there will be no danger around.Luo Shifang summoned all the soldiers except the 50 who were in charge of the captives and the warehouse, and announced that each person would be rewarded with 15 taels of silver, and each injured soldier would be rewarded with [-] taels of silver.

After rewarding the silver, Sun Kaizhong found several carriages from the cottage, commanded the soldiers to lift up the boxes containing the silver taels, and filled five carts. Several soldiers who had driven the carriages at home acted as coachmen. The subordinates drove the carriage back.When passing through the county seat, he sent people to inform Xun Wenli to arrange manned vehicles to transport food and escort the prisoners, saying that he still had military orders, and that he could not go to visit. The soldiers and the dozen or so people recovering from injuries in the county will catch up with the brigade after Shanyang County takes over the aftermath.

It took five days to get back to Xi’an because there was no need to rush on the way back, and the taxis loaded with money were walking slowly, and people had to carry them with them when encountering potholes.

Sun Chuanting, Zhuang Yuanzhou, and Cui and Xie, who had inspected Xi'an Qianwei a few days ago, were discussing the strategy in the study of the inner courtyard. Sun Zhian came to announce that Luo Shifang had returned and was waiting outside the door.

Sun Chuanting hurriedly let him in. Luo Shifang strode into the study without taking off his armor, knelt on one knee and cupped his hands and reported loudly to Sun Chuanting: "At the end of the day, the general ordered to surprise the bandits in Shanyang County. Qi Wang Zuo Erhu, Sweeping Tiger and Nine Dragons killed more than 12 enemies and captured [-] prisoners; [-] people were injured in the headquarters, but no one was killed; More than [-] vehicles of silver, more than [-] shi of grain, and countless other supplies were seized. Because the grain and grass are inconvenient to carry, only the silver taels were transported back, and please forgive me for the crime of arbitrarily making claims!"

Everyone in the room was overjoyed when they heard that, Sun Chuanting stood up, helped Luo Shifang up with joy on his face, laughed and praised: "General Luo is really a strong general! The Yongwei Battalion is worthy of being the number one strong army in the world! The first battle has been won , with 400 men to defeat the enemy several times, and no one was killed, it is comparable to the strong soldiers of the Han and Tang Dynasties! Hahahaha! Come, come, sit down, and talk about the battle in detail!"

After Luo Shifang sat down with salutes, he told how he led his troops to Shanyang, and then met the county magistrate, such as setting up an ambush, rushing into the battle, sending generals to raid and seize the village, etc. in detail, and heard that the magistrate of Shanyang, as a civil official, also went After entering the battle formation, Dian Shi died in a fierce battle, and everyone admired and sighed.

Zhuang Yuanzhou smiled and congratulated Sun Chuanting, "Your Excellency first came to Shaanxi, and you have wiped out a group of bandits in less than a month. It's a pity! The first fire has already started, so let's see how the second fire goes!"

"It's all because of the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. He dispatched a strong army like the Yongwei Battalion to come here, and even a brave general like General Luo to help me. Next, I need a few great talents to spare no effort to make suggestions. We will work together to pacify Shaanxi as soon as possible!" Sun Chuanting said with emotion.

Everyone sat down again, Sun Chuanting took the main seat, Zhuang Yuanzhou and Luo Shifang sat horizontally on the left side, Cui Shisheng and Xie Renxing sat on his right side, and they were all well-equipped.

Zhuang Yuanzhou said: "My lord, you should immediately write a victory report and submit it to the imperial court. The first is to reassure the courtiers of the Holy Majesty, and the second is to boost the morale of the rest of the officers and soldiers who suppressed the bandits. There is very little news of the officers and soldiers winning. I believe this Master Shi's good news will somewhat reverse the sluggish situation of the rest of the officers and soldiers!"

Sun Chuanting praised: "What Zhongfang said is very true, so you can draft the victory report! Shifang should be the first credit, Shanyang magistrate's courage to do things is the second credit, and the history of death in battle should also report his credit, so that the imperial court can compensate his family members. Send someone six hundred li to rush it to the capital!"

Zhuang Yuanzhou responded, and Sun Chuanting said again: "The next step is the second step, just as we discussed just now, we will take the guards for surgery; the matter of the guards is not only the result of our own investigation, but also the information provided by Jin Yiwei Qianhu. Intelligence has reached the point where governance is imperative, otherwise it will continue, and it will be another trend of civil uprising! Shifang's great victory came at the right time, making some people who are stern to their officials fearful, knowing that Mr. Sun did not come to Shaanxi with bare hands Shi Sheng, Ren Xing, wait for Mr. Huizhuang to draft a good report, and you two will issue a notice in the name of the governor's office, summoning more than a thousand generals from the three guards of Xi'an, and rush to the governor's hall for a meeting before the day after tomorrow. Engage!"

(End of this chapter)