The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 77 Fire Sea
Li Zicheng held the whip in one hand and the rein in the other, trying his best to control the panicked horses under him because of the fire.

The lights in the direction of Dongcheng suddenly dimmed a large area, and two fire dragons suddenly appeared under the night sky.

Various sounds of cries, screams, and hooves of horses suddenly swept along with the sound of war drums and horns.

There has been a change in Dongcheng, but Li Zicheng's attention is not on Dongcheng at all.

Because there is something far more important in the west than the battlefield in the east city.

The raging flames rising to the sky in the west almost reflected the entire sky red, and the direction of the rear camp was as bright as day.

The huge explosion sound rolled along with the fire that soared into the sky, like the rolling muffled thunder before the rainstorm.

Flames danced in Li Zicheng's eyes, and the huge fire reddened Li Zicheng's eyes and his face.

The soldiers and horses were in chaos, and this terrifying scene made everyone panic uncontrollably.

Li Zicheng felt cold.The fire was ignited at the location of the rear camp, which was clearly the safest place in the entire Chunhua territory.

The Ming army in Chunhua City was obviously surrounded in the city, the lights of the front battalion were still on, and there was no sign of being attacked.

But now the back camp is on fire. Could it be that the Ming army in Chunhua City had wings, flew over the mountains, and circled to the back camp?

Even if they really grew wings and went around to the back camp, there are nearly [-] horse and infantry troops guarding the back camp. Could it be that everyone is blind and incompetent?

Just when Li Zicheng's thoughts changed sharply, an extremely dull sound of a trumpet came from the south.

Immediately afterwards, a series of gunfire sounded again on the city wall, and the gate of the North City suddenly opened.

Behind the city gate, a group of Ming army soldiers in armor with swords and shields rushed out of the city, and instantly dispersed several surrounding army formations.

For a short moment, Li Zicheng didn't even realize what happened.

The situation on the entire battlefield has completely changed.

Li Zicheng opened his mouth and wanted to speak, but he didn't know what to say.

There was chaos everywhere, noises, noises, neighing, and trampling all rushed into his head.

The disturbance made Li Zicheng restless and confused.

The sound of explosions in the rear camp in the west continued continuously, and the flames became more and more intense, not only getting bigger, but also getting wider and wider.

Although the drought in Shaanxi has eased slightly, there is still not much rainfall.

The past few days have been sunny and there has not been much rain.

Most of the camp structures are made of wooden tents, and most of the old and weak camps are self-administered, and only a small number of troops are divided into quarrels and commotions.

As for setting up a camp, there was nothing particular about it, it was all random.

In the camp, the arrangement is chaotic, and the dry weather is helping the fire.

The fire was fierce and swept away in all directions to the west.

Countless burnt-out dust was lifted up by the heat wave, and accompanied by the strong northwest wind.

Under the reflection of the fire soaring into the sky, the originally dark night sky was illuminated, and the sky was like the setting sun at dusk, like a scene of doomsday.

Everyone was shocked by this horrible scene.

Not only Li Zicheng, who was supervising the battle in Beicheng, but even Gao Jie, who lit the first fire with his own hands, was so frightened that he couldn't even stand firm.

"Why... such a big commotion..."

Gao Jie's hands trembled, his face was reddened by the fire under the foot of the mountain.

Xing was holding Gao Jie's right arm, her eyes were full of fear, but she seemed much calmer than Gao Jie, at least she still maintained the calmness she should have.

At the beginning, the sentries of the officers and soldiers sneaked into the camp and found Gao Jie. After probing, they confirmed that he was really an officer and soldier in Chunhua City.

She knew that the opportunity came, so she persuaded Gao Jie and expressed her willingness to cooperate with the Ming army.

The Xing family was in charge of Yiying's logistics, and the gunpowder was also included in the ordnance by Li Zicheng.

In the past few days, the Xing family has been arranging ordnance, food and grass to pile them together as much as possible, and looking for various reasons to prepare fire starters.

From then until today, when they saw the beacon fire and signal burning in Chunhua City, Xing and Gao Jie immediately took action.

Under Gao Jie's command, there are also a dozen or so loyal confidants, all child soldiers, adopted sons of Gao Jie, most of whom are seventeen or eighteen years old.

It is more direct to cultivate cronies among the rogues than the generals and schools of the Ming army, or they are fellow villagers.

Or choose directly from those orphans, choose a child who is still young but has a good physique, and accept him as a foster son and a trusted confidant.

Later, the fellow villagers were basically sent out to serve as military officers, while the personal guards all used adopted sons, and their loyalty was sufficiently guaranteed.

This is a big matter, once it is leaked, it is impossible to survive or die.

Gao Jie couldn't even trust those cronies who followed him from the beginning, he only believed in these adopted sons he raised since childhood.

The moon was dark and the wind was high, and the battle on the front line did not affect the rear battalion, and a large number of firelighters were lit in a short period of time.

Gao Jie and Xing Shi had already fled all the way to the deep mountains with the sentinels who came to pick them up from the Ming army.

They had just reached the halfway up the mountain when there were already loud explosions.

The warehouse where the gunpowder was stored was ignited, and then a large-scale explosion was triggered, and the red flame almost rose into the air.

If it wasn't for building the camp and building the ladder, the trees on both sides of the camp would have been cut down, and the fire might have spread to the mountains on both sides.

In the camp below the mountain, there were bursts of shrill cries, and the whole camp was completely in chaos.

Most of the people were still in a dreamland, and the sudden explosion sound and the huge fire woke them up, making the camp even more chaotic.

How could such a large fire be rescued? No one was stupid enough to fetch water to put out the fire, and everyone ran in the opposite direction.

Whether it is a soldier or a civilian, there is only one thought - escape!
All order and discipline disappeared in everyone's minds, and everyone just wanted to escape.

The old, the weak, women and children are in a disadvantaged position in the crowd, the crowd is crowded, people keep falling to the ground, and people keep disappearing in the torrent.

The company camp at the foot of the mountain is like a hell on earth, countless people struggle desperately in it, but in the end they cannot escape death.

The more chaotic and crowded it is, the more disordered and difficult it is to escape.

The fire has turned into a prairie fire, quickly spreading to the surroundings, and people are constantly being engulfed by the flames.

Gao Jie's heart felt cold, and his whole body felt cold.

The fire he put down by himself was dozens of times greater than the chaos and destruction he had imagined.

(End of this chapter)