I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 278

Chapter 277

Zhang Xianzhong woke up from his sleep in Sangongzhai, Dabie Mountain, Susong. It can be said that he had a nightmare. He dreamed that Cheng Shijie stepped on his head, making him unable to breathe.

When Zhang Xianzhong's head was fully awake, he felt something was wrong.

Zhang Xianzhong can be regarded as a senior rogue.From the last year of the Apocalypse, there have been constant famines throughout Shaanxi, severe drought and insect plagues, scorched seedlings, and starvation everywhere.Farmers can't live on, so they have to take risks.Peasant riots first broke out in northern Shaanxi, and soon became a prairie fire.

Zhang Xianzhong was originally from Liushujianbao, Dingbian County. When he was young, he studied and joined the army. He was a policeman in Yan'an Prefecture.He should be executed for breaking the law. The chief general Chen Hongfan saw his strange appearance, so he pleaded with Wang Wei, the commander-in-chief, and beat him with [-] army sticks to remove him from the name.

When he was in the country, Zhang Xianzhong was tall and thin with a yellowish face, beard of one foot and six inches.In the third year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong integrated the eighteen villages in Dingbian, responded to the riots of Wang Jiayin and others, and called himself "Eight Kings".

From the three years of Chongzhen to the present, they have fought a circle around Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.The army based on the Eighteen Villages in Dingbian led by him has strong internal cohesion and brave battles. It has always been the elite of the bandit army.

Later, Gao Yingxiang became the leader of the Rebel Army all over the world, and Zhang Xianzhong went directly to Fengyang. He became famous in heaven, and his power grew stronger and stronger.However, when Zhang Xianzhong started to target Macheng, he started to run into trouble.In the battle in Heshun Village, he was defeated by Cheng Shijie's [-] elite Ning navy cavalry with tens of thousands of horsemen. Now he managed to escape to Susong territory, but the problem is that this cottage is so rich.

Just as Lao Tzu wrote in the "Tao Te Ching": "In the case of misfortune, good fortune rests, and in good fortune, misfortune rests." Although the materials seized in Sangongzhai are compared with those seized in an ordinary county or even a prefectural city There are even more supplies.But the problem is that these materials include canned meat, sugar, salt beans, and wine.There is wheat, rice, and dried meat.

Extremely exhausted, when encountering so many supplies, he naturally ate and drank a lot. When Zhang Xianzhong got up, the entire camp was almost drunk.The few rogues who are still awake are also venting their primitive animal desires.

"Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty!"

Wherever Zhang Xianzhong passed by, all the bandits saluted one after another.

Zhang Xianzhong asked: "We are not familiar with the place here, have you arranged a sentry? Don't capsize in the gutter!"

"Your Majesty, don't worry, it's already been arranged!"

One of Zhang Xianzhong's generals Guo Shanhu said: "Your Majesty, if you want to touch our camp, unless they fly in like flies, they will definitely be discovered by our people!"

Listening to Guo Shanhu's report, Zhang Xianzhong didn't feel at ease, but instead felt his heart thump for no reason, and his heart beat faster.

At this moment, Zhang Xianzhong felt the smell of boiled meat.

Looking in the direction of the fragrance, however, the source of the fragrance of meat is not in Three Gong Village.

Don’t think that being a rogue is so majestic. In fact, most people can’t eat enough. Even if they can barely fill their stomachs, the food is not good. Wowotou made of bran and wild vegetables is the staple food. If you can get some beans Add some salt and boil it, and it will be a delicious meal, without any oil or water in the stomach.

Of course, the leader level not only has meat to eat, but also wine to drink. Their treatment is actually better than that of ordinary landlords, just like Zhang Xianzhong's Chinese army, even if he doesn't rob the Three-Gow Village, he still has a certain amount of meat and wine. Includes rice and flour.

Zhang Xianzhong looked at the piles of bonfires in the distance, looked at Zijinxing and said: "You have good eyesight, let's see how many of them are there?"

Zi Jinxing looked at the piles and counted the bonfires, but couldn't count them clearly after counting several times.He sighed and said, "I'm afraid there are quite a lot of troops, there must be thousands of people."

Zhang Xianzhong asked: "How many thousand is it? Three thousand or five thousand?"

Zi Jinxing shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it won't stop!"

Zhang Xianzhong took a breath.So many officers and soldiers came without making a sound, what a trouble!

At this moment, there was a loud noise in the distance, and an orange fireball rose into the sky.Several rogues were blown to pieces, and two wounded lay on the ground, crying out.

"what happened?"

Zhang Xianzhong walked towards the direction of the explosion.I saw a girl leading a dozen absentees, holding a tin trumpet, and yelling at Zhang Xianzhong's department: "Grandma is here, come and beat me!"

"Little girl, don't bark now, there will be a chance for you to bark later!"

"You guys came out to beat us! You bastards, a bunch of shrunken-headed turtles, are less courageous than a mother-in-law! Go back to your hometown and eat the bark as soon as possible, because you still want to rebel if you are so brave? You are not afraid of making people laugh out loud !"

Faced with the little girl's scolding, these rogues were naturally not to be outdone, and scolded back one after another: "Don't run away if you have the guts!"

"Don't run, you think I'm stupid!"

"We don't bully the few with the more, let's single out!"

"I am 14 years old, and I am singled out with a 14-year-old girl, do you want to face?"

"I beat you three alone, if you have the guts, come here!"

"You have the seeds to come over!"

It was night now, most of the rogues were malnourished and unable to fight at night, even Zhang Xianzhong had mild night blindness, let alone the others.

Zhang Xianzhong is not stupid, he naturally knew that there must be an ambush around these dozen little girls, the two sides scolded each other, but no one made a move.

About three miles away from the front of Sangongzhai, this is the camp of Ning Haijun.

In front of a bonfire in the camp, Sun Ke looked at the camp of the rogues, and heaved a sigh of relief, "We've caught them!"

"It's a pity that Lao Yuan's artillery didn't catch up. Otherwise, if dozens of cannons fired, he would be called the Eight Great Kings and immediately become the Eight Kings of Death!"

Zhao Wencai smiled lightly: "Fortunately, a good meal is not afraid of being late!"

Sun Kewang looked at Zhao Wencai and said: "General Zhao, in my opinion, there is no need to wait until tomorrow's dawn. Now I will launch an attack and tear a hole in their camp. You lead the cavalry to take the opportunity to rush in, a guy will crush them!"

"inappropriate!"

Zhao Wencai said solemnly: "Our commander-in-chief has always been the most disgusted with generals who disregard the lives of soldiers. If I dare to do this, the commander-in-chief will have to take off my uniform even if he doesn't screw off my head!"

Meng En looked at Sun Kewang and said, "It's good to have vigor, but you can't rush into the enemy's midst with vigor alone!"

In fact, Sun Kewang was not at ease with Zhao Wencai. Of course, he also knew that Meng En was different from Zhao Wencai. Zhao Wencai, like himself, was from the army.And Meng En was born in Cheng Shijie's old lineage.

Sun Kewang dared to deceive Zhao Wencai, but he did not dare to be presumptuous to Meng En.He looked at Meng En and said, "Then, according to General Meng's opinion, what should we do now?"

Meng En smiled lightly and said: "Tomorrow we will cook at five o'clock and eat at six o'clock. When the sun rises, the whole army will press up and force the bandits to fight us! We will face each other. These mobs are no match for us anyway. We only need one battle." Defeat them completely!"

Sun Kewang pondered for a while, then nodded and said: "The epee has no front, so it's a skill that doesn't work, it's wonderful!"

Although Meng Enyi was preparing to face Zhang Xianzhong head-on, in fact, this was not really fair, but to take advantage of Ning Haijun's equipment advantages and long-range advantages.Although Meng En's infantry unit did not have long-range artillery, it still had support firepower and Franc machine artillery, and the firepower was much stronger than that of the cavalry.

"I hope that tomorrow I will be able to do all the work in one battle, so that I can free up my hands to support Luzon."

In the night wind, Meng En looked towards Three Bow Village, and said with a worried look on his face, "I don't know what's going on in Luzon. It is said that the Spaniards are back!"

Zhao Wencai frowned and asked, "Why, has the Imperial Guard Commander received the order to go to Luzon?"

"The General Staff Department plans to adopt a rotation system. For our Ning Navy's capable soldiers, each commander will go to Luzon to perform combat missions for a year. Our Guard Commander is also among them. Not only the Guard Commander, but even Wusongkou , The troops of the senior members are also in the rotation!"

Zhao Wencai sighed and said, "It seems that the situation in Luzon is not optimistic!"

"What, the situation in Luzon is very good, but the general wants to use the natives of Luzon to train troops!" Meng En said with a smile: "Our Ning Navy has developed too fast, and there are still many soldiers who have been in the army for two or three years. Haven't had a chance to see blood yet!"

After a long day's journey, they were already hungry. The Ning Navy soldiers wiped out the food with amazing efficiency, and then fell asleep.Recharge your batteries and get ready for tomorrow's fight.

Early the next morning, all the rogues got out of bed.They didn't sleep well last night. Apart from the harassment from the young and strong in Sangong Village, it was more because they learned that the brigade Ning Haijun was coming, and they were only two or three miles away. Who can sleep?
You must know that Ning Haijun's battle in Heshun had already cast a shadow on Zhang Xianzhong's rogues. The gunshots like popping beans and the artillery like fire dragons were simply their nightmare.They got up early, leaned on the fence and looked into the distance, wanting to see what happened.

Two miles away and directly ahead, the Ning Navy cavalry is forming a team. In front of the cavalry, there are more than 200 carts. open fire.

Zhang Xianzhong had already seen the combat effectiveness of Ning Haijun's cavalry, and he no longer had the will to resist in the face of Ning Haijun's thunderbolts and rocket launchers.

"Arrest a few people and ask, how many roads are there in this village!"

Guo Shanhu said: "Your Majesty, I asked you a long time ago. There are three roads in total. The road in front of us can lead to the county seat. Now we can't go, because they are blocked by their cavalry!"

Zhang Xianzhong asked directly: "What about the other road?"

"It leads to the pier, the road condition is relatively good, and it is very wide!"

"Then we..."

When Zhang Xianzhong came to the south gate of Sangongzhai, two miles away from the south gate at this time, the infantry of the Ning navy was also in the whole team, and then they were discharged at one time, with dozens of gates of Flang machine at the front. Artillery, followed by dozens of Thunderbolt vehicles, and a line of defense lined up with baggage vehicles.

On the front line of this car formation, there is a steel forest composed of pikemen. If the enemy is charged head-on, they will go up to intercept them without hesitation. The pikemen rely on the shield wall to form a daunting forest of guns , coupled with the rain of bullets poured out by the gunners, it is guaranteed that the enemies rushing into the formation will not be able to eat and walk around.

The rogue looked at all this in astonishment, isn't it, the fight is going to start early in the morning?You guys are too active, we haven't even had breakfast yet!

Zhang Xianzhong was already very desperate at this time. After being kicked and hit by many bosses, the rogues picked up the guy, stuffed something in their mouths, and then drove out of the camp in a mess, ready to fight.

They still don't know what medicine is sold in the gourds of the officers and soldiers, but since the officers and soldiers have already put on a fighting posture, they can only accompany them.

Ning navy infantry marched at a constant speed of 88 steps per minute, very rhythmic, the most terrifying thing was their silence, thousands of people marched at the same time, no one spoke, not even a horse barked, full of eardrums, It is their neat and powerful footsteps, and the brisk and rhythmic drumbeat.

Thousands of people marched to the beat of the marching drum.When they got closer, the rogues were surprised to see that these officers and soldiers were all wearing black battle robes and oval pointed steel helmets. On the steel helmets, the blood-red helmet tassels danced in the morning wind, like jumping blood-devouring elves .

Not only that, but all of them are wearing iron armor, looking around, it is simply a sea of ​​metal!
All the leaders looked at each other in amazement, which army is this, and how can it have such excellent equipment?It is understandable if the cavalry is well equipped. After all, there are few cavalry in the Ming Dynasty, and every cavalry is a baby bump.

But the problem is that infantry is a cheap type of arms. With a spear or a knife, you are a soldier. As long as there is food, there are as many soldiers as there are.When Zhang Xianzhong attacked Fengyang, he had only [-] old battalion troops around him. However, after defeating Fengyang, his troops doubled or tripled.

If it weren't for the large number of people and not enough food to feed them, Zhang Xianzhong could expand his troops to tens of thousands at any time.

Now Ninghai's rangers have opened the mighty security curtain, pressing towards their wings, driving out their scouts.In the battle of the scouts, the gap between the two sides was vividly reflected. As the three-foot-three-inch long compound bows were fired, the old battalion rangers wielding scimitars and wanted to fight with Ning Haijun's scouts screamed one after another. Then fell off the horse.

These rogues are brave and skilled in bow and horse, but the Ning Navy is rich and powerful. Sun Chengzong also used his influence to select elite knights from the frontier army. Many of the current Ning Navy cavalry are knights with superb riding skills. These guys have learned to ride horses before they have learned to walk. They have dealt with nomads on horseback since they were young. Their kung fu on horseback is as good as that of Jiannu, and their equipment has an absolute advantage. The scout of Zhang Xianzhong's army I have suffered so much.

Zhang Xianzhong felt a little distressed, these cavalrymen were all elites of his direct lineage, and it was all up to them to run the world, but now, the elites he painstakingly cultivated let the other party be rabbits, and it was a joy to shoot one arrow at a time.

There is no other way now.

"Where is the third way?"

As soon as Zhang Xianzhong finished speaking, Zi Jinxing said in surprise: "My lord, what do you mean..."

"I mean, this battle can't be fought!"

Now Ning Haijun's artillery has not yet fired, and the Thunderbolt has not yet fired. They have killed and injured more than 300 people, but Ning Haijun has not killed or injured anyone. How can this battle be fought?
With a record of more than 300 to zero, if you continue to fight, you will have a hole in your head.

"The opposite side is completely a group of mobs. We can knock them down with a single charge. I really don't know why General Zhao refuses to let us charge!"

The cavalry shouted: "Yes, why don't you let us go? This is a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds!"

Qiao Siniang said: "Let you go, of course there is a chance to crush the bandits in one fell swoop, but the question is, how many people do you plan to lose? Two hundred? Or three hundred?"

"There is no one who can't die in a war!"

Qiao Siniang said: "Of course wars will kill people, but we should try our best to minimize the number of deaths. Human heads are not leeks, they can grow back after being cut off. Who is not raised by parents?"

Qiao Siniang taught people well, and all the Ning navy cavalrymen kept their mouths shut and didn't complain anymore.

"Come back and guard the village!"

"My lord, as long as we retreat, their cannons will come up, so how can we fight?"

"If you tell you to back it back, back it up, less fucking nonsense!"

Zhang Xianzhong made a gesture of retreat towards the confidant leader, and the leaders of the rogues understood it instantly. They found their own scapegoats and patted each other's shoulders: "Boy, I have always been optimistic about you. Fight this battle well. What will happen in the future?" how!"

A group of unidentified rogues began to retreat in front of the wall of the village. In all fairness, the wall of Sangong Village was built fairly well, most of which were made of stones. He was born as a miner. After making money from mining phosphate mines, he rebuilt the village.

Seeing all the rogues retreat to the stockade, all the Ning navy cavalry were so angry that they scolded their mothers one after another.

"They're all cowards!"

"It's like fighting with grandpa!"

"Damn it, are you a man?"

Without leaving the Walled City to fight in the field, the cavalry has almost no credit, and these credits will be taken by the artillery of the Ning Navy. The cavalry felt that the duck in its beak flew away.

Zhang Xianzhong came to the back mountain of Sangongzhai, looking at the so-called road in the back mountain, he felt his scalp tingling. This so-called road was almost at a seventy-degree angle, and it was a steep hillside.

"How is this going to happen?"

"Go down the rope ladder!"

Several rogues were lowering the mountain with rope ladders. Before they came down, there was a burst of gunfire behind them. Ning Haijun found out that the rogues retreated to the stronghold, so naturally he would not be polite. Machine artillery, the shells were thrown towards Sangong Village as if they didn't want money.

Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly climbed down the mountain.

"Boom boom boom..."

One after another rocket shells and shells landed in Three Bow Village, as long as one shell landed on the ground, several or a dozen rogues would be thrown to pieces.

At this moment, a bandit leader grabbed a Sangongzhai miner who was so frightened that he was crying. His original intention was to use this miner as a meat shield. However, more and more bandits realized that they Capture the miners who have not had time to kill and use them as meat shields.

It's not that Zhang Xianzhong is kind. Every time they go to a place, they will coerce local people to join them. There are more than 600 miners, as many as [-] young and strong. For Zhang Xianzhong, this is a fresh blood .

A famous bandit escorted the miner, as well as the miner's family members, women and children, and pushed them against the wall of Sangong Village.

Seeing this scene, Sun Xiucai hurriedly said to Meng En: "General Meng, stop beating them, they are all ours!"

"Your people?"

"Stop firing!"

As the firing stopped, the smoke was blown away by the wind, and it was possible to see dense crowds of miners and their families appearing on the wall of the village.

"These bastards!"

Meng En is also very embarrassed now. If it is other Ming army troops, they will not care about the casualties of the people. As long as they wipe out the bandits, it is a great achievement for them. Even if there are no ordinary people, some of them will kill good people and pretend to be meritorious .But Ning Haijun is different. Ning Haijun has always adhered to the purpose of reducing the dead.

If Meng En did not owe indiscriminately, he would be punished even if he won the war with a bombardment.

Meng En said: "Let them surrender, this general will protect them from death, if they don't surrender, this general will make them regret coming to this world!"

Letting these rogues go, this does not exist, even if he is punished, Meng En will wipe out these rogues.

Sun Xiucai stepped forward to negotiate with the rogues. At this time, Zhang Xianzhong had just arrived at the foot of the mountain.

When he heard the sound of the guns above the cottage stopped, he knew that the brothers on the mountain were either dead or surrendered to Ning Haijun.

"Is this too fast?"

Zhang Xianzhong heaved a sigh of relief, feeling that the biggest advantage of these wastes was that he won the escape time, but when Zhang Xianzhong looked around, there were only less than 2000 people around him.

But it was the worst time since he started the army.After all, in this time and space, he has not met Qin Liangyu and has not been dealt with.

"My lord, what shall we do now?"

"Find a place to rest for a while, to avoid the limelight for a while, and after a while, I will take you to the state to hit the mansion, and eat hot and spicy food!"

Just before Zhang Xianzhong's voice fell.

"call out!"

A sharp whistle sounded suddenly, and a foot-long crossbow arrow pierced through the air, hitting Zi Jinxing's temple, piercing through the entire cranial cavity, entering from the left and exiting from the right, and the strong impact knocked him over.

Almost at the same time, there was a loud trembling sound on the mountain path, and the crossbow arrows rained down. The thieves from Zhang Xianzhong's tribe, who were proud of themselves, were hit by arrows one after another. The officers and soldiers walking in front turned their backs on their backs, killing and wounding all over the place.

Guo Hushan turned pale in shock, and shouted sharply: "There is an ambush! There is..."

However, just as the word "ambush" reached the tip of his tongue, Zhang Xianzhong yanked him over and stood in front of him. Immediately afterwards, a crossbow arrow hit his forehead and pierced straight through the back of his head. The arrowhead protruded from the back of his head with brains and blood Come a little bit.

Zhang Xianzhong gasped when he saw it, what a terrifying crossbow!

A round of crossbow arrows came over, and more than 200 old bandits under Zhang Xianzhong were shot down, completely messed up.Let them bully those refugees, of course they are one against ten, they are unstoppable, but if they fight against an army that is equally well equipped, they will drop their weapons and run away without hesitation in all likelihood, only fools will go up and risk their lives !

Now that they were ambushed by Sun Kewang's department, more than 200 people were shot down in one face-to-face. It would be a miracle if they didn't urinate.The timid ones lay on the ground trembling all over, and the smarter ones threw away the loot in their hands and fled. Some bandit leaders were roaring loudly, trying to organize this gang of unsatisfied subordinates to fight a bloody path.

The mountain road is just so big, so many people will naturally huddle together, and no one can move. There are screams, screams, and curses for a while, and they are extremely embarrassed.

The second round of crossbow arrows shot over quickly.The powerful crossbows equipped by the old thieves who ambushed them were not only extremely lethal, but a row of crossbow arrows swept over them, and more than 100 people were shot down by the gangsters, almost without fail.At this time, those rogues were already gut-wrecked, and many of them even knelt on the ground and kowtowed, shouting, "Grandpa, spare your life, Grandpa, spare your life, we surrender!"

Zhang Xianzhong shouted: "Who is it? What kind of skill is it to hide your head and show your tail?"

Although the crossbow is destined to be eliminated, the problem is that the craftsmen who made the crossbow in the Ming Dynasty are not reconciled. They have improved the crossbow of Ning Haijun several times, and now the range has reached 340 steps. To open such a strong crossbow It is very difficult, but due to the addition of a very ingeniously designed pulley block, it is not much harder to pull it than to pull a strong bow.

The most amazing thing is that its arrow slot has also been converted into a magazine-type device. This device is made of tinplate, and there are ten crossbow arrows inside, with a spring under it. After one shot, the spring automatically pushes the next one into it. Arrow trough, the archer only needs to pull the crossbow to launch, eliminating the need for a series of actions such as taking arrows from the quiver and inserting arrow troughs, the firing process is greatly simplified, and the rate of fire is greatly increased. Two to three arrows per minute increased to an average of four arrows per minute, and an archer with good hands and feet could even shoot five arrows per minute.

"Father, stay safe!"

When Sun Kewang appeared on the avenue, Zhang Xianzhong's eyes instantly turned red: "It's you, a rebellious son!"

Sun Kewang looked at Zhang Xianzhong and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time, father-in-law, you want to kill the child!"

The bandits around Zhang Xianzhong dropped their weapons one after another in order to avoid being shot.

Sun Kewang approached Zhang Xianzhong step by step.

Zhang Xianzhong looked at his adopted son in the past, and now he became very nervous: "What are you going to do?"

"Borrow something from foster father!"

"what?"

Sun Kewang said with a serious face: "Kewang has now joined Marshal Cheng and has been added as commander of the commander's personal guard Zuo, but Kewang doesn't have an inch of merit and is worthy of the position of commander. Use it!"

Zhang Xianzhong stared at Sun Kewang with a sneer on his face: "You dare to kill me? Are you afraid that Cheng Shijie will repeat his father's mistakes? Think about it, is it better to kill my father, or to send my father to Marshal Cheng!"

"Send it to the commander-in-chief, but the commander-in-chief doesn't dare to protect you. You have committed a serious crime. You have dug the imperial tomb. Once you send it to the capital, you will have to be tortured. Why bother?"

(End of this chapter)