Traveling through the Ming Dynasty, as soon as you open your eyes, you will die

Chapter 22 Raid Camp
  The fighting during the day was over, and Wuxiang City lay quietly in the darkness. The soldiers guarding the city, all in rags and ragged clothes, holding weapons in their arms, huddled under the parapet of the city wall, looking confused and hesitant.

From time to time, someone looked at the tower and saw the dilapidated and faded Ming Dynasty military flag.

The military flag swayed feebly in the wind, looking so listless.

Daming, is there any hope? This is the question that all the soldiers asked over and over again.

For those of us who are still lonely and loyal, will anyone come to save us?

Li Yan has been besieging the city for more than ten days, and the food and grass in the city have become less and less. The soldiers have gone from eating two meals a day, one dry and one thin, to two meals a day of thin porridge.

Since yesterday, I can only get one meal.

If we hadn't seen the county magistrate and the commander drinking gruel mixed with chaff like ourselves, how could anyone have the intention to defend Wuxiang.

However, even so, can we defend Wuxiang without reinforcements? After guarding Wuxiang, what can be done? Is it still necessary?

Almost all the soldiers were thinking this way.

And those who have the same thinking are not only the soldiers and civilians in Wuxiang, but also individuals outside Wuxiang who are also thinking about this matter.

In the dark night, Li Yan, who was marginalized but still worried about the future of Dashun, was lying on the bed, looking at the roof of the tent, thinking about how to quickly win this Wuxiang, the gateway to the south of Beijing, tomorrow.

Everyone else desperately wanted to rush to Beijing and prepare to receive the reward from King Chuang after he conquered the world. But only Li Yan had a clear understanding that even if King Chuang entered Beijing, it did not mean that he overthrew the Ming Dynasty and truly won the world.

Because of the original habit of rogue bandits, the occupied cities were looted and then lost in a blink of an eye. Even Kaifeng, which took three years of hard work to build, is the same. Those who cannot be occupied will be bypassed.

Now, except for a few fundamentals such as Xi'an, what is truly in the hands of the Dashun Army is still in the hands of the Ming Army.

For example, the barrier at the entrance to the capital, Wuxiang, which controls the throat of Henan and the capital, is ignored by all the peasant armies, and they are preparing to bypass it. They can only capture it with the 20,000 soldiers in their hands.

Only by capturing him can we prepare for the possibility that if the Ming Dynasty Guan Ning cavalry comes back and the peasant army is disadvantaged in the battle, they can return to Henan.

But although these 30,000 soldiers of my own are elite, people are also panicking.

Seeing that Beijing is so close and within easy reach, but they cannot be the first to rush in and seize the first great achievement of the new dynasty, they have already complained.

At the same time, his men were not interested in attacking the city, and no one wanted to die before the new dynasty was about to be established and everyone received high-ranking officials and generous salaries.

Therefore, their attacks on the city during the day were perfunctory, and they still looted everywhere.

Therefore, there was an embarrassing situation where an army of 20,000 surrounded and attacked Wuxiang, which had only less than 2,000 guardsmen, and could only besieged.

At the same time, Li Yan was also worried about Li Guo, who was always a hundred miles away from him.

He knew in his heart that King Chuang had listened to Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance's slander and no longer trusted him, especially after he left his red lady behind and led the families of the soldiers to colonize Henan.

Li Guo, who followed him, was actually cutting off his retreat to return to Henan and become independent.

Alas, before the new dynasty was established, it followed the same path of the Ming dynasty's collapse. Dong Lin, the poison is really lingering.

No, we can't delay any longer. During the day, sentinels reported that a Ming army had come out of the capital and was about to relieve the siege of Wuxiang. It is said that they claim to be ten thousand.

Li Yan is not too worried about this Ming army, because the rule of the Ming army is that it is said to be ten thousand, but in fact five thousand is good. At the same time, I have learned many times about the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty's army. I can describe them as having no combat effectiveness.

What really made him have to speed up the conquering of Wuxiang was his own situation.

Once he is delayed here any longer, King Chuang will doubt himself even more. If he hesitates to move forward here, he will have the intention of turning back. At that time, King Chuang, who has become suspicious and ruthless now, will not care about his old feelings and let Li Guo come over to kill him first.

But what can be done by taking down Wuxiang? Directly march into the capital?
  Not to mention, Liu Bang was the first to enter the Guanzhong, and the king was there. As soon as he arrived at the gate of Beijing, Li Guo would definitely come over and kill him.

It's death both before and after. Do I still need to protect this king?
  Li Yan became confused for a moment.

Before I knew it, it was dawn.

The camp began to get lively, and groups of people began to cook early. After eating, they were not going to attack the city, but to go out and rob.

After ten days of raids, everything within a hundred miles of the surrounding area has been looted. If you need to loot again, you will have to go further. Everyone must hurry up. Time is money.

Li Yan walked out of the tent and prepared to call a meeting of generals to arrange an siege.

As a result, when he came out of the big tent, he found that all the soldiers had stopped what they were doing and stood looking at the thick fog outside the camp.

Li Yan followed the soldiers' gaze and looked outside the camp.

Just outside in the thick fog, groups of well-armored troops were walking out of the thick fog, crossing the poorly scrawled camp trenches, knocking down the fences, and silently squeezing towards their own army.

At this time, a flaming red battle flag of the Ming Dynasty appeared in the thick fog-Ding Wang Zhu of the Ming Dynasty.

I don’t know who it was, but it was only then that I realized what I was doing, dropped the rice pot in my hand, jumped to my feet and exclaimed: "The Ming Army, it's the Ming Army. The Ming Army is coming." In the blink of an eye, the entire military camp exploded.

All the peasant soldiers rushed around like headless flies, yelling, throwing away the pots and bowls in their hands, looking for armor and weapons, and preparing to meet the enemy.

This exclamation seemed to break the eternal silence and startled Li Yan at the time.

Then he came to his senses and shouted: "The enemy is attacking. The enemy is attacking, prepare for war, prepare for war."

Unfortunately, the enemy took advantage of the heavy fog to quietly approach the military camp. When the peasant army's defenses were at their lowest, they had already forced the camp to fight. How could there be any time to prepare?
  Just as the peasant army was shouting in confusion like headless chickens, bursts of white smoke appeared in the formation of the large Ming army that was pressing forward step by step. The powerful infantry of the Ming army fired three-eyed firecrackers and five thunder god strikes.

Countless lead bullets, carrying scorching firepower, swept through the body without armor and equipment like a strong wind, drilling in, rolling, tearing the muscles and bones they encountered, tearing the tendons, breaking the bones, and then penetrated from here. It's just a little bit, and when you rush out from that side, there's a hole as big as a bowl.

Let each of Li Yan's soldiers turn into corpses in the blink of an eye.

A group of them were burned out, and before they had time to reload, the Ming soldiers howled, waving their still-heated three-eyed fire blunderbuss, or the five-thunder divine strike, and used them as sledgehammers to rush towards them.

When encountering the peasant army, they were hit in the head, and their heads immediately shattered, with red and white brains splattering, and they were so dead that they couldn't die anymore.

There seemed to be an endless supply of such enemies, rushing out from the thick fog in waves and attacking the unprepared, panic-stricken peasant army.

Li Yan faced this sudden situation, but he did not panic. He stood calmly in front of the tent, drew out the sword from his waist, and loudly ordered: "Where are the soldiers? Form the team and fight. We will fight back to the death."

(End of this chapter)