A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 710 Suicide
The bandits came like a tide, and in a flash, the formation of the new army was dispersed. Exhausted and suffering heavy casualties, they could no longer maintain their combat power.
In the chaos, Tang Tinge, Tang Yanji, and Tang Zhengjing didn't care about the corpse of fellow countryman Tang Yanfu, they just hurriedly took their own parcels, mixed with a dozen new troops, and tried their best to break out, and it was difficult for everyone to tell the direction , I only know to rush, to rush desperately, hoping to break out of the encirclement of thieves.
They rushed desperately. At this time, the enemy and the enemy were mixed together. The organization of the thieves was not high, and many of them were hungry people in a disorderly manner. Although there were many people, there were also many vacancies.
In history, the way of breaking into the army was "the city will fall, thousands of infantry will surround the battlements, and the horse soldiers will patrol the walls, and no one will be spared". Often, none of the people in the besieged city can escape.
When Tang Tinge and the others saw the brothers in the camp, many of them tried to kill the thieves in front of them, but the thieves with sharp knives and bows came galloping one by one, but they fell down one after another. opponent.
This is also the reason why Cao Bianjiao didn't dare to disperse the infantry to break through the siege earlier. When the infantry on the plain encountered cavalry without formation, the end was often very dire, and human legs could not escape the pursuit of horse legs.
The people around him kept getting separated, met new brothers, and then got separated again. The three of Tang Ting'e rushed to the end, and some of the new troops around them were no longer the original group.
After another wave of fights, Tang Tinge discovered to his pain that Tang Zhengjing, the coalspot, had also disappeared.
Da da da……
The hooves of the horses kept ringing like death, and the thieves all over the field were chasing and killing the Ming soldiers who broke out, as well as their infantry and hungry people. Officers and soldiers who broke through the siege rushed forward in groups, shouting and chasing after them.
Many Ming soldiers were unable to stand out, and finally had to fall to the ground, resigned to their fate, and some people, in the sound of surrender shouting around, threw away their weapons and fell to the ground. At the moment of the collapse, many people lost their faith. Just numbly waiting for one's own destiny.
Perhaps Tang Ting'e and the others were fleeing towards Haozhou, and the intercepted bandits and cavalry were not as dense as towards Xiayi. I don't know how long they rushed, but the flow of people in front of them became more and more sparse, and they fled for a few miles. The woods, the surrounding tall grass, were waist-high, Tang Ting'e and others were overjoyed, they desperately escaped from the wave of bandits chasing behind, and got into the woods, a few spearmen even lay in ambush.
The wave of thieves outside arrived, and amidst the yelling, more than 100 thieves came in, and several spearmen suddenly exploded and stabbed several people to death one after another. The thieves were so frightened that they yelled and fled out of the woods in a hurry Besides, the rest of the people hesitated for a while, but in the end they didn't chase and come in. They just set a fire outside, shouted, and chased the Ming army in another direction.
Tang Ting'e and the others did not dare to stay longer, they hid in the forest for a while, and then fled outside. On the way, some people got separated, and occasionally some Ming troops joined in, and they kept hiding. They were hiding by the river, in the grass, and in the woods. There were fewer rogue infantry in the area, but when they were hiding, their death-like hooves still rang in their ears from time to time, out of the range of the mass infantry, there were as many rogue horse soldiers as possible on the plain.
At the end of the day, they hid in the ruins. This was originally a village, but now there are only ruined houses and broken walls. Only on the collapsed archway at the entrance of the village, the three big characters of Dazhuzhuang can be vaguely seen.
They hid in the Dragon King Temple in the northwest of the village, where there were only ruins and broken tiles. Seeing the continuous sound of hooves of the thieves, one team after another of the search team ran past the village, everyone was secretly anxious.
At this time, Tang Ting'e was surrounded by seven people, including him with three firecrackers, three long spears, and a waist knife. The one with the waistblade was a firecracker soldier, but when he did, the firecrackers in his hand disappeared.
The seven people also belonged to Yutian Town and Zunhua Town, and belonged to different department heads, but Tang Ting'e, the chief of the army, had the highest military position, and everyone subconsciously followed him.
At this time, everyone's complexion was sallow, and there were many wounds on each person's body, bleeding for a long time, making them weaker and weaker. On the back of Tang Yanji's left shoulder, he was slashed severely by a thief, and the wound was bandaged. Already drenched in blood, he even fell into a coma for a while, and when he woke up, he felt his throat was very thirsty.
But he remained silent, holding the spear tightly in one hand, and took out his coconut ladle tremblingly with the other hand, but he couldn't pass it to his lips. It was Tang Ting'e who helped him, took a few sips of water, and took out the dry coconut from his arms Cooked horse meat, chewing hard.
The people around were also silently eating fried rice and horse meat, and Tang Ting'e spoke, but his voice was very hoarse: "I have already touched it just now... Not far to the west of the village, there is a river with a width of about a hundred paces... ...But the water is very deep, it is not easy to wade through it, but if you don't cross the river, you have to go around a lot if you want to stay away from the bandits..."
There was still silence around him, and for a long time, the firecracker soldier with the waist knife spoke, his voice was muffled, but it was because he had lost too much blood and was too tired: "Do as Tang Jiachang says... To be honest, to be able to live until now, a certain If I make money, I hope that the commander-in-chief can escape, so that my father can also get a pension..."
Tang Ting'e checked his firecracker, blew on the matchlock again, and said, "Okay, let's cross the river..."
The remaining two gunfire soldiers also prepared one after another. When they were hiding, they both extinguished the matchlocks, but when they got up from the hiding place, they were in danger, holding an empty gun, without any sense of security. Incredible.
Just as everyone was about to move, Tang Yanji, who swallowed the horse meat in his mouth, suddenly said, "A thief is coming!"
Everyone was startled, and heard the sound of hoofbeats, and saw more than a dozen riders coming straight towards the ruins from the east, one of them stopped and touched the ground, his voice could be heard from far away. I heard: "...donkey ball, there is blood, there must be officers and soldiers in the village..."
There seemed to be a voice from Shanxi: "Come on, catch a few live ones. King Chuang must be happy to see you..."
They drew out their sharp knives one after another, and charged their cavalry towards this direction. What was even more frightening was that not far behind these rebel cavalry, there was a large group of rebel infantry running towards them, probably no less than 400 to [-] people.
"Go, go to the river!"
Tang Ting'e's seven people rushed out of the ruined temple and rushed towards the river, the thieves behind cheered, and the thieves also quickened their pace to catch up.
"Ta Tata..."
With the sound of horseshoes hitting the ground like a heavy drum, thieves riding a dozen fast horses had already surrounded them. Tang Ting'e slammed back, and with a single stroke of the firecracker in his hand, there was a loud bang, followed by the white smoke from the muzzle. , a thief fell very painfully, and groaned in pain on the ground.
Beside him, Tang Yanji stabbed fiercely with his spear, a long knife swept away from the side, blood spattered, and a thief was stabbed off his horse from the side.
There were two more blunderbusses, one shot the first-rate thief in the chest, the other hit the first-rate thief's horse, the horse hissed sadly, and sped up and fled far away.
With the sound of howling through the air, a javelin was thrown, and the gunslinger who hit the thief's chest was unable to dodge. The gun soldier wanted to raise his empty gun to block, but he lost too much blood and was already weak. The thief's saber sliced ​​across his neck, and a large amount of blood gushed out.
However, as soon as the two sides came into contact, four or five of the more than a dozen cavaliers would fall down. Even if there were only three or four people left in the Ming army, they would not dare to approach from a distance. Get a javelin or something.
Many of the thieves in the rear also hesitated to slow down their pace. They were really afraid of these new soldiers, regardless of whether they were riding or not.
They only shouted to descend from a distance, but when Tang Ting'e was running away, they pursued closely. The rest of the bandits and cavalry either controlled their horses and followed closely, or rushed to the rear of the bandits, shouting and urging them on.
The footsteps were so heavy that Tang Ting'e and the others ran stumblingly. One spearman fell to the ground and died of exhaustion. It was seen that there were only three Ming soldiers left, and the shouting from behind was even louder.
"Brothers in the new army, surrender, King Chuang will not kill you."
"Yeah, I won't kill you."
Someone shouted again: "They are all children of poor families, why bother to work for the innocent government?"
The blunderbuss soldier with a waist knife followed Tang Ting'e. Listening, a light flashed in his eyes, and he said out of breath, "Surrender? As officers and soldiers of a certain family, how can they surrender to the bandits?"
He shouted loudly: "I would rather die than surrender to a thief!"
He didn't want to run away anymore, raised the waist knife in his hand, turned around and rushed, and in a blink of an eye, he was submerged in the crowd of thieves.
Tang Tinge bit his lower lip, he gritted his teeth, and pulled Tang Yanji just to run, running desperately, the firecracker in his hand was chased by the thieves earlier, and swiped hard to block them. But the blunderbusses were so scattered that they couldn't be used, so they had to be discarded.
He took Tang Yanji's hand and saw that the river was approaching, but there was a ditch in front of it. The terrain on the side of the ditch was much higher than this side. There were a few planks on the ditch that were broken and impassable. This side is overgrown with weeds and thorns, leading to the river, there is only this way.
The thieves shouting in the rear were even more angry and urgent, especially those thieves, who were still a bit of a cat and mouse at first, and didn't want to run to this kind of place. In this terrain, people are all crowded together, and it is impossible to disperse and outflank. The new army was about to run away, and they even accelerated to catch up.
"Go up!"
Tang Tinge pushed Tang Yanji's body onto the ditch with force, and said in a low voice, "Forgive my brother for not taking good care of you."
As soon as he turned around, he pulled out the package wrapped around his waist, and a ten thousand enemy appeared in his hands. As soon as it was put together, the primer was ignited immediately, and sparks shot out.
The large group of thieves who rushed to the front stopped immediately. They all had white complexions and a pair of eyes, only staring at the ten thousand enemies in Tang Tinge's hands. Many of them retreated involuntarily, or wanted to hide behind the bodies of their companions. .
Tang Tinge quietly looked at the thief in front of him, his mother, younger sister, younger brother, and pregnant wife. Scene after scene, flashed through his heart, and finally settled in the words of the husband, echoing like Hong Zhong Dalu: "The body has Exhausted, the soul is immortal."
Tang Ting'e shouted loudly: "Long live Daming!"
Just like that, he rushed into the crowd, and the ten thousand enemies exploded fiercely, blood mist and white smoke rose.
"Brother Ting'e..."
Tang Yanji cried, he ran away desperately, forgot everything, fell down, got up again, was shot in the back by an arrow, and continued to charge, roaring, and jumped into the river...
Many years later, the stories of several Ming soldiers are still spread in this area. I do not know when, a temple appeared by the river, and villagers or nearby people came to offer incense one after another. The temple is not big, and sometimes the incense is more prosperous. Sometimes it is lighter, but it has always kept the incense burning.
……
On the vast plain, there are layers of dead bodies everywhere. These dead bodies include those from the Ming army, those from the Chuang army, and those from the Ge Zuo camp. The flags and weapons, etc., are all in disorder and have been soaked in blood.
The blood mixed with the soil turned into a dark red stream, crawling like an earthworm. The blood from the dead drowned the boots under the feet of Li Zicheng and others. They kept turning around the battlefield, looking at the camp The soldiers searched back and forth on the battlefield full of dead bodies, collecting the wounded of the Luo Ming army, as well as weapons and ammunition.
The strong combat effectiveness of the new army left a deep impression on Li Zicheng and others, so every family and battalion hoped to recruit some new troops who could not escape, even the wounded rushed to get them.
For this reason, they dispatched a precious doctor doctor in the army to treat the numb Ming army wounded soldiers first, and enjoy the same treatment as the horse soldiers in the battalion. .
Although the wounded were all silent and didn't say they would surrender or not, Li Zicheng and the others didn't mind. Although they didn't understand the loyalty in their hearts, everyone believed that the new army had done their best when the battle reached this point. Maximum ability, survival, and switching portals are a matter of course.
What's more, in the exile camp, there are not a few officers and soldiers who surrendered. Li Zicheng's own old camp, the backbone is also the frontier rebels who surrendered. In Gao Yingxiang and Ma Shouying's team, the main force is also "Yi Han surrendered." They are part of the army, so Li Zicheng and others believe that these wounded soldiers will eventually surrender.
There is also the firecrackers of the new army, which are also what everyone desires. In the past, horse mules were the first to be handed in after the battle of the camp, followed by bows and lead blunderbusses, followed by coins and silk, and pearls and jade. This time it was fire Gun first, thieves searched everywhere, and Li Zicheng issued a strict order, anyone who dares to hide guns and parts privately will be cut!
Everyone turned around, and the situation on the battlefield made everyone feel chilled.
Zuo Jinwang He Jin said, "I've seen too many dead people, but this is the first time I've seen such a tragic battle."
He said with a smile on his face.
This time, from the outbreak of the war to the end, although there were many casualties in each family, fortunately, most of the dead were worthless hungry people, and there was another infantry that was consumed as cannon fodder. A large number of infantry were selected from the hungry people, and then horses and mules were plundered everywhere. A large number of cavalry could also be selected from the infantry. The combat effectiveness of each battalion recovered quickly, let alone the result of this battle.
Niu Jinxing looked at him, with a look of relief on his face, he stroked his beard and said, "Unfortunately, the body of Uncle Ming Jingjing has not been found, Cao Bianjiao may have escaped."
Ge Liyan scolded angrily: "It's all the fault of that Wang courtier who rushed in at the last moment, Cao Bianjiao might have been taken away by him."
Everyone in the camp frowned slightly, did He Yilong blame Li Guo for being ineffective?
Li Zicheng smiled and said: "It's okay, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen's new army is destroyed, even if they escape with the remnants, it's not a worry."
Everyone walked, and finally stopped at a place. There were layers of corpses. Among the corpses, one general was holding a big knife, his eyes were wide open, and there were countless wounds on his body, but the corpse still remained intact. A wounded horse The war horse wailed, and rubbed its head against the general's corpse. The horse was bruised and trembling, and could not survive.
Someone in the camp thought it was the general's body, and said, "It's Sun Xiezhong, the deputy general of the new army camp in Zunhua Town. I didn't expect to die here."
Everyone in Liuying sighed: "It's a pity that a good man is not worth it."
He Jin stared at the horse, shook his head and said, "What a pity it's a good horse."
Suddenly, a body in the pile of corpses moved, and then a Ming soldier slowly got up. This man was covered in blood, and even his eyes were red. He glanced to the side first. When he saw Vice General Sun's body, he wailed a few times, and then raised his waist knife vigorously.
He looked at the people waiting in front of him with incomparable hatred, with blood dripping from his lips, he wobbled, and tried to stand firm, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence, and everyone could only vaguely hear the words "kill" in it. Thieves..." A few words.
A personal guard beside Li Zicheng stepped forward, and he said loudly: "Brother, surrender, follow King Chuang, there will be a lot of future."
The Ming army hooted, and suddenly rushed towards the guard. The guard stepped aside easily, then slashed the Ming army's throat with a knife, and came back cursing: "I don't know how to flatter you!"
Everyone in the exile camp commented: "Stupid, even if there is a chance of survival."
Sun Kewang talked and laughed loudly with He Yilong next to him, only Li Dingguo next to him heaved a sigh of relief and turned his head away.
At this time, a Tang horse came running and shouted: "Report to King Chuang, everyone who is in charge of the family, in the Guandi Temple on the other side of the Lijialou, brothers are surrounded, as if there is a senior official inside."
Li Zicheng and others became interested and said, "Go and see."
……
The temple is quite large, but it is very dilapidated, with ventilation leaks everywhere, and even the door plaques are gone. This village is located at the traffic hub between Xiayi and Yongcheng. It was originally very prosperous. It can be seen from the total of seven or eight temples inside and outside the village. Without certain financial resources, it is impossible to build so many temples.
But everything has come to naught, the whole village has become ruins, and the purlins of the Guandi Temple in front of us are so rotten that they are about to collapse.
"Fuck you, you bastard who eats guns."
A black and strong musketeer had just fired his musket and killed a thief, when there seemed to be some movement in the hole in the wall on the left.
The gunman was still looking out of the window, but his eyeballs were turned to the extreme. He slammed the gun, and the heavy gun holder hit the thief's head hard, and all kinds of head parts flew everywhere. Yes, with the muffled groans and howls of extreme pain outside.
The thieves outside didn't dare to try to attack again, but they were surrounded by people outside, calling for surrender constantly, with threats in between: "If you don't surrender, we will set fire to you."
"Follow King Chuang to fight the world, don't work for the Wudao government!"
"No Dao government..."
The new military camp in Yutian Town comforted Xiao Mingfeng and murmured, "Isn't it good to break into thieves if the government has no way?"
He looked at the temple, there were more than [-] wounded soldiers, they were lying exhausted, few of them could move, the thieves from outside tried their best to prevent them from attacking, but they always lost their patience, if they really wanted to attack, would they? He would care about human life, how could he fall into the hands of thieves?
Looking at the firewood everywhere in the temple, he made up his mind.
He looked at everyone in the temple and spoke slowly. He was seriously injured, and it was difficult even to speak. He tried his best to say: "Everyone has fought so far, and everyone has no regrets. Xiao does not want to surrender to the thief, nor does he want to surrender." At the hands of the thieves, I decided to set fire to the temple to show my loyalty! The moment is to stay or surrender, let the kings decide for themselves."
The temple was quiet for a while, a few Ming soldiers crawled out slowly, the rest of the people just watched numbly, after those people went out, there was a commotion and joy outside, and the shouts became louder.
Looking at the rest of the people in the temple, Xiao Mingfeng was relieved but also saddened. He saw the black gunslinger limping over, sat down beside him honestly, smiled and said, "I don't know yet. My brother’s name is Gao.”
The black musketeer said: "My name is Tang Zhengjing, and my fellow villagers call me Mei Heizi."
Xiao Mingfeng said: "Aren't you afraid, little brother?"
Tang Zhengjing said: "I was afraid at first, but with so many people accompanying me, I won't be afraid after seeing Lord Yan."
Xiao Mingfeng laughed loudly: "Not bad, not bad, with all the loyal and brave soldiers accompanying you, you won't be lonely on the road to Huangquan."
He took out his fire pocket, blew on it violently, and threw it into the pile of firewood under him, and the dry firewood immediately burst into flames.
Xiao Mingfeng laughed loudly, and shouted loudly: "The man is shrouded in horse leather. He died in battle. He deserves his death. Happy, happy!"
He sang loudly: "Emperor Ming Yuji, Yuan Shaoyu and Tang Dynasty. Rivers are clear and Haiyan, Wufu Minkang. Weigai Yiliu, virtue is Rongqiang..."
In the raging fire, everyone in the temple sang along with him. The bigger the fire, the whole temple was shrouded in fireworks.
The thieves who were besieged outside watched all this dumbfounded. Many people almost jumped out of their hearts. They watched the temple crackle and burn until the flames shot up into the sky and thick smoke billowed. They just watched stupidly and did not know how to move. ...
After hearing about it, Xiao Mingfeng was given to command his colleagues, and Shiyin commanded him to do the funeral. The imperial edict said: "Loyal ministers and martyrs should enjoy the temple as a sacrifice, and all loyal soldiers will be attached."
……
Li Zicheng and the others stopped abruptly. They had just arrived and saw such a tragic scene. Li Zicheng's face was ashen, and he muttered: "The new army, the imperial court's new army..."
He snapped, "Why didn't you surrender?"
He Yilong also exclaimed in shock: "Crazy, Cao Bianjiao's subordinates, there are as many lunatics as possible."
Ma Shouying's face was pale, and he murmured: "Fortunately, they have been wiped out. If they were in Kaifeng, there would be no need to fight this battle."
Li Dingguo clenched his fists tightly. For the first time, he felt that he joined the army with his adoptive father. After so many years, he didn't know whether it was right or wrong.
The generals of the Liuying camp stood on their horses, all of them chilling, at this moment, another Tang Ma came over and reported loudly: "Yang Shaofan, deputy general of the new army in Yutian Town, has been captured."

(End of this chapter)