open sea

Chapter 1500

In Naoe Kanetsugu's consciousness, the situation that the march would start early the next morning did not appear.

Because early the next morning, Kagekatsu Uesugi, who received the enemy's large-scale mobilization of troops around the city to gather in the city, suddenly ordered the [-] troops stationed on the north bank of the Mersey River to withdraw to the south bank as quickly as possible.

They didn't even confiscate the tents, and there were still vegetables and bread stewed in the morning in the camp.

Soon, vultures who smelled the smell of carrion came.

It was those city residents who saw the war coming to this land, but did not choose to flee. They were in groups of three or four, holding simple weapons such as logging axes or longbows, and wearing tattered caps, like seeing carrion on the African grasslands. hyena.

Facing the camp, they didn't dare to go forward, they just crouched around and waited and watched until the first person entered the camp and came out alive.

Then swarmed into the camp.

The rebels, Drake's rebels are a little smarter, even if they don't have any decent military discipline, and the long war has destroyed their system, but this does not prevent these mobs led by nobles from still attacking the Ming Dynasty. The military maintains the most basic prudence.

When the rebels who had been watching all morning dispersed and reached the river bank, they could even find a few pre-cooked rice balls in the camp.

All of this makes sense, although they don't know why the Ming army left these things alone, everyone has this doubt in their minds.

But food and supplies are too tempting for the rebels.

Soon, two teams of thousands of people came from the rear, driving carriages and carts and sweeping down, loading the baggage and transporting it northward.

At this moment, Liu Ruguo on the other side put down his binoculars and waved behind him.

The flag was fluttered, and the conch was sounded one after another along the banks of the Mersey River.

Uesugi Jingsheng once again crossed the river and swung his troops up, breaking through the rebel troops staying at the bridge. The rebels carrying tents, food and grass had not escaped for five miles before being overtaken by the lightly armed Uesugi guards, and then—the army was defeated like a mountain fall.

The Uesugi Guards, who had been trained in Jincheng, North Asia for a long time, were not what they used to be. They had an incomparable advantage in fighting against a large number of infantry who lacked armor. They took advantage of this momentum and rushed into the town of Manchester in one go.

Even Liu Ruguo, who was firmly in the rear, didn't expect the attack to be so smooth, and after knowing it, he ordered all the troops to launch a general attack.

The originally expected battle disappeared without a trace.

In the words of Uesugi Jingsheng, Meng Xin is a special talent who is proficient in Nanman language and Chinese. He was ordered to act with the Uesugi Guards.

It's a battle, maybe even the battle has not started in the morning, and a lame leg is not a hindrance.

However, because the battle situation was too smooth, the Qianhu Department in front easily defeated the enemy. During the pursuit, Meng Xin fell behind. With his little courageous follower, he fell all the way to the rear, falling behind to what was originally regarded as In front of the Naoe team of the reserve team.

Naoe Kanetsugu, who was leading the army, cursed the enemy army for retreating too quickly, and ran forward with his head on his sword. As he ran, he saw a familiar figure on the battlefield.

Carrying a blunderbuss, leaning on a blunderbuss, wearing an iron helmet of the Ming army on his head, and with a red beard, he ran forward limping, followed by a little bunny carrying a three-eyed gun, Who else but Meng Xin.

Naoe Kanesuke knew that Meng Xinxin was suppressing a huge hatred, and was afraid that he would cause any trouble again, so he pointed out a few ashis and said, "Quickly, run with him!"

Meng Xin was leaning on a matchlock blunderbuss as a crutch, when suddenly his arm lightened, and his whole body was lifted up by two light feet, one left and one right, and he ran forward much faster.

"Why are you dragging me, you chase after me, don't let them run away!"

Seeing Meng Xin, Naoe Kanesuke was not in such a hurry, he specially ordered the Hundred Household Team to regroup, and then lined up to walk forward slowly while resting.

"Don't worry, the enemy fled abnormally. The general of the London House said that the southern barbarians are very difficult to deal with. They have no reserves and they are defeated in one blow. I suspect it is a fake defeat."

It didn't take long before Meng Xin was found by messengers who traveled through many places and conveyed Liu Ruguo's order not to allow him to retaliate against the residents of the city.

In fact, this order had been passed on to the whole army before Meng Xin knew about it, only the sentinels who followed Uesugi Jingsheng who marched did not know about it.

The order was not to prohibit them from retaliating, but to tell them not to go to the city for holidays.

In fact, if you go to the city without a holiday, you are not allowed to massacre the city, and naturally you are not allowed to retaliate.

Massacres usually have two concepts. One is an act of venting anger by soldiers spontaneously or ordered by the general. For example, if the city is broken and the sword is not sealed for three days, it is actually a three-day holiday for soldiers who have been unable to attack for a long time and have suffered tragic casualties to boost morale.

No one knows exactly what Liu Ruguo was thinking, but he really didn't dare to give the order to break the city and not seal the sword for three days, because it would actually be a loss to the siege troops.

Such an order is not issued by everyone. For the army without a certain organization at the grassroots level, once this order is issued, the army will disappear.

Liu Ruguo said today that he would break the city for three days and not seal the knife. After three days, there might be only his own soldiers left by his side.

The battle is still going on, and almost all the people in the city can run away. Except for the stragglers and the unlucky ones who have no sense of escape, the most indispensable are the desperate people like Meng Xin who have already developed the desire to kill and earn money from killing. .

At this time, regardless of whether the soldiers dispersed and ran out to plunder, or they dispersed for revenge, it would bring serious blows to the troops.

And the most important point is that these soldiers have never seen money. If you grab a silk curtain, you can leave your weapon and run to your hometown.

This is actually an out-of-control robbery.

Another concept of massacre is that the commander of the army made up his mind to massacre the city, and the entire army aimed to kill everyone in the city, and used the organization of war to carry out an orderly massacre.

Such heart-pounding horrors usually wipe out a huge city, such as Temujin's Khwarazm city.

However, what worried Liu Ruguo and Uesugi Jingsheng very much was not a matter in the end.

Because it is not their turn to retaliate and slaughter.

With the defeat of the army, the organization of Drake's rebel army was destroyed, and the city was in chaos. The soldiers could not find the generals, and the generals could not find the soldiers. The defeated army, hooligans and nobles who took off their disguises in the city immediately began Smash, loot and burn.

For a whole month before entering the city, Meng Xin could only think about today.

All he thinks is that when he enters Manchester City, the people here must pay the price. He vowed to kill every Englishman he saw, for his brother, for that big brother Makino who always took care of him, and for that follower Same miner minions for revenge.

But when he really stepped into the city, he saw the hooligans in high helmets carrying the weeping girls on their shoulders, with the tapestry they had stolen from under their armpits, and the neck of an old hen in their hands. .

He still picked up the gun without hesitation.

When the gunpowder smoke dissipated, he held his head high and stepped over the dead body that had been shot in the back of the head and fell to the ground with a not-so-beautiful lame step.

The little follower stepped forward and happily picked up the high-topped helmet that fell on the ground, wiped the mud and blood with his sleeve, and proudly put it on his head.

The samurai holding the sword and the ashigaru holding the spear stood aside, and Naoe Kanesuke gave his subordinates winks, letting people see what the sharpshooter would do.

They saw that the twitching muscles on Meng Xin's face were very tense, and he clenched his teeth to hold back the tears that seemed to be shed.

It seemed a long time before they heard Meng Xin say to the panicked English girl, "Don't be afraid—the army of heaven has arrived."

(End of this chapter)