The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Chapter 34 Guardian Zuo

Starting from Xi'an and heading west along the post road, you will arrive at the entrance of Heishui Valley. From here, you can enter Heishui Valley and follow the mountain road directly to Hanzhong.

Heishui Valley is one of the 72 valleys in Qinling Mountains, also known as Heiyu. Because it is close to Mangshui, it is also called "Manggu". Because its water is black, it is also called "Heihe", so this place is also called "Heishui Valley".

During the Three Kingdoms period, Jiang Wei, Zhong Hui, and Deng Ai all stationed troops here. During the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang army fought against An Lushan's rebels here. In the late Tang Dynasty, the Tang army also fought against Huang Chao's uprising army here. In the late Ming Dynasty, Sun Chuanting captured Gao Yingxiang here.

Now, Li Hu led his troops to ambush the rebels here again.

This time even God was on Li Hu's side. Just when the rebels were about to leave the Qinling Mountains in one day, an extremely heavy rainstorm suddenly came. Because of this rain, the 30,000 rebels were trapped in the valley for three days.

This not only gave the government troops a chance to catch their breath after a long raid, but also gave Li Hu time to prepare.

While Li Hu ordered the withdrawal of surrounding government troops, he personally entered the Black Water Valley to inspect the terrain. He found that the roads in the mountains were difficult to travel, and once the rebels were ambushed and retreated, it would be impossible to pursue them. More importantly, the mountains on both sides were too high, which would make it very difficult for the army to supply logistics.

Therefore, it was decided to set up the ambush on the mountains on both sides of the valley entrance, leaving a wide road for the rebel army to pass through, allowing them to enter the prepared pocket and wait for an opportunity to ambush.

The mountain roads were muddy and difficult to travel after the heavy rain. The rebels took three days to walk the distance that would normally take a day.

Yesterday, in the early morning of July 25, the rebel army arrived at the entrance of the valley, and Li Hu was ready for an ambush.

At this time, the rebels also discovered the government troops guarding the entrance to the valley and realized that they had been ambushed, but they had no way to retreat. If they retreated at this time, the government troops would surely attack them from behind, and the result would undoubtedly be catastrophic, so the rebels launched an attack directly at the entrance to the valley.

At this time, Li Hu had more than 15,000 people under his command, but almost all of them were patrol camps, yamen runners and young and strong men. Fortunately, they had their families behind them and had geographical advantages. In addition, with the encouragement of heavy rewards, the fierce fighting between the two sides continued until early this morning.

Just when everyone thought that the rebels would take a break, more than a thousand White Lotus sect members wearing strange white clothes launched an attack on Yukou. These people fought ferociously, fearlessly and well-trained. The government troops at Yukou suffered heavy losses, and two thousand commanders of the patrol battalion were killed. At this time, the main force of the rebels took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack, pushing the front line to Xianyou Temple in one breath. Fortunately, Li Hu had a backup plan. He had ordered Zhang Cheng and Jia Yun to lead spearmen and firegun soldiers into Tangluo Road, cross Tianhua Mountain, and enter Heipu Road to cut off the rebels' retreat.

At this time, Zhang Cheng and Jia Yun finally rushed to the back of the rebels and launched an attack on them. The rebels had to divide their forces to fight. At the same time, the mother-and-child cannon hidden in Xianyou Temple fired, and countless rebels were blown up. The rebels' battle formation was in chaos. Wang Daniu personally led the sword and shield soldiers to charge and repel the rebels, pushing the battle line back to Heishui Valley.

After two days and one night of non-stop fighting, both sides suffered heavy losses, especially the rebels, who were already soaked in their armor and exhausted. The exit was tightly blocked by the government troops, and they dared not retreat. They also had to resist attacks from the mountains on both sides. Many of them fell into despair.

The once scenic valley has become a Shura hell, with blood and corpses everywhere. The blood gathered into a small stream and flowed into the river. The entire river turned dark red, which shows how tragic this battle was!

"Creak."

Suddenly, the sound of a bow being pulled and bent was heard from the mountains on both sides.

"Boom!"

Arrows rained down from the sky like a torrential rain, and rebels who were unable to dodge were shot and fell on the mountain road.

The mountains were high and the valleys were deep, with no way to retreat or hide. The rebels were knocked down one by one.

On the hill on the right side of the valley, Li Hu stood there quietly, not looking at the fleeing rebels, but his eyes were fixed on the White Lotus Sect members, who were sitting against the cliff, eating dry food to restore their strength and using the cliff to avoid arrows. The rebels who tried to seize the position would be killed by them without mercy.

Li Hu understood that once they had eaten their fill and recovered their strength, it would be time for them to break out.

At this moment, the sound of musketry and shouts of killing were heard from the rear of the rebels.

Li Hu took the telescope and looked towards the rear of the rebels. Hundreds of White Lotus Sect members were shouting and rushing towards the blocking position with swords drawn.

A row of musketeers knelt on one leg at the front of the battle formation, raised their muskets and fired at the same time!
Flames spurted out from the muzzles of guns, and the White Lotus members fell down one by one with screams!
The struggle was in vain. Without cavalry, they could not break through the blockade of the musketeers.

A group of White Lotus followers rushed forward, but soon fell down. Another group of White Lotus followers rushed forward, but soon fell down as well.

Li Hu frowned. What does that mean? Deliberately giving away your life!
Were they trying to use human lives to consume the musketeers' ammunition? Perhaps they were waiting for the musketeers' gun barrels to cool down.

Unlike a breech-loading rifle, a flintlock rifle would have to stop firing after a dozen or so shots at most to cool the barrel.

The White Lotus Sect is indeed very evil, and it can make its followers willingly go to their deaths.

The sound of musketry soon stopped, and a large group of White Lotus Sect members rushed towards the musketeers with steel knives raised, roaring!

The musketeers retreated, and the well-trained spearmen quickly formed a battle formation!
Without the musketeers, the morale of the rebels was greatly boosted, and they followed the White Lotus Sect and charged forward.

At this time, the spearmen knelt down on one knee, shoulder to shoulder, with the spear tips forming a forest of spears, all pointed obliquely at the White Lotus followers who were charging over. The White Lotus followers in the front were forced to slow down, but were pushed towards the spear tips by the rebels coming from behind. Spears pierced the White Lotus followers who were rushing in the front, and the spear tips pierced through the backs of many White Lotus followers, and many White Lotus followers were impaled on the spear barrels.

At this moment, the sound of muskets rang out behind the spearmen, and then the rebels who rushed over fell down again under the firelight.

There was another wave of musket fire, and the rebels who had just mustered up their courage began to retreat wildly.

Li Hu smiled. In order to maintain continuous firepower output, each musketeer carried a bird gun. No matter how many shortcomings the bird gun had, it could easily kill the rebels.

Through the telescope, Li Hu's eyes quickly scanned the chaotic valley. Soon, he saw an old man in a coarse linen robe, and countless White Lotus followers divided into several layers, tightly surrounding the old man on both sides and behind him.

Is this the big fish?
The distance is too far, the arrows can't reach and the guns can't hit.

At this time, a captain of the patrol battalion came over and reported: "General, those rebels don't even hide."

Li Hu nodded and said, "Shout out, only kill the White Lotus Sect members, the rest of you, throw down your weapons, take off your upper body armor, and retreat!"

The captain of the patrol battalion replied, "Yes." He walked to the edge of the cliff and shouted, "General Li's order is to kill only the White Lotus Sect members. Everyone else, throw down your weapons, take off your upper armor, and retreat!"

The old man and the White Lotus sect members' expressions changed drastically.

A knife was thrown on the ground, and another knife was thrown on the ground. A piece of armor was thrown on the ground, and another piece of armor was still on the ground.

The shirtless rebels walked towards the valley entrance with their heads down.

A roar suddenly sounded, and a member of the White Lotus sect chased after them with a knife, chopped the leader of the rebels into the sky, and the blood spurting out of his body splattered all over him.

Then countless White Lotus followers rushed forward with their swords drawn, and those rebels who had laid down their weapons were all chopped to the ground in an instant.

The entire battlefield was silent.

Li Hu coughed and said loudly: "Kill the White Lotus Sect members, forgive all your sins, give each of you ten taels of silver, and return to your hometown."

Countless eyes were looking at him at this time.

Li Hu raised his hand and said, "Kill!"

"kill!"

Roars immediately rang out in the valley, and countless rebels rushed towards the White Lotus members who were wearing strange costumes with their swords drawn!

The two sides immediately engaged in a melee, with countless shouts and screams echoing over the Black Water Valley.
The White Lotus Sect members were fearless and brave, but many ants can kill an elephant.

There were only dozens of White Lotus Sect members left on the battlefield, protecting the old man!
The next moment, they were submerged.
The setting sun has completely lost its dazzling light and is now as red as blood, struggling over the distant mountains and refusing to set.

Li Hu stood on a high mound at the entrance of the valley, staring at the teams of shirtless prisoners passing by.

Zhang Chengxing rushed towards Li Hu.

Behind him, two soldiers were holding an old man with a bloody face and disheveled hair.

"Great joy!"

Walking up to him, Zhang Cheng said excitedly: "General, this old man is the Left Protector of the White Lotus Sect!"

Li Hu opened his eyes wide.

Zhang Cheng leaned over to Li Hu's ear and whispered something.

A gleam of light flashed in Li Hu's eyes, and then he turned his gaze to the old man with his mouth blocked. He was thinking about Zhang Cheng's plan in his mind. Even if he couldn't lure out the top leaders of the White Lotus Sect, he would not suffer any loss.

Thinking of this, Li Hu said to Zhang Cheng: "You guard him personally. I will write a military report now and send it to the capital at an expedited speed of 800 miles!"

(End of this chapter)