Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 377 Dead End 2
call out----

A rocket shot into the gray sky with a scream, and the slender fire snake snaked in the air, which could be seen for ten miles.This is the rebel army sending a distress signal to the Dengzhou defenders.

The Heluo Xinjun just looked up, then ignored them and continued to approach.The Lancers separated their wings and kept a distance of 400 to [-] meters from the rebels.If in normal times, this distance is not safe, it should be extended further, but considering that all the cannons of the rebels have been lost, and the bow strength of the infantry has been weakened a lot due to damp, this distance is enough.At the same time, a large number of soldiers got off their horses and lined up in more than a dozen rows. The spearmen were in the front, the archers were in the middle, and the swordmen were in the back.As for their war horses, someone nailed stakes to the ground and tied them up so that they would not run away.If the enemy cavalry turns around to attack behind them, these horses will also become a huge obstacle for the enemy. No matter how good a rider is, there is no way to pass through so many panicked horses that have nowhere to escape, let alone A whole cavalry unit charged at high speed.Of course, given the preciousness of war horses, the Heluo New Army certainly did not want this active "fortification" to come in handy.

It turned out that most of them were only mounted infantry.

The rebels breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, they were only cavalry infantry. If there were four thousand lancers, this battle would be impossible.

But Kong Youde didn't feel that there was anything to be thankful for. On the contrary, after waking up, he wished that the Heluo new army would be full of cavalry.It was raining now, the road was slippery and muddy, and the speed of the cavalry was greatly reduced. In addition, their own strength was four times that of the opponent's, which was enough to make the new Heluo army have nowhere to bite their teeth.But if there are a few thousand more infantry...

Kong Youde clenched his fists nervously.On rainy days, the performance of bows and crossbows is greatly affected, and muskets cannot be used, which will greatly limit the performance of Heluo's new army.The muddy ground will also restrain those terrible Lancers, plus ten miles away is Dengzhou, and the reinforcements in Dengzhou city will arrive in no time. It should be able to withstand the thunderous blow of Heluo's new army, right?However, he has no confidence at all!He looked at Li Jiuzheng, only to see Li Jiuzheng's expression panicked, his eyes flickering wildly, presumably this general was just like him, with no idea.

Still the same, the Heluo new army marched forward in unison, stepping on cheerful drumbeats, until they were only eight or ninety meters away from the rebels.This silent advance caused great psychological pressure on the rebels. Several archers trembled and shot arrows with a whoosh.The other archers were like athletes who heard the starting gun, scrambling to shoot arrows, and a wave of arrows flew towards the Heluo Xinjun in a mess, knocking on their helmets, breastplates, and shoulder armor, but it was useless .Li Jiuzheng was furious, swung his knife and beheaded several people, and finally stabilized his position, but the hands of every archer were trembling slightly, and their expressions were panicked, because they saw more than 90 archers holding crossbows, Ready to shoot, this kind of face-to-face shooting, they will be the first to die!
Kong Youde gave a wry smile, raised his hand to stop his subordinates from shooting arrows, rode out of the battle, and shouted to the dense array of crossbows: "I am Kong Youde, the rebel general of the Ming Dynasty, please come out and tell me!"

The Heluo New Army all stopped, and a black horse galloped out. On the horse was a very young general, about 20 years old, with a cute round baby face, and a pair of big eyes that turned around. It looks so sunny, it's hard to imagine that such a little guy is the commander-in-chief of this terrible army!Ignoring thousands of strong bows directed at him, he rode his horse towards Kong Youde until he was only ten steps away from Kong Youde before he stopped and raised his hand to Kong Youde: "I am the general of the Heluo New Army, Yang Menglong, and concurrently Wuyang Guard Commander."

Kong Youde's eyes flickered: "Wuyangwei? You were the ones who fought in the Daling River Battlefield last year and scattered Jiannu's corpses all over the field, shot and wounded the flag owner Yue Tuo, and stabbed the slave chief Hongtai's horse to death. You almost killed the slave chief. Wuyang Guard!?"

Yang Menglong said, "Exactly!"

Kong Youde took a deep breath and said, "No wonder. With less than 3000 of you, you were able to head-on to defeat the entire inlaid red flag, even smashed through the array of two white flags, and rescued the Tianxiong Army and the Guanning Army. It is so strong that it is unparalleled in the world, so it is no wonder that we were able to defeat the masses with a few, and beat our entire army to annihilation on the banks of the Shahe River."

Yang Menglong tilted his head and looked at him, and said, "You know us well!"

Kong Youde smiled wryly: "In the battle of Daling River, nearly ten thousand Jiannu were killed and injured, and the slave chieftain was seriously injured. The world was shaken. No one knows, no one knows? I only hate that I didn't reach the west of Liaoning. The head of this slave, I hate you!" He solemnly bowed to Yang Menglong and said, "Thank you, General!"

Yang Menglong was a little puzzled: "Thank me for what?"

Kong Youde said: "Thank you, General, for showing great prowess in the Daling River, rebuilding the slaves, and recovering a blood debt for the millions of Liao people who died under the butcher knife of Jiannu! This is a serious injury, but I am also happy from the bottom of my heart!"

Yang Menglong was silent for a moment, sighed, and said: "Kong Youde, you should surrender, you have no hope of winning, if you continue to fight, it will only make your subordinates, your brothers die more, the end will not be Nothing has changed!"

Kong Youde smiled bitterly: "Surrender? If we surrender, what will the imperial court do with us? Should we be taken to the vegetable market and beheaded or executed by Ling Chi?" He looked straight at Yang Menglong with piercing eyes, and asked word by word, "Can you give us a way out?"

Yang Menglong shook his head helplessly: "I can't. I don't have such power, but I..."

Kong Youde interrupted: "No one will give us a way out! We can only rely on the knife in our hand to fight our way out!"

Yang Menglong said: "The result of your struggle is to turn Jiaodong Peninsula into a sea of ​​blood, and tens of 10 people died tragically under your butcher's knife!"

Kong Youde said sharply: "They deserve it right! After Mao Shuai was unjustly killed by that dog official surnamed Yuan, we were exiled to Shandong and became rootless duckweed. How could one of them ever grab us and give us a bite of food! ?In Shandong for two years, we suffered all kinds of neglect and difficulties. Even when we went to the mountains to cut some firewood, local people came to drive us away; Not only did the states and counties along the way not give us any funding, but they also closed the gates of the city to prevent us from entering the city to purchase military supplies, and even stood on the city wall and taunted us with the utmost sarcasm! What do they think we are? Even a group of mountains If the thieves pass by, they will throw some money down, right? We went to beg them for some military supplies, what else is there but cold eyes and spittle?" At this point, the titan lost control of his emotions, and his voice became high-pitched and shrill , shocked everyone's hearts: "When we arrived at Wuqiao, the rain and snow never stopped. We were exhausted and had to stay there. We were hungry and cold, and the local officials ignored us. As a last resort, some brothers had to steal something to eat One of them just stole a chicken from Wang Xiangchun’s house, just one chicken! Their slaves chased them to the barracks, and I was willing to pay ten times the compensation, but they insisted and forced me to throw the soldier with an arrow. Battalion, and we soldiers will kowtow to them to apologize! They let us see if we have the lives of chickens!"

Yang Menglong knew the ins and outs of the Wuqiao mutiny long ago, but his heart was still shaken by Kong Youde's words.The army marched for thousands of miles, suffering from hunger and cold all the way. Local officials and people along the way ignored them and closed the city gates to guard against soldiers rather than thieves. Forcing the general of the army to bow his knees and refuse to give up... Comparing his heart to his heart, if he had been wronged like this, he might have exploded long ago!What a fucking country, what kind of people, such a country is sad, and the soldiers of such a country are even more sad!

Yang Menglong sighed: "I know you are wronged, but... this is not a reason for you to slaughter tens of thousands of people. No one has the right to deprive so many people of their lives."

Kong Youde roared: "I never thought of rebelling! It was Li Jiuzheng, who squandered all the money that Governor Sun gave him to buy horses. He was afraid of being held accountable by his superiors, so he incited the soldiers to kill them when those slaves came to the barracks to make trouble. Those house slaves forced me not to rebel! Rebel, anyway, I’ve had enough of this imperial court, and these civil servants are angry. Since God doomed me not to live forever, it’s okay to be stigmatized forever! Over the past years we have traveled across Jiaodong, killed countless people, drank countless fine wines, and played with countless beauties, happy, happy!" As he spoke, he let out a wild laugh.

Yang Menglong waited for him to finish laughing before asking, "Why are you telling me this?"

Kong Youde suppressed his smile, looked at Yang Menglong, and said, "It's not why, I just hold my breath in my chest, and I can't vomit. Now I can say everything I want to say, and it's much more comfortable." Army, said in a loud voice: "Kong also wants to ask the general to show mercy for our Dongjiang Army's years of hard fighting in southern Liaoning, and let us survive. Kong is willing to give all the property he has gained this year to the general. Say thanks!"

Yang Menglong shook his head without even thinking about it: "Impossible, you are a thief, I am a soldier, and a soldier and a thief are incompatible."

Kong Youde was not too surprised: "Don't you really think about it?" Then he smiled wryly: "That's right, if you will covet these property, you are not worthy to be Jiannu's opponent."

Yang Menglong said: "However, I can promise you that as long as your subordinates become my captives and there is no blood debt in their hands, they will be fine."

Such a promise is hard to satisfy, but at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was already very rare.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, officers and soldiers’ military discipline was corrupt, false reports of military achievements, killing good men and taking meritorious deeds were endlessly written, and women’s heads were even disguised as men’s to claim meritorious service. The fate of the rogue rebels who were captured by them can be imagined.Yang Menglong promised not to kill prisoners without blood debts, which is already very rare. You must know that the imperial court counts meritorious deeds according to their heads, and living prisoners of war are worthless, and they have to spend countless money to feed them.Kong Youde knew how heavy this amount was, and bowed deeply: "Thank you!"

Yang Menglong also bowed to him, and then returned to the army formation.Kong Youde also sighed and retreated into the army formation.

With the sound of the trumpet, thousands of Heluo new troops shouted: "Wind! Wind! Wind!" Fifteen hundred archers stepped forward in unison like the sound of a thunder hole. The crossbow arrows and arrowheads shone coldly, making people shudder.

Kong Youde shouted: "Archers, shoot them down!"

This is an almost impossible task, not to mention the iron-like discipline of the Heluo New Army, no matter how many casualties there are, they will not be moved. Individual long-range attack weapons feel helpless.But the rebels had no choice. Under the command of the officer, they all raised their bows and fired at the same time. When the bow string trembled, water sprayed everywhere, thousands of sharp arrows tore through the misty rain, and shot towards the Heluo new army!

At the same time, the archers in the front row of the new Heluo army also fired their guns at the archers of the rebel army.Amidst the thud-thumping sound, a white mist was stirred up at the front of the crossbow formation of the Heluo New Army, and a foot-long crossbow bolt shot out violently, making a frightening whistling sound, and the bow and arrow slanted down from the sky Passed by, and shot at the unprotected archers of the rebels.Immediately, the screams rang out, and the rebels who were raising their second arrows to shoot were overturned one after another. Even the shield players in the front row were in bad luck. The crossbow bolts pierced through the thick shield and pierced into their shield-holding hands, causing them to jump up in pain, and then they were overturned by the crossbow bolts fired by the second row, and several gaps were punched in the shield wall in an instant ...

(End of this chapter)