Nanming Engineer

Chapter 449 Reinforcement
Two hundred miles west of Ningwu Pass in the Inner Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, along the dilapidated pass wall of the Inner Great Wall, there is a pass called Yajiaobao, which was built on the edge of Luliang Mountain. The small earthen castle, surrounded by seven fire road piers along the mountain, is combined into a perfect defensive position.The quiet Guan River flows under the ancient castle, meanders westward, and finally flows into the Yellow River.

The Inner Great Wall was renovated and rebuilt during the Chengzu period on the basis of the Zhao Great Wall in the Warring States Period. The loess was mixed with glutinous rice and other materials and was rammed. From a distance, the long yellow walls and blockhouses on the yellow soil ridges almost merged with the mountains. It is grand and magnificent. The blood and sweat of many migrant workers created this project to resist the nomads on the grassland. Under each section of the earth wall, there are countless corpses of the people who built the wall.

Yajiaobao is the intersection of the outer Great Wall and the inner Great Wall, so there is a mountain named Yajiao Mountain, and the castle is called Yajiaobao.The Ming court stationed a Thousand Households here, which was guarded jointly by Datong Town and Shanxi Town.The stretch of the Inner Great Wall has arrived here and is combined with the Outer Great Wall. Looking from the sky, it looks like three yellow lines gathered in one place, one goes north and extends to Xuanfu; the other goes west and runs away to Yansui; And the last one, zigzagging to the south, is the Inner Great Wall.

In the fourth year of Yongli in the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Qianhu House here has long been abandoned. Because of disrepair for a long time, the earth walls are full of potholes, and holes as big as heads can be seen everywhere, and some places even collapsed into gaps.Weeds were overgrown in the bunker, and the houses were dilapidated. The thatch on the roof was blown away by the strong wind, leaving crooked beams; A huge flagpole was also broken into two pieces, and the wooden bucket fell to the ground.

All signs show that this pass, which the Mongols regarded as a natural moat at first, has become a smooth road. The footprints of some people and horses and the ruts of carts are looming inside and outside the crumbling city gate, which further proves this fact.

The wind blows, rolling up the dust in the sky.

Twenty miles away from Yajiaobao, in the gravel dust, a group of black figures embraced the cart and walked slowly towards Yajiaobao along the desolate dirt road.

Seen from a distance, there are not many people, but a hundred or so people are holding more than a dozen carts with sacks of goods tied on them. Among them are thirty or forty strong men, armed with guns and knives, standing among the crowd. I was very struck by his appearance. His face was ferocious, and his face was full of flesh and blood. He didn't look like a kind person, and he didn't seem to be a serious caravan.

However, serious caravans did not follow this path.

If you don’t take the road, but go through the official pass, you can naturally evade a huge amount of taxes, and you can also avoid the greedy appetite of those soldiers who will never be satisfied. Don’t underestimate this expenditure, it is even higher than the cost of a long journey. cargo profit.

But trails naturally have dangers, such as wild beasts, thieves, bandits, local snakes who are both civilians and thieves, and so on, which constitute various dangers of the smuggling trade. If you are not careful, someone will die. If you are not lucky, a group of people Death rays are common.

Therefore, big families or good merchants are not completely sure, and they will not take the risk of stealing the trail. Although Ningwuguan and Yanmenguan are exploited ruthlessly, they are better than safety. There is an opening here, but bandits are rampant, and most people dare not leave.

And this group of people happened to be a group of bandits.

Three or forty men escorted twice as many people as they were, men and women, old and young, bundled into twists, weeping and mourning, ragged and disheveled, staggering forward in the dust, And on the trolleys, there are messy things, iron pots, porcelain bowls, clothes, shoes and hats, and even a cupboard that looks a little delicate.

The leader, named Meng Lao Er, was a small banner officer from Weiyuanwei in Datong Township of the Ming Dynasty. Jiang Guan sneaked out anyway and had nowhere to go. Grass fell in the remaining veins of Luliang Mountain, and they lived a life of blood on the knife edge.

This trip out, quite rewarding.

"Brother, there are quite a lot of pigs here. Look at those girls, even though they have been smeared with pot ashes, you can still see their facial features. They are clean and dripping with water. The Mongolians will definitely be rushing to get them!" The strong man approached Meng Laoer and said with a smile: "We sold it for a good price, and we may live a good life for a few days!"

Meng Laoer has a yellow face, rides on a mule, holds a long-handled broadsword across his body, touches a tuft of beard around his mouth and smiles reservedly: "Hehe, what the hell is trying to be lazy! After doing this Tickets, I have to do a few more big trips, stock up on food in the cottage, and prepare more to be at ease. These days the Tartars and the Ming army are fighting, who knows if it will affect this side, in case it comes Now, we have to run, when the stock is out, what will we brothers eat and drink?"

The bandit rubbed his head, thought for a long time and smiled "hehe": "Brother is still thoughtful!"

"Of course, otherwise, how can I be your big brother?" Meng Laoer said, "Don't you care about meat pigs? If you run away, I will beat you to death!"

The bandit went away, and another skinny bandit came up again, with a smile on his face, and he said flatteringly: "Brother, there are fewer and fewer Zhuangzi around here, and everyone within a hundred miles It’s hard to find one, and it’s even more difficult to catch pigs and transport them to the Mongols for sale. From a small perspective, there have been more caravans going this way recently. I heard that the flying eagles on Dachongling a few days ago The people even did the big ones, grabbed more than a dozen truckloads of goods, and sent them to the big ones! There is no one around this Yajiao Fort, why don't we occupy it, and be a general guarding the customs, and collect the customs fees, It’s labor-saving and oily, so why not do it?”

Meng Lao Er glanced at him, and slapped his big mouth, beating the skinny monk Zhang Er, confused, and cursed, "I'll beat you to death, you idiot with a heart full of lard! Yajiaobao!" It’s a good place, but can you and I occupy it? How many people are we? Only 40 or [-] people! Those bastards on Dachongling can kill us. If they don’t dare to occupy it, why should we dare to go there? ?”

The skinny man covered his face, staring wildly, he hesitated, "Brother, brother, I just said..."

Meng Laoer slapped him again with a big mouth, but the thin man stood a little farther away and missed the slap. He almost ducked his waist, so he cursed again: "Why are you standing so far away? Come here!"

The thin man blinked his eyes and refused to go over. He was secretly pushed by another bandit laughing and staggered past. Meng Laoer slapped him back and taught him a lesson: "Yajiaobao is a good place, everyone I can see it, why no one dares to go? Hmm? Just because the place is so good, every time the Mongols enter the customs, they enter from here, do you dare to collect the Mongols' tax? Hmm? You fucking head Don't want it anymore?"

The skinny man was completely beaten and scolded, and shrank his neck to hide aside. A group of bandits persuaded him, "Big brother, big brother, calm down, calm down, Mr. Li is a lard brain, don't be as knowledgeable as him."

The second Meng was still cursing, but the skinny Li Dazi hid at the tail of the team, far away, not daring to reply. He wanted to please the boss but was slapped twice on the ears, flattering and slapped on the horse's hoof.The more I thought about it, the more angry I became, and the more I thought about it, the more aggrieved I became, my breath was stuck in my chest and I couldn't get it out, and I didn't dare to go to others to vent it with a dark face. The object of venting.

"Damn it, why are you walking so slowly? Have you ever been fucked by a man between your feet and hands?" Li Daqianzi jumped over, pulled out a sheathed knife and hit him on the head and face, watching several women fall on the ground. He screamed in pain, his black face gradually turned red, and his ferocious expression revealed a look of excitement, like a cowardly and greedy wolf.

A few bandits nearby pointed at him, and said with a smile, "Dayu Li is venting his anger on pigs again."

He also shouted at him: "Be careful! If you destroy a pig, you won't be able to sell it for a good price, and the boss will whip you again!"

Li Daqian gritted his teeth, and snorted, "Is it bad? It's all fucking fake, I stomp my feet, these bastards can crawl faster than rats!"

As if to prove that he was right, Li Dazi tightened his belt, twisted his waist fiercely, lifted his big feet, took a breath, and stomped down on the ground.

The bandits smiled and looked at him like they were watching a play.

The feet hit the ground and kicked up a burst of soil.

The expressions of the women who were knocked down on the ground changed, they were startled for a moment, they hurriedly got up, screamed, ignoring the ropes that bound them, stumbled and ran forward, crying.

Li Dayu was overjoyed, and found strangely that the bandits who were watching him laughing also turned around and ran away.

The whole team was running, and the bandits ran wildly, ignoring their heads and ignoring their backs. They didn't even want meat pigs and carts. Because they ran in a hurry, they knocked over several cars, and all the bits and pieces fell out. land.

And those so-called meat pigs, that is, the people who are to be sold, you pull me and you, they are tied into a string by the ropes that are tied to each other, crying and running around, but they can’t run away. jump into the ditch.

It was as if he was avoiding something terrible.

Li Daquan kept stepping on the ground, with a dull expression. He never imagined that his random kick would have such a big effect. Yes, this kick was very hard, but usually he stomped countless times, and he couldn't help it. Never seen such a big battle.

The ground was trembling, and the tiny stones trembled in the loess with a degree visible to the naked eye, bouncing, trying to fly, and following the sound of the wind in my ears, I could hear something faintly sounding in the distance behind me.

It seemed to be thundering.

No way, the rain just stopped, is it going to rain again?
Li Daquan turned around and saw a black cloud pressing down from the horizon.

His pupils dilated instantly. Having spent several years living in life and death with the Mongols in Luliang Mountain, he could immediately tell that it was not a fucking cloud, but a cavalry!

The dark cavalry were running towards this side like dark clouds covering the sun. Even though they were extremely far apart, the tremors coming from the ground could already make Li Daqianzi's feet and heart numb.

The paralysis went all the way up from the soles of the feet, there was a tremor between the legs, and then it went straight to the heart, so that Li Dayu almost couldn't lift his breath.

"Mongolian, Mongolian, Mongolian~~!" Amidst the heart-piercing cry, Li Dayu turned and ran, tripped on the ground in a hurry, fell, got up without even the dirt sticking to his face Wipe empty and run again.

The black clouds behind came overwhelming, like the tide flowing over the loess, surging and surging.

In the black tide, Ben Tal Khan, a branch of the Zhasaktu branch of the Khalkha tribe of Mongolia, sat upright on his horse. His handsome and heroic appearance was not dimmed by the flying loess. On the contrary, it was a kind of excitement because of the upcoming challenges and enemies , jumping on the face.

The war horse rolled past, like a strong wind blowing all over, lifting up the smoke and dust soaring into the sky.

(End of this chapter)