The Rhapsody of Mounted Blade Players

Especially grain, after more than three months of resumption of production, a lot was harvested during the autumn harvest. Ye Tianlong only collected 20% of the tax and obtained enough grain for his army to fight for more than half a year.

Of course, this was after Ye Tianlong sent a large number of players to various places to supervise. Otherwise, those officials would have been corrupted a lot!

The Song Dynasty suffered greatly from this. Ordinary civilians had to pay more than 50% of the regular taxes. Add in various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and it would go straight to 70% to 80%. In the end, farmers would only have enough food left in their hands. There is simply not enough to eat, which is why so many refugees appear every year.

Even after collecting so much tax, Song Huizong Zhao Ji still felt that he didn't have enough money to spend. This was because officials and petty officials at all levels were corrupt at all levels.

Naturally, Ye Tianlong couldn't change the corrupt practices of the officials in such a short period of time, so he had no choice but to send out those players to supervise.

During this period, it was also discovered that many officials were trying to commit corruption. Ye Tianlong's attitude was to deal with each discovery one by one. No matter how old the official was, he could not be exempted from guilt.

Because of his behavior, he directly became a tyrant in the eyes of the officials.

This also strengthened Ye Tianlong's determination to replace these former Song officials as soon as he cultivated his own talents.

In addition to the bumper harvest of food, Ye Tianlong also recruited and trained many soldiers and built many weapons and armors during this period.

Among them, the regular soldiers did not increase much. They only made up for some of the previous battle losses and restored their number to half a million. However, the militiamen recruited many more, so that the total number of militiamen in the country has exceeded Five million. Now any small county can have at least two thousand militiamen stationed. Some remote mountain villages can also have at least fifty militiamen stationed. It is definitely enough to guard against ordinary bandits and bandits. .

Ye Tianlong, who was well-equipped with troops, had the intention of starting a war again, but before he could send out troops, Wang Qing and Tian Hu sent him letters, saying that they wanted to take action against the southwestern barbarians who had invaded with the Dali people. , let these barbarians know that the Kingdom of Heaven is not so easy to mess with.

The two of them have sent small groups to the Southwest Yi territory many times to conduct various investigations, and they have almost figured out the details. They are confident that they can completely eliminate the Southwest Yi with just 20,000 people. Yi.

After Ye Tianlong read the letter, he felt that the 20,000 soldiers were still a little too small after all, so he sent another 30,000 troops to Wang Qing and Tian Hu to support them, so that the two could completely free their hands and feet to eliminate the barbarians hiding in the mountains. .

At this time, Ye Tianlong himself had also thought about his target for the first battle, which was Song Huizong Zhao Ji who was entrenched in the central area of ​​Sichuan. The faint king relied on the dangerous terrain in central Sichuan to block Xixia for a time. The human army attacks.

But this time it was Ye Tianlong who took action, and the good days of Song Huizong and Zhao Ji were probably coming to an end.

After making the decision, Ye Tianlong immediately began to recruit troops. Among them, he brought 270,000 regular soldiers and as many as 500,000 militiamen.

At this time, Zhao Ji, who was regarded as the target of attack by Ye Tianlong, still did not realize that his end was approaching. He was still plundering money from Shu, and then relied on the wealth and wealth plundered from the people to enjoy his luxurious and comfortable life. .

After more than half a month of marching, Ye Tianlong finally led his army to Xingqing Mansion. Going further from here, he would reach the middle of Shu.

However, the road to Shu is not easy to walk. Li Bai, the poet immortal, wrote a poem to describe the difficulty of walking on the road to Shu.

After Ye Tianlong went to investigate in person, he found that the dangerous plank roads leading to the middle of Shu had basically been demolished by the Song army, and there were still traces of burning in many places.

That was the trace left after the Xixia people attempted to repair the plank road during the last attack, but were burned down by rockets fired by the Song army.

Without these plank roads, the army would not be able to enter Sichuan at all, and it is easier to destroy than to repair. The Song army only needed to send dozens of people to guard the opposite side of the demolished plank road. When they saw the enemy coming to repair the plank road, they set off rockets to burn it down. That's it.

This time, the Song Army obviously wanted to continue using this trick. As soon as Ye Tianlong and others showed up, the Song Army crossbowmen on the opposite side fired arrows at them.

Fortunately, Ye Tianlong and the others were all fully armed. When the arrows landed on the armor, they were bounced away, unable to cause any harm to Ye Tianlong and the others at all.

After Ye Tianlong carefully observed the terrain here, he indeed found no other paths that could enter Sichuan except the destroyed plank road.

So he quickly led his people back to the camp, called his engineers, and prepared to ask these engineers to help him build a plank road made of reinforced concrete, so that he would not be afraid of being easily destroyed by the enemy.

However, with those Song troops causing trouble, it might not be that easy to build this new plank road, so Ye Tianlong also prepared to get rid of those Song troops first.

This matter has to be entrusted to Shi Qian. He previously asked Shi Qian to form a 'Battle Cat Special Team'. As the name suggests, this special team is to land as silently as a cat, while sneaking into the enemy. It will make the other party notice it, but at the same time it is sharp and can see everything clearly even in the dark.

Because the requirements for soldiers to join this special force are very high, the number of this special force is very small. So far, there are only more than 500 people. This is not a matter of choosing one out of a hundred, but choosing one out of ten thousand. , after all, Ye Tianlong now has more than five million soldiers and horses in his hands, including those militiamen.

After Shi Qian received this new mission, he couldn't help but feel very excited. After all, most of the missions they received before were to spy on the enemy. They didn't have many direct confrontations with the enemy, and they killed less than ten enemies. Even these enemies had to be killed when they were about to be exposed. Normally, they had to keep a low profile and were not allowed to kill people.

Shi Qian really felt a little itchy after not taking action for such a long time. It just so happened that the mission he received this time allowed them, the 'battle cats', to go on a killing spree. How could Shi Qian be unhappy?

When it got dark, Shi Qian set off with more than 300 special forces members. They were all wearing tight-fitting black leather armor, even their heads and faces were covered, completely blending into the night. For those who mostly For ancient soldiers suffering from night blindness, they were completely invisible.

But even so, Shi Qian and the others were cautious in their actions, which was also a habit of these 'war cats'.

Under the cover of night, Shi Qian and the others arrived at the ruined plank road, and then took out special hooks and placed them on their palms and soles, so that their hands and feet seemed to grow out of thin air. Each one is like a sharp claw.

Relying on these steel claws, they were able to move forward bit by bit on the extremely steep mountain wall.

After carefully walking more than a hundred meters, Shi Qian found that there seemed to be no enemy troops stationed at the other end of the ruined plank road. Maybe it was because it was getting late, and the Song troops thought that the enemy troops would not launch an attack, so Went to sleep.

This was also convenient for Shi Qian and the others. Soon, under the leadership of Shi Qian, more than 300 War Cat special forces members jumped down from the mountain wall and landed on the still intact plank road.

Everyone cautiously walked more than 200 meters away and saw a Song Army camp from a distance. It looked like there were more than 2,000 people inside.

With so many enemies, Shi Qian felt that it would be difficult to easily eat just three hundred of them, so he sent a dozen of his men back to pick up his comrades, while he continued to watch here. Watch these enemies and wait until friendly forces arrive before launching an attack together.

However, Shi Qian and the others only waited for a few minutes before two Song soldiers came to the woods where they were hiding and began to release water.

A special forces member was accidentally discovered by him while he was releasing water, so Shi Qian had to fight with the special forces member and kill the two Song Army soldiers.

After the two Song soldiers were killed, a smell of blood immediately began to slowly spread along the night wind. At the same time, as time went by, if these two people had not returned to the camp, it would be easy for the enemy generals to find something wrong.

So after thinking for a while, Shi Qian decided to launch an attack in advance.

And just when Shi Qian led his men and began to slowly approach the Song Army camp, preparing to launch an early attack, the dozen special forces members he sent to pick up the friendly forces also relied on some parts they carried. Several small ballistae were quickly assembled, and these ballistae fired giant crossbow bolts with iron cables behind them.

The friendly troops at the other end of the plank road had been waiting for a long time. When they saw these crossbow bolts coming, they immediately fixed them on huge rocks or big trees, and then sent out some militiamen to quickly pick up the iron ropes. On top of it were pieces of wooden boards that had been prepared long ago.

In this way, a temporary and crude road was built, and a large number of regular soldiers who were fully armed and ready for battle immediately rushed to the opposite side along this temporary road.

At this time, Shi Qian had already led his troops to the Song Army camp. Dozens of special forces members raised their crossbows, aimed at the Song Army soldiers standing guard in a complicated manner, and pulled the triggers almost simultaneously.

Crossbow arrows like large steel nails shot into the faces and throats of the Song soldiers like lightning in the night. When the arrows hit, most of the Song soldiers did not even react. What.

Moreover, these crossbow arrows were all quenched with highly toxic poison. A few seconds after the Song soldiers were hit by the arrows, they quickly died of the poison, without any chance to alert their companions in the camp.

After getting rid of these sentries, Shi Qian and the others used Qinggong to quickly climb over the low wall and enter the camp. When they met the enemy along the way, they would immediately use the company in their hands to Use your crossbow to deal with it and shoot it before it can react.

However, even though the continuous crossbow firepower in Shi Qian's hands was strong, something went wrong when they were about to approach the center of the camp. A Song Army soldier hid behind his companions when the crossbow arrows were fired, temporarily hiding. After a while, he opened his mouth and shouted, which made all the remaining Song troops in the camp alert and knew that enemy troops had sneaked into the camp.

Although the Song Army soldier was killed by Shi Qian in a few seconds with the special recurve blade knife with an iron rope in his hand, it was already too late.

Looking at the Song soldiers who had already grabbed their weapons and started to put on their armor, Shi Qian knew that they could only fight hard next, and they had only killed about 500 people before, so at this time inside the camp The Song army should have about 1,500 people, far more than they have here.

"Gather the remaining crossbow bolts and give them to the people in the front rows. The others will work with me to make more torches and prepare to set them on fire!"

Under Shi Qian's order, the remaining crossbow bolts were given to more than a hundred special forces members in the first few rows. These special forces members were holding the crossbow bolts that had just been gathered from their teammates, and they were all crazy. Pulling the trigger, he quickly knocked down the charging Song Army soldiers one by one, causing more than two hundred Song Army soldiers to die before they could rush over.

But soon the Song Army general also reacted, and immediately sent more than a hundred elite heavy infantry armed with large shields and wearing iron armor to push forward. However, the repeating hand crossbows of the special forces team members were not powerful enough, and they simply It can't penetrate those big shields and armor.

Fortunately, Shi Qian and the others quickly made hundreds of torches from behind. Then Shi Qian and the others took out the gasoline they carried with them and sprinkled it on the enemy's elite heavy infantry before they could react. What was the liquid that was spilled? The torches had already hit them one by one.

So soon the fire was raging on them, and these elite heavy infantry were suddenly unable to maintain their formation. One by one they began to run around, and some even rolled crazily on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames on their bodies.

Unfortunately, their efforts had no effect. Instead, many surrounding camps and friendly troops were set alight by them, and the fire became larger and larger. The Song Army generals tried their best to suppress the chaos but could not stop the chaos.

But Shi Qian and the others took advantage of the enemy's chaos, and relied on their excellent light skills to quickly rush into it like cheetahs. Then these special forces members waved the poisoned daggers in their hands and slashed at the enemy soldiers crazily. kill.

Shi Qian even swung the recurve-edged dagger in his hand, aimed at the Song Army general, and then threw it towards him.

The Song Army general was choked by a burst of smoke and burst into tears. He didn't notice this scene at all, so he was quickly hit by the dagger, and the iron rope on the dagger was wrapped around his neck. Shi Qian pulled hard, and the short knife cut off the head of the Song Army general, causing him to die on the spot.

As the Song Army general was killed, the remaining Song Army soldiers became even more confused. Upon seeing this, Shi Qian waved his two short knives and rushed into the enemy formation, and began to reap the lives of the enemy soldiers with ease. If Occasionally, if he encounters one or two Song soldiers who can block his double-knife slashing, he will quickly throw out some darts and flying needles to kill them. When fighting, he pays attention to an eclectic approach.

By the time Yang Zhi arrived with hundreds of heavy infantry, there were only more than two hundred Song troops left in the camp, and these two hundred were not because Shi Qian and the others could not kill them, but because of casualties. Tai Tai chose to surrender to Shi Qian and the others.

However, in this bloody battle, Shi Qian's War Cat Special Forces also suffered more than a dozen casualties. When Ye Tianlong learned about it later, he felt very distressed. After all, it is not easy to train the soldiers of the War Cat Special Forces! A dozen of them were lost at once, and I don’t know when they will be able to make up for it.