Jin Shiqi stayed in Guiping for two days, and then he and Wu Yongbo led the fleet to the upper reaches of the Yujiang River.

Destination: Gui County.

This was a routine transportation mission. Shuiying dispatched 10 river ships, accompanied by more than 30 civilian ships transporting grain. The total load was thousands of stones of rice, grain, salt, meat, and alcohol, which was enough for an army of 10,000 people for a month.

of supplies.

The waves of a large river are wide, and both sides of the river are flat.

Jin Shiqi sat on the bow of the boat, enjoying the warm breeze and admiring the great rivers and mountains. He saw mountain villages dotted on the north and south banks of the river, and fields criss-crossed. There are millions of acres of fertile land in the Yujiang and Xunjiang plains. They are the richest areas in Guangxi. It is really coveted.

Ah. Jin Shiqi not only admired it, but when Pingchou looked at the vast sky, he didn't expect that there were such vast fertile fields among the mountains![

It's a pity that all of this has been ravaged by war.

After Hu Fulong launched his army last year, several nearby states and counties got wind of the situation. Barbarians from all mountains and caves came to rely on them. At most, they gathered 30,000 troops. Half of the countryside in the mountain village was burned down, and the fertile fields were abandoned for a whole year.

Weeds are overgrown and rabbits are flying and eagles are flying. After several days of boating in Liuzhou Shuiying, there is often no human habitation on the shore for miles, leaving only traces of war everywhere.

It’s so sad!

Along the way, Jin Shiqi did enough to ensure his own safety. He was extremely cautious when boating and camping. He also wore mail armor on hot days and always had two soldiers with shields by his side.

The secret report about the Xunzhou Guard sent by Fan Jiangrong made him feel serious.

The last time he came to Xunzhou, Cai Wenbao, the guard of Xunzhou, worked as a lackey for Prince Jingjiang, arresting people and beheading people. If it hadn't been for a fire in his own backyard and a sneak attack by Hu Fulong, that guy might have also attacked Jin Shiqi.

Although Fan Jiangrong's secret report was vague, Jin Shiqi was convinced that he was going to have a real fight with Cai.

…

On June 6, the Shuiying fleet arrived in Guixian County in the west of Xunzhou.

Guixian County stands on the north bank of Yujiang River, and you can smell a fishy smell from a distance.

That's the smell of the battlefield.

Hu Fulong captured this county town when he raised his army last year, and then it was recaptured by Cai Jinghuan and his son, commander of the Xuzhou Guard. After that, we fought for dozens of rounds, with tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians killed and injured. So the battle in the fields outside the city began.

The flesh and blood are piled up and become more fertile.

It was not until last month that the North Route Army led by He Yujiu chased Hu Fulong and beat him back steadily. The siege was completely relieved in Guixian County. Then Guangxi Commander-in-Chief Ji Yuanxian also led the main East Route Army to arrive here. Now Guixian County is a large army.

Gather.

After the Liuzhou Water Camp arrived in Guixian, all the ships were busy unloading and handing over goods. Jin Shiqi went to pay homage to Ji Yuanxian, the commander-in-chief of the Guangxi Army. Ji Yuanxian was directing his troops to advance southward. There was a huge map in the commander-in-chief hall.

There are small flags planted all over: Guilin Youying, Xunzhou Camp, Guangzhou Qianying, Zhaoqing Camp, Leizhou Camp... They are gathering into a beautiful "left hook" and hitting the area where thieves gather in the south of Guixian County.

Ji Yuanxian had no polite words to say to Jin Shiqi and directly assigned him a task.

"Watang!"

Ji Zongbing pointed to a small town in the upper reaches of the Yujiang River, and then put a small flag of "Liuzhou Water Camp" on it.

Jin Shiqi suddenly felt like he was being pushed down by force.

That town is an important place on the south bank of the Yujiang River. According to news from the front, the Leizhou Battalion, a brother force from Guangdong, has broken into this place, and the Hu bandits are in disarray and fleeing. Ji Yuanxian ordered Jin Shiqi to go to Wattang Town.

Establish an "advance base" and build docks and granaries.[

After Jin Shiqi received the order, he set out early the next morning. He still led the 10 river boats, 50 private soldiers and a "hidden arrow assault team". The engineering brigade of the Liuzhou Water Camp happened to be in Guixian, so Jin Shiqi then

They took away a squadron of 100 people and several shiploads of materials and equipment.

Although they were performing a "construction mission" in the "safe zone" this time, Jin Shiqi still ordered the soldiers to bring enough medicine because the old enemy Xunzhou Guards were fighting in that area.

/

…

The fleet sailed upstream and arrived at Wattang Town in the evening of the next day.

It was a small town on the south coast, or a large farmhouse. Unexpectedly, it was peaceful here. There were no traces of war.

The green hills in the distance are reflected in the glow, and the continuous green bamboos are hidden in the hazy mist and rain. The rice fields nearby are like rolling waves. Farmers in twos and threes are slowly returning home. Low houses, white walls and green tiles, haystack valleys

The warehouses are shadowed by each other, and smoke rises in the rain and mist. A group of children are playing in the water by the river.

There is an unused fort at the intersection, and there is not even a city wall other than that. Everything exudes a leisurely and peaceful pastoral atmosphere.

The Shuiying fleet slowly approached the river bank, and some villagers looked at them from a distance. The boats were approaching one after another on the old wooden pier, and the children ran over with joy.

Jin Shiqi asked people to go ashore to inquire, and found out that this place was indeed Wattang Town. The villagers said that a small group of officers and soldiers came the day before yesterday, robbed a few cattle, raped a few women, and then left. Jin Shiqi ordered the boat to be moored ashore, and he sent "

The "hidden arrow troops" searched east and north, and sent General Wu Yongbo to meet with the local Li Zhengxiang elder. He himself led the brigade into the camp.

On Jin Shiqi's map, this fort was supposed to be home to a hundred households of the Fengyi Guards, with dozens of household soldiers guarding a few broken ships. However, by the Tianqi Year, the fort had long since been deserted.

Several buildings in the fort collapsed and turned into piles of broken bricks and rubble, filled with poisonous snakes and voles. Although the outer wall did not collapse, the top of the wall was also badly damaged, as if it had been gnawed over.

The sailors began to clean up the camp and prepare to set up camp. They caught snakes and voles, disemboweled them, peeled them, grilled them, and braised them, and the aroma filled the air. Soon, villagers came to sell wine, food, fruits, fresh fish, and some even brought chickens.

Duck, there are people who hold a jar of brown sugar and sell it to Jin Shiqi. It’s not sweet and doesn’t cost money. The folk customs here are really simple and kind.

Jin Shiqi opened his precious map again. The map was marked with information from the Military Intelligence Division, which recorded that there was a Buddhist temple in the west end of the town. There was a five-story wooden pagoda in the temple, which could see a distance of more than ten miles. He then

He took half of the private soldiers and entourage into the town.

The town is full of low and damaged wooden and bamboo houses, and the crooked dirt roads are covered with feces and urine. It makes a squeaking sound when you step on it. Pigs and dogs run around in the alleys, chickens and ducks chirp one after another, children cry, and women laugh. It is a warm place.

breath of life.

Suddenly, I seemed to hear the thud of an arrow hitting the target!

The soldiers were a little nervous, but Jin Shiqi ordered to be quiet and quietly walked around to take a look.

In the open space in the center of the town, dozens of men are practicing bows and arrows. They are all shirtless villagers. They are laughing, shouting, and gesticulating, as if some are still competing in archery skills. In this era, every village has group training.

It is not unusual to practice weapons with the militiamen. The archery skills of the men in front of them are quite good. Some of them can shoot at targets more than 20 paces away while trotting, and they can hit the target 50% to 60% of the time.

Jin Shiqi looked at it for a while and suddenly felt something was wrong.

The men's hair styles were very strange: some were disheveled, some had shaved heads, and some had braids. They were all barbarians.

"Your mother!" Jin Shiqi's heart began to beat wildly. Wasn't this town searched by Guangdong soldiers? How could this happen... It's so irresponsible!

The face of Lao Bai, the flag-bearer beside him, also turned pale, and he looked angry. Lao Bai whispered: "General, they seem to be thieves!"

Jin Shiqi quickly led them back to a quiet place, and immediately took out a flint sickle and lit a match rope. Most of his private soldiers were young boys. 10 held spears and 10 held fire blunderbuss. The teenagers also understood the situation.

It was so urgent that some people began to tremble.

The private soldiers were tinkering with lighting the match ropes when two naked men suddenly ran over from the intersection, both holding machetes in their hands. They ran over like crazy. When they looked at each other for a moment, everyone on both sides was stunned...

…[

The calm before the outbreak...

After an instant, the two men with machetes turned around and ran away. "Open fire guns, warning!" Jin Shiqi roared.

Immediately there was a gunshot sound nearby!

Immediately afterwards, there was a "boom" in the center of the town. Then the firecrackers shot up like bouncing beans! "It's Mr. Wu Qian!" Jin Shiqi ordered, "Come up to meet us!"

The town immediately became chaotic. There were people crying, running, screaming, and jumping around, followed by the sound of firecrackers and the harsh rumbling sound of grenades.

Just now Wu Yongbo went to see the local leader. He only brought 20 sailors, and they were probably trapped inside. Jin Shiqi estimated that the enemy would not be very strong, so he led his men to follow the sound of grenades. They passed through a street intersection.

Suddenly, a dozen thieves were seen in front of them, with their backs turned to them. They were all holding bows, arrows and machetes in their hands and were ambushing them.

Several grenades were thrown here immediately, and they rushed over immediately after the explosion. The young private soldiers roared in unison, and the spears were poked out one after another. The feeling of the spear tip inserted into the flesh was as smooth as silk, and the blood rushed like ruby.

His ribs were broken and his arm was numb with shock. He was stabbed in the chest, but the thief grabbed the barrel of the gun and rolled around. He saw another spear stabbed diagonally, and someone jumped up and slashed with a shield. Everyone screamed.

There were sounds, shouts, and curses, and gun barrels, blunderbuss tubes, and swords were dancing wildly!

Most of the young private soldiers went into battle for the first time to kill people. When they pulled out the thorn from the thieves' chest, a stream of blood immediately spewed out and covered their faces. They couldn't help but burst into tears, and their hands were so trembling that they couldn't even hold the musket.

.

Immediately afterwards, Wu Yongbo rushed out with a dozen sailors, all of whom were dripping with blood. When he saw Jin Shiqi, he pointed behind him and shouted: "I was cheated, I almost suffered!"

"Cha!" Jin Shiqi roared. "Who is the other party?"

"Ah! I don't know, but there are a lot of people... I have killed a lot of brothers!" Wu Yongbo looked back again, but unfortunately no brothers came out to chase him.

"Go back to the dock first." Jin Shiqi immediately ordered, "Walk around!"

Now there were 40 people in the team. They simply lined up and headed south. They encountered several rounds of raids along the way. The thieves kept running out of the alley and were knocked to the ground head-on. There were groups behind them.

When the enemy caught up with them, they threw grenades and killed them all. There were also thieves standing on the roof and shooting arrows downwards. The sailors fired three or five muskets at the same time. Several more shield-wielding men rushed out from the diagonal stabs.

Here are five or six long spears poking at them in a row!

Running all the way, there were constant casualties along the way. When a sailor or private soldier fell to the ground, the officer slapped him in the face and said, "Okay! Stand up!"

If you can stand up, your brothers will drag you forward.

If you can't stand up, brothers will give you a stabbing blow to prevent you from falling into the hands of thieves alive.

In almost every round of encounters, three or five brothers were left behind. Jin Shiqi also cut a throat with his own hands.

He saw the young man bleeding and falling limply in his hands, and he couldn't help but shed tears. At this moment, Jin Shiqi couldn't even say his name, what a bastard! He just knew that he was a fourteen-year-old

The child... this is the child. Ten days ago, he went to take revenge on Blue Mammoth. He was like a proud little rooster. Jin Shiqi said that I will marry Blue Mammoth’s daughter to you. You want peace and don’t take revenge. The child immediately blushed.

, I want to refuse but don’t dare, I want to agree but I don’t dare even more, that shy and cute attitude is so cute.

At this moment, the child's blood was pouring out from his chest, thighs, and throat, covering half of Jin Shiqi's body. He thought of Jin Bao again... He didn't dare to think too much, left the child and moved on. (Unfinished)
Chapter completed!