A middle-aged thief with red eyes rushed towards the officers and soldiers in front of him. Behind him, more than a dozen corpses were lying on the ground. He was the only one left in the scout team of this thief.
And all this happened in less than a cup of tea.
In the ranks of officers and soldiers, countless pairs of eyes looked at the bandit who rushed up with only one arm, with various expressions in their eyes.
A sharp whistle sounded, and a dozen short spears flew out from the array of officers and soldiers, pinning the thief who was screaming and charging to the ground. The thief's voice stopped suddenly, and he threw himself on the ground.
in front of the officers and soldiers.
Blood flowed out from under him, and almost in the blink of an eye, it accumulated into a small puddle in the mud under him. The bleeding thief's body was twitching, and his mouth was constantly opening and closing.
Black blood gushed out from his buttocks, but he could no longer make any sound.
Several orders came out from the ranks of officers and soldiers, and a dozen officers and soldiers walked out of the ranks with knives in hand. They inspected the corpses on the battlefield one by one. No matter whether the people lying on the ground were dead or not, they did not hesitate to look at each other.
They replenished their bodies with swords, then pulled out their short spears and returned to the team one by one.
With another order, the officers and soldiers began to turn around and head into the distance. In a short time, they disappeared into the mountains in the distance, as if this battle had never happened.
I don’t know which tributary bandit scouts this is to encounter the counterattack of the officers and soldiers. Since yesterday, there have been suddenly more scouts of the bandits, ranging from three to five people, to as many as a dozen, and they have been holding tightly.
The tail of the 700th household not only made it impossible for the 700th household to get close to the bandits, but almost all of its own actions were exposed to the eyes of the bandits.
Li Datou of the Hundred Households immediately issued the order to counterattack. The entire Hundred Households were divided into several parts and suddenly dispersed. As he expected, each part was followed by scouts of rogue thieves.
So, almost in the blink of an eye, these scouts became the targets of the officers and soldiers. Under the sudden attack, there were very few rogue scouts who could escape this counterattack.
After cutting off the tails behind them, the 700th household decisively merged again. This time, they turned around and left, never giving any scouts a chance to attach themselves to them.
The entire army of Baihu was on the road almost non-stop day and night. After returning to Xizhou in one breath, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Even those who didn't know the importance probably guessed that Baihu must have followed them.
I'm so anxious, they don't run away anymore, I'm ready to turn around and eat them!
Five hundred people versus five thousand people, if they are really surrounded by bandits, everyone will be dead.
The city defenses of Xizhou City have never been repaired after being breached by bandits. After the 700th household entered the city, they immediately began to repair the city defenses and made preparations to defend the city.
Today's Xizhou, not to mention ten houses and nine empty houses, at least has half fewer people than before the city was broken by bandits. And the officials of Xizhou County Magistrate have long disappeared. The entire Xizhou County is almost empty.
A chaotic situation.
Among the remaining people, no one cares about the origins of the officers and soldiers who entered the city, or whether they want to defend the city. Those who can escape have already left here long ago, and the rest are unable to leave or have no money.
They go to a different place and don't care about anything else except surviving.
This situation made it impossible for the 700 households entering the city to recruit young people to help repair the city's defenses. They had to do everything by themselves.
And just after they had been busy all night, repairing the city wall of Xizhou to a certain appearance, a large group of bandits appeared in front of them early in the morning.
Li Datou stood at the top of the city, looking at the dark group of thieves coming from a distance. After just a brief assessment, he knew that he could not fight this battle.
There were so many bandits that it looked endless at first glance. It seemed that I had really attracted all the bandits in this bandit.
It was impossible to defend the city. Even if Xizhou's city defense could last for an hour, he felt that he was very lucky.
If you go out to fight, you can't beat them. He fought against these bandits yesterday. Although the scouts of the bandits are mostly young and strong, but everyone has long swords and short blades. This has shown that these bandits
They are all elite.
At least, the bandit army should be fully equipped and everyone should have weapons.
Right now, the only way for the 700th household to survive seems to be to escape!
"Otherwise, let's avoid their sharp edges first!"
The two general banners around me all gave the same advice: "Anyway, the thieves in this city have already plundered once, and there is nothing worth them searching for anymore. We don't have to fight them to the death here!"
"Master Qianhu's order is to defend Xizhou to the death after successfully luring the enemy!"
Li Datou looked at his two men with a sad expression; "Keep guarding until our Lord Qianhu leads the army to completely eliminate this tributary bandit!"
"We are trying to avoid their sharpness, but we are not fleeing without a fight!" The two general banners shook their heads in unison: "We will not go far, but will circle outside Xizhou. The bandits have entered Xizhou, and we
Just guerrilla outside. It would be better if the bandits don't enter Xizhou. Let's continue to lure the enemy!"
"fart!"
Li Datou spat: "Aren't you afraid of death? What is guerrilla? Isn't it just picking up soft persimmons and pinching them? Now that they have all been killed, there are no soft persimmons left!"
"What Mr. Qianhu wants is to just stick to the thief and wait for him to come over, right?"
A general banner blinked, "Just don't let them escape. This is not easy. Withdraw from Xizhou and each small banner will fight on their own. If they can win, they will fight. If they are not sure, they will wander around the enemy!"
"
He chuckled: "We will do what these traitorous scouts did to us yesterday!"
"We still have to fight!" Li Datou rolled his eyes and thought that this would be fine: "Call the flags from all the flags to come over. Before the thieves come, I will explain how to fight..."
Ten miles away, more than 2,000 people from the 4,000th household divided into two groups and were heading towards Xizhou with difficulty. If you look down from the sky, you can clearly see two huge black masses, slowly approaching.
Moving slowly towards Xizhou City.
The larger black group has almost touched Xizhou City, while the two smaller black groups are only one place away from Xizhou.
"Sir Qianhu, the bandit army has gathered below Xizhou City, and the number is more than 3,000!"
"Sir Qianhu, the bandit army has launched an attack on Xizhou, and the 700th household has been defeated and retreated!"
"Master Qianhu, most of the bandit army has already occupied Xizhou, and there are still more than a thousand people who have not yet entered the city..."
Messages from the scouts were sent to Li Zicheng one after another. Li Zicheng frowned and issued orders to the entire army.
"The 300th household is on alert, and the remaining 100 households are resting on the spot and cooking and eating!"
This is the last mountain col to Xizhou. After leaving this mountain col, there is no longer any shelter between us and Xizhou City. All that is left are dilapidated villages and barren land in the wilderness.
If the bandits have already occupied Xizhou, then the bandits' scouts will arrive at this mountain col in an hour or two at the latest. Whether the 4,000th household is marching into Xizhou or hiding their whereabouts, they will have nothing to do.
It won't make any sense anymore.
Li Zicheng decided not to think about this anymore and make good use of the time when the rebel scouts discovered him, so that the soldiers could eat and drink enough to build up their strength.
If possible, the few miles of wilderness from here to Xizhou would be the battlefield for the decisive battle between his 4,000th household and the bandits.
The continuous march did not dampen the morale of the soldiers. During these days in Yan'an Prefecture, although the soldiers and horses of the 4000th household did not experience any particularly big battles, they still experienced some large and small battles, and there was no surprise.
, most of them ended with the victory of the 4,000 households.
Because of the lack of firearms, but also envied the combat power of the first, second, and third thousand households, Li Zicheng even practiced a special set of tactics for the fourth thousand households. Even after Jiang Wan saw this set of tactics,
It’s also quite appreciated.
Today is probably the time to test this strategy of the 4,000th household on the largest scale.
An hour later, all the soldiers and horses were full of food and drink, and stood in front of Li Zicheng with high morale.
"Report, the 300th household has found traces of the bandits. There are more than a thousand bandits, and they are coming towards us!"
"Beat the drums, line up, and go to war!"
Li Zicheng gave a loud order, and the rumbling war drums sounded in the mountain col. Repeated bursts of thunder-like sounds echoed in the sky. In this momentum, pairs of officers and soldiers lined up neatly from the mountain col and slowly came out.
.
The formation of the troops was not as neat as Li Zicheng imagined, let alone the strict formations of the first, second, and third thousand households that Li Zicheng had seen. However, Li Zicheng was already very satisfied. These soldiers of his were the ones who had been in the army the longest.
It was only the soldiers from last summer, and the shortest ones were even one or two months old. Now that he can arrange such an array, he already feels very satisfied.
On the contrary, when more than a thousand rogue soldiers and horses were in a mess in the distance, they saw the officers and soldiers lined up from the mountain col. They were almost visibly panicked for a while. As for the formation, Li Zicheng smiled contemptuously. The rogue soldiers opposite
Thief, do you know what a formation is?
There were hundreds of people who seemed to want to imitate the officers and soldiers and set up a formation here, but there were also hundreds of people who wanted to run back in a mess, not knowing whether to escape or to bring in reinforcements.
Li Zicheng ignored these guys and just followed his own thoughts. After his troops walked out of the col, he formed two square formations at the corners of each other. Then, he calmly maintained the formation as much as possible.
, approaching the enemy in the distance.
stop!
As Li Zicheng raised his arm, the officers and soldiers stopped, and then there was the sound of footsteps arranging their queues.
The nearest bandits who haven't escaped are only a mile away.
"Li Guo, go and invite a fight!"
Li Zicheng shouted loudly: "Let Gao Yingxiang come to die. Anyone among the bandits who takes Gao Yingxiang's head will be exempted from guilt and rewarded to a hundred households!"
Li Guo led his men towards the front. Soon, Li Zicheng saw his nephew gesticulating and yelling in front of the two armies. A few arrows were shot out from the rebel army, but
Not even a hair on Li Guo's body was touched.
The war drums began to rumble, and after passing through the whole team's battle formation, it slowly began to move again. Li Guo and his men calmly retreated from between the two battle formations.
In the distance, in Xizhou City, countless thieves were swarming out of the city gate.
A slight smile appeared on Li Zicheng's face - the battle had begun.
Dozens of archers rushed out from the bandit army and began to fire arrows at the slowly approaching army of officers and soldiers. I don’t know whether it was because of nervousness or because the bandits who shot arrows were not archers in the first place.
It went out and fell far in the way of the officers and soldiers' array. Not even one shot entered the officers and soldiers' array.
Various shouts rang out from the bandit army, and the array of officers and soldiers was slightly confused because of these archers. However, the confusion quickly disappeared under the command of the officers.
The officers and soldiers continued to advance. Under the urging of the people behind them, the bandit's archers ran forward dozens of steps and began to set up their bows and release arrows. This time, many arrows fell on the heads of the officers and soldiers. Among the officers and soldiers,
, there were casualties immediately.
This caused the bandits' team to cheer immediately, and behind the group of bandits in front of them, large groups of bandits were joining their ranks.
"Shoot these dog officers and soldiers!"
"The dog officers and soldiers don't have shields, so feel free to shoot!"
The bandits watched their archers perform, each one shouting happily, and some officers and soldiers kept falling down, which seemed to make them even more happy.
Gu Jian'er pulled the string of his bow fiercely, and as soon as he loosened his hand, the arrow flew out of his hand. He didn't even look at whether the arrow he shot hit the officers and soldiers, and turned around and ran behind him:
"retreat!"
Some people ran back after him, but some people turned a deaf ear to his words. He ignored these idiots and kept his head down and ran back.
If his arrows could hit the officers and soldiers, it meant that the arrows of the officers and soldiers could also hit him. He didn't believe that there were not even archers among so many officers and soldiers.
Someone from behind yelled: "Coward!"
"You coward, why are you running away!"
He ignored the idiots behind him and counted his own steps. When he reached twenty steps, he stopped again, turned around and fired another arrow. Sure enough, the officers and soldiers had just taken a few steps forward, and his arrow
The shot hit just in time and landed on the heads of the people in the first few rows of officers and soldiers.
He even saw that his shot almost landed on a thin officer and soldier. He didn't know whether it hit his shoulder or neck. The thin officer fell to the ground and disappeared from the officer's body in almost the blink of an eye.
in the crowd.
He drew another arrow from the quiver, put it on the string, but did not draw the bow string. He fired several arrows one after another. His hands were a little sore. He needed to take a breath and take a breath.
The noisy shouting from behind suddenly became louder and even screamed. He frowned and turned his head to look over. Suddenly, countless people behind him were pointing in front of him and shouting something loudly.
An extremely bad feeling suddenly surged deep in his heart. He turned around suddenly and heard a loud bang that only he could hear, knocking him to the ground.