Pang Yu quickly jumped off the river bed, where some strong men were already running away.
"Follow the same path!"
Pang Yu shouted loudly, and some strong men rolled down from behind.
Pang Yu caught one and asked in a Tongcheng accent, "Which team are they from?"
Those running back in front all responded correctly, and Pang Yu gave them directions and asked them to retreat along the river.
The screams and killing sounds from behind gradually approached, and several figures passed over Pang Yu's head with a whoosh, jumped directly into the Tongxi River, and then began to swim to the other side.
Tongcheng is crisscrossed by rivers, and there are ponds and lakes everywhere. Many rural children swim and play in the ponds, lakes and rivers in summer. Most of them know how to swim. Pang Yu estimates that those few people are also strong men.
Then he shouted to those figures, "After crossing the river, take off your clothes and go back to the city!"
Suddenly there was a scream from behind. Pang Yu looked back and saw several black figures rolling down from the riverside and also rolling into the water. They started screaming and thrashing. Pang Yu crouched down and heard that the accent was not from Tongcheng, but that they were rogue bandits.
Pang Yu hurriedly walked back to Tongcheng along the way he came, but he couldn't walk fast at all in the darkness. Just after walking a few steps, people rolled down the river in a steady stream. A black figure screamed and slid down in front of Pang Yu, holding the hand in his hand.
The waist knife was swung wildly, grazing Pang Yu's cotton-padded clothes.
Pang Yu subconsciously took a step back. At this time, there was a noise on the river bank. Groups of people rolled down and covered the entire path. There were two figures fighting on Pang Yu's head. The two had lost their center of gravity.
It's about to roll down.
No longer caring about walking along the river bank, Pang Yu threw away his knife and jumped into the river. In the cold night of early spring, the river water was freezing and biting. Several people nearby splashed large splashes of water, and Pang Yu's eyes became confused.
People kept falling into the water behind, but Pang Yu didn't dare to stop. He swam two or three feet down, bypassed the struggling people, and swam hard to the other side. The cotton jacket on his body was soaked with water, and there was still air left in the fibers.
, providing a certain amount of buoyancy, but the movements of the hands and feet are affected, and the resistance increases.
The most important thing is that the cotton-padded jacket will increase in weight when it is completely soaked. Pang Yu did not dare to save his energy and swam desperately to the other side. Fortunately, the Tongxi River was not wide in early spring, and he soon approached the other side. Pang Yu stepped on the river bed.
Then he stood up hurriedly.
On the other side of the river, there were crowds of people shouting for help, and in the river there were continuous sounds of people falling into the water, splashing into the water, and shouts for help.
The cotton clothes on his body were as heavy as stones. Pang Yu's whole body was shaking non-stop. He hurried to the river bank and took off his cotton clothes and soap clothes. These wet clothes could not be worn again, otherwise he would quickly lose body temperature.
.
It was still cold after taking off the clothes. Pang Yu did not dare to stop. He jumped on the spot and kept moving his limbs to generate more heat in his body. After quickly looking at the direction, he skipped towards the west gate with his shirtless bulk.
.
…On the morning of the second day, the clouds were low in the sky, and white smoke was still rising from the camp of the bandits outside the city. The Tongxi River was filled with corpses. The camp next to the Tongxi River was in a mess, and most of the tents were in a mess.
They were all destroyed, and the ground was littered with corpses. Some figures were walking around in the camp, shouting various names.
Pang Yu stood haggardly on top of Nancheng. The results of the night attack last night were fruitful, far beyond his expectation. The roar that occurred in the rogue camp was earth-shattering. Everyone fell into a kind of madness and attacked other people they met until
They all stopped after their physical strength was exhausted. Countless people were trampled to death in the camp, and countless more fell into the Tongxi River and drowned.
Pang Yu has little research on this kind of thing. Camp roars usually occur late at night, mostly in the army.
It may happen without an attack. Most of the time, there is no warning, and it is difficult to analyze the actual reason. Generally speaking, pressure and tension are the most important factors. When it is dark and invisible, once it is induced,
A roar will form.
Once it happens, it will cause a chain reaction. Highly nervous people will attack all moving objects they encounter and kill each other until the light is restored.
Last night, the strong squad had been shouting that the soldiers were coming, which probably stimulated the rogue bandits' sensitive nerves. The explosion of fire and thunder also played a role in motivating them.
There are three camps in the southern suburbs of the rogues. This camp was basically destroyed. The other camps were affected by the roar. All the elders and bosses were struggling to support themselves. They were afraid that the roar would also occur in their own camp. They spent the night in fear. At dawn,
No offensive was organized after that.
However, the losses of the strong men also far exceeded Pang Yu's expectation. Only thirty-one of the more than one hundred strong men returned to the west gate. This also included those who got separated and returned. Even Ruan Jin, who was at the end of the team, also
Before returning, it is unknown whether the others entered the mountain or were swallowed up by the roar of the camp.
Wang Zenglu's two teams were also reduced by half, but after crossing the river, he captured a bandit leader who was dizzy due to flooding. After taking him back to the city for interrogation, he found out that the night attack last night was the sweeper's camp, and most of them were in Henan.
The housekeepers we collected also included a mother-in-law camp. The Sweeper King's old camp was still two miles away, so he should be unscathed.
He Xianya came up from the city ladder and hurried to Pang Yu to report, "Second brother, after dawn, five more strong men returned to the west gate one after another, and they all connected to the city wall, but there is still no Ruan Jin."
Pang Yu nodded. There were less than forty people there. Based on the number of people who attacked, more than half of them were lost, which was proportionally greater than the losses of the rogue bandits. I don't know if this night attack was cost-effective.
Seeing Pang Yu's unkind expression, He Xianya carefully reported the report, "The Kuaishou patrolling the city came back last night and said that two Westerners living in exile were beaten to death in Dongcheng and Nancheng that night. He asked the team leader if he wanted to investigate."
Pang Yu did not respond. If two people were killed in the past, it would be an earth-shattering event. But now, with thousands of corpses outside the city and dozens of people in the strong squad unknown, killing two people is not worth it.
ask.
"Let Mr. Li take care of it. The strong class suffered a lot of losses last night, and the fast class needs to recruit more people to go up the city wall today."
He Xianya responded in a low voice and didn't leave for a while. When Pang Yu came back last night, he was shirtless, with all his clothes and waistband missing, his lips were black and his whole body was trembling, looking quite embarrassed.
The fire in the Xicheng Tower lasted half an hour before it calmed down. During this period, whenever someone returned, Pang Yu would be there to count how many people were still there, and he almost didn't sleep all night.
The Zhuang squad suffered a lot of losses, but the effect of the night attack was also good. He Xianya was about to persuade his second brother, but before he could speak, the sound of trumpets sounded in another camp of the Sweeping King.
A long procession left the camp and headed towards the south wall.
Pang Yu looked at the team and said, "The bandits are still going to attack the city. Send a flag to the bell tower and ring the bell to notify the whole city to be on alert."
... Under the low clouds, the team coming out of the Sweeping King's camp was getting closer and closer. Pang Yu looked carefully and didn't see any weapons, nor did he see any equipment such as bamboo ladders, tables, and desks. The team was surrounded by
There were some red-clad bandits scattered around, all holding swords and guns, as if they were monitoring the team in the middle.
Getting closer, there were thousands of people in the middle. They were driven towards the south wall by the surrounding bandits.
Pang Yu frowned and looked for a moment, then turned around and went to the grass farm behind to get two fire mines and placed them on the crenels. Other soldiers and government officials also placed stones, ash jars, cupping pots and other utensils in convenient places.
The atmosphere in the city was actually not tense, because today's scale was several orders of magnitude smaller than yesterday, and there were no equipment, so it seemed powerless, and it had no visual impact, so naturally no one felt scared.
The crowd slowly approached, and chatter began on the city wall. A few people recognized relatives from outside the city and shouted loudly that these more than a thousand people were actually people who had been arrested near Tongcheng.
Yang Erming was on the south wall at this time. He said to Pang Yu in surprise, "Why do the bandits bring the people here in exchange for some money?"
Pang Yu shook his head, "I'm afraid it's just a dirty trick to ask the people to dig out the city."
Yang Erming said in panic, "What should we do?"
"Sir, anyone who destroys the wall is an enemy of Tongcheng, no matter who he is."
After Pang Yu finished speaking, he shouted to the people around him, "Archers and medicine crossbowmen are ready."
"But how can I order the massacre of the people under my rule?"
At this time, the crowd walked ten feet away from the city wall, and the bandits in red followed them. They erected some remaining door panels on the ground to cover them. They pointed their bows, arrows, swords and guns at the people, and drove them forward.
One of the old men suddenly stopped and kowtowed to the city, "Don't do anything to the villagers in the city. Chitose asked me to wait for each of us to take two bricks. If we take them, our lives will be saved! You must be merciful."
Everyone under the city immediately knelt down and kowtowed to the city head.
Someone shouted on the wall, "Then you run away, you can always get away."
The old man said wisely, "These thousand-year-olds have detained our children and grandchildren in the camp. How dare they escape? I ask for your understanding, fellow countrymen."
Yang Erming put his hand on the crenel and murmured, "I'm so unconscionable, what should I do? What should I do?"
Pang Yu said coldly, "Let the archers fire their arrows."
He Xianya shouted loudly, "Fire the arrow!"
Some soldiers on the city wall shouted to stop them. The archers and crossbowmen looked left and right, but for a moment they didn't dare to shoot.
Seeing that there was no attack on the city wall, the people below the city began to slowly get up and walk towards the city wall. Some people also picked up the iron solders left on the ground and prepared to pry off the city bricks.
There was silence on the top of the city. The soldiers all looked at Yang Erming, but Yang Erming kept looking at the bottom of the city without speaking.
Mr. Sun on the side breathed nervously for a moment, then approached Yang Erming and whispered, "Of the six gates in Tongcheng, your Excellency, there are five gates that have not yet been inspected. No care should be taken in any place. Just leave this place to Pang Bantou."
Yang Erming turned to look at Mr. Sun and saw that Mr. Sun had an anxious look on his face. He also knew that he could not let those people dig up the city, but he did not dare to give the order to attack. By leaving the south gate, he could leave the responsibility of massacring his neighbors to Pang Yu.
, to prevent Yang Erming from being affected by this in his future officialdom. If someone takes advantage of this in the future, they can push Pang Yu out to take the blame, but it seems a bit unfair to Pang Yu.
Seeing that Yang Erming was still hesitating, Pang Yu stepped forward and cupped his hands and said, "There are also bandits attacking the east gate. Please go and take command, leave this place to the villain."
Yang Erming glanced at Pang Yu twice, then finally turned and walked towards the city ladder.
As soon as his figure disappeared, Pang Yu took out his waist knife and walked towards the nearest medicine crossbowman.
Everyone nearby looked at Pang Yu. Seeing Pang Yu's menacing momentum, the medicine crossbowman couldn't help but take a step back and lean against the battlements.
The waist knife was raised and pointed at the medicine crossbowman, only a few feet away from his face. Pang Yu stared into his eyes and said, "I will count to three. If your crossbow hasn't hit anyone, I will kill you first."