Rain, endless rain, lead-black rain clouds that always cover the sky; it is easy for people to blur the concepts of time and space in the senses. The extremely humid air can almost make water come out, and it seems to be everywhere, always
stick to people's skin.
It seeps into the gaps between clothes, outer armor, and inner linings pervasively, making people feel wet forever, losing body temperature and vitality bit by bit. And this is a small group of people trapped in the rain area, temporarily lost.
, the intuitive feelings of Wang Shihong, a layman who is the scout of the fifth battalion.
"The temperature has dropped again." He exhaled a breath of smoke and sprayed it on his gauntlet. He carefully observed the process of condensation of water droplets and said softly: "Go on, pay attention to keeping yourself warm, and urge the rear team to speed up.
Pass through this low-lying ground and find a higher place to rest."
As a veteran who has been in the army for more than ten years, he originally belonged to Shannan West Road and was responsible for suppressing the Qiang Rong in Yinping Town, one of the four towns in Xishan. He lived on a monthly salary of six cents. But in the past few years
The Battle of Beishan that took place in Xingyuan Mansion directly changed his fate and future.
It was the first time that he saw hundreds of beasts surging, and he was on the front line fighting the monsters with all their tricks. Because of his extraordinary courage and luck that he persisted until his last breath, he was killed by the dark warrior.
The important figures in the Ministry of History took a fancy to him and became a selected soldier to join the lay force.
And this can be regarded as a common practice among the troops who have fought side by side with Xijingli Xingyuan. In addition to selecting some outstanding soldiers, they will also give certain recommendation quotas to their units as a source of supplementary resources. As we all know, the Tang army
The treatment is also divided into three, six or nine levels.
The last ones are the local regiments and rural soldiers who are semi-off-the-job in counties and counties; they are not regular military quotas, and they do not have specific provisions and salaries; they only gather people to strengthen themselves for drills during slack seasons. The second is the state-owned Shouqiao.
, to unite the troops; the court only provided food, clothing, salt and vegetables, and the local government raised its own wages.
Then, there are the Long March athletes of the armies, cities, towns, and garrison on all four sides, and the children of the military families who have been stationed for generations; the garrison troops and assault troops of the major governors and governors; the Ministry of War records the daily supply
Pay, clothing, food and materials also represent the average level of most armies in the Tang Dynasty.
Finally, there are the Sixteenth Guards of Nanya directly under the central government of the imperial court, and the various military offices under them, which also represent the pinnacle of military treatment in the country. They are divided into border, stationed and in Beijing status, with slightly different incomes.
As for the Sixth Army of Beiya, which was stationed in the Imperial Guard, it belonged to another system.
But the treatment of lay officers is obviously more generous. In addition to receiving the standard military pay and material rations of the Sixteenth Guards and the Lingwei Prefecture in the same capital, they also enjoy service allowances, subsidies, and pensions that are one-half to several times that;
As well as some exclusive benefits that are only available within Xijingli Palace.
For example, miraculous medical methods for amputated limbs and organ regeneration; enhanced secret medicines that can stimulate the human body's blood potential and allow it to grow and develop again; and even special implant surgeries that allow people to possess various abnormal abilities; all kinds of strange and ineffective methods.
A magical tool.
In fact, as members of the lay sergeants, the vast majority of them have received bloodline stimulation once, and have obtained varying degrees of gradual physical and sensory enhancement, but there are some individuals who have received bloodline stimulation a second time or even a third time.
Strengthen and awaken personal special abilities.
However, just the first bloodline stimulation and the subsequent gradual strengthening are enough for Wang Shihong to benefit endlessly. Because in addition to the basic strength, endurance, reaction, and perception enhancement, he can even stimulate his body's potential to stay active for several days.
Energetic without eating or drinking.
Then, after the effect ends, the body becomes thin and needs to be gradually restored by eating and drinking a lot of sea food. Of course, this kind of bloodline triggers known sequelae and side effects, that is, there is a certain probability that it will cause difficulties in the reproduction of offspring, or
It is the risk of life loss due to overuse.
But for these soldiers, it is simply a great good thing that they can get a stronger body and sharper senses for just paying this tiny probability. But the corresponding price and exchange conditions are to face
All kinds of dangerous and abnormal monsters with various tricks.
Wang Shihong also quickly mastered the secrets of his own bloodline in repeated battles on the verge of life and death; with his rich experience, he eventually became the fire chief of one of the several sentinel detection teams in the fifth battalion; he enjoyed eighteen and a half minutes a month.
Generous salaries and exceptionally sufficient material rations.
Therefore, in his early years, he shot ghosts with his own hands during raids, and cut off the heads of strange beasts with a broadsword. He also worked with his colleagues to nail lizard monsters to death, using iron whips and nail clubs in the array to kill them.
He has passed dozens of deformed people; he even set fire to the monsters that bewitched people in the mist.
But this time, the situation still caught him somewhat off guard. Because their team had no intention of entering the rain curtain that was considered abnormal, but only conducted reconnaissance on the periphery, and commanded local regiments and rural soldiers to set up checkpoints.
Gather and interrogate the survivors who escaped.
However, just after a strange whistling sound and a blinding strong wind, they and the temporary checkpoints they set up were shrouded in the overwhelming rain. At least hundreds of local regiments and rural soldiers
, and only a dozen people gathered around them were left.
Each step made a squeaking sound, as if stepping on a swamp that lacked solid support; but when I lifted my feet, the huge adsorption force in the mud made me want to forcefully pull my boots off;
It's impossible to move quickly in this environment.
What's more, everyone must maintain a certain degree of vigilance. The terrain seems to be always changing slightly, so the locations where marks and road signs were originally made, whether it is placed trees, stones, or engraved earthen walls, wooden fences
; All have experienced varying degrees of offset and dislocation.
And what is surprising is that after so much rain fell to the ground, it was never able to accumulate into a corresponding flood of sufficient scale or a large-scale waterlogging; it was as if it was quickly absorbed by the earth;
There is mud of varying shades everywhere under your feet.
And in the rain curtain, there are also traces of alien activities. They are gelatinous monsters covered in mud, hiding in the mud at their feet; they can also turn into humanoid outlines, luring others to get close to them, and then fall into them.
It sticks to the body and slowly eats it up.
Although this kind of gelatinous monster covered in mud does not move very quickly and has no other means; after being cut open by a weapon to reveal an interior full of grass roots and branches, it will quickly disintegrate. But as long as it takes a while
Time will resume again, and occasionally a piece of mud will explode on its own.
It takes a lot of effort to clean up the stains on people's heads, faces and bodies; otherwise, the more the mud is allowed to stick to them, the easier it is to become exhausted and even lose their basic ability to move; some people are just like this.
Quietly falling behind and then disappearing.
But the biggest danger comes after dark. Without the reflection of moonlight and other natural light sources, in the darkness where you can't even see your fingers, it is easy to accidentally swallow up survivors one after another. And in the dense rain and humid air
It is also difficult to light a fire.
Instead, the gelatinous monsters will become active. These monsters seem to have no sense of sight and smell, and are driven only by sounds and vibrations. If there is not enough hard and dry ground to serve as a temporary resting point/shelter; it may even take turns to replace the night vigil.
Don't even think about resting or eating.
Although they had prepared relatively complete supplies before coming in; such as compressed rations, medicine, and fire oil. However, after losing their pack horses and mounts one after another, they were not even allowed to discard some armor parts and only kept the inner armor and chest protector to reduce the load and
Increase flexibility for changes.
Then, they encountered and rescued some people one after another, and got more news about the people who escaped from the depths of the rain zone. According to their words, the familiar homes in the past had long become a death place where demons danced wildly. Most people were killed.
Trapped in villages and towns like isolated islands.
Almost none of the people sent out for help and contact came back. Although they were temporarily protected by simple fences and wooden fences, they could only sit in the air of Chichi Mountain, watching the ground under their feet being covered by the rising sewage and mud.
Let the layers slowly rise and cover.
Then until all the food was eaten, people were distraught and fled away without hesitation. Some villages, under the organization of the head of the village, took the initiative to head for the nearest town; then they lost their way during the trek, and no matter how far they walked, there was no way.
He found a place, but all the people in the team were lost.
When faced with those endless gelatinous monsters, strong young men may still have a chance to escape; but frail women and children will have nothing to do once they are entangled. They can only watch helplessly.
Parents, wives, children, and sisters were dragged bit by bit into the quagmire.
But what is even more frightening is the ugliness of people's hearts when faced with desperate situations; for example, a wealthy family who owns a manor does not hesitate to instruct their servants to guard the courtyard and turn away the neighbors who come to seek shelter; they sit back and watch them being swallowed by the mud; and soon after
, the rammed earth courtyard wall also softened and collapsed, flooding into the mud wave.
When the abnormal situation has developed to this point, it is no longer something that Wang Shihong's team can easily handle and respond to. According to the regulations of Lixingyuan, what they need to do after falling into the rain zone is to protect themselves as much as possible and work hard to collect intelligence.
and exploring the terrain…
Then, before the supplies are exhausted, they wait for an opportunity to escape from the abnormal area, and even before they are unfortunately killed, they try to leave enough marks to prove their identity, as well as sealed records. Although the members of the sentinel detection team headed by Wang Shihong are especially capable, other people who follow them
It won't work.
The hunger, low temperature, and the exhaustion and heaviness of being soaked with rain were taking away the vitality of this team of survivors. The next moment, a huge earth bag suddenly rose up on the ground, and it looked like
It was a big blister that burst open immediately.
The people who were unable to dodge were covered in mud and water; then, during the interval when the mud and water splashed, a dozen crawling and squirming gelatinous monsters pounced on the crowd behind them with a squeaking sound. A thin, tired and numb woman,
He was knocked down and slipped out of the crowd with almost no dodge.
This was like the beginning. One after another, people were knocked down by the glue-shaped monster; then they were covered in mud and struggled, and were dragged into the newly formed mud vortex. The next moment, the light of rain knives flickered in all directions; most of the mud
The monsters all fell apart and turned into flowing mud.
After a while, Wang Shihong picked up the last person trapped in the muddy vortex and threw him back to the team; but he let out a slight breath. After all, it was the sensory enhancement brought about by the stimulation of blood that allowed him to feel it first, coming from the ground.
Some kind of vibration in the mud and the sound of water bubbles squeezing.
However, even he didn't know how long he could hold on; in this rain curtain, not only the traditional pointing compass, but also the hourglass for timing were no longer accurate, and it also felt extremely long and difficult. At this time, someone appeared again
He shouted: "In front, there is Zhuangzi..."
At this time, the rain gradually faded, and the outlines of a group of buildings could be vaguely seen in front of them. More importantly, there were dim lights. This also meant that there were still residents and dry places where they could make fires and eat. Some people immediately rushed out of the team, regardless of
He ran away without hesitation and suddenly disappeared.