Two months later, it has entered the end of summer. Except for the hotter weather, the fact that the millet in the rice fields has turned from green to yellow, and the heavy ears of grain make the crops bend, the scenery in the mountains has hardly changed from when Zhang Ning first arrived. Here
, the mountains are full of green even in winter.
The deadline for attacking the bandits has come, and the fully armed troops who have completed training have gathered on the grassland outside the village. Many villagers gathered at the entrance of the village to watch the excitement. When Zhang Ning came out with his entourage, he also saw what he had been busy with for two months.
Results. In any case, at least this team of troops is more ornamental. Uniform military uniforms and iron helmets, neat queues; the cannons on the carriage are filled with a unique sense of power of steel, and the brand-new matchlock guns in the hands of the soldiers
The tubes glowed with a metallic sheen. They looked as if they had leapt from the ancient hunting era to a new level.
Of course, the army is not for performance, Zhang Ning would like to see the effect after they go into battle.
After a while, Monk Yao also came out of the village. He had a long sword on his body, his steps were steady and fast, and his burly figure gave him a powerful image. Zhang Ning went up to him and said, "The time has come.
Mature, just waiting for uncle’s order.”
In any case, Fengxia Mountain was the territory of Monk Yao, and Zhang Ning had always respected his power and prestige. Although according to the level of the anti-evil sect, Qiu Ye beside Zhang Ning was higher than Monk Yao.
Monk Yao returned the favor without saying a word. He stood on the road and looked at the people and horses on the grassland calmly for a while, then suddenly turned around, took off his sword and handed it to Zhang Ning: "This time we conquer the bandits, you will give the order.
If you don't obey military orders and are afraid, you can be killed in front of the formation."
Zhang Ning was stunned: "I am only responsible for training people to use firearms. I have never fought in a war."
Monk Yao didn't say anything. He took a flag from the person behind him, shook his hands, and saw four words written on it: Fengtian to punish thieves.
Zhang Ning then took it and ordered someone to hang it on the flagpole and set it up. He walked up to Wei Bin, looked back at the ten rows of people standing next to him, and thought to himself: Although he is a civil servant and has no battlefield experience, such sophisticated equipment can go
It seems a bit unreasonable to deal with a group of bandits if they still can't win.
Thinking of this, he didn't refuse any more.
Monk Yao is not going. He is accompanied by Lao Xu and Yao Erlang, as well as Wei Bin, the chief of the Hundred Households of this group. Lao Xu was a military attache before, and now he is one of his own. Zhang Ning has some confidence in his heart. If there is anything
Lao Xu should have reminded you of common mistakes on the battlefield. As a civil servant, he would sometimes work part-time as a general, which was nothing unusual in the Ming Dynasty.
This crusade and revenge has been planned for a long time, but no clever plan has been found so far. Everything is a routine preparation. Before setting off, Fengxia Mountain had sent agents to explore the terrain of Bandit Mountain in detail, and laid down people to keep an eye on it.
Their whereabouts were not deliberately kept secret after they set off. Although the Zimu Cannon was considered a light cannon in the Ming Dynasty, it weighed three to four hundred kilograms and could only be pulled by horse-drawn carriages on the main roads. After setting out on the road, Zhang Ning sent out another twelve-man cannon.
The small team should spread out ten miles in front of the big team to be safe.
Fortunately, the weather has been sunny and a little hot these days, but it can better ensure the use of firearms.
Bandit Mountain is about a hundred miles away from Fengxia Mountain. Zhang Ning's men walked along the road for two days with eight on-board cannons and several baggage trucks, and arrived near their destination near dusk the next day. One day in broad daylight
There were more than a hundred people on the road, unable to hide their whereabouts. There was even a "Follow Heaven to Call on Thieves" flag hanging high in front of the team. We can guess that the thieves must have noticed it, but I don't know if any of those people are literate.
It was getting late that day, so Zhang Ning asked Lao Xu for his opinion and chose a place with a relatively wide view to set up camp.
Wei Bin was responsible for taking care of the men and horses cutting down trees to set up camp. Zhang Ning took Lao Xu Yao Erlang and a few others to climb the mountainside of a mountain opposite Bandit Mountain to observe the terrain in person.
No wonder Monk Yao was unwilling to come for revenge in the past. The mountain is shaped like a big tomb, with steep sides. Although there are shrubs growing on it, it should be possible to climb up with difficulty, but the long steep slope without a road obviously cannot be attacked by troops. Only
There is a winding path on the other side of the "grave end", which serves as the usual passage for thieves to enter and exit: simple fortifications on the rugged and steep mountain road will become a nightmare for attackers. It is conceivable that even if the thieves resist, they will just use stones to hit them.
, will also cause a large number of casualties; it is not an exaggeration to say that attacking this road will cost more than human lives.
There is a high earth wall at the intersection on the top of the mountain. The road outside the wall is narrow and people and horses cannot spread out. Such a simple fortification, but relying on the terrain, it has become a line of defense that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Behind it is a stretch of bamboo buildings and thatched huts.
The buildings are the strongholds of the bandits.
Zhang Ning asked people to go down and deliver the order to carry the artillery rangefinder up the mountain. This simple rangefinder is made of wood and has a relatively large error, but it is much more accurate than visual inspection relying on experience. It is very simple to use. After training,
The artillerymen knew how to use it, but they didn't understand the principle, and Zhang Ning couldn't explain it for a while. The mountainside location where the rangefinder is placed is about a mile and a half away from the top of the mountain opposite, so the error won't be too outrageous, and the base number is definitely correct.
The weather was clear and the visibility was very good. Zhang Ning could see the people on the wall on the opposite mountain. There was a shirtless man lazily standing with his arms crossed and looking this way. Most of the people on the other side were walking around slowly.
He looked around, not looking nervous at all.
I'm afraid the bandits speculated on the battle as follows: if the armed villagers of Fengxia Mountain attacked from the gentle slope of the "grave end", they would pay several times the price and retreat due to insufficient men and horses; if the soldiers were blocked at the foot of the mountain and waited, the bandits would certainly not
The villagers came down to work hard, so the villagers had to bear the burden of transporting food supplies from more than a hundred miles away, leaving more than a hundred young and strong laborers idle to work the villagers delivering food. The food stored in the bandits' village plundered allowed the bandits to wait for work.
, looking for opportunities over a long period of time.
Before the sun went down, Zhang Ning had been squinting his eyes on the mountainside. At dusk, smoke drifted from the camp at the foot of the mountain. Everyone was cooking. After two days of driving, they all stopped and found nothing.
Have a hot meal.
The scene in front of him did not have the sense of urgency of war at all, and the atmosphere was not right. I don’t know if it was because the scale was too small. Zhang Ning had stood on the mountainside for a long time. It was the first time he had experienced such a thing in person, and it was like this.
You can hear the chirping of birds, the hustle and bustle of life at the foot of the mountain is faintly visible, and the natural scenery masks the man-made hustle and bustle.
In the evening, patrols and guard changes were arranged, and everyone rested in the camp for the night. In the early morning of the next day, at dawn, Zhang Ning ordered his soldiers to disassemble the eight artillery pieces, tie them with ropes, and carry them up the mountainside to place them.
After daybreak, many thieves had gathered on the opposite mountain, looking at their work from a distance. However, they saw a large number of soldiers carrying things up another mountain. The thieves should know that Zhang Ning and others did not intend to attack them, but they did not know
What are people tinkering with.
The road up the mountain was too difficult to walk, and it took a long time to get the eight artillery pieces up and place them. When the sun had dissipated the mist in the valley, people were still busy. But fortunately, it was this kind of light-weight multi-part cannon.
, if it is a heavy artillery that weighs several thousand kilograms, it is almost impossible to get it up the mountain through such a road.
"I measured it with a rangefinder. The distance between the two sides is one and a half miles, which is within the maximum range of the artillery." Zhang Ning said to Wei Bin, "The thieves were unprepared. They shelled the house above and destroyed it."
The supplies have been blown up, even if there is still some food left for them, it rains a lot in the south, and it depends on how they survive when it rains. If you don’t believe it, the thieves won’t come down.”
After waiting for a long time, the artillery was finally in place and loaded. There was a sound of drum beating in the camp at the foot of the mountain. Zhang Ning then gave the order to bombard the bandit camp. After a while, the pennant on the artillery array waved a few times, and the ground "boomed".
The earth shook and the mountains shook, thick smoke rose up, and a visible fireball roared away from the smoke. A moment later, yellow dust exploded at the opposite earth wall. Two people fell from the wall, and the thieves were in chaos.
Already.
After a while, the other artillery pieces adjusted their heights, and the sound of the cannons was loud again. Soon, smoke filled the sky and flames filled the bandits' stronghold, and a raging fire broke out. The soldiers on the artillery array were busy changing their "guns" and fired them.
He picked it up from the ammunition room and replaced it with a new musket. Soon there was the sound of hammering the breech block tightly. Then the shelling continued.
The sound of cannons rose and fell, and the birds in the woods were frightened and flew away, and the mountain suddenly became lively. A fire broke out in the stockade opposite, and the thieves got into a mess and ran around on the top of the mountain.
Wei Bin was a little excited when he saw this, and suggested: "The thieves have become a mob. We can attack up from the gentle slope. The muskets have a range of a hundred steps. Kill the thieves guarding the mountainside first, and then attack step by step."
Zhang Ning pondered for a moment, shook his head and said: "Everyone with horses will ride around the mountain, and the others will line up in front of the mountain and wait for orders."
The command was in the hands of Zhang Ning. After hearing this, the ordering soldiers next to him ran down the mountain to deliver the order. No one knew Zhang Ning's intention. The artillery bombarded for a while and stopped because of saving gunpowder; no saltpeter mine was found near Fengxia Mountain.
Sulfur ore and gunpowder are relatively difficult things for them to obtain. At noon, people rested on the spot and ate some dry food, while the thieves on the mountain seemed to be still putting out fires.
In the afternoon, the soldiers formed a formation in front of the mountain. Zhang Ning explained to Wei Bin and others: "The bandits' stockade and fortifications have been blown up. They cannot defend for a long time. The best way is to wait until night to try to escape down the mountain. But.
They also know that we will not wait until dark, maybe we will go down the mountain and fight for our lives, which is the best. Wait another hour, and if there is no movement from the bandits, we will attack."
There was a strong smell of gunpowder smoke in the mountains. The smoke in the air could not be cleared away for a long time, but it had calmed down. Only figures running around could be seen on the opposite mountain. Zhang Ning also left the artillery array and came down, looking up.
The mountains await.
Everyone saw that the situation was extremely favorable, and many people looked impatient. At this time, Zhang Ning somehow remembered a person: Hu Ying. This "senior" in the officialdom had a great influence on him, and the one who impressed Zhang Ning the most was Hu Ying.
Very calm.
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