The platoon leader of the Qing army post entered the bunker under the supervision of the Ming army squad leader. The phone was still ringing one after another, very urgently.
The squad leader of the Ming Army held a submachine gun and motioned for him to answer the phone:
"Answer the phone! You know what you're talking about? Don't make everyone look bad."
The Qing army platoon leader forced a smile and nodded:
"Yes, yes...we have many brothers."
Then, he gingerly picked up the phone, breathed a sigh of relief, and said as naturally as possible:
"Hello?"
The squad leader of the Ming Army also came closer, put one ear to the other side of the receiver, and clearly heard the voice inside shouting:
"Who? Sanpao? Well, I'm Hu Jinbao! Are all your brothers there?"
The Qing army platoon leader named "Three Pao" glanced at the Ming army squad leader and carefully replied:
"Hey, company commander, the brothers are all here. You can give me your orders."
On the phone, Company Commander Hu muttered something unclear, and then complained:
"Well, there is another explanation from above, saying that they came down from the division... The army may attack Hanzhong in the next two days, and they told us to be more careful in the defense area and keep an eye on it. Don't let anyone know what's going on in the middle of the night.
The army has come over and they don’t know yet... He said that it depends on the situation that the Ming army won’t be able to get through it for a while, so he assigned our officers a task to launch a surprise attack.
To rectify the morale of the army, everyone must be responsible for the words and deeds of their brothers, and it is forbidden to spread rumors. When the leaflets over there come over, they must also follow the "three no's", they are not allowed to read, they are not allowed to be passed on, and they are not allowed to believe... Oh, tell the people below.
Tell me, anyway, be careful these two days... It's going to rain. My mother is going to get married. I've mentioned it anyway, grandma..."
The other party hung up the phone nonchalantly.
Sanpao didn't dare to hang up the phone, but respectfully handed the phone to the squad leader of the Ming Army. The squad leader of the Ming Army also heard it and hung up the phone directly.
"Sir..." Sanpao smiled carefully, "Brother...brother, I didn't talk nonsense, did I?"
The squad leader of the Ming Army smiled, patted him on the back, pushed him out of the bunker, and said with a smile:
"Okay, now you are all prisoners of the Ming Dynasty's army. You can talk whatever you want from now on. Let's go."
…
The staff officer of the reconnaissance battalion of the Ming army division came in an officer's car and immediately interrogated more than twenty Qing soldiers, asking them what checkpoints were on the mountain road ahead, what their strength was, what their alert status was, what weapons they had, etc.
Etc. Although it is called "interrogation", it doesn't mean anything at all.
The people in the reconnaissance camp didn't bother to interrogate them at all. These twenty-odd soldiers didn't have the consciousness of "betraying their comrades" at all. Instead, they all laughed and said each other, saying everything they knew.
, talking endlessly, and soon poured out everything they knew.
This is not like interrogating the enemy on the battlefield at all, but like a tourist asking for directions from a fellow villager...
Before the Ming army marched, the intelligence agency naturally had a rough grasp of the situation of the Qing army in Ankang. Now through field interrogation, they have gained more first-hand information. Originally, there were only three mountains on the mountain road between Hanzhong and Ankang.
At such outposts, there are only
There are small bunkers and no heavy weapons. Traditionally, this place is behind the Daba Mountain mountain defense line and belongs to the rear. There will be no large Ming army troops at all. These outposts are to guard against small-scale infiltration by Ming army agents, commandos, etc., as well as
People fled south.
Now it seems that the Qing army did not send more troops here, but only received a call just now to remind the outpost to be vigilant. It seems that in order to maintain the stability of the military morale, the Qing army also blocked the information that "Hanzhong has surrendered" from other troops.
.Perhaps Beijing would not have thought that the Ming army would suddenly march into Ankang during the negotiations, so it delayed until now to give a brief warning to the sentry.
…
After the Ming army fully understood the details, they no longer used tanks to clear the way. They just ordered two military trucks to drive a few hundred meters in front of the main force. A platoon of scouts sat on the vehicles, all equipped with submachine guns and light machine guns, specifically to grab the enemy.
The Qing military post reacted and took down the post before calling to report.
This trick worked as expected. At around 11 o'clock in the afternoon, the second Qing army outpost was also captured with lightning speed without even making a call.
At around one o'clock in the afternoon, the valley gradually widened, and some farmland villages appeared on both sides of the road. After turning around a mountain col, a small stone city appeared.
Hanyin County has arrived.
Once we reach Hanyin County, it means that more than half of the mountain road between Hanzhong and Ankang has been passed.
The Ming army's convoy sped up, ignoring the astonished farmers at the entrance to the fields and villages under the highway, and did not enter this simple little county. They simply drove over with an armored vehicle, disarmed the two Qing sentry posts at the city gate, and then closed the city gates.
Throw down the flag of the Qing Dynasty and put up the flag of the Ming Dynasty.
Before the people present realized what was going on, Hanyin County had been liberated.
Then, the cheers gradually began to sound, overwhelming, and shook the valley. However, the Ming army in the brigade did not stop for a step, but accelerated their marching speed, passing in front of the small county town.
Because they knew that after passing Hanyin County, the news would definitely be reported. The suddenness of the surprise attack could be as slow as an hour or as fast as ten minutes.
Fortunately, from Hanyin to the east, the valleys are wider, and the mountain roads are no longer as winding and rugged as before, and normal highway speeds can be maintained. An hour and a half after passing through Hanyin County, at around two o'clock in the afternoon, the Ming army
The vanguard troops rushed into the Ankang Basin.
It was not until this time that the news of the Ming army's invasion from Hanzhong was reported to the Qing army division headquarters in Ankang City. But by this time it was already too late, and the Ming army's military vehicles had already rushed into the small Ankang Basin like a flood.
…
Ankang Basin is a long and narrow basin, which is thirty kilometers from east to west, and less than ten kilometers from south to north at its widest point, which is as big as a palm.
Before the Qing army division commander could call to learn more about the situation, he heard a roar of people outside the headquarters. Then a guard ran in and shouted breathlessly:
"Master, the Ming army has entered the city! Almost... almost outside the headquarters!"
Before the teacher could react, the office glass shattered and a brick flew in from the street and hit the table.
He was startled, and his first action was to draw the gun. But as soon as he took the pistol in his hand, he heard a lot of shouts and whistles on the street outside.
The officials dragged them out and skinned them alive”…
Immediately afterwards, the second brick and the third brick flew in one after another. Every time a brick flew in, a large group of people cheered on the street.
"Dang!...Dang lang lang lang..."
A big thing flew in, jumped twice on the ground, and then spun around.
Taking a closer look, he saw that it was a steel helmet with a large piece of it smashed and a large amount of blood on it...
The division commander was suddenly horrified. He didn't care about resisting or not, surrendering or not. He quickly covered his head, bent down and howled:
"Quick! Take people to guard down below, don't let the common people rush in! Don't let them go upstairs! Quick! Look for the white flag! Look for the white flag!... If you can't find it? Then go to the dormitory and get a white sheet! Let's go to the top floor and tie the sheet.
, wait for the Ming army to rescue us! If the common people come in first, we will be finished!... I said, bring me a helmet!"
…
At the entrance of the police station, a dozen or so people were gathered around, watching the excitement. Next to the white marble lion that was more than one foot tall at the entrance of the police station, there were two standing cages.
The standing cage, also known as the standing yoke, is a unique instrument of torture in the Qing Dynasty. It is a wooden cage as tall as one person, with a yoke at the top. After the person being tortured is put in, his head is stuck in the yoke, and he can only keep standing and cannot bend.
I can't squat down even if my waist is weak. Usually there are a few bricks under my feet.
The length of life depends entirely on how many bricks are removed. If the bricks are placed just right, the person inside can only stand on tiptoes to keep breathing from the neck. This life is worse than death. After a few days, they will either die from exhaustion or die.
Suffocate him to death. Anyway, he is tortured to death.
Some death row prisoners will be displayed in public for three days and then beheaded, while others will just stand still and die.
Now there are two people standing in the cage. One is a middle-aged man in his thirties. He is still wide and fat. He looks like a rich man. The bricks under his feet are "just right" and he can only stand on tiptoes.
He could only breathe. His face was pale, his face was covered with sweat, and he was biting
He gritted his teeth and held on, his legs trembling. After a while, he let out a scream, then he hummed in his nostrils and spit out some foam at his mouth. He continued to grit his teeth and hold on. After a while, he let out another scream, and then again.
Grit your teeth and persevere.
In the other standing cage stood a young man of 17 or 18 years old. He was skinny and wore glasses, looking like a student. This young man also had this "tiptoe standing method", and it was obvious that he was no longer good. His face was blue and yellow.
, dry firewood
His legs were shaking, and he could hardly stand on tiptoes anymore. His head and neck were stuck on the wooden shackles, and his nostrils were bleeding. From time to time, he would make a "squeak" and new blood would spurt out. He closed his eyes tightly.
, as if he had already accepted his fate.
Two young policemen carrying guns were leaning against white marble lions, eating melon seeds and laughing and chatting.
An old man in his 60s or 70s knelt in front of them, with tears streaming down his face. He banged his head and shouted with a trembling voice every time he knocked:
"Director Cao has a long life and a family full of descendants! ... Seven hundred and twenty-one! ... Director Cao is a good man! Director Cao has been promoted and made a fortune! A long life and a family full of descendants! ... Seven hundred and twenty-two
!”
Then he kowtowed again, shouted again, and kept kowtowing, shouting, and counting.
After a while, he straightened up tremblingly and said in a trembling voice:
"Two officers... I've kowtowed a thousand heads today, that's enough..."
A young policeman was chatting happily with his companions. After a while, he turned to look at him and said with a smile:
"Have you counted enough for today? If you have enough, go and feed them porridge."
"Hey, oh...thank you, sir, thank you, sir..."
The old man climbed up from the ground, carrying a basket on the ground, cried and rushed to the young man's standing cage, took out a jar, poured out half a bowl of rice porridge, and comforted him in a trembling voice:
"Grandson... grandson... come, have some porridge... some porridge will make you feel better, let's hold on for two more days... When grandpa has kowtowed ten thousand times to Director Cao, we can go home...
"
…
Some of the onlookers nearby watched the fun for a while and then left. Some just passed by and stopped to watch for a while. Anyway, there were always about a dozen people watching the fun. Someone asked quietly:
"What happened to these two people? What happened to the old man? Why did he offend Cao Jingui?"
"Alas," a person next to him shook his head and sneered in a low voice, "The kid in the cage is the old man's grandson. He didn't have any illness in school. It's a bad thing to say that Cao Jingui... said that he's not good.
If you do too much, you will have no descendants..."
"oh……"
The other person nodded and immediately showed a knowing expression. He shook his head and sighed:
"Tch...who in the whole county doesn't know about this...after all, it's a young man who doesn't know the basics and says this in public. Isn't that unlucky..."
Both of them nodded and sighed.
"Hey, isn't that fat man the shopkeeper Duan of the old Duan Family Gold Store? Why did he get in too?"
The first person whispered:
"The jewelry Cao Jingui's mother-in-law ordered from him was probably not pure gold... The old lady went to his son-in-law's house to make a fuss and asked him to arrest the shopkeeper... Cao Jingui was filial and afraid of his wife, so he arrested shopkeeper Duan
Get up and stand up..."
…
A circle of onlookers were shaking their heads and sighing, when suddenly they heard the end of the street gradually boiling, from far to near.
At the same time, the ground seemed to be shaking slightly. It seemed that even the iron chains on the wood of the two standing cages were ringing softly.
At the other end of the street, there seemed to be something huge, roaring and approaching.
Accompanying the vibration were the shouts of the crowd in the distance, which could be vaguely recognized: