Qin Official

Deng Zong, a native of Ruyin, followed the crowd and rushed out of the camp. He took off his clothes and rolled on the ground before extinguishing the fire on his body.

Looking back again, he saw a fire in Manying. Many villagers were burned, and some people were trapped in the fire scene and could not get out. Deng Zong's lungs almost exploded with anger!

"Your mother is a maid!"

After all, he was a camp commander and knew that Wuchang Camp was built by General Wei two years ago and was originally used to train new soldiers recruited for the Second Southern Expedition. In the thirty-sixth year, the new soldiers were trained to fight south, and the Wuchang camp was empty for a while. However, soon, 20,000 old soldiers from the Chen (hēn) County camp were rotated north and stationed here to engage in farming and other tasks, providing a steady stream of supplies for the army. food.

After Lingnan was pacified, tens of thousands of soldiers came north one after another. They were all veteran soldiers who had served for a long time. The longest one had not been home for more than four years. General Wei promised that once the court relented, they would be the first batch to be rewarded. Returning soldiers.

But 30,000 people were looking forward to the stars and the moon, but what they were looking forward to was not the disbandment order from the imperial court, but the sad news that General Wei died in the battle in Lingnan, and the new general who led the arrogant Guanzhong soldiers and took away all their armor and weapons without any explanation... …

"You will be able to return home soon."

The official kept talking and made promises several times, but no one believed them at all.

In the next few days, Deng Zong noticed something was wrong: it was clearly the busy farming season for plowing the fields and preparing to transplant rice seedlings, but the soldiers were restricted to the camp and were not allowed to go out at will. Seeing weeds growing in the fields, Deng Zong, as an old farmer in Ruyin, has been regretting missing the farming season.

What's even more outrageous is that they seemed to have really become prisoners. A five-hundred-year-old woman wanted to go to the nearby Shaxian City because she was an official, but she was held back by the Guanzhong soldiers at the gate of the camp and rudely Pushed to the ground.

"No one is allowed to go out without the general's order!"

Everyone felt strange now, and vaguely felt that something big had happened.

The bold people, such as Ge Ying from Fuli in the neighboring village, thought they could not return home and were secretly planning to escape. The timid and honest people, such as Deng Zong, decided to wait and see.

But in the end, what they were waiting for was a fire that almost burned everyone to death in their sleep!

"My mother, my maid! Do you want to burn us all to death to save food for your position as an official?"

An honest man like Deng Zong couldn't help but curse. Apparently he had forgotten that hundreds of thousands of stones of food in the camp were also burned in the fire.

He heard from those who escaped that General Yang, General Xin, and thousands of Guanzhong Qin soldiers had already evacuated in advance, and they were the ones who set Huo Bazheng free!

"We were recruited into the army and served as garrison soldiers. We shed blood in Lingnan and farmed in Wuchang. What we got in exchange was a fire?"

Everyone was filled with indignation, their faces twisted with anger, and they didn't even notice that the Yellow Crane Mountain in the distance was also set on fire.

"Take this opportunity and run away!"

Another village chief, Ge Ying, shouted in Chu dialect again: "Even if you escape into the lake and become a bandit, you can still survive, but it is better than being burned to death by the Qin people in your sleep!"

Many people responded to him. The more than 20,000 people who escaped were completely disorganized. They could only gather together according to their accent and place of origin and stick together.

Even though Qin's laws were strict, everyone's hearts were cold when something like this happened. Many people supported Ge Ying's proposal and fled far away, but most people still haven't recovered from this drastic change. He stared blankly at the fire soaring into the sky.

It wasn't until dozens of riders came from afar with white flags on their backs, blowing copper whistles and shouting in the Xichu dialect of Nanjun that the confused China and Japan found a direction.

"There is a traitor in the court who plots to kill Zhongliang and colludes with the Yue people to attack and kill General Wei!"

"The treacherous minister also committed regicide to seize the throne and killed Your Majesty. I will not announce the funeral secretly now. I even want to execute all the officers and soldiers of the Southern Expedition Army."

"General Jin has sent his troops north to rescue the two or three sons. Follow us to Huanghe Mountain quickly!"

These people are among Heifu's three thousand short soldiers, who are the best in horsemanship. Hundreds of them are riding horses, passing the news around the huge Wuchang Camp, telling everyone who escapes Heifu's words!

The soldiers reacted differently to this.

"There are indeed treacherous ministers in the court."

"Didn't General Wei die in battle?"

"How can a general who has fought hundreds of battles die so easily?"

"No matter what, Yang Xiong set this fire. He really wants to burn us all to death!"

"The imperial court is not trustworthy, but General Shi Wu and others left Lingnan and came here to rest and recuperate. He is trustworthy!"

"Let's go take a look?"

It was like a light was turned on in the pitch-black night, and most people subconsciously followed the knights, supporting the burned Xiang Dang, toward Huanghe Mountain in the west.

And some people, after thinking about it, dispersed.

The beacon that was used to warn people on the top of the mountain has now become a beacon that gathers everyone.

There were so many people, and the water that was supposed to flow from high to low turned back and flowed in the opposite direction. This wave was so big that even Ge Ying and others, who had been clamoring for everyone to escape and become bandits, were trapped in it and could only walk westward step by step.

They walked all the way to the place where the flames of the Huanghe Mountain beacon were reflected, and saw a general wearing eye-catching armor, a crown on his head, and a white cloth wrapped around his forehead on a high stone.

He personally held a large plain white flag, and the short-handed personal guards on the left and right sides were the Jiaolong flag and the Weizi flag respectively! As an old acquaintance of Jianghuai Chu people, Lu Jia was also by his side.

Deng Zong and Ge Ying were far away, but several leaders and five hundred masters were able to step forward. When they reached a few steps away from the general, they were so excited that they knelt down on one knee.

"It's really General Wei!"

"The general personally beheaded Jia He on the head of Chenxian County that day. We have seen him once before!"

After getting the confirmation, Youbing Youzi shouted, "General, aren't you dead? I heard that the emperor still mourned for you, why are you alive again? Are you a human or a ghost?"

"Hahaha!"

Heifu laughed so hard that everyone didn't understand why and stopped making noise.

But his next words made everyone feel tense.

"I'm a ghost!"

…

"ah?"

But I heard Heifu say: "Many years ago, a king of the Zhou Dynasty killed his minister Du Bo, but Du Bo was not guilty. So before he died, he said, if the deceased was ignorant, that would be fine, but if The deceased knows it, and within three years, you will definitely let your Majesty know the consequences!"

"Three years later, King Xuan of Zhou gathered the princes to hunt in the fields. There were hundreds of hunting chariots and thousands of followers, and the crowds filled the mountains and fields. When the sun was at the middle of the sun, Du Bo rode in a white horse chariot, wearing red clothes and holding a red bow. Chasing King Xuan of Zhou, he shot an arrow from the chariot and hit King Xuan in the heart, causing him to break his spine and fall down on the bow bag and die!"

This story is bizarre, but everyone keeps nodding. Feudal superstition is very effective for the soldiers at the bottom.

But Hei Fu changed his words: "Du Bo is like this. I was attacked by traitors colluding with the Yue people. Don't say that I was lucky enough to survive under the protection of my bodyguards. Even if I die, I will turn into a ghost again. That's right." They will punish you!"

Everyone was relieved. So, is General Wei still a human being?

But Hei Fu said again: "The treacherous minister Zhao Gao and the rebellious son Hu Hai plotted to kill Zhongliang and forced the young master Fusu away. They also colluded with the Yue people to assassinate this general."

"Fortunately, I am not dead. I immediately went north to warn His Majesty."

"But Your Majesty thought that Mr. Hei was dead, and he only had time to make me the Marquis of Wu Zhong. Then he was robbed by the treacherous minister and even killed by his traitorous son!"

"They are guilty of being thieves, and they want to eliminate the soldiers of the Southern Expedition."

He pointed to the growing flames in Wuchang Camp in the distance: "This fire is evidence!"

With their own life and death at stake, the crowd of more than 20,000 people became excited and their voices became noisy.

So Deng Zong, who was illiterate, could not remember exactly what Marquis Wu Zhong said that day. He only remembered the three questions he finally asked everyone.

"Do you want to live?"

"Do you want to avoid being harmed by treacherous ministers and dying from water, fire, swords, axes, poisons without knowing why?"

"Want... to go home?"

Compared with the emperor being killed or the reorganization of the court, these three issues are obviously more practical.

After being bored for a long time, 20,000 people shouted that word in varying degrees:

"think!"

Holding the plain flag in his hand, Hei Fu smiled.

The enemy was near the Wuchang Camp Pier. After the Huangheshan beacon was lit, the Xiakou garrison on the other side immediately took a boat to cross the river and now reached the south bank.

They were landing on land one after another, joining Yang Xiong and arranging their troops. Looking at their posture, they were going to fight at night!

Heifu knew that life and death depended on today's battle and whether the twenty thousand soldiers of the Southern Expedition Army who had not recovered from their fear could stand firmly on his side!

"This is why Ben is coming back."

"I'm here to fulfill the promise I made in the past!"

"I'll take you home!"

He raised his right arm and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"If you want, pick up the armor and follow me to face the enemy!"

…

Without delay, Dongmen Bao, Wu Chen and others have led people to transport the armored soldiers out of the arsenal. First of all, there are chariots tied to four horses: there is the "general chariot" used as a command vehicle to attack the enemy. There are light vehicles for entering the formation, heavy vehicles carrying military supplies such as ordnance, rations, and clothing, opera (xi) vehicles equipped with command flags, drum vehicles to boost morale, and even many military musical instruments.

Next, there were bundles of Qin army standard armor, which were piled up like a mountain at the foot of the mountain. There were ten thousand pairs in total. In addition, there were ten thousand pairs of armor, nearly a thousand bronze armors, and three thousand skinned shields. …

Finally, there are weapons. Most of them come from the two arsenals of Tonglushan and Tieshan in nearby Hubei. In addition to the ordinary swords, daggers, spears, and halberds, there are also chieftains' and barbarians' spears, as well as boxes of arrow clusters.

The short-soldier guards ran forward and backward holding the armored soldiers and distributed them to everyone one by one.

Wearing thick armor and holding cold weapons, the soldiers of the Southern Expedition, who had lost them for a time, found a long-lost sense of security.

But even so, everyone is an unpopular miscellaneous army. They have not fought in a long time. They have been farming for two years. They are more familiar with hoes than weapons. They have almost lost their organization due to chaos. They are in disarray. Even though there are 20,000 of them, Can people really fight head-on with eight thousand or even ten thousand elite Qin soldiers in the pass?

"Don't be afraid."

General Wei's voice sounded.

After a simple decoration, the white horse plain chariot that looked like the one when Du Bo shot King Xuan drove to the front of the array.

Heifu stood on the general's military vehicle, looking at the torches gathering at the dock in the distance. Yang Xi and Xin Yi over there finally waited for reinforcements, and had arranged their formations, but still did not move, perhaps because they did not know about the "rebels." How many people were there, so he hesitated to come over, which gave Heifu precious time...

"It's not you who should be afraid, but them."

Dawn is approaching and the war is imminent, but Hei Fu is still talking and laughing freely. He has already seen the suspicion of the other party:

"Because, we don't just have this few troops. Behind me, there are also a hundred thousand troops from the Southern Expedition Army. They have all moved north. Reinforcements will come at dawn!"