Chapter 299: All-out attack?
Chapter 299: All-out attack?
Under the gloomy sky, the dark clouds hung very low, almost pressing down on the top of the mountain.
The weather was a little hot, there was no wind, and it was sticky and made people feel breathless.
Suddenly, a flash of lightning split the sky, illuminating the reed-covered riverbank.
A fine stream of rain began to fall, and curses were heard among the reeds.
A moment later, dozens of small boats rowed towards the shore, and the war horses standing tall in the cabins revealed their figures.
Water splashed and war horses neighed.
More than a hundred riders quickly landed on the shore, and after a short rest, they rushed out under the leadership of their guide.
The golden lightning was flying violently in the air like the sharp claws of a mad dragon.
The raindrops gradually became heavier and the sound of horse hooves became more rapid, showing the owner's urgent mood.
Close, getting closer.
"Swoosh!" An arrow flew out, and a farmer who was packing tools in the field fell to the ground.
Screams continued to be heard and the farmers fled in all directions.
They were breathless and full of fear. Even when they were running away, they tried to follow the ridges of the fields, unwilling to destroy the crops that were about to be harvested.
"Swoosh!" another arrow flew out.
In the field, a body fell to the ground, crushing a field of wheat.
Blood seeped into the earth. The dying farmer's eyes were wide open with anger. He subconsciously supported the wheat that he had crushed, and gradually became silent.
"Bang bang!" More than a hundred riders rushed into the wheat field and took a shortcut to the main gate of the fortress.
At the main gate, there was a young man holding a spear, hesitating, looking at the enemy cavalry rushing towards him at a fast speed, and at the castle residents retreating.
Among them are his family members who he spends every day with, his friends who he grew up with, and his childhood sweetheart...
He hesitated. He couldn't be so heartless.
Some people are already urging him to close the store.
His hands were shaking, tears welled up in his eyes, and his hands seemed to hold a tremendous amount of strength.
"Boom!" The thunder exploded in my ears.
"Puff!" A horseman rushed in front of him, and his long spear suddenly pierced through his body, lifted him up and impaled him in mid-air.
The boy finally saw his relatives.
They were knocked to the ground by the enemy cavalry, and their lives or deaths were unknown.
The boy saw his friend.
He was slashed by a saber and blood spurted into the sky.
The boy saw the girl.
She was knocked to the ground by an arrow and then trampled by the following warhorse.
"Whoosh!" The boy's remaining consciousness felt the sound of the wind. He struggled to open his eyes and found that he was thrown out.
The enemy cavalry had already rushed over the courtyard wall, and everyone was panicking and running around.
It's over! This was all he had left.
"Bang!" The corpse was thrown into the crowd.
It hit seven or eight men who rushed out.
More and more enemies poured into the yard. They were extremely fierce and well-equipped.
In a few moves, the resistance of the residents of the fort was defeated.
In particular, there was a heavy-armored general with a burly figure and amazing strength. He killed several people with one shield and one sword, showing his unstoppable courage.
There are seven or eight sharpshooters behind the general.
They abandoned the soft horn bows and replaced them with hard bows for infantry combat. They could shoot wherever they pointed, which was a great deterrent.
"Boom!" The thunder sounded again, covering up the terrifying screams.
When the overwhelming rain curtain covered the entire earth, the battle was over.
The enemy cavalry was ferocious, cunning, and very experienced. It was obviously not the first time they had carried out such a sneak attack.
Dozens of remaining men among the fortress residents were tied up and driven into the yard, left to get wet in the rain.
The old man began to cook and prepare food for the enemy riders and their horses.
The woman was dragged into the room, and lewd laughter and crying sounds continued to be heard.
******
It was almost evening, and the setting sun was making its last struggle, refusing to set easily.
On the top of a high hill, hundreds of people blocked the only mountain road.
They looked solemn as they looked at the dense crowd at the foot of the mountain, not daring to breathe.
The crowd at the foot of the mountain was not chaotic, but rather well organized, with swords, spears, halberds, gongs, drums and flags lined up.
They didn't take the crowd on the mountain seriously.
These people were pale and thin, wearing thin clothes, and the weapons in their hands were rusty and unusable. Some of them even held farm tools, dung forks, and wooden sticks, and their bodies could not stop shaking.
They were once part of this group of people, and they knew their strength too well. He knew what they were thinking.
Pity? Not really.
In troubled times, it was either kill or be killed, and my heart had long been hardened. If there was any weakness, I would not be alive today.
Some people had already gone up the mountain. After shooting a few arrows and killing a few people, there was a commotion on the mountain path.
After a long time, someone closed his eyes and waved.
The setting sun finally fell, leaving only a trace of blood in the west.
The remaining food was pulled out.
The skinny cattle and sheep were driven out.
Some people on the mountain road were wailing loudly. How could they survive without food, cattle and sheep?
More people looked sad but did not stop it.
There are still enough food for ten days or half a month. With this time, maybe we can find a way to survive?
If all else fails, go and borrow some grain.
If you can't even borrow money, just go to the big fort and sell yourself into slavery, as long as you can survive.
The leader seemed to have been educated and knew how to read.
He just asked a few questions, then took out a piece of yellow paper and hastily wrote a gift list.
A moment later, under the gaze of everyone, he went down the mountain alone and came before a general surrounded by a large group of soldiers.
He held his head high, chest out, back straight, first clasped his fists in a bow, then raised the gift list high above his head.
A soldier stepped forward, took down the gift list and handed it to the general.
The general took a casual look and asked, "How much is hidden?"
The general's personal soldiers sneered and looked at him with teasing eyes.
"If the general wants to kill us all, I have nothing to say." The leader looked at the general and said in a deep voice: "My village is small and cannot withstand the general's attack, but before I die, I can always take a few people with me." The general laughed, then pointed his finger and said, "Hit me!"
The bodyguards rushed over and hit the leader of the stronghold with whips and scabbards, causing him to fall to the ground covered in blood.
Because of the severe pain, his whole body arched, but he never said a word and didn't beg for mercy.
"Stop!" said the general.
The bodyguards stopped and retreated.
"Send out a team of fifty strong men." The general held out his hand and said, "I'll send someone to pick them, and then we'll leave. How do you think?"
"Okay..." the leader responded muffledly on the ground.
Soon someone helped him up and carried him up the mountain.
The mountain path is narrow and the bushes are dense.
Amid the rustling sounds, the mountain path was covered with dripping blood, which contrasted with the setting sun in the sky.
The army at the foot of the mountain is still marching towards the unknown distance.
In troubled times, you kill me and I kill you, and everyone goes with the flow, helpless.
The small mountain stronghold trembled in fear in front of them and endured humiliation, but when they met a stronger enemy and were defeated, they were the ones who cried out.
Perhaps, this is the troubled times.
This world needs a hero to emerge from nowhere, holding a three-foot sword, to conquer the world and reshape the mountains and rivers.
In this way, the people in the mountain village can farm peacefully at the foot of the mountain.
Life may still be hard and you may have to work hard all year round, but you don’t have to wander around and you can be reunited with your family.
During the Community Day festival, you can share some sacrificial wine and sacrificial meat.
During the summer solstice, you can reward yourself by eating rice dumplings.
In the mid-winter month, make pickles with your family.
On the La Festival...
The son can grow up safely and marry the girl next door.
After my daughter grew up, she married and moved to a neighboring village, and would occasionally bring her children home to visit.
Fifty strong men in the village were quickly picked out.
They sobbed inconsolably, and amid the officers' impatient urging, they said goodbye to their loved ones - a real farewell, as they would most likely never have the chance to see each other again in this life - and staggered away, joining the endless army.
A year or two later, if they are lucky enough not to die, they will be "fortunate" to participate in more such incidents.
The difference is that now they are victims, and then they are perpetrators.
Until someone can put an end to this.
******
A gentle breeze blew a few leaves onto the table.
Wang Yan raised his head and stared at the old tree in the yard.
It was full of vitality last year, but this year it suddenly failed, and in early summer, the ground was covered with fallen leaves.
The tree is sick.
The world is sick.
He picked up the reports on the desk and sighed.
The Huns invaded on a large scale, with their troops divided into several routes and attacking directly.
In Puyang State of Yanzhou, Shi Le rode southward and plundered extensively.
What's funny is that there were only a hundred cavalry at the beginning, which frightened Sima Yue, the governor of Yanzhou, so much that he frequently mobilized his army as if facing a powerful enemy.
When he found out that there were only a hundred or so cavalrymen, he became furious and cursed the person who lied about the military intelligence for being ignorant and making a fuss out of nothing.
But they soon suffered losses.
More and more enemy cavalry crossed the river to the south and ambushed a large army that came to drive them away.
The enemy surrounded and killed the 3,000 infantrymen sent by Sima Yue on horseback, completely annihilating them and leaving corpses all over the ground.
"Shi Le is getting better and better at fighting..." Wang Yan vaguely recalled that in the Battle of Yemagang a year and a half ago, Shi Le was still a fool who only knew how to act recklessly, and his 60,000-strong army was defeated and reduced to ashes.
A year and a half passed, and Shi Le fought in Jizhou, Youzhou, and Yanzhou, and became much more mature.
Sure enough, everyone is making progress, except Situ...
Wang Mi unexpectedly crossed the river from Wenshijin, attacked the fort walls along the way, collected food and fodder, and recruited Latin soldiers, seemingly intending to head south to Chenliu again.
Qihuo commander Chen Wu became very nervous and advanced to Fengqiu County in an attempt to stop the enemy.
Liu Cong and Liu Xian besieged Shanyang, Wude and Huaixian in Hanoi.
Yes, like Shangdang County, Henei County was never completely occupied by the Huns.
Both the Jin and Han sides appointed their own governors for Shangdang and Henei, and they confronted each other and fought repeatedly.
The prefect of Henei in the Jin Dynasty was Guo Mo, and the prefect of Shangdang was Yang Zong. Both of them only occupied a small piece of land in their own county and struggled to survive.
The Huns probably wanted to take over Henei, Jijun and Dunqiu all at once and wipe out the strongholds of the Jin Dynasty north of the Yellow River.
But the possibility of them heading south immediately cannot be ruled out.
General Li Yun of the Right Guard was originally a beggar general. After Sima Yue was sent to Yanzhou, he chose to stay in office, unwilling to give up the position he had worked so hard to obtain.
The emperor tried to win him over many times and gained more and more trust in him.
Upon hearing that Liu Cong had arrived in Hanoi, Li Yun volunteered to lead 5,000 soldiers north with two months' worth of food and fodder and set up a camp to defend Fupingjin.
He is a man who dares to fight and fight. No matter what his outcome is, his courage is indeed commendable.
After Wang Mi's Chief of the Eastern Expedition Cao Yi led his troops back east, they were unstoppable and turned the empty eastern part of Yanzhou upside down.
The three counties of Jibei, Dongping and Taishan were penetrated by it, and Dongping was directly occupied.
Afterwards, Cao Qi went straight down to Langya State and occupied the entire territory. The number of troops increased to 70,000 to 80,000.
At present, his troops are being reorganized, eliminating the weak and retaining the strong, and storing up food and equipment. Once this is completed, they will most likely fight back to their hometown in Qingzhou.
The Huns made a big scene this time!
Wang Yan frowned as he looked at a map left to him by his daughter Wang Huifeng.
There were densely packed small characters written on it, which meant that the Huns were attacking everywhere, but many of them might be false moves, and their real target was Chenliu and Xingyang.
Making a feint to the east and attacking in the west? Wang Yan smiled bitterly.
The Huns came and went as fast as the wind, so they might indeed use this tactic.
But what can we do if we see through it? The key is how to deal with it.
He looked in the direction of Xingyang on the map.
After many years, he still feels that this is the only person he can trust.
(End of this chapter)