Drowsy, there was no day or night.
As he slept and woke up, he would sometimes see some things. The dark sky, people's faces, the occasional bumpy road, the rain, and the swaying scenery.
His brain was temporarily not suitable for thinking. Even the feeling of discomfort did not come back to him much. Occasionally, various scenes would appear. Those were the memories of his previous life, and some belonged to the Ning Liheng of this life. At this time, the fragmented memories of his childhood would also emerge. His body seemed to be in a state of chaos, allowing the memories to come and go as they pleased.
There were many things that he had done in the past. In his life, he had spent too much time scheming, scheming, and plotting. The war that belonged to that era did not have too much smoke, but hidden under the dark side was the same bloody scene. In the process of moving forward with too many people and too many people's interests, there were still all kinds of human lives that he owed. He killed one person after another, destroyed one family after another. Some of them were conscious, some of them were not.
Decisions after decisions, games after games, followed by countless situations, the cause of things or the result, the difficult success or failure. In these scenes that he was so familiar with, there were also some small fragments mixed in.
In that era that he was not familiar with, there was a courtyard that was raining heavily in the summer, a garden with lanterns hanging in the evening, a house with a small bridge between the farmland and flowing water, a woman in white leisurely playing the zither. She turned around from the other side of the bridge and smiled at him. When he first met his wife, she was as proud as a rose, but he had no choice but to accept his fate. Later on, they talked in the small house at night, and she stood behind the small house, holding a torch. She looked at him with a stunned gaze, and then she set the small house on fire …
These scenes were fragmented, and occasionally flashed through the cracks. When he was slightly awake, there were also other fragments that would faintly seep in from the outside world with difficulty.
"Mister Ning, we won … we won …"
"Husband …"
"Young master, young master … young master fell down …"
"Go, go, go, go …"
"Young Master Ning, they won't dare to come again …"
"Young Master Ning, they want to catch you …"
"Young master …"
"Young master, young master …"
"Young master, young master, young master …"
Those voices seemed to be unwilling to stop for even a moment, repeatedly calling out. He could not tell what they meant, but when he was a little more clear-headed, he felt that a lot of time had passed and he had walked a lot of roads.
At some point, he woke up from his sleep …
*****
Time returned to the evening of July 11th.
Gray clouds, black land, raging winds and torrential rain.
The view zoomed in on the horizon. The stone bridge was crossing, and the water was washing away the last of the blood. The ground was littered with broken weapons and overturned flags. Corpses were soaked in the water, one after another. When the lightning streaked across the sky, it drew a long black outline on the grass by the river. There were still corpses nearby, but in the distance, there were figures coming from that direction. They were led by a few people on horseback, all of them dressed in black.
An Xifu, Black Feather Guard.
The people dressed in black scattered on the grassland that was like a slaughterhouse, searching for clues that they could obtain. After a while, they gathered again in the rain.
The team slowly pushed towards the corpses in front of them. At some point, the people in the lead stopped there. Not far in front of them, there were also scattered corpses. However, these corpses had better equipment. One of them was wearing armor and was surrounded by the corpses. This corpse's head had been chopped off, and several swords and spears were embedded in this corpse. They were all slashed through the gaps of the armor. The corpse's blood had probably been drained by now.
Generally speaking, it was difficult to see such pure venting on the battlefield. But from the scene in front of them, it was enough to see the fanaticism of being surrounded and slashed. This general might have extraordinary skills, but under such circumstances, he could only be chopped to death by those crazy soldiers.
The general in black on horseback took a glance and turned his head.
"Yao Yi …" A low murmur sounded in the storm. He looked to the south. "Too fast …"
Not long after, the general in black gathered his subordinates in the rain. After making arrangements, he waved his hand. This team of less than two hundred people split into two groups and galloped in two different directions, the south and north.
After noon that day, the team led by Lu Qiao was the first to be broken up, becoming the first round of sacrifices for those fanatical Wu De soldiers. Before that evening, Yao Yi was defeated, and Yao Yi himself was killed. At this time, the Black Feather Guard led by An Xifu had just arrived on the battlefield. Two hours later, Fang La's Xue Dou clashed with the Wu De Camp in the south and was defeated again. At this time, the Wu De Camp was like an extremely swift and fierce spear, stabbing straight towards the north …
*****
In hindsight, in the scheme that had taken place between the 10th and 11th of the seventh month at the border of Suzhou and Huzhou, perhaps the troops under Fang La's command had not been the ones who had suffered the most. From a strategic point of view, whether it was throwing gold and silver on the road, using the remaining elite scouts to confuse the enemy's line of sight, or spreading a lot of rumors, in the end, it was only to confuse the enemy for a short period of time. The goal was only to temporarily distance the five troops from the south.
Just as Ning Yi had said, once the enemy had time to react, such a large group of fleeing troops could not hide from Fang La's investigation in the hills and waterways near Hangzhou. To be able to achieve such an effect in such a short period of time, it was not only because of various schemes, but also because Yao Yi and the others had underestimated their enemies. They had made use of their psychological inertia to gain some breathing space in such a delicate situation.
In the end, the ones who had suffered the most were the soldiers of the Wu De Camp who had been the fleeing troops themselves.
In one fell swoop, he had dragged everyone into a death trap with no path of retreat. He had used their lives as a threat, gold and power as bait, and then supplemented it with humiliation and hatred. He had made it impossible for this group of people to make a choice, and then he had repeated the difference between four thousand people and one thousand people. At the start, his speech had seemed persuasive, but towards the end, it was bordering on incitement. Of course, if one did not feel that it was better to go all out in a desperate situation, this sort of incitement would not have had much effect.
In truth, if he had not already been wounded, Ning Yi might have had to properly thank Xia Qi. At the time, Ning Yi's arrow had been almost reckless, but the entire army had no path of retreat. Moreover, Tang Xiuxuan and the others had tacitly agreed to and supported Ning Yi, so the slaughter of Xia Qi and his subordinate had basically become a sacrifice to the banner. Yuren might have felt that Ning Yi had been impulsive at the time and had acted by accident, but no one else would have had Ning Yi's decisiveness and manner of doing everything as if it was only right and proper. Especially that line of 'Wave-a-lot! Wave-a-lot! Wave-a-lot! You're not a man! 'had even, in a small way, decided the course of the battle.
The Wu De Camp was already a crippled army. Even if they had been able to stir up the blood in their hearts, in the first battle against Lu Qiao, the role of the general could not really be called a commander. The troops had just been pushed by their blood and despair to fight to the death against Lu Qiao's troops. In a situation where four thousand people were fighting one thousand, the destructive power produced by this sort of mentality was almost terrifying. Only after this great victory and the annihilation of Lu Qiao's troops did Chen Xingdu and the others regain some of their confidence and establish some true leadership ability in this army.
Afterwards, they had rushed north and killed Yao Yi. Although the entire process had been very easy, the destruction they had caused was not as terrifying as the first time. Because of this, they had already escaped danger. At least a small portion of the soldiers had somewhat regained their clarity of mind. And after the two battles in half a day, the soldiers were still immersed in the exhilaration of killing and revenge, but they had also used up a lot of energy. They had a brief discussion about what to do next. At the time, someone had brought up this matter and felt that they should not fight a third battle in a row. Otherwise, the troops might collapse. At the time, someone had cursed, "Wave-a-lot! Wave-a-lot! Wave-a-lot! You're not a man! "After this matter spread, anyone in the army who had thought of retreating was ridiculed in this way.
In hindsight, if they had not chosen to fight three battles in a day, causing An Xifu to be unable to command the remaining three troops in time, the outcome of this battle would most likely still have been in vain. When An Xifu's Black Feather Guards had gone south to contact Shen Zhucheng and north to contact Mi Quan, Xue Dounan's troops had already been defeated. They could only gather two troops of less than three thousand people. Moreover, they had been separated by the domineering Wu De Camp from the north and south. It was difficult for them to coordinate with each other.
At the time, the Wu De Camp was actually already exhausted. However, they had won three battles in a row using the strategy of defeating them one by one. Under these circumstances, whether it was An Xifu or Liu Dabiao who had rushed over later, they did not dare to have the remaining two troops split up to attack them. Because of this, they had lost the best opportunity to defeat the Wu De Camp.
However, An Xifu was not a mediocre person. After confirming that Xue Dounan had been defeated, he first had Mi Quan in the north maintain a distance from the Wu De Camp. In the south, he had Shen Zhucheng continue south on the other side of the stone bridge. This was not for the sake of battle, but for Shen Zhucheng's troops to directly search for the refugees who had fallen behind in the south. Although the Wu De Camp was advancing at lightning speed, it was impossible for the refugees following behind them to do the same. They must have stayed to the south of the stone bridge. He took advantage of this weakness and ruthlessly attacked.
After that, the Wu De Camp turned back at full speed. Relying on the thousands of guards and Martial Masters left in the camp, An Xifu and Shen Zhucheng did not dare to rashly attack the camp. After that, An Xifu united Shen Zhucheng's and Mi Quan's troops. At the same time, he cleaned up the remnants of the troops and informed Clear Wind Camp and Little Luo Town to cooperate. They began to hunt down the refugees. The Wu De Camp had also developed a ferocious nature from these few battles. As a result, in the hills south of Hu Province, no one could do anything to the other for the time being. After the refugees gave up on the fierce battle, they began to head north.
At this time, An Xifu had already grasped the weakness of the army's need to protect this group of refugees. He harassed and provoked them along the way. Although Chen Xingdou and the others had the ability to command, they were still lacking in strategy and tactics. Ning Yi, whom they had originally placed their hopes on, had already fallen into a coma. He occasionally woke up along the way, but was unable to think too much. For the time being, the troops could only defend themselves. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, they arrived in Fuzhou and received a grand welcome that belonged to heroes.
Only Ning Yi, who had the greatest contributions, was heavily protected by a group of elite soldiers during the chaos of An Xifu's attack on the thirteenth night of the seventh month. As a result, he attracted even more firepower. In the end, he was scattered in the flames and crowds of the night, and his whereabouts were unknown …
For a very long time after that, he did not appear in front of the crowd again. After a large amount of publicity and rewards were given to the Wu De Camp's remnant troops, the name Ning Liheng was like a blooming epiphyllum. For a period of time, it filled everyone's eyes. After Tong Guan and Tong Daofu arrived in Jiangnan, they were quickly buried by a large amount of battle reports and achievements. They disappeared from the memories of most people. Only a small number of people still remembered his name and silently searched for traces of him …
*****
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