Ever since the horn to attack the fatuous ruler sounded,
The rebel kings from all over the country gathered in Jiang City,
They were unstoppable along the way. The reason was that the fatuous ruler had lost the hearts of the people,
In addition to the decline of the other side,
More importantly, the Chang Emperor listened to the advice of his officials to protect himself,
He used the strategy of strengthening the defenses and clearing the fields, shrinking the defense line and concentrating the troops,
He ordered several trusted officials to lead the army,
And stockpiled them in the passes of several cities with Jiang City as the center,
Guarding the perimeter.
According to their words,
In one spurt of energy,
And then decline,
And dry up. These rebel armies came from all over the country and did not have a unified command,
In a situation where they were short of food and fodder and could not take down the enemy after a long time,
They would become a pile of loose sand again and even fight with themselves,
When the time came and they waited for an opportunity to attack, they would definitely be defeated in one blow.
Therefore, the rebel armies from all over the country were like biting a hard stone while eating a soft white steamed bun. A few of their teeth almost fell out.
In terms of numbers,
The rebel army was many times more than the Chang Army.
It was not that they could not bite down,
But the problem was that they were not on the same side. Now it was clear that whoever went first would die first. No one was willing to be the sucker.
But the rebel army was not stupid. Of course, they knew that the longer they dragged on, the more disadvantageous the situation would be for them. Therefore, a few of the powerful kings gathered together for a meeting. No one knew what was said, but everyone started to fight bravely again. But these things should have nothing to do with the Chang Sha army, who was only qualified to wave flags and shout battle cries at the side and pick up the leftovers.
Fang Mo and Fang Wei were just making up a few sentences from the information, but they shocked the bearded general so much that he even forgot about the rare delicacy in his bowl. "This, this, is it all in the book?"
Fang Mo nodded seriously and said, "Yes, everything is in the book!"
The bearded general muttered for a while. It was nothing more than, "No wonder the military advisor is so powerful", "If I had known earlier, I would have read more when I was young, I would have been less beaten", and so on.
Fang Wei took the opportunity to test him. Unexpectedly, although the bearded general was simple-minded, he was not defenseless at all. He laughed vaguely and said nothing about the mission.
Fang Mo said, "Our army is called the Chang Sha army. Are you from Chang Sha? Is Chang Sha fun? "
"Uh... that," the bearded general scratched his head and said, "I have never been to Chang Sha."
"Ah?"
When the bearded man saw the look of disbelief on Fang Mo and Fang Wei's faces, he immediately flew into a rage out of humiliation. He coldly snorted and said righteously, "What's so strange about that? We are here to crusade against the Emperor, so of course we must have an awe-inspiring name. We can't be called the Upper Yang Cun Army or the Lower Yang Cun Army, can we? The closest place to us is Changsha. If we don't call it the Changsha Army, then what should we call it? "
Alright, alright, this explanation is pretty strong …
Fang Wei said, "But I think Shangyang Army sounds better than Changsha Army … General's hometown is Shangyang Village?"
This time, without waiting for Fang Wei to ask more, Big Beard took the initiative to talk about his background.
It was not a magnificent story. It was just another case of the government forcing the people to rebel.
The bearded man's name was Yang Meng. He was a farmer and hunter from Shangyang Village. When there was work to do in the fields, he would work. When there was no work, he would hunt in the mountains or catch fish in the water.
Almost all the men in their area were like that, but Yang Meng was the most outstanding one among them. Hunters were generally agile and knew a little martial arts. But other than that, Yang Meng also had a father who had been in Jianghu and was a bodyguard. His father was a third-rank fighter at his peak, but he was injured and disabled during a mission. He had to return home to educate his son. His last words were that Jianghu was dangerous and that he was not allowed to fight at will.
Although Yang Meng's qualifications were better than his father's, he was honest and filial. Of course, he would not go against his father's words. Because he was the best hunter in the area and was born tall and strong, he easily married the most beautiful girls in the nearby villages and gave birth to a beautiful girl. His life was peaceful and beautiful.
But the imperial court became more and more exorbitant, making more and more people unable to live. Yang Meng relied on his good skills to survive. But because of this, he had to go to the mountains often to hunt beasts and exchange them for money to live.
Three years ago in April, he went to the mountains to hunt. When he returned, he was shocked to hear that his only daughter was dead.
It turned out that Yang Meng and her friends had gone to the outskirts of the village to dig wild vegetables. Unfortunately, they met a young master who was preparing to go into the mountains to hunt. The young master saw Yang Meng's cute and couldn't help but tease her. Yang Meng was forced to jump into the water.
The young master felt that the appearance of the little girl struggling in the water was very amusing, so he picked up a stone and used it as a target to hit her head. In order to make the young master happy, the servants used all kinds of methods to beat Yang Meng, who was struggling to get ashore, into the water again and again. So when the villagers heard the news and rushed over, Yang Meng had already become a corpse.
The red-eyed Yang Meng didn't utter a single word. He carried his bow, arrows, and hunting knife, turned around, and entered the mountain again. This time, it took him seven or eight days to return, his body covered in blood. That young master and his subordinates never appeared again.
Half a month later, the soldiers wantonly searched the mountains. Only then did they find out that the young master was actually the son of a high official in the city. The group of soldiers tormented the area for more than two months before leaving without any results. Then, the hard days of the dozens of nearby villages arrived.
The originally heavy taxes often doubled and doubled when it came to them. Especially this spring, when the Chang Emperor was recruiting soldiers, all the men here, from fifteen to fifty, regardless of whether they had brothers or not, whether they were disabled or not, were all included in the conscription.
They already couldn't survive. If the men in the village left, wouldn't the remaining orphans and widows only be able to wait for death? Without a choice, they could only bring their wives and children and escape to the mountains in the middle of the night. They prepared to avoid the storm first.
That night, they saw the fire at the foot of the mountain. The soldiers set fire to their houses. Those in the village who were unwilling or unable to leave were burned alive. Some were captured and brought to the yamen. They carried wooden shackles weighing dozens of catties and stood at the yamen's entrance as a warning to the public. These people who couldn't even go up the mountain, how healthy could their bodies be? In less than a day, two people died in shackles. The shackled corpses were hung in cages as a warning to the public.
Among them was Mrs. Yang's father.
After her daughter was killed, Mrs. Yang fell seriously ill and never recovered. When she heard the news of her father's death, she spat out a mouthful of blood and breathed her last.
Unable to bear it any longer, Yang Meng finally pulled out his sword again and led the hunters down the mountain.
In the entire jianghu, a second-level master was nothing. But in this small place, it was something. In addition to the large number of people and the element of surprise, they managed to kill the district magistrate without much effort.
Yang Meng and the others originally came down the mountain with the thought that they would die. After killing the district magistrate, they distributed all the grain in the county to the commoners and then waited for the soldiers to come. Who knew that no matter how much they waited, they still didn't come. Instead, their group inexplicably grew bigger every day, and their territory grew bigger and bigger.
Yang Meng had a headache. With more people, there would be more food. He couldn't let his subordinates rob as they pleased. Wouldn't that be no different from those beasts? Thus, he could only take advantage of the rich by giving them promissory notes. He even killed a few notorious local bullies and divided their wealth.
The local rich families were having a headache over this. Just at this time, the decree to suppress the incapable ruler was issued. The rich families were overjoyed and called Yang Meng over to discuss. Their intention was that they would support him with more money and food, and that he should quickly lead his men to defeat the incapable ruler and get rid of the evil for the people!
Yang Meng also couldn't take it anymore. After getting the money and food, he gathered everyone together and waved his hand. "Why are we fighting a war? Isn't it just to warm the bed for our wives and children? Now that all the corrupt officials nearby are dead and the incapable ruler is about to be finished, there is no one to collect taxes, and we have enough food to last until the autumn harvest. What's the point of fighting a war? Go home and farm, take care of your wives and children! "
Thus, the large group was disbanded just like that. Only a few hundred people like him were left with their families all dead. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't chase them away and could only bring them along. When they left, they didn't bring much with them. They thought that since their profession was hunting, they wouldn't starve to death, right? Who knew that the people in this lousy place had it worse than them? Even the grass, roots, and tree bark had been stripped bare. They had no choice but to do this business of giving promissory notes again.
"Actually, we also know that with just the few of us, he could drown us with just a spit of saliva." After Yang Meng finished telling the story, it was as if he had done something important and felt a lot more relaxed. He waved his hand and said, "We were thinking that it would be best if we could get close enough to slash that incapable ruler. Even if we couldn't, we would be satisfied if we could see how he died."
Actually, Fang Wei and Fang Mo had already heard most of the story from the big guy and the others. Now that they heard it again from the main character, they sighed again. Fang Wei put his arm around his shoulder and said with a smile, "What a coincidence. We brothers were thinking the same thing."
Yang Meng shook his hand off and glared at him angrily. He scolded, "You're just a kid. What are you doing?"
"I'm not a kid." Fang Wei moved closer to his ear and winked. "Let me tell you a secret. Actually, Little Mo and I are both experts who have hidden our strength. We're the kind that can be counted in the world. Especially Little Mo. He even killed more than one Rank One expert!"
"Go away!" Yang Meng rolled his eyes. "The more you talk, the more ridiculous it is. If you can kill Rank One experts, I can kill four Grandmasters!"
He finished the rice in his bowl and was about to get up.
Fang Mo tugged at his sleeve and said, "General, even if the Changsha army is in a difficult situation, it's not at the end of the line. Since you still want to see how that incapable ruler dies, why do you still want to accept this almost certain death mission? Let those who have many soldiers and generals and aspire to conquer the world fight and kill. "
Yang Meng sighed and patted his head. "You're still young. Although you've studied a lot, there are some principles that you don't understand … The military counselor once said, 'If not me, who else can do it?' Some things have to be done. We're just small people who can't do anything big … but when it's time to stand up, we have to stand up. Anyway, we have nothing to worry about. When we came out, we didn't plan to go back alive. Seeing those important people argue about this all day long, I'm annoyed. "
After saying that, he stood up and staggered into the tent.
Fang Mo and Fang Wei fell silent.
*****
The Changsha army had more than 300 people but only three tents. Because Fang Mo and Fang Wei were young, they were chased to the smallest tent to spend the night. In the middle of the night, the two of them listened to the rustling outside but neither of them opened their eyes.
The next day, they didn't get up and open the tent until the sun was high in the sky and they heard the deafening donkey braying outside.
Sure enough, there was no one in the camp. There was only a donkey tied to a tree and a donkey cart next to it. There were some random things on the cart, such as quilts, iron pots, rice, flour, meat, cloth shoes, broken silver, bows and arrows …
Fang Mo reached out and picked up a shiny knife from the donkey cart. The tall man sharpened it yesterday to kill the donkey, but now he left it with the donkey.
"You say …" Fang Wei forced a smile and said, "How can there be such a stupid soldier in the world?"
Fang Mo's nose was a little sour. When Yang Meng began to tell the story, he knew that no matter how Fang Wei bragged and tried to get close to him, he wouldn't take them with him. He told them those things because even if he was willing to be cannon fodder in front of the battle, he still hoped that someone in the world would know him and remember him. He didn't want to leave nothing behind.
Fang Mo silently turned around and went to dismantle the tent, which was also left for them by the Changsha soldiers.
Fang Wei came over to help. The two of them were nimble and quickly packed up the tent and put it on the donkey cart. For a moment, they didn't know where to go. Fang Wei said, "Are we going to find them?"
Fang Mo shook his head and looked coldly at the distant green mountains for a long time before saying, "Didn't General Yang say that if we can't do it, who can? In that case, let's go kill them! Besides grandmasters, I'm the best at killing people in the world. "
They were different from Yang Meng and the Changsha army. They didn't have to do the same thing, but the principle was the same.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
