Witch Wind

Chapter 117 Reactions from all parties (Part )

Dayu Dynasty.

Northwestern border.

The cold wind blew up yellow sand all over the sky.

Looking around, the rolling hills were all gray and yellow, with not a single green spot to be seen. The sky was cloudless, and the rivers and streams on the ground had dried up. The fields were cracked into palm-wide gaps, and not even a blade of grass could be found in the fields, as the hungry people had already eaten them all.

golden city.

An important town in the northwest of Dayu Dynasty, it controls five passes and blocks two rivers. It is the throat connecting the Central Plains and the northwest of Dayu Dynasty.

After several years of severe drought, the two major rivers, Cangshui and Lanshui, which used to flow through Jincheng with a width of more than 20 miles, are now less than 30 feet wide. The deepest part of the water can only barely reach above a person's knees.

Outside the city, on the desolate ground, crude dugouts were densely packed, like rat holes. Countless refugees, naked and naked, huddled in the dugouts, most of them lifeless, like zombies; a small number of them were cold all over, having already become zombies.

A rope hung from the southeast corner of Jincheng's wall, and several men in black climbed down nimbly along the rope.

Hundreds of heads popped out of the nearby dugouts in unison. They heard the noise and thought it was the porridge distributor who came out every three days. But when they saw someone descending on a rope, the refugees retracted their heads back into the dugouts in unison.

Saving every bit of energy, even if there is murder and arson outside, they will not meddle in other people's business, but quietly wait for the next meal of porridge given by the kind-hearted wealthy families in the city. This is the survival philosophy of the refugees.

"He's the oldest. When will the next big family that wants to take in children come?" A starving woman in a cave asked weakly, "I told you a few months ago that Bai Lian is kind-hearted and will leave us a chance to live."

"There's nothing wrong with following them. At least we can have something to eat."

"He's big? He's big? What's wrong with you?"

Soon, the sound of mournful crying could be heard from the cave. But it only lasted two or three times before the crying stopped. The woman was so hungry that she could not even cry.

From the dugouts nearby, several staggering, skinny women with frivolous red eyes came out like zombies. They looked at each other, and pulled out two rusty, chipped kitchen knives from somewhere, and staggered towards the dugout where the crying sound came from.

"Sister-in-law, when a person dies, he is free. You should think about us living people. He is your man, so I will give you three more fingers."

Several men in black came out of the city and ran away at full speed.

They were huge and could run as fast as a galloping horse. They ran wildly past the densely packed dugouts, making a dull sound of breaking wind. Wherever they passed, men and women crawled out of the dugouts, holding thin incense sticks in their hands, and bowed to them in worship amid the curling green smoke.

Faintly, there was a spell of "White Lotus descends to the world, and there will be peace" coming from all directions.

Several men in black walked along the bank of the Cangshui River for seven or eight miles, turned south, and followed a path into the mountains. After walking a few miles along the path through the mountains, they saw two mountains facing each other in front of them. Someone cut down trees and built a three-li wide and five-zhang high wall at the mouth of the valley between the two mountains.

On the wall of the village, soldiers wearing gray uniforms, wide-brimmed hats, and leggings stood upright, carrying rifles.

After a round of shouting, the men went straight into the valley.

This is a valley between the mountains, with the widest being more than 20 miles and the longest being more than 100 miles. In the valley, there are countless thatched houses densely built. In broad daylight, teams of young men in grey uniforms are doing basic queue training or lining up for shooting while singing loudly.

A little further away, there was a large group of soldiers gathered around various artillery pieces, earnestly learning artillery operation techniques.

From time to time, there was a 'bang' sound from artillery of various calibers, and training shells whizzed out, creating a little inconspicuous dust on the steep hillside at the end of the valley.

There is a fork in the valley. If you follow the fork two miles inward, you will reach a slightly smaller valley.

There are several large natural caves on the cliffs of this small valley. The largest one covers an area of ​​hundreds of acres and is now filled with a large number of crates.

Li Kuisheng, who was also wearing a gray military uniform and had a bald head, pried open a crate with a crowbar, pushed aside the straw inside, and revealed several dark rifles with obvious signs of wear on the handles.

"Damn Yingjishi, tsk, we sent so many young and strong people to them, but the weapons we sent were all the junk they discarded." Li Kuisheng grabbed a rifle with a grin, pulled the bolt a few times skillfully, held it in his hand, squinted his eyes and took a look.

"But it's not bad, about 80% new." Li Kuisheng said in a deep voice: "Rifled, single-shot breech-loading rifle. Although the firing rate is slow, it's just right for our soldiers. If we really give them the latest automatic rifles, huh, where would we have the financial resources to let them fire bullets?"

"One shot at a time, one shot at a time, if they aim well, they can kill several people. If they use the new type of weapons, they can just snap their fingers and 'clack', and a tael of silver will spray out!"

Li Kuisheng patted the old-fashioned rifle in his hand and spat heavily on the ground: "Hey, just use it for what it is. When I have more money, I'll buy a better one. Besides, the firewood sticks in the hands of the imperial soldiers in the northwestern provinces are not as good as the ones we bought."

Beside Li Kuisheng, Xiangliu Baifei and several other Xiangliu brothers nodded one after another.

They know their own business. They saw with their own eyes how Li Kuisheng gathered a group of former veterans of the Black Borneo Expeditionary Force, selected the best and strongest men from the disaster victims, and trained them little by little from "good citizens" who knew nothing, into well-trained "elite soldiers".

At least, the soldiers in the valley outside, their spirit, their posture, their manner of walking and lying, are much stronger than the elite troops of the governor and county magistrate's standard-bearing battalion in Jincheng!

After a low command, several sweaty men in black rushed into the cave.

"Brother, Lord Li, this is the telegraph room of the Jincheng Governor's Office. We just received a telegram from Fentian City."

"The news came from the day before yesterday. It arrived at the Great Jade Dynasty's embassy in Dongyun from Black Borneo, and then passed through the telegraph room of the General Customs Building in Pinghai City, and was transmitted to the telegraph room of the Lifanyuan in Fentian City. After the old witch, the Queen Mother, spent two days reviewing it, it was issued to the governors of various provinces for reference."

Xiangliu Baifei took the message from the man in black and said nonchalantly, "What big deal could it be? It's the owner of the Dongyun mine. He dug a mass grave and buried so many miners from the Dayu Dynasty... Fuck!"

Xiangliu Baifei screamed at the top of his lungs: "Old Li, look, look, your nephew, he, he, he..."

"Beihe Cangyi and Nanshan Manyue, raise an army of rebels to attack the disloyal officials and purge the emperor's side!"

"Your nephew Xing Tianli has publicly declared himself the chief military advisor of the Righteous Army!"

Li Kuisheng was taking out a plate of copper-cased fixed bullets wrapped in oil paper and loading them into the chamber of the rifle in his hand. He looked around, trying to find a target to fire a few shots to see the performance of this old rifle.

Hearing Xiangliu Baifei's cry, he shuddered, exerted force with his fingers, and with a "bang", a bullet flew out, brushing Xiangliu Baifei's scalp and knocking the wide-brimmed hat on his head off.

Xiangliu Baifei was so frightened that he trembled and cursed in anger.

Li Kuisheng dropped his rifle, snatched the telegram from Xiangliu Baifei's hand, glanced at it hurriedly, and then read it twice word by word with great care.

"This kid, he, he, he, how come he blurted out his real name?" Li Kuisheng opened his mouth, his face inexplicably turned red. He took a few deep breaths and muttered, "What the hell, the short island slaves who occupied Black Borneo actually swung their knives at their own land?"

"This guy is actually the chief military advisor of those Dongyun dwarves?" "Does this mean that he was the one behind this?"

"How did he do that?"

Li Kuisheng's eyes flickered. He put his hands behind his back and walked around the cave for several times. Suddenly he raised his head and glanced at Xiangliu Baifei: "How many people can we arm with the weapons and ammunition we have stockpiled in this stronghold these days?"

Xiangliu Baifei gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice: "There are more than 300,000 rifles, more than 500 cannons, swords, spears, halberds, spears and bows, which can arm at least a million people - and they are all high-quality goods directly moved from the arsenals of various provinces and counties of the imperial court."

Li Kuisheng punched a crate and snapped, "Well, today is the day. Let's raise our army!"

"Raise the banner of the White Lotus Sect, capture Jincheng tonight, and cut off the connection between the imperial court, the Central Plains, and the Northwest!"

Li Kuisheng said coldly: "Once the fight starts in Jincheng, the thirty-six altars in the entire northwest will start fighting at the same time."

"Wait until we capture thirty-six important towns, open the warehouses, release grain, recruit soldiers, and train them. After we block the first wave of the imperial court's troops to suppress the rebellion, we will merge them into one and march eastward through Tongguan, Huguan, and Hulao!"

Li Kuisheng laughed out loud: "That old witch, ha! Will she piss herself out of fear?"

Three hours later.

When the moon is high in the sky.

A cannon shot from the four gates of Jincheng, and the gates of all four cities, including the gate of the city wall, were blown open by high explosives. A large group of heroes in the city took hostage the city gate guards who were usually brothers and sisters, opened the city gates, and welcomed the troops from all directions to enter the city.

Inside the city, there were supposed to be 15,000 standard soldiers from the Governor's Office on the books, but in fact there were only 2,000; there were supposed to be 30,000 combat soldiers from the County Magistrate's Office on the books, but in fact there were only over 1,000; there were supposed to be five generals in charge of guarding the five passes around Jincheng, and the total number of field camp soldiers under their command should be more than 150,000, but in fact there were only about 20,000.

Moreover, all the soldiers were old, weak, sick and disabled, and lacked clothes and food.

Of the guns, artillery, bows and arrows, swords and rifles that should have been on the books, including the baggage and military equipment that were stored in the warehouse all year round, only one in a hundred remained! It was customary for many standard soldiers, combat soldiers, and field camp soldiers not to touch a sword or a gun for three to five years.

Militiamen with white lotus flags rushed out from four directions and fired indiscriminately. In less than half an hour, the entire Jincheng was completely controlled by Li Kuisheng and others.

This battle was so easy that Li Kuisheng and other veterans couldn't believe it!
"We all know that the imperial court is rotten to the core." Li Kuisheng said to Xiangliu Baixie, "But I didn't expect it to be this rotten. Could it be that Old Li can really get a founding prince for fun? Tsk!"

Burning Sky City.

There is no wind today, and the temperature is not too cold. The first heavy snow of winter evenly covers the inside and outside of Fentian City, as well as the surrounding mountains and rivers for thousands of miles.

Inside and outside Fentian City, large areas of red plum blossoms are in full bloom, and the entire city is filled with the rich fragrance of flowers.

On the outskirts of the city and in the mountains and forests, large groups of Saker Falcons or exotic kites made sharp screams, rising and falling continuously, wantonly hunting the panicked rabbits and foxes running around.

The nobles of the Fen tribe like to go out hunting after the first snow in winter, taking their valuable eagles, some of which can even be exchanged for a set of three-in-one courtyard eagles in the city.

Perhaps, this behavior can make them recall the "good old days" when their ancestors went into the mountains and forests to collect ginseng, dig ganoderma lucidum, hunt various skins for the nobles of the previous dynasty, and even risked their lives to hunt wild bears and present bear paws and bear bile to the nobles?

The men all went out to remember the glory of their ancestors, and the noble ladies of the Fen tribe began their daily winter entertainment.

Those who opened gambling games opened gambling games, those who hired opera troupes hired opera troupes, and some were so daring that they directly invited opera troupes from pornographic houses to their own properties. Men and women, married or not, all got mixed up together, making the huge Fentian City a mess.

In the imperial city of Fentian City, there is an imperial garden covering an area of ​​nearly ten thousand mu. On the frozen Fairy Lake, on the stage built of the finest huanghuali wood, various mechanisms are rolling up and down with a "clattering" sound. The martial arts actresses with simple clothes and steel ropes hanging from their backs are jumping around on the stage, dancing like demons.

The current Emperor Yin Xin of Dayu Dynasty was wearing a dragon robe, wrapped in a huge white bear skin coat, holding a heater in his arms, and curled up lazily on the viewing platform opposite the lake, smoking the highest grade 'Dark Night Fragrance' presented by the Pinghai City Weaving Office from time to time.

"Empress Dowager, old holy mother, what are you doing?" Yin Xin puffed out smoke and felt that the fragrance had permeated every cell in his body. Every muscle fiber and every soul fragment were carefully smeared and wiped with a layer of rich ointment, and his whole body felt extremely comfortable.

He looked at the female martial artist jumping on the stage with boredom and said quietly, "Why don't you change the script? What's so good about this 'Pansi Cave'? A few days ago, I went to the residence of the seventh uncle. Hey, the troupe he hired sang 'Jin Ping Mei' with real swords and guns. Oh, that scene between Pan Jinlian and Li Ping'er, oh, oh!"

Putting down the smoking utensils in his hand, Yin Xin stretched out his hand and gestured with great interest: "Big friend, wow, the 'Mr. Horn' they use is so big, almost as thick and long as my arm..."

Beside Yin Xin, several eunuch stewards were smiling awkwardly.

Even if you are the emperor, you are discussing the activities of this kind of obscene theater troupe with a group of old eunuchs who have been in the palace for fifty or sixty years. This is a bit too much!
In the northeast corner of Xiangu Lake, a mountain more than 50 meters high was built with top-quality lake stones. On top of this artificial hill, a three-story painted building was built, also with flying eaves and brackets, which is extremely exquisite.

In the painting building that was warmed by the underground fire dragon, the old empress dowager who was currently ruling the country from behind the scenes for three emperors of the Dayu Dynasty, was wearing a white western-style silk robe with her long hair loose, her chest exposed, and her back leaning against the saddle, performing the "Madonna of the Desert Breastfeeding" in real life!
This is the most sacred and famous picture of the Virgin Mary in the Far West.

A traveler was lost in the desert, dying of hunger and thirst, and seriously ill. There were jackals in front of him, poisonous snakes behind him, and poisonous insects all around him. When he was on the verge of despair, the Virgin of the Desert performed a miracle, saved the traveler with her own milk, and escorted him out of the desert.

Afterwards, this rescued traveler became the founding emperor of the Holy Norman Empire, the only unified holy dynasty in the history of the Far West Continent!
At this moment, the Queen Mother was playing the role of the Virgin Mary. All her attire, even her exposed chest, was exactly the same as the "Desert Virgin Mary Breastfeeding" painting that was circulated throughout the world by the Virgin Mary Church.

The tall, handsome and strong young man, wearing the ancient style of the robes of the caravan merchants of the Far West Continent, had a very bright smile on his face and leaned in the arms of the old empress dowager with great admiration.

The old empress dowager has been ruling the country from behind the curtain for many years.

Although she was well-maintained, and at first glance she looked like a 17 or 18-year-old girl with red lips, white teeth and delicate skin, she was, however, at least, nearly 50 years old.

The burly man nestled in her arms looked no older than eighteen years old.

If Emperor Yin Xin was present, he would be able to see at a glance that in terms of blood relationship, this young man was actually his distant cousin - after all, the nobles of the Fen clan were engaged in crazy intermarriage between different families and surnames, and with a lot of generations involved, everyone was related.

As for Emperor Yin Xin, in terms of seniority, he is the great-grandson of the Empress Dowager!
and so……

Ahem... This distant cousin of Emperor Yin Xin was a first-class sword-bearing guard in the Imperial Palace. He walked before the emperor and had twenty-seven or eight miscellaneous titles of honor on his head. The official positions he had been bestowed with ranged from the second rank to the fourth rank, a total of seven or eight!

In the corner of the painting building, a young girl who was wearing a traditional Farus court dress and had her hair tied up in a bun, a common hairstyle for noble ladies in the Far West Continent, was quite pretty and elegant. She was holding a thin cigarette in her mouth, holding a palette in her left hand and three paintbrushes in her right hand, and she was rapidly painting on the huge canvas.

While recording the somewhat 'indecent' and 'taboo' scene in front of her, she admired it sincerely: "It's so beautiful, an incomparable art. My God, the strong impact of holiness and taboo, Queen Mother, you are the real and only Virgin Mary in the world!"

The old queen smiled slightly, gently stroked the handsome face of the young man in her arms, and suddenly frowned.

"Xihe girl, are there any interesting things in the telegrams you helped me deal with these past two days?"

"It seems that several of the military ministers are a little angry in today's court."

(End of this chapter)