Witch Wind

Chapter 185 Border War (Part )

During the Dayu Dynasty, in the northwestern provinces, three thousand miles to the west, there were countless oases in the vast Gobi Desert.

These oases, big and small, are built on lakes of different sizes. The small ones are seven or eight miles in radius, and the large ones are more than a hundred miles in radius. Regardless of the size, the edges of the oases have three to five layers of windbreaks, standing like the Great Wall. Inside the oases, there are crisscrossing fields and fields everywhere.

There were numerous sentry towers, numerous bunkers, and stone brick houses, which supported each other and formed a tight defense formation. In the oasis, there were also many secret passages connecting various places, and countless traps hiding murderous intentions.

There are no less than two thousand similar oasis military fortresses in this Gobi Desert. In the oasis, all the people are soldiers. All year round, during the slack season, young men, women, and even immature boys, totaling more than ten million people, all practice military formations and build up their strength. Each of them is well-trained and has amazing fighting power.

And those old men are never idle during the slack season. They may forge iron, forge weapons, refine armor, or polish wood and bamboo to make bows, crossbows, and gun barrels, or even mix high-intensity gunpowder to make large and small muffled bombs, etc. In short, no one is idle and everyone is crazily busy.

Across this terrifying Gobi Desert dotted with oasis military settlements and fortresses, you will reach what the Dayu Dynasty officially calls the "Wild Western Regions."

Here, there are mountains and countless rivers. The turbulent rivers have washed out countless fertile plains of various sizes among the mountains. The total area is probably comparable to the land area of ​​20 to 30 Jiangdong provinces.

There are abundant gold sands, silver mines, copper mines, and countless gems and jades stored here. On the plains, the grass and trees are lush, the fields are fertile, and large groups of livestock float on them like clouds. The neatly arranged military farms can provide immeasurable food and fodder every year.

In this area of ​​what the Dayu Dynasty officially called "wild land", there were numerous cities and fortresses. Each city and fortress was built according to actual combat standards. All the people, regardless of gender, age or status, were listed in the military household register. Just like the military garrisons in the oases, they trained all year round and were ready to fight a war to annihilate the country at any time.

Here, the sun-moon Ming dragon flag is still hung, and all the people here still proudly call themselves "people of the Ming Dynasty". They call him the emperor, whose title is Chongzhen. They divide the army into many military corps defense zones according to the military corps. Their leaders are Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Sun Chengzong, Yuan Chonghuan, Zheng Chenggong, Cao Wenzhao, Qin Liangyu, Qi Jiguang, Shi Kefa...

They had a wise and capable minister named Yu Qian who coordinated the military and political affairs.

They also had military supervisors who were specifically responsible for taking the blame, namely Liu Jin, Wang Zhi, Wang Zhen, and Cao Huachun.

These four eunuchs who supervised the army were notorious in the official secret files of the Dayu Dynasty, and they were even in the top ten on the hunting list of the Weaving Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Dayu Dynasty. Every year during the slack season in farming, when they were extremely bored, it was these four former eunuchs who enthusiastically took turns to lead many military households to the northwestern provinces of the Dayu Dynasty to enthusiastically "fight the local tyrants"!
Six hundred years!
A full six hundred years.

The four great eunuchs, along with many generals who called themselves "Zhen Tian Wang", "Zhen Tian Wang", "Zhen Tian Wang" and so on, visited the emperor in the name of "bandits and horse thieves" every year.

Six hundred years! According to the official secret statistics of the Dayu Dynasty, these guys have looted tens of billions of stones of grain and fodder from the major northwestern provinces, and countless gold, silver, copper coins, antiques and jewelry.

In the early years, the Great Jade Dynasty still had some loyal ministers and generals, and the generals stationed on the borders could fight the four sinister, treacherous, cruel and cold-blooded eunuchs. They could probably win four or five out of ten battles. But in the past hundred years, the politics of the Great Jade Dynasty has become increasingly corrupt, especially after the current Queen Mother, the Old Saint Mother, came to power... Tsk tsk!
Lying flat.

Many provinces in the northwest were completely laid low.

Especially the many high-ranking officials and generals on the border, when they heard the horn of Zhu Ming's advance, they ran away, allowing those "horse thieves and bandits" to break into their own garrisons and plunder at will.

In the past decade, the national strength of the Dayu Dynasty has been declining. The chief officials of the counties and prefectures in the northwestern provinces and border areas are too lazy to take office. There are twenty or thirty counties and prefectures that have simply implemented "self-governance by local elites". All daily affairs are completely presided over by the village elders appointed by Zhu Ming!

Regarding this, the old saintly Queen Mother and all the dignitaries in the court played deaf and dumb and pretended not to know.

As long as Zhu Ming's regular army does not set foot on the border of Dayu Dynasty, as long as they do not invade their own cities and do not hang the Sun and Moon Ming Dragon Flag on the city gate tower...well, if you want to live a decent life, you can't avoid having some green on your head. The Empress Dowager, the Old Saint, and the other dignitaries can still accept the autonomy of just twenty or thirty counties.

It was noon on the day when Xing Tianli broke into Fentian City.

In the northwestern Yumen Province, on the border of Yuquan County, at the foot of Jinding Mountain, at a pass on the official road that is 20 to 30 feet wide, a group of patrol officers and soldiers, who are ragged like beggars, are lazily guarding the checkpoint made of a few wooden sticks, yawning weakly.

The inspectors from other places extorted money from the caravans passing by, and the profits were very lucrative.

Once upon a time, the ancestors of these inspectors also lived a good life for hundreds of years.

However, since ten years ago, when Jinding County, which borders Yuquan County to the west, began to govern itself under the support of Zhu Ming, the good days of these inspectors have come to an end.

A bandit group under the banner of "Han Tian Wang" was stationed in a roadside camp less than a mile away from them. They called themselves bandits, bandits, but have you ever seen a camp of 3,000 people, all wearing infantry armor weighing 80 kilograms, all equipped with firearms, nearly 100 large and small cannons, and 6,000 war horses?

Three thousand elite soldiers in heavy armor are right before our eyes.

The caravans that passed by also changed their attitude. All of their caravans were flying the flag of 'King Han Tian', and all their protection fees were given to 'King Han Tian'... Ten years ago, there were still some stubborn patrol officers and soldiers who wanted to skim some money from the caravans, but that night, those patrol officers were torn into pieces by five horses!

It's the real five horses torn apart!

So cruel!

How cruel!

Since then, for a full ten years, these inspectors have not earned a penny except for their meagre salary...

Forget it, just lie down. There are so many officials and bigwigs in many northwestern provinces who have to lie down. It doesn’t matter if there are just a team of a hundred or so unlucky guys like them!
The wind blew up a little bit of sand and dust in their faces. The patrolling officers and soldiers all blinked their eyes. When they opened their eyes, they were surprised to find a man wearing a black robe with a pattern of a giant python making trouble in the sea embroidered with silver thread on the robe, a jade belt around his waist, a tall white jade crown on his head, a white face without a beard, thin lips, and a hooked nose. He exuded a sinister and mean taste. In the blink of an eye, he suddenly stood in front of their checkpoint.

At first glance, this man looked to be around thirty years old.

But if you look closely, you will find that his eyes are full of vicissitudes and his body has an ancient aura, giving people the feeling that he has been dead for thousands or tens of thousands of years and has just been dug out from an ancient tomb to take a breath.

Yuquan County is an extremely remote and barren place among the northwestern provinces. These patrol officers and soldiers are at the bottom of the official system of the Dayu Dynasty. Even so, they still have a basic understanding of the "dragon robe".

The highest-ranking inspector among the patrol officers present walked forward cautiously, knelt down with a thud, and cried out in tears, "Master? What do you want me to do? Just tell me, and we will obey!"

The man with his hands behind his back and a stern face opened his mouth. He looked at the inspector who was kneeling on the ground and wailing. He touched his nose a little embarrassedly, then stretched out his hand and touched the inspector's head with his icy palm. The coldness on his palm seeped out naturally and almost froze the inspector into an ice cube.

The man sighed and said quietly, "What a well-behaved and sensible child you are. What a good child... Tsk tsk, back then, if you were such an intelligent and interesting kid, my family would have helped you get rid of the root of your troubles and let you enter the palace to serve the nobles."

"Never mind, never mind. You all look so pitiful. You are all dressed like beggars."

The man took his hand back and pressed his palm on his chest. With a wow sound, he spat out a mouthful of blood. The patrol officers and soldiers shouted in unison - he slapped himself and then spat out blood?

Is this a case of porcelain?
This is a scam!
Hundreds of officers and soldiers knelt on the ground together, kowtowed loudly, and prayed with tears and shouts.

"Forget it. You all saw it. Your Yuquan County Magistrate, Lord Zhao Side, personally picked up an eight-sided melon hammer and hit me in the chest. I was seriously injured and on the verge of death, and I vomited blood!" The man warned the patrol officers and soldiers very seriously.

"Yes, yes, yes, we all saw it, it was that bastard Zhao Side who gave birth to a son without an asshole and a daughter who went to a brothel. He picked up a melon hammer as big as a water jar and hit you in the chest with it himself, almost beating you to death... He was so cruel, so domineering, and such a bastard!" The inspector shivered and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Yes, yes, yes, we all saw it!" All the officers and soldiers shouted in unison, and suddenly felt relieved. Oh, the governor of Yuquan County, Lord Zhao Side... This guy is not in Yuquan County at all. He doesn't dare to stay in Yuquan County. Since he took office seven years ago, he has been hiding in the provincial capital of Yumen Province, which is 2,000 miles away from here.

But what does it matter?

This kind and benevolent old man said that he was injured by Zhao Side. Even if the emperor was present, these patrol officers and soldiers would firmly testify that the old man was injured by that bastard Zhao Side.

Then the man looked up to the sky and sighed: "My Liu Jin has always been kind and virtuous. Since coming to this world, there is always one day every month to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddha's name to accumulate merits and eliminate sins."

"Look at our family, this pure and compassionate aura, this kind and harmless good person, just because the sun is shining, the season is free, and occasionally the heart is moved, so I go out for a walk... I didn't expect that there would be such a rebellious criminal, committing a crime in the street."

"In broad daylight, such a strong young man, armed with a weapon, beat me for no reason. I'm alive... alive... alive... ahem, how many years have I lived like this?"

"In short, an old man like ours was beaten in the street. How cruel? How tyrannical? Oh, heaven and earth, my family... my family..." Liu Jin smacked his lips, wiped the two tears that he had squeezed out of his eyes, and murmured, "Damn, I didn't read enough, I can't think of any words."

"No matter what, we are in the right anyway, so let's spit out this mouthful of blood."

Liu Jin smacked his lips and muttered, "This chicken blood smells a bit fishy... Ugh, human blood, human blood. This is the blood of my life force that was violently beaten and vomited out with all my heart and blood! It's too brutal."

Pretendingly, Liu Jin took out a firework more than a foot long from his sleeve. He shook his fingers and the fuse of the firework was ignited. He raised the firework casually, and with a "swish", a beam of fire rushed up more than a hundred feet high, then suddenly exploded and turned into a red sun and a crescent white moon hanging high in the sky.

The earth began to shake slightly, accompanied by a low roar. In the military camp that had left the patrol officers and soldiers at this checkpoint with nothing for the past ten years, three thousand cavalrymen roared in a low voice, waving flags all over the sky, raising billowing smoke and dust, and rushed through the checkpoint, heading straight for the direction of Yuquan County City hundreds of miles away.

Behind these three thousand cavalrymen, the bright red flag of the Sun, Moon and Ming Dynasty Dragon turned into a red cloud covering the sky, leading the surging army. A hundred or so patrol officers and soldiers knelt on the ground in a daze, their eyes wide open, their tongues almost sticking out of their mouths - how many troops were there? One hundred thousand? One million? Or ten million?

Even if all the living people they had ever seen in their lives were added together and multiplied by a hundred times, they would still not be as numerous as the army before them!
'call'!
'call'!!

'call'!!!
The endless army, clad in heavy armor and holding various shining weapons, roared in a low voice, accompanied by the hoarse roar of "Great Ming will win forever", like a mad dragon raising a huge tsunami, roaring through Yuquan County.

In the battle array of arsenals, a large group of elite soldiers in brocade clothes, surrounded by dozens of curly-haired, dark-skinned, burly foreign men, strode forward. These foreign men wore iron collars around their necks, and were connected to each other with iron chains, carrying on their shoulders a black sedan chair decorated with silver python dragon patterns.

Liu Jin's figure flew up without any wind and landed lightly on the sedan chair. He pointed at the many patrol officers and soldiers kneeling on the ground and said calmly, "I'm here, we're just strolling outside, enjoying this beautiful spring... ahem, beautiful summer... ahem, today, which season is it, spring, summer, autumn or winter?"

Liu Jin murmured with a bit of melancholy, "Ever since the Emperor stopped using me as his personal servant, I've even confused the four seasons. Anyway, I was enjoying the beautiful scenery when a rebellious thug rushed out and beat me up... I have to settle this account with those old guys from the Jade Clan!"

"Let's go, let's go, attack." Liu Jin said softly: "But, where is the promised munitions?"

The army galloped, passing through dozens of small villages and towns along the way.

The front suddenly opened up, and a vast grassland appeared in front of the 3,000 heavy cavalrymen in the vanguard. What shocked the 3,000 heavy cavalrymen was that this flat grassland, which was hundreds of thousands of acres in size, was filled with huge wooden boxes. The wooden boxes of different sizes were piled together in different categories, and the highest point was almost more than 30 meters!

Nearly a thousand soldiers wearing matte-colored fully enclosed armor, holding smooth-shaped guns full of inexplicable beauty, stood high on the stacked wooden boxes in an extremely relaxed posture, calmly watching the rushing Zhu Ming army.

Amidst the low 'buzzing' sound, a soldier's armor flashed with a faint light. He flew lightly in front of the vanguard heavy cavalry and took out a thick list from the document bag hanging on his waist.

"Zhu Ming's people? They are finally here. We were waiting here last night. Your efficiency is really slow."

"Okay, this is the advanced weapons that Marquis Heiyun guaranteed and rented to you. It is enough to arm tens of millions of people. There are 10 million automatic firearms with 30-round magazines, 100 billion rounds of ammunition, and 100,000 general-purpose large-caliber machine guns, also with 100 billion rounds of ammunition."

"The rest are large and small caliber towed artillery pieces, 20,000 pieces, and a total of 1 billion rounds of shells."

"Some other miscellaneous items, such as one billion offensive grenades, one thousand walkie-talkies, etc. These are gifts given to you entirely for the sake of Marquis Black Cloud."

"The weapons are all here, you can count them and distribute them. Remember, within three years, no matter what means you use, you Zhu Ming must repay the cost of these weapons with real money at 1.5 times the market price."

The sky was full of smoke and dust, and Liu Jin's sedan came rushing over. He widened his eyes and looked at the endless and mountainous arms boxes in disbelief - he was horrified. According to the news brought back by Zhu Diaochong, this was the military aid that Jieshi Gong Xing Tianli had applied for on behalf of Zhu Ming by guarantoring the Kingdom of Yingjishi.

The Kingdom of Yingjishi is tens of thousands of miles away from the northwestern provinces. The aid contract that Xing Tianli helped Zhu Ming and Yingjishi sign was only officially finalized seven days ago... How did they transport so many arms here in just seven days?
Thousands of Yingji soldiers saluted Liu Jin, their armors flickering with a faint light, and they rose into the air with a "buzzing" sound, and in an instant they crashed into the high clouds.

There was a burst of lightning and thunder in the sky, and in the rolling dark clouds, Liu Jin gasped in horror.

"How was such a huge metal object made?" Liu Jin muttered, "I need to have a good talk with Emperor Chongzhen about this matter. How could these barbarian slaves from the far west possess such great power? Six hundred years ago, they were just lowly slaves that we enslaved... How could they have such great power?"

Shaking his head, Liu Jin waved his hand towards the countless boxes of weapons in front of him and said, "Dispatch the troops and distribute the weapons quickly. Hey, we can't let our men charge into the face of other people's guns and artillery shells with their flesh and blood!"

After a while, Liu Jin was playing with a grenade. After playing with it for a long time, he pulled the ring and threw it more than a mile away.

The grenade exploded and a cloud of black smoke rose.

Liu Jin shook his hands, his eyes flickered, his expression changed rapidly: "Our current territory lacks iron ore, and there is absolutely no sulfur, saltpeter and other things. A skilled cook cannot cook without rice... Once we capture the place with these mines, hey, with the strength of the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War, these items will not be difficult to imitate!"

"Hey, hey!" Liu Jin laughed extremely sneakily: "One and a half times the market price? You must be dreaming."

"You barbarian slaves, once you were slaves, you will be slaves forever from generation to generation... When will it be your turn to suck blood from the Celestial Empire, the land of our parents?"

"The Jade Clan is incompetent and has spoiled you, but I am Zhu Ming..."

Liu Jin pulled out a dragon-patterned imperial sword and slashed at the air fiercely: "Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill until your heads are rolling. Hey, give me money? Bah! Who am I? The dignified Nine Thousand Years Old Liu Jin... Pay me back? When have I ever owed you money?"

"It's a bit embarrassing for Lord Jieshi!"

"Hey, it would be great if we gave him a share of the stolen money!"

Liu Jin smiled triumphantly.

Two hours later, the vanguard of the Zhu Ming army, having taken off their heavy armor and equipped with various advanced military weapons, swept through more than twenty cities at lightning speed.

(End of this chapter)