In a blink of an eye, the "Dangshi Camp" formation was formed with the giant shield in the front, the powerful crossbows in the middle, and the sword and shield soldiers guarding on both sides; and the eighteen personal soldiers and Yuchi Jiming closely guarded Qiu Yizi, Zheng Miao and Lin Shuhan, and the other twenty-seven ceremonial soldiers were also on full alert, waiting for the enemy to attack.
While running forward, Zheng Yu turned his head to check what was happening behind him. Seeing this formation, he couldn't help but admire in his heart: It is said that the old Youyan army is strong and fearless, and it really lives up to its reputation. With such equipment and training, it is no wonder that they can compete with the Turkic cavalry that come and go without a trace on the grassland.
However, how could he guess that this army was not the Imperial Guards reorganized from the old Youyandao army, but the newly trained Shanyin militia based on the old Youyandao army's structure.
Suddenly, a strange cry was heard from the top of the mountain, and then countless arrows flew out from the dense trees and grass in the mountains and attacked Qiu Yizi and others.
The "Dangshi Camp" was naturally designed to block the enemy's long-range attacks. Seeing that the enemy's firepower was not fierce, they calmly raised their shields, and the arrows still left soft, lazy and weak impact sounds on the heavy steel shields.
After all the arrows were shot, someone reached out to pick up the arrows left on the ground and couldn't help laughing: "General, look, these arrows don't even have arrowheads. They are just sharpened bamboo poles!"
Zhao Chengxiao looked carefully and saw that what he said was true. The smooth bamboo pole was pointed at one end and blunt at the other, and it didn't even have arrow feathers. He really couldn't understand how the archer aimed.
Qiu Yizhi, who was flanking the enemy, saw that the tip of the red arrow was black and red, as if it had been roasted by fire or simmered with poison. He exclaimed, "Brother Zhao, be careful! This arrow seems to be poisonous!"
The soldiers were shocked when they heard this. Seeing more arrows coming from the mountainside, they quickly put away their underestimation of the enemy and raised their shields to carefully block the arrows shot from the mountain. Fortunately, the arrows were light and slow, and the soldiers of the "Dangshi Camp" carefully blocked them, so that no one was hurt. Otherwise, they really didn't know how they would end up after being poisoned by the unknown poison in this wild land of Lingnan.
After several rounds of arrow rain, the enemies hiding in the mountains calmed down. Only the north wind blowing from nowhere made the trees and grass leaves rustle. It was unknown whether the enemy had run out of arrows and was planning the next attack, or had retreated back to their lair because of the difficulty.
Suddenly, a strange wind blew, and the originally clear green sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds. There were a few muffled thunders in the clouds, and heavy rain immediately poured down along the direction of the mountain, pouring down on the soldiers under Qiu Yizhi's command.
Before Qiu Yizhi could lament the unpredictable weather, he saw the bushes in the mountains shaking unnaturally. It was obvious that someone was hiding in the bushes and coming down from the mountain, intending to attack our army. Qiu Yizhi was afraid that Zhao Chengxiao would be careless and be successfully attacked by the enemy, so he hurriedly shouted: "Be careful, someone is coming down from the mountain!"
Even though Qiu Yizi didn't say anything, Zhao Chengxiao had already noticed this movement. He raised the wet command flag and pointed it towards the mountainside. The crossbowmen hiding behind the giant shield then fired powerful crossbows in the direction of the shaking branches.
Although the crossbowmen shot the crossbow arrows, their eyes were irritated by the rain and they could hardly open them, let alone aim carefully. In addition, the mountains were high and the forests were dense, so they didn't know how many enemy soldiers were killed or wounded by this volley of fire. They only heard a few painful groans from the bushes, and the trees that had been swaying stopped moving, leaving only the "rustling" sound of the heavy rain splashing on the leaves.
The enemy seemed to have stopped attacking, but now the enemy was in the open while we were in the dark. The militia under Qiu Yizhi's command did not dare to be careless and still stood in formation, for fear of revealing flaws that could be exploited by the enemy.
In this way, they confronted the unknown enemy for a long time, and suddenly the originally quiet bushes started to move again. The commander did not dare to neglect the battle, and ordered the crossbowmen to shoot at the bushes, which again aroused a wailing sound.
However, after this shot, the shaking of the bushes did not slow down or stop at all, but became even more violent.
Zhao Chengxiao was also a veteran of many battles. He knew that the enemy must be hiding in the dense forest and wanted to launch a surprise attack on our army. He hurriedly said, "The enemy dare not show their faces. They are just flies and rats. The troops do not need to be afraid. Stand firm in formation, pay attention to coordination, and use the martial arts they practiced every day to win!"
Qiu Yizhi added: "The reward for each head is the same as the price of the Japanese pirates!"
Zheng Miao, who was standing beside him, was very happy to see that the discipline and fighting style of the soldiers recruited and trained by Qiu Yizhi were similar to those of the old Youyan army. He also shouted, "Everyone, work hard to kill the bandits. I will double the reward!"
Before Zheng Miao finished his words, he saw a small naked man leap out from the bushes about three or four steps away from the giant shield of the "Dangshiying". He held a dagger as long as a shoulder blade in each hand, and he flew up with his hands straight and stabbed a soldier in front of him in the face.
The shield-bearing soldier had fought with the Japanese pirates before, but he had never seen such a desperate fighting style. He subconsciously raised his shield and pushed the dwarf to the ground. The man took such a heavy blow, but he didn't seem to be injured. He rolled on the muddy ground and rolled under the shield, and the dagger in his hand was about to stab the soldier's waist.
At this moment, a sword and shield soldier who had followed the order and moved to the second row raised his Japanese sword and chopped at the wrist of the dwarf. It was unknown whether the dwarf did not see the opponent beside him in a hurry, or whether the move was too fierce to retract, and his wrist actually collided with the blade of the Japanese sword. The Japanese sword was extremely sharp. Although it could not be said to be able to cut iron like mud, it had no problem cutting through flesh and bones. In the blink of an eye, it cut off the dwarf's left hand holding the dagger.
The dwarf was extremely brave. He didn't even look at his left wrist which was bleeding. He then thrust the dagger in his right hand towards the chest of the soldier from the Dangshi Camp.
The soldier who had just cut off the man's left hand certainly couldn't bear to watch his companion being killed, so he cut off the little man's right hand again with another blow.
As a result, both of the dwarf's hands were cut off, and he became a disabled man from then on. However, his fighting spirit did not diminish at all. He barely supported his body with his two arms as smooth as rolling pins, and then jumped behind the sergeant of the "Dangshiying" and bit the back of his neck with his teeth open.
The soldier grimaced in pain and wanted to throw away the shield in his hand to pull the man lying on his back and beat him up. However, the training and discipline he had received in the past year told him that he must never allow a gap in the line to be caused by the injury of one person.
So the soldier shouted in pain: "Quick! Get this guy down for me! Quick!" But he still stood in the queue with his shield tightly in his hand.
Several strong soldiers behind him heard his cry and hurriedly tried to save the desperate little man and drag him off his companion's back. However, the man bit his opponent with his teeth and bit the neck of the "Dangshi Camp" soldier until blood was dripping, but he still couldn't pull him off.
In desperation, a strong soldier had to draw his Japanese sword and chop off the dwarf's head from his neck - his incomplete body lost the control of the brain and immediately became limp, but the lonely head was still hanging on the opponent's neck by the bite of the teeth.
Seeing this unknown opponent fighting in such a suicidal way, all the soldiers were shocked. The last bit of underestimation of the enemy disappeared, and they all concentrated on meeting the challenge of their opponent.
Sure enough, after the dwarf, another forty or fifty naked enemy soldiers jumped out of the bushes, also holding short knives and daggers, and rushed to fight the government troops. Fortunately, although these people were extremely brave, they did not know how to coordinate tactics. In addition, the militia had practiced the sword skills taught by Yuchi Jiming to perfection. After a while, they killed all the attacking enemy soldiers and gradually built a low wall made of corpses in front of the shields of the "Dangshiying" soldiers.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew from the top of the mountain, blowing away all the dark clouds covering the sky, and the sun shone again in the clear blue sky.
The soldiers looked at the piles of corpses at their feet, and then at the trickles of blood, mud and rain water beside the corpses. They could not believe what kind of fight they had just experienced in the storm. It was as if it was a nightmare.
However, this nightmare has not yet ended.
The Iron-Headed Dragon who was guarding Qiu Yizi shouted, "Be careful, someone is climbing up the cliff!"
Qiu Yizi was startled when he heard this and quickly turned his head to look. Sure enough, he saw a thin short man standing on the edge of the steep cliff that looked like it had been cut by a knife or an axe. The man was dressed in dark and only had a rag wrapped around his waist. He clenched the dagger in his hand and was about to attack the crossbowman from behind.
Qiu Yizi was about to call out to the crossbowman to be careful, but Yuchi Jiming beside him saw the opportunity very quickly, and with a wave of his hand, he threw out five copper coins as hidden weapons, all of which hit the half-naked thin man's face and head. Two of the copper coins shot right into the man's eye sockets, mercilessly blinding him.
The man was blind and in anger he was slashing and hacking aimlessly with his weapon. Suddenly he stumbled and fell off the edge of the cliff.
Another crossbowman who went over to check the situation exclaimed, "My lord, it's not good. There are still people on the cliff!"
Qiu Yizhi hurriedly and carefully moved to the edge of the cliff, looked down, and saw that there were indeed dozens of people hanging on the cliff like geckos. These people originally wanted to take advantage of the moment when their companions on the other side of the mountain were fighting with the enemy and attack from behind, but they didn't expect that a heavy rain soaked the cliff rocks and made them wet and slippery. They didn't have time to climb up from the foot of the mountain, and finally lost the opportunity to launch an attack at the same time, which was a failure.
However, their whereabouts had now been exposed, and they could no longer attack upwards, but they were unwilling to retreat. They were caught in a dilemma and felt extremely embarrassed.
Qiu Yizi did not hesitate at all. Fearing that there were more enemies on the mountain, he bypassed Zhao Chengxiao and gave the order directly: "Crossbowmen, put down your crossbows, take out your spears, and stab these mountain rats down for me!"
Upon receiving the order, the crossbowmen tiptoed to place the precious crossbow on the ground, and took out spears from behind the huge shield of the "Dangshi Camp". Two people shared one spear and stabbed the enemy soldiers who attempted a sneak attack one by one along the cliff.
At this time, Zheng Yu, who claimed to have "returned to reorganize the army", finally arrived and said, "Some of my men who know the terrain and people say that these people are Shanyue barbarians. They launched a surprise attack in this dangerous place. It is obvious that they have planned it for a long time. Please leave here quickly, Your Highness! I have already inquired ahead. It is a flat area and very safe. Your Highness, please come to the front army now!"
Of course Zheng Miao could not leave his army easily, so he asked Zheng Yu to lead the way, and asked Qiu Yizi to order the team to continue moving forward.
Qiu Yizhi knew the stakes, so he personally led the troops together with Zhao Chengxiao, gathered the troops, and carefully guarded the surroundings, protecting Zheng Miao and his guards, and walked slowly forward along the mountain path. (To be continued)