In a moment, more than 20 of my brothers fell here. At this rate, we can't even survive midnight. Facing the opponent's continuous fierce attack, we can't feel the advantage we have gained by relying on the steep slope. Even if there is an advantage, it is meaningless to us.
My mouth and throat were dry, and I felt a little cold. It might be because of blood loss. I had heard Hua Tuo talk about similar symptoms in Yunmengze. Maybe I couldn't hold on to the end. Although the defense of the arrow towers under the city still made me feel so desperate, it was effective. Otherwise, it would be fatal if our long snake formation was attacked from the side.
Lao Liu also died before me. He was not killed by the enemy, he died of exhaustion, or maybe he was too old.
In fact, this is not the case.
Exhausted to death, this was just an excuse I used to comfort myself. I saw him fall down, panting, his legs shaking as he tried to stand up, but he had no strength left. At this moment, we were pushed back several feet by the arrows, leaving the old man on the ground helplessly and nervously turning his eyes away from us to watch the enemy approaching with flashing black armor. But when he turned around, he looked at me calmly, moved his mouth a few times, as if thinking about something, and then used all his strength to wipe his neck with the sword. I remember that he smiled at me at the last moment.
The old man’s last smile finally made me wake up from that chaotic nightmare.
I patted the big guy's shoulder - he had been by my side the whole time - and asked him to follow me to the middle of the team - I had to let the other brothers hold him back for a while - and he also patted the shoulder of the person next to him as he left.
He just kept breathing heavily, wiping the sweat off his hands, and looking at me with dull eyes. Even though he looked so strong, he was exhausted by the battle.
"We can't fight like this. We can't just take the beating like this!" I was also panting heavily, but I was still able to finish my words. Because our troops were only one-tenth of the others, I gave up the initiative in the battle from the beginning and just took the beating. Moreover, at this time, we also divided our troops with the arrow tower to guard, which was equivalent to dispersing our troops. In addition, a few days ago, there were tens of thousands of people hiding in this city, but from the outside it still looked the same. We had considerable room to use troops. Time was urgent and I didn't have time to think so much, but now I had to make a decision.
"Abandon the city wall. We will each lead a team and retreat into the range of the arrow tower. We will form a battle formation and charge these bastards from all directions. Don't charge too far and don't leave the protection of the arrow tower. Once we retreat here, we will turn to other directions... Okay, brother, you go!"
"Well, brother, allow me to call you that... Take care of yourself too." He nodded firmly, slapped my shoulder with a big hand, then walked back to the original queue and gave orders loudly.
I also hurried to the east, and walked to the forefront of the east. While holding off the front with everyone, I shouted, "Go down to the city, form a triangle battle formation, and move closer to the arrow tower!"
Several experienced veterans threw the burning oilcloth forward to slightly hinder the attack of the Xiliang people, allowing me, who was at the end of the team, to retreat safely.
There was a stable under the south wall, and when I got there I didn't care about my image, I dived into the trough and drank greedily. Suddenly I stood up in shock, turned around and quickly evacuated with my brothers who were waiting for me. I wanted to drink a few more sips, or savor the taste of the sweet spring water, but I was quickly forced by the flying arrows from the city and only thought about escaping from the enemy's strong bows and crossbows with my brothers.
Entering the shooting range of the six arrow towers, we suddenly became the majority. Our retreat was beyond their expectations. A large number of Xiliang soldiers were using the corners to protect themselves and waiting for an opportunity to climb up the arrow towers. At this time, they were isolated on all sides and soon became the unlucky ghosts under the swords of the brothers who had just withdrawn. This made the brothers' momentum soar. Many Mingzi soldiers who didn't know how to use the Spartan battle formation quickly integrated into this triangular battle formation and pushed forward in the relatively narrow streets. The momentum made the Xiliang people here completely trapped. The ones behind couldn't rush in, and the ones in front couldn't retreat. For a while, we were stepping on people to rush forward, but when we rushed to the wide streets, we had to retreat. But after this maneuvering, the brothers even shouted and passed information to each other, showing a kind of momentum.
However, we were completely surrounded by the enemy. What made me most uneasy was the Xiliang devil named Guo. He would never let this situation continue. He had to take Mingzi. What worried me the most was that I was sure he would find a way to deal with us, but I didn't know what method he would use to deal with us. After all, they had the initiative in the whole situation.
We are just a group of trapped animals that are still struggling despite the sudden hope of survival. And this ray of hope that suddenly emerges is just like the residual oil of a lamp swaying in the autumn wind, and it will be extinguished at any time, and everything will return to silence and darkness.
The wind that night was extremely hot because of the battle. I began to feel thirsty again, but there was no place to drink water. We rushed to the street corner again, but were shot back by arrows. When they came in, we and the arrow tower drove them out. They tried to climb over the wall, but were soon shot by the arrow tower and gave up.
The attack has temporarily stopped. They must have started to think of a way, and I can only let everyone take a short break. After saying this, I threw away the broken wooden pole in my hand and looked at the blood in my hand. I just didn't know whether it was my own or someone else's. Looking up, deep in the alley, there were people lying everywhere, injured and groaning, and people who were exhausted and wanted to take a break. Some people asked me if we could hold on until tomorrow morning. In response, I could only smile and talk about other things. There were also people who could joke with each other, but the content of the jokes were all some indecent words, but I let them do it at this time. Listening to their panting in between words, I couldn't harden my heart and told them not to be ridiculous. Although there were dozens of women on the arrow tower, I think it would be embarrassing in normal times, but I guess no one would think about it now.
Although I was still clear in my mind, I only clearly understood that we would not be able to struggle until tomorrow morning. According to the time, the child had only arrived there about an hour or two ago to inform our people in the north to come back. It would take several more hours for them to return at full speed, and the people in the southwest were even farther away from us. And now, including the women on the tower, there were only more than a hundred of us, and most of them were dead.
I thought we were going to die, at least I didn't feel nervous at all, I just wanted to drink water. There were people below who were similar to me, loudly asking for water from the people on the tower. The people on the tower were also relaxed and had no taboos, and actually asked you if you wanted any, which caused a lot of laughter and scolding. After a while, the bucket was put down. Immediately, a group of people like wolves and tigers started drinking there.
I didn't want to argue with you about this, so I just told you to stop being so anxious, and ordered a few soldiers who seemed to be more cautious to look around to see if there was any movement. On the other hand, no matter how nervous you are, you have to see what the enemy is doing.
The big guy brought a bucket of water and walked quickly through the crowd to me, saying nothing. There was another wound on his head. I was not modest at all. I looked at his head, and then I raised my hand and drank half a bucket in one go. My stomach felt cold, and I could hear the sound of water in my stomach when I shook it. But it finally put out all the irritability and depression in my heart. Although my body began to feel cold again, I felt crazy again.
I jumped onto the damaged low wall next to me, looked around, turned around and stopped all the chattering. I meant to stop, but it was more like a joke: "You don't even have enough time to breathe and drink water, what else are you talking about!"
At this moment, they are quite open-minded: "We are going to die anyway, so it doesn't matter if we don't have so much in this life."
The big guy was even more reckless, patting his brother next to him with his big hands, and even said something a little too nasty: "What the hell, he can eat my bird."
Having said that, I could hear another meaning from this: everyone believed in their hearts that we could survive until the reinforcements arrived. This belief could sustain us for a longer time, and maybe we could really hold on until tomorrow morning. I also began to hold this idea, especially when I looked back and saw the rosy smiling faces, I even suggested that they wash their faces.
I walked to one of the arrow towers to ask about the situation. Among the heads that popped out were some women, and they were running out of arrows. Next to us was the Mingzi County Government, where I lived. I don't remember if there were any arrows stored there. Next to us were a few official residences. At this moment, the cracks on their walls glowed red, which made me believe that they had been abandoned for many years, and it was even more impossible to find any arrows. I asked everyone to bring all the arrows they had brought down from the city wall up, and then I heard someone say with regret that they were afraid that the bows and arrows would be lost.
But I immediately realized that something was wrong. The moon was dim tonight and the stars were sparse, but I could see so clearly, and the color was so terrifying.
As soon as I turned back and climbed onto the top of the wall, I saw a red glow all over the sky in the west and the east. A soldier came running and let everyone know the seriousness of the situation: "Fire, fire, fire!"
The Guo guys decided to start a fire attack. We were surrounded, and they set fire to us! Flames shot up into the sky from the two alleys. The surrounding area was instantly filled with red light.
"Marquis Fengyun, what should we do? These sons of bitches set a fire!"
"I remember there's a pool in the county government. If we set the fire now, they won't come in... Go! Fetch some water and soak the walls near us, especially the arrow tower." I suddenly felt a little unsure. "The people on the arrow tower, in the smoke, pay attention to protecting our brothers who are fetching water, and beware of the Xiliang people... Give me a rope."
I quickly climbed up to the top of the tower, took a quick peek at the scene inside, smiled, and then climbed up the battlement to the top of the tower. Below me, I could hear people talking about me in the local dialect, but at this time, I had no interest in listening and looking around. There was fire all around, and thick smoke was rising.
I squatted on the tower, and finally sat down, watching the people below busying themselves, thinking constantly about the current situation.
This city was built according to the terrain. On the south side, on the hillside, there happened to be a government office with high entrances and houses of officials with clear ranks. There were two arrow towers in the government office, three on this road, and one in the official residence, which protected each other. Although the city walls and other places were all left to the Xiliang people, at least the government office is very clean now, and there are no outsiders in the official residence. Now that it has been set on fire on all sides, the things below are even more troublesome. I looked at my bedroom, the door was tightly closed, it seemed that the Xiliang people had not entered, because the doors and windows on both sides I saw were not damaged. The reason I looked at it was because I wanted to sleep for a while. I thought that if I could win this battle, I would go to sleep immediately and not care about anything else. Anyway, things like beds would not provoke the Xiliang people. They would not go in and cut off the place where I sleep with a knife, and then send people to treat me viciously, just to prevent me from sleeping. It was getting cold up there, and I thought I had to go down quickly after taking a look. There was fire everywhere, and they might have been preparing to deal with our troops outside the city who were coming back to attack the city. The soldiers here were just monitoring our movements, so we should be safe for the time being, but I was still very uneasy. There wasn't even a torch on the south wall, which made me feel uneasy.
The reinforcements from Brother Chen can't come so quickly. He has already given me all the troops that can be mustered within a thousand miles, unless they are gathered from Nanyang, Wancheng and Hanzhong. I wrote him a letter to report the situation here and my strategy to defeat the bandits. He seemed to have some opinions about my frequent recruitment of people, and asked me to be careful not to bring in anyone. He also wrote to me to ask about all the situations of E Huan. I had to ask E Huan first and then give him the letter. The letter has arrived a long time ago, and his reply may be coming soon, but I may not see it.
The smoke was a little thick and the people below were coughing non-stop. Someone suggested that we quickly wet a piece of clothing and use it to cover our mouths and noses, saying that this would feel better. Many people tried it and said it was effective. Even so, our original panting and laughter turned into violent coughing and even more violent coughing.
The air up there was much better because the wind was strong. Although I was coughing, it was much better. At least I didn't need to wet my sleeves specifically.
"The weather is so dry... ahem... why is there still so much smoke?" This was an unintentional complaint from a person with a Qingzhou accent, but I finally began to understand a little, which surprised me.
I asked the soldiers under the eaves for bows and arrows, and asked them to pass me a torch. They made me feel sad, especially the voices of the women behind. They reminded me of her, and her, and a vague version of her. If I could survive this time, I would have to go see her. However, if the Xiliang people really did this, we might not be able to survive.
I tore off a piece from the hem of my skirt and stuck it on the arrow. After thinking about it, I made a few more arrows like this. Then, I lit one, took a deep breath, and shot an arrow towards the dark heart of the mansion.
A ball of flame loomed and drew a rainbow in the smoke of varying shades, making the originally gray and black smoke appear bright red and white. At the end of the rainbow, in addition to the fleeting light, the cold light of the sword was also reflected.
"The Xiliang people are attacking!" I shouted hurriedly, turned around and fired another rocket into the darkness of the official residence. This one was more thorough, hitting a man directly, but it didn't hurt him much. He pulled it out directly. I looked at the hideous face reflected in the firelight, tilted my head, and shouted at the back with a loud voice: "Brothers, pour it!"
There was a loud shout and the Xiliang people on both sides rushed over immediately. We were in a state of panic and most of us were leaning against the wall, coughing. I could sense that a horrific massacre was about to happen when I saw it.
"People are coming from both sides. Everyone, line up and don't get separated. The arrow tower is ready." While shouting loudly, I climbed down along the eaves anxiously. But the more anxious I was, the more trouble I got. Something on my ribs got caught on the rafters or brackets sticking out from the side, and I was trapped on the edge of the arrow tower for a moment. In a hurry, I untied my armor, but forgot to grab the rope, and fell down all of a sudden.
Fortunately, I didn't fall badly, but when I stood up, the big guy was standing in front of me. He seemed a little surprised at the way I got down, but soon he returned to normal, and said to me with a slightly gloomy and even desperate look on his face. This was the first time I saw such an expression on his face: "There are too many people, and they came over at once in the smoke, and two or three arrow towers are out of arrows. The brothers have already been smoked to death, and now we can't hold on any longer. What do you think we should do?"
I paused, thought about it for a moment, and immediately made a decision: "We will also set fire... ahem... tell the brothers to set fire to all the places that can be set on fire. They didn't burn everything... ahem... leaving gaps... we will help fill them up with fire."
The smoke around me became thicker after a while, and the scene became more chaotic. I nervously identified the people who appeared around me at any time, picked up a long spear, and immediately shouted for everyone to come closer to me.
One arrow tower was lost, and the arrows flying in the air gradually became less and less. I heard the screams of women and the sound of human bodies falling to the ground, and my heart ached. I thought fiercely in my heart, if only I were really a Xiezhi.
The big guy came to me quickly with a dozen people. I waved to them, but because I was coughing uncontrollably, I couldn't speak, so I just asked them to follow me.
But as soon as I turned around, I knew nothing. I knew I was hit on the head, but I was not aware of anything at the time.
When I woke up again, I felt dizzy. It took me a long time to realize that I was not suffocating, but that there were several people on top of me. There were still sporadic shouts and screams around me, and there was actually some light. I remembered what happened, and I felt a little sad. They actually resisted thousands of Xiliang people until dawn without the cover of arrows, and they actually knocked me out just to prevent me from getting hurt.
After another moment, I realized that I was in a pile of corpses, with an incredibly pale and deformed face of my brother next to me. At this moment, I could only silently close his eyes, with endless sadness in my heart.
It took me a while to gather my strength to crawl out. This was a corner of an official's courtyard. I leaned against the wall without any strength. I was cold and hungry, but looking at the young people in front of me, I finally stood up. Maybe it was a good thing for me to lie among the corpses, but my self-esteem and my deep guilt towards my brothers would not allow me to do so. I had to stand up and fight with them. You can call me a fool for this behavior and say that I failed them, but I am Xie Zhi and I have to do this.
The clothes on my body were already tattered, and I even felt that they were not my clothes. The sleeves and knuckles seemed a little short, and even the shoes were not right. I couldn't remember that I had such a pair of cloth shoes.
I don't know how I got out of this alley, but there was no one alive. In the thin fog, I couldn't feel the direction of the shouting and killing sounds. I picked up another long spear from the ground. It was covered with dried blood. The blood was sticky in my hands. My heart was sour and tears fell unexpectedly.
As soon as I turned out, I saw several Xiliang soldiers running towards the south. They were shocked. They certainly didn't expect that there was still a living person here, and looked so miserable. They even took a few steps back. Then when they found that I was the only one alone, one of them looked left and right, then rushed forward again.
There was a dull thud, and the weapons collided. I guess everyone was tired. At this point, we didn't have any more moves and just wrestled with each other with our weapons. I don't know if the others were just standing there for a moment or if they thought the person in front of them was really scary. But their stunned state gave me time to do one thing.
My mouth was right on the right side of his neck. I felt my hands and feet were weak and I couldn't push him away. I bit him without hesitation. The first bite filled my mouth with blood, which spurted all over my face and body. I was not moved at all and kept biting him, one bite after another, until his howling stopped and he collapsed to the ground.
“Xie… Zhi…, he’s not dead yet!” Several people who were stunned shouted this and turned around and ran away.
But none of them could escape. In the morning mist, I caught up with them and chopped them down one by one before they took a hundred steps. It seemed that their legs were limp and they were exhausted after fighting all night.
I don't know when I lost my headband. I realized it when I was trying my best to kill the last Xiliang man and my full head of hair was covered with my face. But when I raised my head and shook off the hair hanging on my face, I knew where my headband was.
The big guy was wearing my clothes, my boots, my hanging ribs, and had a ponytail like mine. I should have been very happy to see him. I wouldn't blame him for knocking me out. I should even have patted his shoulder like him. But seeing him at this moment, I couldn't be happy:
His body was full of arrows, and he was hung on the arrow tower with a rope around his neck, with my spear next to him. I dropped my spear and climbed up desperately, not caring if anyone would attack me from behind. As soon as I climbed up, I used my hands and feet to pull him back, and hurriedly pulled out the arrows one by one for him, choking with sobs while wiping the blood off his face. I seemed to have only cried like this twice in my life, and this was the first time.
I no longer had any brilliant ideas or strategies to defeat the enemy. I simply put all his armor and clothes back on myself, and the only thought in my mind was killing all the people from Xiliang, without considering whether it was possible.
I jumped down directly, stood firmly, jumped up again, pushed the wall with my legs, and pulled out the spear from the tower. This time, the spear fell down with me, but I didn't care. After standing up, I strangled the hairband behind my head, held the spear, and didn't care about advancing or retreating, the number of people, or the wisdom of others; because I had only one thought in my mind at that time: whoever gets hurt must die.
Therefore, when I saw a group of people in black armor sitting on the ground to rest on the wide street, I didn't have any other thoughts. I just shouted loudly and rushed forward with my gun.
A horseman rushed out from the side. The man on the horse held a trident on one hand and rushed over so quickly.
When he got closer, he grasped the spear tightly with both hands and thrust it hard. The man panicked and blocked it with his fork, shouting, "Xie bro, it's me!"
I was about to push harder, but was stopped by the voice of "Big Brother". I took two steps back and took a closer look. This man looked quite weak and familiar. His sparse beard seemed to have just grown that night.
“Nan?... Nan... Ah, it seems like I haven’t seen you for more than half a year... When did you, you bastard, join the Xiliang army!” Once I figured it out, I became even more furious and started shooting with my gun, but this time my men were less severe and would ask him again after I captured him.
"Brother, what's wrong with you? What Xiliang...Brother, what are you doing?" He frantically tried to fend off the enemy, and at the same time, without even turning his head, he shouted, "Brother-in-law, come quickly, Brother wants to hit me for some reason!"
It was like this, and I couldn't take him down for a while.
"Brother!" Another loud shout came from a distance, which made me calm down.
Although he was wearing armor, the longbow slung on his back and the double-sided axe in his hands still made it easy for me to tell who he was as soon as I saw him. I also immediately began to understand how the situation had changed after I was knocked unconscious.
I collapsed on the ground, waved at him, asking him not to come near, and then covered my face with my hands. I was really embarrassed to see an old friend. Then I silently got up, turned around and walked away quickly.
I returned to the government office, climbed the steps, threw away my spear, removed my sword, untied my ribcage, threw it away, untied my robe and let the wind blow it up from the front, wanting to float away, no longer having any worries or sorrows. Unfortunately, maybe I was too heavy.
I threw myself in front of the door and started crying, but I pushed the door open and saw Pei sitting on the couch, with nothing there.
In the middle of February of the first year, Brother Chen learned from a letter that E Huan's people came from Sichuan, and he felt that something was not good, so he withdrew 15,000 people from Hanzhong and Wandi and rushed to us.
At dawn on February 29th of the first year of Chuping, Po Liu Han Lieya and Hu Sa Lie Nan Guo captured Mingzi, where the Xiliang people, who had just finished the battle and were already exhausted, were stationed.
I am the only human survivor in Mingzi City.
During those days, I kept lying on the couch, sometimes staring at the house in a daze, sometimes looking at my wife, telling her everything that happened that day, a story that I have never finished telling in my life.
Later, my wife asked me why I went out even though I knew what they were going to do. Wouldn't that be a waste of their efforts? I answered this way: There are two kinds of good men in the world. One kind will go out to face the strongest enemy, even if it means losing his life and dying; the other kind will keep a low profile, accumulate strength, and wait for the right time to rise again. Those who face death are the backbone of our country. Without them, our Han Dynasty cannot stand firm in the world. Those who endure and wait for the opportunity are the blood vessels of our country. Without them, our Han Dynasty cannot continue in the world. Those who keep their bones but cut off their blood vessels will not yield even if they die. Their souls can be reborn. Those who cut their bones but keep their blood vessels intact will recuperate for a period of time, so even if they are defeated, they can rise again. Our Han Dynasty wants to dominate the world for ten thousand years, and both are indispensable. And these two kinds of people are our backbone.
During the Qingming Festival in March, the Wuling Mountains are solemn and serene. A thin mist, like a white gauze, lightly covers the northern hillside outside Mingzi City. There are numerous tombs on the hillside, covering an area of more than three miles in radius. Xie Zhi wore plain clothes and went up to the altar, reading the mourning text and weeping. His words were: "The great above, the bright below, it is difficult for heaven to be faithful, and it is not easy to maintain the king; since the beheading of the white snake, Taizu has ruled the world for 400 years, the world has been unified, and the four barbarians have come to surrender; suddenly the evil and stubborn have risen, and the swords have been used, without caring about the arms and legs, and the disaster has started from within. The disaster of the Han Dynasty is not outside, but inside. Ask the ministers in the west, what is the appropriate. Heaven has given it coldness, not for its wide range, and the people have not cared about its injuries; those Jie and Zhou! Save the country with blood? Only Heaven has pity on Han, and helped Jingxiang. There are brave men and heroic women who keep Mingzi together, and die without surrendering. Zhi Gou begs for his last breath in the meantime, and wishes to proclaim the justice of heaven and earth, the hope of all people; the long high sky, the bright heaven and earth, cast an immortal name for his heroic name, which will last for a thousand years and will never end. In the third month of the first year of Chun Wang, Xie Zhi respectfully offers sacrifices."