In the misty night, the fire reflected in the sky, and the small county town was plunged into a slaughter and chaos.
The reason why it was chosen as the gathering place for people in the green forest, Taoting, a small county town, was not a good place in the first place. There are many three religions and nine streams in the county, and they are used to the occasional chaos, but tonight, the officers and soldiers who came here are obviously not small. Zhou Tong and Fu Lu dismounted and sneaked in all the way. They saw three or four fights in the dark. Some of them came out of the dark alleys, while others were hidden in the houses. When they were found, they rose up to resist. In addition to officers and soldiers wearing fast-moving suits and military uniforms, most of the people who searched and killed in the county were five to seven warriors.
These people did not wear formal court clothes, but they were able to act together with the officers and soldiers, obviously they had already said hello before. Following the officers and soldiers, they were able to enter the houses to search. The people who lived here knew a lot about the matter, and they all hid in their homes peacefully, and they also cooperated with the officers and soldiers in the search. Zhou Tong and Fu Lu saw a few people from the green forest sneaking into a house. They obviously knew the owner of the house and wanted to go in to avoid it. They pressed against the wooden door for convenience and said: "You all go! Go, don't bother me! "
Several Green Forest people just scolded him for being disloyal outside the door, and someone threatened: "If he doesn't open the door, he will burn down his house." But then the sound of fighting spread from the street, and several Green Forest people hurriedly fled.
All the way forward, the closer you get to the center of the county, the more clearly you can see the firelight ahead. Zhou Dong from Taoting County had been here before, and he knew that there was a large-scale inn and theater in the center of the county, and it was the gathering place of the three religions and nine streams. Tonight's hero meeting must also be held there, but at this time, it seems that the building has been turned into a sea of fire, the entire building has been burned and collapsed, there is a faint smell of burnt smell in the air, obviously many people have died. in that sea of fire.
As for what happened here, Zhou Tong had a vague guess in his heart. After passing the center of the county, he went to the south.
The convener of this Green Forest Conference was named Yan Huan, who was a named disciple he had instructed at the time. He is a native of Taoting. It is also quite famous in the rivers and lakes. Zhou Tong had originally planned to go to Yan's Village to find him, but along the way, what really caught Zhou Tong's attention was the actions of those arresters. It made him feel a little familiar.
These five to seven warriors undertook most of the search tasks. The reason to separate them from the Greenwoods. It is because most people in the green forest act loosely. If they have been with each other for a long time, although there is a good cooperation, but there are not too many rules and regulations. And these people are obviously trained. In action, the cooperation with each other is like a whole - even if the perfect effect is not achieved, it seems to be going in this direction at least.
The weapons they hold in their hands are different. Some use fishing nets, some hold long spears, some hold large swords, some carry crossbows, and some use swords and shields—at least in the rivers and lakes, it is rare to see warriors who use swords and shields. At first glance, this group of people is nothing, but a few groups of people look at it, and there are some ways. The martial arts of these people may not have reached the first-class level, but they cooperate well with each other. Once they fight, the shield blocks the opponent's attack, the two spears stab straight, the big knife slashes, and the powerful hand crossbow in the middle and close range is combined with the fishing net. The average three or five Green Forest people are not opponents at all, and they are often beaten up after a few fights.
And especially in Zhou Tong here, I can feel some other things.
About ten years ago, when he was still the instructor in the Imperial Fist Academy, he once considered using advanced martial arts in the military formation—although he could no longer make progress after becoming the Tianzi instructor at the Imperial Fist Academy, but Zhou. Dong is still enthusiastic about these things, even if the boxing method is widely known as a taboo in martial arts, he doesn't care.
For these things, he has spent a lot of thought. Such as simplifying boxing techniques, pursuing quick success, or simplifying moves, pursuing practical results, or designing special formations to play a greater role on the battlefield. But then these attempts mostly failed. The things handed down by the ancestors have his reasons, such as boxing and martial arts, one is to seek talent, and the other is to be able to eat enough. In the army, even if there is no class, there are only a few who can learn boxing and become a teacher. That's fine. The biggest problem is that if the teaching is not good, if the teaching is not in place, the opponent will actually hurt the body after learning.
This thing is like a quick drawback. Even the profound internal skills such as "breaking the six ways" will still leave people with dark wounds. If you want to alleviate this, you must have someone with higher martial arts to push the palace for the other party every once in a while. Passing acupoints, massaging the body, in the end, the price of developing a small master needs to be taken care of by a big master, which is worth the loss.
And even if they really learn advanced martial arts, there are not many people, and they often eat a lot. If there is such an army, they are strong in martial arts and good at cooperation, they will eat the country poor first.
As for the simplified moves, the training method in the army is an extremely simplified killing technique. The repeated tricks of a knife were originally the simplest and clearest key points. According to the requirements of the military book, the soldiers practiced simple hacking and stabbing thousands of times every day. To simplify, Zhou Tong really has nothing to simplify. .
For one reason or another, Zhou Tong finally realized that his thoughts were mostly empty talk. As a martial artist, his mastery of his own body has reached the pinnacle, but if he wants to be a general, he is actually not as good as those little generals who are not very skilled in martial arts. In the end, Zhou Tong recorded some of his thoughts. Later, these manuscripts were also stored in the Imperial Fist Gym, and not many people could see them.
In front of him, the formations of five to seven people are quite similar to the small formations he had previously designed for use on the battlefield. There are many changes, but the combination of several footwork and movement, the trend is The knack for retreating, but obviously has the traces of his original idea.
At the beginning, Zhou Tong's idea was to arrange a formation so that after being divided and surrounded on the battlefield, the soldiers could fight on their own, fighting in small groups to survive. Based on his martial arts cultivation, the cooperation between several people is quite wonderful. If they practice properly and cooperate with each other well, and the rhythm of blocking, killing, blocking, and killing, several people can deal with Yuanyuan very well. constant enemy. But after all, this is also a fantasy, the daily training in the army is naturally carried out by the entire army. Where can I practice the cooperation of several people all day long. Even if they practiced, once they were scattered on the battlefield, they would all be strangers when they gathered together. This kind of formation with clear roles and ties between each other actually didn't make much sense.
However, these people in front of them obviously adopted the forward and backward steps in his formation. At first glance, although everyone's weapons are different and the formation is a bit messy, there are traps everywhere. The person walking at the forefront, who seems to be sloppy, will retreat immediately once attacked. Then the shield blocked the drive. Slashing with big swords, long spears blocking the middle of the road, hand crossbow deterrence and throwing fishing nets, even the first-class masters will suddenly suffer. Randomly watched a few fights. Two green forest warriors were knocked to the ground between such a dilemma. The useless formation on the battlefield has now become a weapon for small-scale battles.
Zhou Tong originally did not design the coordination of so many weapons. At this time, while watching, he also scrutinized again in his heart. In this way, before reaching the Yan family village, the master and servant suddenly found the target they were looking for. It was a middle-aged warrior in his forties. He came from the other side of the long street with a small team of hunters, knocked on the door of a family, and then told the family to go in and search, and the other party also Keep the door open.
Zhou Tong and Fu Lu looked at it strangely. The reason why Yan Huan was able to earn his reputation in the Green Forest was because of his boldness and loyalty. Now that the Green Forest Conference has been held like this, he actually cooperated with the government? Although Zhou Tong's position has always been on the side of the government, it is really difficult to understand at this time. After today, will Yan Jiazhuang still have a foothold in the rivers and lakes
After watching for a while in the dark, Zhou Tong walked out from the street and shouted in a deep voice, "Yan Huan." The other party was coming out of the yard when Yan Huan's body shook and looked over here, and for a while , staring at his eyes, his hands were trembling. On the other hand, the hunter who followed him immediately set up the formation. It seemed vaguely like the leader of the squad was about to shout "Take it down", but heard Yan Huan say, "Master, Master!"
"you… "
"what-"
The next moment, I saw Yan Huan gritted his teeth violently, suddenly attacked, and slapped the leader, but the other party also reacted at this moment, raised his hand to block, and was beaten back two steps. The others were about to attack Yan Huan when the leading man shouted, "Retreat! Don't fight! It's the 'iron arm' Zhou Tong!"
As soon as the name came out, the people holding the swords and guns all looked here, all subconsciously took a step or two back, but subconsciously formed a small formation. Yan Huan looked at them, took a few steps to the side, and then walked towards Zhou Tong. The man in his forties had tears in his eyes: "Master, master... The disciple is guilty." He knelt down on the long street, knocked his head to the ground, and couldn't get up for a long time.
Zhou Tong frowned, he didn't know why this scene was at all, he had to take two steps and raised his hand to help Yan Huan up: "It doesn't have to be this way, although you and I are called master and apprentice, I have never taught you. What... what's going on here."
"They." Yan Huan pointed to the back and gritted his teeth, "They... arrested my family of thirty-nine, and threatened me to set this Green Forest Conference into a dead end. My... my eldest son has already been killed by them... Master. "
Zhou Tong fell silent, and he could see that the tears in Yan Huan's eyes were not for his son's death, but the guilt for betraying so many people. After a while, I heard the leading man over there speak first: "Senior Zhou, my master once talked about you, you don't come here for 'gathering' with these people, right?"
The other party's words were sonorous and powerful, and he obviously did not feel any guilt about what happened in front of him. Zhou Tong glanced at him and cupped his hands: "Your master, but Ning Liheng?"
"It's that person!" Yan Huan paused for a word, his eyes were blood red. After saying this, he suddenly took a step back, "Teacher, my family of thirty-nine members is still in the hands of the devil. Yan Huan is held by people. , take this wrong step, no matter how difficult it is to live between heaven and earth, let's take one step first!" After he finished saying this, he waved his palm and patted it on the top of his head. Only when he was in the air, Fu Lu took a step and waved his hand on his arm, dissipating his strength, and then grabbed his hand.
Zhou Tong's eyes were serious and he glanced at him: "Man stands tall, don't try to imitate this daughter's attitude, I have a relationship with Ning Liheng, let's go and see him." In the words, but not much can be heard. Happy and angry.
The leading man over there bowed his hands and led the crowd to the northeast of the county town. As they moved forward, they saw another group of people grabbing two people from the Green Forest. One of them was dragged in a fishing net and beaten with a stick, screaming and begging for mercy. Zhou Tong frowned and tilted his head slightly when he saw this scene.
Along the way, Zhou Tong also learned from Yan Huan's mouth what happened this evening. In fact, it is quite simple. The Green Forest Heroes Conference was held in the inn in the center of the county. The other party took Yan Huan's family, prepared kerosene and buried gunpowder in the venue. , the devil appeared and met everyone, and then they surrounded the venue and lit a fire. These people from the Green Forest knew the situation was close at hand. Some people rushed out desperately, and most of them were bombed and burned to death. At this time, only a small part of the people who ran out were searched.
When Yan Huan said this, his eyes were blood red. Zhou Tong just listened silently without speaking. After a while, he opened his mouth to the leading man in front of him and said, "Your name is Tian Donghan. If I remember correctly, I saw you once at the foot of Mount Tai."
The man turned his head back in surprise, then cupped his hands and nodded, "I saw Senior from a distance five years ago, but I can't think of Senior still remembering."
"Your master brought you out to see the world. He said that you took on his mantle, but it was a pity that you were too loyal, and I was afraid that I would suffer a loss. I was used as a nursing home, but instead I injured the landlord son... Your master passed away three years ago. , I thought at the time that he has a disciple like you." Zhou Tong said, "Why did you work for Ning Yi?"
That Tian Donghan thought for a moment, then walked away, and said solemnly: "Last year there was a famine, and the family had no money to buy food. My family... The old lady fell ill, and later died of starvation, and the woman also died. I took my two children all the way. He went to Beijing to beg and begged, and when he encountered an official from the Ning family who was cooking porridge, and he chose to protect the hospital, he went."
Zhou Tong nodded, and after a while, he said, "Why did you kill his son?"
Tian Donghan walked in front and tilted his head: "I don't know how many. I went to Ning's house last year. The former owner of my family married two girls, and they came to the house to make a scene again. His son killed a nurse and a maid. After he escaped, he said he was doing justice for the sky. The surnamed Yan also celebrated. My master came over and wanted to force him to submit, and he didn't want him to bargain with his son's life, so he first cut off his son's head in front of him, and then threatened him with his whole family's life."
Tian Donghan said here, and paused: "I also know that this is a bit inappropriate, but if I want to come... there is no other way."
Yan Huan clenched his fists tightly, trembling all over, and almost rushed up. Zhou Tong just followed and stopped talking. (...)