Chapter 91 0091

When the Jiang Fang Army left the West Camp, the sky was already weeping, but the rain was not heavy.What's worse is that the road from the county seat to Yanshi is covered with black silt and red clay, which turns into mud with a little rain.As soon as those muddy horses trampled ahead, they became more sticky and became a trap. The sky was so gloomy that the sound of drums could not penetrate the low-pressure stratus clouds. With a big mouth, it swallowed up those passing teams. It's not just the Commander Snub Nose who has this addiction, almost all Beiyang generals like to show off their military power by going to war; what Snub Nose is most proud of is the brilliant achievements of his army on the field.Jiang Fangjun passed the Yangqiao on the Grand Canal in the drizzle of cigarette smoke, and the division commander Snub Nose half-lyed on the special high-backed chair on the tower, squinting and watching.Yes, the military might is really awesome.After intensive feeding in the spring, the horses became fatter. Before departure, the long manes and short curly hairs of the horses and the whole body of the horses were combed and washed, and they were shiny in the gray sky, except for the horsemen who were hunched The waist makes the horse look more robust and majestic, and the round hips are wider than the door panel, shaking and connecting into small waves.There are always about two hundred horses in this group, spread out in a row, at least half a mile wide, there is no need to catch fire, and it is enough to look at them just by showing off their posture.The cavalry is considered to be the pioneer, and behind this are three five-color military flags with yellow tassels, half-fluttering and half-hanging, leading them silently. Behind the military flags is a German-style military band, whining and blaring. The drum was beating loudly, and the sound was so loud that one felt a little dizzy after drinking half a pot of old wine in one go.

"Look, it's grandma is really a big army!" Mr. Snub Nose said to his left and right: "Maybe let those earth toads in the well in the salt market listen to it... Maybe some guys have never heard of this since they were born." Drum horn!" "They only know how to brag!" said the friendly chief of staff, leaning forward, with his hands on his knees, like a rooster soaked in rain: "I don't believe it, I don't believe this bull knife can't kill A chicken." His protruding throat twitched and he swallowed. There was a rumbling sound from the bridge deck, and the artillery team moved over. Several small mountain cannons covered with iron wheels pulled by strong mules trembled, as if suffering from malaria.The infantrymen walked neatly, still walking with the horseshoe steps they are accustomed to walking on the field, gray hard helmets, square backpacks with hard cases, white towels dancing with their buttocks, and guns hanging upside down on their shoulders Branches are enough to satisfy Mr. Flat Nose.

"Fight hard, brothers!" Master Snub Nose squeezed his breathless voice and shouted down: "Rush away from the salt market, I have always been willing to give out rewards!" "Go to your mother's old ×!" Someone in the team muttered: "This kind of rainy day will make the old women wronged, and the bad stars will shine on you for eight lifetimes!" Such a curse spreads gently in Liezi, forming many cold rains A small flame of unquenchable hatred burned on some indifferent faces.With their backs to the city tower, they passed through the round holes of the city gate like a passageway, walked across the rain-locked foreign bridge, and walked into the lead-colored field.

The rain and fog blocked people's vision, and it was wet everywhere, even people's hearts were wet, and water could be squeezed out; guns collided everywhere, and the mud was biting like hungry catfish. Wearing a man's heel. "Oh, the third company, the third company, the third company?" The soldiers who fell behind ran over shouting all the way, and after a while, they ran back shouting all the way.The horses trudged through the mud, neighing incessantly.More people strayed from the line, stretched their necks in the gray rain and fog, bumped around, and when they came out of the gap in the mound, the line left the road and walked wildly like an unfolded fan, and the field became a trap. A man slipped and fell behind, splashing mud and causing a moan.Bingyong, who had fallen behind in the third company, shouted all the way over again, but an old guy grabbed his arm and said, "You silly bird! Why are you howling? What company do you care about? Close your eyes and look at it in the human nest." Just go forward, if you win, you will have a share in the reward, if you lose, it will be more slippery to go alone!"

"You messed it up, second brother." The man said: "You are really a stupid bird--you go on a errand alone, and let the people of the four villages seize you. They will peel off as many layers of skin as you have!" "Hey, follow up, follow up!" Someone chirped at the front, but the line was getting further and further away. Even if they wanted to follow up, a group of people's faces were piled up in a pile of courage, but the straw sandals under their feet couldn't move. Willing to help, he pulled out the loop belt in three steps and two steps. The knot couldn't be tied, and he couldn't bear to throw it away, so he had to tie a pair of broken straw sandals together and hang them on the gun ring, like two dripping braised straw sandals. salted fish.

Fog and rain sealed the sky and made the world in people's eyes so narrow, damp, gloomy and miserable; every veteran of the Beiyang army has many blind traditional superstitions, especially loves to be suspicious before going to war , the team has not yet opened the camp, and it has already caused panic and panic.Some guys come to blind fortune-tellers to tell fortune and fleeting years, some seek ghosts from wandering witches, some believe in orioles who can draw cards, and some buy incense and candles and go to nearby ancient temples to throw divinations and ask for lots. ...Are you saying that you are afraid of death and greedy for life?It's not necessarily true, living on the board, standing on the night guard, walking long distances, suffering from hunger and cold, often looking forward to being shot in the war one day, braided and pulled down, no longer suffering from this foreign bear, pushed forward like a donkey. He was dawdling, but when the news of the war came, the shadow of death was pressing on his eyebrows, and he was a little unwilling to mention death, so he gave the bones of the dead to those generals to beat the drums?Just buried in a foreign country so desolately?There is resentment and injustice in the sadness!Both are human beings, and the same are born of parents, mothers and fathers, not kneaded clay figurines, carved puppets, always persist in half-despair, curse, always hope that Sun Chuanfang and the flat-nosed gang will be seen in the eyes of people. Retribution!Who knows?The sub-gun can never hit the handsome general who hugs his wife and smokes opium, and "sitting in town" behind... The rain is falling like this, and the front row and the rear row are also separated by rain and fog. No one can see anyone, and no one can help anyone. , everyone felt so alone and helpless, trapped in their own tragic fate in different ways.

Everyone knows that the moment before the war is the most difficult. Many scattered and painful thoughts will come from the distant time and space, from the retrospective, from the bitter memories, from the dreams that are often cut off by the morning call, one by one. Floating back, swinging back, a swarm of ghost ants (a large red ant that is good at biting, commonly known as ghost ants) seems to be biting people's hearts; There is a lot of weight among them, and everyone believes that the fog and rain before the war was not rain, but tears shed by God, for those kind and innocent people in the salt market, and for the group of people who were dying and looking at Taiping. Poor brethren at home.

"How many miles to the front line?" "Hurry up." There was no one in the fog, and there was only a mocking voice: "The dirt mound in front of you is the bank of the old Yellow River, where Duck Daner broke the pot when he attacked Yanshi; if you want to If you see the bloodletting earlier, you should go ahead and advance to the city of death, so that the mother can grab a good berth first." "Hey hey hey," one laughed like a howling owl: "I don't care if there is a shop or not, I just know that the sloppy soup prepared by Yan Laoxi is good or bad--go first to drink the watery ones, and to go later Drink thick ones. My mother will wait for you to die before you die, and I will never grab the thin soup on the bowl of noodles."

"It's a dead end, so there's no priority? Grandma's. I think this fire is serious, and there are no good signs." Another hoarse and forked voice said in the back: "If you don't believe me, just watch , it's so miserable!" The motley squad of infantry walked across the field, leaving scattered and sunken footprints.A few sobbing trumpets sounded in the mist ahead of them.Until the infantry team turned over the ridge, the artillery team was still struggling in the mud. Although a few small mountain guns never hit the target during the drill, the artillery team was useless, but whenever the battle was about to start, the flat nose would definitely put it on the ground. It was dragged out to show up, and its flat nose was the most foreign. I always thought that a foreign thing like a small mountain cannon, as long as it was dragged to the front of the line of fire and bombarded it a few times, it would not be accurate. The Trojan Horse in the soil, who had never seen the world, was so frightened that his head was dizzy, and he couldn't tell east, west, north, south with his eyes open.Because of this, the artillery team suffered a lot.The black silt and red clay, after being soaked by the rain, are like a pot of paste, biting the iron wheel tightly, forming mud cakes on the side of the wheel, and the mules dragging the cannon struggled forward. However, the mud on the ground was deep and slippery, and their four hooves could not get any strength at all. Even if they were not ordered to be whipped, they could only whine with incompetence.The artillery cart was dragged up the slope, and the mules were working hard in vain as if they had been restrained, their hooves could not slide, forcing the artillerymen to step in one after another, helping to turn the iron wheel, one by one, hey, hey, high up. He squinted his buttocks and put all his efforts on his frowning eyebrows, bulging eyes and grinning mouth, but that kind of effort did not help the mules. One cannon slipped all the way and rolled under the grass ditch up.

"What an iron general who ran away!" the gunner of the gun jokingly said: "It insists on sleeping in the grass ditch, so we will end up with it as a 'no gun'." The trumpet sounded here and there, and all the companies were looking for people. The rain, fog and mud made the scattered teams lose their organization and contact. In the chaos, I don't know which squad is which row?In any case, groups of three or five can be gathered together; the cavalry entered the South Camp to assemble, and many infantry companies huddled in the small street outside the camp to shelter from the rain. No human voice was heard either. ... This kind of abnormal silence before the battle is the most frightening. Even veterans who have experienced battles are a little frightened, let alone the Jiang Fangjun who have never fought a tough battle? !