Before Deng Ming went to Tan Hong's camp, everyone agreed that if they could lure Tan Hong out of the camp, they would choose to fight here. The rocks in front of this bay obscured the view, which could interfere with the command of the pursuers, and blocked the narrow road with dozens of spearmen, and the moon-shaped bay could also provide good cover for the archers deployed on the other side. There are a few other places like this that are suitable for defense, but the distance from Tan Hong's camp is the most suitable. In a word: if the other side is prepared, the terrain here determines that whoever attacks along the river bank is at a disadvantage.

The sharp arrows that broke through the air immediately knocked down the first few enemy soldiers who were chasing after them, and the pursuers behind them were all bitter when they saw the formation in front of them. But behind him was a long column, and the soldiers waiting to receive the reward behind pushed the people, constantly crowding forward, and the people in front could not retreat, but only stubbornly walked forward.

In the more than an hour of waiting for Deng Ming and Zhao Tianba to come back, Li Xinghan was not idle, since he decided to hold on to this place, he not only widened the widest section of the road to allow more of his own people to stand, but also raised the ground under his feet a little to gain a condescending advantage. As for the small piece of road in front of the defensive position, Li Xinghan very cunningly removed a layer of dirt and replaced it with a few moss-covered rocks.

It's not that Li Xinghan had been fighting in defense before, but when he was waiting for Deng Ming to come back, the anxious Li Xinghan kept wandering on the shore, slipped under his feet and fell on his head, and after getting up dizzily, he hated the moss Li Xinghan was determined to let the enemy suffer the same big loss. When inspecting, it was found that it was indeed very slippery, Li Xinghan almost fell into the water again, in order to facilitate Deng Mingtong guò, they also spread some branches on it, and after they passed the guò, Li Xinghan's people quickly withdrew it, and there was a quick hand and foot to rush to splash some river water before the enemy arrived.

The vanguard of the Qing army, which was pushed forward, had a rock wall that was difficult to climb on one side, the water surface of the river bay on the other, and at least two Ming troops on the front. Li Xinghan led his men to easily defeat one enemy after another who were pushed up, and many of them were not knocked down by them at all, but were constantly pushed by the people behind them, slipped and fell to the ground, and were slashed and stabbed by the Ming army's sword and never stood up again.

Zhao Tianba took the bow and arrow from the hand of a shè hand, stood on the shore and aimed at the shè attack unhurriedly, and the enemy army on the opposite side was only separated by a not wide water surface, but it could be aimed completely without threat, Zhao Tianba hit the vital point of an enemy soldier and killed him directly, which made the officers and soldiers of the Tan Wen Department next to him couldn't help but show admiration.

Deng Ming's breathing was fixed, and he also took two steps forward to watch the battle. Seeing that Deng Ming had arrived in the front row, Zhao Tianba hurriedly stopped striking and pulled him: "How did His Highness come up?" What if a stray arrow and a stone bruises His Highness? ”

While speaking, Zhao Tianba came to push Deng Ming and wanted to drag him behind the soldiers. But Deng Ming struggled and refused to retreat. First of all, Deng Ming thinks that Zhao Tianba is too involved in the play, he is not Han Shizi or any other clan at all, Deng Ming is very strange how Zhao Tianba now behaves as if he is real, and has such a strong sense of responsibility for his own safety; Secondly, Deng Ming felt that since he had to pretend to be a clan, he had to show courage and play his due role, and Deng Ming believed that taking the arrow stone could undoubtedly greatly boost the fighting spirit of the soldiers.

"Everyone is fighting, how can I retreat?" Deng Ming shook off Zhao Tianba and the other two Ming troops who came to pull him, and said loudly: "I don't know how to use weapons, I can't go into battle with everyone to kill the enemy, standing here is the only thing I can do, how can I retreat to the back?" ”

What Deng Ming said was what he said in his heart, but the people around him were extremely moved when he heard it, and Zhao Tianba said in a loud voice after being agitated: "Your Highness is too modest, Your Highness just doesn't practice martial arts." ”

This is not Zhao Tianba's flattery, according to his observation, Deng Ming's health is good, and he is a head taller than ordinary people - modern people have more comprehensive nutrition, of course, they are better developed than ancient people who are hungry and full, but Zhao Tianba feels that Deng Ming is quite lacking in exercise, and he is not too strong without a body.

In the eyes of the people around him, it is normal for the children of the clan to have not learned the skills of combat, and it is commendable that Deng Ming dares to stand on the front line, but Deng Ming feels that he is being underestimated, he stretched out his hand to Zhao Tianba to ask for a bow and arrow, and he has to fight side by side with the surrounding soldiers.

Deng Ming's actions caused a lot of admiration around him, and in the admiring eyes of the people around him, Zhao Tianba handed the bow and arrow to Deng Ming with an obvious respect, and when Deng Ming raised the bow and arrow, the archers who were fighting couldn't help but pay attention to his martial arts with their spare eyes.

"Due to the effect of gravity, like cannonballs and bullets, the trajectory of an arrow is also a parabola." Deng Ming silently recited what he had learned in his heart, and after opening his bow vigorously, he speculated on the approximate trajectory of this parabola, picked up the arrow upward, and then loosened the string.

But the arrow that flew out did not draw the trajectory of the parabola that Shè had imagined, and Deng Ming watched as it flew straight over the rock wall more than three people high on the opposite side, and disappeared into the trees in the distance in a flash—it was completely a cannon in the sky.

Several Ming soldiers around had already opened their mouths, intending to cheer loudly as soon as they saw Deng Ming hit the enemy soldiers, but seeing that this arrow was so outrageous, they had to swallow the sentence "His Highness God shè" back into their stomachs.

More enemy soldiers were pushed around the corner by the people behind, they couldn't see Li Xinghan's battle queue in front, but they could see the bows and arrows coming from the side, and the soldiers of Tan Hongbu, who were completely in a state of being beaten and unable to fight back, pushed the people in front of them with more force, hoping that the front row would do their best to break through the enemy's defenses and drive away the archers who were close in front of them. Some people couldn't stand the feathered arrows flying over, so they simply jumped off the river, raised their weapons above their heads, and tried to swim across the water to attack the Ming troops who released the arrows.

But Jiangwan was far more difficult to understand than these reckless soldiers imagined, and they were the best targets for the Ming army as they struggled to advance with their weapons held high, while they had to fight hard against the icy river. The soldier who had gone the farthest had not yet reached the center of the bay, and before he could decide whether to retreat or start swimming, his feet slipped and the current swept out of the bay, and he was swept to the surface of the river to carry a floating load.

Until this time, Tan Hong, who was behind the rock, still didn't know what was going on in front of him, and when he heard the first sound of the bow and arrow breaking through the air, Tan Hong shouted angrily: "Who is releasing the arrow?" Didn't I strictly prohibit the release of arrows, and they had to be caught alive? ”

In order to ensure the capture of the living prince of Han Wang, Tan Hong passed down an order before departure, prohibiting the soldiers in the front team and a few cavalry in the vanguard from carrying bows and arrows.

After following the flow of people for a while, he heard the increasingly fierce killing cries coming from behind the mountain rocks, and saw the corpses of Qing soldiers being washed down from the upstream by the river, Tan Hong realized that his troops had encountered strong resistance, but at this time he was not sure whether it was an ambush or the other party's trapped beasts.

After the vanguard came to a standstill because of the battle, Tan Hong's entire queue immediately stopped. He was eager to know what was going on in front of him, but the people in front couldn't retreat but were pushed forward, and Tan Hong's personal guards were also blocked by this large group of soldiers, unable to squeeze forward to find out the battle situation.

It took a long time for Tan Hong's guards to finally squeeze to the front a little bit and grabbed a front-row general to ask about what was happening behind Shanyan.

"Are there less than a hundred people on the other side?" After Tan Hong learned about the approximate strength of the opposite side, he frowned and thought about it. It was not that he had not considered the problem of ambushes, but he estimated that the Ming army's rout was only a few hundred at most, and most of the Ming soldiers had already lost their weapons in the process of escaping, so this kind of combat effectiveness did not pose a threat to Tan Hong's 1,600 army equipped with Jīng Liang.

"Probably the guards of Han Wangfu," the pro-soldier who went up to reconnoiter the situation squeezed forward with great effort, and it took even more effort to squeeze back to Tan Hong's side, and reported to Tan Hong all the information he had and the estimates of the front-line officers: "The front row has been resisted, it seems that there has been no progress, it is estimated that there must be pikemen and the like on the opposite side, and there are quite a few of them, at least a dozen guns, and at least a dozen bows." ”

"This should be the guard of the Han Wangfu," Tan Hong also made a similar judgment, he did not think that the hundreds of defeated soldiers could be organized by the Han Wangzi. Even if there were a few hundred routed soldiers, they probably wouldn't be able to retain so many weapons and combat-ready soldiers: "They are cornered, and they are only using this bay to make a last resistance." ”

Since he had been pursuing for so long, Tan Hong was of course unwilling to retreat at the last moment, and he was not willing to hold nearly two thousand troops in his hands, and he only saw dozens, maybe hundreds, of enemy soldiers and admitted defeat, and immediately turned around and turned back to the battalion. Tan Hong felt that he had found signs of the other party's dying struggle, and that the enemy's last struggle was nothing more than that, so he immediately ordered a guard officer to go up the mountain with 400 soldiers, detour back to the rear of this Ming position, and attack this group of Ming troops from the front and rear.

Tan Hong ordered: "You guys should be fast in your outflanking movements, move forward at full speed, don't wait until it gets dark to let Han Shizi escape!" ”

When the Qing army began to try to make a detour, Deng Ming pulled the bowstring for the third time.

"Arm and bow a little distance......" Zhao Tianba stood next to Deng Ming, explaining to him the essentials of using a bow and arrow. The enemies who poured up did not have time to fight back, and the Ming army calmly dealt with them. Deng Ming already knew that the left hand holding the bow should form an angle with the surface where the bow is located, otherwise the string will hit the arm when it bounces back, which is really painful.

......According to Zhao Tianba, the arrow flies in a straight line, so when aiming at the target, you should use the arrow shaft to aim at the target. Deng Ming didn't understand why there was gravity but the orbit of the arrow was not a parabola, but there was nothing to argue with a god like Zhao Tianba, Deng Ming did as he said, although there was still no one in the crowd, but at least it would not fly over the head of the crowd a few meters high.

Zhao Tianba said while reaching out to help Deng Ming adjust the bow and arrows, although he said it very clearly the first few times, but Deng Ming was still empty, so this time Zhao Tianba simply stood behind the side to help Deng Ming aim.

Deng Ming saw that his arrow was aimed at an enemy soldier who was staggering forward in a crowded line, and he could see the restless expression on the face of this enemy soldier, who was pushing his companion forward while looking nervously at Deng Ming's side, and looked at the Ming archer's eyes full of nervousness.

However, the soldier's eyes were not on Deng Ming, and before he found out that Deng Ming had aimed at him, Zhao Tianba had already shouted softly from behind: "Release!" ”

At the same time as hearing this, Deng Ming felt that the hand holding the end of the arrow shaft for himself was released, his fingers were also loosened, the bowstring made a soft "bang" sound, and the feather arrow also came out.

This arrow didn't kill people as immediately as Zhao Tianba did—after all, Zhao Tianba didn't aim as well as his own arrow, but it also hit the target accurately.

"His Highness God shè!"

The surrounding Ming soldiers who had been paying attention to Deng Ming's movements let out a chorus of cheers, and the other archers of the Ming army immediately realized that Deng Ming had achieved a victory, and they followed with a second wave of cheers:

"His Highness God shè!"

Zhao Tianba was also very excited when he saw the target's arrow under the ribs, and he was the first to cheer. Xiying has been cooperating with the Ming Court for a long time, and needless to say, the Son of Yongli Tianba, Zhao Tianba witnessed that the other sect disciples under the protection of Xiying were also far away from the battlefield and hiding in the safe rear. Even if they are civilian officials sent to the army by the imperial court, they can commit suicide and martyrdom when the city is broken, but they will not go to the city to kill the enemy.

In the past, Zhao Tianba's concern for Deng Ming came from Yuan Zongdi's orders, and he knew that this person might be very important to the imperial court, and it was his responsibility to protect Deng Ming. But when Zhao Tianba saw that Deng Ming dared to risk arrows at the moment of life and death, and saw him achieve battle results, he felt a wave of respect surging up from his chest: "What a great sect disciple, a noble man of the Heavenly Family who is willing to kill the enemy side by side with us who are soldiers, maybe King Jin will also appreciate his bravery, right?" ”

Just now, Li Xinghan had already discovered that Deng Ming was bending his bow and arrows in the distance, and the cheers reached his ears, giving him a lot of encouragement - there had never been such a big man willing to venture to the front line, and Li Xinghan had never seen or heard of it. This kind of courage only existed at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and later there was an emperor Wuzong who went to the battlefield, and it has not been heard of for more than 100 years.

After learning that Deng Ming had achieved the results, Li Xinghan was immediately enthusiastic, and the children of the clan who he helped to protect did not stay behind and watch the success or failure, but were also not afraid of dying and killing the enemy. At this time, the sword in Li Xinghan's hand was already drenched in blood, he shouted loudly, cut down a soldier who rushed forward, and then shouted to his subordinates around him: "Your Highness is watching us kill thieves, brothers work hard to kill thieves, don't let Your Highness down!" ”

While everyone was cheering for Deng Ming, he himself was silently watching his target. The moment the Qing soldier was hit by the arrow, an expression of surprise appeared on his face, and then he shook his body, fell out of the ranks with that incredible look, and tumbled into the river next to him.

Deng Ming had been looking at this person he had hurt with his own hands in a complicated mood, and the expression on the face of the enemy soldier gave Deng Ming no more than pain but surprise, as if he couldn't believe that he had been fatally injured. The enemy soldier struggled desperately in the water for a long time with this expression, and always wanted to climb back to shore from the water.

However, the soldier's move was unsuccessful, Deng Ming saw that bright red sè continued to rise from the water next to the person he had injured, and the soldier's struggling movements became slower and slower, and finally gradually stopped, his body turned over, and he lay on his back in the water, his eyes wide open, and his face was still a mixture of surprise and bewilderment, as if the soldier had not accepted the fact that he had been wounded and was dying until his death.

"I killed a person," Deng Ming silently thought in his heart, nearly a hundred soldiers on the battlefield cheered for his bravery, Deng Ming saw a Ming soldier not far away who was so excited that he seemed to be in tears: "It is said that war is the most upside-down right and wrong, I brutally killed a person, a fellow species, and watched him die in a painful struggle." Normally this kind of behavior is spurned and hated by those around me, and will be punished, but in the war, they think that I have done a good job, and they watch with me what kind of great pain this person swallowed, and they are excited about it. ”

Deng Ming raised his head, Li Xinghan on the opposite side was shouting a fierce battle, and the Ming archers around him were constantly hitting the enemy army on the opposite side, and suddenly, Deng Ming's fantasy that had always existed in his heart seemed to pass away with the life of his first victim. At this moment, Deng Ming felt that the carefree student life of his peacetime ten days ago had gone and become unusually distant, but the life-and-death battle in front of him had become extremely real - this kind of life had always made Deng Ming feel like a dream.

"I'll never go back." The thought came to Deng Ming's mind that when he finally accepted that war was a part of real life, and the most important part, the student life in peacetime in turn became like a dream.

The roundabout troops sent out by Tan Hong had already entered the woods and began to climb the mountain diligently, intending to go around to the rear of the Ming army's position. After they had traveled a mile or so up the mountain, the silence in the woods was broken by a loud arrow.

After hearing the shrill whistle of the arrow, Deng Ming looked in that direction. According to the agreement of the officers before the war, the Ming army hidden in the woods would send this jǐng signal once they discovered that the Qing soldiers under Tan Hong's department had begun to make a detour into the mountains. At the same time, it triggers a series of reactions.

The first whistle was not over, but a second whistle sounded in the distance, followed by another sound a mile away.

Farther west, a Ming soldier hidden in the woods checked the bamboo whistle tied to the shaft of the arrow one last time, and gently blew on it, and after hearing the unambiguous whistle, the soldier opened his bow with all his might, and with all his strength shhe shè the arrow into the air, and suddenly another loud whistle rose into the air.