Dai Jianxiong, the general of the Green Battalion stationed in the north of the city, was not the first Qing general Deng Ming to see, but he was the first to lead people to the south of the city. General Dai didn't know a lot of words, and his name was later asked to help his master, and he was a simple-minded and fat martial artist. His ancestral home was Hangzhou, and after the Manchu Qing Dynasty destroyed the Hongguang regime and controlled the south of the Yangtze River, Dai Jianxiong joined the army to eat food, followed the Qing army to fight in the east and west for ten years, and accumulated merit and rose to guerrilla. After the Qing army invaded Yunnan and destroyed the Yongli regime in Kunming, the Green Battalion generals were all rewarded, and General Dai had just received the title of general for just over a month.

Although he has fought for so many years, no matter which commander he is under him, Dai Jianxiong is used as a fierce dog, and when he confronts the enemy head-on, this person also dares to rush forward and kill, but that's all. Now that there is no war around Kunming for the time being, Wu Sangui is in the city, so he asked Dai Jianxiong to lead his subordinates to camp outside the city. This is the greatest trust that Dai Jianxiong has gained over the years, and as for entrusting him with the important task of being in charge, it is something that any commander who is familiar with Dai Jianxiong will not consider.

Of course, the generals in high positions would never tell Dai Jianxiong about this, and he himself never realized it, but when he saw a colleague of similar status to himself being sent somewhere to be responsible for clearing and defeating the enemy, Dai Jianxiong would also feel a little lost in his heart. A few days ago, an inconspicuous colleague was sent to the no-man's land in Dongchuan to build a beacon tower, an errand that made Dai Jianxiong envious for a long time. After all, he is the ruling party, and the government is up to him, and his qualifications to wear a sword are so old, but he has never had this kind of opportunity to be at ease, and he will always listen to orders by the commander's side.

Today, after learning that Wu Dashuai had sent an order to "act cheaply" that he trusted him, Dai Jianxiong was so excited that his heart was about to jump out of his throat. He kept encouraging himself in his heart not to live up to the trust of the handsome. Although he was excited, Dai Jianxiong also noticed the outfits of those handsome guards - the handsome's henchmen were going into battle desperately, and when would he wait if his fierce dog didn't pounce on the enemy at this time?

In the middle of the night, Dai Jianxiong urged the soldiers to set off. When I arrived in the south of the city, by the light of the fire in the sky, I saw from a distance that a group of people seemed to be pulling out the camp and leaving in the haze, which was the first person to be notified by Deng Ming to surrender to the western camp.

When he saw Dai Jianxiong's troops coming, the officers of the Xiying knew that the Qing army was coming from the north, and they were even more angry: "Don't you just want us to go?" Why do we still send troops to urge, do we dare not go? ”

Although they felt that Wu Sangui was too deceitful, these Xiying troops did not dare to show their appearance, and they accelerated their retreat to show these Qing soldiers who were monitoring them, so as to completely reassure Kunming City.

But when Dai Jianxiong saw that these troops were leaving the camp at night, he immediately sent people forward to stop the questioning. Dai Jianxiong didn't think too much about it, he saw that the Xiying army was about to go south, thinking that they knew that they were defeated and wanted to flee; If he saw these troops approaching the city, he would have thought that they were planning to enter the city to respond, in short, these western thieves must have colluded with the rebels in the city. Even if the army is firmly maintained in the camp, maybe Dai Jianxiong will suspect that they are waiting for the opportunity - if they don't need to suppress these thieves themselves, then why did the marshal give him the order to "act cheaply"? If you don't beat them, you're simply sorry for the heart-warming trust of the handsome.

After hearing the report of the herald, saying that the Xiying army on the opposite side claimed to be pulling out the camp on the order of Wu Sangui, Dai Jianxiong suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed wildly, he had already heard Deng Ming say that Wu Sangui had ordered the Xiying to stay in the camp and not to move: "Shameless West thief, the marshal has long expected that you will be capricious!" That's right, isn't the order given by the marshal to "act cheap" just to control this situation?

After laughing wildly, Dai Jianxiong's face sank, and without hesitation, he pulled out his sword and shouted: "Kill!" ”

Some officers and guards tried to persuade them, but Dai Jianxiong analyzed them in a matter-of-fact manner: "The thieves in this camp are in a hurry to flee, and they are openly deceiving the generals, so there is no doubt that they are chaotic parties." Kill me! ”

After explaining the situation, the Xiying army on the opposite side continued to retreat in batches. Wu Sangui's order came in a hurry, and it was not easy to retreat at night, and when another group of troops began to evacuate, the Qing army that was monitoring next to him suddenly rushed over, cutting down people indiscriminately. Seeing this, the leader of the Xiying army was first stunned, and then infinitely sad and angry: "Tartar is going to drive us all away." ”

These generals of the western camp judged that they must have been deceived, and Wu Sangui first deceived himself out of the camp, and then the Qing army who was ambushed on the side of the road came up to kill people. Because of their pessimism and disappointment with the war situation, these officers and men of the Western Battalion felt that there was only a dead end to resist, and they had no choice but to surrender. But after surrendering, not only was he humiliated, but in the end it was still a dead end, without the slightest difference. The desperate Xiying soldiers felt that they had reached the last moment, and the shame, anger, and hatred of the Qing army that had been forcibly suppressed finally broke out together.

"Fight with the Tartars!"

After Dai Jianxiong took the lead in attacking, the attacked Xiying army quickly returned to Yan Sè, did not retreat, but advanced, and pounced on the Qing army - in the eyes of the Xiying generals, since Wu Sangui wanted to ambush him, he could probably not escape, and could only hold the idea of killing a Tartar.

The other two Qing army generals who followed Dai Jianxiong were also almost stunned, and when they saw that there was already a fight in front of them, one of them came up to help without saying a word. The other one was a little more cautious, first sent people to investigate the situation, and after learning that the western camp tried to escape, and then raided the officers and soldiers, he was also furious. Not to mention that the marshal gave himself the order to "act cheaply", even if he didn't give it, he couldn't stand on the side and watch the excitement.

Some of the other barracks that had surrendered to the West Camp had already prepared to retreat according to Wu Sangui's orders; Some are more cautious, and are still discussing how to deal with it, whether it is necessary to send an envoy to Kunming to show their loyalty, or even the general himself to go there in order to reassure Wu Sangui.

But suddenly heard the sound of shouting and killing, and several armies from the north besieged a battalion of the Western Army, whether it was the Western Army that wanted to retreat or the Western Army that was still hesitating, the whole battalion was in an uproar, thinking that this was an action arranged by Wu Sangui. Although he was still holding out hope before, he felt that the Qing army might not kill him, but now that Wu Sangui has made it clear that he wants to break his promise and start slaughtering the surrendered army, most of them will have no chance to escape tonight, and naturally none of these former Western troops are willing to sit idly by.

"If you surrender and don't give Lao Tzu a way to live, then no one will want to live!"

This is almost the thoughts of everyone up and down the Xiying army at this time. It should have been a dark night when you couldn't see your fingers, but the fire in Kunming City was burning brightly, under the reflection of this layer of firelight, soon the war drums sounded in all the Western army camps, and a large number of Western soldiers rushed out of the camp with shouts to reinforce the friendly army that was being besieged - fortunately, Wu Sangui gave some grain and grass in the past two days, and did not collect the weapons of the various armies, maybe he was trying to numb people's hearts. Anyway, I'm full today, and I still have guys in my hands, so let's kill this batch of Qing army rabbits first.

Not every Qing army general was the same as Dai Jianxiong's two hundred and five, and the Qing army general who had one camp did not rush out of the camp in a hurry, he just woke up most of the soldiers to keep them on guard, and made some deployment adjustments, and sent a small monitoring force to the south of the city. His understanding of Wu Sangui's "cheap act" order was to prevent Xiying from surrendering to Kunming and doing things harmful to Kunming.

But not long after, the south of the city suddenly shouted to kill, and the scouts sent there to monitor the movement of the surrendered army also rushed back to the camp, and the scouts rushed into the tent of the Chinese army with rolling and crawling, reporting that the 30,000 western battalion troops had been surrendered and were besieging the Qing army, and General Dai and others had been besieged and plunged into a bitter battle.

"The wolf's ambition is as expected!" The Qing general was shocked when he heard this. When he learned just now that Dai Jianxiong and several other generals directly led troops over, he still felt reckless, and he didn't want the thieves in Xiying to really have a connection with the rebel party in the city, so they all turned against him all at once. The general felt that his reaction was a little sluggish, and it seemed that he had betrayed Wu Sangui's trust, but fortunately there was still a chance to make amends.

Except for Zhao Liangdong's battalion, which did not act without authorization because the main general was not there, after the rest of the battalions in the north of the city were in a big uproar, the Qing army nest in the north of the city was dispatched and rushed to the south of the city.

……

In front of the grain depot, Hong Chengchou urged the soldiers to step forward. With the scale of the fire now, it is unsafe to do so without bulldozing the house, the outer wall of the warehouse and a street beyond the wall, and the ferocious fire will throw a lot of sparks and burning things into the air and fall into the warehouse, and if the fire is too close, it will quickly dry the water that has been splashed on the walls and the ground.

After the soldiers went to carry out the order, Hong Chengchou went to the grain depot to look at the water tank, which was indeed full of water. Some people by the well were talking lively, but they didn't mention water, and Hong Chengchou immediately rushed over and scolded him. The people at the well were all guards of the warehouse, and they didn't have much confidence in guarding the grain depot, but when they saw that Master Jingliu personally brought people over to inspect it, they no longer dared to mumble, and they rushed to the well and began to carry water with all their might.

"These minions, if you don't stare at it, you can't do it." Hong Chengchou scolded again, preparing to leave a few guards as overseers, so as not to be lazy and slippery with these warehouse guards.

But Hong Chengchou hadn't finished explaining, and the generals who were ordered to go to the front to supervise the work ran over angrily and shouted at Hong Chengchou: "Lord Jinglu, it's not good, the hundreds of soldiers outside have run away, and the last general can't stop him." ”

Although the fire has not yet reached the nearby house, the heat is already blowing in the face, and it feels like a furnace. Some soldiers rushed up to tear down the house and cleverly poured some cold water on themselves, but before they knocked down a wall, their clothes were dried, the roof and walls were also dried with water, the plaster and wood were already hot when touched by hand, and the paper on the windows could be seen to be burned and began to turn yellow, curling and burning.

Bulldozing the houses was only the first step in the order, and the soldiers then had to move the hot timber out of the way, or risk their lives to throw it into the wall of fire. But now many soldiers felt that their beards and clothes were hot, as if they were about to burn, and the surrounding area was so hot that there was nowhere to stay. Hong Chengchou didn't care about the lives of the soldiers, even if he fought to kill hundreds of people, he had to open up the isolation zone, but the soldiers themselves cared. They knew that in the hearts of the officials, the soldiers' lives were worthless compared to the granary, and now that the fire was already so dangerous, when the danger was heavier after a while, their own little life would not be saved.

A few bold soldiers peeked in and found that the guards who were monitoring them were separated by a distance - Hong Chengchou's guards were also horrified when they saw the fire in front of them, and the temperature in front was too high to stand, so the guards hid behind the wall, just shouted at the soldiers to come forward - the soldiers who were fighting the fire were united in their hearts, and they ran away regardless of the fire and quickly fled from the fire.

Since someone took the lead, the rest of the hundreds of soldiers also dispersed. After only a short delay, the wall of fire approached two more streets, and the soldiers behind the street threw down something and ran away desperately, hoping to run faster than the fire chasing after them.

Hong Chengchou was shocked when he heard the news, and hurried to the warehouse wall. By the time he arrived, the fire was so close that it was so bright that it was red in sight, and the paper on the houses across the street was already burning. The wall of the warehouse was only a few meters high, and it looked vulnerable in front of a wall of fire that was more than ten meters high. Even standing behind such a thick wall, Hong Chengchou could already feel the heat coming through, the wall was already hot, and the paint on it was crackling and peeling.

"Splash water!" Although the shape is extremely critical, Hong Chengchou still does not intend to give up. There are also a number of wells in the warehouse, and if you keep pumping water, you may be able to stop the heat from passing through the thick walls.

But before the shouting fell, the guards who stayed behind the warehouse also ran to report with sad faces, and after learning that the soldiers in front had run away, the warehouse guards who were responsible for carrying and transporting water also dispersed in a hurry. As soon as Hong Chengchou went to the front, the guards behind him shouted, and they all ran towards the warehouse wall further behind, and it was useless for the guards to chase after him. The guards scrambled to escape over the X wall, and just stopped one of them, the other had already crossed the wall; When you drag this one and then another one, the one in front of you gets up and climbs over the wall again. In the end, not only did the guards escape, but even many of Hong Chengchou's personal guards also fled over the wall together.

Hong Chengchou sent his subordinates to immediately call the surrounding teams to come to the warehouse to put out the fire, and although the subordinates agreed, they fled far away without looking back after leaving the warehouse. Hong Chengchou waited for a while, and at this time the fire had engulfed the houses outside the warehouse wall, and the tongue of fire began to lick the outer wall of the warehouse, and soon the corner of the wall near the fire wall gradually turned purple and red, and then turned into a big red sè......

Something scorching from mid-air began to fall and fell to the ground of the granary. Hong Chengchou, who was looking at Yù, had never been able to see the generals come with a large group of soldiers to put out the fire, and even the guards sent to check the movements outside had not returned.

"My lord, if you don't leave, it'll be too late." The last few guards around Hong Chengchou hugged his thighs and cried a handful of snot and tears.

"These minions don't take the emperor's unification cause to heart at all!" Hong Chengchou scolded in his heart, but he also knew that the grain depot was really hopeless.

Seeing Hong Chengchou nodding, these guards immediately lifted a bucket and splashed water on Hong Chengchou and themselves, and several people carried Hong Chengchou on their backs, and ran towards the back wall of the warehouse. First, they lifted the old man up and threw him over the wall, and when they turned out of the warehouse, they carried the old man on their backs, and a group of people rushed in the direction of the city wall.

……

After Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong learned of the mutiny outside the city, they hurried to the city. The two of them knew that Hong Chengchou had gone to supervise the firefighting, so they put down the section where the arsenal was on fire first, anxious to know what happened to the 80,000 army outside the city.

Hong Chengchou's order to the defenders of the city gate made Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong suspicious, and they felt that Lao Jingluo seemed to be hinting at something, but the two of them were still dizzy, there were many people who talked to them at the banquet yesterday, and both of them had an impression of the matter of Baoning Qianzong, but this impression was a little vague, and some words could not be remembered clearly. Although the guard that Wu Sangui sent to the arsenal last night never returned, and that Li Ming was nowhere to be found, Wu Sangui still didn't believe that someone who had the audacity would dare to coax him to his face and set fire to it with impunity. Before meeting him today, there was no way that Mr. Boryeong would know that he would have a chance to enter the arsenal, so it couldn't have been a premeditated arson.

After the mutiny outside the city, Wu Sangui trusted his feelings even more. If it was just a fire, it could be a sabotage by an individual. But now that the city is on fire, there will be a fierce battle outside, which gives Wu Sangui the feeling that it is a pre-planned conspiracy. Wu Sangui prefers to believe that this is a long-planned operation, which is easier to explain than the statement that President Boring Qian deliberately sabotaged the city, and even managed to sneak into the arsenal by unknown means. Regardless of whether they found Neiying or bribed the guards, the group succeeded in setting the fire and then signaled to the same party outside the city.

If that were the case, the problem would be serious. What is the purpose of the enemy? Is it a sneak attack, to seize Kunming, or is it preparing to attack yourself? Did Li Dingguo's army sneak near Kunming under the cover of surrendering troops? Wu Sangui's head was already hurting, but now this mess made him have a headache even worse.

Kunming was full of reliable troops inside the city, and more than 50,000 loyal Qing troops were stationed outside the city, which was enough to numerically overwhelm the more than 30,000 former Xiying troops in the south of the city. But as long as he has not clearly understood the scale of the enemy army and the scale of the rebellion, Wu Sangui cannot be completely reassured.

After leaving the house, Wu Sangui first wanted to rush to the city tower in the north - since it was the Xiying army that set off a rebellion and there was a battle outside the city, it must be the Xiying army attacking the camp of the Qing army.

But the guards reported that the battle was currently concentrated in the south of the city, and Wu Sangui was taken aback when he heard it, could it be that the Qing army launched a counterattack so soon and attacked in front of the rebel camp?

The closer they got to the south of the city, the more deafening the shouting and killing sound came from outside the city wall, and when Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong ran up the city wall in the south of the city, they saw that the firelight illuminated the ground in front of the city, and the boundless soldiers were fighting and fighting.

Wu Sangui couldn't wait to ask his entourage, "Who did it first?" ”

"I can't see it clearly, Dashuai." The guards of the city tower were unable to recognize Dai Jianxiong's banner because of the night, but it must have been the old Qing army in the north of the city, and he told Wu Sangui that the reason was that several groups of soldiers and horses came from the north and kept walking towards the army in the south of the city, and then there was a conflict.

"What did you say?" For a moment, Wu Sangui thought that this officer was talking nonsense: "You said that the army of the camp north of the city attacked the friendly army at night?" ”

"Yes, Sir." The guard officer of the city tower gave Wu Sangui an affirmative answer.