Outside the west gate, County Superintendent Zhang, Lord Yao and Li Danshi turned around and ran away without looking back.
Outside the north gate, Zhu Pingan squinted at the position of the sun, feeling that it was almost time, turned on his horse, steered his horse to the front of the group, waved his hand forwards, and shouted “Depart”.
Horses neighing and oxen screaming, the army started off, heading towards Taiping County.
This time, more than a hundred carriages were drafted, with an average of six people per carriage for the six hundred young men, everyone had a carriage to sit in. Having a car was different, the crowd marched much faster than on foot, and it didn’t take long to reach the territory of Tai Ping County.
After entering the territory of Tai Ping County, Zhu Pingan cautiously sent out fifteen scouts in groups of five to scout the first two miles. The terrain in this area was flat and easy to scout, even the untrained youths were competent.
After entering Tai Ping County, they did not encounter a single Japanese invader, perhaps because the Japanese invaders were about to pull out their camp at noon to head for Taizhou Prefecture, and the big and small leaders all restrained their Japanese invaders inside Tai Ping County, ready to pull out their camp at any time to depart.
“Fifty carriages in an arc at the front, fifty carriages in a zigzag formation at the back, and everyone advancing on foot in the centre.”
Travelling to about ten miles from Taiping County Town, Zhu Pingan rolled over and dismounted, raising his arm high and ordering the crowd.
This arrangement was to prevent the Japanese from attacking, and if the Japanese attacked, his side could also quickly shrink the wagons to form a semi-circular defensive wagon formation, using the wagons as a barrier, with the crowd defending within the wagon formation.
The crowd of youths were untrained, and with a simple order from Zhu Pingan, it took more than ten minutes for the crowd of youths to set up the formation.
“Everyone zoom in a bit, raise all the flags, beat all the war drums, don’t stop in the middle, and replace them when you get tired.”Zhu Pingan walked around the crowd and ordered loudly to them.
The crowd of young strong men stood spread out a bit as per Zhu Pingan’s order, and from a distance, the team looked like it had been inflated, growing more than twice as big all of a sudden. Those who didn’t know the bottom line thought that there were more than a thousand men.
The more than one hundred flags that had been rushed before departure were also raised by the crowd. Among them, there were three generals’ flags, six feet long, rectangular in shape, with a blue background and vermilion edges, painted with five-clawed dragons, respectively inscribed with “Jingnan”, “Lanshanwei”, “Thousand Military Guards”, “Jingnan”, “Lanshanwei”, and “Thousand Military Guards”.Jingnan” represents Jingnan County, and “Blue Mountain Guard” and “Thousand Bulls Guard” are the names of the two guards in the south. The rest of the flags were military flags, eight feet long and triangular in shape.
After more than a hundred flags were raised, the banners were fluttering in the wind, making them even more powerful, and the procession seemed to have doubled in size.
“Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum ……”
More than sixty cowhide drums were placed on the carriage, and more than sixty strong men holding drumsticks threw open their arms and beat the earth, the dust on the ground was shaken in all directions, and the sound of the drums could be heard for three miles in all directions.
The earth-shattering sound of the drums made the team twice as loud again.
“Dagang, take someone to cut some thick branches and tie them with ropes behind the fifty carriages at the back of the formation.”
Zhu Pingan said to Liu Dagang.
“As you wish.”
Liu Dagang answered and led his men away, nearby were the woods, Liu Dagang and his men quickly cut many branches and tied them to the carriages behind the temple.
In this way, as soon as the carriage went, dragging the branches behind it swinging from side to side, dust flew up at once.
“Forward!”
After everything was in place, Zhu Pingan ordered to move on.
In this manner, the procession moved forward towards Taiping County Town with banners fluttering, drums shaking the sky, and dust flying wildly!
This formation was like an army of a thousand horses.
When Zhu Pingan and his party were still three miles away from the county town, the Japanese pirates who were on guard on the city wall of Taiping County vaguely heard the thumping drums, stood up suspiciously and stretched their necks to look into the distance, and after about half a cup of tea, they could see from afar a large and powerful army coming towards the county town.
This army had brocade flags waving, the ranks were huge, and the dust stirred up by the army’s march was flying all over the sky.
This must be at least five or six thousand people.
“Report, there is a large army coming from outside the city, bearing three large flags, ‘Jingnan’, ‘Blue Mountain Guard’, and ‘Thousand Bulls Guard’, and even hundreds of brocade flags, the drums areshaking the sky and making a great noise, I am afraid that there are five or six thousand people.”
When the Japanese saw it, their faces changed greatly, the bowls in their hands were thrown away, and they rolled and crawled to report to the leader of the city, Honda Heihachi.
“What? Five or six thousand people?”
Honda Heihachi, who was kneeling and having his meal in the lobby of the Taiping County Office, heard the report of his men and also couldn’t help but change his face.
Although the Ming Dynasty’s army was weak, but if there were five or six thousand people, it was not something that could be dealt with easily.
Soon, only to stand up, Honda Heihachi vaguely heard the thud of war drums from outside the city came in.
“Baka! I’d like to see who has come to die?!”
Hearing the sound of drums, Honda Heihachi kicked away the table, drew his belt sword, and walked out in a murderous manner.
At the same time, the Japanese pirates inside the city who were burying their pots and pans all heard the thumping of the war drums and poked around in disbelief. Soon, the news that there were tens of thousands of troops coming from outside the city spread among the Japanese pirates.
As the meal was about to be cooked, the chief had orders to pull out of the camp after the meal to join the army in Taizhou Province. At this juncture, a large army came to their door! At that moment, the hearts of the Japanese were stirred.
“You drops, all of you, follow me up to the city wall, I would like to see which ungrateful one has come to send death to me!”
Honda Heihachi walked out of the prefectural office with his belt sword, pointed the tip of his sword at the Japanese pirates outside, and walked towards the city wall.
Soon Honda Heihachi led the crowd of Japanese pirates up to the city wall, standing on the wall and looking out, the large army outside the city was reflected in their eyes.
The army outside the city stopped at a place more than a mile away, in front of a row of chariots, in a semicircle, afraid to have more than a hundred, behind the car team spread for miles, banners, smoke and dust rolled, the team is very powerful.
This army in the middle of the flag on the book “Jingnan” two words, next to the two banners on the book “Blue Mountain Guard”, “Thousand Bulls Guard”, this “Jingnan” should be Jingnan County, “should be Jingnan County”, “should be Jingnan County”, “should be Jingnan County”, “should be Jingnan County”, “should be Jingnan County”, “should be Jingnan County”.This “Jingnan” should be the reinforcements of Jingnan County, this “Blue Mountain Guard” and “Thousand Bull Guard” are the two guards of Jinhua Prefecture close to Jingnan County, and the guards of Jinhua Prefecture even cross the border to send troops?
Honda Heihachi stood on the city wall, looked at this mixed army from afar, according to the flag and the scale of the team, roughly estimated that this army does not have three to five thousand people, one to two thousand people still have.
Not only that, Honda Heihachi also noticed in this army behind the hundreds of metres away in the woods, tree shadows swaying, dusty, secretly think in this forest is afraid of hiding a sizeable army.
This cunning Ming army, if I lead the army to attack, the ambush in the woods will take advantage of the opportunity to kill out, kill me by surprise …….Honda Heihachi narrowed his eyes and couldn’t help but think of the figure on the wall of Jingnan City, dressed in official uniform and standing tall.
Unbeknownst to the woods, more than a dozen young strong men pulled the branches of the trees and ran joyfully.
