The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

With a loud "bang", a solid iron egg came roaring down with flames, illuminating the entire front camp as bright as day. Accompanied by a deafening bang, the entire earth was shaking!

A blazing fire immediately burst out from the front camp, followed by the cries of the White Lotus Sect members.

In front of the central army tent, the White Lotus leaders stood silently.

Shui Rong's eyes were red as he paced back and forth outside the central army tent. Suddenly he stopped and yelled hysterically, "Li Hu!"

A White Lotus leader couldn't help but say, "This is too much! Leader, let's fight him!"

As soon as these words came out, the White Lotus leaders started shouting:

"Yes, fight him!"

"The scar on his head is only the size of a bowl. I'll fight him."

Shui Rong yelled, “Shut up!”

It immediately became quiet.

Shui Rong snorted coldly. It was the last ten days of the lunar month, the moonlight was dim, and the vision was very poor. The White Lotus Sect members under his command were almost all peasants who were forced to come here, and many of them could not see clearly at night. This was not a siege, and the fire illuminated the entire battlefield. How could they fight in the pitch black?
All the White Lotus leaders looked at Shui Rong.

Shui Rong gritted his teeth and said, "He only has a bronze cannon. After firing once, he has to wait for the temperature to drop before firing the second time. If we let him fire, he won't be able to fire many times tonight. Just think of it as being bitten by a dog!"

A White Lotus leader hesitated for a moment and said, "It's really too scary. A shell can plow a deep trench several dozen steps long in the ground. If it touches you, you will either die or be seriously injured."

Another White Lotus leader said: "I don't know whose idea it was to change the direction after each shot. No one knows where the shell will land next. The brothers are all very nervous."

Another White Lotus leader said: "If we let them fight all night, they will either be scared to death or driven crazy."

Shui Rong rubbed his forehead and asked, "What do you think we should do? We can't give up the front camp, right?"

At this moment, a shell trailing a trail of fire whizzed towards the front camp.

Shui Rong and the other White Lotus leaders all changed their expressions, as the shell was not far from the central army camp.

A White Lotus leader started cursing: "Damn it! These crooked officials are going too far! Leader, I am willing to lead my brothers to attack the government army camp at night." Then he knelt down.

Another White Lotus leader knelt down: "I am willing too!"

"We are willing too!" All the White Lotus leaders knelt down together.

“good good”

Shui Rong was excited and said loudly: "Ten years of hard work have honed the sword, and now it is sharp. With a group of loyal people like you, why should we worry about not achieving hegemony?!"

The White Lotus leaders shouted in unison: "We are willing to serve our leader!"

Shui Rong personally helped one person up and said loudly: "Everyone, get up and talk!"

The White Lotus leaders stood up in a panic.

Shui Rong calmed down his excitement and said loudly: "Now that things have come to this, if I don't agree, it will seem inhumane and even cowardly. Let's go into the big tent and discuss it properly."

It was a dark and windy night tonight, and the big flags rustled in the wind.

The waning moon was covered by clouds, with only some twinkling stars.

Night blindness, commonly known as "night blindness", refers to the symptoms of unclear vision or complete inability to see anything and difficulty moving in dim light or at night.

Due to low productivity, ordinary people lived a hard life and many people were malnourished, which led to some people suffering from night blindness. However, it was not the case that the vast majority of people suffered from night blindness, otherwise there would not be so many examples of night battles in historical records.

Night battles are difficult to fight because the army is less organized and people have a natural fear of the dark, which can easily lead to chaos.

As for the soldiers holding torches in the TV drama, is that still a night raid?
This requires the assembly of a small number of elite troops to carry out night attacks under the guarantee of effective command and strict military discipline.

Five hundred elite soldiers were lined up in several rows in a majestic manner, but there was no sound at all.

These people did not go there to kill people, but to set fires and create a favorable battlefield for the army.

Li Hu's eyes kept shining as he looked at the soldiers waiting for orders: "I won't waste my words. If tonight's matter is done, each of you officers will be promoted one level, and each of you soldiers will get 100 taels of silver."

Everyone shouted in unison: "Yes!" Li Hu took out his pocket watch, took a look, and then waved his hand: "Let's go!"

Teams of soldiers carrying swords and guns ran out quickly and disappeared into the night.

Li Hu looked up at the waning moon covered by clouds and said, "Push out all the sub-cannons. When the signal is raised, fire all five sub-cannons to destroy the White Lotus Sect's frontal defenses."

After a pause, he said, "Push the bronze cannon forward another 500 steps, aim the muzzle toward the southwest, and fire after half an hour to blast a passage for them!"

The weeds in the fields and ditches had long been eaten by the disaster victims, and the sounds of insects had become less frequent.

The sparse chirping of insects suddenly stopped, and the place became abnormally quiet. The deserted fields were dark and empty, and against the backdrop of a few stars, they looked even more mysterious and dark.

I don’t know how long it was, but I heard a "crack", which was the sound of a dead branch being stepped on. It seemed unusually clear and harsh in the quiet night.

Then it fell into deathly silence again, and the air seemed to have frozen.

Gradually, the sounds of heavy breathing and swallowing saliva could be heard again in the darkness.

Finally, a voice came from the darkness: "Who? Come out!"

Before he finished his words, the sound of swords being drawn could be heard faintly in the darkness.

Suddenly, a spark of fire flashed.

Then a torch was lit.

The light from the torches revealed the White Lotus followers, each of them wrapped in a white scarf.

Then the torch was thrown out and landed on an open space in the distance, igniting the dead branches and leaves in the fields. The flames instantly illuminated the dark night sky.

The White Lotus Sect members were all stunned. Opposite them was a group of soldiers holding swords and guns tightly.

The silence lasted only a moment, and the officers and soldiers holding swords and guns immediately swarmed up and the two sides started fighting.

Long spears pierced chests and steel knives chopped off heads. Both sides guessed each other's intentions. The government troops wanted to keep all the White Lotus followers to prevent the news from leaking out, while the White Lotus followers wanted to rush out and inform Shui Rong, so they fought to the death, almost like crazy.

In a matter of seconds, the deserted fields were filled with corpses, and the newly lit fire gradually died out. As the White Lotus leader fell down with an unwilling look on his face, the surroundings fell into darkness again.

"Hurry up, it's taking up a lot of time!"

The artillery fire had long since ceased, and the fire in the front camp had been put out.

By the starlight, one could vaguely see that the area near the front camp gate was full of White Lotus Sect members.

Shui Rong was there too, wearing a helmet and armor, with a sword hanging from his waist. Even in the darkness, his eyes could still be seen flashing with excitement and nervousness! As long as they took over the high ground at night, they would open a path to the government army camp.

At this time, the extremely familiar sound of artillery sounded again, and a cannonball trailing a flame whizzed over the heads of Shui Rong and others and hit the southwest of the central army camp.

With a deafening roar, a blazing fire rose to the southwest!
A hint of doubt flashed across Shui Rong's eyes, but he didn't think much about it.

A gust of night wind blew by, clearing away all the floating clouds. The crescent moon came out, and its cold moonlight sprinkled on the earth, bringing a ray of light into the dark night.

Shui Rong was delighted, even God was on his side, he was sure to win this battle!

A White Lotus leader took out his pocket watch and looked at it, then said to Shui Rong, "Master, it's been a quarter of an hour, why is there still no movement?"

Before Shui Rong could speak, another White Lotus leader cried out, "It's on fire! The central army camp is on fire!"

Shui Rong looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the central army camp was indeed on fire. Someone set the fire? ! His mind suddenly exploded, and he suddenly realized that Li Hu was going to attack the camp! How dare he? The remnants of the Fifth Army Camp only had more than 20,000 people, and the Ruishi Camp only had more than 10,000 people. The cavalry was not there yet, so at most there were only 30,000 soldiers who could fight. How dare he? !
At this moment, three fireworks whizzed straight into the night sky, emitting brilliant flames above Shui Rong’s central army camp!

A sense of crisis came over him, and Shui Rong instantly tensed his muscles. He then shouted loudly, "Retreat, retreat to the rear camp!" As he spoke, he snatched the reins from the guard, mounted the horse, and whipped the horse hard, and the horse rushed forward like an arrow.

The warhorse rushed forward dozens of steps in an instant, and earth-shaking artillery sounds came from behind. Shui Rong looked back and saw shells with flames whistling towards him, illuminating the sky above the gate as bright as day. The sound of the explosion was accompanied by the miserable wails and cries of countless White Lotus followers.

These are the elite troops of the old camp!

Shui Rong's heart was bleeding, but he was powerless. The only thing he could do now was to escape, escape to the rear camp, integrate the army, retreat towards Hefei, and join forces with the detachment that was escorting the people of Hefei. (End of this chapter)