The rise of the prince

Chapter 266 Entering Luzhou + Golden Flag with Yellow Background

Luzhou is located in a plain, with open areas around the city. The area near Suzhou in the south is densely covered with water and mountains. To the north, the river network gradually decreases.

There are three prefectures and twelve counties under Jiannan Road, which is the largest road set up by Jingguo. A large number of frontier troops are hoarded to guard against the Baiyi and Dali kingdoms in the southwest. Dali is a small country with few people, and the people are peaceful and happy. He is gentle and slow, and will not take the initiative to provoke a war.

But Baiyi is different. The so-called troublesome people in poor mountains and rivers probably refers to the Baiyi country. The harsh and humid climate, the geographical conditions of many mountains and few lands make it difficult for them to cultivate and live in peace, so they are warlike by nature and act barbarously. Uncivilized people have brought huge troubles to Jingguojian South Road for decades.

On the morning of the ninth day of the march, thousands of soldiers from the Shenji Battalion had quietly arrived in the woods fifty miles outside Luzhou City.

From a distance, the city of Luzhou on the other side of the horizon looks like black mountains protruding from the wilderness. , inexplicably desolate.

The people were quietly lurking in the woods, and the horses were grazing quietly. The good weather in the early spring helped a lot, so that so many of them crowded in the woods would not be too hot and uncomfortable, and they didn't fall ill on a large scale because they didn't adapt to the climate. Well, if summer comes, so many of them northerners will definitely not be able to stand the humidity and heat in the south and get sick.

The scouts have been dispatched to investigate the situation around Luzhou City.

Li Xingzhou's plan was very simple. He entered Luzhou City, rescued his sister-in-law, and then returned the same way when the rebels in Suzhou didn't react.

At first, he really planned to enter Suzhou directly from the south of Luzhou, taking a shortcut so that he could go back faster, but he learned from Wang Lun that Ding Yi had transferred the main force of Suzhou to Linyang, an important town in the north of Ansu Prefecture, and was always ready to attack Luzhou. With a shot, the road going south from Luzhou was completely blocked.

He got a detailed map from Yang Hongzhao, which clearly marked Linyang County as the northern gateway of Suzhou. The county is narrow and small, but the city walls are tight and higher than Suzhou City.

Lin Yang is the biggest obstacle. If there are no more than a few hundred defenders in a county, Li Xingzhou has the confidence to pass through. However, if Ding Yi hoards tens of thousands of troops there, it is completely impossible to break through. Can only go back the same way.

After a while, several scouts came back and reported the information they got one by one: "My lord, the surrounding villages are almost empty, only some old, weak, sick and disabled. The gate of Luzhou city is closed. I have asked someone to inquire about it. The city only opens for half an hour at noon."

"Have you found out the location of the Prince Consort's Mansion?" Li Xingzhou asked.

The scout on the far left hastily clasped his fists and reported: "Your subordinate has asked. It's in the deep alley in the west of the city. Go to the city and cross the bridge and turn left to the end."

"Very good!" Li Xingzhou stood up and called Di Zhi.

"Order the whole army to eat some dry food and load up good bullets. Once the gate of the city opens at noon, follow me in and go directly to the son-in-law's mansion. Anyone who stands in the way along the way will be killed." He is not sure what the magistrate of Luzhou's attitude towards the court is now, You can't take the risk of persuading the city officials to let it go, it's safest to rush in.

Di Zhi nodded, and then went down to deliver orders, and the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion were all nervously getting ready.

Half an hour later, the team began to get closer. The surrounding area of ​​Luzhou City was too flat, and the view above the city was wide. Their team was huge, with more than 1000 people and [-] horses. It was absolutely impossible to approach Luzhou City secretly. It was Li Xingzhou's plan to shoot and kill the defenders at the top of the city with Suifa guns and storm into the city.

Now that he can't control so much, and it's not a woman's benevolence, if he kills by mistake, he should be killed by mistake. One wrong step, more than a thousand of them may be buried in this isolated and helpless place, he dare not take that risk risks of.

Li Xingzhou led the crowd, relying on his previous life experience, tried his best to use the cover of the villages outside the city to get close to the city wall. Most of the surrounding villages were dilapidated and deserted. Just as the scouts reported, there were only a few skinny people with numb eyes lying in the middle of the road, as if they had lost their desire to live .
There are also hungry and skinny people leaning on the old trees by the roadside, and the bark of the roots has been gnawed off. Some people muttered something in a low voice, "The Universal Immortal, with boundless magic power, is not afraid of the sky, the earth, the hunger, and the cold." , don’t be afraid of life, don’t be afraid of death.” It’s like the words of cultists.

Indeed, cults are the easiest to breed in this situation.

Li Xingzhou is not too surprised. Not afraid of the sky, the earth, hunger, cold, life, and death is exactly what people want. Especially in such a turbulent situation, the leader of the cult is very clever and grabs people's hearts. Beg, use this to make waves and enslave people's minds.

After the army passed through the village outside the city, the city wall was already in front of them. At noon at this time, the gate of Luzhou city opened, but almost no one came in or out.

Li Xingzhou ordered everyone to dismount at a distance of about one kilometer from the city wall. He laid out a three-stage shooting formation, and then slowly advanced. There was a plain in front of Luzhou City, and the defenders at the top of the city could see them from a long distance. It is impossible to rush in.

His preparation is that if the defenders do not cooperate, then he will shoot intensively with his guns and shoot the defenders directly, so that they have no chance to close the city gate.He didn't know the situation in the city, and he didn't dare to bet that Luzhou City would welcome the imperial army. If he made a wrong bet, everyone would be trapped outside the city and be helpless.

According to the previous training, the soldiers of the Shenji Battalion lined up nervously, raised their guns, and then slowly advanced. After all, this was their first time on the battlefield.

The group of horses was placed behind a distance of one mile, and was driven away by the artillery, because they were afraid that the gunshots would startle the horses. These horses were not only carrying food and bedding, but also a large amount of gunpowder, projectiles, and heavy artillery.

Soon, as they approached, the defenders at the top of the city found their huge team, and Li Xingzhou, who was far away, found that their first reaction was to close the city gate.

At this time, they were still five or six hundred steps away from the defenders at the top of the city. The bows and crossbows were powerless at this distance, so they could shoot with their guns, but the accuracy was out of control, but intensive shooting could completely make up for this problem.

With almost no time to think, Li Xingzhou directly ordered: "Shoot!"

"Bang bang bang!"

A volley of 300 people shot, and instantly the smoke filled the air and rose into the sky.
The kinetic energy provided by black powder is not as good as that of smokeless gunpowder, but the initial velocity of the bullet still exceeds the speed of sound, tearing the air. Amid the dense whistling sound, rubble instantly splashed from the top of the city in the distance. At a distance of five or six hundred steps, they fell down without a sound. The hard leather armor on their bodies was like thin paper, and the wooden building behind them was instantly smashed into a sieve.

"Enter the city, hurry up!" Li Xingzhou ordered, and the team immediately advanced quickly. The Shenji Battalion were all wearing light black soft leather armor, and moved quickly. In just a few minutes, they rushed across a distance of a thousand meters and rushed into the city gate.

Li Xingzhou was out of breath, and after rushing into the city gate, he realized that there were only two defenders at the top of the city!

After entering the city, the streets of Luzhou were even more desolate than imagined. There were almost no people there, and a few people looked at them in horror. Yan Shen shouted: "The forbidden army of the imperial court is here, and the idlers wait to avoid it!"

Immediately, the few people who were there were also scared away.

Li Xingzhou acted resolutely and ordered Mei Xue to get on his horse, and then decisively ordered: "Di Zhi, you lead the fifth, sixth, and seventh capitals to control the city; Yan Shen, you lead the eighth and ninth capitals to support the artillery and horses." Enter the city, and stay where you are after entering the city.”

"Order!"

"Order!"

Yan Shen and Di Zhi took the orders, and then began to divide the work.

"Follow me from the first to the fourth, let's go to the son-in-law's mansion." Li Xingzhou pointed out the brigade, crossed the bridge, turned left, and ran towards the west of the city.

He changed the military system privately. The Tenth Army was different from the ordinary imperial army, with 120 to 21 soldiers in the first, and 90 in the 30st Army, which just formed a three-stage formation of [-] people for continuous shooting.

There are 360 ​​people in each of the four, forming a three-stage formation of 120 salvos each time. As long as the distance is opened, Li Xingzhou is confident to resist thousands of troops.

As they approached the Prince Consort's Mansion, there were more and more people around. Some looked at them curiously, while others ran away in fear.

The farther you walked towards the west of the city, the louder the noise in the distance became. Li Xingzhou gradually felt that something was wrong, so he stopped his horse and shouted: "Array! Arrange and move forward!"

The soldiers listened to the order and quickly started to line up. Three people lined up in front and behind, advancing in an inverted U shape. The road was not wide enough, but it didn't affect the line up. The pavilion must be the consort's mansion.
Early in the morning, Qifang personally led five hundred fully armed Xiang troops to the east of the city, preparing to completely eradicate the culprit of demagogy, that universal immortal.

But the situation in front of the Avalokitesvara Temple was far beyond her expectations. Outside the Avalokitesvara Temple in the east of the city, the hillsides on both sides were densely populated with common people. Direction to kneel down.

They said some prayer words with unclear meanings, many of them were like crazy, chanting words, such as believing in the immortals of the world, not afraid of hunger, not afraid of cold, not afraid of life, not afraid of death, no need to eat, no need to sleep, and so on.

She had just arrived outside the Guanyin Temple, and countless unkind eyes had gathered on her, as if they were silently warning her that if she dared to go up the mountain, she would be torn to pieces.

For a while, Qi Fang, who was usually fearless, felt cold sweat on his forehead, couldn't speak, and his mind went blank. There were five hundred soldiers behind him, so he didn't dare to go any further.

She looked up at the small temple on the top of the mountain. In front of the temple is the most widely rumored recently. Daxian, but she couldn't see it.

With his own power, so many people are so fascinated, so fanatical, as if possessed by a demon, Qifang feels fear and admiration at the same time, hesitates for a long time but still dare not act rashly, and enters a dilemma.

She even saw his father, naked from the upper body, kneeling in the middle of the steps, with sunken eye sockets and a bony father.

The sun was shining brightly, and the noisy voices were like thousands of people cursing, and the unfriendly eyes scanned the whole body back and forth, as if to pierce her. Her most admired Lord Su Banchuan died tragically at the hands of bandits, her two brothers fell into the enemy's hands, and her father died Turned into what she is now, she clearly wanted to save people, but now she is stared at by everyone with such hostility
Involuntarily, Qifang felt dizzy, couldn't help but take two steps back, felt exhausted, and said powerlessly: "Let's go, withdraw the troops"

The Xiang army also breathed a sigh of relief, they didn't dare to think about how miserable it would be if they really shot at some universal immortal. The hostile eyes of the mountain had already made them almost pee their pants.

There are two people Qifang admires the most, one is Suzhou prefect Su Banchuan, and the other is Princess Qing'an who supports the entire Liu family by herself, but now Su Banchuan has died tragically and Princess Qing'an's mansion is besieged by unscrupulous people, she can't help.

Ding Yi wanted Luzhou to hand over the head of the princess to save her life. The immortals also said that the princess was a troublesome witch. Bewitched by all kinds of rumors, the crowd became furious. There were rumors everywhere that the reason why Luzhou became what it is today is thanks to the princess. She is a natural disaster star, and Luzhou will be safe only if she is killed to sacrifice to heaven.

There are many people convinced by such absurd remarks!

She seemed to hear a loud voice vaguely, but she didn't pay attention, maybe she heard it wrong.

With bitterness in his heart, Qi Fang got on his horse, led his troops back, and thought disheartened, it would be better to surrender to Ding Yi.
When the time comes to leave this place, and go to Suzhou to enjoy peace and happiness, where will the pain of running around, and the unpredictable warmth and coldness of human relationships make her feel more chilled than toil and wind and frost.

She and her two brothers took the risk to kill the commander of the Xiang army, and they didn't care about the disaster at home and wanted to solve the universal immortal. The reason was nothing more than to find a way for Luzhou to survive, but in the end, thinking of the hostile eyes of the people in the mountains towards her
It was really hard for her to support her. On the way back leading the army, Qi Fang had already made up her mind to lead all the Xiang troops to surrender to Ding Yi tomorrow. Having seen someone better than Ding Yi, he should be a master.

At this moment, a servant on horseback quickly ran towards her, shouting: "Miss, the imperial army is here! The imperial army is here!"

Qifang's heart was shocked, and she quickly stopped her horse: "What did you say!"

The servant stopped his horse and spoke incoherently: "The army, under the banner of the imperial court, has entered the city, controlled the south gate, and killed two brothers guarding the city. The rest of the brothers did not dare to confront them and retreated to the Yamen. , Miss, go and have a look!"

"They killed my people!" Qifang said angrily.

The guard nodded, and said with some fear: "Two brothers who guarded the city died. I don't know how they killed them. Brothers realized that when someone entered the city, the brothers who guarded the city were already dead."

"How many of them are there!"

"I don't know, there are many. One group controls the city, and the other group runs to the west of the city. There must be hundreds of people in each group. They have many horses, all of them are armored, and they are flying gold-lettered flags on a yellow background."

"What did you say?"

"I said they have many horses?" Jia Ding asked uncertainly.

"Back."

"And a flag with gold letters on a yellow background."

Qifang nodded: "That's right, can you see clearly, it is indeed gold characters on a yellow background?"

Jia Ding nodded affirmatively: "The villain has no skills, but his eyes are absolutely fine, and he can see clearly."

"Quick, take me there, the sooner the better!" Qifang said anxiously.

The little servant didn't know what happened to make the lady so anxious, but he still led the way obediently, and then a group of people rushed towards the south of the city.

Jia Ding didn't know much about it, but Qifang knew that general Jing Chao usually had two flags outside.

One side is a military flag with different colors, and it will also indicate the official position of the leading army general, the black flag of the forbidden army, the green flag of the Xiang army, and the red flag of the frontier army.

For example, Qifang's military flag was the Zaoqing flag at this time, and it was marked with "the military capital of Huaihua Prefecture".

The other side is the famous flag, which marks the identity. Different colors are used according to the status and dignity.

For example, her name flag is the flag with the character "Qi" in Zaohong, because it is her father's name.

But there is another kind above this, that is the Wang Banner with gold characters on the yellow background!

Above the king of the county, until the crown prince, they were all yellow-bottomed flags when they set out for the expedition. The Tian family's "Li" surname was in gold characters, and then decorated with dragon patterns, three dragons for the king of the county, six dragons for the prince, and eight dragons for the prince.

If it is a flag with a nine-dragon pattern, it is the emperor's own conquest!

But now there is a flag with gold characters on a yellow background in Luzhou, how can Qifang remain indifferent
(End of this chapter)