The fox minister in the late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 376 Death Battle
The setting sun set on the top of the hill, and the red arc shone through the mottled blood on the city wall, throwing it into the panicked streets and alleys. Pedestrians hurried to and fro, and a carriage guarded by more than a hundred soldiers passed by quickly.

The swaying carriages, the anxious voices of pedestrians, and the screams of children and daughters came into the curtains. Zhou Dewei propped his chin tiredly, closed his eyes and rested, and occasionally opened his eyes to look outside the car. Hu sighed.

In mid-April, Khitan's 20 and 50 troops marched south to Youzhou. Guizhou, Jizhou, and Tanzhou were conquered one after another. Only Youzhou was still standing upright, blocking the opponent's southward route. Xinzhou, also known as Zhuozhou, faced Khitan directly. Once this state was conquered, Khitan could go west to Datong and south to Hebei to graze horses.

"It's been a month. I don't know when the king of Jin's troops will arrive in Taiyuan." Zhou Dewei was trapped in Youzhou for more than a month. He also fought twice with Khitan outside the city. Even more elite, they managed to remain undefeated and retreated to Youzhou to reinforce the city walls, using the method of siege to consume Khitan's arrogance.

Half a month ago, Kuai Ma, who came earlier, had told him that Li Siyuan would return to the north and leave Yanmen and Datong with [-] Jin soldiers to Zhuozhou. Under the city, we should join forces with Zhou Dewei.

"The king of Jin will live up to it, but the old man will fight to the death!"

Looking away, the veteran took a deep breath. Soon, the carriage stopped at the gate of the mansion, and he got off to return to the mansion. The eldest son Zhou Guangfu had already been waiting in the middle hall, and Lu Long's generals were also waiting together.

Before the old man came in, several people were talking angrily, which could be heard from far away.

"The Khitan barbarians, how did they know that I have been defending Lulong City for more than a month, how about it? Lost soldiers and generals, just look at it and relieve your anger."

"Damn, if Lu Wenjin hadn't defected to the enemy and served Yelu Abaoji as a guide, how could Guizhou, Jizhou, and Tanzhou have been captured so quickly? Otherwise, it would have cost him tens of thousands of troops!"

"Who says it's not, it's not right to be a good man. He ran to Khitan and gave it to a group of barbarians."

When the words got angry, someone dropped the teacup in his hand, and the companion at the side saw Zhou Dewei walking under the eaves, and hurriedly coughed to remind him.

Only then did the crowd come to their senses, and hurriedly got up and clasped their fists together: "The last general has seen Jiedushi."

"Sit all."

Zhou Dewei looked as usual, raised his hand and pressed them. When he walked to the first place, the eldest son Zhou Guangfu greeted him: "Father, we are discussing the matter of defending the city. There are a few cracks on the north wall that have been thrown by stones and need to be repaired by civilian men."

"I've heard it outside." Zhou Dewei knew why his son changed the subject. When he was in the army, he once said that he couldn't talk about Lu Wenjin. Now, the old man is not easy to get angry. He waved his hand and told his son to sit back.

"You blame him for defecting to Khitan, and also sneak attacking Xinzhou and Youzhou. If the old man meets him on the battlefield, he will have nothing to say, just cut him off with a knife, but from a human point of view, it is pitiful for him to defect to the enemy. It is my country of Jin who treats him badly. Live first."

In the first year of Zhenming, when Lu Wenjin was still the governor of Weizhou, Li Cunxu and Liang Guo's general Liu Wei were fighting in Shen County. He didn't want to go south, and if he didn't want to be appeased, he got worse. He even took Lu Wenjin's daughter into the concubine. At the beginning, Lu Wenjin accepted his fate, but who knew that a rebellion broke out in the army, killed Li Cunju, and pushed him as the leader.

Being placed in the front, Lu Wenjin also knew that there was no way out, so he did not stop doing anything, leading troops to attack Xinzhou, lost, and then turned to attack Youzhou, fled in embarrassment after being beaten by Zhou Dewei, and then went to Khitan.

A few years later, Lu Wenjin led Khitan soldiers south to attack Youzhou. In a real sense, he wanted to avenge his family and leave the country.

"Don't talk about him in the future. Reasonably, I sympathize with him, but when it comes to the battlefield, the enemy is the enemy. You must not be lenient."

"Yes!"

Zhou Dewei looked at them, nodded, and talked with the generals about strengthening the city wall. During the month, there were only a few days of peace, and the rest of the time was mostly fierce city defense battles. , And also organized the young and strong in the city, and the yamen officials to come up to assist in the defense.

"When there is not enough wood, we will demolish the houses of the people, write an IOU for the people, and then help them rebuild it later. We have sent their relatives to the battlefield, so we can no longer owe them on these things."

After all, the old man was also tired, so he asked the eldest son Zhou Guangfu and the other generals to make up the sum, and then sent them out of the mansion, while he said goodbye and went back to the backyard to rest.

The old wife was already waiting for him, and the youngest son Zhou Guangxun was chatting and laughing beside him. Seeing his father coming back, he straightened his expression, bowed his hands politely, and walked out of the room when the old man suddenly stopped him.

"Guang Xun, I'm sorry to trouble you these days."

"The child is not good at martial arts, and he can't go up the city wall to kill the enemy like his father and brother. He can only do what he can, and it is right to talk to his mother."

Zhou Dewei nodded with a smile, this was the first time he laughed in a few days, he sent his son away, and then went into the house and asked the old woman to remove his armor.

"When you were young, you also did this for your husband. When you were old, you even took off your armor yourself. You found so many maids for you, but you didn't know what to do with them."

The heavy shoulder armor fell to the ground with a bang, the old woman ignored it, and went to untie the other side, with a smile on her face: "They don't understand, their hands and feet are not good, and I have been familiar with it for a long time, you see, With a swipe of hands."

Saying that, the shoulder armor on the other end also fell to the ground.

Afterwards, the old woman took off the cloak for her husband and hung it on the rack, nagging, "I've been beating for more than a month, when will it be the end? Are the Khitan people so desperate?"

"There are people who don't hesitate to die." Zhou Dewei comforted his old wife, took off his heavy body, and sat down in front of the bed with his arms around her, "It's just that the military order is hard to violate. The Khitan people are fierce, but the soldiers in my husband's hands are not good either. Vegetarians, even if there are few people, kill one and count as one.”

"Husband."

The old woman called softly, held her husband's hand, stroking the roughness on the palm, "If we can't beat it, we will fight it too, don't surrender, it's a great thing to die with your family, and you won't do anything to embarrass your ancestors. "

"Don't worry, there is no one in my Zhou family who is greedy for life and afraid of death!"

Couples who have been together for decades, just like when they were young, have endless words, sitting close together on the edge of the bed, looking at the night in the courtyard outside the open window.

The night was getting darker, and the sky was bright again. The old man walked out of the mansion in armor, looked at the old wife who was delivered to the door, turned on the horse and clasped his fists heavily, and then slapped his whip.

"drive--"

They rushed to the north wall with hundreds of soldiers under their command. The spacious streets were sparsely populated, and most of them hid at home. Soon after, the drums of war sounded outside the city. The meaning behind it made countless ordinary people tremble. If they are broken, they will face burning, killing and looting by the Khitans.

Many gentry and wealthy households in the city sent home guards, guards, and servants to send them to the city wall and hand them over to Zhou Dewei, hoping to keep Youzhou.

woo~~
woohoo~~
The desolate horn sounded, and the old man in military uniform dragged his cloak and walked up the city wall. In the distance, there was a densely packed 'ant colony' advancing here.

"I wait for the Han people to guard the land of the Han. How can I allow the barbarians to set foot there? Today the city is broken, and the whole city is full of luck."

'Clang! '

The old man drew out the horizontal knife from his waist and chopped off the wall, and the fragments burst out, "All the comrades in the army, wrapped in horse leather on the battlefield, are lucky to be in the army."

There was an echoing voice all around: "The city is alive and the people are alive, and the city is dead and the people are dead!"

In an instant, "The city is alive, the city is dead, and the people are dead!" The horoscope stretched from the left and right of the tower, far and near, and dense figures looked at the old man with a cloak fluttering below the tower, and then shouted out.

"The city is alive, the city is dead and the people are dead!"

"The city is alive, the city is dead and the people are dead!"

The sunlight broke through the gaps in the clouds, pushing Qing Ming to spread rapidly, and in the light, Zhou Dewei raised the blade.

The sound is loud.

"Fight to the death—"

(End of this chapter)