Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

When the sun is past its zenith.

In the soft light of the early morning, a large number of soldiers dressed in scarlet military uniforms and holding sharp swords walked across the official road of Changzhou. The large flag with the word "王" on it fluttered in the wind, and from time to time it made a loud noise due to the strong wind.

Even louder was the roar of footsteps on the cold, hard ground and the slight clanging of weapons at waists. Thousands of small noises came together, and the sound of metal made one's heart tremble.

The horses' hooves kicked up some dust on the unthawed land, and a cold wind carrying moisture suddenly blew by, "Faster!" "Don't fall behind, keep up!" The marching team of an army of more than 40,000 people filled the entire field of vision, and orders with a northwestern accent were issued from time to time.

In the center of the team, the figure riding on a tall horse was burly and strong. Perhaps because of his high position, his usually serious face was even more majestic. He was wearing a shiny black iron armor, a scarlet general's robe, a bright red cloak wrapped around his body, and a three-foot-long sword hung at his waist, swaying slightly with the ups and downs of the horse.

"The pace of progress is a bit slow."

The brown warhorse crossed a hill, with white mist wafting out of its open mouth. When the reins were pulled, the figure on the horse's back, Fan Yangli, raised his head slightly, revealing the face of Wang Bin.

"Suzhou has many waterways, so it would take some effort to travel by land."

The speaker was Wang Huan, a brave general of the Western Army. His face was plain except for the fact that it looked dark from the sun and wind. He was Wang Bing's deputy general this time. "Xin and Yang are on the water. I wonder who will be the first to enter Changzhou."

"Those two landlubbers." Wang Bing laughed, "They went across Taihu Lake, maybe they were faster than us."

He paused for a moment and said, "I just don't know why, but I feel my eyes twitching a lot these past two days. Maybe something has changed. Otherwise, I have missed the important task of the Grand Master. It's because of the incompetence of you and me."

"General Jie is overly worried." Wang Huan said nonchalantly, "Some peasants who just put down their hoes think they can fight a war after fighting some local troops. In my eyes, they are nothing but turtles trapped in a jar."

Wang Bing unconsciously touched his right eyelid, pondered for a moment, and said, "Let the army hurry to Xiuzhou. I always feel uneasy."

The sound of horses' hooves clattering and the gentle sounds of weapons colliding could be heard all around.

"Marshal Jie is probably worried about Dalang."

Wang Huan blinked his eyes, suddenly realizing what was going on. He stroked his short beard, which was no more than three inches long, and smiled, "So, his troops are indeed too few. I heard that Fang's forces are very powerful in several military states in the south, which is not comparable to those near Jiangning Prefecture. It is important to move faster."

He turned his head and looked back: "It's just that the army has added some garrison troops along the way. I'm afraid these people can't support us in our hurry."

"That's fine." Wang Bing shook the reins. "We won't need them in the battle anyway. Let's just get rid of these encumbrances and move forward."

"That's great. I'm also afraid that these people will hinder me." Wang Huan nodded slightly, with a look of relief on his face.

"Order——"

A messenger came over quickly: "General Jie!"

Wang Bing took a breath and looked ahead. "Order the Western Army to rush forward and head straight to Xiuzhou. The rest of the local troops should lead their own troops and join our army as soon as possible!"

The messenger responded and quickly mounted his horse and left. From afar, loud shouts of "The Marshal has given an order..." were heard.

Under the daylight, most of the figures wearing crimson armor suddenly accelerated forward. The rumbling sound of their footsteps shook the plains, and their flags fluttered, stirring up a cloud of dust.

……

The sunlight passed through the center and hid behind the clouds. The wind blew through the bare mountains and forests, pulling the sunlight from the back to the front.

Below, dozens of figures were walking in the wilderness. Those wearing winter clothes looked very bloated. However, this group of people, each holding a knife, formed an inverted triangle to protect the figure in the middle. The sitting figures on several mules and horses were shaking.

After passing a few dead trees, the suddenly wide view brightened up, and then he saw the figures on Liudao Zhuma Road. The mules and horses suddenly accelerated and ran over. Zhang Shun had a smile on his face: "Brother Shi, what's wrong?"

The thinnest of the six figures touched his chin when he heard this, his eyes turned, and he nodded: "It can be considered a bit of a gain."

"...That's a weird explanation." Zhang Shun was a little confused.

At the back, Li Zhu and Ma Lin, who were riding horses, came over and looked at the spies who had gone ahead: "What's going on?"

Then he dismounted the mule and horse and led them to the side: "Look at you guys, are things not going well?"

Shi Qian and the others followed him. The flea on the drum said as he walked: "It's not that things are not going well, it's just that things are a little different from what we thought."

Li Zhu squinted at him.

Shi Qian felt a chill down his spine and quickly said, "Fang La's army is large and powerful. I estimate that there are more than 50,000 of them. In a hurry, I'm afraid I won't be able to figure out who is who, and I might get lost in the crowd."

"So many?" Li Zhu frowned and stroked his beard with one hand. "It seems that Emperor Yongle of Fang La is planning something big. There are 50,000 or 60,000 troops in Xiuzhou alone. If you count the troops in other military states, I'm afraid there must be more than 100,000 or 200,000 troops."

"How can this guy support so many people?" Zhang Shun's eyes widened. "We have such a hard time supporting 50,000 or 60,000 people in Liaodong. How can he do that?"

"As the saying goes: If Taihu Lake is prosperous, the world will be prosperous." Li Zhu said, with a thoughtful look on his face: "Textiles, papermaking, tea making, sugar making, porcelain, these largest production areas are all in the southeast, and the Liangzhe Road pays the most taxes. It should be more than enough to support 200,000 people."

"Tsk!" Ma Lin let out a heavy sound and clapped his hands: "If I had known earlier, I should have brought more people here to rob this place."

"How is that possible? Our next target is in the north." Assistant Li laughed strangely and twirled his beard. "But there will be plenty of opportunities in the future. When the time comes, let them willingly hand over the money."

Shi Qian blinked and muttered, "Isn't that just a tax?"

Li Zhu glanced at him and thought for a moment: "If that's what you said, you can't get through Fang La's army, then what do you get?"

Shi Qian's eyes lit up and he puffed out his chest: "It's the Song Army. We found where the Song Army is!"

He looked at the others and said, "When we found the Song army here today, they were also observing the attack and defense situation in Jiaxing in the distance. There were more than 300 people on a mound. Later, this group of people ran to a dead forest in the east. There are still about 2,000 people there."

"It matches what those survivors said."

Zhang Shun scratched his cheek: "Just according to what you said...", turned to look at Li Zhu: "I'm afraid the main force of the government army is not far from here."

Li Zhu rolled his eyes and thought for a moment: "Is Fang La's army still attacking the city?"

"We are fighting." Shi Qian curled his lips and shrugged. "Good fellow, 50,000 people surrounded Jiaxing tightly, but they couldn't break through. I don't know if the attackers are too useless, or the defenders are too skilled."

The wind blew through the dead trees here, pushing the branches.

Li Zhu looked up at the swaying branches, pondered for a while and made a decision: "Let's wait for Yang Lin to bring people over first, and then we'll go to Jiaxing to see if there's anything we can do."

He looked around at everyone and said, "If there is nothing else, let's go about our business. If there is anything we can do, let's lend a hand."

After a slight pause, he said, "I heard a saying when I was wandering around in the rivers and lakes a few years ago..."

The eyes of the people around him gathered around him, and Mr. Jin Jian narrowed his eyes slightly: "If you don't pick it up when you go out, it will be lost."

Shi Qian was stunned for a moment, and stroked his chin with his hand: "Why does this sound like something the Miao Shou Sect would say?"

Ma Lin laughed and tapped his head with his hand: "What are you thinking about? How did we get involved with thieves?"

"A few years ago, weren't we the thieves in the eyes of the king and his ministers of Song?" Zhang Shun spoke frankly, and then couldn't help laughing: "But it's still a bit strange to say this about myself."

Li Zhu looked at the few people with a smile, and suddenly he felt like he was back in his youth. He touched his chin in some surprise, thinking to himself that he had not been away from the world for many years, so why did it suddenly feel like a long time had passed.

At that moment, the group found a secluded place to rest. Shi Qian and Ma Lin took their men to investigate near Wang Xun's troops and Jiaxing City. Li Zhu, together with Zhang Shun, studied the simple geomancy map that Shi Qian had given before he left, and sent people to the main road to wait for their own navy personnel to arrive.

Just half a day later, Yang Lin hurriedly arrived at this place with more than a hundred people. This time he even bought two donkey carts from the port, and put the weapons in them and pulled them all the way here.

This time, Yang Lin was well prepared. In addition to forbidden items such as hand crossbows and thunderbolt fireballs, he also had half-body leather armor exclusive to the navy, and two imitation crossbows. Although their range was not as long as those made by the Song people, they were still 70% to 80% as powerful as those made by the Song people. This was the result of his hard work in the past few years.

"Fortunately, Xiuzhou was in chaos and people were in panic, so the clerks at the port had no intention of checking, otherwise these treasures would not have been brought out."

Yang Lin put on his leather armor with a grin, and then put on his winter coat. He instantly looked bloated, and sighed, "These two donkey carts, if the driver wasn't afraid that the war would implicate them, he wouldn't have sold them. They're a bargain for me."

Someone laughed and said, "They are quite smart. If they leave now, Zhemo can still escape." "With officials and bandits blocking them from both sides, where can they run?" Zhang Shun laughed in the back, "The commotion that the Song army made in Jingdong was probably even more brutal than Fang La's. The southeast is also plagued by disasters."

Zhang Shun was just talking, but soon, the news of the government troops plowing the fields spread along with the running of the suffering people.

Wang Bing led the Western Army to march at an expedited pace. He and the Western Army came to quell the rebellion. Although Tong Guan had various problems, he was very generous with his money at this time in order to end the rebellion in the southeast as soon as possible so that he could return to the north to seize the throne. Therefore, these troops transferred from the border could still be controlled.

The garrison troops and local garrisons that joined later were like wild buffaloes with their reins untied, plowing the fields all the way south. They robbed those with money and those without money, and even plucked a handful of fur from stray dogs on the roadside and put them in their pockets.

Some of the people who had suffered from the war were so angry that they turned south to join the rebel army, and more and more intelligence about the government troops was brought into Fang La's army.

But it's a little late now.

Liu Zhen of the Western Army led his troops into Guangde Army, and then Huang Di led the Fuyan troops and Ma Gongzhi led the Qinfeng troops to attack Xuanzhou. Yang Keshi and Zhao Ming led the Huanqing troops into Huzhou. The two states received rescue, and then they mobilized the troops in the state to join the expedition. The momentum was immediately great. The generals of the Western Army were also brave. Within a few days, the rebels in the two states were defeated.

In Xiuzhou, Fang Qifo was unaware that Wang Bing from the east had already arrived, and was gathering troops to attack the city called Jiaxing again.

The sunlight tilted slightly, shining over the top of the city.

Wang Ziwu felt sore all over, but he gritted his teeth and pressed the hilt of his sword to walk to a higher place. His vision expanded in front of him. The huge number of bandits gathered again, a black mass walking slowly in the open space in the distance. Flags of various colors fluttered in the wind, like a colorful ocean.

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In contrast, there are dried bloodstains on the Jiaxing city wall and the exhausted-looking soldiers and young men on this huge city wall.

dong dong dong-

The war drums outside were beating in unison, and the black mass of people were approaching in several large square formations at a low speed. Their footsteps shook the earth, and the dust was raised and spread by the wind. People standing on the top of the city could feel the city shaking slightly.

"...Here they come again." Someone murmured softly, turned around and spat out saliva: "Damn it, I've been so soft-hearted in killing so many people in the past two days. These thieves are really not afraid of death. Come on!"

“Damn it…when is this going to end?!”

"We will be together as brothers later. Stay alert and go back alive."

“Infinite Heavenly Venerable…save the suffering and the distressed…Namo Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva…Namo Amitabha…bless and protect!”

Some were heroic, some were complaining, and more often were the voices of chanting sutras and praying for peace. Wang Ziwu glanced at them and took a breath: "Get ready--"

hula-

Swords, spears and large shields faced outwards, arrows were on bowstrings and placed to the side, ready to be fired at any time.

After nearly ten days of fierce fighting, even the strongest of men could no longer hold out in the face of the boundless enemy army. Wang Ziwu no longer cared about trivial matters such as complaining, chanting Taoist mantras, and praying for blessings. As long as no one encouraged him to surrender, he would pretend not to hear anything. Besides...

At this moment, he really wanted to burn three sticks of incense and pray for safety.

Boom boom boom boom——

The sound of footsteps was approaching, and several shouts of "Charge" could be heard faintly, followed by a loud cry of "Kill". The rebels, dressed in colorful clothes, holding wooden shields, door panels, hammers, and sticks, swarmed in quickly.

"A general will die in a hundred battles..." White air rose from Wang Ziwu's lips, and his hand on the hilt of the sword suddenly clenched tightly: "I still have more than ninety battles to fight!"

Suddenly he shouted: "Archers, prepare—"

The man gritted his teeth and raised his arms. The pain stimulated his brain and he couldn't help grinning on his face.

The ground was covered with endless shadows, and hysterical shouts came from far away with the beat of drums.

Arrows were thrown into the sky from the top of the city wall and fell below. The field of vision was filled with charging figures. Occasionally, screams could be heard as they ran, and the sound of arrows piercing wooden shields could be heard.

The square formations became scattered as they ran, and the original order became chaotic, and they rushed towards the not-so-tall city like a pile of loose sand.

The corpses increased in the crowd and spread out along the charge path. As one of the soldiers in this siege, a man named Du Wei wore leather armor stripped from the government troops and ran very fast with a long sword in hand.

"Put up the ladder, put it up!"

Amid the roar, wooden and bamboo ladders were erected one after another, and they were moved up with a loud bang.

A roar of "Push it away!" was heard from the city wall. Claws and forks were stretched out to push the approaching wooden ladder away. A figure who had climbed up halfway fell to the ground, and stones and battering rams fell from the top of the city wall.

With blood flying in front of his eyes and a buzzing sound in his ears, Du Wei picked up the shield on the ground and shouted, "Follow me!"

He climbed up holding the wooden shield at an angle. Fist-sized stones fell like raindrops, hitting the shield with a bang. A figure holding a spear leaned out from the top of the city wall, and the spear tip reflected the light from the sky and stabbed down.

There was a crazy roar.

The wind blew the big flag, and the light from the sky shone on people's bodies regardless of friend or foe. Bai Yanshou held a machete and looked into the distance, moving back and forth from time to time with an irritable expression.

Qian Zhenpeng had a white cloth wrapped around his head and looked a little listless, but he still cheered himself up and looked into the distance with hatred in his eyes. If Bai Yanshou had not reacted quickly last time, he would have died under the city of Jiaxing. Naturally, he did not like this place.

Fang Qifo sat high on his horse, squinting his eyes as he watched the troops attacking the city. He showed no joy when he saw some people starting to climb up to attack. Recently, every day he could see brave soldiers and generals attacking, but no one could really stand firm on the top of the city.

As he scanned the area, he saw many people being forced to fall under the city walls. He tapped his boots with his whip impatiently and said, "Tell Zhang Jian and Zhang Tao to prepare. When the front is defeated, lead the troops forward."

He stared at the thousands of soldiers attacking the city in front of him. Over the past month, he knew that the morale of these rebel soldiers rose quickly and fell quickly. Once the war started, if they failed to achieve sufficient results, their fighting spirit would soon be exhausted. Therefore, the reserve forces were what the generals had to consider.

However, soon, this fierce general who had once been rampant in the southeast battlefield suddenly felt something was wrong. The horse under his crotch became a little uneasy, and he subconsciously cast his eyes in a certain direction, as if something was coming from there.

The desolate sound of the horn sounded.

……

Wuwuwu——

Wang Ziwu, who was holding a bow on the top of the city wall, shot down the thief who was climbing up the city wall with one arrow. He turned around and looked over when he heard the horn sound.

Young and strong men around were bending over and placing stones and battering rams at the designated locations, and then they retreated.

The commander of Jiaxing's army looked into the distance with a look of sudden surprise.

That's the direction of Suzhou.

"It's time for reinforcements."

Wang Ziwu licked his dry lips and murmured to himself.

……

The sound of the horn spread throughout the noisy battlefield and spread into the distance through the air.

On the hill, the young general's eyes suddenly lit up and he stood up: "This is the sound of the horn. The army has arrived. Everyone, let's go up from the side and give the enemy a blow!"

……

further afield.

Several flashes of light came from the treetops in the distance. Yang Lin quickly walked to Li Zhu's side and said, "This is the signal sent by Brother Shi Qian. The Song army has moved."

The squatting figure stood up and stretched his legs: "Let's go and observe the area around the battlefield and pay attention to your own safety.

Everyone naturally followed him, and stood up and followed. Some people pulled out crossbow arrows and put them into the slot. (End of this chapter)