The great man will live forever

Chapter 231 Behind the Miracle

In Dingling, Liu Xiu and his men came to the residence of the general Wang An who was guarding the city.

Wang An first received them warmly. After all, they were also comrades fighting side by side, and people like Liu Xiu generally had higher official positions than him.

"General Liu, you break out of the encirclement and rush here as fast as you can. It's really hard work. Please go to the post house to rest first."

"Why are you resting? The military situation is urgent and there is no need to delay!" Zong Yan shouted, "Why don't you quickly send troops to accompany us to support Kunyang?"

"General Zong!" Liu Xiu told him not to be impatient, then looked at Wang An and asked in a gentle tone, "Kunyang is in danger and must be supported immediately. General Wang, are you having any difficulties in not sending troops for so long?"

Wang An shook his head and pretended to be helpless and said, "We have less than 5000 soldiers and horses in Dingling. General Liu, if I follow you back, I will save Kunyang and fight Wang Mang's million-strong army. You will basically die. Our wives, children, and property are currently in Dingling, and we are saving the Duke of Cheng, but what if Dingling is lost?"

"General Wang, the army will not attack Dingling. If he wants to attack, he will attack Wancheng or Kunyang first."

At this time, Deng Chen also stood up and shouted, "General Wang, although we are all in the same army, we are also Han troops. We are dead and cold. If Kunyang is lost, Dingling will not be saved at all."

Wang An spread his hands helplessly and said, "It's not that I, the general, don't want to send troops, but even if I agree, my soldiers don't think so. This ant is still trying to survive, knowing that he can't be defeated and willing to die, that's stupid!
Brothers, if you ask how many enemy soldiers there are?Is this general still deceiving them?Let me see, it is better to divide the property first, avoid the main force of the Mang army, or go south to jointly attack the Han army in Wancheng, and find another plan for General Liu Yan. Why risk death? "

Listening to his evasive words, Ma Wu became a little angry and cursed, "Wang An, don't forget that when His Majesty appointed you as an official, he promoted you as an exception. You were grateful at that time. Now when something happens, just You are so greedy for life and afraid of death that you are hiding in Dingling like a coward!"

Several other people also shouted, "Listen carefully. When Wang Mang's army reaches your Dingling City, no one can escape."

Wang An just acted like a rogue, "Let's wait until he reaches Dingling! In short, this general cannot send troops, so please come back."

"You!" Good guy, everyone was angry now and pulled out their swords directly.

"Why, I can't help but want to be aggressive. I'm still afraid of you, right?"

Liu Xiu also wanted to give the final persuasion and said quickly: "General Wang, if you defeat Xin Mang's army, you will get more than just the property in front of you. You have to think clearly about your achievements."

"Hmph," Wang An snorted coldly and said, "General Liu, you came here to bring reinforcements just to hold off the Xinmang army and buy your eldest brother Liu Yan some time. Why should I be your brother's spearman?"

I have to say that he still has some vision, but he is also short-sighted. If Liu Yan is killed, can he survive?

"Chong!"

Li Yi directly drew out his sword and put it on Wang An's shoulder. In an instant, the surrounding guards also drew out their swords, "What are you going to do?" Wang An was a little panicked.
With Liu Xiu's acquiescence, Li Yi killed Wang An with one sword, quickly and decisively. The soldiers around him did not dare to move. They just held their swords and surrounded Liu Xiu and the others.

At this time, Ma Wu said loudly: "Wang An disobeyed military orders and was executed on the spot. Anyone who dares to resist will be shot to death."

The soldiers looked at the general-level figures around them. Naturally, they did not dare to make any move. Many people still followed Ma Wu in the uprising. They did not dare to commit the following crimes, so they naturally put down their weapons obediently.

At this time, Liu Xiu spoke, "Wang Ba and Ma Wu, go get the military talismans from the city management and take over Dingling. Brother-in-law, Zong Yi, and Li Yi, you go to the camp to appease the lieutenant general and avoid a mutiny. You also need to tell the soldiers, Wancheng has been destroyed. We will rescue Kunyang first, and then the army will arrive.

One night later, Deng Chen came to report: "Uncle Wen, that General Wang doesn't have much prestige in Dingling. Others are willing to follow us to rescue Kunyang, especially since you have spread that Wancheng has been captured. It’s very exciting to have a large army come to our aid, and their morale is very high.”

At this time, Ma Wu was cleaning Liu Xiu's wound. Deng Chen quickly asked, "How is your wound? Why don't you cherish yourself at all?"

Liu Xiu smiled and shook his head, "It's okay. They are all flesh wounds. The wounds are not deep. They are just slightly inflamed. Just apply some medicine and they will be fine. It's a minor injury."

"You are our backbone, you must take care of yourself."

"Okay, I understand, brother-in-law, how is the situation in Yancheng now?"

Deng Chen replied, "There is no news yet." Liu Xiu thought for a moment and said, "Zhou Zhong, the leader of Yancheng, is quite loyal. I think there should be no problems and a situation like Wang An's won't happen."

At this time, Ma Wu on the side also spoke, "Lancheng is not much bigger than Dingling, how many people can there be?"

"There will always be 5000 to 8000 people." Deng Chen still had a good look on his face at this time. "Even if we can integrate the reinforcements from Yancheng and Dingling, we will only have 40 to 1 people. Kunyang is besieged. There are more than 2 troops inside and outside. It is impossible for the defenders of Kunyang City to have no casualties. The total number of troops is less than 42. The total strength of all our troops is less than [-]. [-] against [-] are not as good as Mang. A small fraction of the army’s salary can be said to be a drop in the bucket!”

At this time, Wang Ba said, "That's not necessarily true. In the Battle of Julu, Overlord Xiang Yu also defeated 40 Qin troops with [-] or [-] troops. It is not impossible to defeat a large number with a small number and turn defeat into victory."

Xiang Yu can be said to be one of the figures she admires most.

Although he said so, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, has been the only one in ancient and modern times, and only he can be titled as overlord. Of course Deng Chen understood it. He sighed and said: "Overlord is the elite of the Chu army with 2 people. We people Not to mention it is a ragtag group of people, even the soldiers are not so united, turning defeat into victory, I am afraid it will be very difficult."

Liu Xiu smiled, not panicking at all, he had already expressed his determination to die, "It doesn't matter, before the battle is over, the outcome is still undecided, let alone 10 times the siege, 5 times the attack, even if there are only 1000 people left, Let's not be discouraged. The enemy is attacking and we are defending. As long as we can hold them back and allow my eldest brother to successfully attack Wancheng, we will have a chance.

If it really doesn't work, we will retreat to Wancheng and hold on. By then there will be 10 Jingwei, and his 40 army will not be able to defeat them. Maybe we will still have a chance to take advantage of their long-distance attack, wait for work in leisure, and defeat them. "

What they didn't know was that Wancheng had been breached at this time.

Liu Yan besieged the city for several months, and the food in the city ran out, and there were even cases of cannibalism.At the end of May, Cen Peng had no choice but to surrender.

All the generals wanted to kill Cen Peng, but Liu Yan stopped him.Liu Yan cherished Cen Peng's talent as a general, loyal man, and good reputation, so he persuaded Liu Xuan to pardon Cen Peng, saying: "Cen Peng is the defender of Wancheng, and it is his duty to guard the city with all his heart. Now we are doing a big undertaking." , such a loyal person should be commended. It is better to make Cen Peng an official to commend those who came after him."

Liu Xuan then granted Cen Peng the title of Guidehou, making him subordinate to Liu Yan.

Unfortunately, this news has not yet reached Kunyang, but in order to further boost morale and shake the morale of the Mang army, Liu Xiu kept saying that Wancheng had been broken and the main force of the Han army was approaching Kunyang.

When the news reached Kunyang City, the morale of the defenders immediately increased, they defended the city more resolutely, and were ready to go out of the city to annihilate the enemy at any time.

When the new army received this news, they were all depressed and demoralized. The Han army had already gained an advantage in momentum.

The reason for this is that compared to Kunyang, which was only a sub-battlefield to block the new army, Wancheng was the main battlefield of the Han army.

Because when the Xinmang army besieged Kunyang, the main force of the Han army in Wancheng actually had only two choices. One was to capture Wancheng as soon as possible, and then wait for work in Wancheng, or after resting, fight with Kunyang's defenders. The army should cooperate with the outside to fight decisively with the Xinmang army.

Instead, they abandoned Wancheng, went straight to Kunyang, and went north to fight the new army, but this had almost no chance of winning.

If you choose to withdraw your troops, you will have nowhere to surrender and will inevitably collapse. Therefore, taking Wancheng is the only way to survive.

All of this is due to the huge disparity in strength between the two sides. The main force of the Han army is also "born to die." If Wancheng is captured, there is still a base for a desperate fight. If not, there will be no place to die.

Looking at it this way, both sides are actually racing against time. Fortunately, Wang Yi was stupid. He neither sent the main force south to relieve Wancheng nor agreed to the surrender of the Kunyang defenders, so that the main force of the Han army could concentrate on attacking Wancheng and attack Wancheng. A major turning point victory in the emergency landing in Wancheng was achieved ahead of schedule.

After capturing Wancheng, the Han army's safe strategy is undoubtedly to move the main force northward, strive to cooperate with the Kunyang defenders inside and outside, and defeat the new army at the foot of Kunyang City!

On the first day of June, the Han troops from Dingling, Yancheng and other places led by Li Yi and Liu Xiu arrived in the Kunyang area.

At this time, Fatty Liu, the tomb robber who had been hanging out with Liu Yan, rushed over quickly. He is now Liu Yan's confidant.

Fatty Liu gasped and said, "Wancheng has been destroyed."

Now he is 40 years old. He does not look fat, but is very strong.

"really?"

"nature."

"Good good~"

This news made Liu Xiu full of strength.

"All officers and men, follow me and kill."

Liu Xiuzi led more than 1000 infantry and cavalrymen as the vanguard, and Li Yi led the main force to follow up. When Liu Xiujun approached the New Army four or five miles away, he immediately opened up his formation and prepared to attack.

Wang Yi and Wang Xun also sent thousands of troops to fight.Liu Xiu personally led the troops to charge and killed dozens of the new army. The generals who followed him said happily: "General Liu is usually very scared when he sees small groups of enemies. Today he saw a large enemy, but he was very brave. It's really amazing. From now on." Please always lead us from the front to fight, and we will work together to defeat the enemy!"

At this moment, Liu Xiu was like an overlord, cutting melons and vegetables all the way, and led his soldiers to attack the New Army again. The New Army was severely defeated, and Liu Xiujun killed nearly a thousand of the New Army.

Liu Xiu led his troops to win several battles in succession, which greatly boosted the fighting spirit of the Han army and weakened the vigor of Wang Yi and Wang Xun.

In order to further undermine the fighting morale of the new army and boost the fighting spirit of the Han army and civilians in Kunyang City, he began to spread the word about the victory of the Han army in Wancheng. The letter was shot into Kunyang City and also fell into the hands of the New Army, causing panic among the commanders of the New Army, Wang Yi and Wang Xun.The officers and soldiers of the new army saw a small Kunyang, and the troops were pressing down on it. They fought hard for more than a month, but they were unable to break it. If the [-] Han troops in Wancheng were added to it, they would be even more unable to deal with it. The morale of the new army dropped sharply.

Later, waiting for Li Yi to lead the main force to arrive, Liu Xiu selected a death squad of 3000 people.

"Today, I will rush towards Wang Yi's camp. Are you afraid?"

"Not afraid!"

"The Han army will win!"

"Han army mighty!"

"kill!"

Liu Xiu led three thousand death squads to attack the backbone of the new army from the west of the city. Wang Yi and Wang Xun despised Liu Xiu and thought it would be easy to defeat Liu Xiu. Therefore, they only led more than ten thousand people to patrol the positions.

"Da Sikong, you must not do it. The lion is fighting the rabbit, and you have to use all your strength." At this time, Yan You persuaded.

"With 3000 of them, they are capable of overturning the world. They ordered the other camps not to move, and waited for the main force of the Han army to arrive, and they were all annihilated together."

In order to prevent chaos in each battalion, and more because of Wang Mang's secret edict, he felt that this was an opportunity to completely annihilate the Han army. Fearing fraud, he ordered each battalion to strictly control their own troops and not to send troops without permission without orders.

"Kill with me!"

"Come on!"

Broken limbs and arms, screams and roars, accompanied by the flash of swords and shadows, were extremely tragic.

Wang Yi and Wang Xun led thousands of people to fight Liu Xiu, but they were no match for Liu's death squad. The new army's formation was quickly broken by Liu Xiu's army, and the soldiers fled in chaos.

At this time, the rest of the New Army did not dare to act rashly, so no one took the initiative to support Wang Yi and Wang Xun's army in the battle.

"That's the great Situ King. Kill him. Whoever kills him will be rewarded with ten thousand taels of silver."

Liu Xiu led the Han army to attack bravely and defeated Wang Yi and Wang Xun's troops in one go. When he saw Wang Xun fleeing, he shouted, "Capture the thief first, capture the king first" and killed him. When he saw Wang Xun trying to escape, he started to fight. A spear pierced the corpse of a new soldier and shouted, "Death!"

The spear seemed to be able to cut through the sky when it was released, and pierced directly into Wang Xun's abdomen from a few feet away.

"Pfft!" Wang Xun got off his horse as he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Wang Xun is dead. Those who surrender will avoid death."

"help."

"Da Situ is dead."

When Wang Xun died, Wang Yi's backbone was overwhelmed. Some people even shouted: "Da Sikong is dead, run away."

Wang Yi was confused when he was running away. When did I die?But he couldn't care about this. He just wanted to escape quickly, mobilize an army, and besiege Liu Xiu. He didn't believe that hundreds of thousands of troops couldn't deal with Liu Xiu?

For a time, all units of the New Army lost their command center and immediately fell into chaos.

"Mr. Cheng, this is a good time. Let's fight out and cooperate inside and outside."

At this time, the Han army in Kunyang City saw the victory of the death squad led by Liu Xiu and others. Wang Chang immediately proposed to Wang Feng. Wang Feng was very moved, but Zhang Xian on the side quickly said: "I don't believe it, there are too many troops outside." , what if it’s the enemy’s conspiracy?”

Wang Chang said angrily: "This opportunity must not be missed before it comes again. If you don't dare to go, I will go."

At this time, they suddenly heard people outside the city shouting, "Da Sikong is dead."

Wang Feng smiled brightly and shouted, "Go, all the soldiers, follow me out of the city and kill."

"Kill!"

The rebels in the city also shouted the sound of charging and killing, rushed out of the city gate, and attacked the new army from both inside and outside. The sound of killing shook the sky and the earth, and the Xin Mang army collapsed.

Suddenly, a strong wind picked up, and a heavy rain fell from the sky. The roof tiles were blown away by the strong wind. The heavy rain poured down and the water swelled. The tigers and leopards accompanying Wang Yi's army were trembling with fear and began to run around. The Xinmang camp was even more violent. It was chaos.

"Look!"

Suddenly, burning stones flew from the sky, and they actually burned in the heavy rain.

"Boom!"

Along with the violent shaking, the ground seemed to be shaking, "Bang, bang, bang!"

There was flying sand and rocks, the sky and the earth were dark, it was like the end of the world, and there was a big explosion in the Mang Army camp.

"Run."

"Curse."

"Help!"

The people on the Xinmang side were trembling and fleeing in all directions. The morale of Liu Xiu's rebels was high and they shouted: "God help me!"

"kill!"

The fleeing soldiers pushed each other, and the insurgents chased them all the way. "Everyone walked with their bodies flying, and their bodies lay buried for more than a hundred miles."More than [-] new soldiers fell into the water and drowned, and the Sichuan River was blocked by corpses and almost stopped flowing.

Wang Yi, Yan You, Chen Mao and others only had a few Chang'an elite cavalry and had to cross the river on dead bodies to escape.

"We have won!" Liu Xiu's eyes were also unbelievable. They had accomplished a miracle similar to that of Xiang Yu, and it was even more legendary than Xiang Yu's Battle of the Giant Deer.

"Zi Zhi Tong Jian" describes part of these: "The reckless soldiers were defeated, and the walkers were jumping up and down, and their bodies were lying for more than a hundred miles. There was a big thunder, wind, and roof tiles flew away, and the rain fell like a drop, and the Sichuan River It overflowed, tigers and leopards fought, soldiers went to the water and drowned tens of thousands of people, but the water did not flow.

Wang Yi, Yan You, and Chen Mao Qingqing rode the dead men across the water to escape, and captured all the army's baggage. They had no chance of winning. They carried them for a month or more, or burned the rest.

The soldiers ran around and returned to their respective counties. Wang Yi and his general Chang'an brave thousands of people returned to Luoyang alone. Guanzhong was shocked when they heard about it.So Jie, the powerful people at home and abroad, responded with anger and killed their pastors and guards. He called himself a general and used the title of Han Dynasty to wait for the imperial edict.Within ten months, it spread all over the world. "

There was only one person who was cleaning the battlefield in detail, observing and studying it carefully, because he saw that person's voice in a trance, "What is this?"

He was holding the remaining black powder and was very confused, not knowing what it was.

"Why hasn't his appearance changed after all these years? Did I see it wrong? Impossible, I will never forget the appearance of that smelly Taoist priest. Could it be his son?"

Fatty Liu murmured to himself that he had never given up on tracking down the little Taoist priest who killed his eldest brother and second brother.

Didn't they just dig up a body outside Xindu City? Others paid them to dig up the body. Why did they kill his eldest and second brothers?Silence?

He has been pursuing this matter for more than 20 years, or even longer. At that time, Wang Mang was still living in seclusion in Xindu. He had already guessed that the Taoist priest who killed his eldest and second brother had a relationship with Wang Mang, and it was not superficial. The two looked alike. There is hatred, but it feels like old acquaintances and good friends...

In this way, he was very confused. He saw the figure of the Taoist priest in a trance on the battlefield. With just one glance, he was sure that it was that person.

But just by turning around, the Taoist priest disappeared among the Xin Mang army. When he went to look for it again, he completely disappeared.

"It doesn't matter, Wang Mang. At worst, I'll go to Chang'an myself to question you and avenge my Xiaocui."

He felt like a fog shrouded him, and for more than 20 years, he had only seen the tip of the iceberg.

(End of this chapter)