Late Tang

Zhao Ji and the generals returned to the city victoriously, and ordered the Marching Army Records Office to record the meritorious soldiers in the military merit book, and ordered to reward meat and money.Then he called all the generals in the city into the general's mansion to discuss matters. After the generals finished their ceremony, Zhao Ji asked the cook to serve the food directly, and discussed with the generals while eating.

Li Xu and the Zhao family's uncles and nephews returned victorious, and they were very happy in their hearts after a big victory.But Zhao Ji's face was solemn, and he stopped everyone's request for wine.

"What do you mean?" Li Xu asked: "Today, he led us to defeat Gao Pian's vanguard and wiped out more than a thousand riders. Not right away. Have some wine and celebrate!"

Zhao Ji was covered in dust and his armor was not removed. He shook his head and said, "Today's defeat is due to the fact that the Huai army underestimated the enemy's carelessness, and secondly, we relied on the power of firearms. But Anyi is not a strong fortress. This is a small city, not far from Yangzhou. Stay away from important cities such as Shanyang and Xuyi. This time Gao Pian suffered a loss, and he will be more cautious afterwards. Gao Pian is also a warrior in the battlefield, with [-] soldiers and horses. Shou. Tonight, we will leave the city by night."

All the generals of Li Xu were stunned, just after a big victory, the commander wanted to abandon the city and flee, this...

"Big Brother, Your Highness ordered Big Brother and I to stay in Huainan. If we leave without a fight, wouldn't that be a breach of His Highness's trust?" Zhao Jue said loudly, "I don't think Gao Pian is anything to fear. You've become a toothless tiger too. If we don't leave, we'll fight Gao Pian right here."

"Confused!"

Zhao Ji shouted loudly and reprimanded his brother.

"Before His Royal Highness left, he specifically confessed that he stayed in Huainan and acted as a camera. The most important thing was to preserve his strength. At the beginning, Hu Douzhou's eleven thousand soldiers were unable to evacuate in time because of sticking to Hu Douzhou. The whole army was wiped out."

Li Xu said a little excitedly: "Although Hu Douzhou's 3 soldiers were almost wiped out, with more than [-] local soldiers, they finally wiped out nearly [-] people from Liang Zuan. Although the defeat is glorious. What's more , we are not just rural soldiers trained in autumn and winter, we are the most elite soldiers of the Qin army, how can we flee before the battle?"

Zhao Ji's attitude towards Li Xu was much gentler. Li Xu was the nephew of King Qin's clan and a veteran general of the navy, not an ordinary person. "Li Junmen, Your Highness said something like this. If you lose land and lose people, you will lose both people and land. If you save people and lose land, you will save both people and land. Although we are in Huainan now, we must obey the overall strategic situation. Jianghuai Camp The task is to serve as a barrier for the Huaisi side, and to contain and restrain the Jianghuai forces. Your Highness asked us to be here, not to let us fight Gao Pian desperately."

"Besides, we just gave up Anyi, not the whole Chuzhou. Now that Gao Pian is attacking in a big way, we have few soldiers, so we can retreat to Shanyang temporarily, relying on the dangers of Hangou and Huaihe River, the strength of Shanyang city, Backed by the back of Huaisi, the towns of Xuyi, Zhongli, Huaiyin, and Dingyuan are connected to the west, and Linhuai and Lianshui on the north bank of the Huaihe River form the Huaihe defense line. Gao Pian. As long as we can defend for three to five months, Gao Pian will not be able to hold on for a long time, and we will surely retreat. When the time comes, the enemy retreats and we pursue, we can take back Anyi and other peripheral cities in one fell swoop."

The generals who spoke could not help being silent.

"Is this His Highness' intention?"

Zhao Ji nodded, "Although His Highness didn't go into such details, he did leave some general instructions."

Since this was the intention of King Qin, Li Xu and other generals naturally stopped objecting.So the order was sent, and the generals packed up their equipment and withdrew to Shanyang City immediately after dark.

However, it is said that the Chinese army under Gao Pian's troops went down the Hangou Canal by boat, but the channel near the Anyi River was mostly blocked by Li Jing's shipwreck, so they had to send people to clear the channel, and Feng Shou and Lei Man were sent first to lead [-] troops each. Riding on land first.

When it was dark, the river was only half cleared. As soon as the whole army was ordered to go ashore and set up camp, the guards reported that Feng Shou and Lei Man had returned.

Gao Pian Xuan saw, but saw that Feng Shou and Lei Hai were in a panic.As soon as the two entered the account, they immediately knelt down and pleaded guilty.State the matter of today's dispatch of troops, "The thief general Zhao Ji deliberately went out of the city with five hundred horses to meet the battle, in order to slow down our army's morale, and then when the two armies were fighting, he suddenly threw a Thunderbolt firearm. The firearm was extremely terrifying. Our horses love to be frightened. The army was in great chaos. Then the bandit Zhao dispatched another thousand cavalry to attack obliquely from the left and right sides. The bandit army had sharp firearms and kept throwing them. Our army could not stop them. The army and horses were frightened, so they were defeated. Fortunately, General Lei responded halfway and joined the troops who came out of the city from behind. Zhao Ji waited for the Qin bandit six generals to fight with thousands of elite cavalry for half a day before repelling the Qin bandit. The last general was incompetent, his troops were lost and his generals were defeated. He had no face to see the county king, please punish him!"

Gao Pian heard that more than [-] cavalry were lost in the first battle, so he couldn't help cursing: "Anyi is a small town, and there are only more than [-] thieves in the city. , unexpectedly lost in the first battle, losing nearly [-]% of the damage, you still have the face to come back!"

He was both surprised and angry. What surprised him was that Anyi was only a small county town in the southernmost part of Chuzhou, and there were only 8000 people in the city at this time, and he also found out that Li Xu, the general of the town, was also a naval general. , also assigned 5000 soldiers and horses to garrison Yancheng in the east, and patrol the sea.Although Zhao Ji personally led [-] cavalry to help, there were only [-] people in the city.

But with such a small number of troops, Feng Shou's 3000 men fought against them in the field, and they were beaten into the water in one round. Later, they joined Lei Man's [-] barbarians, and they were still defeated.He couldn't believe it was true, that Zhao Ji and Li Xu were neither famous people, but two unknown people, they actually wiped out a quarter of his most elite [-] cavalry in one battle.

Lu Yongzhi and Zhang Shouyi on the side looked at each other, and both of them smiled slightly.

Lu Yongzhi, Zhang Shouyi and others are just quack soldiers, relying on their appearances, clever words and tricks, and pretending to be gods and ghosts, they have gained high positions and become high-ranking officers in the Huai Army.But Liang Zuan, Feng Shou, Chen Qi and other veterans have always looked down on them. Even Yu Gongchu, who recommended him at the beginning, drew a clear line with him, which made their relationship with these veterans very tense.Lu Yongzhi and others have long wanted to overthrow these veterans and replace them.

The last time Liang Zuan was defeated, now he has been slandered and demoted by Lu Yongzhi and the others, and Gao Jie and his brothers have also been treated coldly.Now that Feng Shou was defeated again, they immediately saw the opportunity to make a move.

Lu Yongzhi immediately sneered and said, "General Feng defended Huaiyin with Forty Lang last time, but he was defeated. Then he fled to Shanyang, and not long after, Shanyang fell again. This time he led the army again, but the three thousand cavalry were defeated. Five hundred cavalry in the Qin army. He led the army three times and was defeated three times."

Feng Shou looked at Lu Yongzhi coldly, "What do you want to say?"

Lu Yongzhi snorted coldly: "Victory and defeat are commonplace for military strategists. It's just strange why General Feng lost three times in three battles in a short period of time, but one defeat was worse than the first, but every time he was safe and sound. Come back. Could it be that General Feng has a body protected by gods?"

As soon as these words came out, Feng Shou's eyes almost burst into flames.Although Lu Yongzhi didn't say it bluntly, his words were already extremely vicious, and he was accusing him of notifying his betrayal.Sure enough, Gao Pian's face immediately darkened, and his gaze towards Feng Shou was already cold and sharp.

It was extremely quiet in the tent.

After a while, Gao Pian snorted coldly, and slammed the table: "Pull it out, and show the head to the public!"

Gao Pian hadn’t settled with the generals about the last defeat, but Feng Shou lost again today, and the defeat was so unbelievable to him. In his rage, Gao Pian didn’t care whether he really believed Lu Yongzhi’s words or not. Right now, he wants to push Feng Shou to apologise, kill Feng Shou, firstly to deter the generals, secondly, let Feng Shou take the place of Gao Yu for the crime of the last defeat, and thirdly, also use this to sweep away successive defeats Unfavorable atmosphere.

In the tent, Yao Guili and other Huai army generals knelt down to plead Feng Shou's crimes, but Gao Pian became more and more angry.

"Anyone who dares to intercede again will be beheaded."

As soon as these words came out, everyone had no choice but to retreat.

Lu Yongzhi waved to the outside of the tent, called the soldiers of Moyedu, escorted Feng Shou out and beheaded him.After a while, a soldier came in with a plate, on which was Feng Shou's dead head.

The generals saw their old brother die like this, and all of them felt sad for the death of a rabbit and a fox.However, Lu Yongzhi and others were secretly proud of themselves.

Gao Pian was a little calm at this time, and when he saw Feng Shou's head, he also felt a little regretful.But the severed head cannot be put back on, and it can only be waved to let people take the head out and pass it on to the whole battalion.

While talking, suddenly there was a scouting horse galloping outside the tent to report.

Gao Pian called in, and the Tanma reported that the defenders in Anyi City had left the city overnight and fled north, leaving only an empty city in Anyi.

Lu Yongzhi heard the report: "The Qin bandits were frightened by the military power of the county king and fled overnight. Anyi will be destroyed if he does not attack."

When Gao Pian heard the news, he was also a little proud. At this time, Lu Yongzhi, Zhang Shouyi and others asked for orders to fight, willing to pursue the Qin army.Gao Pian Xuzhi ordered Lu Yongzhi to lead Zuo Moxie to Anyi.

Lu Yongzhi marched forward overnight, and arrived outside Anyi City at dawn. At this time, the city was already empty, and half of the Qin army could not be seen.Even many rich and wealthy families in the city fled to Shanyang with their families and children following Qin Jun.The rest of the city are ordinary people.

A general asked whether to pursue him, Gao Pian smiled and said: "There are still Qin troops staying in the city, and I will destroy them all together." So Lu Yongzhi ordered his subordinates to break into the city, kill more than a thousand innocent young and strong men, and cut them off. The first level pretended to be soldiers of the Qin army, and then threw their bodies into the canal.They also sent troops to search and rob from house to house, taking all the money and silk, and finally sent troops to rob women who wiped out money at will.

Gao Pian received the report delivered by Lu Yongzhi, and although he was a little puzzled when he saw the delivered head, he was still very happy and promoted Lu Yong's official title in public.

Two days later, Gao Pian dredged the canal and led his troops to Anyi. At this time, Anyi had become a ghost town, almost reduced to ruins.However, Lu Yongzhi boasted and lied, because he led the army to fight against the remaining Qin army.

Gao Pian only rested in Anyi City for half a day, and then led his army straight to Shanyang.

Two days later, the army arrived at the foot of Shanyang City. At this time, Zhao Ji had mobilized 1 troops from Linhuai, Xuyi, and Zhongli cities to guard the city, and temporarily recruited [-] young and strong people from Shanyang City. Zhuang formed an auxiliary army and distributed equipment to help defend the city.

When Gao Pian arrived at Shanyang City in Chuzhou, he did not rest and ordered to attack the city.

Zhao Ji accepted the battle calmly, and the two sides fought from noon until dark. The corpses under Shanyang City piled up a gentle slope, filling the moat with several avenues, but in the end, the Huai army still failed to break through the city.

When it was dark and the troops were withdrawn, in the middle of the night, Lu Yongzhi offered a plan to use the method that the Qin army broke through the mountains and suns, and sent people to intercept Hangou and flood the mountains and suns.Tens of thousands of high-pitched troops dug soil and filled the river overnight. After filling it for a day and a night, it seemed that the embankment could be built in one more day. As a result, that night, Li Xu and his navy suddenly rushed into the canal from the Huaihe River, and then directly transported several The gunpowder on the boat blew up the half-built embankment.

Gao Pian didn't give up, and then filled it in twice. Although heavy troops were sent to guard the bank each time, in the end, without exception, the half-finished embankment was blown up.After doing this three times, Gao Pian finally had to give up his plan to block the canal and flood the city, and had no choice but to continue to besiege the city.

However, Shanyang is an important town at the gate of Huaidong. Although Zhao Ji's troops are few, there are sharp firearms, catapults and heavy crossbows in the fortified city, and the dangerous terrain. down, but no progress. (To be continued.)