Late Tang

The territory had already been annexed by Li Jing, and even the Taining army under his command died in battle and fled. At last, the remaining [-] soldiers and horses of the Taining military governor Qi Kerang lay quietly on the collapsed ground. Watching the dust flying in the pale light from the window.Through the open window, a gust of fresh air blows into the room from time to time, making the stove-like room in June a bit cooler.

A summer cicada on the locust tree outside the window was chirping continuously, and he could clearly see that the cicada was lying on the tree that was almost full of light.The sophora japonica that this locust tree bears in May has a charming fragrance, and it tastes crunchy and sweet in his mouth. Thinking of this, his shriveled stomach just gurgled.

"The sky is big and the earth is big, and eating is the biggest!" Zekerang muttered weakly.But in a blink of an eye, he glanced at a pottery bowl on the table again. Inside was a bowl of soup, so green that he didn't even see any traces of oil. There were a few grass roots floating in the clear soup. , and there are a few green leaves, but they are the old leaves of the locust tree outside.

Unable to resist the hunger in his stomach, Zikerang picked up the bowl and drank a few gulps, then chewed a few gulps of grass roots and bark like dry wood and swallowed them into his stomach.

Although a bowl of grass root and leaf soup filled my stomach a bit, I was still very hungry in my heart.

"The smell of a bird is fading out of his mouth!" Zi Kerang cursed in a low voice, his mother said that the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers in war, but now?He, Qi Kerang, worked his life for the emperor from the far shore of the East China Sea. As a result, his Taining Town was swallowed up by Li Jing.His soldiers and horses were almost exhausted, and they ran around the Central Plains and Tongguan. Later, they have been at the forefront, defending the emperor against Huangchao.But in the end, with only tens of thousands of soldiers, they defended Tongguan and blocked Huangchao.

But the emperor fled to Jiannan Xichuan without saying a word. The most hateful thing is that once the emperor left, there was almost no one in the capital Chang'an.As for the Tongguan front, this is even more so.Tongguan defenders have been out of food for a month.Two months ago, the military rations were halved.One month ago, there was no food at all, and each army tried to solve it by itself.

Forcibly confiscated the people's food, seized cattle and killed horses, and later they almost ate up everything that flew in the sky, swam in the water, and crawled on the ground for a hundred miles around Tongguan.

It is getting more and more difficult to get food now, every hungry meal is full, even this full meal is almost full by drinking wild vegetable soup.

These days couldn't last anymore, if he wasn't a guest army, his hometown was occupied by Li Jing, and the way back east was blocked by Huang Chao, Qi Kerang would have patted his ass and left long ago.

what do I do?A thought flickered in Qi Kerang's mind, but he still couldn't make up his mind.

The sound of the cicadas outside Zhizhizhi stopped abruptly, and a guard in the courtyard shot the cicada with an arrow.He couldn't help but secretly praised in his heart, it must have been shot by Zhang Dayan, this guy's archery skills are the best among the soldiers.Sure enough, Zhang Dayan appeared under the tree, pulled out the arrow, threw the cicada directly into his mouth, chewed it a few times, and then swallowed it, with a sense of satisfaction on his face.

It must be chicken, and Zeke licked his chapped lips, regretting that he hadn't acted first.

Zikeran suddenly made up his mind, and the cicada finally made a decision in his heart.His anxious lips trembled, as if he wanted to shout out.

The Son of Heaven had already left Chang'an and the soldiers on the front lines of Tongguan, and went to Jiannan Xichuan alone, and the noble officials in Chang'an followed suit.They have been out of food for two months, who will care about their lives?

Now the price of grain in Tongguan has reached [-] yuan per bucket, and even if you have money, you may not have a chance to get it.

The most critical thing is, among the tens of thousands of generals in Tongguan, how many are rich?

Adding up the front and back, Tongguan now has [-] defenders, but among them there are almost [-] Shence troops from Chang'an, who have already impersonated long before they came.Those children of the imperial guards in Beijing, who were willing to come to die, found some beggars and refugees, and spent money to replace them.There are more than [-] people, except for consuming food every day and competing with them for everything to eat, they have no effect at all.

The remaining 3 troops, because they are not the Shence Army, but Cui Anqian, Du Ke, Zhang Zimian and his various town soldiers, are considered decent, and they have ensured that Tongguan has stood firm to this day.

But even if they are loyal to the Li Tang Dynasty, so what?How can we fight without food?

He got up quickly and got off the bed.

Qi Kerang picked up his saber and went out of the courtyard gate onto the street, leaving the castle, and went to another castle not far away.As soon as he entered the fort, he saw at a glance Zhang Chengfan, the general of the Shence Army who was stationed with him in the forbidden ditch of Tongguan, bending over, holding a sharp knife in his hand, slaughtering a cow.

His heart was beating rapidly, and his lips were trembling slightly.He stopped, gestured slowly, and retreated to the corner with his men, silently observing the tall and fat Zhang Chengfan.Zhang Chengfan was careful, holding a sharp skinning knife with a concentrated expression, and concentrated on peeling the cowhide.This fat unlucky officer of the Shence Army peeled the cowhide very skillfully and quickly, and his hands were extremely strong.The one-foot-long sharp knife is like a toy in his hand. He is pulling the cowhide with one hand and holding the knife in the other. With the sound of rustling, the cowhide is intact without any extra meat, and it is peeled off bit by bit. .

Zhang Chengfan had just peeled off the entire cowhide when he heard footsteps behind him.He turned his head and saw that Taining Army Jiedu Envoy and Zheng Rujia Intercepting Envoy Qi Kerang who were stationed in Jingou together came over with a group of guards.

Like the group of soldiers under him, Qi Kerang was well armored, but his complexion was yellow and his face was still a little swollen.

A group of people came suddenly, and Zeker stopped in front of him, staring at the skinned cow.

There was a moment of silence in the arena.

For a long time, Zi Kerang seemed to have had enough of looking at the hideless cow, then turned his head and looked at Zhang Chengfan.

Zhang Chengfan picked up the skinning knife again, walked to the side of the cow, knelt down and cut off several thin strips of red meat from the cow, put it on a plate and handed it to Qi Kerang.

Zeke let him directly grab a handful of beef strips with his hands, no matter how many, let alone fresh blood stained on them, stuffed them into his mouth, and started to chew vigorously.Then he swallowed it violently without waiting for it to be chewed. He swallowed too much for a while, and it got stuck in his throat. Meat swallowed.

After swallowing a few strips of raw beef, Zeke made his face flush red, and he took a long breath, full of emotions in his heart.

Zhang Chengfan asked Qi Kerang's subordinates to cut some meat for them to eat, then he smiled and took Qi Kerang's hand and entered the room.

Qi Kerang and Zhang Chengfan were guarding an abandoned ancient road in Tongguan called Forbidden Ditch.

The Jingou is located on the north of the Yellow River and on the south of the Qinling Mountains. There is a huge natural platform between the mountains and the river, called Linzhiyuan.When Tongguan was first built, it was originally located on the Linzhi Plain. Travelers in the past had to pass through Yuanwanggou, Jinggou, and pass through a big bend in the shape of an inverted a few characters.Around the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to soil erosion and the erosion of the Yellow River, a new, more convenient East-West Avenue was formed between the banks of the Yellow River and Linzhiyuan. The Tongguan City Tower moved northward to control the new road. The old Tongguan Road was gradually replaced. give up.In the Tang Dynasty, in order to facilitate management, the imperial court stipulated that travelers in the past were only allowed to take the road, and it was forbidden to pass through the old road of Jingou, so Jingou was renamed Jingou.

On the abandoned old road, for military defense, the imperial court built twelve defensive castles about four feet wide and two and a half feet high on the high ground on both sides of the forbidden ditch, commonly known as Twelve City.

The Twelve Linked Cities can be condescending to achieve the attack coverage of the Forbidden Ditch, thus tightly sealing the trail.

The Guancheng of Tongguan was personally guarded by three envoys, Cui Anqian, Du Wei, and Zhang Zimian.And this Tongguan trail was handed over to Qi Kerang, Zhang Chengfan, Wang Shihui, Zhao Ke and others to guard it.

Qi Kerang was the chief general of the Twelve Cities of the Forbidden Valley, and Zhang Chengfan, Wang Shihui, and Zhao Ke were the deputy generals of the Shence Army.Cui Anqian also knew that the people brought by Zhang Chengfan and the others were unreliable, so he simply sent all the forbidden troops here.It is also led by Qi Kerang.The total number of Taining Army and Shence Army is [-], but in fact, [-] of them are refugees and beggars with false names, and there are no more than [-] capable fighters.

Cui Anqian's three generals led [-] troops to defend the main city of Tongguan, and let Qi Kerang and the Shence Army guard the forbidden ditch, which is actually a good calculation.In comparison, the forbidden ditch is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not suitable for Huang Chao's large-scale offensive.

Qi Kerang and Zhang Chengfan walked into the house together, but a group of Qi Kerang's personal soldiers outside had already drawn their knives and swarmed up, scrambling to cut up the meat and eat it.

Zhang Chengfan invited Zeke to the upper seat, and poured him a glass of wine himself.

Tongguan had already run out of food, but Zhang Chengfan had wine and meat here, and Ze Ke let him laugh without saying a word.Deliberately said: "Where did General Zhang buy this wine and meat, and I will also introduce my brother to buy some."

Zhang Chengfan chuckled, "The price of this wine and meat is not cheap."

"Oh, tell me, where did Brother Zhang come from?"

Although Zhang Chengfan is a general of the imperial army, but now even the emperor has run away, how can he be better than Qi Kerang?After starving for a month, he couldn't take it anymore.First, they sent people to the nearby cities and villages to rob them. After the cities were robbed and the villages were robbed, they quickly robbed all that could be robbed.Recently, Zhang Chengfan quietly contacted an officer of Lin Yan, Huang Chao's nephew outside the pass.The two sides began to start a business secretly. The business was very simple. Zhang Chengfan sent troops to arrest people near Tongguan, and then sold them to Qi army officers in exchange for food.What the other party likes to buy most is young and beautiful women, especially the yellow-flowered daughters of big families, then young women, and then young and strong men.Five people can exchange for one sheep, and ten people can exchange for one bag of grain.

Hearing Zhang Chengfan say the deal so directly, Qi Kerang was not angry and his face was calm.For such a transaction of collaborating with the enemy and kidnapping and selling people, he didn't react at all, he just picked up the wine glass and took a big sip.

A newly slaughtered old scalper was directly eaten raw by Qi Kerang's team of soldiers and Zhang Chengfan's Nadu's soldiers. They didn't even need to cook it. Get off the Yingying white skeleton.

Qi Kerang and Zhang Chengfan came out again. Qi Kerang first stood under the tree in the courtyard and urinated carelessly, then climbed to the top of the fort with his sword in hand.

The twelve castles are all the same in length, width and height, four feet in length and width, and two and a half feet in height.

The top of the fort is a very wide platform, with a red flag flying on the top, there is no wind at noon, and the flag is drooping under the roiling heat waves on the top.

Zhao Da, who had just eaten a full meal of raw beef, watched Qi Kerang standing on the top, poking his head out to look east.He has a long neck and a raised mouth, as if a wanderer looking at his hometown from afar.

Zhang Dayan heard a sound, it was the sound of teeth gnashing.

Zeke let out his sword with a serious expression on his face.

He stared wide-eyed, waiting for what the commander-in-chief was about to say.Although it is a bit awkward to look up your neck.

Zikeran held his long sword high, his lips trembling, as if he was doing something extremely solemn.

Zhang Dayan heard him scold softly, scolding the world, scolding Huang Chao, scolding the emperor, and scolding Li Jing.

Then, he swung his arm vigorously, and the sword like autumn water flashed like a horse. After the sound of Kacha, the flagpole with the thickness of a bowl under the scorching sun suddenly broke and fell to the bottom of the fort.The crimson military flag was fluttering as it fell.

Zhang Dayan was excited. Although he was only Qi Kerang's personal soldier, in fact he had been a soldier for 20 years.The long sword was unsheathed and the red flag fell, which made his blood boil and made him look forward to what Zikerang would say.

Zeke cut off the military flag with a single sword, stood on the top of the castle, and shouted in a high-pitched voice with a long drawl: "We are against you!" (To be continued.)