Dawn of the Empire

454 Chapter 85

At the head of Fangzhou city, Zhizhou Gao Zhen looked down at the city, frowned and said: "Bring in the Bianliang envoy and guards."

"Lord Gao!" Chen Keli, the military commander of Fangzhou, and He Jingguo, the supervisor, lost his voice, "It's absolutely impossible!"

"Let it in first," Gao Zhen said coldly, "capture the envoy, behead the Liao bandits who escorted him, and then take the head of the city. If you don't kill this kind of demagogue, you won't be enough to warn the world!" Fangzhou City In Dayi, west of Xiangyang, the total number of imperial guards and Xiang troops was no more than [-].Hearing that the Liao soldiers were about to overwhelm the border, people in the city were in panic.If it weren't for the thunderous means, it would not be enough to warn the half-hearted people in the city.

Chen Keli showed joy and said: "I obey." With his hand on his waist knife, he strode out and ordered to open the city gate to let the envoys in.

He Jingguo was also an eunuch. He looked at the envoy from Bianliang under the city, feeling sad for the death of a rabbit and a fox, but he didn't say anything.He Jingguo's status in Fangzhou was originally only slightly lower than that of Gao Zhen.But after the fall of Bianliang, the world was in chaos. Chen Dong first advocated obeying the emperor's order in Ezhou and not obeying the order of chaos.Gao Zhen was originally the magistrate of Fangzhou. After the fall of Bianliang, the county gentry of Fangzhou entrusted the safety of the state to him through the election system. This move made Gao Zhen even more irresistible in Fangzhou.But He Jingguo originally came out of Beijing as a eunuch to serve as the capital prison, and the official family fell to the Liao bandits, and immediately lost eight points of their power.Fangzhou people only cared about the face of the court, and on the surface they still respected him as a member of the court.

The city gate opened, and the envoy, surrounded by guards, entered the city brazenly.There used to be thousands of refugees fleeing outside the city, and seeing this situation, they couldn't help but stir up a commotion.These people are all people from Tangzhou, Dengzhou, Caizhou and other places.Where the terrain is flat, the cavalry of the Liao Army ravaged years ago, and the people fled to Xiangyang Mansion in the south, or fled to the mountains in the west.However, in order to prevent the Liao army from earnestly making money from the city, almost all the cities closed their doors and refused to accommodate refugees.

"The city gate is open, go in quickly!" All the people scrambled towards the city gate.However, as soon as he approached the city gate, a cluster of sharp arrows shot down. "Stand back, don't get close to the city gate!" The officers and soldiers at the top of the city shouted loudly.The noisy pleas for forgiveness in the city were mixed with the anger of children, and the voices of the people were so loud that it made people cry.

"Fangzhou Gaozhen has a good reputation, but it doesn't look like it today!" Mrs. Chao said angrily.Their team was accompanied by chariots and horses. More than a dozen generals from Chang'an Li's family pretended to be escorts, carried weapons on their bodies, and hid their crossbows in the carriage. Standing prominently among the crowd, they did not go to the city gate. to make up.

After Bianliang surrendered to the Liao army, the defense of the city was gradually relaxed, because the Liao army almost ransacked the city for food, and the people in the city had to leave the city to flee for food and drink. Now there are no more than 20 people left.The Chao and Li families also escaped from Bianliang City taking advantage of the chaos.Because Luoyang and Xiangyang were heavily opposed by the Song and Liao armies, after they escaped from Bianliang, they traveled day and night all the way, planning to go to Shuzhong via Fangzhou and Jinzhou, and then went to their daughter and son-in-law for refuge. Turn west.

"The Liao thieves are extremely cunning, and Gao Zhen has no choice but to do the same. An important town like Yingchang Mansion was infiltrated by spies, and the inside and the outside cooperated. As a result, the Liao thieves fell overnight." Chao Buzhi sighed, "The soldiers and civilians in the interior of my country have been at ease for a long time, and they don't know how to fight. If it weren't for such an overkill, the Liao thieves would scam the city like a bag." Looking at the panic-stricken people, he shook his head and sighed.

"It seems that we have to bypass Fangzhou," Li Gefei sighed with a complicated look in his eyes, "After ten days or so, we will be in the middle of Shu." It is like a paradise in the middle of the world.Therefore, although the journey was rough and dangerous, there were still many people from the Song Kingdom fleeing westward, but for Chao and Li, this was an extremely difficult decision.Now that the two emperors are vying for the throne, Song Guo suddenly lost its orthodoxy, and it may be a "chaotic" minister and thief whoever votes.If not, it would not be easy for Mrs. Chao to persuade her husband to go to Shu to avoid disaster.

There was a lot of noise at the top of the city, and soon after, Chen Keli led a team of imperial guards and filled up a row of more than a dozen heads.The black lacquered plate was dripping with blood.The envoys of Bianliang and the guards of the Liao Army were all killed, while the guards of the Imperial Army were imprisoned first.He Jingguo looked at it, the two were warring, almost nauseated, and said to himself: "This Mr. Gao is usually gentle and gentle, but I didn't expect him to be a murderer without blinking an eye."

Gao Zhen ordered people to put the head in a wooden cage and hang it on the four doors, and said to Chen and He: "Our army killed the envoy of the Liao bandit, so we must prevent him from becoming angry and attacking to retaliate. Now your majesty has been captured by the Liao bandit Embarrassed, the generals in the camp have ulterior motives. I, Fangzhou, the emperor, will not obey the order of "chaos", but stick to it and wait for changes. The current priority is to collect the food and grass near the city first, and then evacuate the old and weak women and children inside and outside the city to Zhushan. , lest the Liao army come here to burn people's lives." Zhushan County is to the west of Fangzhou, and further west is Jinzhou, an important town for preventing Xia. It's also hard to get around.

In the past two months, there have been rumors of an attack by the Liao army. The people in the city fled with their families and their families, and the refugees outside the city wanted to go into the city to escape.In order to prevent the spying of the Liao people, Zhizhou Gao Zhen ordered the four gates to be strictly controlled, only to let people out, and not to let people into the city.In the Song Dynasty, Gao Zhen was well-known in the local area and won the support of the gentry and common people.He made up his mind, and neither Chen Keli, the military commander, nor He Jingguo, the capital supervisor, had any objections.

"Let's go." Chao Buzhi sighed, and turned around to go. At this moment, the crowd under Fangzhou City suddenly let out an exclamation. "Head!" Immediately afterwards, more people screamed.Chao Buzhi turned his head and saw a row of more than a dozen wooden cages hanging on the top of the city, and when he took a closer look, the envoys and the Liao soldiers who had just entered the city were in full bloom in the wooden cages.The people nearby were discussing a lot, some clapped their hands and applauded loudly, some people felt lingering fear, glad they didn't follow into the city just now.

"The younger generation is awesome, the younger generation is awesome!" Li Gefei sighed twice in succession.Chao Buzhi glanced at the banner of the Chengtou Banner, the figures of the officials of the Song Dynasty were blurred, and when he turned around and left, his backs looked a little older.Li Gefei felt Mrs. Wang's palms were cold, and guessed that she was frightened by the bloody scene, so he reached out and patted her on the back lightly, and sighed: "There are talented people from generation to generation, Gao Fangling made a decisive decision." , The act of breaking the boat and sinking the boat is far better than those of us old scholars."

He didn't want to be comforted, but Madam Wang couldn't help sobbing when she said this: "Ruoxu, my child..." Her voice was very low, and many women and children beside her were crying. So it doesn't attract attention at all.Li Gefei heard it clearly, as if his heart had been hit by a heavy hammer, he couldn't say any words of comfort.The eldest son Li Ruobing was envoy and trapped in the Khitan camp, and the life and death of the youngest son Li Ruoxu was uncertain.When he thought of this, his heart twitched.

Gao Zhen looked at the back of the elders in the Central Plains leaving, feeling guilty for a while.With a heavy tone, he told Chen Keli not to let up on the watch post, and first pile up the arrows, stones and other things for defending the city under the city wall near the corridor, so that they can be easily used when defending the city.Back in the study, Gao Zhen took out a letter from his bosom. There was nothing else on it, only four lines of poems were written: "Picking calamus at the bottom of a leisurely walk, a thousand-year-old dragon and snake hugging a stone. The Ming Dynasty was looking for Fangzhou Road, flying Don’t help me when I go down the mountain.” He sighed, and let a few clerks of the yamen come in, and ordered the clerks of the sixth room and the two classes of yamen servants, Zhuang Kuai, to check the city of Fangzhou for those who had taken refuge with relatives and friends in other places in the past few months, and at the same time check the people in the city. Household registration, if the Liao army besieges the city in the future, rations can be distributed by mouth.

Outside Fangzhou city, cars rumbled and horses were rustling. A group of chariots and horses slowly bypassed the heavily guarded city and continued westward.After the heads were hung on the top of the city, many people also gave up their last hope of going to the city to escape, dragging their families and fleeing towards the Daba Mountain and the remaining veins of the Qinling Mountains in the west.The prefectures and counties on the western border of the Song Dynasty were sparsely populated, and there were still many tigers and leopards in the dense forests of the mountains. But since they escaped here, no one returned to the land of the Central Plains, which was being slaughtered by the cavalry of the Liao army.

............

Although there are relatively few Liao soldiers in the west, the mountains around Fangling are dangerous and have been the place where the imperial court exiled prisoners since ancient times.Many people who lived on the plains for generations were instinctively afraid of the high mountains and dense forests, so they fled towards Xiangyang at the risk of being captured by the cavalry of the Liao army.Many people dared not walk during the day, so they hid in the hills and forests, and walked south in the dark at night.A lot of people were stopped by Liao soldiers when they walked halfway. After these people were wiped out, the strong ones were conscripted into signing troops.

Li Ruoxu squatted in a bush, his face was covered with dust, his lips were chapped, and his eyes were full of vigilance.In order to deceive people, the fox fur and silk robes were exchanged for sackcloth clothes and trousers from the people along the way, and they were covered outside the chain mail.He stuffed a handful of corn into his mouth and chewed hard.Just a few days ago, he saw a few rout soldiers who were spotted and killed by Liao cavalry because they were lighting a fire to keep warm.From then on, Li Ruoxu didn't dare to start a fire even if his hands and feet were frostbitten.He heard that Chen Dong and others were raising righteousness in Ezhou, so relying on his youth and strength, he managed to escape to the south.

There was a disgusting stench coming from the downwind, Li Ruoxu frowned, pushed aside the grass, and just walked not far away, he saw a few corpses in the sparse woods, it seemed that a family was robbed here, with white hair The gray old man, and the teenage children.I don't know whether it was the Liao soldiers or the country bandits.Several wild dogs were lowering their heads and biting beside the corpse.

"Duh, duh—" Li Ruoxu yelled a few times, "Go away!" He waved a wooden stick in his hand.

But the wild dog only raised its head and stared at him viciously, with a deep growl in its throat.The dog's eyeballs are all red.This is a beast used to eating dead human flesh. Even if Li Ruoxu is a living person, in the eyes of wild dogs, he is classified as "food".

"In troubled times," Li Ruoxu sighed, "humans are not as good as dogs." Suddenly, a burst of extreme grief and indignation surged in his heart, and he tightly grasped the stick in his hand. "You man-eating beasts!" Li Ruoxu growled, and beat the wild dogs like crazy.His eyes also turned red, and he roared angrily, "Man-eating beasts, you beasts!"