subvert the late Tang Dynasty

Three days later, the three brothers Zhu Wen, Zhu Cun, and Zhu Zhen led 1000 troops to Changyuan in the northeast.

In the past three days, Zhu Wen has divided 900 people except his own [-] personal guards into three teams, including [-] archers, [-] light cavalry, and [-] infantry.

Most of the bows and arrows and horses were seized from the officers and soldiers, and the other equipment of the troops was a bit messy.There are all kinds of armor, some even have no armor at all, just a commoner, and the weapons are of different lengths, and some even just hold farm tools such as tridents or hoes.

Zhu Wen looked at the 1000 people and shook his head, feeling a little worried, but the military order is hard to violate, so he can only take one step at a time.

The distance between Changyuan and Kuangcheng is only more than [-] miles. Although they are two cities, they have been merged into one county in the eighth year of Zhenguan, that is, Kuangcheng County.In fact, Changyuan was only a subsidiary city of Kuangcheng, and it was rare to have two cities in one county at that time.

Monk Wang Xianzhi and others started the uprising from Changyuan, which is of great commemorative significance to the rebels.

Since Changyuan is not smaller than Kuangcheng, it only belongs to Kuangcheng administratively.When the rebels occupied Kuangcheng, the defenders of Kuangcheng withdrew into Changyuan City in the northeast without any resistance, and the defenders of the two cities guarded Changyuan together.Therefore, although Changyuan is a small city, there are more than a thousand people, and it is a bit difficult to attack Changyuan with Zhu Wen's 1000 people.

Zhu Wen's 1000 troops had already arrived outside the west gate of Changyuan, but the city gate was closed tightly.The suspension bridge over the moat has been hoisted, and there are many pennants on the top of the city, and rows of archers are waiting.

Zhu Wen thought to himself, if he had no machinery to attack the city, and no advantage in military strength, how could he successfully capture Changyuan?

Changyuan City was first built in Wei State during the Warring States Period, named Puyi, and was later annexed by Wei State and renamed Changyuan.The city has a long history and has been through many wars, so the city walls are extraordinarily tall and strong. Although the city is small, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In Changyuan City, they heard that the soldiers of the rebel army had arrived at the base of the city, and they all panicked. The general guarding the city was already trembling with fright, and said: "The bandit army is powerful, let's hurry up, if it is too late, it will be too late."

A lieutenant general said: "I see that the bandits have no more than a thousand soldiers, and my lord asked me to lead hundreds of troops out of the city to fight against the bandits."

The county magistrate hesitated and said: "The rebel soldiers assembled tens of thousands of horses in Kuangcheng. Kuangcheng is only about 1000 miles away from here. How could only 1000 people come? It must be a trick of the rebel soldiers. First, [-] people were sent outside the city Formation, the army is in ambush, if our army opens the city to fight, he will definitely attack Changyuan City with all the ambushes, and I will die without a place to die. General Hu must not go out to battle lightly."

The General Pi surnamed Hu didn't take it seriously, but he didn't dare to refute, saying: "How can we retreat from the enemy?"

The county magistrate said: "I intend to go to Huazhou to ask for reinforcements, but on the way there are tens of thousands of rebels from Kuangcheng blocking it. It is better for General Hu to lead dozens of elites out of the city from the south gate, bypassing the defenders outside the city and going to Bianzhou to ask for help. Now the imperial court It is not known whether the troops from all walks of life will gather in Bianzhou, or they may move to rescue them."

The young general surnamed Hu led the way.

In addition, Zhu Wen and others saw that there was no hope of attacking the city, the officers and soldiers in the city did not dare to leave the city, and they could not explain to Lin Yan about the withdrawal of the troops, so they had to camp three miles outside the city and play by ear.

Zhu Wen told Zhu Zhen to let Tan Ma closely monitor the movements of the city gates, and arrest anyone who left the city.

At the second watch of the same night, Zhu Zhen heard a report from his subordinates on the horses that someone led twenty riders out of the south gate.Zhu Zhen said in her heart: I haven't made any contribution since I took office. The opportunity came so soon. The officers and soldiers must send people to rescue the soldiers. Among the nearby counties, Caozhou is hard to protect itself, and the roads in Huazhou are impassable. Only Bianzhou has heavy troops. assemble.Immediately put on horses and lead fifty cavalry to ambush on the only way to Bianzhou thirty miles away.

Not long after Zhu Zhen had ambushed the good men and horses, she heard the sound of horses' hooves on the road from far to near.It turned out that the young general surnamed Hu was afraid of being discovered after he left the city, so he didn't dare to get on his horse and go fast.Only then did Zhu Zhen have time to ambush people.

When Zhu Zhen came to the horse, she gave an order, and 50 people fired their bows and crossbows at once, and the horsemen fell off their horses one after another.Zhu Zhen saw that the leader hid in a stirrup to avoid the bow and crossbow, did not stop at all, and continued to run forward.

Zhu Zhen rode his horse and chased after him. He only controlled the horse with his legs, bent his bow and set up an arrow to aim at the back of the man's heart.The man turned sideways to pass, even flung two sleeve arrows casually, Zhu Zhen stepped aside shortly.

Zhu Zhen saw that the man was very good at equestrianism, and his movements were vigorous. She never thought that such a person could exist in such a small Changyuan City, so she felt sympathy for each other.Although Zhu Zhen didn't want to hurt him, she couldn't let him go to Bianzhou to rescue soldiers.At that moment, another arrow was shot, which hit the man's butt.

Zhu Zhen often hunts in the mountains, with a bow and arrow in her hand, she can kill even tigers and leopards, let alone horses?The horse was hit by an arrow and fell, and the rider fell off the horse, and rolled a long way on the ground without moving.

Zhu Zhen thought to herself that she won't fall to her death, right?Hurry up and go to find out.Unexpectedly, as soon as the man waved his hand, two sleeve arrows flew towards him, but one arrow was aimed at Zhu Zhen, and the other arrow was aimed at Zhu Zhen's mount.Zhu Zhen dodged the sleeve arrow sideways, she sat down on the horse, but with a long hiss, someone stood up, throwing Zhu Zhen off the horse.It turned out that the arrow hit the horse's left eye.

Zhu Zhen dropped the bow and arrow, took off the long knife hanging on the side of the saddle, and stood opposite the man.

At this time, Zhu Zhen's subordinates had already rode their horses to surround the two of them.

The man fell off the horse, and the helmet was nowhere to be found. At this time, the two were closer to each other. Under the moonlight, they saw that the man was tall and heroic, and he was only 22 or [-] years old.

The man looked at Zhu Zhen and said, "Does the general have the guts to fight me alone?"

Zhu Zhen smiled and said: "It's exactly what I want. My Zhu Zhen subordinates don't kill the unknown people, and don't report their names."

The man said: "Don't be complacent, General Changyuan. I am Hu Zhen, General Changyuan." Hu Zhen took the spear from the dead horse on the ground, flicked the spear, and even stabbed Zhu Zhen in the chest with the middle palace.

Zhu Zhen swiped the opponent's long spear aside, and the blade cut along the barrel of the gun, forcing the opponent to shoot.

Hu Zhen laughed lightly: "There are still two tricks!" He didn't shoot the gun, but he shook the gun barrel, knocked away Zhu Zhen's big knife, swung the gun horizontally, and didn't dare to make rash moves again.

After the trial of this move, both of them knew that the other party was a formidable opponent, and neither dared to make a move easily.The two confronted each other for a long time, but Zhu Zhen remained calm.

After all, Hu Zhen was surrounded by the enemy army, a little impetuous, and attacked Zhu Zhen with a gun, and Zhu Zhen greeted him with a knife.The two fought with swords and guns for more than half an hour, and Zhu Zhen sliced ​​off a piece of flesh on Hu Zhen's shoulder, dripping with blood.Zhu Zhen's helmet was also shot off by Hu Zhen, but it was only a hair's breadth away from Zhu Zhen's life, and Zhu Zhen was also afraid for a while.

Zhu Zhen said: "Now that you are injured, if you continue to fight, you will definitely lose. Do you want to continue fighting?"

Hu Zhen said: "The man should have died on the battlefield, wrapped in horse leather, today I fall into your hands, kill or cut as you please!"

Zhu Zhen praised: "Good job, this is a real hero, a real hero. If it weren't for you and me being masters, I would have made you my friend!" Turning around, he said to his subordinates: "Tie me up."