weaving

Chapter 529

Liu Zongmin galloped towards him, dismounted beside King Chuang, and hurried forward and said, "Brother Li, the officers and soldiers are so vicious, they don't care about the lives of the people, they fired a volley of guns and rockets, and my son also suffered heavy casualties."

The smile on Li Zicheng's face was no longer there, he just said lightly: "That's all. Let's leave it at that for today. Order all the ministries to retreat back to the camp and strictly guard the line of defense. Don't call the officers and soldiers to attack."

At this time Zhang Nai also ran back in disgrace, and when he heard that King Chuang wanted to withdraw his troops, he hurriedly asked, "King Chuang, with the withdrawal of troops at this time, do you not care about Uncle Erhu's side?"

Li Zicheng glanced at him, and said: "The Erhu side, it all depends on his personal luck."

He then said to a leader of the soldiers beside him: "Take a few people and send an order to the south of the city, telling Liu Fangliang to lead the army to join me in the west of the city, so as not to be attacked by officers and soldiers again."

Chuang Wang pondered for a moment, then suddenly asked Liu Zongmin: "Jiexuan, if the cavalry attack with all their strength, can they break the formation of the officers and soldiers?"

Liu Zongmin didn't answer directly, he looked at the formation of officers and soldiers in the distance, and the corpses of hungry people and bandit soldiers in front of the formation, he sighed first, and then said: "The officers and soldiers have sharp guns, and I don't know what to do next. If you ask the cavalry to charge hard, you may be able to break through the formation of chariots in one fell swoop, but..."

He hesitated for a moment, and then continued: "It's just that our cavalry will die with the officers and soldiers, there will be no one out of ten!"

Li Zicheng just frowned, and said lightly: "The cavalry is our foundation and should not be used lightly."

He also sighed softly and said, "Retreat!"

At this time, Bai Wang asked from the side: "King Chuang, where are those hungry people?"

Li Zicheng turned around and ran to his oolong horse, without looking back, he said: "It's useless to keep it, let it go!"

…………

On the two battlefields in the west and north of Kaifeng City, the officers and troops led by Zhang Cheng fought fiercely with the intruders for nearly two hours. Withdrew to the south of the city, and then withdrew to the west of the city.

In Shenshi, the sky became darker and darker. In the north of Kaifeng City, a few snowflakes first drifted down, wrapped in the icy cold wind, and gradually the whole city of Kaifeng was covered with snowflakes, and everywhere was covered with whiteness.

Both the officers and soldiers and the rebel soldiers also went on strike, and everyone returned to their camps, buried pots for cooking, and treated the wounded.

As the victorious side, regardless of the north or west of the city, all the troops under Zhang Cheng's command still had to clean up the battlefield. They braved the cold wind and falling snow to pile up corpses so that they could be buried after the war. Starving people and bandit soldiers who were slightly injured but not killed.

Zhang Cheng's camp was set up in Liu Tichun's camp in the north of Kaifeng City, where Zhang Cheng's Central Army and Beijing guerrilla Chen Chongchang's troops were stationed.

While Chen Dakuan's headquarters of the infantry camp was stationed in the camp of the original thief Kowa Guanzi, Zhang Guodong led Jin Yong's troops to set up a new camp outside the North Gate of Kaifeng, where nearly [-] bandit soldiers and more than [-] hungry people were captured. They were all guarded in his camp.

At this moment, bonfires were burning everywhere in his camp, and there were large iron pots on top, filled with hot porridge that was being boiled inside, and around each big pot was a team of armored soldiers maintaining order.

It turned out that when the battle at the north gate was coming to an end, Zhang Cheng sent people to guard the way and Lord Su Zhuangsu entered the city of Kaifeng. grain to appease the bandits and hungry people outside the city.

King Zhou was very wise, and he also knew the importance of calming people's hearts at this time. Under his advocacy and example, Wang Xie, the magistrate of Xiangfu County, quickly brought a cartload of grain from the city.

Gao Mingheng, the inspector of Henan Province, Liang Bing, the old official in charge of the Taoist affairs, Cai Maode, the right minister of Henan Province, and Cao Kun, the envoy of Zhou Wangfu, were in Zhang Cheng's tent of the Chinese army at this time.

In fact, long before Su Zhuang entered the city, the officials in the city knew that the army was coming to help, but when the battle outside the city continued, they did not dare to leave the city.

It wasn't until the battle in the north of the city was settled and the intruders in the west of the city withdrew their troops back to their camps that they organized the gentry and officials in the city to carry pigs and sheep to work outside the city.

Although it is called Lao Jun, in fact, I still want to invite Zhang Cheng to lead an army into the city to help protect Kaifeng's prefecture.

In their view, the bandit army is still powerful. It is rumored that there are hundreds of thousands of troops under the city of Luoyang. Who can guarantee that it is not the vanguard of the bandits who came to the city of Kaifeng at this time.

If an army of hundreds of thousands of bandits really came later, how could Zhang Cheng be able to resist since there were less than [-] people in Zhang Cheng's area?

As for the pigs, sheep, grains and grains they sent, Zhang Cheng took them all according to the order, and ordered someone to take some to Wei Zhice's camp, but none of the rich gentry and officials in the city disappeared.

But for ministers of border control like Gao Mingheng, Liang Bing, and Cai Maode, it was not easy to see, especially Cao Kun, the servant of Zhou Wangfu, who represented His Royal Highness Zhou Wang.

Although Zhang Cheng didn't put King Zhou in his eyes, he didn't dare to go too far in face matters, not to mention he was still thinking about the 10 taels of silver promised by King Zhou!
In the army tent, Gao Mingheng was still trying to persuade: "General Zhang knows that there were hundreds of thousands of thieves when they were in Luoyang city, but now there are only tens of thousands outside Kaifeng city. How do you know that there will be no more in the future?" A large number of thieves arrived.

Even Zhou Wang Qiansui said, please General Zhang lead his troops into the city to garrison in order to protect the safety of hundreds of thousands of people in Fucheng. Since we are pleading for the people today, I hope General Zhang think twice! "

Cao Kun also said: "His Royal Highness Zhou also knows that General Zhang is a hero, and his subordinates are even more powerful. However, bandits are always cunning and cunning. His Highness is also afraid that the general will be stationed outside the city, and he is afraid of the robbers."

Zhang Cheng said with a smile: "Zhang Cheng is really touched by the kindness of King Zhou Qiansui and your lords. However, since we have entered the army, we should be loyal to the king and serve the country. Since we are facing the bandits today, we should defeat them on the battlefield. .

Zhang Cheng asks all of you to be at ease, and also asks Cao Chengfeng to report to King Qiansui of Zhou that Zhang Cheng will definitely repel the bandits within three or four days, so that the officials, gentry and people in Kaifeng can live a peaceful and stable year. "

The officials tried hard to persuade them to no avail, so they had to invite Zhang Cheng to the city for a banquet, but Zhang Cheng politely declined. They also knew that the intruders had not retreated, and the military situation was changing rapidly, so they no longer insisted. We must solemnly celebrate Zhang Cheng.

…………

In the Chuangjun camp in the west of Kaifeng City, although bonfires were lit everywhere as usual, it was obvious that the lively atmosphere of the past was gone, and there were occasional wailing screams of wounded soldiers.

When Li Zicheng came back from his tour of the camp, he saw Zhang Nai rushing into the army tent and said, "King Chuang, my Uncle Erhu is back!"

King Chuang was taken aback when he heard the words, and asked anxiously, "Where is the man? How did he escape back? The injury is serious!"

(End of this chapter)