Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1289 Gao Zhan is captured

The continuous abandonment of the city and escape had undoubtedly caused great damage to morale. So soon after Gao Anagong led his army out of the city, chaos began to arise, and people kept leaving the team.

Gao Anagong actually kept his master's instructions in mind and set out at night without daring to stop. Although he also restricted those who fled along the way, he did so without affecting the team's speed. If it was too troublesome, he would simply ignore it.

  As a result, more and more people chose to leave the team. Some of the Hebei people were unwilling to follow Gao Zhan in the first place. They were forced to do so before, but now that they have the opportunity, they naturally have to find a way to escape!

In the middle of the night, a soldier suddenly came in and reported: "General, Master Wei left his carriage on the side of the road with a broken axle. He took advantage of the soldiers' unpreparedness and escaped with his servants!"

"Humph, these Han slaves are really untrustworthy!"

After hearing this, Gao Anagong immediately frowned and snorted. Wei Shou's status and position were naturally different from those of ordinary soldiers. He actually fled and got lost on the road. When Gao Zhan caught up with him in the future, he would inevitably scold and punish Gao Anagong.

Because he was anxious to get to the state border, Gao Anagong did not arrange personnel to conduct a large-scale search. He only ordered that Cui Jishu and other important people be gathered in the central army and kept under strict guard, so as not to give them any chance to leave the team.

After leaving the team, Wei Shou and his party did not dare to flee to the wilderness too far away from the road. In the wilderness, there were not only tigers and wolves rampant, but also bullies and desperate people. They had no weapons to protect themselves. Only a few servants holding wooden sticks protected Wei Shou and helped him return along the road, one step deep and one step shallow. At the same time, they paid close attention to the movements on the road. They were extremely nervous.

"My Lord, are you going to return to Qingzhou City? If the Tang army attacks..."

The servant following behind Wei Shou also had a confused look on his face. Seeing Wei Shou walking back and forth, he couldn't help but ask in a low voice.

After hearing this, Wei Shou sighed and said, "I wish the Tang army would attack quickly. Alas, I was detained here by the bandit king because of my reputation. If I had stayed in Yecheng at that time, I would have been eating Tang's salary by now!"

He hadn't finished sighing when a group of knights came galloping in the night, and they hurriedly lay down in the haystacks. However, a dog barked in the team, and it stopped several feet away from Wei Shou and others and kept barking.

"Who's hiding on the side of the road? Get out now!"

Seeing this, the team of knights naturally realized that there was someone hiding on the left side of the road, and immediately drew their bows and held their swords and shouted loudly.

"No, don't hurt anyone! My master is Master Wei..."

Upon seeing this, the servants around Wei Shou hurriedly shouted out their master's identity to avoid being killed by these knights.

"What is Wei Shaofu? Could it be that he is a fake official of the thief Qi?"

After hearing this, the knights asked again in confusion, and at the same time revealed their identities as scouts of the Tang army.

After hearing this, Wei Shou did not wait for the servant to reply, but hurriedly shouted back: "So you are the warriors of the Tang army, how gratifying! My name is Wei Shou, and I am the uncle of Li Xun, the King of Jiangxia of the Tang State. I was captured by the enemy and fell into this place. Now I have abandoned the enemy and returned to justice. I beg you to recruit me into the country!"

Although Wei Shou was in this pseudo-dynasty, he was very concerned about the people and affairs of the Tang State. In particular, he tried his best to find out the official rank and status of his nephew Li Xun in the Tang Dynasty. At this moment, he hurriedly shouted it out in front of the Tang army.

Although these Tang army scouts had never heard of Wei Shou's name, they were familiar with the famous kings of their own clan. When they heard Wei Shou shouting out the name of King Jiangxia, they sent two of them to come forward and invite Wei Shou and his entourage out.

When he learned that this team of scouts was tracking the team that had fled from Qingzhou, Wei Shou immediately volunteered to lead the way for them. In this chaotic wilderness, no one knew what kind of accidents they would encounter, so of course it was safer to go with the Tang army. As for betraying his former master, Wei Shou had no psychological burden at all.

With Wei Shou's guidance, this scout team quickly grasped the whereabouts of Gao Anagong and his party, and continued to convey the news to the rear, so the front troops of several Tang armies were attracted by Gao Anagong and his party. As for Qingzhou City, it was left for the rear division to advance.

As several vanguard cavalry of the Tang army followed up one after another, Gao Anagong gradually became aware of it and secretly groaned in his heart.

He was originally prepared to follow Gao Zhan's instructions and stay in the state for a while to wait for Gao Zhan to rush over from the rear to join him, but as the Tang army brigades were getting closer and closer, Gao Anagong did not dare to stay and hurriedly ordered his troops to speed up, hoping to get rid of the pursuers. The two sides were chasing each other, and the distance between them was getting closer and closer.

As the Tang army gathered on the way, they began to try to intercept and encircle them. As the enemy was getting closer and closer, Gao Anagong's soldiers kept leaving the team and fleeing along the way, so that Gao Anagong had fewer and fewer soldiers around him, and in the end there were only less than a thousand left.

"The thief, please dismount and surrender immediately. The king is magnanimous and will spare your life!"

The Tang army soldiers thought that Gao Zhan was among the troops, so they intercepted and encircled them while calling for surrender, hoping to capture Gao Zhan alive.

Gao Anagong was loyal, and even at this point, he still shouted to the soldiers to escort Gao Zhan's concubine and son together and try to get rid of the pursuers. However, as the encirclement gradually shrank, Gao Anagong was exhausted and fell off his horse, and was captured soon after.

"General, there is no bandit leader here!" After intercepting this team, the soldiers searched for it, but did not find any trace of the bandit leader Gao Zhan, so they hurriedly reported the situation to the commander-in-chief.

Yuwen Xin led the vanguard troops in pursuit, thinking he could add another achievement. But when he heard that Gao Zhan was not in the team, he was shocked and hurriedly ordered the prisoners to come up and asked, "Where is your bandit leader now?"

The ordinary soldiers were not aware that Gao Zhan did not set out with them, and they were also somewhat confused. Gao Anagong probably realized that he and his group were used as bait, especially when he saw the Tang army soldiers' eyes were about to spit fire, and he was panicked. He kowtowed and said: "I know where the thief leader is, I know where the thief leader is! I beg the general to spare my life, I am willing to cooperate with the royal army to capture the thief leader Gao Zhan!"

Although Gao Zhan had neither the ambition nor the ability to turn the tide, he did have some talent. He arranged for Gao Anagong and his party to escape first, making people misunderstand that he had also escaped. As he wished, he attracted the vanguards of the Tang army to the east, and Qingzhou City was not attacked immediately.

But despite this, the situation in the city did not improve much. Although He Shikai was appointed to take charge of the city defense, the city defense was already in a mess and in name only. Especially after the news of Gao Zhan's escape spread, the order in the city collapsed further, and He Shikai was completely unable to control the soldiers in the city.

These defenders were originally recruited locally, and seeing that the city was about to be lost, many of them fled and planned to take advantage of the chaos to return to their hometowns. Some of them, with swords and guns in their hands, became bolder and wanted to use their weapons to rob the city before the enemy arrived. As these knife-wielding thugs rushed into the streets, the riots in the city intensified.

"No disturbance! As long as you can defend the city and repel the enemy, the Supreme will reward you handsomely!"

He Shikai did not expect the situation to collapse so completely. He was still clamoring to control the situation, but there were only a few people willing to obey his orders.

Gao Zhan's tricks certainly temporarily misled the Tang army, but they also completely destroyed his own dignity and appeal. The soldiers and civilians in the city thought that he had abandoned the city and fled, and no one respected He Shikai, who was a bully under his command.

"Bullshit Supreme, bullshit reward! You Hebei thieves have been defeated and retreated here, bringing disaster to this town. Now that your leader has abandoned us and fled, you thieves are still trying to trick me into risking my life. How despicable!"

Some generals could not contain their anger and pointed at He Shikai and yelled at him. Some even shouted angrily, "The Tang army is about to besiege the city, but the emperor is so unkind that he has abandoned the people and left his confidants here, hoping that we will fight to the death to stop the enemy. This is really unbearable! Rather than sacrifice our lives for this unkind ruler, it is better to take this thief's confidant and surrender to the Tang army!"

“No, no…”

He Shikai had originally planned to leave his unit after arranging the defenses in the city, to join Gao Zhan and others and wait for a chance to leave the city. However, he did not expect that these soldiers became chaotic, ignored his orders, and even wanted to kidnap him to surrender to the enemy. He was shocked and wanted to turn around and flee, but before he ran too far, he was grabbed by the neck by several strong soldiers and then tied up and locked in a room.

The Tang army's vanguard was attracted eastward, and the rear division's marching speed was not fast enough, which created a brief vacuum in Qingzhou City, giving the soldiers in the city time to loot and plunder.

However, as Han Xiong led his troops to appear outside Qingzhou City, some defending soldiers who had been waiting for a long time hurriedly dragged He Shikai out to surrender. Although He Shikai struggled hard, he was eventually captured and sent to Han Xiong.

The situation had developed to this point, and he was also caught off guard. Seeing that he had no hope of escaping, He Shikai quickly shouted, "General, please spare my life! General, please spare my life! I am He Shikai, a trusted confidant of the Qi Lord, and I have great achievements to offer to you. The Qi Lord Gao Zhan has not fled, but is still hiding in the city..."

"Are you serious? Lead the division and brigade there immediately!"

After hearing this, Han Xiong's eyes lit up immediately. He took a step forward, grabbed He Shikai and said in a deep voice.

Under the leadership of He Shikai, the Tang army quickly blocked off a temple in the south of the city. Before the arrival of the Tang army, the temple had been severely damaged and had been looted by several groups of soldiers and bandits. The entire temple was in a mess.

"My Lord, where is the thief leader Gao Zhan?"

When He Shikai brought the Tang army here and saw the mess in the temple, he was dumbfounded for a moment. He hurriedly grabbed a palace slave hiding in the corridor and asked.

"Before, rebel soldiers entered the temple to disturb it. Although they were repelled, they soon came again. In order to conceal their whereabouts, the Supreme, the Supreme, disguised himself as a woman and hid behind the temple with the Queen..."

The palace slave hung his head and answered with a trembling voice.

At this time, the Tang army soldiers who entered the temple to search also gained something. They led Han Xiong and his party to a row of Buddhist temples in the temple. There were many palace slaves and female relatives hiding in the temples. After the rebel soldiers rushed in, they focused on this place. Therefore, many palace servants in ragged clothes were crying with their faces covered.

Han Xiong walked into a Buddhist temple in the middle. There were many clothes, skirts and jewelry scattered on the floor. A man was lying on a couch, covered with a thin silk shirt, with hairpins and ornaments on his head and face. However, his face was pale, and his face was red, swollen and bleeding. He looked weak and miserable, as if he had been brutally ravaged.

Even though Han Xiong had seen a lot of things, when he saw this scene after entering the room, his expression froze for a moment, and he couldn't recover for a long time. Full of suspicion, he asked someone to lead He Shikai here, pointed at the body lying on the couch and asked, "Is this really the thief leader Gao Zhan?"