Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

As night fell, the Song army camp was located on the river bank, 130 miles south of Xijin Prefecture.

Bonfires were dotted around for more than ten miles, scattered in the military camp, with spots of sparks rising up. In the central army tent, the brazier was burning fiercely. The generals were sitting on both sides. Warm wine was placed on the table, and large pieces of golden roasted mutton were served. The whole tent was filled with the aroma of wine and meat.

You cannot drink alcohol during war, but this time is an exception, because the vanguard Song Jiang encountered the resentful army as he expected. Song Jiang followed the order and did not attack, and the resentful army on the opposite side did not launch an offensive. Instead, the two armies quickly exchanged information, and then Guo Yaoshi sent his generals as messengers to contact them.

"General Guo's willingness to surrender is a blessing for our country." Liu Yanqing smiled and looked at the figure closest to him on the right: "General Liu, please bring the emperor's order to General Guo. The official position conferred in it will take effect immediately."

Liu Shunren also had a happy look on his face. He was wearing the clothes of ordinary people in Liao Dynasty, which made him look even less like a good person. He raised his wine bowl and saluted the figure at the top: "Thank you, General Liu Jie. My army is from Liaodong. We have been recruiting Han soldiers since we came to Nanjing Road. Naturally, we are close to your Southern Dynasty."

The voice was loud and clear, and many generals in the military tent had strange expressions on their faces, looking at Liu Shunren over there with inexplicable eyes. It sounded like he was trying to build a relationship, but when they thought about it carefully, it didn't sound right.

"I blame the army" and "You Southern Dynasty" seven words came out of the other party's mouth. Liu Yanqing turned a little dark, and then laughed: "General Guo is a dragon and phoenix among the soldiers. It's no wonder that the government renamed you the 'Ever-Victorious Army'. From now on, we will be ministers in the same palace, so we should get closer."

His eyes were fixed on the fierce-looking man over there, and he emphasized the words "official" and "minister" so much that he almost grabbed his ears and shouted at the top of his lungs.

Liu Shunren drank the wine in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and looked at Liu Yanqing with wide eyes: "Ever-Victorious Army? Hahaha, your country's official is really a man who knows the truth." Then he patted his chest with his hands, making a thumping sound: "Don't worry, since your country's official values ​​us so much, we are willing to return the favor."

Yang Keshi, Zhai Jin, Qiu Yue, Zhou Ang and dozens of other leading generals could not help but pinch their brows, holding up their wine bowls to cover their facial expressions, and those sitting at the back turned their heads away, shrugging their shoulders.

Liu Yanqing couldn't help but roll his eyes, cursing in his heart that the people of the north are indeed vulgar and can't speak human language. You deserve to be ruled by the Khitans for hundreds of years. His face was smiling without showing any abnormality: "That's very good, very good, hahahaha, come on, drink more, this is all the best imperial wine, you can't drink it easily."

"Oh?" Liu Shunren was really interested. He poured the wine into his mouth, smacked his lips, and muttered, "Hmm... a little soft, a little like what women drink, but it's also good wine."

The voice was not loud. Zhai Jin, who was sitting nearby, lowered his eyes and turned his head away. Qiu Yue, however, was furious. He glared at Liu Shunren fiercely and slammed the wine bowl on the table. "Bang!" He said, "You bastard, you have been speaking in a sarcastic tone since just now. Are you kidding me?"

Liu Shunren opened his eyes wide: "Where did you get this from?"

Before Qiu Yue could say anything more, Liu Yanqing's voice came from above: "General Qiu, you are drunk."

Qiu Yue looked at him, then at Liu Shunren who looked confused, and turned his head away with a "humph", clasped his fists and said, "I am drunk and out of control, please forgive me, Marshal."

Liu Yanqing waved his hand to indicate that it was okay, but just looked at it and said, "It seems that this wine is not to General Liu's taste."

"No, no." Liu Shunren smiled roughly and took the wine bowl from the table: "I am a rough man and I like spicy food. Although this wine is good, it is not my favorite."

This piece of shit is not presentable!

Several expressionless generals sneered in their hearts. Only Liu Yanqing was alert enough to deal with the general sent by the resentful army. He also regretted that he should have brought a few men who could hang out at the wine table this time. The material in front of him really made him uncomfortable.

Forcing a smile, Liu Yanqing persuaded him to drink two more bowls of wine. He couldn't help but ask, "Commander Liu, when will General Guo cooperate with our army to counterattack Xijin Prefecture?"

"belch--"

Liu Shunren burped, grinned, picked out a piece of meat with his little finger, looked at it twice, and put it back into his mouth to eat.

Zhai Jin, who was close to him, moved his butt silently. Qiu Yue snorted again and turned to sit on the other side, trying not to see anything.

Liu Yanqing's eyes twitched and he almost threw away his wine bowl.

Liu Shunren glanced at the first person, laughed, and rubbed his little finger on his body: "The commander-in-chief told me about this before I came here." He looked Liu Yanqing up and down: "But has General Liu forgotten one thing? I haven't seen your official calligraphy yet."

"It was my negligence." Liu Yanqing looked to the side and saw a personal soldier walking over with a piece of silk in his hands, bending down and handing it to the other party.

Liu Shunren took it, opened it and looked at it for a few seconds, then put it in his arms without thinking, poured himself a bowl of wine, and looked at Liu Yanqing: "We will wait fifty miles in front of Xijin Prefecture. If there is no reaction in the city when you come, our two armies can attack immediately."

Liu Yanqing's face lit up, and the voice in his ear continued: "Of course, if the soldiers in the city are on guard, we will also send a message over, and then our two armies will stage a scene to see if we can dispel the suspicion of the people in the city."

"Very good, very good!" Liu Yanqing stood up with a laugh and held the wine bowl to Liu Shunren: "Come on, come on, drink it up, drink it up."

……

Changping.

A long black dragon coiled up into the sky, a large flag with the word "Xiao" written on it was raised on the city gate tower, the sounds of fighting and shouting hovered above the city, and stones were thrown down with whistling sounds, splashing waves of blood on the city walls.

"Dongduanwu, go get support!"

A roar came from Xiao Gan's mouth, and he pushed his brave general Alu over. The strong figure ran two steps wildly, then grabbed the big knife in his hand, roared "Follow me!", and ran forward madly with a group of soldiers.

The beacon fire spread to the top of the city wall, and arrows kept flying. A figure wearing armor was escorted by his personal guards to the end of the city wall. Xiao Gan had a gloomy expression, and his eyes twitched from time to time. A few stray arrows flew over and were blocked by his personal guards holding up shields. Suddenly, he raised his voice and shouted: "Let the reserve soldiers in the city come up immediately to replace the tired people, quickly-"

He looked at the big flag with the word "Qi" and the two flags with the words "Du" and "Sun" flying outside, and said nothing, but issued an order.

Arrows were flying in the sky like locusts, and the sounds of shouting and killing were endless. When it was getting dark, the sound of a bugle was heard in the distance, and the defenders on the city walls all breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiao Gan held the bricks on the top of the city wall for a while, then turned around and said, "Send a message to Xijin Prefecture to temporarily withdraw the Qi bandits' troops and horses and ask them to transport some supplies for defending the city."

……

Same sky, different cities.

Huairou.

On the towering city wall, Lu Bu stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the soldiers entering the city below, with no expression on his face. After a while, he walked down the city wall with his personal guards behind him and took a carriage into the provincial government.

The sky was dim and cold. The original main hall was converted into a meeting place. Several braziers were burning charcoal, keeping the house warm.

A huge geomancy map was hung on the wall, with various colored flags densely marking the situation in Yanyun. In addition to generals such as Yelu Yudu and He Zhongbao who were leading troops outside, Xiao Haili, Han Shizhong, Wanyan Loushi, Wang De and others were also there. Civil officials such as Wang Zheng, Zhang Lin and Lu Sili were also pointing and commenting in front of the geomancy map. In such a situation, everyone's face was beaming with joy.

After Lu Bu came in, the others all turned around and bowed. His burly figure passed by the crowd of civil and military officials, stood in front of the feng shui map for a while, and then turned around.

"… With Huairou under our belt, the roads to Zhongjing and Xijing are open. We can support General Du Fu in Changping in the west, and overlook Nanjing in the south. By the way, Luxian and Xianghe can also be connected. It can be said that our army has occupied most of the territory of Nanjing Road."

The light shone on Lu Bu's face. He shook the hem of his robe and sat down. "In recent days, nine out of ten houses are empty wherever I go. The Liao people have recruited all the old, young, women and children, and the Song people are advancing faster than us.

I am thinking that even if we take over this land, after the bloodbath on the battlefield, I am afraid that there will be no civilians left.”

Zhang Lin looked at the map hanging on the wall and frowned, "Your Majesty, are you going to move the people here?"

The guards brought in hot wine and dinner. Lu Bu gestured to the generals to sit down. He looked up at the flags of different colors on the geomancy map and said, "I have this idea, but the people in the other counties are not large enough to be relocated at will."

He took a breath: "I'm worried..."

Several generals looked at each other and said nothing. They were only concerned with fighting wars and were not very well versed in domestic affairs.

Wang Zheng took a sip of wine, picked up the mutton and took a bite. He closed his eyes and chewed for a long time before swallowing: "Zheng has some ideas..."

Seeing everyone looking at him, he licked the sheep fat on his lips and said, "We must take down Xijin Prefecture as soon as possible. So many people are enlisting in such a short time. It must be a forced conscription. Their sense of belonging to the court is definitely not strong. As long as we can defeat the Liao army as soon as possible, we can send them back."

"Isn't this nonsense..." Xiao Haili stared at him with one eye: "The current situation is that the Song people arrived at Xijin Prefecture before us. If they break in, all the people in the city will belong to them. If you have a solution, tell me quickly."

Wang Zheng rolled his eyes lazily, took a sip of wine, and pondered: "This method is a last resort."

Seeing everyone's curious eyes, he said, "As General Xiao Haili said, the Song people in the south are approaching Xijin Prefecture. As expected, they entered the city before us.

Therefore, Zheng thought, it would be better to let Yelu Yudu, He Zhongbao and others in the front change into Liao army clothes, take the opportunity to attack the Song army's rear, let them be defeated, and then we will attack Xijin Prefecture. In this way, although there will be some losses in the city, it will not be great, and most of the population should be able to survive. "

"Your method..." Zhang Lin and Lu Sili's expressions were indescribable.

Lu Bu looked at him, lowered his head to think for a moment, and squinted his tiger eyes: "Will it be too late in time?"

"It should be OK."

Wang Zheng thought about it and nodded: "Our army is not far from Xijin Prefecture, and the Song army still has to face the obstruction of the Liao army. When our troops are dressed, they should be attacking Xijin Prefecture."

He frowned and said, "If our army attacks from the side, we can just push the Song army back. We may even be able to trick the gate of Xijin Prefecture into opening, thus saving us the hard battle of attacking the city."

Han Shizhong and Wang De looked at each other and said nothing.

Wanyan Loushi and Xiao Haili clapped their hands, and the latter stood up and said, "This is indeed a solution. Your Majesty, I will send the troops to the front."

Lu Bu closed his eyes and thought for a while, then looked at him and nodded: "Okay, also send a message to Yelu Ma Wu, Han Qinghe, and Han Chang, father and son, and let them go with you."

Xiao Haili was overjoyed and replied "Yes!" and was about to leave.

Seeing his movements, Lu Bu quickly called out, "Wait."

Xiao Haili looked back in confusion.

"Your appearance has become conspicuous now, so don't step out without permission. Let Dong Ping and Hu Yanzhuo protect you." Lu Bu said to the Khitan man who had followed him the earliest. He thought for a while and said, "We don't need too many soldiers, but they must be elite."

"Don't worry, Your Majesty!" Xiao Haili grinned, "I cherish my life and will never run forward recklessly."

Lu Bu nodded, and then instructed Yu Cheng: "Send a message to Li Ying, asking him to cooperate in preparing the Liao army's weapons and armor, and then send a message to Xu Wen, asking him to bring a hundred elite soldiers with him."

"Here!"

Yu Cheng clasped his fists and went out with Xiao Haili.

Late at night, a team of three thousand men ran outside in the darkness.

……

In the middle of winter, the sky was gloomy.

Since Liu Yanqing discussed with the generals of the same surname, he has been urging the army to head north. When Song Jiang received the order to unite the two armies, he was thoughtful and then sent Dai Zong, Liu Tong and others to the resentful army.

Guo Yaoshi was overjoyed when he received the imperial edict from Liu Shunren appointing him as the Tongzhi of Yanjing, the commander-in-chief of the Ever-Victorious Army, and the commander of the four armies in Hebei. When he saw the envoys sent by the Song army, he quickly arranged a banquet to receive them and made an agreement on what to do. Then Dai Zong and Liu Tong quickly returned.

Guichou, Liu Yanqing arrived with the central army and immediately ordered Song Jiang to lead the army to march quickly. Guo Yaoshi did not hesitate and directly broke camp and left. The two armies almost merged into a torrent and rushed back towards Xijin Prefecture.

When the battle report came from Changping, the defenders of Xijin Prefecture tightened their nerves. When they saw the army rushing towards them from afar, many of them became nervous, but when they saw the flags of the resentful army, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

"No, no, no!" A guard who had been looking into the distance suddenly jumped up: "In the distance! In the distance is the flag of the Song army, quickly ring the golden bell!"

He turned to look at the soldier who was still standing, and suddenly became anxious. He kicked the man a few feet away and said, "What are you doing standing there like a donkey? Go!"

The soldier had just joined the army and was just reacting after being kicked. He quickly let out an "Oh!" and got up and ran, staggering to the place where the bronze bell was hung on the top of the city wall.

When——(End of this chapter)