Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

Chapter 878 Military Intelligence
The sky brightened and birds flew far across the sky.

The surrounding voices quieted down, and Lu Bu's eyes fell on Wanyan Zongbing. The young man over there stopped immediately, quickly rolled off his horse, and bowed down: "Your Majesty, I have something to say."

Lu Bu frowned over there, but still didn't speak.

The Jurchen man named Wushu looked at Wanyan Zonghan fiercely, lowered his head and said, "We came to Zhongjing Road to defeat the Liao army and break their encirclement. Next, we have to go to Shangjing Road quickly, so I didn't stop these fleeing soldiers, I just captured some of the officers who escaped."

All the generals gathered around. Lu Bu stared at Wanyan Zongbing expressionlessly for a while, and the Jurchen man had sweat running down his cheeks. After a while, he said, "The military order is for you to intercept the escaped people, not for you to change it at will. Go down and receive forty military sticks, and confiscate half a year's salary, and demote you by one level."

Wanyan Zongbing opened his mouth and finally bowed his head: "Thank you, Your Majesty."

Lü Bu smiled on his serious face: "Okay, the battle is over. The soldiers have worked hard all night. Let's find a place to rest first..." The guards brought Red Hare over and got on the horse: "We will go north to fight the Liao people later. If you can capture Shangjing in one battle this time, you will all be rewarded. How much you can get depends on how well you can do."

Everyone looked at each other, bowed together, and answered loudly, "Yes", then Red Hare ran out, and the generals mounted their horses and chased after him, leaving only two figures standing there, one kneeling and one standing.

"Brother Wushu..."

The voice reached Wanyan Zongbing's ears. The man raised his head and stood up expressionlessly. Wanyan Bendu looked at him hesitantly and opened his mouth: "... Are you okay?"

"What's the matter?" Wanyan Zongbing glanced at his deputy general, turned around and walked towards the warhorse: "Hurry up and catch up."

Behind, Wanyan Bendu frowned as he looked at the man in front of him, but finally he sighed and chased after him.

In the last ten days of early summer, the allied forces of Nanjing and Zhongjing were burned down by the Qi army on the banks of the Daling River. The fire burned all night, and the sky over the river was reflected in a fiery red. Soldiers fled in all directions, and countless people jumped into the river at night and drowned. The corpses flowed down the river, and the river was almost filled with corpses. The people on both sides of the river were terrified and hurried to report to the authorities.

After receiving the news, the government sent troops to check it out. They saw only a scorched earth, corpses everywhere, and burnt smoke. They immediately reported the military situation to Shangjing Road. However, many people who saw the traces of the fire had a premonition that something that would bring about the collapse of the world might be about to happen.

However, these have nothing to do with Lu Bu, who was leading his troops to Shangjing Road.

……

The sky was warm and the white clouds were moving reluctantly under the push of the wind.

The figure sitting in the Longhuazhou government office twisted his body uneasily. The military newspaper in his hand seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, making Yelu Dezhong feel a little oppressive.

On Dingmao day of the first lunar month, Xi Sheng led his entire army to attack Weizhou. The defender of Fuzhou led 3,000 soldiers to rescue them, but they were ambushed by Bian Xiang who was lying in ambush nearby. Their entire army was wiped out. Afterwards, Bian Xiang put on the armor of the Liao army, and the city of Fuzhou was broken. Weizhou lost its support, and on Wuchen day, seeing that there was no hope of repelling the enemy, all officials in the city went out of the city to surrender.

On the 29th day of the first lunar month in the summer, Mi Sheng sent troops to Shunzhou. The defending general fought hard for a day but was beheaded on the city wall by Zhao Li, a captain of the Qi army. Shunzhou was then conquered.

At this point, the Qi army set up a defense line on the Shangjing Road, causing the war situation to develop in the direction that Yelu Dezhong least wanted to see.

On the same day, Du Fu of Huanglong Prefecture assembled 20,000 cavalry and marched to Jingyuan City, where they were stationed. The garrison commander of Changchun Prefecture learned of this and asked Taizhou and Ningzhou for help. Now Du Fu is still stationed there, but there seems to be some unusual movements of his cavalry. The garrison commander of Changchun Prefecture, Li Fu, was afraid of any loss, so he sent three letters asking for help to Linhuang Prefecture in a row, but all of them fell on deaf ears.

wow——

The paper recording the military intelligence was fiercely crumpled up by the Liao emperor's brother: "What is Linhuang Prefecture doing! Qi State is already sharpening its sword, is the emperor still hunting?!" The angry voice echoed in the air, and the guards outside who heard it all turned their heads to look elsewhere, but there was an indelible sadness in their eyes.

"Send the messenger over!"

Loud shouts were heard in the room, and the guards standing outside rushed out quickly. Several soldiers came in, then ran out with yellow flags, rode their war horses out of the city, half of them entered the military camp, and the other half rode westwards to Linhuang Prefecture.

After noon, some troops set out for Huizhou in the southeast.

……

The setting sun shines into the world.

Outside the Xiao Mansion, someone hurried over and handed a letter sealed with red wax to the steward inside the mansion: "This is urgent military information, please hand it over to the Privy Councilor as soon as possible."

"Yeah." The manager responded without saying anything more, turned around and walked into the mansion. The official outside wanted to say something when he saw the two doors slam shut, and then the sound of the bolt falling came into his ears.

"Hey...what's going on?"

After saying this, the man frowned and walked back.

The manager did not dare to deceive his master. He walked towards the back house with the letter in his hand. The servants passing by saluted him one after another. The man just raised his head arrogantly, and when he entered the yard, he hurriedly quickened his pace and ran towards the pavilion over there.

Xiao Delidi was sitting in the pavilion, pouring wine and tasting it leisurely. His slightly fat face was full of red wine, and it was obvious that he had been drinking for quite some time. He was trusted by Yelu Yanxi. Although he did not go to attack Jingyuan City last time, it was conquered by the resentful army after all, so naturally he had contributed a lot. Since then, he was even more trusted by the Liao emperor, and all military affairs had to go through his hands.

The steward ran over and bowed his head quickly, "Master, the officials of the Privy Council just sent me the military intelligence. Please take a look at it."

Xiao Deli frowned, his drunken face showing a hint of displeasure, and stretched out his short arm: "Give it to me."

The steward quickly handed the letter over with both hands. The dwarf tore the letter open with a "rip" sound, took it out and looked at it, snorting: "Changchun Prefecture again, why is it always them? Haven't they attacked us yet? What if the reinforcements go there now and provoke the Qi State? These barbarians have even wiped out the wild people of the Jin State. What will happen if we let them come over? They are a bunch of idiots!"

He threw the letter in annoyance, and it landed on the stone table. Xiao Delidi picked up the wine glass and took a sip: "From now on, all letters like this should be sent to my study. You don't need to bring them here. I will read them when I have time."

The steward naturally knew his temper, and did not try to persuade him, but only nodded his head and walked out backwards. He just turned around and walked quickly out of the backyard. Just as he stepped through the gate, someone hurried over. Seeing him, his eyes lit up: "Steward, there is an urgent call from eight hundred miles away."

"Oh? Now that I know, I will go."

The steward paused for a moment and hurried out to answer it. After hesitating for a moment, he did not dare to go directly to the study room, but went to find Xiao Delidi: "Master, eight hundred miles plus..."

"roll--"

The wine glass hit him hard on the forehead, causing him to take a step back in pain. He heard, "You didn't understand what I said just now, right? Send them all to the study. If you bring them back here, I'll kill you!"

(End of this chapter)