Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

Chapter 948: Inside Hangzhou City (Two in One)

In the camp facing the river on the west, the lights were on in the big tent in the center. Wang Bing huddled in his commander's seat in silence, staring at the iron spear on the table with lifeless eyes.

The bloodstained gun body was stained with the blood of someone unknown, and the originally shiny gun tip also had coagulated blood residue, looking like it was rusted.

The stiff body moved, and the Eastern Army commander who had stretched out his hand retracted it again. His mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts, but they were mostly related to his son.

When he was a baby, a child, a teenager, and a young adult, different yet similar faces kept turning around in his mind, causing this middle-aged man, who used to pride himself on being a tough guy, to suddenly stand up.

"what--"

He swept his hands across the table.

bang-

Pong bang——

Various objects fell to the ground. Wang Bing supported himself on the table with both hands, breathing heavily.

Outside the tent, the guard on duty couldn't help but look back. He hesitated and wanted to go in, but a big hand reached out from behind and stopped him.

"I just need to go in."

The visitor said this, then lifted the curtain and walked in.

Tread-

The combat boots made a light sound on the ground inside the tent. Wang Bin said without even raising his head: "I didn't tell you to go out."

The voice is hoarse and low.

Wang Huan said nothing and continued walking forward.

"This commander will tell everyone!"

The red eyes stared at him, and Wang Bing's ferocious face froze for a moment, then he slowly adjusted his facial muscles and opened his mouth. Before he could speak, Wang Huan on the other side clasped his fists and bowed: "This humble general greets the commander."

The muscles on his cheeks twitched, and Wang Bin's attempt to raise the corners of his mouth failed. After a moment of silence, he said, "No need to be so polite..."

Wang Huan stood up, glanced at the commander on the opposite side, and then lowered his eyes. He didn't say anything like "I'm sorry". The Western Army had been fighting with Western Xia for decades, and almost every family had lost someone.

In the northwest, there are always more widows than men, and the families of the Western Army have become accustomed to separation and death.

People like them who come from the military don't need words of sympathy from others, but topics that can divert their thoughts and provide them with a channel to vent their sadness.

After all, it is common in the military for the elderly to send off the young, or for the young to send off the elderly.

"Just now, the defeated soldiers of the vanguard army returned."

The words spoken made the commander's eyes widen. Wang Huan continued, "Originally our army had the upper hand, but at some point the enemy troops broke out from behind, and the leader was a swordsman."

After a slight pause, he pursed his lips and looked at Wang Bing who was listening seriously: "He and others are carrying crossbows, and almost every shot hits the target.

There are two divine arm bows, which are not used much, and the most important one is..."

He stared at Wang Bing's bloodshot eyes and said word by word: "They have the Thunderbolt Fireball, and the swordsman needs the cover of this firearm to successfully charge into the formation."

"...I know about it."

Wang Bing stared at his deputy general and spoke almost word by word: "Do you know who is the one wielding the sword?"

"I don't know."

Wang Huan shook his head: "The enemy army has not given us his name, but there are not many such experts who can charge into battle with swords in the entire Song Dynasty, and even fewer in the southeast. We will know when we capture Fang La."

"hehe--"

Wang Bing finally grinned: "Good...good!"

boom--

The Eastern Commander slapped the table, stood up straight, and gnashed his teeth: "That's great!"

The cold wind blew outside, and the curtain fluttered slightly.
……

At the end of the first month of the third year of Xuanhe in the Song Dynasty, Fang La's army failed to capture Xiuzhou. More than 20,000 of the 60,000-strong army were killed or wounded, and nearly 10,000 died in battle. The Western Army only rested for one day in Xiuzhou. Early the next morning, a vast crowd of scarlet figures spread towards Hangzhou.

On the other side, Fang Qifo led 2,000 elite soldiers to retreat alone, and gathered more than 20,000 defeated soldiers near Chongde, and then retreated all the way south. His panic-stricken figure was seen by everyone, and he no longer had the high-spirited spirit he had when he left Hangzhou.

As for the Yongle army soldiers in the wild, some of them dispersed and disappeared, some lost their way and fled to other states, some were frightened and disarmed themselves and went to towns to start their lives from scratch, and some joined other generals and continued to fight with the government troops.

On the way to Hangzhou City, a team of less than a thousand people was rushing back along the road.

"Ah-"

A loud sneeze was heard, and Qian Zhenpeng suddenly covered his forehead and groaned, with a painful expression on his face, and sniffed his nose.

Having spent the night outdoors last night, it goes without saying that I must have caught a cold.

Du Wei glanced at him and said, "Save your energy. Be careful not to spit out your brain."

"You bastard...hiss..." Qian Zhenpeng glared, then felt his head hurt even more and quickly covered it with his hands.

I hope things don't get any worse, otherwise...

Muttering to himself, the man shuddered again, and his face suddenly became more bitter.

Du Wei ignored the other party's glare and turned to look at the donkey cart of Li Zhu and others with some envy. Fifty guards wearing leather armor and winter clothes were following beside them.

"Damn it, I'm going to get some cars from the army later. It will be much easier to sit in them when I'm on the road..."

"Then you need soldiers first." Xu Ding's voice was muffled. He rubbed his nose with his hand. The feeling of not being able to breathe made him feel very uncomfortable. "It's good enough if you have fifty men under your command now."

"..." Du Wei was speechless and could only glare at him fiercely, turning his head and humming a few times in protest.

Most of his soldiers were abandoned outside the city of Jiaxing, and only a few hundred of them escaped. After a battle with the vanguard of the Western Army, there might be less than half a hundred of them alive now.

The wheels of the donkey cart bumped on the dirt road, and the people sitting in the cart swayed from side to side.

Shi Qian sat there scratching his head, changing his posture from time to time. He stood up on the car board from time to time, looked into the distance, turned his head, glanced at Li Zhu out of the corner of his eye, and squatted down again.

Repeat this process several times.

Li Zhu was resting with his eyes closed, feeling his movements, and reluctantly opened his eyes to look at the flea on the drum: "If you are bored, why not go down and run around and have a look."

"All right, I'll go see what's going on around here." Shi Qian suddenly felt relieved. He didn't even call for the donkey cart to stop. He pushed himself off the cart with his hands and started running the moment he landed. He didn't look at all embarrassed like an ordinary person who would jump off a cart.

“This is a person who can’t sit still.”

Yang Lin leaned against the railing and smiled. He looked at the linen covering the vehicle behind him, and after a moment of silence, he looked at Assistant Li: "Brother Li, are you really going to give these things to Mr. Fang?"

Assistant Li looked at him and slowly closed his eyes: "Didn't I say last night that I would give it to you. Why are you reluctant to give it to me?"

In the cool air, the leopard smacked his lips and said, "That's true. We have always taken advantage of others. When have we ever been taken advantage of like this?" All around, the sound of footsteps and wheels rolling over sand could be heard. The occasional bumps made the people in the car shake. Li Zu's voice came into his ears, "If you take something in advance, you must give it first."

There was some indescribable emotion in the faint words: "It's hard to say who will suffer the loss in this matter."

Yang Lin touched his chin and nodded: "I hope Brother Zhang and the others can return to Hong Kong safely."

Li Zhu didn't say anything, but just moved his head naturally with the bumps.

Within two days, someone from Fang La's army came to notify them.

We have arrived at Hangzhou City.

……

Early mid-spring.

The city of Hangzhou, a low building, is reflected in the brilliant sky.

There was no longer the joy and pride as when they first entered the city. The figures passing by had worried faces and hurried footsteps through the deserted streets. Some of the houses around them were destroyed by smashing, and occasionally one could catch a glimpse of a corpse in brocade clothes buried under the ruins.

The figure walked into the largest house here. The figure wearing armor and carrying a sword stared at him expressionlessly. The person who knocked on the door walked in: "Holy Lord, Bai Yanshou and Du Wei are back from outside the city."

In front of us, Fang La's face was a little swollen, and his messy beard looked like he hadn't taken care of it for a few days. Hearing this, he stood up and said, "Come back if you want to. Let them rest quickly. The Western Army will be heading south soon. Order..."

"Holy Lord!" The man named Fang Fei interrupted him and took a step forward: "The two of them also brought some outsiders with them, saying that they could provide armor."

Fang La stood still, his face trembling twice, and suddenly turned around, quickly walking around the desk: "What did you just say? Armor?"

He grabbed the prime minister's arms and shook them violently: "Is it armor?"

“Wait a minute, Holy Lord… Holy Lord… stop shaking!” Fang Fei was just a scholar, and his biggest exercise was wrestling with his wife on the bed at night. How could he withstand his shaking? He immediately felt dizzy: “Dizzy, dizzy… wait… um…”

Fang La stopped hurriedly, and saw the man turned his head and said "vomit", as if he wanted to vomit something, but nothing came out. He just opened his mouth, with tears and snot flowing together.

Fang La was extremely anxious, but Fang Fei was feeling uncomfortable at the time, and he had no way to force this brother of the clan to tell him what he knew.

"Huff...Huff..." Fang Fei wiped the mucus on his lips, raised his head, and said with a bitter face: "Sheng Gong, my brother is weak. Don't do this next time. It's really fatal."

Fang La's face twitched, and he didn't say anything, but urged: "You scholars are just spoiled, don't talk about other things for me, tell me what's going on!"

"When Bai Yanshou and his men were retreating, they were intercepted by the Western Army and were rescued. This group of people also said that they had weapons and armor to sell to us..."

Fang La was delighted at first, then angry. He waved his hand to interrupt Fang Fei's words: "How can I have so much money to buy weapons? It's not enough to buy people's hearts. The court is still asking for money. If I really have so much money, I would have found a way to do it myself. Why would I need him?"

"Not the Holy Archbishop..." Fang Fei shook his hands repeatedly, looking a little anxious.

"What are you talking about?" Fang La took two steps with his hands behind his back, and his loud voice drowned out the voice of his own prime minister: "I think these people came here because they were anxious after seeing our defeat on the battlefield ahead..."

"They said they could exchange it for food, silk, and tea!"

Fang Fei raised his voice and calmed down Emperor Yongle, who suddenly became angry for some unknown reason.

Fang La's expression changed, and he narrowed his eyes and looked at his brother: "You said... no money?"

"Food, herbal medicine, silk, tea, copper coins, gold and silver are all fine." Fang Fei came over and whispered to Fang La, "The food stored in the warehouses in the southeastern regions we have occupied is infested with insects. We can take some out to exchange."

"That's good..." Fang La pinched his beard, nodded thoughtfully, and felt that what he said was not right. After thinking about it, he suddenly looked up and said, "Wait! Those old grains have not been distributed? Didn't they say that after conquering the place, they would open the warehouses to provide relief to the people? Why do you mean that nothing has been done?"

"Do..." The voice stretched out, Fang Fei's face was a little embarrassed, he looked up at Fang La, quickly lowered his head, and whispered: "I did some, it's just..."

His eyes moved around, and the embarrassment on his face turned into a flattering smile: "Isn't it because Qu Shuai down there is more, um... thrifty with food, so he only took out some of the food and distributed it to the poor."

"... Commander Qu?" Fang La's face turned pale, and he snorted twice before saying, "I think it's my second uncle and fourth uncle. They were the ones who said that our own food and grass should not be given away lightly. Now they are in charge of the warehouse management, so they just withheld all the food, right?"

Fang Fei's smile froze and his expression became more embarrassed.

boom--

He slammed his palms down on the table.

"You all treat my imperial edict as bullshit!" Fang La was furious, pointing at his brothers, spitting: "I told you to win the hearts of the people, win the hearts of the people, but you two turned a deaf ear to me. Don't you take me, the Holy Lord, seriously?"

"We still gave away some of it." Seeing Fang La's unhappy face, Fang Fei quickly said, "Although the effort was not too great, we did win the hearts of the people. The poor people who got the food and grass were grateful to us. Although Second Uncle and Fourth Uncle were a bit stingy, they still did something."

His fingers left a shadow in the air, Fang La's face flushed red, he swung his arms fiercely, and strode out: "I'll settle the score with you when I come back!"

The guards outside hurriedly followed behind him.

Fang Fei laughed awkwardly and hurriedly followed behind. Looking at the figure in front of him, he shouted, "Sheng Gong, they are all in the backyard. Brother Bai and Du Qushuai are also here."

The figure that was heading towards the hall in front stopped, turned around and continued walking, but his expression became increasingly uglier.

The mansion where he was waiting was the residence of the richest man in Hangzhou. It covered a vast area. It took Fang La half an incense stick of time to walk into the backyard. Du Wei and Bai Yanshou, who were waiting outside, came over and paid their respects with great ceremony: "The defeated general pays respect to the Holy Lord."

"Get up. Victory and defeat on the battlefield are common. I didn't say I was blaming you."

Fang La was helpless seeing the actions of the two men. He wanted to punish those who lost the battle, but the Western Army was on its way south and would be approaching Hangzhou soon. He also had to rely on them to fight on the battlefield, so he could only appease them first.

"Thank you, Holy Father."

The two young men bowed in thanks and then stood up.

Fang La glanced at the closed door in the backyard and signaled with his eyes: "Who is the person inside?"

"Please forgive me, Lord, we two were unable to find out the answer."

The two young men bowed again, and Bai Yanshou spoke first: "It's just that we were saved by them, and we know that the weapons and armor in their army are very useful."

"That's right." Du Wei looked a little tired. "Especially if they have battlefield weapons like the Thunderbolt Fireball, which explode with great power. If they can get it, I guarantee that it will be enough to give those idiots a hard time."

Fang La's eyes lit up, and he took a breath and was about to speak when he heard Bai Yanshou say, "It's a pity that they don't seem to be prepared to trade such things."

Fang La was silent for a moment, almost choking on his breath, and glared at the two of them: "I understand, you two stay here and watch."

He turned to look at Fang Fei, hesitated for a moment and then looked back: "Forget it, go find Lou Minzhong and tell him that I have something important to discuss with you."

Bai Yanshou and Du Wei quickly agreed, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Fang La and Fang Fei walking towards the house with more than ten guards.

"Let's go, stop looking." Bai Yanshou patted Du Wei and said, "Let's go find Lou Zuocheng first, and then we have to go see the general."

Du Wei nodded, then turned back to look at the figure waiting for the door to open, smacked his lips, and muttered, "I'm a little surprised that the Archbishop didn't punish us."

The young man named Bai in front of him paused and said, "It's not easy at all. Let's think of a way to get through this difficult time."

Then they continued to move forward, with Du Wei walking one body length behind them, shaking his head.

The sky was bright, birds were flying across the courtyard, and hearty laughter could be heard from the house.

(End of this chapter)