Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 648 Seeking Help (800 monthly tickets plus more)

Two hundred thunder chariots, all made to look like evil beasts, suddenly rushed in. The barricades and caltrops in front of Gao Qiu's formation were of no use.

But the Thunder Chariot crashed into Gao Qiu's formation like a landslide, and the fire guns smashed the corpses. Where the arrows and stones fell, blood rained. How could the officers and soldiers resist? They all threw away their armor and weapons, cried out in pain, and fled for their lives.

Later, generals such as Guan Sheng, Dong Ping, Hu Yanzhuo, Qin Ming, Hua Rong, and Bian Xiang also rushed forward.

The generals rushed over on horseback, shouting, "Gao Qiu, surrender your head as soon as possible!"

Gao Qiu's army had already ordered the Thunder Chariots to charge and scatter, the soldiers were in chaos, unable to form a battle formation, how could they stop the people of Liangshan? All they did was kill Gao Qiu's army, which was badly defeated and suffered a heavy loss, with rain falling sporadically.

Generals Dang Shiying and Dang Shixiong protected Gao Qiu and escaped for their lives.

The battle lasted until they reached the city of Chuqiu before Zhao Zhen called back his troops. All the generals gathered their cavalry and infantry and returned to the main camp to ask for credit. Everywhere they called back their troops, the generals on horseback banged their golden stirrups, and the infantry sang triumphant songs.

Guanghui presented the [Jade Rat Fairy] Li Congji, the governor of Hanyang, Longxi. Dong Ping and Hu Yanzhuo worked together to capture the [roadblock] Yang Wen, the governor of Lingling, Jiangxia. [Black Whirlwind] Li Kui, [Eight-armed Nezha] Xiang Chong, and [Flying Monkey King] Li Gun went around to the side of Gao Qiu's formation and ran into the [Night Wandering God] Wang Wende, the governor of Hongnong, Jingbei. Xiang Chong and Li Gun fired flying knives and javelins at the same time, killing Wang Wende's horse. Wang Wende fell off his horse and was chopped off his head by Li Kui with an axe.

Of Gao Qiu's 100,000 troops, less than 40,000 entered Chuqiu City. The rest of the soldiers were either killed or surrendered. Gao Qiu was frightened and only ordered Wang Huan, Xu Jing, Zhang Kai and Han Cunbao to guard the four gates, and no one came out.

This time, they broke through Gao Qiu's camp, thanks to Zhao Zhen's long-hidden and trained chariots. On that day, they slaughtered cattle and horses and gave rich rewards to the troops.

On the second day, Zhao Zhen ordered his generals to gather their troops, break camp, and set up camp three miles outside the city of Chuqiu.

Gao Qiu heard the news and climbed up to the top of the city wall to wait and see.

They saw Zhao Zhen dividing his troops and setting up camp, surrounding the north gate and east gate of Chuqiu, setting up artillery and preparing to attack the city.

Gao Qiu summoned all the generals and asked, "Now that we have been defeated and returned to Chuqiu, do you have any ideas?"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. After a moment, Wang Huan said, "Captain, we have suffered heavy casualties. It seems that we can only defend Chuqiu and send people to Dongjing to ask for reinforcements. Although the chariot is powerful, it has no wings to fly into the city."

Sun Jing behind Gao Qiu said, "You governors may not know that the rebels outside the city have a cannon called Flying Thunder, which is very effective in attacking the city. Secretary Tong's expedition against Fang La in Jiangnan was also largely due to the merits of Flying Thunder. If we only guard the city wall now, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out for a few days."

Han Cunbao said anxiously: "Captain, you have also seen today that the chariots of the rebels are extremely fierce on flat ground and difficult to be damaged by swords. If we leave the city, I am afraid that the chariots will rush over and we will not be able to resist them."

Xu Jing also said: "I saw the chariot with my own eyes. The chariot was in front and the horses were behind. It had three wheels and eight horses, but it turned very flexibly. The eight-foot-wide trench and the five-foot-high chevaux de frise could not stop it. There were two iron grates behind the hub, so chevaux de frise and caltrops were of no use. Unless it was in a forest or deep in the mountains, there was no way it could be stopped elsewhere."

Everyone looked at each other speechlessly.

A day later, in the camp at the north gate of Chuqiu, a cannon sounded. The camp gate opened and a team of more than a hundred cavalrymen filed out and rode straight to the city gate.

When Wang Huan, the gatekeeper, saw this, he ordered people to beat drums on the city walls.

When the cavalry rushed to the city gate, Gao Qiu had already climbed up the city wall under the protection of Dang Shiying and Dang Shixiong. More than a hundred cavalry soldiers shouted in unison: "In compliance with the order of the prime minister, the heads of Jing Zhong, Hu Chun, Mei Zhan, and Wang Wende are here." After saying that, they threw down the four boxes and turned around and left.

Wang Huan ordered his men to carry the men down in bamboo baskets and retrieve the four heads.

After the test, everyone was filled with grief and indignation. After years of fighting, it really came true: Generals are bound to die in battle.

Wang Huan said, "Captain, the enemy is strong and we are weak. We can only challenge them to a fight and kill their generals to boost morale. Although I am old, I am willing to help you."

Gao Qiu patted Wang Huan on the back and said, "General, don't worry. Yesterday I sent Staff Officer Sun to take my letter out of the city. General, if you defend the city carefully, there will be a turning point in three to five days."

Wang Huan's determination to die finally died down after seeing Gao Qiu's confidence.

However, in Zhao Zhen's camp, since the capture of Li Congji, the Jade Rat Fairy, and Yang Wen, the Roadblock, Zhao Zhen was not in a hurry to see them. He had them sent to Shanfu County and had Pang Yi and others detain them, waiting to deal with them after defeating Gao Qiu.

Let's not talk about Li Congji. Why did Dong Ping and Hu Yanzhuo capture Yang Wen alive and refused to kill him? It turned out that they recognized the spear technique used by this guy on the battle that day, which was the Yang family spear. And his surname was Yang, so they captured him alive.

After Zhao Zhen besieged Chuqiu for two days, the Jeju Commander [Green-faced Beast] Yang Zhi sent a letter. After reading it, Zhao Zhen was sure that Yang Wen was also a descendant of the fallen Yang family. He had become a bandit in his early years. In fact, Yang Wen was a distant cousin of Yang Zhi. When he heard that he was coming to conquer Liangshan, he didn't know how to start the conversation.

Now that Yang Wen was captured, Yang Zhi wrote to Zhao Zhen, begging for Yang Wen's life to be spared.

When Zhao Zhen saw this, he sent Liu Tong, the Flying Legs, with a letter from him, and asked Pang Yi to send Yang Wen and Li Congji to Jizhou and hand them over to Yang Zhi.

Let's talk about Sun Jing, the Hedgehog. He led five or seven soldiers and rode at full speed to join Tong Guan's army heading north. When he saw Tong Guan, Sun Jing cried, "Prime Minister, save me."

Tong Guan heard this and shouted, "You have always worked in the Taiwei Mansion, but you come here to make trouble."

Sun Jing knelt on the ground and said, "Prime Minister, the Grand Commandant is now besieged in Chuqiu by Prime Minister Zhao of Liangshan. Please rescue him."

Tong Guan frowned and asked, "The Grand Commandant is not in Bianjing, so why did he go to Yingtianfu?"

At that moment, Sun Jing had to tell the story of Wu Chang, the governor of Jizhou, and his two men who had sent troops to attack Yizhou from Shanzhou and Xuzhou. The three men were retaliated by Liangshan afterwards, but Shanzhou and Xuzhou did not participate, and were also captured by Liangshan. The court did not want Zhao Zhen to continue to grow, so it sent General Gao to lead ten military governors to send troops, and only announced to the outside world that the two states sympathized with Fang La in Jiangnan and colluded with bandits to cause chaos, so they sent troops to suppress them and had a fight with Liangshan so that Liangshan would restrain themselves. However, the fact that Gao Qiu had instructed them was kept secret.

Tong Guan secretly hated Gao Qiu for sending troops without informing him, and said, "How can the Grand Commandant tell me to save him? I am now leading troops north to fight for the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, how can I return to Yingtian Prefecture?"

Sun Jing said, "Mr. Zhao is the son-in-law of the Prime Minister. Everyone knows how good the Prime Minister is to Mr. Zhao. Mr. Zhao will not disobey the Prime Minister's words. I only ask the Prime Minister to write a letter to me and ask me to take it to Yingtianfu. The Taiwei will naturally not dare to fight for Shanzhou and Xuzhou. As for Zizhou and Qizhou, the Taiwei can also cover them up and give them to Mr. Zhao."

"When I came here, the Grand Commandant asked me to tell the Prime Minister to persuade Zhao Xianggong not to invade other places. Today, the emperor is more afraid of Zhao Xianggong than Wang Qing. The Prime Minister sent troops to Yanyun, and both the father-in-law and the son-in-law had a large army, which was criticized by the court. Otherwise, although the Prime Minister is loyal to the emperor, I am afraid that he will no longer be able to lead troops and can only stay at home idle."

Tong Guan nodded after hearing this. Not to mention Feng Mei and Bi Sheng, the two generals in front of the emperor, there were also Liu Guangshi, the general manager, Wang Bing, the governor of Wuzhou, Wang Huan, Wang Weizhong, Xin Xingzhong, Duan Pengju, Chen Zhu and others, all of whom were fierce generals of the Western Army. Once the emperor issued an order, they could easily deprive him of the right to command the troops. Moreover, Wang Renrui, the eunuch trusted by the emperor, came to supervise the army in this expedition to Jiangnan. Seeing that Liangshan had grown bigger, he also had doubts about himself.

(End of this chapter)