Thief Emperor

Chapter 344 The Story of a Hooligan

This fierce attack will be a matter of life and death for the entire "rebel army".

Wang Junping is definitely not an ordinary person, as he has been able to make such a big splash in just two years. In addition, over the past two years, his vision and experience have indeed improved a lot compared to before.

It is a case of rebelling and making progress at the same time.

This is also a common situation. Throughout history, most of the rebel leaders, especially those who successfully rebelled, learned and improved through the rebellion.

At this time, Wang Junping had already seen clearly that his team had reached a critical moment of life and death.

Advance and you will live, retreat and you will die!

On this day, after a day and night of fierce fighting in Tongguan, Wang Junping retreated to the big tent to rest. At this time, the siege had lasted for a long time, so many generals in the big tent began to persuade Wang Junping to withdraw.

He wanted to withdraw to the Central Plains and occupy the land as king.

The self-proclaimed Prince of Qi flew into a rage and drew his sword to kill several generals who demanded retreat, causing no one in the entire army to dare to even mention the word retreat.

Apart from anything else, in the desperate situation, the fighting will of these rebels actually became strong again.

This attack lasted for three days.

On the fourth day, we were at the foot of Tongguan Pass, behind a temporarily dug slope.

"Asshole!"

Two young men, who were almost equally skinny, hid behind the slope, looking up from time to time and looking at the city gate nervously.

One of the young men shouted, and then looked at a middle-aged man not far away. A hint of paleness appeared on his face, which was yellow from hunger.

"You bastard, if the boss tells you to charge again, I'll charge forward and you turn around and run."

The man who was speaking gritted his teeth and whispered to the other young man in a Central Plains accent: "In the past three days, everyone in our camp has died. There are only a few people left. If you run away and return to the village."

"Go to my house and give them a message for me."

"you…"

He patted the young man's shoulder fiercely and whispered, "Marry my sister and take care of my family for me!"

These two young men were both from Xuzhou. Wherever Wang Junping's rebel army went, they began to capture able-bodied men to join the army. When they followed the rebels to capture a city and killed people from the imperial court, they joined the rebellion.

You can't run away.

In this way, these two young men were taken from the same village by the rebels from Xuzhou all the way to Luoyang, and then from Luoyang to Tongguan.

There were more than a dozen people who left the village with them, but now there are only two of them left. It can be said that they are extremely lucky.

The "hunzi" that the young man mentioned did not mean that his companion was a slacker, but was the name of a kind of fish in their local area, and also the nickname of his companion.

The young man, who was called a “hooligan,” swallowed his saliva and said in fear, “There are people behind us…there are supervisors behind us. If we run backwards…if we run backwards, we will definitely die.”

"Two pillars."

The young man named "Hunzi" gritted his teeth and said, "Either we charge together, or we run together!"

"I won't separate from you!"

Erzhu was about to say something else when he heard the sound of drums behind him again. The two young men began to tremble involuntarily.

There's no way not to be afraid.

In the past, when they joined the rebel army to rebel, their casualties were not heavy. By the time they reached Luoyang city, there were still more than ten people left among the dozen or so people of Zhuangzi. However, since they started fighting with the Shuofang army, the casualties of the rebel army have become increasingly heavy.

Especially since the battle of Tongguan began, human lives have been poured into it.

The sound of the drums from the advancing soldiers behind them was no different from a death-threatening sound to these small soldiers who didn't even have armor.

But the King of Qi was very strict in his military discipline. If he didn't charge at this time, he would still be dead when he returned to the barracks!
The two men trembled for a while, and heard the drum beats becoming more and more urgent. They had no choice but to pick up the rusty iron knives, grit their teeth, rush out of the back slope, and rush towards Tongguan.

Nearly a thousand rebel soldiers rushed forward with them.

When nearly a thousand people rushed to the city gate, half of them were gone.

Fortunately, the two young men from Xuzhou managed to reach the city gate alive.

One team was shouting at them, "What are you standing there for?"

"Set up the ladder, set up the ladder!"

"Take down Tongguan, and drink and eat meat every damn day!"

At the urging of the team leader, two people carried the ladder and set up the ladder.

The two of them were still very lucky, because after fighting for so many days, there were not enough ladders. The ladder they had was not very stable and required two people to hold it.

Two people held the ladder on the left and one on the right, while the other soldiers stepped on the ladder and rushed to the gate.

They climbed up one by one, and then fell down one by one.

Some of them had their heads smashed to the ground, looking horrible to behold.

Erzhu and Hunzi both gritted their teeth and held on to the ladder tremblingly, not daring to move.

"Two pillars, two pillars..."

The bastard closed his eyes tightly and said in a trembling voice, "Why...why is my head wet? Was it...was it hit by a rock?"

When you are injured suddenly, you don't feel the pain. Although neither of them has suffered particularly serious injuries, they have seen many injured people and heard about them.

Erzhu opened his eyes tremblingly, and saw that the gangster's face was covered in blood. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "He was not hit, it should be... it should be someone else's blood."

The two men looked up at the same time, and there was a constant sound of fighting on the city wall. It was obviously the blood that fell from the city wall.

The two men became even more frightened. They held on to the ladder tightly with both hands and kept their eyes closed, not daring to open them.

I don’t know how long it took, but there was no movement on the city wall.

The shouting and killing also stopped.

This means that all the comrades who went up just now have died.

Even the captain who was commanding them had climbed up and never came down.

At this time, there were only a few rebels left under the city wall, and ninety-nine percent of those who charged in this round were killed.

There were only two of them left nearby.

The two of them looked at each other, and no one dared to speak.

The scene was extremely quiet for a while.

The two people could even clearly hear the sound of each other swallowing saliva.

After an unknown amount of time, the hunzi gritted his teeth and said, "Erzhu, you... you have a lot of ideas, what do you think... we should do?"

"Should we run, or..."

As he spoke, he looked up at the city wall with a look of fear on his face.

Behind them, the rebel positions in the distance had not sent anyone for a long time.

Erzhu leaned against the wall and didn't speak for a long time. After a long time, he stammered, "How about...how about you hold the ladder and I'll go up and take a look?"

The bastard gritted his teeth and said, "Help me!"

"I'll go up and take a look. You're not in good health. You still have a mother and a sister at home!"

“I have nothing left at home!”

After saying that, he climbed up the ladder without any more words. Erzhu felt a little guilty, so he stood below and held the ladder for him.

The city wall of Tongguan is extremely tall and, for a gangster, also extremely long.

But the strange thing was that no one threw stones down or shot arrows down.

Even so, he almost fell off the ladder several times because his legs were weak.

If you fall from this height, even if you don’t die, you will probably break your arms and legs.

After an unknown amount of time, the gangster took a last look down, gritted his teeth, grabbed the bricks of the city wall with both hands, and climbed up.

As soon as he climbed up, without even looking at the situation nearby, he took out the rusty iron knife without a handle, which was only wrapped in cloth, from his back, and with his eyes closed, he kept swinging it left and right, babbling.

But after chopping for a long time, he didn't hit anyone, nor was he chopped.

He bravely opened his eyes and looked around, and saw dead bodies everywhere on the city wall.

Occasionally there were a few survivors, but they were lying on the ground, with broken arms and legs, dying.

Looking more closely, where are the defenders?
The imperial garrison finally couldn't stand the months-long fierce attack and retreated from Tongguan!
The gangster stood on the city wall, looking at the scene there, and didn't speak for a long time.

He was stunned.

After a long time, he finally walked to the edge of the city wall and looked down. His fellow villager Erzhu had disappeared without a trace at some point.

The gangster looked into the distance and saw Erzhu running away desperately.

Just when he didn't know what to do, he heard the sound of a horn beating from the camp in the distance.

The rebel army could no longer hold on and prepared to withdraw.

"Two pillars, two pillars!"

The gangster reacted and shouted loudly.

Fortunately, Erzhu did not run far and looked back at his fellow villagers on the city wall.

The rascal made trumpet shapes with his hands and shouted, "The government troops have escaped!!"

"Go tell the boss!"

Erzhu stood there in a daze, not moving for a long time.

He didn't know whether to run home or to the camp.

After hesitating for a long time, the loyal Erzhu gritted his teeth and ran towards the camp!

So, in the spring of the first year of Zhaoding, Tongguan, which had been peaceful for more than a hundred years, and Guanzhong, which had been peaceful for more than a hundred years, were once again forced to open their gates.

The rebel army successfully occupied Tongguan and marched into Guanzhong.

King Junping of Qi was overjoyed and personally congratulated the young man named Zhu Hunzi, and regarded him as the first contributor to the breakthrough.

Appointed as the vanguard general.

And, he changed his name.

Changed his name to Zhu Kun.

　Note: In the Central Plains dialect, the word "I" is not called "an" in many places. Instead, it is used to address multiple people. For example, "an" is used when expressing "my" or "we".

　　
　
(End of this chapter)