The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 299 Fight for crossing! Fight for crossing!
The Pujin River Basin is the last large bay of the Yellow River. Above it is the boundary between Hexi and Hedong. From here, Henan and Hebei are separated.

This stretch of water is very vast, surrounded by hills and mountains, and there are many mountain ladders for people to go up and down. At the moment, the cold spring is still in the dry season, the water flow is slower than usual, and a large area of beach has been withdrawn. Xiao Han easily marked more than a dozen ferry crossings, built eight floating bridges, and the Kaiyuan Iron Ox Bridge, just waiting to meet Li Keyong.

After receiving the defeat report last night, Xiao Han led his entire army westward, directly occupying both sides of the Yellow River. More than 10,000 troops from his own army and the 8,000 Zhaoyi troops sent by Li Sizhao set up positions and built fortifications on the east bank, helping the evacuated army to gain a foothold after arriving and resist the pursuers, while also trying to make a crossing.

Fortunately, Li Sizhao had a strong strategic sense and sent people to prepare for any eventuality without Li Keyong's consent. Otherwise, it would have been quite a task for Xiao Han to handle the situation alone.

The morning mist rolled in, and everyone looked haggard.

The saint, whose eyes were bloodshot, felt dizzy from time to time.

After a whole day and night of tossing and turning, he didn't even have time to take a nap. His physical strength and energy had been overdrawn to the limit. He was much more tired than if he had been working on Concubine Shu, Concubine De, and A Zhao all night at the same time. He could fall asleep while standing, lie down when sitting, and die when lying down.

When I read novels and watch TV shows, other people seem to be wise commanders, who are good at maneuvering and calculating. Once they give an order, the soldiers will complete the task successfully. But I am a sudden death commander. Once I give an order, the soldiers will run wherever they want.

The saint once analyzed the reasons for his behavior.

The answer is a lack of security, a strong desire for control, a lack of trust in the abilities of subordinates, and a fear that the uncertainty of the times is always greater than the certainty of the law. The worries about the success or failure of a thing, the future, and all kinds of things in Shengtang are like a thorn in the flesh, making one's mood heavy at all times.

When will I be able to experience peace?
Will there be a day in my lifetime when I can sit back, relax and focus on playing with women?

No problem, I'm back at the court, I'll reward ten virgins first. Seeing that Zhu Lingya, Zhu Lingrou, Zhao Zi, and Zhao Meng are all of adult age, I'll help check their bodies and see how they're developing.

But seeing that the Queen treated Zhu Lingya as her sweetheart, would this anger the Queen to death? Or would it kill me? I captured the Tongzhou soldiers that day to avenge her. Seeing this beautiful woman, I could kill her without blinking an eye.

Moreover, after working all night, Li Keyong still escaped, and he only got an arm that was hard to tell whether it was real or fake. This made the saint even more depressed and furious, but fortunately he could still block the ferry, and who knows if the old dog was still among them.

The sage simply forced himself to stay awake, sat on his saddle and looked out over the mist-shrouded river basin and the Stork Tower standing on the east bank.

Large groups of equally exhausted infantry and cavalry were just lurking in the morning mist, or lying down, preparing to attack Pujin. The intermittent snoring of men and breathing of horses in the mist and jungle gave the quiet morning light a hint of life.

The battle of Zuofengyi was over, but there was no order to return. All the troops were ready for battle as usual. They had to fight wherever Emperor Li ordered, even if they had to fight non-stop. No one mentioned the matter. After so many bloody conquests and plunders, the discipline had already penetrated into their bones. The upper and lower had already merged into one whole. Saint, as long as the soul of this army is alive, they must obey orders. As long as the army does not collapse, they must hold on without his order.

You can’t kill wood, you can’t kill wood. You can’t kill wood all night long, you can’t capture a city on a snowy night. Are you worthy of it?
*****
As the sun rose, the fog gradually dissipated, and both sides of the Yellow River were filled with shouting soldiers and horses.

Some people held onto horses’ necks and swam across the river. The officers directing the crossing kept shouting and running back and forth.

The camel was riddled with arrows and was stuck in the mud. The cart fell behind them, and the weapons and equipment were scattered all over the ground. The soldiers were busy collecting them.

The nine floating bridges had been lined up with huge teams last night. The cavalry and infantry were fighting and arguing for order. The laborers were anxious, carrying the wounded on stretchers. Some rolled over and screamed, gasping for breath. Some did not even scream, but had been dead for a long time.

In the chaos, officers, men and women, civilians gathered in groups. Everyone was exhausted, sweat dripping from their clothes, and the river breeze blew in their faces, making them tremble in their hearts and bodies. They just pushed and shouted desperately: "The ball is dead, the ball is dead! Make way!"

A little further away on the river plain, a large group of soldiers sat on the ground, preparing for battle and eating dry food, chattering. Occasionally, a scout passed by, causing panic, grabbing swords and shooting arrows.

The weather was good, and the Jin army, which was surrounded by enemies, was crossing the river in large numbers. Counting the soldiers, the craftsmen, and the livestock, there were more than 100,000 people, horses, and various livestock. Add to that the mess of pots and pans, and the king's army would appear nearby from time to time, and they screamed in fear, but it was too late to get through half a night! At this point in the morning, it was the busiest and most chaotic time.

Li Keyong lost one arm and was already unconscious, breathing weakly, so he was sent to Guanque Tower for treatment and care. His successor, Tielin Envoy Zhou Dewei, was said to have died in Tongling Pond. The current commanders were Feiteng Envoy Xiao Han, Du Ya Ya Gai Yu, and Cong Ma Zhi Commander Li Junqing.

They drew out 5,000 of the Zhaoyi Army sent by Li Sizhao and divided them into two armies along with Xiao Han's division. One of them dug trenches and set up defenses on the main road from Tongling Pond to protect the army from crossing the river, while the other had spread out on three sides to scout the movements and suppress the spies and rangers of the royal division.

The sage clearly took an offensive stance, deploying a large number of troops and horses up and down the west bank of Pujin. The deployed rangers were killed one after another and fled back, or their mounts foamed at the mouth and came back to report: "Lai Liao! Lai Liao! I'm afraid they are coming out in full force to crush us completely in Guanzhong!"

Every time a long-distance blockade came back, it was responded with a lot of wailing and cursing.

"It's over! I can't go back!"

"When we were fighting for Chang'an, my eyelids kept twitching. I was always uneasy and advised the generals not to act rashly, fearing that something might happen. Now I am at ease! I didn't die under the swords of Zhu Wen and the Youzhou bandits, but I lost my life to the saint! The military government owed me so much for this destruction!"

"Disperse, all of you disperse! The Yellow River is not covered, and you are lining up here. Are you all waiting to become drowned and rush to the East China Sea to feed the fish?"

"Run? Where to run? The Rangers are everywhere, chasing us all night. They are all fleeing, just hunting rabbits to take care of us!"

"Even if you chop me into seven or eight pieces, I won't be able to run away. I'll just lie here and wait for death!"

"Where is the way out? Where is the way out? Should I write a suicide note?"

"Where is King Li? Where is Li Junqing? Ask the leaders whether they are going to take us to the sky or to the earth?"

Countless Jin soldiers were either standing, sitting or sleeping like dead dogs, knocking their steel swords and helmets with a clanging sound. Many more were snoring like thunder. One after another, one leaning against another.

The Jin army was also extremely exhausted, even more so than the royal army.

We started preparing for battle at midnight the day before yesterday, and started fighting at dawn. We have been fighting continuously until today, and I don’t know if I have rested for three hours. We didn’t take much food with us on the way to evacuation, and now we are almost starving to the point of diarrhea and dulling our senses.

In this tormenting process, people can endure it better than animals. Few people died of exhaustion, but many horses, cattle, donkeys, camels, etc. died. The cavalry led by Li Keyong were originally equipped with two horses. Now there are only 7,000 knights left, and there are only 10,000 war horses. Some of them are from the cavalry. And many of these war horses are injured and exhausted, and cannot go into battle for a short time due to various reasons.

It can be said that the Jin army was already extremely weak. If a peasant army came, it would probably be able to defeat them.

On the hill, Li Junqing looked at the troops on the floating bridge, which were actually not moving slowly but seemed to be moving slowly. His face turned pale. "When will this end? How about enforcing military law, abandoning all the supplies, workers and animals, and getting all the soldiers across first?"

"Crossing the river empty-handed is no different from dying." Gai Yu pointed at the map and shook his head, saying, "Wang Zimei and Xiao Gan's 10,000-plus troops are rapidly attacking from Yindi Pass, and Li Sizhou's troops are tens of thousands in Jinzhou. Chen Xiong and others' troops are tens of thousands of Pu soldiers in Hezhong Prefecture and Yanchi. Now that our army is defeated, they will definitely join us. Enemies are everywhere, and we are in danger of being annihilated in Fenshui Valley. We have nothing left, and we will collapse at the first blow. Wait a little longer, and if the saint kills them all, it won't be too late to throw them away later."

All the generals had livid faces.

Gai Yu whispered again, "Send fast horses to urge Li Sizhao, Li Cunxian, and Li Cunjin to come to the rescue, and each of them will split their troops into two groups to Jin and Jiang to provide support. Then, we will rest and regroup, first kill the saint, and then join forces with the army in Taiyuan to kill Si Zhou and Zi Mei."

"Once the main force leaves, what will happen to Ze Lu and Xing Ming?" asked a Shatuo general.

"Let's sacrifice the chariot to save the king for now." Gai Yu shrugged: "The king did not listen to me until today. Let's take care of the overall situation first. Don't try to recapture Ze, Lu, Xing and Ming." "Gai..." The Shatuo general was about to say something else, but he saw several red knights emerging from the end of the western road.

Everyone looked over, and then a group of their own spies appeared, all with dishevelled hair. Behind them, several red knights simply raised their horns and blew them. Then they saw large groups of soldiers and horses coming out of the shadows, without raising flags, but pouring out endlessly from the end of the avenue, rolling up clouds of dust, advancing in a messy mudslide formation with a rumbling roar, and stepping into the golden light.

In a flash, the vanguard cavalry filled the sight, rushing to the vicinity of the position to shout and persuade them to surrender. Many people carried the heads of the Jin army who died with their eyes open, dragged the bodies of officers and threw them outside the position: "Everyone will die wrapped in horsehide!"

On this side of the battlefield, someone's eyes were already bloodshot and he cried out in grief: "An Shilang!"

When the king's army blew the horn, cavalrymen rushed out from both wings, opened their bows and flew across the front of the formation alternately.

The panicked noise of the army crossing the river suddenly exploded. Gai Yu turned his head sharply, looked at one of them and shouted, "How many more are waiting to be crossed!"

"I estimate that there are still 20,000 or 30,000 left. I'll go down and ask someone and urge them to do something..."

Gai Yu nodded, and before he could say anything, several riders quickly climbed up the embankment, crying and shouting, "Some light cavalry have bypassed our positions and rushed to the ferry, trying to seize the bridge from us! Several hundred riders have already reached Tieniu Bridge, scaring us so much that we all jumped into the river and swam across by feeling the iron ropes!"

Even though he was mentally prepared, Gai Yu suddenly felt cold all over. The only troops he had who could fight were the 15,000 troops of Xiao Han and Li Sizhao. As long as these troops failed on this side of the river, then King Li, the officials, and the troops on the other side of the river who had already crossed would have no choice but to die in the river. There would be no surprises! The glory that King Li had created in the past would vanish into thin air. The so-called Four Towns would also perish. War is a major matter for a country, a place of life and death, as expected!

One battle is enough to determine the rise and fall of a regime!

How to do?How to do?
At this moment, Gai Yu realized that he did not have the courage to order a battle!

He suddenly drew his sword and mounted his horse, shouting, "Arrange the troops! Beat the drums! The saint is also exhausted, but he is still strong! I want to try to bite him off a few times. Beat him so that he knows that he can't win easily, and then he will retreat naturally. Don't panic!"

Gai Yu looked around and gave a loud order: "All the generals of our army should lead the troops to the floating bridge and march quickly. Those who are clumsy should be thrown away! If there is no delay, the war horses will lead the way and trample the road to death! Let the officials, King Li, and the soldiers and horses who have crossed the river pack up and prepare to leave! Go to Luzhou via Zezhou and return to Taiyuan. Tell Li Sizhao and others to change the previous order and let them meet in Zezhou nearby! I will rush to the front first and buy us an hour! No matter whether the crossing is completed or not, we will withdraw our troops and burn the bridge. Go and do it quickly!"

Amid the shouts, Gai Yu had already jumped down the embankment on his horse: "Soldiers, fight to cross the bridge! Protect our comrades!"

On the river plain, more than ten thousand Jin soldiers lined up in formation, trembling in fear.

With flesh and blood, they had to resist the king's army, which was probably numbering 100,000, and fight for the slim chance of survival for the people behind them. How should they fight this battle? Would the result be the raging river burying the dead souls, or killing Saint Li? Everyone's heart was heavy. Their hearts were confused, their hands were shaking, and their lips were trembling.

Many Jin army civil servants on the west bank turned around and left.

The defeated soldiers and civilians stared blankly at the smoke and dust slowly approaching from the river plain. They also began to run into each other like headless flies, kicking over pots and bowls, squeezing into the river, throwing all kinds of things into the Yellow River, and screaming shrilly. Many women from the Three Jins burst into tears in the ranks, gritting their teeth and cursing the dog emperor, Li Keyong. There were also countless old men, women, men, and officials holding hands and rushing out of the crowd, kneeling down on the south side, and kowtowed in the direction of Emperor Li, tears streaming down their cheeks: "Spare my life, spare my life..."

The frightened soldiers were so scared that their souls flew out of their bodies. Some of them hurriedly gathered their horses and said, "Stay together! Stay together for warmth!"

Some of them followed suit and knelt down, or simply took off their weapons and ran towards the hills and forests. Others squeezed for the bridge with red eyes, hacking and stabbing at their own soldiers and civilians with weapons in their hands: "Get out! Get out!"

"King Li, I have repaid your kindness today. I am a Hu people, I am timid, so I surrender! If the saint is willing to accept me, I will be satisfied to be a commoner... I am scared, scared! These days, there are so many people to kill... King, please don't kill me, I kneel down, kneel down!"

People with different thoughts made the ferry even more chaotic.

Just like the Dunkirk evacuation, the moment the defeated troops saw the enemy, they lost all their resistance.

*****
When the north wind stops, it is a good time to dry bedding, sweep the house, and take a nap.

The sun rises, the transparent, white, warm and soft winter sun shines on the face, making the person look white. The saint lazily crosses his legs and sleeps on the horse's back, facing the winter sun, squinting his eyes, and leaning on the pillow.

The thin Xiao Xiu with long hair was sitting beside him, tending to the Hu horse captured from the Jin army.

"Xiu, do you think we can take Taiyuan in one battle?"

"Do you mean to recover the four towns or to kill Li Keyong?" Xiao Xiu sighed and said softly, "After a few days of rest, it won't be difficult to reach Taiyuan. If we want to kill Keyong and his gang, we need to see what achievements we can make in Taiyuan and whether we can shock the enemy and kill them to end the disaster... However, the Jin army is powerful. Even if these 50,000 troops are wiped out, it will not hurt the foundation. It will be difficult to force a surrender. As for recovering the four towns, Zhu Dalang will not sit idly by."

The saint smiled and waved his hand, "Guo Meng, can we set off?"

Guo Meng responded loudly: "The troops, horses and equipment have been replenished and packed, and the soldiers have slept for three hours. They can go into battle at any time."

"Go ahead." The saint waved his hand and said, "You don't need me to teach you how to charge into battle. Everyone, seize the opportunity and crush the defeated army!"

"Here."

After Guo Meng left, the saint shouted again: "Call Liu Xianyuan and He Chuyu!"

Concubine Shu allowed herself to be trained and directed, and she was charming and tender. She allowed herself to be developed in all kinds of positions and postures, and she took the initiative to develop them for the king to experience. She served him very well, and was also very horny on her body. Every time she moaned, it made people's bones soften. In addition, the He family was really weak, and the two brothers-in-law, the saint, had never assigned them difficult tasks for protection. Therefore, they had never made any outstanding achievements, and their family business could never be established. After a temporary consideration, the saint decided to support the He family and give him a chance to make great contributions.

The saint looked at He Chuyu and said, "You and Xianyuan should go back now. Select one thousand cavalrymen and three thousand cavalry infantrymen, and each man should have two horses. Eat and drink enough, and then go to sleep. When it is late, take three to five days of dry food, and go along the line of Hexi County to find a place to cross the river and enter Hezhong Prefecture. If Li Keyong sets out, follow him. Of course, everything should be done with the protection of the soldiers as the most important thing. If you find the reinforcements of the Jin army, do not confront them head-on."

"Yes!" He Chuyu crossed her hands and accepted the order, somewhat surprised. It seems that her sister has suffered again? Since last year, her complexion has been getting better and better, her face is rosy and charming, and it seems that she is favored again.

The sage summoned Wang Shaorong again and ordered: "Send the news to Jinzhou and tell Li Sizhou and others that I have defeated Li Keyong and may march into Hezhong Prefecture. Let them prepare to join me in annihilating Li Keyong! Send someone to send a letter to Li Zan, Li Renmei, Wang Zimei, Xiao Gan, and Liu Rengong to let them know that Li Keyong has been defeated and his life or death is unknown, so as to create greater unrest in the Three Jins..."

After saying that, he turned over, stood up, lay on the horse's back and galloped out.

The cold wind hit my face, but my heart was burning. This storm, after many twists and turns, finally turned into a good fortune! I, Li, can finally say that I have secured my position in the Five Dynasties of the Tang Dynasty 1,200 years ago. It's just a matter of how high I will rise in the end.

How far we can go in the future, we will see. In short, I will do everything in the world, and I will have all the beauties I want. No one dares to claim the throne after killing all the governors, and all the beauties in the world will kneel under my crotch and stick out their tongues, opening the three doors!

Ambitions and aspirations must not be forgotten for a moment!

Emperor Li suddenly sat up, raised his hand and shouted: "My lords, advance! The enemy is at Pujin Pass! Fight to cross the river! Fight to cross the river! Drive Li Keyong's army into the Yellow River, and let the prefectures and counties in Hedong bury their souls under the city walls! Let this turmoil settle in the Yellow River!"

On the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month in the fourth year of the Qianning reign of the Tang Dynasty, the two exhausted armies, which had experienced a series of bloody battles, fought each other again in Puzhou.

(End of this chapter)