Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 993

Outside Xizhou City, Zhang Dawei was sitting on a plate of peanuts, drinking a small wine in a leisurely manner. From time to time, scouts would pass on the frontline battle situation like an assembly line. The battlefield to encircle and suppress Zhao Zhongqing was less than twenty miles away. .

"League commander, then Zhao Zhongqing is at the end of his rope, he has already lost half of his troops." Lu Fengyun, the commander of the second infantry brigade of the Qinglong Legion, rushed over excitedly, "League commander, order a general attack and eat him, he is Zhao Pu's grandson. Taking him down can greatly damage the morale of the Song Army."

Zhang Dawei took a sip of the wine slowly, and said: "Why panic, tell the boys to take it easy, hit slowly, don't worry, don't lose the bait before the fish takes the bait."

Lu Fengyun was taken aback when he heard the words, and asked a little strangely: "League commander, are you saying that Zhao Zhongqing is the bait, and the army leader is fishing? Then this fat fish is the defender of Xizhou City?"

Zhang Dawei sneered and said, "Brigade Commander Lu, you thought it would take a lot of trouble just for Zhao Zhongqing, an arrogant kid. You are wrong. He was just an appetizer. He was going to wait for Zhang Baifa in Xizhou City to open the city gate and leave the city." Come on, pass on the general's order to bring back [-] troops to encircle and suppress Zhao Zhongqing, and Zhao Zhongqing's side will fight slowly. The general wants to see if Zhang Baifa will come out of the city?"

Lu Fengyun suddenly realized, and said sincerely: "The commander of the legion is really clever."

Zhang Dawei laughed and said: "Although Zhao Zhongqing is the direct descendant of Zhao Pu, it is nothing compared to our established target of Xizhou City, or even the whole of Xizhou. If we fail to get Zhang Baifa from Xizhou Draw out from the city, let the Tubo people rush into the city when the city gate is wide open, take Xizhou City, and then forcefully attack Xizhou City later, not only will there be many casualties, but the most important thing is that it will not be able to complete the battle that His Majesty personally ordered plan, that would be difficult to explain to His Majesty."

After a pause, Zhang Dawei continued: "Zhao Zhongqing has a special status, and we have surrounded him here, and Zhu Zhengxi, the magistrate of Xizhou, came from Zhao Pu's staff, and he is Zhao Pu's confidant. Even if Zhang Baifa, the guard of Xizhou, is unwilling to send troops, Zhu Zhengxi will force him Let Zhang Bai send troops to rescue his little master. You have to know that in the Song Dynasty, it is no different than our Xiangfu Kingdom. The civil officials have great control over the generals, but many times it is the nightmare of the generals, so even if Zhu Zhengxi looks It turned out that this was a trap, and under the pressure of Zhu Zhengxibei, he had no choice but to jump off and get into the trap."

"What the legion commander said is absolutely true!"

While the two were talking, a soldier ran in quickly, saluted and said, "Report to Commander Qi, the enemy general who fought out of the city last night has come back and wants to break into the city."

Zhang Dawei said with a smile: "If he wants to kill him, let him kill him, so that he can send a letter to Zhang Bai for us. However, this scene has to be more realistic. Lu Fengyun, you direct it yourself, so that General Song can feel himself. It was a fluke to get back. Do you understand?"

Lu Fengyun chuckled, and said: "Don't worry, the commander of the legion, the subordinates promise that Song will not let him into the city without the slightest suspicion."

Zhang Xingqiang led more than 300 cavalry, spotted a gap in the siege of the Xiangfu army, and suddenly launched a charge. He rushed halfway, but was intercepted by the Xiangfu cavalry, and as he advanced, the resistance increased. As he got bigger and bigger, there were fewer and fewer soldiers around him. He was sleepless all day, no matter how brave he was, he couldn't hold back anymore. He just felt that the long spear that was usually handy was getting heavier and heavier in his hand, and he could hardly swing it. He just wanted to stop. He rested for a while, but reason told him that as long as he slowed down a little at this time, he would die without a place to bury him.

At the last moment, Zhang Xingqiang bit the tip of his tongue violently, the severe pain made him wake up instead, summoned up his courage, and roared forward, and then forward.Finally, there was nothing in front of him, and there was no Xiangfu country cavalry blocking the way. Not far away, the Tubo army dispatched a group of cavalry to rush forward to meet him. At the same time, the city gate was wide open, waiting for him to enter the city.

Lu Fengyun chased his troops for a distance, and saw that Tubo's "rescue soldiers" had arrived, and the crossbow arrows on the city were shining brightly. If he chased again, he was about to enter the opponent's range, so he waved his hand and shouted: "Let him go!" , Ming Jin withdraws troops."

Zhang Xingqiang, who rushed into the city, couldn't hold on any longer, and when his eyes went dark, he got off the horse.

When he woke up leisurely, he was already in the guard's mansion, and his uncle Zhang Baifa was looking at him with concern.He jumped up all of a sudden and shouted: "Uncle, hurry up and save General Zhao, he is surrounded at the foot of Jiantou Mountain thirty miles away, and he is about to lose his hold."

Zhang Baifa was silent, his face was gloomy and terrifying, he did not answer him directly, but said: "Xing Qiang, you have worked hard, take care of your wounds!"

Zhang Xingqiang said anxiously: "Uncle, I'm fine, I'm just out of strength, you send troops to rescue General Zhao! It's too late." Following Zhang Xingqiang to enter the city, dozens of Zhao Zhongqing's personal soldiers who survived by chance knelt together He fell down in front of Zhang Baifa and begged, "General Zhang, please send troops quickly to rescue my general."

Zhang Baifa's face was ugly, he stood up, walked a few steps in the hall, suddenly turned his head, looked at Zhang Xingqiang, and said: "Xingqiang, you have fought for a long time, and you have fought several battles with the opponent's troops. Say, what is the opponent's combat strength?"

Zhang Xingqiang hesitated for a moment, then said: "Uncle, the opponent's combat strength is indeed extraordinary, but it is not as strong as the legend says, otherwise we would not be able to fight out and then enter the city."

Zhang Baifa became more and more sure that this matter must be a trap set by Zhang Dawei, shook his head, and said: "Xiangfu's army defeated our Song army's northwest frontier army and the elite forbidden army, and then defeated the Liao army. This year, they took back Hexi. Corridor states, this time Tubo attacked Xiangfu Kingdom Lanzhou under the instigation of Prime Minister and Privy Envoy, and Xiangfu Kingdom was finally released. Not only did the 8 people be beaten, only the 2 people outside the city were left. I heard that Even the entire Hehuang Tubo Kingdom fell behind Xiangfu Kingdom. For more than a year, Xiangfu Kingdom's army has never been defeated, but you think they are not that strong. Don't you think there is a problem with this?"

Zhang Xingqiang was stunned for a moment, and said, "Uncle, what do you mean..."

Without waiting for Zhang Xingqiang to finish speaking, Zhang Baifa interrupted: "You are on Jiantou Mountain, how many people did you see surrounding General Zhao?"

"At least six thousand!" Zhang Xingqiang said.

"That's right! Six thousand besieged less than three thousand troops. With the strength of Xiangfu's army, and it was premeditated, they fought for a long time, but they still haven't been wiped out. You said, it was the troops sent by Zhang Dawei." Are they all soft persimmons, or is General Zhao's army too powerful?"

Zhang Xingqiang was stunned again, remembering that he escaped from death twice, he finally became suspicious, and said: "Uncle, I understand, this is a trap set by Xiangfu Kingdom... But after all, they only have more than 1 horses. No matter how strong the fighting power is, our people plus the Tubo people have 4 to [-] horses, can we not beat them?"

Zhang Baifa sighed, and said: "This is exactly what I have doubts about. I suspect that there is still an army hidden somewhere in Xiangfu Kingdom. Just now I sent someone to inquire with the Tubo people, and I learned that Xiangfu Kingdom's special brigade has also sneaked into us. The territory of Xizhou. It’s just that the special brigade of Xiangfu Kingdom has always been good at hiding. At present, neither our spies nor the people of Song Weifu have found their traces, and there is likely to be another army in Xiangfu Kingdom on the border, and they will attack our Xixi at any time. Therefore, I am worried that the special forces will suddenly appear to carry out a sneak attack on us, entangle us, and then another army from Xiangfu Kingdom will kill us, which would be bad."

"But uncle, if we don't save General Zhao and just sit back and watch his entire army be wiped out, how will we explain to the Prime Minister in the future?" Zhang Xingqiang said sadly.

"This is my business!" Zhang Baifa resolutely said, "Mr. Zhao is deeply aware of righteousness, and he will not fail to see Zhang Dawei's tricks, and he will definitely not embarrass me because of this matter. You can relax!"

Turning around, he said to the dozens of Zhao Zhongqing's personal soldiers in the hall: "You all understand, it's not that the general will not save General Zhao, but that if the general leads someone there, he will probably encounter the enemy too. Army's ambush, which caused our army to suffer even greater failures."

Dozens of Zhao Zhongqing's soldiers kowtowed in unison, and an officer said loudly: "We understand the general's difficulties. The general can't go, but we can go. We are willing to live and die with General Zhao." The ten people climbed up and walked out.

Zhang Baifa was furious and shouted angrily: "Stop, are you going to die?"

"Little General Zhao's thousands of brothers are gone, and none of us dare to live alone." The leader said fiercely.

"Come on, tie them up for me!" Zhang Baifa ordered loudly, and as soon as his words fell, a group of soldiers ran in, no matter what three or seven, two people 'served' one, and they all lay on the ground according to order. The rope is strung up.

However, at this moment, there was a sudden rush of footsteps outside the door, and at the same time, a voice full of anger rang out: "General Zhang, I just got the news that General Zhao was in an ambush, why don't you send troops?" Rescue."

Zhang Baifa frowned, thinking that the real difficult person was coming.

That's right, the person who came was Zhu Zhengxi, the magistrate of Xizhou.

"Lord Zhu, it's not that he didn't send troops to rescue General Zhao, but that this may be a trap set up by Zhang Dawei of the Xiangfu Kingdom. Maybe the Xiangfu Kingdom's special brigade and other troops are hiding somewhere. Zhang Dawei's troops suddenly attacked and besieged us during the fierce battle. Master Zhu, you also know that Xiangfu Kingdom has excellent soldiers and unparalleled combat power. Even if the number is equal to ours, we are absolutely invincible." Zhang Baifa suppressed his impatience, explained.

Zhu Zhengxi snorted coldly, and said: "General Zhang, you also said that the Xiangfu Kingdom Special Forces Brigade and other troops may be hiding somewhere. Are you ignoring General Zhao's death just for these possible things to happen?" General Zhang, I have to remind you that if you don’t send troops, Mr. Zhao will never let you go, not to mention that you are an official until the end, I’m afraid your life and wealth will be in jeopardy.”

(End of this chapter)