"What's that? It's so beautiful."
As a girl, when Liu Xiaomou saw the fireworks that appeared hundreds of years in advance for the first time, of course she sighed like this. But Liu Xiaomou soon found out with the same pale face as her elder brother Liu Wuzhou that what she had never seen before brought by the fireworks was not only a dazzling beauty, but also a terrifying murderous intent that made Ding Yang Jun feel terrified. !
Under the fireworks, the torches are as dense as stars, the military flags are fluttering, and the swords and guns are like a forest. The Sui Army cavalry, whose number is incalculably large, suddenly appears. Led by the two Sui Army cavalry generals Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin, they charge forward like a tide. Charged towards the flank of the main brigade of the Dingyang Army, the horseshoes rumbled, making the ground tremble slightly. Three or four miles away, the shouts of the soldiers of the Sui Army could still be clearly heard, "Kill! Capture Liu Wuzhou alive! Kill! Kill! Kill! Capture Liu Wuzhou alive!"
"I fell into the trick! I fell into the trap of Thief Chen!"
At this point in the matter, Liu Wuzhou finally understood why the ambush of the Sui army that appeared before was defeated at one touch, but he realized that it was too late. The two cavalry of the Dingyang army that had been closely protecting the flanks of the main infantry had already been taken by the Sui army. The fake ambushes diverted the tiger away from the mountain to deceive them, and the other one, unfortunately, had caught fire with the Sui army's pursuers, and there was no way for them to immediately withdraw their troops and come back to cover them. Now, the main flank of Yang's army is set, except for the five or six hundred soldiers under Li Er's command. Except for the remnants of the defeated generals, there was no single soldier who could stop the sudden charge of the Sui cavalry.
"The whole team! The whole team! The whole team is fighting! Hold your ground! Hold your ground!" Liu Wuzhou was so anxious that his eyes were red, he yelled and urged the army to line up to fight, and quickly pointed to Li Er's team, shouting an order: " Immediately go tell Li Erlang, tell him to charge back, and go up to me to temporarily entangle Chen's bandit cavalry! If you want to marry my sister, buy me time!"
What made Liu Wuzhou furious was that before his personal soldiers rushed to Li Erjun's approach, Li Er had already decisively ordered the Taiyuan Army to rush eastward, withdraw from the battlefield as soon as possible, and ignore Ding Yang. Army life or death! ——Facing the enemy on both sides and being raided by a large number of Sui cavalry at the waist, Ding Yang's defeat is already certain, and changing the gods will not be able to reverse the situation. Li Er will stay where he is and wait for death if he is stupid. He would hit an egg against a rock and go to counterattack to buy that little time for Liu Wuzhou.
Regardless of the angry roaring and cursing of the generals of the Yang army, Li Er took Zhu Can, Liang Jianfang and others to escape faster than a rabbit. The soldiers have participated in high-intensity battles for two consecutive days and one night, and their physical strength has declined seriously. They can't get up to speed at all. No matter how desperately they run, they can't run against the vigorous Sui Army cavalry and the exhausted Taiyuan Army soldiers. After escaping from the shock of the Sui cavalry's raid, the Sui cavalry had already rushed to the vicinity like a tidal wave.
Without any extra choice, Li Er could only immediately order the soldiers to move closer to him and form a square formation to resist the attack of the Sui cavalry. Existence, chasing him like crazy and slashing endlessly. As a result, as soon as Li Er's side approached each other, the Sui Army cavalry rushed up, swallowing the last five or six hundred soldiers of the Taiyuan Army under Li Er's command like a tide, and Li Er's voice of shouting for a firm footing was immediately drowned out. There was a terrible crash.
Swords and swords, flashing torches, horses neighing and soldiers shouting, horse sabers fell on the small infantry formations of the Taiyuan army like a storm, Li Er didn't have time to check the situation of the enemy and his own army in the chaos of the night, he just swung his sword desperately Parry the sabers, spears and spears hacked from all directions, and try your best to resist all attacks that may lead to death. However, no matter how desperately Li Er tried to resist, he still couldn't withstand the surging offensive of the Sui army's cavalry. It's wonderful, I can only run quickly with a roar, turn my horse's head and flee to the south in the direction of the main brigade of the Dingyang Army, Zhu Can and Liang Jianfang will follow up.
At the same time, the main brigade of the Dingyang Army, which did not even have time to convey the order to face the battle, was already in chaos. The generals and soldiers were in a mess. Apart from the charging momentum of the Sui Army cavalry, most of them left the baggage vehicles and fled eastward. When the Sui Army cavalry rushed to cover them, the main force of the Dingyang Army's central army led by Liu Wuzhou had only one result of collapse.
It was a massacre. In the light of the fire, the cavalry of the Sui army followed Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin's flags according to their formation. The soldiers were divided into two teams and rampaged in the Dingyang army. The spears were as sharp as a storm, and chopped down the chaotic Dingyang army soldiers one after another. The iron hoofs trampled on the human body, blood and flesh flew everywhere, and screams continued. Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong, the second generals, took the lead with Ma Li, and while struggling to smash the enemy in front of them, they opened their eyes wide and looked for the location of Liu Wuzhou's commander-in-chief. They kept shouting the same sentence, "Kill! Capture alive!" Liu Wuzhou!"
The main force of the Chinese army was raided and thrown into chaos, so the front and rear troops naturally had to follow suit. Seeing that the situation was not good, Song Jingang, who led the front army to open the way, had no choice but to immediately turn around and bring the army back to meet Liu Wuzhou. Urgently ordered Zhang Wansui, who had been tricked to the front before, to lead his cavalry back to help the main force. The rear army of the Dingyang Army was even worse. Huang Ziying, the Dingyang Army who had already been beaten hard by Kan Leng and Qiu Xinggong, saw that the main force was in a hurry. Under the panic, they were not the opponents of the Sui Army soldiers, and immediately collapsed At the first sign, the morale-boosting forward of the Sui Army took the opportunity to charge and attack, and finally killed Yang Jun's rear army after a while. Huang Ziying didn't want to fight any more, so he quickly led the troops around him who could still command back to the battlefield of the Central Army to find them. Liu Wuzhou.
Finally killed Huang Ziying, who was desperately behind the palace, and there was no obstacle in front of the main force of the Sui army. Chen Sangliang, who had succeeded in his trick again, commanded the main force of the Sui army to pursue and fight fiercely. All the troops marched together, chasing Ding Yang Jun's ass and slashing endlessly. But the poor Dingyang army was in chaos, and they didn't know what to do. They could only scurry around like headless flies in the dark night fire, looking for the whereabouts of the commander Liu Wuzhou. There have been cases of running away from school to school.
There are two reasons why it is said that Yang Jun's soldiers and horses are looking for Liu Wuzhou's whereabouts everywhere. The first is of course that it is late at night and his vision is too poor. The second is that Liu Wuzhou's luck is too bad. Although Cheng Yaojin and other Sui army soldiers had not had time to see Liu Wuzhou's handsome flag, for safety reasons, Liu Wuzhou immediately moved his troops with him, making it difficult for the generals of the Ding Yang army to relocate. Finding him, the command was almost paralyzed.
Of course, even if Liu Wuzhou can effectively command the various troops of the Dingyang Army, it will not be of much use. Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong's two armies are like two sharp knives, constantly rampaging inside the Dingyang Army, killing people and setting fires. Given the opportunity for the troops of the Dingyang Army to approach each other quickly, Chen Sangliang personally led the main force of the Sui Army to chase after him, driving out the defeated troops of the Dingyang Army and constantly attacking the main force of the Dingyang Army. No matter how Liu Wuzhou commanded The army could not reverse the defeat. So after barely getting away from the Sui Army cavalry who suddenly rushed out, Liu Wuzhou didn't even blink his eyelids, and immediately led his personal troops to flee eastward for his life.
Unable to withstand the violent onslaught of the Sui army's soldiers, Ding Yang's troops also began to retreat eastward one after another. Chen Sangliang also ordered the pursuit with all his strength without hesitation, and shouted: "Chase! Chase! Chase to Yuci We must not give Liu Wuzhou's bandit army a chance to escape into Yuci City, we must kill his main force outside the city!"
The hunting battle began. As hunters, all parts of the Sui army marched side by side, shouting and striding like flying, constantly killing the soldiers of the Dingyang army who were alone and lagging behind, and constantly smashing down the soldiers of Dingyang who were barely able to maintain their formation. Army brigade. As the prey, Dingyang's army had no power to fight back. They dropped the baggage vehicles full of military supplies and fled like flocks of frightened rabbits. In the chaos, you pushed each other and trampled on each other. The two Dingyang troops, Song Jingang and Zhang Wansui, who maintained a complete establishment, were also in panic, and they would be in chaos if they didn't fight.
During the hunt, the cavalry of the Sui Army continued to move forward, trying their best to block the eastward escape route of the Dingyang Army. As a result, Qin Qiong, who had been reciting words before, finally had a turn of luck and managed to get in front of the Dingyang Army in the chaos. , when the road blocked the way of the Dingyang Army, the Zhang Wansui Department of the Dingyang Army who fled in front was forced to have no choice but to bite the bullet and charge to fight. Song Jingang, Liu Wuzhou and others took this opportunity to bypass the battlefield and continue eastward. The army continued to pursue them endlessly, biting the tail of Ding Yang's army throughout the fierce battle. At the same time, an appropriate army was sent out to help Qin Qiong pinch Zhang Wansui back and forth. He was thrown off his horse by Qin Qiong, and after falling off the horse, he became a prisoner of the Sui army. Many cavalrymen of the Dingyang army surrendered.
While fleeing for their lives in a hurry, Liu Wuzhou, Song Jingang and others finally saw the lights of Yuci City in the distance. Overjoyed, everyone scrambled to escape to the east. Shouting, they charged directly towards Liu Wuzhou's handsome flag. It turned out that Xiong Wei, the cavalry general of the Sui Army who was in charge of luring the enemy before, had completed the task of diverting the tiger away from the mountain, and according to Chen Sangliang's request, came to ambush outside Yuci City first. When he saw Liu Wuzhou's handsome flag in the chaos, he immediately After killing out, they also threw a lot of gunpowder bottles during the charge, blowing up the enemy and opening the way. Ding Yang's army had no intention of fighting, and they dodged and evaded one after another. The cavalry of the Sui Army miraculously reached Liu Wuzhou's approach.
The fierce battle resumed, and Liu Wuzhou desperately urged his personal troops to stop the Sui army cavalry. Xiong Wei and other Sui army soldiers who had seen Liu Wuzhou from afar had high morale, but they were just rushing desperately with red eyes, especially since they had followed them as early as in Qi County. Xiong Wei of Qin Qiong took the lead, slashing forward with a big knife in his hand, shouting every time he cut a knife, "Liu Wuzhou, die!" Wei himself went to the front alone, less than twenty steps away from where Liu Wuzhou's commander-in-chief was.
With two loud bangs, the Sui cavalry stopped by Liu Wuzhou's soldiers threw the last two gunpowder bottles, which fell in front of Xiong Wei and exploded, disrupting Liu Wuzhou's soldiers who were intercepting Xiong Wei. Going forward, quickly bullied Liu Wuzhou within five steps, raised his knife and shouted, "Liu Wuzhou, you must die!"
Roaring, Xiong Wei brandished his knife and wanted to slash. The terrified Liu Wuzhou parried in a hurry, but he stabbed first from the angle. The shot hit Xiong Wei's face and stabbed Xiong Wei directly off the horse. Liu Wuzhou turned his head with great joy. Look, I was stunned to see the man who dismounted Xiong Wei with a gun and handsome features, but it was the future brother-in-law Li Er who came out of nowhere. Seeing Liu Wuzhou's surprised appearance, Li Er smiled slightly and asked, "Brother, are you alright? If you startle my brother, I will die."
"It's okay, it's okay." Liu Wuzhou quickly shook his head, and thanked him sincerely: "Thanks to Brother Xian for saving me, otherwise Brother Wei would have been in danger just now."
"It's a little effort, brother, you don't have to be polite." Li Er smiled, and said: "Brother, the bandit Chen is very hot on the chase, let's go quickly, my little brother will protect you."
Liu Wuzhou nodded quickly, and when he was about to pat on the horse and walk with Li Er, he suddenly remembered an important event, looked around for a while, but he couldn't see anyone, and hurriedly shouted in panic, "Where is Xiaomou? Where did Xiaomou go? You guys?" Did you see Xiaomou?"
Liu Wuzhou's soldiers shook their heads one after another, saying that they didn't know where Liu Xiaomou was. Liu Wuzhou finally remembered that he hadn't seen his sister for a while in the panic, and immediately shouted angrily, blaming himself for being too selfish and neglecting his sister, which caused her to be separated from him. . Li Er also searched around for a while, and then said to Liu Wuzhou: "Brother, Thief Chen is chasing too closely, let's go first, wait until we reach a safe place, and then try to find Xiaomou Xianmei."
The main force of the Sui army was indeed chasing closely, and in a blink of an eye, another large number of Sui army cavalry came up close. Liu Wuzhou had no choice but to pat his horse eastward with Li Er, and hurried to Yuci City to stay away from the pursuit. soldier. On the way to the east, Liu Wuzhou couldn't wait to say to Li Er: "Erlang, I don't know if the official military order from Dalang to Yuci has been sent to the city. To be cautious, you go forward and call the city for me, and let Yuci open the city gate to welcome you." We enter the city."
"Of course it's okay to call the city." Li Er replied with a sullen face: "But what I'm worried about now is that we may not be able to call the city gate anymore."
"What does Erlang mean by this? Why can't he ask to open the city gate?" Liu Wuzhou asked in surprise.
"Tie Chen is cautious. He is well prepared for this ambush. He will not forget to try to surrender the small town of Yuci." Li Er replied, "I bet that Chen Yingliang's traitor must first have an envoy enter the city to meet the Yuci guards tonight." Liu Jizhen, try his best to recruit Liu Jizhen at any cost. Once Liu Jizhen wavers and turns his back, we will not be able to enter Yuci City. Maybe the Yuci defenders will take the opportunity to defect and take our heads to Chen Thief in exchange for glory and wealth. "
"Will Liu Jizhen turn his back on?" Liu Wuzhou hurriedly asked again.
"I don't know, I don't have much contact with Liu Jizhen, and I don't know him well enough." Li Er shook his head and said, "Let's take one step at a time. If we really can't enter Yuci City, we still have to go north and go straight back to Mayi. s Choice."
When he said this, Li Er glanced at Liu Wuzhou again, seeing that he looked hesitant, apparently he hadn't made up his mind to return to Mayi, but Li Er didn't care about it, and secretly said in his heart: "When it really comes, you It’s okay if I don’t want to go back to Mayi, although the world is big, I only have a temporary shelter in Mayi County.”
Unfortunately, Li Er's crow mouthed the words, and in the night, the defeated Dingyang army hurried like a bereaved dog and fled all the way to Yuci city. , and did not immediately open the city to welcome Ding Yang's army into the city. In addition, Liu Jizhen, the guard of Yuci, also personally boarded the west gate of Yuci facing the official road in Taiyuan, and kept shouting: "Please order Yang Tianzi to come out to see me, please order Yang Tianxia to come out to see me!"
Time was running out, so Liu Wuzhou ventured to the edge of the moat to reveal his identity loudly, demanding that Liu Jizhen immediately open the city gate to welcome him into the city. Liu Jizhen was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly shouted: "Emperor Ding Yang, the commander of Zuo Dudu let you be stationed in Yuci City, the villain has already received it, but Chen's army pursued too hard. Take advantage of the momentum and attack directly into the city. For the current plan, please Your Majesty, you and your civil and military officials enter the city through the west gate first, and the rest of the army can enter as much as possible. If the Chen bandits come, they will immediately pull up the drawbridge and close the city gate. , and then invite the rest of your soldiers to enter the city at the north gate and east gate! It is related to the safety of Yuci City, please keep it in mind, and please understand the soldiers under your command!"
As he said that, Liu Jizhen really ordered the suspension bridge to be lowered, opened the west gate of Yuci, and invited Liu Wuzhou and his senior civil and military generals to enter the city first. Move lightly. Li Er also hurried up and reminded again: "Brother, be careful of deceit. If there is any change in the city, you won't have any power to resist after entering."
Liu Wuzhou hesitated even more, but Liu Jizhen stomped his feet anxiously on the city, shouting: "Your Majesty, why don't you enter the city yet? The main force of the Chen thieves has already been killed, and if you don't enter the city, it will be too late!"
Liu Wuzhou couldn't tell the truth from the fake and didn't dare to risk his own life, so he could only turn his attention to Li Er for help, but Li Er couldn't tell the truth from the fake, so after hesitating for a while, he suddenly asked loudly: "Liu Jizhen, what can you do tonight?" Is there an envoy from Thief Chen coming to the city to see you?"
"You Dudu? Why are you here?" Liu Jizhen recognized Li Er's voice, and didn't dare to ask any more questions in a hurry, but said loudly: "You Dudu, more than half an hour ago, an envoy from the bandit Chen came to the city to see me , vainly trying to bribe the late general to close the city gates to prevent Emperor Ding Yang from entering the city, but Zuo Dudu has a kindness to the late general, how can the late general bear to betray him? So the late general immediately refused, and he has already put the envoy of the traitor Chen into prison , ready to wait for the Zuo Dudu's release!"
"Really?" General Li Er was skeptical, but Liu Wuzhou on the other side heard something wrong, and hurriedly asked, "General Liu, since you refused to surrender to Chen's envoy, why didn't you kill him with a knife and insisted on keeping him?" Down?"
"Your Majesty, the two countries are fighting each other, so don't behead them!" Liu Jizhen replied loudly: "The Zuo Dudu has already issued an order, and he is not allowed to kill the enemy's envoy without authorization. How dare the last general disobey the order?"
"Bring out the envoy Chen Thief, and let me see!" Liu Wuzhou shouted subconsciously.
"Your Majesty, you don't believe me?" Liu Jizhen finally came to his senses, and asked angrily, "Do you suspect that the last general has been bought by Thief Chen and set up an ambush in the city to harm you?"
Liu Wuzhou was speechless, but Li Er, who wanted to encourage Liu Wuzhou to return to Mayi, laughed and said loudly: "General Liu, the traitor Chen is treacherous and cunning, and the appointment of Emperor Yang is also for the sake of caution, so you take the envoy of the traitor Chen out and let him go." Let Emperor Yang take a look."
"Whatever you want!" Liu Jizhen stomped his feet again in rage, then turned back and shouted at his subordinates: "Go and bring Chen's envoy here, let them see clearly!"
The left and right soldiers agreed, and immediately rushed down to escort the Sui army envoy, but immediately some of his subordinates approached Liu Jizhen and said in a low voice: "General Liu, Liu Wu, Mr. Zhou and the right governor are so suspicious of you. After they enter the city, you How can there be a better life? The envoy of His Royal Highness the Tang Dynasty was right. Ding Yang’s bandit army is plundering and promiscuous. After they enter the city, the people of Yuci will inevitably suffer. Why can't we abandon some... some small things for the great righteousness of the people of the whole city?"
Before the well-intentioned subordinate finished speaking, Liu Jizhen had already grabbed the handle of the knife at his waist and glared at the subordinate. The well-intentioned subordinate shrank his head and dared not say anything more. However, at this moment, there was a sudden roar of killing from the west, and the cavalry of the Sui Army had already chased them to the front. Seeing this scene, Liu Wuzhou did not dare to be negligent, and despite Li Er's persuasion, he sent some personal soldiers into the city to investigate the situation, but the preliminary investigation found nothing. In an abnormal situation, Liu Wuzhou rushed into the city immediately, and Ding Yang's soldiers cheered loudly and rushed into the city. Seeing this scene, the well-intentioned subordinate who had persuaded Liu Jizhen before immediately shook his head and sighed: "Yuci is over, and the people in the city are all over."
In the blink of an eye, Liu Jizhen, who was loyal to Li Jiancheng, remembered Liu Wuzhou and Li Er's suspicion of him, and even remembered the precarious situation of the Taiyuan Army. Put it down, catch the turtle in the urn, catch Liu Wuzhou as a meeting gift for the king of Tang!"