In Zengtou City outside Lingzhou City, there is the Zeng family mansion.
After listening to the content reported by the grain shop owner in front of him, the owner of the house Zeng Nong also showed a look of doubt on his face: "You mean those dozen guys have not come back since they went out in the afternoon? They went home separately. Have you gone?"
"No, I visited their homes before I came here, but no one came home. It is precisely because this matter is so strange that I didn't dare to delay and came to report it now." The storekeeper of the grain store said with some worry.
Those Jurchens obviously didn't know that as the powerful tycoons of both black and white in Lingzhou Prefecture, the grain business here has always been controlled by the Zeng family, so when they wanted to sell grain in the city, they were doing business with the Zeng family. . And when they killed a group of guys who were delivering food to the village just to be on the safe side, the news naturally spread to Zengtou City quickly and became known to everyone in the Zeng family.
"There are thousands of kilograms of grain in Bianjia Village, which is enough to feed hundreds of people for half a month..." Zeng Tu, the eldest son of the Zeng family, frowned and thought carefully, and then asked again: "What are those people dressed like? Something unusual?"
"They don't seem to speak very eloquently, unlike me from the Central Plains. Moreover, they seem to have a little braid on the back of their heads..." The shopkeeper tried his best to recall and told the details he noticed. And just this sentence made Zeng Suo, who had been silent, suddenly change his expression: "No, the situation is not right!"
"Third brother, what did you see? Why were you so surprised?" Zeng Mi, the second son, gave him a strange look.
Zeng Suo ignored him, but looked at his father: "Dad, I really can't believe those Jurchens. They have actually hidden their people near us all this time, right in the Bianjia Village!" In desperation, He didn't care that there were outsiders present, so he directly explained the problem.
When the shopkeeper looked confused, Zeng Suo continued: "Those costumes belong to the Jurchens! But they had always told us that they planned to send troops to other nearby states, and they also asked us to send people to help them. Blending in. But now, their people are clearly on the edge of Lingzhou City, so where is their real target?"
These words finally made Zeng Neng and the other sons' expressions change drastically. Zeng Tu stood up suddenly: "How is this possible?" Then, he walked two steps to the already stunned grain store manager. , grabbed the other person's collar with one hand, and asked in a loud voice: "Please answer me honestly, have you really seen the appearance of those people? Are they really wearing pigtails?"
"No, that's right." The shopkeeper nodded quickly: "Although they were wearing hats, their braids still leaked out when they turned around. It looked a bit funny, so I made a note of it."
"Father, brother, they are just using us to deceive us. What they want to capture this time is Lingzhou City!" Zeng Suo shouted loudly: "This is the foundation of our Zeng family, how can we let them destroy it? ?”
"But..." Zeng Nong was still hesitant in his heart. It is said that when he first came to Lingzhou, he was ruthless and decisive. But as he grew older and took care of his family, he became more worried. When he heard about the sudden change, he didn't know what to do for a moment. What a good choice to make.
Seeing this, Zeng Suo said anxiously: "Father, please
Later we will be completely finished. Since they are hiding such an important matter from us, they obviously do not regard us as their own. The most likely thing is to burn bridges across the river. Even after taking Lingzhou, they also attacked our Zengtou City. We We must not sit still and wait for death. The idea that we are also Jurchens is just an excuse to take advantage of us. If this continues, we will become fish on the chopping board! "As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on Zeng Tu: "Brother..."
Before Zeng Tu could speak, Zeng Sheng, the youngest, had already responded loudly: "Dad, eldest brother, and third brother are right. We must not sit back and wait for death. We must take action to protect ourselves. Now they have all attacked our guys. Let’s take action. In two days, they may directly attack our Zengtou City!”
"But we can't deal with those Jurchens at all. You have never seen their ferocity..." Zeng Nong still hesitated in his heart. After all, he was worried that his strength was not enough. Once he turned against the other party, the end would be even worse.
"Of course our family alone is no match for us, but it would be different if we had Lingzhou City as our support and the army as our support. After all, this is our land of the Song Dynasty. What can hundreds of thousands of Jurchens do if they can fight? Are the waves coming?" Zeng Suo said urgently: "Father, the crisis is imminent, we can no longer hesitate!"
Just when Zeng Nong was in a dilemma and didn't know what choice to make, someone outside suddenly exclaimed: "There's a flood, there's a flood in Lingzhou City, there's such a big fire..."
The father and son who were staring at each other in the hall subconsciously pushed the door open when they heard this and looked towards Lingzhou City in the distance. Then they saw a red light shining in the sky, which was the scene of a fire burning continuously. .
"There was no fire earlier, there was no fire too late, but it suddenly broke out at this time! I'm afraid this matter has something to do with those Jurchens, maybe they have planned to start tonight!" Zeng Suo said, becoming even more anxious: "Father , we can’t hesitate any longer, otherwise there will be a big disaster!”
"My boss, Shi thinks what the Third Young Master said is true. We are all citizens of the Song Dynasty. How can we watch the Jurchen thieves rampage in our country and not only fail to stop them, but also help them?" As he spoke, a burly man flashed in the darkness. , this man looks majestic, walks calmly, and has the air of a general. He is the chief instructor of Zengtou City, Shi Wengong, who has the title of electric gun.
Although Shi Wengong was not a member of the Zeng family, he had a very high status in Zengtou City. Just one sentence had a considerable impact on Zeng Nong, making him more inclined to defect. Seeing this, Zeng Suo took another step forward: "Father, we can't hesitate any longer. There is still a possibility of salvation. Before the Jurchens enter the city, we can take the initiative to convince Weng Zhifu, otherwise it will be too late!"
"Okay... okay..." The situation is critical, and it seems that the Jurchens have indeed plotted against his family, and he has found out that he is really unwilling to risk his family being killed to fight with the original tribesmen. We were in danger together, so we finally made this decision: "Send the order and all the young men in the town will gather together. Now follow me to Lingzhou to report the news, and together with the army, we will encircle and suppress the Jurchen bandits who invaded my Lingzhou!"
Following the owner's order, the entire Zengtou City, which had been relatively quiet, quickly became agitated. Countless young men walked out of their homes and raised their children as usual.
Following the habit, they quickly formed a queue, and after assembling, they were led by the five sons of the Zeng family and two coaches who had already dressed up, and they galloped out of the gate of Zengtou City, intending to attack Lingzhou City.
But just when the team had just left the town and had traveled less than two or three miles, suddenly there were shouts of killing from the west, which shocked everyone into a panic. Zeng Mi and others even issued orders hurriedly, asking his subordinates Zhuang Ding to quickly set up their formations, reveal their weapons, and beware of possible enemies.
It wasn't until they had done everything in a chaotic manner that anyone realized that the cry of killing was actually about ten miles away from them. Moreover, the sound did not look like men and horses rushing over, but two groups of men and horses suddenly met in a narrow road. , their performance after fighting together...
"What's going on?" A question arose in everyone's mind, but with the darkness and the great distance between the two sides, no one could guess which army was actually fighting with the Jurchens. at.
"Could it be that the army has discovered the whereabouts of these Jurchens one step ahead of us, so they came here to strike first? That's not right. There is no such big movement in Lingzhou over there. Even the fire hasn't started yet. Extinguish..." Zeng Suo frowned and thought carefully, but then he found that the fire in the city was getting bigger and bigger, and it was spreading continuously. Even though they were still five or six miles away from the city, they could still feel the power of the fire. It was so ferocious that you could even hear the people in the city crying and shouting to put out the fire.
Although they were full of doubts about this, they had no better choice now. Under Shi Wengong's suggestion, everyone set off on the road again and rushed towards Lingzhou.
At this time, the chaos in Lingzhou City was completely out of control. Once a group of murderous and cruel beasts revealed their fangs and claws, it would be impossible to take them back easily.
Although Shi Qian led his men to block the path of the group of Jurchens in time and quickly started fighting with them, after several encounters, the brothers from the Qingzhou Scout Battalion, who had more people, fell into a huge disadvantage.
These Jurchens are all born warriors, and their fighting ferocity is simply appalling. They often ignore the weapons of their opponents and just attack with all their strength. This made the soldiers of the scout battalion who had no intention of fighting them become timid and unable to advance or retreat after a confrontation. After a few moves, three or four of them fell seriously injured, and the others also hurriedly retreated under the leadership of Shi Qian.
At this time, the people in the surrounding houses finally heard the sound and rushed out. After seeing this bloody scene, many people screamed in shock. However, this aroused the Jurchens' even greater ferocity. They immediately no longer cared about Shi Qian and the others, and turned around to kill the innocent people around them. In an instant, there were screams and blood splattered, scaring the people. They panicked and ran around, chasing everyone in the scout battalion who wanted to form a battle formation to fight the enemy head-on.
Fortunately, the Jurchens at this time were only focused on chasing down the innocent people who had fled, and casually set fires in each house, making the whole city more chaotic. Otherwise, if they took the opportunity to cover up and kill them, Shi Qian and others would They may not be able to withstand it.
Before the third watch, the west city of Lingzhou was already in chaos. It was only then that the government officials in the city arrived belatedly. The leader was none other than Brother Han from the Tsing Yi Gang...