The imperial capital cannot be peaceful this night.
Thousands of households are whispering behind deep curtains, some are scared or confused, some are praying or sighing...
Almost all the people in Mandu, high or low, could not sleep at night.
But hundreds of miles away in Yanzhou City, Su Xiu Ming and Shen Zangfeng would have gone crazy if they hadn't been watched by the soldiers below!
Their entire family is in the Imperial Capital!
Su Xiu Ming was sent back to her hometown of Qingzhou by her grandfather because one of her two sons happened to be let out. Her only grandson was also with her parents and was not in the imperial capital. If something happened to her father, first wife and brothers, it would certainly be painful, but after all, her heirs were still safe. of this comfort.
But Shen Zangfeng - his parents, brothers and sisters, wife and two sons... it can be said that everything about him is in the imperial capital!
Even though he had been groomed as a future clan leader since he was a child because of his eldest brother's dissatisfaction, he had always kept his emotions and anger a secret, and at this moment he was trying his best to maintain his composure on the scene!
My mother's gentle advice when I was young, my father's strict teachings when I was a boy, the relationship between the middle brothers and sisters, the sweet words and coquettishness of my first wife, the two innocent and young children... Ever since I knew the purpose of the Rongren's military expedition. Finally, these scenes appeared in front of him alternately, without any time or rest!
… At dawn, Shangguan Shiyi entered the meeting hall.
As soon as they saw him, everyone felt relieved, and then raised their eyebrows. Shen Zangfeng opened his eyes, which had been closed for a short nap due to long night discussions. They were as bloodshot as Su Xiuming and other generals, but he looked at Shangguan. Eleven's eyes were still bright and filled with strong expectations: "Does Eleven have a clue?"
After these days of military career, Shangguan Shiyi's extremely shy temperament has softened.
Although he still speaks little at this moment, he doesn't have to be coaxed by others for a long time before he speaks out like before.
He said briefly: "Fortunately, I did not disgrace my life." Then he quickly walked to the large long table next to the sand table with a large stack of rice paper under his arm and spread it out.
Su Xiu Ming and others gathered around him.
Shangguan Shi unfolded the rice paper, but it turned out to be a hand-drawn map. Looking at the terrain, we can see that it is the states in the northern part of the Wei Dynasty, mainly Donghu, Yanzhou, and the imperial capital. The nearby areas are only briefly sketched. There are traces of red circles in many places in the map, which is the result of his alone meditation that night. .
"This plan had already started when the Rong people had hurriedly retreated in order to hold a ceremony to worship the heaven." Shangguan Shiyi is not good at speaking in public, and there is no need to speak in public at this moment. He spread out the rice paper and saw that everyone was surrounding him. He went straight to the topic and said, "Although the Rong people defeated the Liu family at that time, they actually only accounted for nearly two-thirds of the Donghu until they retreated. At this time, they retreated. Otherwise, I estimate, In fact, it will be very difficult for them to continue fighting, at least they cannot be as overwhelming as before. After all, they will be exhausted again and again, not to mention that the soldiers have looted countless soldiers. Many people are satisfied on the one hand, and on the other hand, carrying money and silk becomes a burden. , and no longer have the heart to continue fighting.”
"But the people in the Rong army who set up this serial plan took advantage of this moment. Before they showed signs of weakness, they found an excuse to retreat. So much so that we all thought they were He really returned in a hurry to hold a ceremony to sacrifice to the heavens. Not only did he give up many of the looted items, but in the end he was even chased by us until the rear was defeated, and he just wanted to return to the king's tent. "
Shangguan Shiyi pointed to a few places marked with a red pen on the map and said, "Because of the Liu family's defeat before, when the Rong people retreated, the army did not follow immediately, and there were not many soldiers who dared to pursue them. Again. In addition, after the path has been trampled to a certain extent, it is difficult to estimate the accurate number of people passing by, so in fact, we cannot judge at all whether the 300,000 Rong people evacuated the territory of Wei at that time."
Everyone finally understood what he meant, and everyone was shocked: "The last retreat was to allow these Rong people to hide in our territory, the Wei Dynasty?!"
Su Xiuming was surprised and said: "But now there are about 100,000 soldiers and horses who are besieging our Yanzhou without attacking. Those who pass through Yanzhou and go straight to the direction of the imperial capital. Just from what we can see from the distance from the city, there are at least more than 100,000 soldiers and horses. Ten thousand people! How can such a large number of people be hidden without any trace? Moreover, the spies have visually measured the number of people from a distance, so there is no way the difference is more than 100,000!"
Shangguan nodded at eleven and said: "We'll talk about hiding things later. Let's talk about the number of people first - due to the previous defeat, when the Rong people retreated, our spies must have followed them and arrived at the king's tent later. When counting, it was estimated that all the Rong people had returned. And it must have been done from a distance. In this case, how could we know that these people were all Rong people at that time? Don't forget that many people in Donghu were also taken captive. Population, that’s one.”
"Wait!" Shen Zangfeng raised his hand and said, "The number of people can be faked. The spies can't look closely. There is indeed a possibility of seeing it wrong. But none of us thought at the time that not all the Rong people had actually retreated... Tell us how they did it. He hid most of his soldiers and horses in the territory of Wei Dynasty and kept us ignorant of it!"
Shangguan Shiyi nodded and said: "It's fine. In fact, I'm not sure how they hid themselves. This is all speculation: one possibility is that they didn't actually leave most of their troops lurking in the territory of the Wei Dynasty. After all, the appearance of the Rong people They are very different from the Wei people. Once they are encountered, they will definitely be found out. However, if they just take the opportunity to send people to bury a large amount of luggage in the desert, unless God wills it, even if the Liu family will send people to prevent the soldiers from passing through the desert, How could they dig up such a large desert and check the bottom one by one
"After all, after the Rong people retreated, Donghu was in a mess. They were busy building fortifications, raising the city walls, and digging deep trenches. They had no time to do it. They sent out spies to stare at the vast desert. They were probably careful not to let the Rong people go there to sneak in, for fear of I never imagined that the most difficult issue of baggage when passing through the vast desert would be solved by the army in this way. With the supplement of baggage, even if something unexpected happens and we are blocked by the Wei army, we can't build a city on the Gobi, so it can be said that there is no danger. The bravery of the Rong people can be fully utilized, and we Wei people will definitely suffer a loss if we fight against them in that situation - for the Rong people, it is better than fighting a siege. "
There was silence in the meeting hall, only Shangguan Shiyi continued, "The second possibility is that the places I circled on the map are all inaccessible places. And they are mostly mountains or valleys. According to the annual growth in the past two years , It is not an exaggeration to say that these places have ten rooms and nine empty rooms. The Rong people hid in scattered places. Even if they met the people of Wei Dynasty and cut them all down, according to the current official system, I am afraid they still haven't reacted. "
Shen Zangfeng pondered: "So which one do you think is most likely?"
"I think there are two possibilities." Shangguan Eleven said, "A large group of soldiers ambushing the Wei Dynasty waiting for the opportunity to attack. It is very easy to be discovered. When the Donghu army stops, the Yulin army will join us here in Yanzhou. Encircled, the fate of the Rong people is worrying! Therefore, they may only lurk a small number of people. Firstly, it is easier to hide. Secondly, even if they are discovered, the loss will not be big, and they can even escape with luck. Thirdly, it is these people. With less, it is easier to move, and you can even cover your head and face and other features that easily reveal your identity as a Rongman, and in turn spy on our movements!
"And they also hid a large number of supplies in the vast desert for the army to pass through. In the past two days, because the Rong people left a hundred thousand soldiers and horses to besiege Yanzhou and refused to attack, it was difficult for our scouting horses to break through the siege to report the news. The released The pigeons were also shot down one after another, and none of them could fly over the Rong camp! "
Shangguan Shiyi pointed at the map and said, "So I suspect that there must be Rong people hiding in these places circled by Zhu Bi! Because this is the only way for Yanzhou, Donghu and the messengers to pass by! Although the pigeons passed by Domestication, after all, has limited wisdom. Generally speaking, their flight route will not change. The Rong people are good at riding and shooting, and they have domesticated falcons, so they are naturally good at catching homing pigeons. In addition, they can guard the key points and snipe the messengers. Oh, and here, the three circles are all beacon fires. By cutting off the means of warning from the front, the Rong people who sneaked into the heart of the Wei Dynasty can seize the city with a thunderous force like this time - otherwise Liu There should have been warnings coming from home, so why did Yanzhou almost fall into the hands of the Rong?"
… Speaking of which, the situation in Yanzhou that day was actually more dangerous than that in the Imperial Capital.
Yanzhou was not as lucky as the imperial capital. The Rong people were discovered before they could reach the city and went to the city in time to report the news. The grand master in charge of government affairs believed that stability was the priority and would rather find an excuse for the sudden closure of the four gates afterwards. Let’s just deal with it perfunctorily and turn it off first. This time it was equivalent to saving the people of Hecheng.
When the Rong army suddenly appeared outside Yanzhou City, several people in charge of Yanzhou were reviewing official documents in the guard general's house. Only soldiers and low-ranking officers were at the gate of the city. It happened that the soldiers arrived at about the same time as the cavalry was training in the city, so the soldiers under the city gate thought that the earthquake was because the cavalry was training particularly hard today.
They also joked and speculated among themselves, whether Su Xiu Ming or Shen Zangfeng would personally supervise
In the end, without even a few words of laughter, I saw the flag covering the sky in the distance. Since they had not received any warning from Donghu, the first reaction of the soldiers at the city head and the city gate was not to close the city gate and send out a warning, but to ask each other. Are there any reinforcements coming to Yanzhou to garrison in the near future
After such a delay, it was already too late by the time they saw clearly the faces with deep eyes and high noses under the flag and hurriedly closed the door.
By the time Su Xiuming and Shen Zangfeng received the news, threw away their ink pens, donned their clothes and mounted their horses, and arrived, 20,000 Rong soldiers had already entered the city, and more Rong soldiers were still squeezing in.
The two uncles and nephews fought bloody battles with their personal guards. Due to her age, Su Xiu Ming's physical strength began to decline, and she was stabbed on the arm... Finally, she closed the city gate, and then searched out and killed all the soldiers in the city one by one. -During this period, several officers learned that the Rong had entered the city and thought they could no longer defend the city. They abandoned their subordinates in panic and asked to open other city gates to escape, causing chaos throughout the city. Several Rong soldiers even tried to store baggage. A fire was lit outside the warehouse.
Thanks to the timely discovery, no big losses were caused.
But after fighting bloody battles for a day and night, dragging their exhausted bodies to appease the soldiers and appease the common people in the city... After finally stabilizing the overall situation, the person who was responsible for interrogating the soldiers and left as a tongue-in-cheek reported a terrible news: this time the soldiers invaded in large numbers, and the target It's the imperial capital!
The people who took the lead in attacking Yanzhou City were all ruthless soldiers who were not afraid of death. The interrogators used all possible means to pry open one man's mouth. Even so, the man died without even confessing a few words. . So there is only so much that can be reported.
However, most of the Rong people appeared in Yanzhou, but there was no news from the direction of Donghu. Moreover, since the failure to seize the city, the Rong people no longer attacked the city and only set up camp outside the city and set up a deer village. It is obvious that they want to besiege Yanzhou but not attack it. But there are more troops from the rear, mighty and mighty, heading towards the imperial capital!
This situation is enough to prove the prisoner's last words.
Because the Liu family was defeated before, in order to resist the Rong people, all the elite soldiers that could be mobilized were mobilized. The Shen family all supported 20,000 Xiliang troops. Later, the Rong people suddenly retreated, and Donghu had to seize the time to repair the fortifications to prevent the Rong people from coming back again, and to deal with the slaves to prevent things like the Shinshu slaves from happening again.
Therefore, the troops in Yanzhou City are now only enough to defend the city. If you want to rush out of the city, unless you don't want Yanzhou City and the baggage in the city - then you will definitely pay a huge or even tragic price.
That's fine. The key is that there are so many Rong people now, and there are even more Rong people going to attack the imperial capital. If they pay a heavy price to break out of the siege of Yanzhou, what's the point of getting to the imperial capital
Even if we add the last 20,000 Xiliang troops from Gyeonggi Province, they are still nothing compared to the tens or hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Especially after leaving Yanzhou, where did the luggage come from
Previously, in order to prevent the Shen family from causing rebellion, the royal family and the various families placed restrictions on the Xiliang army's baggage!
I'm afraid that once the imperial capital is besieged this time, the generals of the 20,000 Xiliang army will have a headache for the next food and fodder... If they are smart enough to run fast and are not killed by the soldiers.
The problem now is that the Rong people have no intention of attacking the city, and there is no danger in Yanzhou City for the time being. But how can they help the Imperial Capital and take care of their family and children in the Imperial Capital? ? ? (To be continued)