The emperor let out a long sigh of relief as he watched the rebel army retreat like a tide, and the expression of relief and satisfaction on his face became more and more intense: "I was always worried, afraid... I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to wait for this day. Allowing Li Yuanshan to harm the Northwest for three years, I felt sorry for the people of the three realms, but at least I did not drag this matter to the crown prince. Now I am stealing God's time, stealing one more day... is worth a lot of pride."
"Your Majesty stopped taking the medicine these few days, but his body is getting better day by day."
Su Buwei lowered his head and said.
The emperor smiled: "Didn't I say that although the Northwest is tired and desolate and the climate is cold, it is clean here. I remember reading the documents of the Ministry of Household Affairs over the years, including all places in the Sui Dynasty. The number of people with this kind of disease and plague is the least, and there is almost no disease disaster. When the plague was rampant in the south of the Yangtze River more than 20 years ago, many wealthy households fled to the northwest to seek refuge. This place is actually quite good. The medicine... Is it not I will eat it again, and I will not read the memorial again. Since I am enjoying the stolen time, it is a sin to spend all my time on it. I have made many decisions over the years, and this decision is the most unconscionable and the most worthy. Own."
He stretched out his hand to let Su Buwei help him to stand up: "Go back, the smell of blood is already wafting over, I don't want to smell it. The victory and defeat have been decided, there is no need to watch any more."
"Your Majesty, Hou Wenji is back."
Su Buwei said in a low voice.
"Let him go directly to Jin Shixiong. He has almost figured out the details of the rebel army in the past year. Even if the chaos in the northwest is settled, Hou Wenji will stay in the northwest for a while to help Jin Shixiong clean up the three northwest areas. One more time. He is better at arresting people and handling cases than anyone else."
"Your Majesty has not seen him?"
"It's gone, he understands why I don't see him. For more than a year, has he been purely thinking about doing things for me? If I don't point it out, it doesn't mean I don't know. Let him do it for himself, and don't be mistaken because he is smart." Own."
"Slave servant, send someone to tell him."
"Um."
The emperor hummed and walked back slowly. He looked around at the scenery with a smile on his face. But Su Buwei knew that no one could really understand His Majesty's mind. When he is smiling, he may not be in a really good mood.
The former army of the rebel army was defeated after Shi Lei led the people away, and the rebel soldiers who lost their command ran around like flies that lost their heads. Although Li Yuanshan used the arrow array to prevent the rout from attacking the main formation, but because all the arrangements of the Sui army were aimed at his previous tactics and were controlled by others everywhere, the rout still spread uncontrollably. The two wings were defeated by the Sui army one after another, and the general Zhou Dingguo died in the chaos. Prince Yi Li Yuankuo underestimated the enemy and was trapped by the Sui army. His personal soldiers protected him by rushing from left to right and managed to get out of the encirclement. But when he looked up, he found that he had bumped into the Sui army's central army. After being trapped again, he could only kneel surrender.
After the heavy cavalry was blocked, the defeat of the rebel army could no longer be reversed.
Under the protection of about 60,000 to 70,000 infantry, Li Yuanshan withdrew to Xiping City, fighting as he walked. On the ground of Mandu Banner back then, all Jin Shixiong's troops died in the hands of You Xiaowei, how could Jin Shixiong let Li Yuanshan go so easily at this time. He personally led the Chinese army brigade forward to crush, and he didn't care about the rebels who knelt and surrendered along the way.
Later, Li Yuanshan's men were running in front, and the Sui army was chasing behind, and the rebel army was running behind the Sui army, and the Sui army was chasing behind the rebel army. The distance from the place of decisive battle to Xiping City is only twenty li, and the twenty li is a complete mess. The men and horses on both sides were entangled together but rarely fought any more, and they all only cared about running forward.
General Yang Youzhi led the Sui army to clean up the mess, but he was more than ten miles away from Jin Shixiong's men.
In order to hold back the pursuers, Li Yuanshan kept abandoning one after another, until the team he ordered to stay behind to stop Jin Shixiong didn't even fight after understanding his situation, and threw their weapons aside and squatted On the ground, the Sui army led by Jin Shixiong really didn't bother to pay attention to them, still biting Li Yuanshan's rear team tightly.
Yang Youzhi, who led more than 30,000 people to collect the prisoners, had to ask the emperor to send troops to assist him. The number of prisoners collected exceeded 100,000, and his team was a bit overwhelmed.
Seeing that the distance to Xiping City was getting closer, Li Yuanshan kept urging the team to speed up. The infantrymen were exhausted after running for 20 miles in fright, and when they finally saw Xiping City, many people cried out of excitement.
"You come out of the city, who will guard the city?"
Li Yuanshan asked Song Qianhui.
Song Qianhui hurriedly said: "When I left the city, I handed over the thousands of troops guarding the city to General Leitai."
Li Yuanshan didn't remember this person in his mind, but it's okay after thinking about it. His team expanded too fast, not to mention a general with thousands of people, even the general Li Yuanshan with tens of thousands of rebels under his command had a few who didn't remember their faces and names.
"Send someone to let him open the city gate!"
Li Yuanshan said loudly.
"ah?"
Song Qianhui was stunned for a moment, and then realized: "No... When I left the city, I told him to never close the city gate!"
Hearing these words, Li Yuanshan's face suddenly turned pale. He reined in his horse sharply, raised his head and looked up the city wall. He didn't pay attention before, but after looking carefully at this time, he realized that there were no traces of the defenders on Xiping City!
"No, this Leitai abandoned the city and escaped!"
Song Qianhui's complexion changed drastically, and he quickly ordered: "He must have escaped from the north gate, and then asked people to close the south gate for fear of being discovered. Your majesty... It's my negligence. I didn't expect this Leitai to abandon the city and die. escape."
"I don't have time to pay attention to this. Maybe the city gate is not holding up, so send someone to push it!"
His personal soldiers immediately rushed towards the city gate with a group of people, and at this time the Sui army behind them was less than a mile away. Hundreds of rebel soldiers rushed to the gate of the city, and they pushed the gate together, only to find that the gate was not dead, and everyone burst into cheers. Li Yuanshan let out a long sigh of relief, and urged his horse to lead the people into the city immediately.
…
…
After the city gate was opened, the empty street immediately appeared in front of everyone, and the shadows of the soldiers who stayed behind in Xiping City could not be seen. The battle flags of the rebels were thrown everywhere, as well as clothes, armor and weapons, presumably discarded by the rebels defending the city when they fled. They didn't dare to wear the uniforms and armor of the rebels, and they didn't dare to flee with weapons, probably because they were afraid of being caught by the imperial army in the future.
"I..."
Li Yuanshan opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. When he entered the city, he looked at the empty city and felt pain in his heart. This feeling of betrayal was like a knife being cut back and forth in his heart. First, Shi Lei fled before the battle, and then all the rebels who stayed behind in Xiping City ran away. At this time, Li Yuanshan actually had the illusion of waking up from a dream. The events of the previous few years are vivid in my mind, but they suddenly become unreal like a spring and autumn dream.
"Get into town."
Song Qian would urge the rebels behind to enter the city as soon as possible, and it is no longer possible for everyone to come in. The last soldiers have been stuck by the Sui army. If they wait for them, they can only put the Sui army into Xiping.
Hundreds of people from the advanced city pushed open the city gate and made way for the road, and the cavalry guarding Li Yuanshan immediately swarmed in. About four or five hundred people came in, and Li Yuanshan ordered the archers to quickly go up to the city wall to defend. At this moment, a loud bang suddenly came from the city gate, followed by wailing and cursing.
Li Yuanshan immediately turned his head to look, his pupils shrank instantly!
For some reason, the heavy gate on the city gate was suddenly lowered, and the heavy stone gate instantly blocked the opening of the city gate. The soldiers who had no time to dodge were crushed under it, and turned into flesh in an instant. The rebels outside couldn't get in and started yelling and cursing crazily, and the people in the city were shocked by what happened.
At this time, suddenly a large flag was erected on the city wall and shook away in the wind. The big Sui characters on the fierce red battle flag made people tremble with fear. Unclear soldiers have drawn their bowstrings and aimed at the hundreds of rebels in the city.
When Li Yuanshan saw this scene, he felt his heart stopped beating.
Song Qianhui yelled in fright, but fell off the horse uncontrollably.
The soldiers who appeared on the city wall were wearing the standard leather armor of the Sui Dynasty, holding a hard bow in their hands, already fully drawn, waiting for an order. At this time, the rebels gathered near the city gate all had the feeling that they were being targeted by the god of death. No one doubted that as long as those soldiers let go of their bowstrings, the chains of death would pull them into hell.
"Your Majesty, rush into the city and rush out of the north gate!"
Song Qian who fell to the ground would struggle to stand up and shout, his voice became hoarse and unpleasant because of panic. But when he had finished calling Li Yuanshan and had no time to respond, a brigade of cavalry suddenly poured out from all the streets in the city, and quickly surrounded them to block the rebels near the city gate.
When seeing those cavalrymen appear, all the rebels were scared to death.
Those cavalrymen were not wearing the livery and armor of the Sui army, and many of them were even shirtless. They held sabers that were one and a half meters long in their hands, and the big black braids behind their heads showed their identities.
"Barbarians from Northern Liao!"
Someone fell to the ground in fright, and threw the horizontal knife in his hand aside with a bang.
The cavalry from the Northern Liao land reined in their horses and formed a semi-circular formation to block all the rebels. The rear of the rebel army was sealed off by the Qianjin gate, and the front were those murderous barbarians from the Northern Liao Dynasty. The city wall was the Sui army that was already in full battle. No matter how you looked at it, there was no way out.
Li Yuanshan did not find any figure he recognized among the Beiliao ground cavalry on the opposite side. He turned to look at the top of the city wall, and then saw a strange young man under the fierce red battle flag. This man stood there without a weapon in his hand. Although tens of meters away, Li Yuanshan still felt the chill in his eyes. It was the murderous aura that the young man did not conceal and did not want to suppress.
Li Yuanshan didn't know why the Sui army on the city wall and those barbarians from Northern Liao suddenly appeared, but because of the appearance of Hanqi from Northern Liao, he immediately guessed the origin of these people. Only in the Sui army on Langru Mountain, there were cavalry from the Northern Liao land.
But Xiping City and Langru Mountain are thousands of miles away, why did these people suddenly appear here? !
"Put down your weapons!"
The archers on the city wall shouted loudly, and the rebels looked at each other in blank dismay. They didn't know who lost the weapon first, and then everyone threw the weapons far away, lest they would be attacked by the archers.
Li Yuanshan watched the young man in black robe slowly walking down from the city wall, but he couldn't find any impression in his mind. He didn't have the slightest sense of familiarity with this young man. This person must have never appeared in his past life, but why is the chill in his eyes so strong? It must be hatred, Li Yuanshan felt a chill on his back.
"Who are you."
he looked at the young man and asked.
"Fan Gu's frontier army is a small soldier."
The handsome young man answered seriously, but Li Yuanshan didn't react for a while. After a few seconds, he suddenly realized, and subconsciously pulled his horse back a few steps.
"Fang Jie?!"
The young man nodded: "I didn't expect you to remember this name, very good... very good... very good. Otherwise, I have to explain who I am, please."