***
That night, Qin Mu cooked cattle and slaughtered sheep in the camp and issued a ban on alcohol. Two thousand soldiers cheered, talked and laughed, gathered together to eat big chunks of meat and drink big bowls of wine to celebrate the victory they had just won. The camp did not quiet down until the second watch.
Since many soldiers were drunk, there were inevitably some omissions in defense;
By the third watch, there were only thirty or forty men left defending the gate. The rebel prisoners held in the small camp had already been linked together and rushed out together. The dozens of men guarding the gate had only time to fire one round of arrows, and when they saw thousands of prisoners rushing out, they found their momentum unstoppable, so they fled.
Li Tongliang was among the captives and rushed to the front. He opened the gate and shouted, "Everyone, run away quickly. The soldiers in the central army camp will soon receive the news and will kill us. Run away quickly. We will be safe if we escape back to Ganzhou. Quickly..."
The officers among the captives were chopped down by Qin Mu during the day, and the rest were just small soldiers, like loose sand. Under the instigation of Li Tongliang and others, they rushed out of the camp one after another. As they had no weapons in their hands, no one thought of attacking Qin Mu's central army camp. As soon as they rushed out of the gate, they immediately fled in all directions in a mess. Everyone had only one thought in their mind, to escape as far as possible.
But most of them suffered from night blindness, and they dared not light torches while escaping. They were completely in the dark, running around like headless flies, and would fall dizzy after running every ten or eight steps. They could only grope their way forward slowly. How fast could they escape like this
After receiving the report, Qin Mu flew into a rage. He immediately drew his sword and "chopped" the general in charge of guarding the prisoners. Then he beat the drum to gather his generals and ordered his troops to pursue.
However, his soldiers drank until the second watch before going to bed, and many of them were still drunk. Qin Mu scraped together 800 men and hurried out of the camp to hunt down the escaped prisoners.
But it was dark at night. Once the captives escaped, how could it be so easy to catch them all? Qin Mu worked very hard, but by dawn he had only captured more than 1,500 people, and the rest had escaped.
Qin Mu was furious about this, and he assembled his troops that day and marched towards Yuanzhou City. The three armies were filled with murderous intent, as if they were ready to massacre the city.
The rebels in Yuanzhou City were now in a state of gloom, as if facing doomsday. A thousand soldiers were slaughtered in Liujia Village. The heads were taken to Yuanzhou City to build a Jingguan. Then, the 7,000-strong army was attacked at night in Yuanshanping and was completely wiped out. Even the commander Zhang Qizai was captured alive.
Although two to three thousand defeated soldiers have fled back, it would have been better if they had not fled back. After they fled back, they told everyone about the disastrous defeat at Yuanshanping. In order to cover up their own incompetence, they naturally exaggerated the brutality of the officers and soldiers.
Qin Mu slaughtered people in Liujia Village and built a Jingguan under Yuanzhou City. His reputation was already loud enough, and after the fleeing soldiers exaggerated it, Qin Mu became a demon with three heads and six arms and white forehead in the eyes of the rebels. His two thousand men also became evil soldiers and demons, fierce and evil.
This made the defenders in the city even more panicked. If the four cities of Yuanzhou had not been closed, many people would have chosen to desert.
Zhang Qizai's deputy general Gao Ze was in charge of guarding Yuanzhou. He was the exact opposite of Zhang Qizai, who was slightly shorter in stature. He was tall and strong, with a full beard. He was very powerful in charging into battle, and it could be said that he was the vanguard of Zhang Qizai's vanguard army.
Although he was brave in combat and made up for Zhang Qizai's shortcomings, he was somewhat lacking in strategy and ability to control the overall situation.
Gao Ze had no choice but to close the gates of Yuanzhou and quickly send people to ask Zhang Xianzhong for help.
There was chaos in the city and the army was in turmoil. When they heard that Qin Mu was leading a large army to attack Yuanzhou, some people even used the words "as long as you have the green mountains, you will not be afraid of running out of firewood" to persuade Gao Ze to give up Yuanzhou and return to reunite with Zhang Xianzhong first.
In a rage, Gao Ze killed the people who tried to persuade him. Damn it, these bastards have no good intentions. You will be fine if you give up Yuanzhou, but I must be beheaded by the king.
Yuanzhou certainly cannot be given up easily, but Gao Ze is not sure whether he can keep it before Zhang Xianzhong arrives. Although there are still 10,000 troops in the city, the soldiers are in panic, and there are countless people who are only thinking about escaping. What's the use of having so many people? Qin Mu's army may launch a fierce attack and these 10,000 men will collapse.
In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Gao Ze had people spread the word that Zhang Xianzhong's army would arrive the next day. He also treated the soldiers to a feast of fish and meat, and promised that as long as they held out until reinforcements arrived, they would be rewarded handsomely. Gao Ze used every means he could think of, and the morale of the army in the city was finally stabilized a little.
As soon as the afternoon arrived, Qin Mu's army marched to the foot of Yuanzhou city in a mighty procession. The large flag with the word "Qin" on a black background and red characters was as black as hell and as red as blood. It fluttered and rolled in the wind, as if filled with endless magic power. The rebels on the top of Yuanzhou city wall saw it from afar and could not help but be filled with fear.
In addition to the 1,700 soldiers under his command, Qin Mu also brought 1,200 rebel prisoners, nearly 3,000 people, and more than 1,000 heads.
After the army arrived at the city of Yuanzhou, the first thing they did was to build a Jingguan. In order to deter the rebels to the greatest extent, Qin Mu was now enjoying this. More than a thousand heads were soon piled up into a small hill under the city of Yuanzhou.
Jingguan, see Jingguan again.
In just a few days, a Jingguan was built under the city of Yuanzhou for the second time. Each time, there were more and more heads piled up, and the pile was higher and higher. The rebels on the city wall could see the horrifying scene from afar, and an atmosphere of pessimism and fear suddenly filled the city wall, and even the sunlight seemed to have lost its heat.
Qin Mu looked at Zhang Qizai, who was wrapped like a mummy on the stretcher, and secretly laughed. At that time, Zhang Qizai's horse had not yet accelerated, but he was charging at full speed. The two horses collided with each other and rolled out. Zhang Qizai was crushed under the horse, his face was scratched, his left calf bone was broken, and his body was covered with scratches. He was half dead.
In line with the capitalist creed, Qin Mu naturally tried his best to save Zhang Qi before squeezing out all his surplus value. Now it is time to squeeze out the last of his surplus value.
"Zhang Qizai, do you feel very unwilling to be defeated by me like this?"
Zhang Qi was silent for a while before answering, "I lost, but looking back, I didn't lose unfairly. I have nothing to be unwilling about."
"Very good, you are a real man. Then we have a good foundation for a deal. If you help me persuade the rebels in the city to surrender, I will let you go. OK! Don't rush to refuse. Life is precious. Besides, if you die like this, you will lose the chance to turn the tables forever. Think about the deeds of Gou Jian, the King of Yue. If you complete this deal, you will still have a chance. Maybe one day it will be my turn to be defeated by you."
Qin Muxiang is like a weird uncle who lures little Loli to see goldfish, and he persuades her earnestly. It is impossible to say that Zhang Qizai is not moved at all. After all, life is only once, and Zhang Qizai is not an ideal fighter who can sacrifice his life and blood for the cause of rebellion.
He joined the rebellion, initially out of necessity, and later for the sake of wealth and glory. If he lost his life, all the wealth and glory would become a joke.
"Will you really let me go?" Zhang Qizai didn't even look at him, obviously not believing what he said.
"You think too highly of yourself. Right now, I am the winner. In my eyes, you are just like an ant. I can easily make a dead ant. In other words, as long as I am happy, letting an ant go is not a big deal."
This kind of talk might be enough to fool a three-year-old child, but Zhang Qizai was not a three-year-old child. Of course, Qin Mu did not expect him to believe it, so he added: "Either you go and persuade the rebels in the city to surrender, or I will try with your head, maybe it will have some deterrent effect. You can choose one of these two options."
Qin Mu's words sounded nonchalant and did not seem to carry any threat, but if you look at the Jingguan that looked like a hill made of human heads, you will know that his words about borrowing the heads were not just empty threats.
Zhang Qi weighed the pros and cons again and again, knowing that he had no bargaining chips to threaten Qin Mu, so he could only helplessly answer: "I am willing to try, but I am your prisoner now, so my words may not work."
"You just need to move them with emotion and explain things to them with reason."
Zhang Qi was quickly pushed to the foot of the city. When the rebels on the city saw their commander being brought in, they were immediately in an uproar.
"Look, look, isn't that our General Zhang?"
"Yes, yes, there is no doubt about it. General Zhang has been captured."
"Oh my god, what should we do? Even General Zhang has been captured. Let's run away quickly. I heard that if we are caught by the soldiers, our heads will be chopped off and used to build a Jingguan."
"Shh! Keep your voice down. If General Gao hears us, he will kill us first."
Before Zhang Qi even opened his mouth to persuade them to surrender, the rebels on the city wall were already in a panic when they saw him, as if their backbone had been pulled out.
Zhang Qizai sat on a stretcher and was escorted by Zhu Yijin to a point just outside the range of an arrow. He looked at the top of the city wall with a complicated expression. Zhu Yijin immediately urged him impatiently, "Zhang Qizai, start."
Zhang Qizai had no choice but to shout to the top of the city wall: "Soldiers on the city wall..." Shouting hurt his wound and he broke out in a cold sweat. Zhu Yijin drew his sword without mercy. Zhang Qizai had to bear the pain and continue shouting, "Brothers on the city wall, I am your commander Zhang Qizai. You are no match for the officers and soldiers. Open the city gates and surrender. If you surrender voluntarily, the officers and soldiers will treat you well. Otherwise, when the city is broken, your heads will be chopped off and built into a Jingguan, just like..."
Is there any need to say what it is? Zhang Qi was less than ten feet away from the hill-like Jingguan.
.(To be continued..)
...