"Drive" followed by an anxious sound, a messenger broke the morning tranquility, startled many birds, and rushed towards the state capital.
The lively flow of people on the streets of the state capital has been somewhat sluggish due to the recent war, and there are fewer pedestrians. When they see the messenger soldiers hurrying up, everyone disperses in shock.
If this kind of urgent communication is blocked, they can be killed without mercy.
The messenger went to Uncle Zhongqin's residence, entered the Governor's Mansion in a blink of an eye, and submitted an urgent report.
Uncle Zhongqin hesitated for a moment, then took it and looked at it. He was furious, but he didn't explode. His face was cloudy, and he stood up and walked around for a few steps. In fact, this place was deep in the Governor's Mansion, and it was very deep, but he blew it. After a while, his anger had not disappeared. He came back and threw the tea cup to the ground: "You bastards, a bunch of bastards."
Cursing, he sat down and thought.
"King Lu is really insidious." Uncle Zhongqin knocked on the table, frowned, and thought to himself: "Is my strategy wrong?"
This thought appeared in Uncle Zhongqin's mind, his face changed, he stretched out his hand and patted it gently, as if to dispel these emotions.
"I have to admit that I made reference to Pei Ziyun's strategy to deal with Uncle Zhongqin in Yingzhou, but after consulting with the staff, there was no mistake. How could I be wrong?" But this thought lingered in Uncle Zhongqin's mind. , with a solemn look on his face, he took out several more envelopes and read them.
"I didn't expect King Lu's cavalry to be so elite. The grain transport team was attacked and killed five or six times out of ten. The troops from the counties and counties responded and were also defeated."
"This resulted in the traffic between counties being divided. What's even more frightening is that these cavalry have a very keen sense of smell. I set up ambushes several times, but I was also dodged."
"I originally wanted to trap King Lu, but I didn't want to be trapped instead."
The sun shines on the window, and the birds are chirping outside. The scenery of the past is heartbreaking today.
"Come here, summon the generals for me." Uncle Zhongqin seemed to have finally made up his mind and ordered outside the door, and someone followed the order.
meeting hall
The soldiers in front of the hall stood on both sides of the row, all of them squinting with their swords in their hands, standing as straight as nails, looking solemn, filled with a tense atmosphere, and the air became hotter.
The person in charge of food and grass was the Food Supervisor, who was in the fourth rank and looked to be around forty. He was sitting on the side of the general. His lean face was pale and sweat was dripping from his forehead and he was wiping it with a towel.
Uncle Zhongqin seemed to be looking at the case file. He looked calm and said nothing. After a long time, he raised his head and stared at the Supervisor of Food. He suddenly clapped his hand, stood up, and threw the booklet about the attack on the grain road on the Supervisor of Food. feet.
"Yuan Song, as the food supervisor and councilor, you have repeatedly lost food. According to military law, you should be executed!" Uncle Zhongqin roared, his face turned red. Yuan Song picked up the case file. After listening to these words, he quickly knelt on the ground: " Uncle, uncle, it happened for a reason, King Lu’s army is extremely fierce for some unknown reason, and we, Liangdao, are no match at all.”
"Oh, why isn't it an opponent's method?" Uncle Zhongqin looked at him and asked, with a strong coldness.
"Uncle, I shouldn't have said what I said originally. Zi Buyu has strange powers and chaos, but King Lu's cavalry has many strange phenomena, as if they are possessed by demons. Someone reported that a leopard man was seen among King Lu's cavalry."
"We are just transporting food, but we are just soldiers. How can we resist such monster soldiers?"
"That's nonsense. There is a Daolu Division in the imperial court. These things are semi-public. Daoism cannot resist. There are leopard men in King Lu's army. Do you really think I'm stupid? Come here, pull him out and kill him."
As he said that, a soldier came forward and asked the food supervisor to go out.
"Sir, please forgive me. Everything I said is true." The Superintendent of Food Council struggled and shouted loudly: "Sir, it is not my fault for fighting!"
The voices were pitiful. Several generals looked at each other and stepped forward to plead: "Uncle, we are also guilty. We failed to wipe out King Lu's cavalry. We also asked your uncle to forgive Lord Yuan and killed the ministers in the middle of the battle. It is very unknown."
Uncle Zhongqin looked around at everyone. He actually didn't want to kill him. He just lost his food supply. He was always responsible. However, it was not the late period of the previous dynasty. There were too many officials. Fourth-rank officials were already considered senior officials. It would be easy to kill them, but the consequences would be difficult to predict. Now there are people He begged for mercy and sighed: "Since the generals beg for mercy, they can be exempted from the death penalty. However, although the death penalty is exempted, the living penalty will be difficult to forgive. I will beat him with twenty army sticks to set an example!"
The armored soldier agreed, came up and pinned him down, and beat him hard. The Food Supervisor and the Councilor were civil servants, so how could they withstand such a beating? After ten sticks, he fell into a coma, and after twenty sticks, his breath was weak.
"Take it down for treatment." Zhongqin Bo was slightly annoyed, but there was nothing he could do about it. He turned around and asked, "In the current situation, what suggestions do you have?"
The generals were speechless as they listened to each other. After a long time, someone said: "Uncle, Qinzhou is close to the horse land. There are many cavalry, which come and go like the wind. It is difficult for infantry to resist. We originally had some cavalry, but they were defeated in a battle not long ago." After entering, now we only have 500 cavalry, and we can only protect the central army."
"Although we have asked the imperial court for help, it is said that the cavalry is being recruited, but it will still take time, but it is impossible for a while..."
Listening to these words, Uncle Zhongqin felt his heart was filled with congestion and he was speechless. A feeling of decadence was spreading and heavy. It took him a long time before he said: "That's it, you all go down."
The general responded: "Yes, uncle."
Uncle Zhongqin had no choice but to break up the accounts, but his original idea wavered again: "Is it really my fault? Does King Lu really have a destiny?"
A feeling of uneasiness filled his heart. When following the battle, Uncle Zhongqin always felt that it was not difficult for the coach to strategize. However, when he was really in charge, he realized the heavy pressure, which made him almost breathless. Walking back like a lead, a scribe came up with a letter from home and ginseng soup: "Uncle, you have worked hard all day. Drink some ginseng tea to replenish your body. If your body collapses, who will preside over the war?"
This scribe was Uncle Zhongqin’s adviser, and he usually tried his best and was highly valued by Uncle Zhongqin. However, at this moment, Uncle Zhongqin felt heavy. He forced a smile, sat on the chair, took the ginseng soup, drank it all, and drank the ginseng tea. With warmth, it flowed into my stomach, and I felt a wave of tiredness, and my whole body leaned on the chair.
After being motionless for a long time, he finally struggled to get up. He read the letter from his family and saw the birth of his grandson. He couldn't help but be overjoyed. His eyes lit up, but as he stared at the candlelight, his eyes dimmed. He sighed for a while: "It's a good thing, but... the current situation. "
Speaking of this, he sighed: "I originally wanted to blockade King Lu, but I didn't want to be restrained by King Lu. There were even more cavalry attacks on various roads, so that counties and counties could not be connected, and hundreds of thousands of troops could not move."
"Grandpa is afraid that he may not be able to bring you glory, and he may get into bad luck."
"Uncle, you have worked hard for the court. I think Your Majesty will understand all your hard work." The scribe comforted him. After listening to the scribe's words, Uncle Zhongqin waved his hand: "This has nothing to do with Your Majesty's trust in me. The military expenditure of hundreds of thousands is huge." , it costs the imperial court one hundred thousand taels of silver a day, I know that the imperial treasury is not large, and His Majesty is in poor health, how can you allow me to spend huge sums of money on a long war?"
As he spoke, he sighed: "Am I really not as good as Pei Ziyun?"
Just thinking about it, I felt a pain in my heart. The sun shone on the window. Uncle Zhongqin looked at the dust in a daze. The scribe was about to comfort him again when someone suddenly came in hurriedly. He knelt down and saluted with a "pop" sound: " Urgent report, Hanzhong has been captured by King Lu."
"What?" This was a thunderclap. The two of them were stunned and kept their previous postures. Then, the scribe woke up and threw himself on the case. When he looked at the map, his voice suddenly changed: "Uncle. , something serious is going to happen.”
"As soon as Hanzhong is captured, King Lu will be able to attack Jing and Shu, and the whole north will be shaken. If one of Jing and Shu is further captured, the entire world will be in danger. Then..."
"No matter how much favor I have, I will still be held accountable, and even harm the family." Uncle Zhongqin came to his senses, sat down slumped, and smiled bitterly: "This is a bolt from the blue, I just lost my temper. .”
As he said that, he pointed at the map and his face turned even pale: "At first, when I saw that King Lu only had 20,000 soldiers, I went straight to the capital. I felt that King Lu was young and very reckless."
"But as Qinzhou fell into trouble, I realized that King Lu was attracting the court's attention and giving the rear time to integrate."
"Just now, I thought that if King Lu was pinned down here, unable to move, he could be crushed by several times the army. But instead, King Lu would build a plank road to attack Chen Cang secretly."
"Now I have counterattacked and defeated Hanzhong. The situation has changed drastically. Instead, I am restrained here and unable to move." Zhongqin Bo smiled bitterly: "I have followed many commanders on expeditions, and even followed the emperor on expeditions. I usually serve as counselor to military aircraft, which is also remarkable. It’s nice, but once I personally presided over it, it was full of mistakes.”
"Is there anyone born with talent in this world?"
"Uncle, we can talk about these reviews later. For the current plan, we have to break the situation." The scribe said anxiously: "Should we immediately send a message to Jing and Shu to order them to take precautions?"
"Sending a message to Jing and Shu, ordering them to take precautions, is just a remedial measure. The world is at peace, and they must disarm and return to their fields. Jing and Shu have no soldiers now. Even if we send a message immediately, it will not take a short time to recruit defenses." Uncle Zhongqin's eyes flashed with cold light. , his voice hoarse: "Hanzhong is bordered by the Qinling Mountains in the north and the Bashan Mountain in the south, forming a basin. It has been called the land of abundance since ancient times. That's fine. The key is the terrain. If you get it, it will shake half of the world."
"With this town, King Lu's whole chess game will be alive, and the court will be in danger. The emperor is the founder of the country, and he will not fail to see that if I have no countermeasures and let the situation get worse, I am afraid that within a month, I will If I am to be taken to the capital, a new general will be appointed to replace me!"
"So all the strategies that took a long time are of no use to me now." Uncle Zhongqin was finally Uncle Zhongqin. He was confused just now, but now he has regained his composure and wisdom. At this time, he was pacing with a gloomy and terrifying expression. He said: "The current plan is to use attack instead of defense to attract the enemy troops in Hanzhong to return. This will give Jingshu time to prepare and relieve the crisis."
After Uncle Zhongqin finished speaking, he stood up and opened the window. As soon as he saw it, there was a loud thunder in the sky, and a gust of wind with a fishy smell immediately rushed into the study. Both of them shivered, and they saw that most of the sky was covered with thick clouds. Covered, rolling thunder could be heard from time to time.
Uncle Zhongqin looked at the sky, and without hesitation, he said word by word: "Give me the order to summon all the generals immediately, bite King Lu, and consume him at any cost."
"Even if three soldiers are killed to defeat one of King Lu's soldiers, it is still cost-effective. I want to see if King Lu is in danger, Hanzhong dares to continue fighting?"
At this point, a bolt of lightning flashed along with thunder, and heavy rain fell, hitting the eaves heavily.
(End of chapter)