In Fengzhou City, Yue Qiong entered Fengzhou City with a large army. In the early morning of the second day, he just got the report from the spies from the north, and he was immediately stunned in the local area!
"You mean... the barbarians invaded Cangzhou City?!"
The spies below were sweating, "Yes, Lord! On the road, I met many people fleeing from the direction of Cangzhou. They all said that Cangzhou City has now fallen, and that this time the barbarians somehow gathered hundreds of thousands of horses. , Cangzhou City was gone in an hour, those people seemed to be red-eyed, all the people in the city were killed, and the ten thousand Beifu troops left by Zhao You were also killed now!"
Yan Qi was also stunned, "Barbarians?! How could there be barbarians?! It's strange that the abandoned queen suddenly retreated! But it turned out to be the reason!"
Yan Qi thought about it, and showed a bit of hatred, "Now, we are here to wait for the barbarians to fight over? What a ruthless plan! Lord Hou, what do you think? Now the deposed queen leads the army to Chongzhou , in my opinion, we might as well just chase after him, now we are only one day behind, and there is still time!"
Yue Qiong frowned, "His Royal Highness King Cheng! Didn't you hear that!? The barbarians have invaded, and the city of Cangzhou has been slaughtered! If we leave Fengzhou, Fengzhou will be slaughtered next. How can you Can you say that?!"
Yan Qi's face was impressive, but he was unwilling to bow his head in front of Yue Qiong, "We are here to fight the Beifu army! We are not here to fight the barbarians. Don't be confused by the Hou Ye, leave some troops and guard Fengzhou The city is…”
Yue Qiong looked at Yan Qi like a fool, "Leave some troops? Haven't you heard that the barbarians have hundreds of thousands of horses this time?! Don't say that only some troops are left, that is, there are so many of us now, It may not be possible to defend Fengzhou City!"
Yan Qi opened her eyes, "The barbarians... are the barbarians so powerful?"
Yue Qiong smiled coldly, seeing through this journey that Yan Qi is just an embroidered pillow, so she doesn't talk to him now!
"Come here, quickly write a letter and send it to the capital. This time... this time may be a catastrophe for the Great Zhou Dynasty!"
Seeing Yue Qiong's seriousness, Yan Qi hesitated to speak for a moment, but he didn't say anything more, but he turned his head and saw that the young generals standing below were nothing more than that, as long as they were of a certain age, their faces were pale at the moment, and there were some foreheads. I was dripping with cold sweat!
Since Yue Qiong gave this order, the military situation sent to the capital was written and set off soon. Yue Qiong immediately ordered Fengzhou City to be martial law, and immediately prepared armaments and repaired the city defense. He never dared to give the barbarians a little chance. At night, the spies came to report again!
"Master Hou, our people have now arrived in the south of Cangzhou, and saw that Cangzhou City has become a ruined wall. Outside Cangzhou City, the barbarians are dividing up the looted property, and there are many women who have been kidnapped by them. In terms of number, our spies I roughly summed it up and said that there should be 200,000 barbarians this time."
Two hundred thousand!
Although the report said hundreds of thousands before, it was all news from the fugitives, and it was always too much to count. Ordinary people have never seen so many people for a while, and there are some mistakes in their estimates. But now, it's the news from my own people!
At that moment, the entire discussion group gasped!
This Northern Expedition brought a total of 100,000 horses, and 20,000 reinforcements to Chongzhou. Now there are only 80,000 horses in Fengzhou City, and the barbarians are fierce and warlike. Surpassing the barbarians, otherwise it would be difficult to fight based on the number of people, even if the number is almost the same, let alone, the number of opponents is twice as many as theirs now—
"Your Majesty! How are you going to defend this? In the Cangzhou catastrophe, only 50,000 barbarians crossed Canglong Mountain, and there were 50,000 defenders in Cangzhou City, and they were still guarding the city. Not only did they lose, but they were also massacred at that time." , only a very small number of people escaped, and now, the opponent has 200,000 people, how can we fight?!"
"Master Hou, do we really want to stay in Fengzhou?! We only have 80,000 people now!"
"Master Hou, why don't we go further south? Just let the people of Fengzhou go south together, give way, buy some time, and wait for the reinforcements from the imperial court to arrive before we can fight!"
Listening to the words of the people below, Yan Qi just realized how powerful the barbarians are, and at that moment, a little cold sweat broke out on the back, and the bottom of his heart became frightened.
Yue Qiong frowned, "Retreat? If you retreat further south, there will be more places for the barbarians, and the battle line will also be extended. At that time, the barbarians will not have to attack the city, and they will be able to slaughter wantonly in every hole in the huge Zhou soil. At that time, places with garrisons will be better, and counties without garrisons will suffer, and the barbarians are better at guerrilla warfare than us. If we don't block them in the northern border, how can we give Fengzhou both hands? !"
Seeing the calm expressions of the people below, Yue Qiong had no choice but to say, "Don't disturb your military spirit! Although the barbarians are powerful, they caught Cangzhou by surprise this time, and Fengzhou's city is solid, which Cangzhou cannot compare with. If you withdraw, the people in the whole north will suffer, you enjoy the salary of the imperial court, and those are the tax money of the common people, if you just withdraw, will you feel ashamed in your heart?!"
Yue Qiong spoke harshly, everyone was intimidated by his sure look, and they didn't dare to refute for a while, they were afraid in their hearts, but at the same time, they were relieved because of Yue Qiong's firmness.
"Master Hou, what do you say?! Shall we stick to it?! Do you want to withdraw the people from Chongzhou?!"
Yue Qiong took a deep breath, unable to answer for a moment, the opponent had 200,000 troops, so he couldn't just consider Fengzhou, but his men only had 80,000 troops!
Yue Qiong went to the Kanyu map, pointed to the Kanyu map and said, "Cangzhou is the northernmost point of the Great Zhou Dynasty. If you go south from Cangzhou, if it is due south, it is Fengzhou; if it is southwest, it is Wuzhou; if it is southeast, then It is Chongzhou, the barbarians have 200,000 troops, their morale must be high, and they will naturally come to the nearest Fengzhou. We will stick to it, maybe we can persist for a few days, but there is no guarantee, the barbarians will divide their troops to Wuzhou and Chongzhou, we only have more than 80,000 , Wuzhou can't take care of it right now, otherwise both sides will lose..."
After pondering for a while, Yue Qiong said, "In this case, immediately send someone to Wuzhou to inform them of this matter, and let them close the city gates immediately and prepare for the city defense. Wuzhou should have more than ten thousand troops stationed. Let Wuzhou prepare for the defense while at the same time Go to Mengzhou to borrow troops. In this way, at least more than 20,000 people can be gathered. If the barbarians really fight over, they can withstand at least two days. The more time we can buy, the more we can wait for reinforcements from the imperial court. , will follow in the footsteps of Cangzhou!"
The little general said, "What Hou Ye said is very true! Now I can only use this method to defend to the death! This subordinate will go and order!"
Yue Qiong nodded, and said to the man, "It was clearly stated when the order was delivered, if the Lord dares to abandon the city and flee, and ignore the people, it will be a death penalty!"
The young general should be, and immediately went out to pass the order, and Yue Qiong looked at Chongzhou again.
"Chongzhou used to have 10,000 troops, but now we have reinforced 20,000, but now there are only 30,000 troops. The deposed queen led the troops to take down Chongzhou. There are so many of them. It doesn't matter if Chongzhou defends to death, but..." Yue Qiong squinted He squinted his eyes, "However, we can't let them relax. Immediately send an order to Chongzhou to let them withdraw from Chongzhou immediately, set up camp in the south of Chongzhou City, leave the Beifu Army in Chongzhou City, seal their southward journey, and let them fight with us." Barbarians!"
Someone below clapped their hands and cheered, Yan Qi also said, "Okay! Master Hou's coup! They want to go to Chongzhou, and let us block them here. They may still want to go south. If that's the case, we won't let them go south! We must! Let’s resist the barbarians together.”
Yan Qi was quite proud of his words, but he just regained the face of being framed by the queen, but he didn't know Yue Qiong's painstaking efforts.
"It's not that I want to retaliate against them for abandoning the city, but because there are so many barbarians this time, and the imperial court can quickly reinforce them, I'm afraid not many people will come. If the Beifu army goes south to make trouble, the Great Zhou will be completely disintegrated. Already!"
After hearing this, Yan Qi knew what Yue Qiong meant, and said helplessly, "How can the abolished queen help us resist the barbarians?"
Yue Qiong sneered, "The queen is ambitious, but Zhao You is still a bit strong, otherwise he would not have been stationed in the northern border for many years. In this case, as long as the barbarians go to fight Chongzhou, the queen will definitely fight. Don't ask them to take the initiative to attack." , at least, distract some attention, and don't let the barbarians easily occupy Chongzhou."
While speaking, someone had already written a military order, and Yue Qiong explained again, "The men and horses in Chongzhou are just to prevent the queen from going south, and they must not take the initiative to fight with the queen. If we fight first, it will give the barbarians an opportunity!"
With Yue Qiong's arrangements, everyone knew his painstaking efforts. Now, Wuzhou, Fengzhou, and Chongzhou are connected in a line, which is the last line of defense for the barbarians to go south. Once the barbarians break through any place, there will be a first The second and third Cangzhou, and now the territory of Dazhou is already full of wars and storms. At that time, let alone the queen and prince fighting for the throne of the world, Dazhou first asked the foreign strong barbarians to take it! If that's the case, Yue Qiong can't rest in peace even if he is afraid of death!
After passing the military orders from the east and the west, Yue Qiong asked people to investigate again. They must know when the barbarians will arrive outside the city of Fengzhou. At the same time, Yue Qiong began to wonder why the barbarians could gather so many troops. In the middle of the night, the lamps were still brightly lit in the conference tent, Yue Qiong looked at the generals and said, "You should know that the barbarians are just like the Rong people. The tribes are only a few hundred thousand people, and the army is only a hundred thousand people at most. But now, But two hundred thousand people came all of a sudden, why is that?"
Yue Qiong is the commander of the Northern Expedition, and among these generals, he has experienced the most military battles and has the deepest understanding of the powerful enemies on the big four sides. Yue Qiong doesn't know it, and the others are naturally ignorant. So, and he hadn't fought the barbarians yet, so he was naturally very puzzled.
The question in Yue Qiong's heart was difficult to solve, but he could only press down the thought. After a while, several groups of spies reported back, all of whom reported the barbarian's movements, but the barbarian came a little slower than Yue Qiong imagined, and The spies couldn't explain clearly, but only said that there seemed to be differences among the barbarians, and a quarrel broke out halfway.
In this way, Yue Qiong was very happy, and only ordered people to step up to strengthen the city defense and make all the preparations before the arrival of the barbarians. He was even anxious to start discussing with his cronies whether to launch an ambush outside the city first, and discussed it all night. It wasn't until the next morning that everyone couldn't hold on anymore that Yue Qiong let them go.
During the two nights after entering the city, Yue Qiong hardly closed his eyes. At this moment, seeing the white belly exposed in the sky, he couldn't bear it any longer. Just as he was about to take a rest, a trusted guard came over and whispered something in his ear.
Yue Qiong raised her eyebrows when she heard this, "How could this be?"
The confidant said, "The villain didn't expect that he would give the villain's name, saying that he was a relative of the villain. When the villain went to see him, the man said he wanted to see you in person, Lord Hou. The villain asked him his identity. Ken said that he only pointed to the west, and the villain saw that he was dignified and handsome, so he came to report to you."
Listening to the description, Yue Qiong's heart moved, "Where is the person? Take me to see him quickly!"
"In the checkpoint tent next to the camp gate in the west, the people there are all our cronies, and the villains dare not bring them here."
Yue Qiong nodded, "Well done!" After speaking, she walked to the west camp gate.
When he arrived at the place, he saw a young man in green shirt in his twenties standing in the tent, he was very thin and handsome, he was not a swindler at first glance, he was breathing lightly, he was even a master of martial arts, when he saw Yue Joan, the person who came here respectfully saluted and handed over a letter without saying a word.
"This letter is the master's confession. It must be sent to Lord Hou. It could have been passed on from generation to generation. The words in the letter are very serious. It is best to hand it to Lord Hou personally."
After the young man finished speaking, he stood up respectfully. Yue Qiong looked him up and down and hurriedly read the letter. Just halfway through, Yue Qiong's eyes were full of shock and sudden surprise. After reading the whole letter, he held his breath in shock. He put the letter on the side of the lamp that was not extinguished, and saw the whole letter turned into ashes, Yue Qiong turned around, "You are not cowardly, dare to send the letter here, your master is now the court's rebel!" Thief, how dare you enter my camp so boldly?"
The young man Shi Shiran smiled and said, "If Lord Hou catches the villain, the villain will have nothing to say, but it will be a pity for my master's trust and hard work."
Yue Qiong's eyes narrowed, "Your master, do you have a plan..."
"The villain just delivers the letter, and the villain doesn't know what the master wants. After Master Hou read the letter, the villain left."
After saying this, the young man Shi Shiran clasped his fists together, and then walked outside. When he reached the door, he was stopped by Yue Qiong's attendants. The man was not in a hurry, but stood still with a smile. Yes, let's go."
In this way, the guards outside let him go, and the young man walked out of the gate of the camp, and disappeared after a while.
In the tent, Yue Qiong looked at the paper on the ground with dark gray eyes.
He could not have imagined that the reason for the 200,000 people was in the Rong people.
What's more, he never thought that the person who came to deliver the news to him was actually Yan Chi.
Because of this, he wanted to ask Shicai. Unfortunately, Yan Chi's identity as a traitor had already been announced to the world. From his standpoint, his standpoint and his situation were not good enough for him to go north to fight against the barbarians.