Zhou, Luozhou, Shangluocheng.
The city gate is closed.
The soldiers on the city wall raised their crossbows and aimed them at the people outside the city.
The guard only dared to stick out half of his head and stared at the enemies outside the city vigilantly.
Outside the city, a scribe was jumping up and down, cursing.
There were more than a hundred knights standing beside him, and there were four or five luxurious carriages. The knights were looking around uneasily at this moment.
The scribe rode his horse closer to the city again, pointed his riding whip at the defenders on the city wall, "Open the city gate for me! Open the city gate!!"
"If something happens to us, we will have to pay for it with the lives of your entire family!!"
Hearing the scribe's roar, the guard still did not dare to show his head.
The scribe was so angry that he wanted to move forward, but the crossbowmen on the city wall fired their arrows without hesitation. The arrows flew out and landed around the scribe. The scribe was so frightened that he rolled over and ran back to the knights.
among them.
"These people are crazy!!"
"Crazy!!"
The scribe sat on the ground, his face full of despair.
A man walked out of the carriage, wrapped in thick clothes, and the cold wind kept blowing at his body from all directions, and the man couldn't help but shiver.
He looked at the scribe, "Guo Jun, still can't enter the city?"
The person who got off the bus was none other than Wang Shiliang, the governor of Yuzhou in the former Qi State.
As for the scribe, it was Guo En who successfully persuaded him to surrender.
Guo En shook his head, "I can't get in."
After Quan Jingxuan surrendered to Yuzhou, in order to ensure that the results would not be lost in the subsequent battles, he sent Guo En to take the governor and other senior officials without stopping to leave the battlefield and return to Chang'an as quickly as possible.
Facts have proved that his considerations were indeed correct. Shortly after he sent away these prisoners of war, Yang Gu was defeated, so Quan Jingxuan did not dare to easily join forces north again and continued to wait and see the situation.
Wang Shiliang and others traveled day and night, hoping to return to Chang'an as quickly as possible.
The road of the Pseudo Zhou Dynasty was quite flat, and there were post stations along the road for them to rest. It was not bad at first. Although they were a little tired from the journey, they could walk with peace of mind.
This situation continued until they entered Xiyang County.
When we arrived in Xiyang County, the original peaceful atmosphere was gone forever. The doors of each of the three cities in the county were closed, and no one was allowed to enter.
The soldiers in the city have rushed to Chang'an to rescue him, and the remaining guards have received orders. Unless the Duke of Jin arrives in person, no one can come in.
It was also here that they learned extremely terrible news.
General Qi Guowei and King Pingcheng Liu Taozi are about to attack Chang'an.
Everyone was frightened. They wanted to go back, but they found that the Nanyang soldiers had destroyed the road, and out of fear, rebel soldiers appeared. They could only bite the bullet and continue to move forward, hoping to enter Chang'an as soon as possible, or find someone who could accept them.
their city.
Having arrived in Luozhou like this, I never imagined that the situation here would be even more critical.
There was obvious fear in Wang Shiliang's eyes, and he asked, "What if we go west?"
"Or find a place to hide first?"
Guo En stood up and regained his composure.
"My lord, don't be afraid."
"This group of people has stayed in the mainland for a long time and has not experienced war for a long time. They were frightened by Liu Taozi!"
"Liu Taozi just captured Huizhou. There are many cities and defenders along the way. If you want to just fight your way to Chang'an, there is no way."
"Besides, this place is still south of Chang'an. Even if Liu Taozi came to Chang'an, he would not go this way!"
Guo En said disdainfully: "Don't be intimidated by these people. If it doesn't work, we will find a village first and wait until the situation in Chang'an stabilizes before we continue on our way."
Wang Shiliang nodded, and Guo En asked him to get in the car. He then ordered the knights to form an array and protect everyone from here.
Wang Shiliang walked into the carriage, and Xu Biejia sat opposite him.
Wang Shiliang had many, many family members who all needed cars, but Xu Biejia was not in good health and could not ride a horse, so he had to ride with him.
Wang Shiliang looked at him and asked in a low voice: "There are many difficulties in this trip. Isn't it unnatural?"
Xu Biejia shook his head, "In internal and external troubles, surrendering and changing hands has been a practice since ancient times. It is not easy to talk about justice. It is just to trap and kill loyal people in order to please the enemy. This is unscrupulous."
Wang Shiliang's face darkened.
Xu Biejia sat quietly in the car, facing the old officer, with no awe in his eyes.
Since leaving Yuzhou and running all the way, his health has become worse and worse. Xu Biejia felt that this might be retribution for betraying his colleagues.
His health was getting worse and he didn't know whether he would reach Chang'an alive, and his family was far away in Yecheng, so Xu Biejia had no worries.
Wang Shiliang looked at him with cold eyes.
"Zeng Zi said: When a person is about to die, his speech is good. Now I observe that a person who is good at speech is a gentleman."
"When a villain is about to die, his true colors will be revealed, which is disgraceful."
Xu Biejia smiled and wanted to say something, but he coughed again.
At this moment, on the distant city wall, war drums were played suddenly, and the defenders became panicked in an instant, and they fired arrows towards the north.
Wang Shiliang was shocked and quickly stuck his head out, "What's wrong?!"
Guo En's eyes widened, he was also very frightened at this moment.
"I don't know! I don't know!"
"Thieves?! Rebels?!"
"Withdraw!! Withdraw!!"
The knights quickly protected everyone and evacuated, and Guo En led two knights to observe.
On the plain in the distance, a Liu-shaped flag fluttered in the wind, and the heavily armed knights were rushing towards them. Even under such a speed of charge, they could still maintain their formation intact and not mess up at all.
.
Something seemed to explode in Guo En's mind.
His face turned pale in an instant.
"Liu Liu. Liu Taozi!"
"run!!"
At this moment, everyone quickly began to run away.
Many people heard Guo En's words, and an officer shouted to everyone to speed up.
The carriage rushed away, Wang Shiliang held his body firmly, and his whole body was almost thrown out by the carriage. Xu Biejia ignored him and let go of his hands. The carriage shook violently. His body also swayed with the carriage, sometimes leaning forward.
Sometimes lying on his side, he couldn't help laughing.
"Prince, this is our retribution."
"Even if we drove him out, we shouldn't have killed him."
Wang Shiliang no longer had the strength to refute. His face was full of panic, and he was holding on to the left armrest, trembling all over.
Guo En ran away wildly, still observing the rear.
Horrible things still happened.
The cavalry did not attack the city. They circled outside the city and pursued them in their own direction.
The scouts at the forefront had even begun to aim their bows at them.
Guo En was shocked. He looked at the people around him, reined in his horse suddenly, and said, "General Quan has entrusted you with a big task, and I can't live up to it!"
"If you lead the general, lead the prince and others to take refuge elsewhere, remember, you must protect the prince with all your life, he cannot die!!"
Guo En suppressed the huge fear in his heart and led more than 20 cavalrymen to take out their bows, preparing to shoot the enemy scouts and lure them away.
The two sides just encountered each other.
"Swish swish~~"
The enemy's scouts drew their bows and fired. Guo En was shot directly through the neck before he could even say a second sentence, and he fell to the ground immediately.
The level of cavalry shooting of these scouts was astonishingly high. After a hail of arrows, few of them missed. The remaining knights could only run north at this moment, trying to lure them away.
The scouts immediately divided their forces into two groups, with no intention of letting each other go.
A carriage cannot outrun the cavalry.
When the scouts got closer and closer to the enemy and began to shoot with their bows, the Zhou army completely collapsed.
Even the officers could not suppress them. The knights fled in all directions, and the carriage was abandoned behind them.
Even before the army came into direct contact, these scouts started harvesting, and the carriage was forced to stop on the side of the road.
The groom knelt on the ground, raised his hands, and just kept begging for mercy.
The cavalry slowly approached, and the two sides finally met.
Gao Changgong looked at the carriage in the distance in surprise, and then looked at Liu Taozi on the side. Liu Taozi nodded, and Gao Changgong immediately rode forward.
Arriving at the carriage, Gao Changgong raised the horse's spear and pointed it at the carriage.
"Come down!!"
The next moment, I saw a pair of white and tender hands stretching out, "Don't do it! Don't do it!"
Then, Wang Shiliang, who was thin and tender, walked out of the carriage. He looked at the masked man in front of him in horror, and he felt even more frightened, "Baobao. Baibao."
"Is there anyone else?"
Gao Changgong asked.
Another person staggered out, it was Xu Biejia.
Gao Changgong squinted his eyes and stared at Wang Shiliang. He always felt that he looked familiar, as if he had seen him before, but he could not remember his identity.
This made Gao Changgong feel a little surprised, how could Zhou people still look familiar?
He asked tentatively: "Do you still recognize me?"
Wang Shiliang looked at his mask and shook his head slowly, "I really don't know."
As soon as he spoke like this, Gao Changgong could basically confirm that he was from Qi, and the accent gap between Zhou and Qi was quite large.
Gao Changgong slowly took off his mask and looked at the other person again.
Wang Shiliang's eyes lit up, "Your Majesty! It's your Majesty!"
Immediately, he suddenly knelt on the ground and cried: "My lord, I never imagined that I can still see you alive!"
"I was besieged in Yuzhou, with internal and external troubles, and I could not be captured alive by thieves. I just thought that I would never have the chance to return to Qi again in this life."
Gao Changgong recognized the other party immediately!
Wang Shiliang, the governor of Yuzhou!!
He frowned, "Yuzhou fell?"
"Not only Yuzhou, but also Yongzhou. Your Majesty doesn't know something. Quan Jingxuan led 650,000 puppet Zhou elites and had many powerful generals under his command. I was unable to defeat him, so I fell into his hands."
Gao Changgong looked helplessly towards the south, his eyes full of worry, and he sighed.
"It is your blessing to meet us. I will take you to see King Pingcheng."
"well."
Wang Shiliang wiped his tears and stood up hurriedly. Xu Biejia said nothing and just looked at him coldly.
Gao Changgong led the two of them to the front of the army.
The knights dismounted here to rest, eat dry food, and get water from the stream nearby.
Liu Taozi is holding the green lion and stroking the mane of her beloved horse.
Seeing Gao Changgong return, he handed the green lion to the soldiers on the side and looked at the visitor with authority.
Seeing Liu Taozi, Wang Shiliang became more and more frightened.
Gao Changgong told Liu Taozi truthfully what Wang Shiliang said.
Wang Shiliang listened carefully to what Gao Changgong said, and his eyes when he looked at Liu Taozi became very gentle and clear.
"So, you were captured after the defeat?"
"I"
Liu Taozi looked at the carriages and horses in the distance, "I have never seen such prisoners before. There were specialized officers leading so many knights to escort them, and even their family members were not harmed."
Wang Shiliang hurriedly explained: "After I was captured, I had no choice but to surrender, but I didn't mean it."
Liu Taozi looked at Gao Changgong, who was standing aside, and said seriously: "If you respect state affairs, you can easily be deceived by such a villain. Look at him, he looks like he has been in a war. His words are full of loopholes."
Gao Changgong was stunned and wanted to explain a few words, but Xu Biejia suddenly said: "Prince, forget it."
"Things have reached this point, what else is there to deceive?"
"Can you hide this kind of thing? Even if you don't die now, won't you still have to die when you return to Qi?"
Wang Shiliang was trembling all over. He pointed angrily at Xu Biejia and cursed: "That's the man! He opened the city gate and forced me to surrender!"
Xu Biejia coughed and looked at Liu Taozi, "Your Majesty, Wang Shiliang ordered his wife and brother to secretly collude with the enemy, negotiate a price, and then sold the entire Yuzhou. The city's chief offended the Zhou envoy who came to persuade him to surrender, and he was also killed by him.
.”
"I'm also involved."
"Please, Your Majesty, punish me."
Wang Shiliang was shaking all over and his speech was unclear, "What he said are all lies. I am. How could I... Taiyuan?"
The corner of Liu Taozi's left eye twitched, and a hint of ferocity flashed in his eyes. He slowly pulled out the Gaowang Sword and walked to Wang Shiliang.
Wang Shiliang was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground and looked at Gao Changgong, "Your Majesty, save me! Save me!!"
Gao Changgong looked angry at this moment, "If you are defeated and captured, even if you surrender, I can spare you, but if you surrender without a fight and betray your colleagues, how can I tolerate you?!"
Just as Wang Shiliang was about to speak, his sword flashed.
"Pfft~~"
Wang Shiliang's head flew up immediately. Liu Taozi stretched out her hand to catch his head, and pointed to the carriages in the distance. The soldiers immediately started killing people.
Liu Taozi then walked in front of Xu Biejia, and Xu Biejia closed his eyes.
"Pfft!"
Liu Taozi pierced the opponent's chest with his sword and then pulled it out.
Xu Biejia covered his chest in pain, staggered a few steps, and then fell to the ground. His face gradually became calmer, and finally he became completely motionless.
Gao Changgong felt a little sad at the moment.
"When I discussed the war with General Bao, he once said: Officials from all over the country have long been disloyal to the temple and will surrender once the enemy comes."
"I thought the old general said too much, but now it seems that he was really right. These governors have the strength to defend the city, but they surrender easily."
"On the contrary, on the Puppet Zhou side, we fought all the way. I don't know how many people came to block us along the way. Everyone tried to delay our march by dying."
"With such a comparison, does it mean that Da Qi has really lost his destiny?!"
In the frontier fortress, there are many stories that Daqi has lost its destiny.
When some people in Youzhou went out to cut firewood, they met a white-haired old man. He said to the well water in the distance: If the Qi is destroyed, the water will be prosperous.
In Yanzhou, someone picked up a stone with the words "The Saint Comes Out" written on it.
In Hengzhou and other places, there is a nursery rhyme: There are peaches in the garden, and the king in the country.
Gao Changgong didn't quite believe in any of this. He felt that Da Qi had not reached this stage yet, but after arriving in the territory of the Puppet Zhou Dynasty, Gao Changgong suddenly began to waver.
The gap between the two sides is not reflected in national strength, but in the people and officials.
Except for a few officials in Zhou Dynasty who relied on Yu Wenhu to rise to power, they generally treated themselves as human beings, and there were only a few who did not.
Among the officials of Qi, there are only a few who act as human beings.
This is the best interpretation of destiny.
Looking at the worried Gao Changgong, Liu Taozi just looked into the distance. He didn't care about destiny, he just wanted to do the things he was doing right now.
"Judging from the intercepted letters from the postmen, Yuwenhu was the first to return. From here we can go north to Yichuan and rest near Huashan to wait for Yuwenhu's arrival."
Gao Changgong was still immersed in his own excessive thoughts.
"Chang Gong."
Liu Taozi interrupted the other party's thoughts.
Gao Changgong woke up and said, "Okay."
Liu Taozi's face was solemn. He looked into the distance. Under the afterglow of the setting sun, his profile looked a bit tragic.
"I don't know what destiny is."
"Killing more evil people and protecting more good people will always be of some use."
Gao Changgong's heart gradually calmed down, "I know, Yu Wenhu may have more than ten thousand elite riders under his command, can they defeat him?"
"Yu Wenhu doesn't understand warfare, so what if he has a hundred thousand fine knights?"
"good!"
"I want to be a pioneer!"
Liu Taozi took a short rest again, and then moved towards the north again. His route of action had no route. After leaving Chang'an, he began to charge back and forth in the enemy's hinterland, during which he defeated the Zhou defenders several times.
.
The Zhou people were completely confused about his route. At first they thought this guy was coming to Chang'an, but now, this guy started running back and forth in the hinterland again. Sometimes he directly divided his troops with Gao Changgong, and two different areas appeared.
It made people everywhere panic.
Instead of taking the official road, they took the Yichuan road, bypassed Thread, passed the garrison and headed for Huashan County.
Huashan County's military strength is quite empty, and the troops here are the first group to go to Chang'an for support.
There was some light snow on the ground, making the entire ground a little muddy.
In the distance is a large peach forest.
It is said that this peach grove has existed for a long time, but in this cold winter, the peach grove no longer looks like it once did, and it looks particularly bleak and the branches are cold.
The knights rested here.
Liu Taozi sat in front of the peach tree, eating dry food, while Gao Changgong sat next to him, looking at the surrounding peach forest with a smile.
"Taolin, could it be that Taozi foretells that Zhizhi will achieve great things here?"
"Peach can drive away ghosts."
"This is a place where ghosts are killed and evil is suppressed. You must follow my wishes."
Liu Taozi said, and the knights around him laughed.
After experiencing these dozens of victories, the morale and combat effectiveness of the knights have reached a terrifying level. Just like the troops who followed Yang Zhong to kill outside Jinyang, nothing can scare them anymore.
Chapter completed!