Chapter 614 Good nephew, uncle is coming

Facts have proved that Yan Jin still slightly underestimated the power of the Zhang River, but he also guessed one thing correctly, that is, Huang Yingda's arrival would cause Guo Wei to release the blocked Zhang River water.

On the night when Huang Yingda arrived at the entrance of the valley, they had not even found a place to camp, so Guo Wei led his close guards and sneaked from Fuyang to the entrance of the valley overnight.

With an order, the water of the Zhang River, which had been blocked for more than two months, surged out along the entire valley!

The Zhang River first rushed to the vicinity of the fort where Li Rong was located. The rushing river directly destroyed all the buildings at the entrance of the valley, leaving only the three forts built at the highest point.

After leaving the mouth of the valley, the river outside the mouth was wide, and the floods quickly covered the entire plain outside the mouth of the valley.

The vast flow of water instantly turned Huang Yingda's troops who were camped at a low place upside down.

Yan Jin's estimate that it was at most up to his knees was inaccurate. Many places were flooded up to his crotch, but the impact of the water flow was indeed not very strong.

Therefore, the losses of Huang Yingda's men and horses were not great, but because at night, they could only take care of people, a large amount of baggage and food were all soaked in the water.

Even Huang Yingda's own tent was soaked by the flood. Fortunately, he was calm enough. Even if he was suddenly attacked by the flood, he could still take the risk to set up a torch in the tent and let the sergeants shout loudly to the soldiers who were frightened by the water. Give directions.

The whole army shouted and gathered in the commander's tent. When dawn came, he saw, good fellow, there were only 700 or 800 of the 1,500 Uighur followers gathered around.

The rest of the people were scattered everywhere, many of them were pale from the cold and shivering all over.

However, the effect of the Zhangshui pouring down should have exceeded Guo Wei's expectations.

Because Guo Wei placed Li Chongjin's 5,000 men at the mouth of the valley, although they had already evacuated in advance, they were still affected by the Zhang River, and it seemed a bit chaotic.

According to Guo Wei's pre-design, Shi Hongzhao's 5,000 elite troops and thousands of Wang Jingchong's troops who stayed behind in Hezhang were supposed to ride down the river on sheepskin rafts to attack Zhang Zhaojun's troops at the same time. However, they were unable to do so because the water in Zhangzhou was too fast than expected.

Li Rong, who was at the highest point and was not affected by the flood, was very anxious when he saw the flood in Haotang in the distance. Zhang Quan beside him was much calmer.

Zhang Quanming, who had good eyesight, climbed to the highest point to observe. When he saw that the flood only hit Huang Yingda and did not affect Zhang Zhaojun's troops, he immediately felt relieved. He turned to look at Li Rong and said.

"Soldiers and Horses, there are floods everywhere now. Even if the Duke of Zhangye comes to rescue us, it won't be possible in a short time. We only have one day left to store food. We are ready to fight to the death. What do our Soldiers and Horses think?"

While he was talking, the Wuwei Imperial Guards under Zhang Quan quietly separated Li Rong from the tooth soldiers of the Yicheng Army.

The tooth soldiers of the Yicheng Army realized that something was wrong. They had long seen that the Hexi people who were treated several times better than them were dissatisfied, so they quickly ran over.

The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder. Li Rong looked at Zhang Quan fiercely, the expression on his face changed twice, and finally he spoke bitterly.

"Zhang Quan! Do you think Ye Ye is the kind of person who sells his goods to seek glory? If Ye Ye were, he wouldn't have taken the risk to fight back against the Khitans in Yanshi City.

Yeye is an envoy of an army and was received and comforted by the saint himself. Isn’t it better to know the loyalty and righteousness than you all?"

When Zhang Quan heard what Li Rong said, the expression on his face softened. He waved the Wuwei Town Imperial Army behind him to disperse, and raised his hand to Li Rong.

"A certain person was originally a shepherd slave in the mountains of Shanzhou. Fortunately, he was saved by the Great Merciful Dharma King. Even if he dies in battle today, his soul can go to the ninth heaven of bliss and enjoy the immortal blessings of eternity. He will definitely fight to the death.

The soldiers and horses are willing to be with a certain person. If he is lucky enough to survive, he will be attacked by mountains and fires in the future. If he feels that he is disrespectful today, he will go back to Tokyo and have his own town, governor, and military law.

But if the soldiers and horses are unwilling to fight to the death, then kill someone and go join the Hedong bandits!"

Li Rong took out his riding whip and slapped it all over Zhang's body, "You are a coward, farm slave! When you go back, I will make you kowtow to apologize, but today, I want you to see the loyalty and bravery of our Yicheng Army."

Zhang Quan was whipped, but he was not angry but happy. He was afraid that Li Rongsheng would bend the knee, which would make him disgraceful even if he died in battle.

"As long as you kill the bandits from Hedong and it doesn't harm the saint's affairs, what does it mean to kowtow and apologize?

Then invite soldiers and horses to join a certain group and rush to the east of the river where the bandits are. Even if you die in battle, you will still be considered a hero!"

Li Rong looked at Zhang Cheng, who seemed to have a flash of fire in his eyes, and suddenly threw away the riding whip in his hand, awe-inspiring. He knew what the Wuwei town leader from Hexi in front of him wanted to do.

According to the usual rules of the Zhou army, no matter how great the difficulty is, no one can abandon his comrades, but at this time, the flood is flooding, and it is unknown how much it will cost to rescue these 1,500 people.

But if they took the initiative to die in battle, there would be no need to rescue them! He wanted to die to relieve the army outside the mouth of the valley.

"I have heard for a long time that there are many loyal ministers and righteous people in Hexi, and now I know it is true!" Li Rong cupped his hands and said, "But rushing down now is tantamount to dying in vain.

Everyone looked up and saw that the bandits from the east of the river were preparing a sheepskin raft at the foot of the mountain, which must be going down the river.

After they have left one or two thousand people, we will rush down, kill all the bandits from the east of the mountain, seize the remaining sheepskin rafts, and then go down the river to join the Duke of Zhangye. Not only is this not a fault, but it is a meritorious service."

Zhang Quan nodded, but then shook his head, "I heard that the commander of the Hedong bandits at the foot of the mountain is Shi Hongzhao, the commander of the Wujie Army in Beijing. He is rigorous in running the army and extremely brave. He will definitely be on guard. How can he calmly let me wait for him?

Against the odds?

If you don't rush in suddenly, you might still be able to fight."

After hearing this, Li Rong laughed, pointed at his nose and said, "A certain family is from Taiyuan, Hedong!

King Ping of Hebei Province has a friendship with a certain family. If a certain family can tie up several Hexi soldiers and go to see Shi Hongzhao and express their intention to surrender, he will definitely believe it."

Zhang Quan looked at Li Rong, and after a long time he put down his hand and threw the horizontal knife on his waist to the ground, "Then please ask the military commander Fu to see Shi Hongzhao."

Li Rong quickly picked up Zhang Quan's horizontal sword, held his hand and said, "How can we really tie up everyone's heads and go to see him? But a certain person needs five warriors to put on general uniforms. Who is willing to go?"

"

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of warriors from Wuwei Town behind Zhang Quan came forward. No one hesitated at all and shouted loudly: "Please use the soldiers and horses to restrain us and go to the Hedong bandit camp."

Li Rong moved his face and sighed, "With such a brave man, sooner or later the world will belong to us, the Zhou Dynasty."

After selecting warriors and changing into officer clothes, Li Rong sent someone to pick up white clothes to see Shi Hongzhao. After Zhang Quan had gone away, he looked at his nephew Li Shousi beside him and said, "Do you know why Mr. and Mrs. didn't go to the King of Peking?"

Li Shousi nodded solemnly, "Not to mention that the King of Peiping is already old, but judging from the hundreds of soldiers in this mighty force, there are very few warriors under the King of Peiping who can fight to be the first, even though they know that they are going to die.

The world belongs to the saints, and we should get great wealth from it."

....

At the foot of the mountain at Erzhai Fort, Shi Hongzhao, who was surrounding Li Rong, was also having a headache.

He had five thousand men, and according to Guo Wei's instructions, at least four thousand men were to be sent down the river to fight against the flooded Hexi soldiers.

But unfortunately, when he broke through the two strongholds a few days ago, the Zhou army soldiers and horses on the hillside made Li Rong very alert. Although he captured the two strongholds, his troops were not lost.

There are still 1,500 people on the mountain. If he takes away 4,000 people, the remaining 1,000 people may not be able to defeat the Hexi soldiers.

While he was having a headache, there was loud cheering outside. Shi Hongzhao opened the door and curtain with a cold face and walked out.

This man was very strict in running the army, and he treated everyone equally, from soldiers to high-ranking officials such as commanders. Anyone who dared to disobey his military orders would be killed directly.

The former military deputy envoy of the Wujie Army disobeyed military orders and was killed by Shi Hongzhao himself with a short stick. Therefore, the loud cheering of the Wujie Army at this time was not normal.

As soon as Shi Hongzhao walked out of the door, his younger brother Shi Wen came up to him overjoyed.

Shi Wen knew his brother's temperament, so he quickly said before he could hold him accountable: "Li Rong, the Hexi thieves and horsemen on the mountain, ordered his people to kidnap several Hexi Forbidden Army generals and came down the mountain to seek refuge."

Shi Hongzhao raised his eyebrows. He was not surprised at all, because Li Rong's choice was exactly in line with the choice of a warrior in this era.

In Chinese culture, especially in the imperial era, the two most important qualities are loyalty and filial piety.

The emphasis on filial piety can be traced back to ancient times. Emperor Shun's small staff was carried away by the big staff, which is the embodiment of filial piety. By the Han Dynasty, filial piety was used to govern the world and was highly praised to the extreme.

The word "loyalty" actually finally stabilized its position during the Northern Song Dynasty.

Before this, although loyalty was also a promoted quality, it did not reach the point after the Song Dynasty where loyalty and filial piety could not be both, and one could only be loyal but not filial.

Not to mention that in this era, it is common for five generations of warriors to rebel.

However, Shi Hongzhao was still very cautious, because he knew in his heart that Liu Zhiyuan's chances of winning, even with the addition of the Khitans, were not too high.

In this case, there should be many Hedong soldiers defecting to Hexi soldiers. But it is unlikely that many Hexi soldiers would defect to Hedong.

But after waiting for the trapped Hexi soldiers and the envoy sent by Li Rong, Shi Hongzhao became more convinced in his heart.

Because these Hexi generals were not only wearing the kind of cloth-covered iron armor commonly worn by Hexi petty officers, but they were also beaten extremely badly.

Several of them were beaten to bloody mass, and the lighter ones also had swollen faces and were covered in dust. They had obviously gone through fierce fighting.

"Li Shousi of a certain family has met with Commander Shi. Our military envoy has tied up the Hexi soldiers in the army. If he wants to join us, we would like to ask the commander to take him in."

Shi Hongzhao snorted with a straight face. He looked at the short and strong man named Li Shousi and shouted loudly: "Since we are surrendering, why can't Li Rong come down and send you a pawn?"

Li Shousi scratched his neck, "The commander's words are unreasonable, and the price has not been agreed upon. How can a general surrender and surrender? He is the nephew of Li Bingmao, how can he be called a soldier?"

Right! It was quite familiar. The scent of the Five Dynasties Warriors' high prices immediately hit Shi Hongzhao's nose.

He knew that even if Hexi soldiers were pretending, they could rarely pretend to be like this.

Because they had not been in the Central Plains for decades, the Emperor Shao Ming was too particular about loyalty. As a result, the soldiers and generals in Hexi were all a bit stupid and stubborn in the eyes of the warriors in the world.

However, just by locking down a few Hexi generals, it is impossible for a ruthless general like Shi Hongzhao, who climbed from the bottom to reach his current position, to believe him.

"Why are Commander Shi still hesitating? You might as well say it clearly.

A certain military envoy was actually from Taiyuan, and had a hometown friendship with the King of Peiping.

However, the emperor of the Zhou Kingdom only valued the soldiers in Hexi and despised the warriors in the Central Plains. He had promised the military envoy Yicheng Jun Jiedushi, but he never fulfilled it because he wanted to reduce the power of the Jiedushi.

Therefore, all of us in the Yicheng Army have long wanted to follow the King of Peking in glory and wealth."

Mu De, it makes sense! No wonder Shi Hongzhao didn’t believe it.

Prince Shaoming came from Hexi, so it was inevitable that he would emphasize soldiers from Hexi and despise warriors from the Central Plains. It was also known to everyone that Prince Shaoming showed off his horses and horses to reduce the power of the envoys.

"Find a few Taiyuan locals to come. If you match, I will believe you. If you don't match, you will be chopped into pieces!"

Shi Hongzhao gritted his teeth when he said this, but Li Shousi didn't panic at all, because they were indeed from Taiyuan.

Li Rong was originally a personal follower of Qin King Li Congrong, the second son of Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan. When Li Congrong rebelled, Li Rong also shot dozens of people with his bow. He fled after seeing that he couldn't do anything.

In fact, it can be seen from this that it is impossible for Li Rong to seek refuge with Liu Zhiyuan, because everyone in Henan Province knows how well Zhang Gao treats Li Siyuan's children.
To be continued...