Chapter 19 Return
"Where's the commander?"
Before they could finish speaking, Shi Erlei couldn't wait to ask - he didn't care at all whether he had military rations or not. Anyway, it was enough to have food when it was time to eat. His Shi Erlei's duty was to protect the commander-in-chief.
Oh, yes, of course there is also the killing of people - whoever stands opposite the commander will be killed, even the king of heaven will kill him without fail.
Usually, when the cook Lao Xu brings the handsome man's food box, he will also bring his share. Sometimes there are two more chicken and duck eggs in it, and sometimes a big bone with a lot of meat is added.
This is not flattery. Like Er Lei, Lao Xu is also a member of Dashuai's family.
Lao Shuai helped Lao Xu—oh, it was still Da Xu at that time—get married, but Da Xu was unlucky. There was a plague, and the wife was gone before a man and a half were left. Da Xu had been serving the Marshal since he was still a young master. After the young master took the military position, he was worried and could not stay at home without any children, so he found him himself.
Gradually, Da Xu became Lao Xu. Lao Xu grew up watching Shi Erlei, and he had the same affection as a nephew.
The two knights didn't know about Sun Jie's situation. Shi Erlei didn't hesitate after hearing this and said to Shangguan Fei, "I'm going to find the commander!" He got on his horse and left.
Shangguan Fei said hurriedly: "Wait a moment, I will ask a few people to accompany you."
Shi Erlei took a torch, tied two spare ones on his back, and replied without looking back: "Let them catch up later!" He pinched the horse's belly with his legs and galloped away.
In the night, the lights on the city are brightly lit.
In order to save troops, Sun Jie and Song Mingyi recently blocked the north and east gates with large stone strips. At this moment, the large stones blocking the gates had been dragged away by oxcarts, each city gate was wide open, and all the suspension bridges were lowered.
Outside the four gates of the city, a series of large stoves were set up in every direction. Brown pancakes and snow-white steamed buns were piled up like a hill with steam. The cauldron exudes a strong aroma of meat, and pieces of big bones are rolling in the thick soup - I can't tell what kind of meat it is, there are pigs, chickens, sheep and dogs - anyway, people eat almost all the living animals they can see around them. Kill them all, cut them into pieces and throw them in. In a long row of large baskets were pots, pans, chopsticks and wooden spoons that the residents took out from home. Everyone was busy spontaneously, preparing to welcome the victorious soldiers. Everyone's face was filled with the joy of escaping from death. smile.
Although he did not go into battle to kill anyone with his own hands, the fatigue of the prefect Song Mingyi was no worse than that of the soldiers who participated in the battle: people on and off the city had gone countless times - commanding the residents near the city gate to vacate their houses to prepare for the wounded, The doctors who inspected prepared wounds, organized the government servants to bundle the stretchers, and lit huge fires on the four walls to indicate the direction of home to the pursuing soldiers. Most of the soldiers were not locals, and without the guidance of firelight, they were night blind. The brothers agreed that they would have to spend the night in the wilderness.
Although Lao Li, the elder with the best eyesight, had been arranged to watch over the west city, every time he had some clues about the work at hand, Magistrate Song would personally climb up the tower and look towards the direction Sun Jie left. Until I received a report or suddenly remembered something, and hurried down to the city, I never forgot to tell you before leaving: "Keep your eyes open, and report to me as soon as you see the commander. If you miss it, I won't beat you." Dog head!”
Lao Li hurriedly agreed. When the magistrate walked away, the camp soldier next to him joked: "Brother Li, the magistrate once said that if you missed the commander, he would stand in the cage and kill you. The next moment, he said that he would beat you eighty times, and now he wants to smash your head. , guess what it is..."
Normally, ordinary soldiers would never dare to treat the prefect's personal bodyguard so lightly. This life-and-death battle has completely changed the relationship between people, and the distance between everyone seems to have suddenly become much closer. Lao Li chuckled and responded: "I don't need to beat you, I can't spare myself! The Marshal is the reincarnation of Prince Yue, and the lives of all the young and old in the city were saved by the Marshal!"
The pursuers in twos and threes, supporting each other, laughing loudly, carrying one, two, three or four human heads in their hands or tied to their waists, gradually appeared in people's sight.
The heroes triumphed.
There are only about ten people around Guan Shengyun.
In the darkness of the night, everyone led the war horses and walked hungry one foot at a time - the horses had run wildly to the point of losing their strength and could no longer carry people. They must have a good rest in the next few days, otherwise, they will be destroyed even if they are not dead. Moreover, having already traveled more than thirty miles in one breath, he should be considered temporarily out of danger.
Guan Shengyun felt unspeakable resentment in his heart: Let alone fighting, I have never heard of such a useless fight! Moreover, I failed so miserably because I was confused, and now my mind is so confused that I can’t figure out what went wrong.
After walking for another three miles in a daze, we came across several dilapidated mud houses. Well, there are just a few ruins - this is the place where Guan Shengyun led his troops to sweep over. Most of the men here should be dead: it is so far away from the city, it is unlikely that tens of thousands of people can escape. As the army approaches, there is no other place to hide. They will definitely be caught in the cannon fodder team, and they will most likely die in the first few rounds of attacks. As for women, those with slightly better looks have been separated by the generals; those with worse looks will not survive long if they fall into the hands of the soldiers. As for the elderly and children... Guan Shengyun shook his head, as if he wanted to drive these thoughts out of his mind: How long has it been, why are you still thinking about these irrelevant things?
Really running out of energy, the group dismounted their horses and sat down to rest against some broken walls. There were soldiers who were going to watch the night, and Guan Shengyun called them back: "Come here and have a rest together. There will be no pursuers if they are blind. Even if there are, they will raise fire so that we can see. At this point, life or death is up to you." "
For fear of attracting pursuers, they did not dare to light a fire. Some soldiers took out dry food from their arms and presented it to Guan Shengyun, while others used helmets to fetch water from the river. Guan Shengyun drank some water. Although he had no appetite, he knew that if he didn't eat, none of his men would eat, so he broke off a small piece of steamed bun and threw it into his mouth, chewing it slowly.
In the darkness, everyone was silent and thinking about their own thoughts.
"According to the best estimate, even if we can gather all the defeated troops in the next few days and attack with all our strength, we can only piece together another three to four thousand people - there is no need to think about the equipment. Those who can escape must be the first to get rid of them. Those who threw away their armored soldiers. There is no doubt that the Poxiao Battalion was destroyed..." Thinking of this, Guan Shengyun felt pain in his heart, and his heart was about to bleed: How many years of hard work was this! Guan Jianlin, Guan Yehuo, Guan Si, Gu Baisong... In comparison, the loss of grain and grass baggage and tens of thousands of personnel and equipment are nothing.
Gu Baisong who stayed in Poxiao camp is definitely gone. What about Gu Baihua, how can I comfort him after meeting him? In the battle of the Dog Officer Army's counterattack, more than half of Gangfeng Battalion suffered casualties and almost had their backs broken. It happened that Luo Yonghao, the backbone of the army, was infected with dysentery. After struggling in the camp for a few days, everyone was reduced to skeletons. , simply let Gu Baihua lead the remnants of Gangfeng Battalion to escort them to Anqing Mansion for recuperation, but the wounded were all in the camp! These two to three hundred people are probably all finished, right? The dog officer army is not a Bodhisattva, and it is impossible to raise useless wounded soldiers - if he can escape, what should he explain to his beloved general? Gao Tengdou's three flying beast camps were blocked at the south gate. There were quite a lot of people there, so how could they collapse all of a sudden? You Futian's east gate was a feint attack, and the dog officers and soldiers should have figured it out a long time ago: the two-foot-tall Sun Zishuai flag was always planted in the untouched spot of the west tower, and the five-foot-tall deputy general's flag was sometimes at the south gate and sometimes at the north gate. The door has always been decorated with the flag of the general, which is two feet tall. Theoretically, it is indeed possible for the enemy generals defending the city to evade reality, but the absolute main force, with nearly a thousand men on horseback, is coming towards us! Gong Derun and Zhang Ding from the north gate should be able to run away a lot of people, right? Alas, the enemy general is really capable. After these few battles, he was defeated every time. Since his debut twenty years ago, he has never encountered such an opponent... Guan Shengyun fell into a deep sleep while thinking wildly.
Not long after Shi Erlei lit the second torch, he heard vague voices. Following the sound, he galloped over and finally saw Sun Jie.
Half of the group was defeated. Two brothers were lying on the back of the horse. They were obviously seriously injured. There were also two riders carrying two people each - it was the tiger guard who tied the dead brother behind his back and brought him back. Home... Sun Jie's personal guards get along day and night, and their relationship with each other is much deeper than that of ordinary soldiers. Moreover, strictly speaking, the relationship between them is family.
Seeing that Sun Jie was fine, Shi Erlei finally let go of his worries. Everyone followed the official road back to the camp and said hello to Guan Fei. Sun Jie was so tired that he lost his appetite, so he slowly rode back to the city.
Song Mingyi received the Pegasus report from Shangguan Fei's troops that "the commander is returning to the city" and led everyone to rush to the city gate to greet him.
The lanterns and torches are as bright as day.
Sun Jie and others who appeared in everyone's field of vision looked as if they had been soaked in blood: the horse's mane was condensed into locks by dried blood, and even the horse's calves were black and red. With a tired face, Sun Jie forced a smile at Song Mingyi: "Brother, give me a hand. My legs are stiff and I'm afraid I won't be able to get off the horse."
Song Mingyi waved away the Zao officials who wanted to help, and together with his deputy Shen Chenggang, they lifted Sun Jie off his horse with their own hands. The people who were kneeling on the ground suddenly burst out with cheers of "Sun, Marshal, Gao Houwandai", and lasted for a long time. interest……
"Commander, Marshal..."
When the sky had turned bright, Guan Shengyun, who was still sleeping, was gently pushed awake.
He was about to stand up in a daze when his guards held his shoulders down. The guard made a "hush" gesture, and then pointed to the distance. Guan Shengyun poked half of his head out from the broken wall, and saw with the bright skylight that there was a small black spot about a mile southeast. With many years of experience in the army, Guan Shengyun immediately judged that it was twenty or thirty armored cavalry. !
broken! These broken walls will definitely attract their attention, and they will definitely come and search!
Sure enough, those armored riders were moving here. About a cup of tea, the black spots suddenly gathered together, and then dispersed again, quickly growing in size, and gradually showing their outline: obviously, they discovered the horses that had stumbled outside the wall, and urged them to come straight towards them!
"Commander, let's fight!"
The guards all looked at Guan Shengyun.
Guan Shengyun nodded - at this distance, it is impossible to escape, and the tiger cannot be defeated until death! Thinking of this, he stepped out boldly.
The personal guards drew their weapons and lined up, guarding Guan Shengyun in the middle.
Amidst the sound of hooves, a little light flashed in the cavalry in the distance - the armored cavalry also had swords in their hands and rushed over!
