As the sun set, the general of Long Jiejun stepped on a small wooden stool with his right foot and stood in the middle of the road with a big horse and a golden sword. He had the aura of one man holding a barrier and ten thousand others unable to escape.
He was a little confused. Why did the men leading the tall horses across the street start to mount their horses when they saw him?
And it’s already April. Why are those men still wearing such thick clothes?
Moreover, getting on the horse looked very clumsy, as if he was carrying a heavy thing on his back. Which horse slave is this from? How can I travel around without the strength?
Thinking of this, Jiang Tou became even more energetic. Originally facing these wealthy horse slaves who dared to sell BMWs, Jiang Tou was still a little embarrassed. But now he saw that they were struggling to get on the horse, so why should they be so polite?
"Hey! Which family are you from? Tell me your name quickly!"
Li Cunhui got on his horse. In such a tense environment, he actually stood still for a moment.
Most of the people outside the Yangzhou City Gate were stunned or confused by their sudden arrival.
Only a warrior wearing paper armor was unafraid, as proud and independent as Zhang Yide guarding Changban Slope alone.
As a member of the Li family in Longxi, a remote lineage of the Tang royal family, Li Cunhui suddenly felt some respect in his heart.
Today, he rushed thousands of miles to attack such a large Yangzhou city, so many people did not understand what was going to happen, so this man was still doing his duty to guard, and he was considered a capable and loyal man.
Li Cunhui saw that there was no danger, so he placed the horse in his hand across the horse, then raised his copper-tied iron-backed bow and roared without concealment.
"The imperial family of the Tang Dynasty, the adopted son of Emperor Shao Ming, Duke of Shouchang of the Zhou Kingdom, and Commander Li of the Youyu Lin Guard, are here to grab the door!"
Wha...what? Zhou Guo? Duke? Grab the door?
His head exploded in an instant, and the world seemed unreal.
He wanted to run, but his hands and feet were not in control. He wanted to cry and run into the crowd, but unfortunately he couldn't move.
"What a man! Then take a certain arrow. If you don't die, it's God's will!"
Li Cunhui sighed again. It is really not easy for a soldier to be so calm after hearing his name.
After sighing, Li Cunhui bowed his bow with respect like a full moon.
With a whoosh of arrow, the arrow was flying like a meteor chasing the moon, with Li Cunhui's dull regret, killing this "heroic" Southern Tang general...
He was shot and fell to the ground!
This is a super hard bow that kills two birds with one stone. Who can withstand such a close distance?
And at the moment Li Cunhui opened his bow, fifteen of his one hundred and fifty cavalrymen dispatched first.
They held divine arm bows and killed the soldiers on the north gate one by one.
Another eighty cavalry stormed the city gate, directly smashing the temporary roadblocks set up by the Southern Tang army, and then hacked to death one by one the Southern Tang soldiers who wanted to close the door.
Li Cunhui led the remaining men, fired bows and arrows, and slashed with sabers, killing more than a dozen soldiers outside the door instantly.
Immediately afterwards, something like a firework was lit. Gao Huaide's tribe, who heard the sound and saw smoke rising into the sky, roared over from half a mile away.
At this time, there was chaos at the city gate. There were at least thousands of people entering and leaving the city. They were frightened and ran around. Many people jumped directly into the Guan River.
Some old people in their sixties still have some memories of Sun Ru's massacre of Yangzhou in the past.
At this moment, with people crying and horses neighing, the haze of the past massacre suddenly flooded into their minds, and they ran around in even more panic, as if the end was coming.
Gao Huaide's 750 cavalrymen had already memorized the map of Yangzhou City by heart, so they did not rush around blindly at all, but rushed directly to the Jiangdu Left-behind Office.
At this time, what was Zhou Zong, the deputy left behind at Jiangdu in the Southern Tang Dynasty, doing?
He was discussing with Dongdu Judge Feng Yanlu and others in his office about celebrating Li Jing's birthday.
Although Li Jing's birthday was still four months away, as a subordinate of Li Hongji who stayed in Dongdu, he naturally had to prepare everything for Li Hongji as soon as possible.
You must know that Li Hongji is not the crown prince now. If he succeeds, he will be ranked after Qi King Li Jingsui and Yan King Li Jingda, and his status is not stable.
These officials, who have been branded as the Dongdu faction, naturally have to plan carefully.
Zhou Zong was not very involved in affairs at this time, firstly because Feng Yanlu, the judge of Dongdu Prefecture, was the younger brother of Prime Minister Feng Yanji.
As a veteran of the Li Min period, Zhou Zong's status as emperor and courtier was certainly not as good as that of Feng Yanji, so he would not be stupid enough to fight for power with Feng Yanji's younger brother Feng Yanlu.
The second is that although Zhou Zong's eldest daughter was only ten years old, he himself was born in the sixth year of Zhonghe, Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty, which was 886 AD. He is already sixty years old this year.
At this time, it is said that seventy years of life are rare in ancient times. Zhou Zong can still live for five or eight years, which is considered to be a very long life.
At this age, he is not the age to be greedy for power, so all affairs in Yangzhou, the Eastern Capital Prefecture, are actually handled by Feng Yanlu in his capacity as the judge of the Eastern Capital Prefecture.
While the two were discussing, they couldn't help but worry about the fall of Xuzhou and Hu Tile's suicide.
In their position, they naturally know what the fall of Xuzhou means.
He also knew that he wanted to covet Songzhou after gaining Xuzhou, which must have angered everyone in the Zhou Kingdom. It was just a matter of when this thunderous blow from the Central Plains would fall.
Feng Yanlu put down the account book in his hand and said bitterly: "A few days ago, I went to visit Li Gongquanjin, the naval governor of Runzhou Town. This man was a powerful general in the North, so he knew a thing or two about the situation.
He said that the Emperor of Zhou came from Hexi, and it was not easy to convince the military officials in Hedong and Daibei.
Liu Zhiyuan, the king of Peking who now dominates the east of the river, is Zhou's biggest concern, so Zhou will not go south until Liu Zhiyuan is dealt with. "
Zhou Zong nodded heavily, "Li Quanjin is from the north, so he naturally knows something about it. However, Liu Yanzhen lost 30,000 troops in Surabaya, and more than half of the imperial elite were lost. However, the Zhou people captured a large amount of baggage and their morale was high, so they sent out a partial army. I’m afraid it’s not easy to resist either.”
After hearing this, Feng Yanlu clapped his hands violently, "That's right, so a certain brother Feng Zhengzhong suggested that we send envoys to befriend Liu Zhiyuan of Taiyuan. If the Zhou Dynasty dares to go south, we will attack from the north and the south.
At the same time, a festival town was set up in Chuzhou, and brave men were selected as festival commanders. They responded to the left and right sides of Shouzhou and guarded Huainan.
However, Sun Cheng and Han Xizai wrote a letter saying that the Jiangnan Young Cavalry would not be able to defend Huaibei even if they captured it, let alone place their hopes on Liu Zhiyuan.
We should make every effort to digest the Fujian region, and we can also take advantage of the internal chaos in Chu to seize the Chu region. First, just like the Southern Dynasties in the past, we must rely on Jiangnan to protect ourselves, and then we can plot the Central Plains.
This is simply ridiculous! By the time we have Jiangnan, the Central Plains will have been unified.
In this world, since ancient times, no one has been able to annex the north from the south. How can we, the Tang Dynasty, survive when the Central Plains are unified? "
After listening to Feng Yanlu's complaints, Zhou Zong couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
This is the root cause of the conflict between Feng Yanji, Wei Cen and others and Yang Cheng, Han Xizai and others. As for the competition for favor before the emperor, it is all trivial.
These two groups, Feng Yanji, Wei Cen, Zha Wenhui and others, were all members of the northern movement in the country.
They advocate taking advantage of the civil strife in the Central Plains to go north to participate in the struggle for hegemony in the Central Plains. They believe that those who have stayed in the south of the Yangtze River since ancient times have not ended well. Only by entering the Central Plains can they achieve hegemony.
Yang Cheng, Han Xizai and others believed that it was too risky for the young cavalry from the south of the Yangtze River to go north. They advocated annexing Wu and Chu first, so as to have all the land south of the Yangtze River, and then moving northward after ensuring their qualifications as a Southern Dynasty.
However, in Zhou Zong's view, there is no right or wrong between the two factions, because both factions are reasonable, and of course they are all daydreaming.
With the pitiful cavalry of the Southern Tang Dynasty, if they were to move northward, if they were not careful, the whole army would be wiped out like Liu Yanzhen.
After losing this kind of battle once or twice, you will no longer be able to go north. It is said that you are participating in the competition in the Central Plains, but in fact it is to deliver food.
But the southward faction is also nonsense. At that time, Liu Jinu was such a heroic leader, Liu Song was so strong in national power, and had a righteous name, but they could not unify the world from the south to the north.
The current situation is even more chaotic. Even if Jiangnan is fully occupied, it will only be a situation of Southern Dynasty and Chen.
The so-called southward faction is just trying to survive, lingering on.
Moreover, due to the competition between these two factions, the imperial court's policies were sometimes moving north and sometimes south. Since the Liezu period, there had been a lot of trouble in the center.
When the great ancestor Li Min was preparing to recuperate and recuperate, Feng Yanji dared to say that Li Min belonged to the farmer.
Zhou Zong felt that the government was corrupted by this swaying, and something big would happen sooner or later.
However, he agreed with Feng Yanji's suggestion to establish Chuzhou Festival Town to protect Huainan, so he raised his hand and said to Feng Yanlu.
"Xuzhou has fallen, and the Huainan barrier is gone. Chuzhou and Shouzhou must not be lost. Although I am old, I am willing to write to your majesty to discuss the opening of the Chuzhou Festival."
Feng Yanlu was overjoyed. He said so much just to get the two important ministers of Zhou Zong to agree with his brother Feng Yanji's strategy.
But before I could say my thanks, I heard the sound of horse hooves coming from outside the office, and there seemed to be the sound of fighting.
Feng Yanlu was about to open the door and go out to ask about the situation. An officer who was putting on leather armor slammed into the door. He looked at Zhou Zong and Feng Yanlu and shouted.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Feng, I don't know how many thieves and cavalry are coming outside. It is said that they are the Zhou army's cavalry. The soldiers and generals can't resist it. You two will leave quickly with the last general."
This week, Zhou Zong had the title of Tongping Zhangshi, so he could be called Xianggong, and Feng Yanlu had the title of Minister of the Ministry of Industry. However, these two Southern Tang officials were stunned at the same time.
Er, Feng Yanlu jumped up as if he had been bitten. He grabbed the officer's sleeve and asked.
"Not long after the Zhou army fell to Xuzhou, how did they suddenly come to Jiangdu Mansion? Could it be that Chuzhou had already fallen?
impossible! Even if there is a war, there must be someone from Chuzhou's big and small officials to report the news, right? Besides, how could the fortified city of Chuzhou be captured overnight? "
Seeing that Feng Yanlu was still asking this, the officer became anxious. He violently broke away from Feng Yanlu's grasp and shouted.
"Why are you asking, Sir Feng? The cavalry outside can't do anything fake. Follow the general out of the back door quickly. If it's too late, you won't be able to leave."
Feng Yanlu regained consciousness and immediately stood up and was about to run away. But when he turned around, he saw that Zhou Zong was still sitting on the bed and had not gotten up. Feng Yanlu became anxious and reached out to grab Zhou Zong's sleeves.
"Mr., hurry up and follow me."
At this moment, Zhou Zong felt that all his thoughts were burning. He was the deputy guard of Dongdu. If Dongdu fell, where could he go?
Moreover..., he moved his very slow legs, looked at Feng Yanlu and said with a wry smile: "Shilang Feng, let's go quickly. A certain family is old and has weak legs and feet. An Neng can outrun Zhou Jun's cavalry."
"Alas!" Feng Yanlu sighed and ignored Zhou Zong. He covered his face in shame and ran out with the general.
