When Li Zhiyun saw the people of the Xu clan getting angry and gearing up, his tense heart finally relaxed. People's support was already clear, and Xu Shunchen had no choice but to comply with public opinion. Sure enough, Xu Shunchen no longer hesitated. He walked up to Li Zhiyun, cupped his fists and said, "Your Highness, King Chu, Xu is willing to lead the Xu clan to sever ties with Lu Chongmao and submit to the Tang Dynasty!"
"Okay, General Xu is indeed wise." Li Zhiyun smiled, "I am the prince of the Tang Dynasty, and I have the right to appoint officials below the fourth rank. This king appoints you as General Zhongwu, and makes you the founding father of Yu County. It is hereditary."
When Xu Shunchen heard this, he knelt down and kowtowed in thanks. After he stood up, he turned around and said to the nursing staff: "Open the door." The nursing staff immediately obeyed, and the door of Xu Mansion opened with a creaking sound. Xu Shunchen walked out. Lu Chongmao, who had been waiting outside, smiled confidently and said: "Shunchen, I knew you would not let me down." Xu Shunchen clasped his fists and said simply: "King Wei, I'm sorry, the prince is me. I cannot hand him over to you, please go back home." After saying that, he ignored him and turned to leave.
"Wait a minute." Lu Chongmao changed his face in surprise and shouted loudly, "Xu Shunchen, you are committing rebellion and plotting rebellion! Aren't you afraid that the king will exterminate your clan with the surname Xu?"
Xu Shunchen stopped when he heard this, turned around and said: "Lu Chongmao, we are neighbors, there is no distinction between high and low. In the past, I respected you a lot and called you King Wei. If you say so, then we You two should stop hiding it and just say what you have to say. You are a commoner, so you also wear the crown? The hat is too big and the head is too small. It is impossible to guarantee that one day the crown and head will be taken off at the same time. Go!" When Lu Chongmao heard this, he became furious and shouted loudly: "You're rebelling, you're rebelling, General Mighty, gather your troops and horses quickly, rush into the mansion, and cut off the head of this traitor!"
Xu Shunchen sneered, turned around and walked into the door, asking the guards to close the door, and then said to Xu Zisheng: "Xu Xiaowei, you have people blow the horn immediately to summon all the people named Xu. We must guard this mansion, barracks and Wait for reinforcements from the Tang Dynasty at the west gate and south gate!" Xu Zisheng cupped his fists and said, "I obey!"
After a moment, the horn sounded, breaking the tranquility of the night sky. When the soldier named Xu who was still at home heard the horn sound, he immediately rushed to the barracks to gather and stand by.
On the other side, Lu Chongmao also gathered all his troops. After the third watch, Lu Chongmao launched a full-scale attack on the Xu family in the name of counterinsurgency. Soldiers from both sides launched a desperate fight, and the cry of killing resounded throughout the county.
Fan Shuxiang and Cai Hu both went into battle, while Li Zhiyun and Xu Shunchen were taking command in the hall of Xu Mansion. After all, Lu Chongmao had twice as many troops. Soon after the battle began, the situation became unfavorable. Xu Shunchen ordered to withdraw troops from the south gate and shrink the front line, guarding only three points: the west gate, Xu Mansion and the barracks.
At the fourth watch, Cai Hu ran in from the outside covered in blood, clasped his fists and said, "King Chu, General Qin and the others are here." Upon hearing this, Li Zhiyun breathed a sigh of relief, and his worried heart finally relaxed. He turned to Xu Shunchen and said: "General Xu, our reinforcements have arrived." When Xu Shunchen heard this, he was overjoyed and quickly shouted: "Great!"
After a while, a soldier came in and reported that the enemy had retreated. Only then did Li Zhiyun realize that the shouts of killing outside had disappeared.
Li Zhiyun and Xu Shunchen walked out of the hall. The soldiers who had fought fiercely all night sat on the ground to rest. The door that had been guarded all night was also opened. When they went out, they saw that the street was in a mess, with corpses everywhere, and some seriously injured soldiers lying among the corpses wailing. Xu Shunchen ordered the wounded to be immediately transported and the battlefield cleared.
At this time, a group of people came over holding torches, led by Fan Botong. When he arrived, Fan Botong dismounted and reported: "King Chu, Lu Chongmao has retreated to the Wei Palace, and Qin Qiong and Cheng Yaojin are leading their troops to attack." Li Zhiyun nodded and said, "Take your people and follow me to rescue them. King Yongan and the others.”
"Yes!" Fan Botong said and waved his hand, and a soldier stepped forward and handed the reins of his horse to Li Zhiyun.
Li Zhiyun mounted his horse and led everyone straight to the prison in Dongcheng. All the soldiers and officers guarding the prison ran away. Li Zhiyun ordered the prison door to be opened and all the prisoners released. He took people to the cell where his uncle and the others were being held, had them break the lock on the door, pushed the door open and walked in. Uncle Tang and the others were huddled on a pile of straw. Several soldiers came forward to help them up. With the support of a soldier, his uncle walked up to Li Zhiyun and said in a trembling voice: "Zhiyun, are you here? We have been looking forward to you." Li Zhiyun said happily: " Uncle, Xia County has been captured, you are free!"
At midnight the next day, the Wei palace was captured by the Tang army, and Lu Chongmao, Zheng Lei and Zhou Jian were all captured alive. After the task of eradicating evil was done, Li Zhiyun did not want to put them in jail and wait for the court to take action. Instead, he ordered Lu Chongmao and his best friends to be beheaded immediately in public as a warning to others.
After capturing Xia County and rescuing his uncle and others, Li Zhiyun's rescue mission was considered a complete success. He appointed Hong Jiran as the magistrate of Xia County and Xu Zisheng as the county magistrate. He left a thousand troops to assist Xu Shunchen in guarding Xia County, and then led the rest of the troops to leave Xia County and set off back to Baibi.
More than three hundred miles north of Baibi, there is Yongan City. As the sun sets, an army is marching in the wilderness on the outskirts of Yong'an City. There were about hundreds of people in this team, and they all walked on foot. The only dozen mules and horses in the team were used to carry baggage and grain.
At the front of the team, there was a general walking. He was in his twenties, five feet seven inches tall, with fair skin, slender eyebrows, eagle eyes, a straight nose, thin lips, and a heroic spirit between his brows and eyes. This man's name is Zhang Dezheng, and he is a general under the command of King Qin Li Shimin.
More than two months ago, Zhang Dezheng led a thousand people to leave Baibi and headed north to the Jinzhou (now Linfen) and Luzhou (now Huoxian) areas. The task given to him by the King of Qin was to disrupt the rear of Song Jingang's army and cut off the enemy's food routes. Song Jingang's army was stationed in the Jiangxian and Wenxi areas of Jiangzhou (today's Xinjiang). His grain was transported from the north and had to go south through Luzhou and Jinzhou in the north of Jiangzhou. For more than two months, Zhang Dezheng led these thousand people to wander around the Jinzhou and Luzhou areas. During this period, he also encountered several enemy grain transport convoys. However, the terrain in Jinzhou and Luzhou was flat and the roads were crisscrossed. Every time they encountered an enemy grain transport convoy, they took a different route and were heavily guarded. Zhang Dezheng led the army to fight several battles. Although some grain was intercepted, it did not really cut off the enemy's grain route. However, he suffered a lot of losses and reduced his number by more than one-third. Now only six of a thousand people are left. Seven hundred people.
Time passed day by day. If the enemy's food route could not be cut off, the task assigned by King Qin would not be completed. Therefore, Zhang Dezheng was very anxious.
At this moment, the team was walking in a hilly area. As far as the eye could see, there were no people around, and the hillsides on both sides were lush with trees. Zhang Dezheng looked up at the sun in the sky, turned to his deputy general Mao Jie and said, "The terrain ahead is open. Let's camp there tonight." Mao Jie nodded and said, "Okay."
The team came to an open space, and the soldiers began to set up camp and bury pots to make rice. Wisps of smoke rose in the wilderness. Zhang Dezheng led two soldiers to inspect the surrounding terrain. This is a habit he has developed over the years. As long as the army is camping in the wild, he will definitely take people to check the surrounding terrain clearly. In case of an emergency, he can do this Know it well.
They walked east along an overgrown path for two miles when they suddenly heard a woman's cry for help from ahead. Zhang Dezheng Dingqing took a look and saw a hundred steps ahead, standing a dozen people in different clothes and holding broadswords and spears. They looked like a group of bandits. Two robbers were dragging a woman's arms and trying to drag her into the woods. The woman was struggling and crying for help. A few feet away, an old man with white beard and hair was kneeling and kowtow, begging the bandit leader to let his daughter go, but the bandit leader not only ignored him, but laughed.
When Zhang Dezheng saw that these bandits wanted to rape women from good families, he couldn't help but get angry. He turned to the two soldiers and said, "Let's rush up and kill them!" The two soldiers were named Wang San and Gong Lin. Neither of them were timid. However, there were too many people on the other side. Wang San said: "General, there are only three of us, and there are more than a dozen of them. Why don't we go back and call for people?" Zhang Dezheng shook his head and said, "It's too late, so follow me." Come forward." After saying that, he ran forward, and Wang San and Gong Lin had no choice but to draw their swords and follow him.
Zhang Dezheng took off the bow he was carrying while running. When the three people ran to a distance of fifty or sixty steps from each other, the bandits had already discovered them. Immediately, seven or eight people rushed over, and some people raised their bows and shot arrows at them.
Zhang Dezheng stopped, standing firmly with his two feet in front and back, raising the bow with his left hand, and pulling out a few arrows from the quiver with his right hand, holding them between his fingers, and twitching the copper plate on his thumb. The silk and hemp bow strings as thick as the little finger could be heard buzzing continuously, like an exciting melody, and white-feathered arrows flew out like meteors. The first arrow pierced the throat of the person at the front. Before he could fall, the second arrow arrived again, hitting the person behind him in the face.
Zhang Dezheng shot seven arrows in one breath, and seven of the opponents fell to the ground dead. Wang San and Gong Lin who were following behind were stunned. They had heard of this continuous arrow technique before, but they didn't expect to see it today. The two of them had not followed Zhang Dezheng for a long time. They only knew that he commanded the battle calmly and calmly, but they did not expect that the general also had a magic arrow.
The remaining people on the other side were frightened, let go of the woman, turned around and ran away, disappearing in the blink of an eye. Zhang Dezheng put away his bow and walked over. The old man pulled his daughter to him, knelt down with a "pop" and thanked him for saving his life. Zhang Dezheng quickly pulled the old man up and said: "Old man, why are you here in this barren mountain?" The old man pointed to the north with his hand and said: "The little old man lives in Xiaowan Village one mile away. Today, I went up the mountain with my daughter to collect herbs. When I didn't want to come back, I met a strong man. Thanks to my benefactor for rescuing me, the little old man was very grateful and asked his benefactor to come with him to his home." When Zhang Dezheng was about to refuse, the old man said: "My benefactor is in a hurry. Just dodge, otherwise the little old man will feel uneasy."
