Li Zhiyun and his second brother walked into the military camp and saw hundreds of soldiers on the playground in the middle distributing food around several large iron pots. The second brother squeezed in from the crowd and felt relieved when he saw that the pot was indeed filled with horse meat. A soldier filled a bowl of broth and couldn't wait to squat down and ate it.
The second brother squeezed out from the crowd and was about to call Li Zhiyun back when he found Liu Gan squatting alone in a corner far away, with his back to everyone, holding a bowl in his hand and eating food.
The second brother pulled Li Zhiyun over. The two came behind Liu Gan, and the second brother shouted. Liu Gan seemed to be startled, he stood up quickly, turned around, and when he saw them, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's the two princes, I was shocked."
Li Zhiyun saw something white on Liu Gan's beard and didn't know what it was. The second brother also saw it. He looked at the bowl in Liu Gan's hand and said, "What are you eating? Let me see." However, Liu Gan hid the bowl behind his back.
"Show me quickly!" the second brother said loudly.
Liu Gan didn't dare to disobey, so he had to hand over the bowl. The second brother took the bowl, and Li Zhiyun stretched his neck to look, and found that the bowl was filled with sawdust. The second brother frowned and said: "Liu Gan, you let the soldiers eat horse meat, but you hide here and eat sawdust?" Liu Gan said quickly: "Your Majesty, my sawdust is mixed with broth, it is delicious."
"Well, since it's delicious, let's switch." After the second brother said it, he turned to Li Zhiyun and said, "Fifth brother, go and bring my bowl of horse meat over."
When Liu Gan heard this, he quickly grabbed the bowl and said, "My lord, I won't change it with you! You have been sick for so long and need to eat some meat to replenish your body." Seeing that Li Zhiyun refused to leave, the second brother kept urging him. Li Zhiyun was a little embarrassed: "Second brother, General Liu is right, you still need to replenish your body, forget it?"
The next day, Li Zhiyun and his second brother were hungry and basking in the sun in the yard. Liu Gan hurried over, followed by a middle-aged man in his forties. Liu Gan smiled and said, "Two princes, look who's coming." Li Zhiyun took a closer look, hey, isn't this King Changping?
Changping King Li Shuliang is my father's cousin. How could he fall from the sky? Li Zhiyun and his second brother stood up quickly. The second brother said, "King Changping, why are you here?" Li Shuliang smiled and said, "The emperor heard that Jingzhou was besieged, and issued an edict to send me to lead the army to reinforce." The second brother said with a smile. He quickly said: "How many soldiers and horses did you bring?"
"Five thousand troops," King Changping said, "and a large amount of grain."
"You brought the food? That's great!" Li Zhiyun couldn't help but cheer, he could finally have a full meal.
Liu Gan smiled and said: "Two princes, there is better news. Seeing that our reinforcements have arrived, Xue Rengao has led the army to withdraw on the pretext that he has run out of food." Li Zhiyun and his second brother were very happy when they heard this. The enemy retreated, and they finally turned the corner and won the final victory.
Li Zhiyun was able to eat enough every day and his physical strength gradually recovered. When he had nothing to do, he led Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu around Jingzhou City. On this day, they came back from the street and just entered the military camp when a soldier ran over and said: "King Chu, King Qin wants you to go to the messenger hall, saying that there is something to discuss."
When Li Zhiyun heard this, he asked Zhang Zheng and Cai Hu to go back to the small courtyard first, and then walked towards the order hall. He walked into the room and saw his second brother, King Changping and Liu Gan sitting around a table. The second brother saw him coming in and waved him over.
Li Zhiyun walked over and sat down and said, "Second brother, what's the matter?" Before the second brother could speak, King Changping said, "Zhiyun, that's what happened. Two people came from Gaoshu City, saying that people in the city wanted to betray Xue Rengao. Submit to the Tang Dynasty and let us send troops to respond. No, we are discussing this matter." Li Zhiyun thought for a while and said, "Who are those two people?"
"Two soldiers said they came to deliver the news on orders from their commander."
At this time, Liu Gan stood up and said loudly: "Three princes, this opportunity must not be missed, it will never come again! Since we can win a city without fighting, why should we hesitate? The general is willing to lead his troops to go Gaoshu City!" The second brother glanced at Liu Gan, then turned to Li Zhiyun and said, "Fifth brother, what do you think?"
Li Zhiyun thought for a moment and said, "It's okay to go, but you have to be careful on the road to avoid fraud." After hearing this, the second brother nodded, stood up and said to Liu Gan, "General Liu, I agree that you can lead the army there. Gaoshu City. However, you must be more careful and retreat immediately when you find something is not right. Don't rush forward for the sake of success!" Liu Gan cupped his fists and said, "I will obey your orders!"
Liu Gan's three thousand men and horses lost one thousand while defending the city, leaving two thousand men left. He then led these two thousand troops to leave Jingzhou and headed for Gaoshu City.
After several days of march, the team arrived at Gaoshu City. Liu Gan was riding on his horse and saw that the city gate was closed tightly and the figure of the sentry was shaking on the tower. Liu Gan ordered the soldiers to shout. After a while, a sentry stuck his head out and said, "What are you going to do?"
Liu Gan said loudly: "Don't the people in the city want to surrender? We are here to respond. Open the city gate quickly!" The sentry retracted his head, and after a while he stretched it out again, saying: "It is true that we want to surrender. However, the city gate cannot be opened, so you can climb over the wall and come in!"
When Liu Gan heard this, he felt something was wrong. The people in the city wanted to surrender but did not open the city gate, and asked them to climb over the wall to get in. This city wall is so tall and big, how can it be so easy to climb? Could it be that he wanted to catch them one by one and kill them while they were climbing over the wall?
Liu felt angry and turned to the soldiers: "Where are the two guys who reported the news? Find them for me!" The soldiers turned around and left. After a while, they came back and said: "Those two people ran away!" Gan now understood that the people in the city were pretending to surrender. He wanted to lead his troops to leave, but he was unwilling to do so. He stared at the city gate for a while, then had an idea in his mind, and said loudly: "Quickly, go pick up some firewood and pile it up to burn the city gate!"
When the soldiers heard this, they quickly dispersed and soon picked up a lot of dead branches and leaves, which were all piled under the city gate. Someone took out a fire sickle and lit the pyre. After a while, thick smoke rose and flames appeared. The fire burned more and more fiercely, and the tongue of flames licked the thick wooden city gate from bottom to top.
Liu Gan rode on the horse with a satisfied smile on his face. Aren’t you going to open the city gate? I burned the city gate for you, what else can you do to stop me from entering the city?
Just when Liu Gan was feeling happy, a bucket of water was suddenly thrown down from the city, and the strong flames suddenly withered. Immediately, several more buckets of water were poured down one after another, and the fire was completely extinguished, leaving only a few wisps of smoke rising.
Liu Gan was dumbfounded when he saw it. It was over now, and he had nothing to do anymore. Liu Gan asked his soldiers to call the deputy general over and said: "General Wang, the people in the city are pretending to surrender. Let's go back to Jingzhou. For the sake of safety, you lead a large group of people to leave first, and I will lead 500 elite soldiers to break up the rear!" Upon hearing this, he cupped his fists and said, "I obey!"
The team left Gaoshu City. After walking for more than half an hour, Liu Gan saw a flat plain ahead, with only a few low hills to the east. He turned around and asked the trusted general who was riding beside him: "What is this place?"
"Come back, Marshal, this place is called Baili Hosokawa."
Baili Hosokawa? Liu Gan wanted to say something else, but a soldier ran over from behind, grabbed his reins, pointed behind him with his hand and said, "Commander, look!" Liu Gan turned the horse's head and took a look. I saw black smoke billowing from the direction of Gaoshu City. It turned out that three beacon fires were lit at the top of the city, and the black smoke was caused by the beacon fires.
Liu Gan was taken aback, and while he was pondering the meaning of the three piles of beacon fires, he suddenly heard shouts and the neighing of war horses. He turned around and saw a large number of enemy troops rushing down from the hillside to the east. No, we were fooled!
There were only 500 soldiers around Liu Gan, and he was suddenly ambushed again. Soon after the two sides fought, the Tang army was defeated and Liu Gan was captured alive. Then, he was tied up and led to Xue Rengao.
Xue Rengao said proudly: "Liu Gan, you have been guarding Jingzhou City for more than a month. Unfortunately, it finally fell into my hands." Liu Gan sneered and said: "You are just a conspiracy, not really capable. ." Xue Rengao shook his head and said: "No, soldiers are deceitful. Liu Gan, you are brave enough but not resourceful, what else can you say?" Liu Gan glared at the other party and said righteously: "Xue Rengao, Since I have fallen into your hands, you can kill or behead me as you please, so why bother?" Xue Rengao smiled and said, "General Liu, I don't have to kill you, but there is one condition."
"What conditions?"
"I will send someone to send you to Jingzhou City. You should shout to the city and ask them to open the city and surrender."
Liu Gan was silent for a moment and said: "Okay, I can promise you." When Xue Rengao heard this, he laughed and said: "He who knows the current affairs is a wise man, and General Liu is indeed a sensible person..."
Xue Rengao led the army to Jingzhou and surrounded the city. After receiving the report, Li Zhiyun, his second brother and King Changping all boarded the city. King Changping ordered his soldiers to prepare to defend the city.
Xue Rengao asked Liu Gan to be taken to the city and asked him to shout to the top of the city to persuade the people in the city to surrender. Liu Gan shouted: "Brothers, the bandits have no food, are starving, and will perish soon. The emperor has sent hundreds of thousands of troops from all directions. Don't worry, work hard to defend the city!..."
