Ma Gan was afraid of wolves. After the officers and soldiers in the city went out to defeat the rebel formation, both sides had some scruples and did not engage in further fighting. Zhang Yu gathered nearly 50,000 rebel soldiers who had been scattered and moved to the west of Zizhou City more than 20 miles away. Set up camp and send his men to continue to collect the defeated troops.
Lu Bin, Lei Youzhong and others in the city were short of troops and were afraid that the rebels in Chengdu would send reinforcements again. Therefore, although they defeated the rebels, they did not dare to rush out of the city to expand their victory.
Zhang Yu saw this, so he camped twenty miles west of Zizhou City and did not continue to flee westward.
Just when Zhang Yu was analyzing the military situation and arranging guards for the few remaining generals under his command in the camp, a scout came from the west on horseback. The scout immediately rode directly to the camp tent, turned over and jumped off his horse, catching his breath. He shouted out of breath: "Report... Privy Zhang... Chengdu city was attacked by soldiers... The King of Shu is missing. Some people say that the King of Shu burned himself to death..."
When all the generals in the tent heard this, their eyes widened like thunder. Zhang Yu, who was standing in front of the map analyzing the military situation, sat down on the wooden chair and looked blankly at the scouts who came to report the news. It seemed that It's hard to accept this fact.
The rest of the generals were even more upset because their families and stolen property were all in Chengdu. Now that Chengdu was captured by officers and soldiers, not only would their gold and silver property that they had fought so hard to gain be robbed, but their family members would also be taken away. There is a high possibility of losing one's life, and after nearly a year of hard work in rebellion, one is back to the past overnight.
The generals were furious and clamored to march westward to recapture the city of Chengdu. Zhang Yu, who calmed down, did not agree to the generals' proposal. He persuaded everyone who was confused by fear to give up the plan to attack Chengdu in the west, because he understood that now that the offensive and defensive forces were changing, the 50,000 or 60,000 men under his command were already remnants. A defeated general has lost his spirit. Not to mention attacking a city, even if he encounters officers and soldiers in the wild, he will probably be defeated in one blow. Rather than hitting a stone with an egg, it is better to conserve his strength and wait and see.
At the same time, in Zizhou City, the news that Wang Jien led the imperial army to attack Chengdu City also spread. Lu Bin, Zhang Yong, and Lei Youzhong were excited. At the same time, the news also spread throughout Zizhou City, and the soldiers and civilians in the city were all excited. We hugged each other and cried, excited that we had survived the most difficult moment and escaped this catastrophe.
The morale of the officers and soldiers in Zizhou was greatly boosted. Lu Bin and Lei Youzhong also used this morale to organize soldiers to sweep westward to sweep away the remaining remnants of the rebel army, hoping to use their victory to eliminate the remnants of the rebel army in one go. Zhang Yong, taking advantage of the rising enthusiasm of the people in Zizhou City, personally summoned famous elders from various places in Zizhou and called on the people to donate money and people to support the army's operations.
Looking at the officers and soldiers pouring out of Zizhou City, Zhang Yu's heart sank. He originally thought that his steady and slow movement of the formation would force the Zizhou officers and soldiers to give up the pursuit, but now it seems that he has underestimated the impact of the Chengdu city's defeat.
In fact, there is another reason that Zhang Yu did not expect, that is, when Lu Bin was defending the city in Chengdu, he saw that the rebel army was so powerful that his few troops could not defend the city at all, so he abandoned the city and fled all the way to Zizhou City. Lu Bin knew that he could not escape his guilt, so after arriving in Zizhou, he assisted Zhang Yong, the magistrate of Zizhou, to defend the city with all his strength, in order to make up for his past mistakes, hoping to build some military merits to appease the emperor's anger. Now that the Chengdu city has been conquered, he can gain military merits. The only chance was the tens of thousands of rebels under Zhang Yu outside the city. Therefore, after Lu Bin learned that Chengdu had been defeated, he knew that the rebels were gone, so he personally led his soldiers to pursue the disorganized rebels.
Different from Lu Bin's atonement, at the same moment, Ye Li, the new master of Fanyin Pavilion, and Feng Jun, who was promoted to the elder of Fanyin Pavilion, led hundreds of people to surround Tianshi Cave in Qingcheng Mountain. It turned out that after the city of Chengdu was defeated, the officers and soldiers only found a burnt corpse in the rebel palace. The seal of the King of Shu was hung on the corpse. The face had been burned to the point where it could not be seen clearly. No one could identify the corpse. It was Li Shun himself. In order to eliminate the rebels' will to resist, Wang Jien immediately announced that the bandit leader Li Shun had burned himself to death and spread the news widely.
At the same time, Wang Jien secretly ordered people to search for Li Shun's whereabouts and eliminate the root cause. After Chengdu was captured, Wu Yun, Ji Ci and others who fell into the hands of officers and soldiers all held high positions in the rebel army. Naturally, they knew many unknown secrets in the rebel army. After some torture, they learned that Li Shun was very talented. Perhaps they fled to Qingcheng Mountain with Chu Lihan and others, and Chu Lihan and other leaders of the Kowloon Society lived in seclusion in Tianshi Cave in Qingcheng Mountain.
The people of Fanyin Pavilion, who know the world better than the officers and soldiers, have already found out through various sources that Chu Lihan has been around Qingcheng Mountain recently. So after reporting to the officers and soldiers, he led the gang and officers and soldiers together to start an siege and sweep on Qingcheng Mountain.
The news that a large number of officers and soldiers and Fanyin Pavilion masters had entered Qingcheng Mountain had reached Chu Lihan's ears. Everyone who had been hiding in Tianshi Cave for several days knew that there would no longer be a way out. Chu Lihan looked at the mountains and sighed. Tianshi Cave is already considered a desperate place. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack. There is only a path made of rocks on the three cliffs on the three sides of Tianshi Cave leading to the entrance of the cave. The path can only accommodate two people walking side by side. , as long as you guard this small road, "one man can guard the gate and ten thousand men can't break it." But this is only for ordinary Jianghu vendettas. If you are facing a large-scale army, this so-called natural danger is a joke.
Even so, everyone planned to fight to the death, because everyone believed that they were experts who had been famous for a long time, and naturally they did not want to sit still and wait for death. Moreover, they all understood that even if they surrendered, they would inevitably die, so they all held weapons and looked grimly waiting for the verdict of fate.
Looking back at the desolate place, there was neither wind nor rain; Chu Lihan, Nangong Wu and Leng Qixian looked at each other for a few times, their eyes full of sadness and desolation. What was the mood of the nine brothers and sisters when they founded the Kowloon Society? He was heroic and passionate, and denounced Fang Qiu. Now Meng Nan, Meng Yuhang, Dou Shengxing, and Li Taotao have all died in the battle. After the rebels occupied Chengdu, Huo Ji was sent to the north to liaise with the Liao Kingdom to attack the Song Dynasty from the north and the south. It is not known now. Where is it? I don’t know if Huo Jizhi knows that the rebel army has been wiped out by officers and soldiers...
Li Shun, the "King of Shu" who had been hiding in Tianshi Cave for several days, also knew that he was in danger of escaping today. The leader who usually only indulged in drinking and sex and was good at manipulating and balancing the top leaders of the rebel army seemed to be much more sober now. More than a hundred of his trusted subordinates came forward and asked them to give up resistance and surrender to seek a way to survive; then he came to Chu Lihan and others and said
"Now that we are over, the court wants to arrest me. You are all people who understand the current situation, why don't you break out and leave this body of gold, and you will definitely do something in the future. If it were not for the Ming Lord, it would be ruining the legacy of the late king today. This has caused you all to suffer this calamity..."
Chu Lihan sighed after hearing this and said: "Your Majesty, the officers and soldiers are about to kill you. Your Majesty's body of gold cannot come to the battle in person. Please go back to the cave to rest, and watch the ministers wait for you to fight again for your Majesty." ..."
