At this time, there was indeed a fast horse galloping towards Pingguan.

"Report ...... Marshal, the court has a commendation order. ”

"Commendation order?" Zhou Cheng was puzzled, he had just lost a battle, why did the imperial court issue a commendation order to him?

But since it's a commendation order, it's certainly not a bad thing.

"Read!"

"There is a generalissimo Zhou, the town of the country and the people, the preservation of one side, although there are defeats, still keep the will of loyalty, for the award of the marshal to guard the weight of the pass, hereby reward the reward of a thousand taels, seal Baiyi, Qin this. ”

Hearing this, Zhou Cheng understood why the emperor would come to reward himself after he lost the battle. Pingguan can be said to be the last wall of the capital of Liguo, if Pingguan is taken, there is no barrier in the capital, and the Chu army can directly threaten Tiandu City.

The significance of the emperor's commendation order is self-evident, that is, he wants to stick to Pingguan and resist the Chu army.

Although the last war was defeated, it is still very certain to hold the level.

"Congratulations to the marshal, Marshal Hexi, presumably when he returns to Beijing, the reward will definitely not be low. "It was Fan Chun, the guard of Yuan Pingguan, who spoke, and he was the younger brother of the category.

Originally, he stayed on the one-third of an acre of land in Pingguan, occasionally stuck the oil and water of passing merchants, and Fan Chun's life was quite chic. But after the Chu army committed the border, he didn't live a day of stopping.

First of all, the army went back and forth to conquer, and then Longguan reported danger, and there were troops in urgent need of crossing, to the back three counties to report the emergency, the imperial court restarted to use Zhou, he took 60,000 soldiers out of Pingguan.

This came and went, Fan Chun's originally peaceful life was broken, there was an army passing, those merchants and travelers would naturally be restricted, without this "filial piety" fee, Fan Chun felt that he couldn't live his daily life.

But these are all good, after all, they are just an excuse for the army, and they are not permanent, it will only delay for a while, and he can still accept it.

But the current situation makes him intolerable, the Chu army is under the city of Pingguan, Zhou Cheng sits in Pingguan, and Pingguan is dispatched by Zhou Cheng, but he is the orthodox Pingguan guard to hang aside, how can he accept it.

But the official is a first-order big dead, and he is three orders shorter than Zhou Quan, and his elder brother in the court can barely catch up with Zhou Cheng's status.

Therefore, Fan Chun dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, and only begged the Chu army to retreat quickly, so that everything could return to its original state.

And Zhou Cheng heard Fan Chun's compliment, and said coldly: "The three counties have not returned, and this commander swears not to return to Beijing!"

This can be said to be the military order issued by Zhou Cheng, but these words sounded in Fan Chun's ears, but they were so heart-wrenching, and the return of Zhou Cheng to Beijing that he was looking forward to slowly began to come to naught.

Fan Chun's hand was clenched tightly.

In this way, the offensive and defensive battles of Pingguan lasted for a whole month, and within this month, Liu Zhixian carried out a full twelve siege battles on Pingguan. Twelve times, almost every other day, there was a siege, and the pressure was so great that people didn't dare to think about it.

Although there were occasional times when it was leveled, it was finally blocked by Zhou Cheng.

In the middle, Han Ming also gave Liu Zhixian 10,000 reinforcements, and sent him all the madness that had recovered from his injuries.

The first battle after coming back from the madness frightened Zhou Cheng of Pingguan, after all, he had never seen such a fierce humanoid beast.

Crazy Qi rushed to the city wall with brute force, and almost took down the level.

If it weren't for Zhou Quan, who saw that the situation was not good, and personally led troops to block it, I'm afraid that Pingguan would have changed hands by now.

Later, Zhou Cheng also showed enough concern for the Chu general of Crazy Qi, as long as Crazy Qi appeared on the battlefield, he would definitely be in the direction of Crazy Qi.

In the end, even the siege crossbows, which were rarely used, were moved to the castle towers, and whenever they saw the madness, they used the giant crossbows to consume them.

Crazy Qi was targeted by Zhou Cheng, and he was a little unbearable, so he simply showed up on the battlefield later to scare the army.

Every time he saw him appear, the chaotic appearance on the tower of Pingguan City, his heart blossomed, and he liked to see Li Jun panic because of his appearance, which made him feel an invisible sense of pride in his heart.

After fighting like this for a whole month, the Chu army retreated.

Just retreated simply, very simply, and withdrew if he couldn't fight. Zhou Cheng couldn't believe it at first, after all, he attacked so fiercely before, and if he didn't attack, he wouldn't attack, which would make people suspicious.

It wasn't until he sent more than a dozen waves of scouts to check repeatedly that he was sure that the Chu army had really retreated.

After learning about the situation, Zhou Cheng finally breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, but one thing that was originally worth celebrating made him quite disappointed.

"It's a pity, if I hold out for a few more days, I will definitely be able to break the Chu army and capture the enemy commander alive. Zhou Cheng sighed to everyone.

Fan Chun at the bottom only thought that Zhou Cheng was bragging about himself, and he was quite disdainful in his heart, but his mouth was a different matter.

"Congratulations to the general, congratulations to the general, now that the Chu army has retreated, the general can return to the court on the same day, please receive a reward. At that time, His Majesty will definitely reward the general vigorously, and it is not impossible to say that he will not be crowned king and worship the prime minister. ”

Zhou Cheng heard this, but said a little arrogantly: "This handsome man has no merit to win the sky, how can he expect to be crowned the king and worship the prime minister, if General Fan has this idea, he can give it a try." Moreover, Ben Shuai has already said that the three counties have not yet been handed down, and they will not return to the court! ”

Being so stunned by Zhou Cheng, Fan Chun had to smile awkwardly, but in that afterglow, there was more gloom.

The next day, sure enough, an edict came, which was also a reward for Zhou Quan's efforts to guard the pass, and rewarded a lot of gold and jade, and a lot of fiefdoms.

And after Zhou Cheng got these gold treasures, together with the thousands of gold rewarded by the previous emperor, they were all distributed to the generals and soldiers

These people have been following him for more than a month to defend Pingguan, which is all in the eyes of Zhou Cheng, and now he has just won the battle, but the court only rewards him, which makes him a little dissatisfied in his heart.

It's just that as everyone knows, his actions have brought him great disasters.

On the side of Tiandu City, since Han Ming won the victory in the First Battle of the Plains, Han Yu came to the capital of the kingdom again.

The main purpose of his trip this time was to implement the task given to him by Han Ming, and once again use the method of public opinion warfare to drive a wedge between Emperor Liguo and Zhou Cheng.

But because Zhou Cheng had already discovered his traces before and posted a wanted notice in the city, it became more and more difficult for Han Yu to show up when the plan was implemented this time.

Moreover, Han Yu also learned that in order to reward Zhou Cheng for his good achievements in resisting the Chu army in Pingguan, Emperor Liguo actually rewarded Zhou Cheng twice.

This makes his job harder and harder.

As soon as he arrived in Tiandu City, Han Yu found the dark line that had been ambushed here before.

It was still the same, by fabricating rumors based on facts, after being widely circulated among the people, it finally reached the temple and entered the ears of the emperor. It's just that this time there is no scope to add fuel to the fire, and he doesn't know what the odds are to win this way.

Anyway, it didn't take long for some news to spread in the large and small wine shops, inns, and hotels in Tiandu City.

It is said that the withdrawal of the Chu army is not the reason for the whole situation, but the danger of Pingguan City, and the Chu army saw that it could not be attacked for a long time, so it ordered to retreat.

Moreover, some of them "unintentionally" leaked Zhou Quan's idea of self-respect, wanting to take advantage of the Chu army's clamor in Pingguan to slowly expand his own power.

Although these words were said by a small number of people, they were written down by those who had a heart, and then reached the ears of the emperor through some ministers.

Not to mention, although many of them are rumors in the market, sometimes, these rumors can become weapons in the hands of some ministers and go straight to the hearts of the people.

The Emperor of Danli is not a fool, so he naturally will not casually dispose of a generalissimo stationed in the border with a few words of nonsense. Although he also had some doubts in his heart, the haze of the Chu army hanging over his head had not completely dissipated, and the emperor was still clear about which was more important.

Han Yu saw that the Imperial Court of Liguo had not moved for a long time, thinking that his plan had failed. Unexpectedly, an urgent secret letter was sent to Tiandu City, which made things take a turn for the better.