Just when the potters were in high spirits and in their hearts in reverie, in the streets and alleys of Jiangzhou City, the "Wei" word Wang Banner had been flying vertically and horizontally, leading the soldiers of the Great Wei Dynasty, and all the Shu soldiers on every street were crushed and killed. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The rest of the Shu army of Zhumen, hearing the news that Li Yan and Zhang Ren had withdrawn one after another, fled without a fight, and before the Wei army arrived, they had already gone to the empty building.

Li Yan and Zhang Ren, the second generals, with less than 5,000 defeated troops, were lucky to escape from the West Gate before the potters' army chased them.

This time, the potters did not set up a camp outside the West Gate.

The reason is very simple, one is that the pottery merchants did not have so many troops, just more than twice the Shu army, which was not enough to complete the comprehensive encirclement of Jiangzhou City.

On the other hand, the potters considered that if Jiangzhou City was surrounded in the iron bucket array, it would be beneficial for the Shu army to unite and defend the city with a determination to die, which would not be conducive to their division and disintegration.

If the Shu people defend the city to the death, the pottery merchants with 30,000 troops want to storm Jiangzhou City, but they may not be able to do so.

Under all kinds of considerations, under the advice of Su Qin, Wu Zixu and other civil and military officials, the pottery merchants did not encircle the West Gate, leaving a bit of luck for the Shu army.

As it turned out, the potter's decision was very correct.

It is precisely because the west gate is unimpeded, so neither Zhang Ren nor Li Yan has the determination to defend the city, and once things are unfavorable, they have chosen to abandon the city and flee westward, which greatly reduces the difficulty of the pottery merchants to attack the city.

At dusk, the smoke gradually went out, and the last resisting Shu soldiers were killed, and the fierce battle in Jiangzhou City finally came to an end.

The two generals, Zhang Ren and Li Yan, at this time, did not care about accusing each other of their mistakes, and ran all the way and fled westward along the Yangtze River.

The potters sent Cao Shen and other generals to chase after them and not give them the slightest respite.

The panicked Shu army, fearing that it would be caught up by the Wei army, did not dare to enter even a few cities along the way, and fled for more than 300 miles until it entered the important town of Jiangyang City, before stopping the retreat.

Cao Shen chased all the way, and the soldiers captured Fujie and other cities without blood, and chased for two days and two nights, until they were chased to the east of Jiangyang City.

Jiangyang is an important town in the south of Chengdu, although it is not as strong as Jiangzhou City, but it is also a fortress, which is garrisoned by 3,000 soldiers and horses.

Zhang Ren and others fled with 5,000 soldiers and horses, joined the local defenders, gathered 8,000 soldiers and horses, and dared to hold on with a strong city.

Cao Shen chased more than 200 people, and the physical strength of the soldiers had also entered the end of the strong crossbow, seeing that it was no longer realistic to capture Jiangyang, so he collected his troops in time and retreated to Fujie City, which was dozens of miles away, and sent back good news to the pottery merchants.

The news of the fall of Jiangzhou soon spread in all directions, and the people of Shu were all terrified wherever the news passed.

If the news of the loss of the fish belly and the loss of the county of Tongxian was only slightly shocked to the Shu people, making them feel a little worried, and in their hearts, they did not feel that the Wei army really had this ability to threaten their peaceful time.

After all, Jiangzhou, the first important town in the east, is still there, and Zhang Ren, the undefeated god of war, is also there, and they never dreamed that the Wei army had the ability to break through Jiangzhou City.

The cruel truth ruthlessly destroyed their self-righteousness, and made them horrified to find that when they woke up, the Wei army had broken through Jiangzhou, and the soldiers had really killed their doorstep.

The Shu people, who have enjoyed peace for many years, finally realized that the tiger-wolf-like and brutal Wei people were really killed this time, and a war that might ruin their family was unavoidable.

Within a few days, from Jiangyang to Wuyang, from Wuyang to Chengdu, the entire Shu region fell into endless panic.

And this panic, along with the bad news of the fall of Jiangzhou, soon spread to Nanzhong and Zhuti City.

Nanzhong shook.

Tens of thousands of Shu soldiers were all shocked by this shocking news, and they all fell into panic in an instant.

For a time, in the camp of Zhu Tishu, there were many discussions, people were panicked, and the news of the loss of Jiangzhou was circulating everywhere, and there were even rumors that the army of Wei had been killed under the city of Chengdu.

In the king's tent.

Gou Jian Tie sat there with a blue face, staring at the desk, the two reports from Li Yan and Zhang Ren respectively, secretly gritting his teeth, his eyes spewing angry flames.

The two reports are both war reports about the loss of Jiangzhou, the content is the same, but the details are quite different.

In that report, Zhang Ren put all the responsibility for the fall of Jiangzhou on Li Yan, saying that Li Yan had no orders and abandoned the defense and fled without authorization, resulting in the fall of Jiangzhou, and asked Gou Jian to severely punish Li Yan.

Li Yan's report said that Zhang Ren disobeyed the king's order and was forced to go into battle, which led to the weakening of Jiangzhou's troops, and he refused to reinforce him when he was about to fight, so that he could not resist the Wei army, and was finally rushed to the city by the Wei army, and had no choice but to retreat.

Li Yan was more ruthless than Zhang Ren, Zhang Ren only detained Meng Da and suspected Meng Da, but he did not explain his suspicions to Gou Jian.

Li Yan and Meng Da simply reported to Gou Jian that Meng Da had seen Zhang Ren's henchmen in and out of the Wei camp before escaping from the Wei camp, so he suspected that Zhang Ren was secretly colluding with the pottery merchants and deliberately releasing water in the defensive battle of Jiangzhou, and asked Gou Jian to investigate Zhang Ren as a traitor.

"These two guys ......"

Gou Jian's fist slapped the desk, and his face was full of hatred.

"King, Li Yan retreated without a fight, resulting in the loss of Jiangzhou, please punish the king!" At the bottom of the stairs, Huang Quan was the first to jump out and participate in Li Yan.

The voice fell, Fa Zheng followed and stood up, and said with a straight face: "King Mingjian, Li Yan has tried his best, Jiangzhou is lost, the responsibility clearly lies with Zhang Ren, if it is true that as Meng Da said, Zhang Ren is indeed suspected of secretly collaborating with the enemy, please ask the king to investigate strictly." ”

As soon as the two of them participated in this performance, Wang Fu, Zhang Song and other ministers jumped out one after another, or joined Li Yan or Zhang Ren, and the old and new factions quarreled together.

The more Gou Jian listened, the more his face turned pale, and suddenly he slapped the case and shouted: "Enough!" ”

In the lobby, there was an instant silence, and everyone closed their mouths.

"The Great Shu Kingdom has reached such a dangerous situation, but you still have the heart to fight with each other, you are really disappointed by this king, and you are very disappointed!" Gou Jian was indignant and angry, with a look of indisputable anger.

Obviously, Gou Jian saw very clearly that the fall of Jiangzhou was not the responsibility of one person, Li Yan and Zhang Ren were just attacking each other, and the battle between the ministers in front of the hall was just a battle between the young Zhuang faction and the old faction.

was reprimanded by Gou Jian like this, and the ministers were more silent than they fell, and they didn't dare to take a sip of the atmosphere, and many people showed shame on their faces.

Seeing that the ministers shut up, Gou Jian's anger subsided a little, and he glared at the ministers and said: "Now that Jiangzhou has fallen, the army of pottery thieves has penetrated deep into the hinterland of my Dashu, which has endangered Chengdu. ”

There was silence at the bottom of the stairs.

After all, Zhang Ren lost too many troops in the battle of Jiangzhou, even if Gou Jian was in the northern division at this time, he only made up 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers and horses, with such a force, how to fight against the more than 100,000 troops of Wei when the important town of Jiangzhou had been lost.

Seeing that no one of the ministers squeaked, Gou Jian became angry again, and scolded him: "When you were fighting just now, weren't all of them very powerful, all of them were like a river, why are they all dumb when you want to do the right thing now!" ”

Gou Jian's sarcasm made these ministers in Shu more and more ashamed, and they all lowered their heads lower, and they didn't dare to take a breath of the atmosphere.

In the silence, Huang Quan sighed lightly and arched his hand: "King, the fall of Jiangzhou is now a foregone conclusion, and the minister thinks that we can only lead the whole division to return to Chengdu immediately, mobilize soldiers and horses to hold Jiangyang, Wuyang and other cities, and clear the wilderness, so as to wait for the pottery thieves to retreat after the food is exhausted." ”

"Huang Zhi said this, it means that he didn't say it, the king doesn't lead the army to return north, is it still here to sit back and watch the pottery thieves approach Chengdu?" Zhang Song was sarcastic.

Huang Quan's face changed, and he was about to get angry on the spot, but Zhang Song didn't wait for him to speak, and then said: "Now that Jiangzhou has been lost, the army of pottery thieves has entered our Shuzhong Plain, which is conducive to him to give full play to the advantages of many soldiers and horses. ”

Zhang Song's rhetorical question hit the nail on the head and left Huang Quan speechless.

Gou Jian's brows were also deeply furrowed, and his eyes couldn't help but stare at Fazheng, and there was a deep complaint in his eyes.

I think that at the beginning, if Gou Jian had heard of the invasion of the Wei army and blocked it with the main force, he could have gathered at least sixty or seventy thousand people, which was enough to resist twice the army of the potters.

But at present, Li Yan, Meng Da and Zhang Ren have been defeated by the potters several times, almost burying nearly half of his soldiers and horses, and now he only has 30,000 or 40,000 usable troops in his hands, how can he hold on.

Gou Jian's complaining gaze deeply stabbed Fazheng's heart, making him both embarrassed and ashamed.

When he was embarrassed, Fa Zhengyi's expression moved, a glimmer of light flashed in his eyes, and he hurriedly said excitedly: "Don't worry about the king, who said that we don't have enough troops, didn't the king forget that we just got 50,000 male soldiers!" ”

50,000 soldiers?

Gou Jian's expression was stunned, and all the ministers in the hall were also shocked, and they didn't turn around for a while.

After being stunned for a moment, Gou Jian's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said in surprise: "Xiaozhi, do you want this king to send the Southern Barbarians to surrender and deal with the pottery thieves?" ”

"Exactly." Fa Zheng nodded slightly, and a smug look appeared on his face again.

Gou Jian stood up, his face lit up with excitement and hope, but he was silent again, as if he had concerns.

Fa Zheng naturally saw his thoughts, so he said unhurriedly: "What the king is worried about is nothing more than the barbarians are unwilling to contribute, this is also simple, the king can order Meng Huo and other southern barbarian leaders to send their sons and nephews as hostages, so as to threaten them, and the king can also promise Meng a heavy reward, saying that as long as he repels the pottery merchants, he will be named the Marquis of Yue, and the three counties in the south will be used as his fiefdom of the food estate, so that the grace and power can be used together, and I am afraid that Meng Huo will not work for us." ”

Fa Zheng's words made Gou Jian is worries swept away, and said happily: "Okay, filial piety is a very good plan, according to the plan of filial piety, come to someone, quickly summon Meng Huo and other barbarian leaders to come to see this king." ”

Fa Zheng breathed a sigh of relief, the lifeless air in the hall was swept away, and even Huang Quan and other old factions nodded secretly, and had to secretly agree with Fa Zheng's plan.

At that moment, the messenger went straight to the barbarian camp, and Xuan Menghou and other barbarian leaders entered the city.

Half an hour later, Meng Shu and other barbarian leaders, as well as the cave masters, came to meet one after another, and Gou Jian comforted them one by one and gave them wine and meat.

"Zhu Rong meets the king."

Just when Gou Jian was talking and laughing with the barbarian leaders, a clear but tender woman's voice sounded in front of the hall.

Gou Jian looked up to look for the sound, and when he saw the face of the female barbarian leader, he froze for a moment.