The more Gan Ce thought about it, the more chaotic he became, and he just wanted to quickly end the war in front of him and help Echeng. But things were not as expected, I didn't expect this Guo Shoucheng to fight more and more fiercely, and the soldiers under him were also red-eyed, and they didn't give Gan Jun a chance to breathe.

Just when Gan Ce was protected by his soldiers and was about to break through, the city of Echeng was already the hell of Shura, and the outside of the city was full of gunsmoke and firelight, and the shout had broken through the night sky and resounded all over the earth, and the firelight had already illuminated the entire night, and one by one, the bodies were superimposed, and a pair of desperate eyes seemed to see the end of life.

"General Pei has an order that all those who submit to the court will be pardoned!" Pei Jun's soldiers shouted loudly towards the Jingzhou soldiers who had been surrounded.

Faced with the fact that the army has been defeated, and in the face of the tragic situation of the city being ruined and the family ruined, the Jingzhou soldiers have no confidence to continue to hold on, not to mention the righteous army of the Dahuan Imperial Court.

So the soldiers of the first ** all laid down their weapons and raised their hands to show their submission to the imperial court.

"General Liu, you quickly guard the city gate with reliable generals, and in addition, let people appease the people, remember, it is all Dahuan's people, and they are inviolable, otherwise they will be punished!" Pei Yun's expression was stern, and he commanded loudly, he was in armor, looking at the city that had been broken, but he frowned, and he couldn't rejoice in his heart, because the dead and injured in front of him were all Dahuan's soldiers.

Xing Yunwen fled in the direction of Xiakou with the remaining thousands of soldiers and horses. His helmet was missing, and his unkempt hair hid the disbelief and regret on his face.

Pei Yun ostensibly marched towards Xiyang, but in fact, he took advantage of the night to cross the river at the garrison of Jiang'an Prefecture, and personally led the army towards Echeng, while Xing Yunwen's men and horses originally sent to intercept Jiang'an Prefecture were attacked by Liu Ji.

Just as Xing Yunwen sent troops to rescue the generals, an army appeared in the west of Echeng, using crossbows to keep heading towards the city ** torches, half an hour later, the fire in Echeng was pervasive, and the soldiers were in chaos. Later, there were Pei troops on all sides of Echeng, Pei Yun, Liu Ji, Chu Yutang, Xia Wei, Jiang'an Prefecture and other troops surrounded Echeng, and the soldiers of the two armies were killed together, and the corpses were all over the place, and the blood flowed like a river.

Pei Yun's move was not only ruthless enough, but also surprisingly successful. It's really against his usual style! Xing Yunwen rode forward slowly, sighing and thinking.

In the city of Hubei City, Pei Yun was already high in the city, his eyes stared at Xiyang opposite, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly. Yan Sui, who was standing beside him, looked at him and chuckled: "Now Xiyang is already a lonely city, and the general will order that Xiyang City will be taken tomorrow!" Yan Sui looked arrogant, although he said that he was taking Echeng first, but in fact, the two cities were attacking at the same time, and he could take Xiyang in the near future.

Pei Yun turned his head and glanced at Echeng, looked tired, shook his head and said, "No, it's just a siege, cut off his grain and grass, and wait for him to surrender and submit!" Then he walked down the city.

Yan Sui understood, knowing that he didn't want the tragedy of Echeng to be staged again, after all, it was the people who suffered. At this moment, Yan Sui sincerely admires Pei Yun's mind and bearing, Pei Yun always has the people and compassion in his heart, this is the real talent of the prime minister!

That night, Gan Ce dragged his injured body and returned to Xiyang City with the remaining 2,000 soldiers. More than half of his 10,000 horses were killed and wounded, and the rest were all subordinated to Guo Shoucheng.

As soon as Gan Ce entered the city gate, his deputy general Lu Yinxian stepped forward to support him, and said with a hint of crying: "General, we have been deceived, Pei Yunming repaired the plank road and secretly Chen Cang, but in fact, he attacked Echeng!" ”

Gan Ce nodded weakly, he had already thought of all of this. Lu Yinxian continued: "The last general has asked the gatekeeper to cut off the pontoon bridge for the first time, and now the gates of the four sides are closed, general, let's sit and wait for the general's reinforcements!" ”

After a while, after Gan Ce returned to the house, a soldier hurriedly ran over and cried: "General, General Qi and General Zheng have all been captured!" ”

Lu Yin first helped Gan Ce to sit down, and waved his hand to let the soldiers retreat, Gan Ce also lowered his head and pondered, thinking about how to break the dilemma in front of him, now that Xiyang City has been surrounded, if he waits for reinforcements, he needs to have enough military food, but will Pei Yun give him time?

If he is Pei Yun, I am afraid that after the army rests, he will immediately besiege the city early tomorrow morning. So at present, he needs to do two things, one is to determine how long the food and salary can last, and the other is to refuse to send troops and prepare to defend Xiyang.

He sighed and said with a wry smile: "Yin Xian, how long can our military rations last?" ”

"Back to the general, the food in the city can be used for five days." Lu Yin replied first, but the people in the city may not necessarily have food to eat.

As soon as he finished speaking, one of Lu Yinxian's personal guards ran in with a crawl, "General....General, the big thing is not good, the military rations in the city have been robbed by the people, and now the soldiers are fighting with the people, and the scene is uncontrollable!" ”

Gan Ce got up instantly when he heard this, spit out a mouthful of tea, and the blood in his chest was churning, and he was out of breath for a while.

Lu Yinxian hurriedly patted him on the back, helped him calm down, and kept comforting: "General, general, the matter has come to this, you must not be angry and hurt yourself!" ”

"Could it be that General Ben is heroic, and today he will definitely be folded into Pei Yun's hands?" Gan Ce gasped and said unwillingly.

Lu Yin first looked at his tired body, it was difficult to answer, but he didn't expect that Pei Yun was also a good soldier, and it seemed that the title of "Jiangzuo Guan Yiwu" was well deserved. However, although Pei Yun marched for a long time, he had the advantage in the hearts of the people, as the so-called "attacking the heart is the first", now Dayan is eyeing Xiangyang, and the Yuan brothers are causing civil strife, how can the people of Dahuan surrender to him?

The more Lu Yinxian thought about it, the more powerless he became, as the defender of Xiyang City, is the ownership of the city important or the lives of the people important? Who is wrong? It's really hard to choose. But despite this, he still went out to arrange for the soldiers to guard the granary, and at the same time tried not to hurt the people.

The news of the loss of Echeng and the siege of Xiyang has been sent to Yuan Kai in Xiakou overnight.

When Yuan Kai got up from the bed in the middle of the night and heard such unbelievable news, he didn't stand firm for a while, but he fell down, which frightened the guards into disengagement.

"It's really worthy of being my old rival for many years!" Yuan Kai sighed inwardly, he gritted his teeth and meditated: "Pei Yun, Pei Yun, I really misjudged you, I didn't expect you to come with a trick of 'striking the east and attacking the west'." ”

After receiving the news, the generals rushed to Yuan Kai's mansion overnight. One by one, they looked solemn and did not dare to make a sound. Echeng has been lost, Xiyang is not guaranteed, and the door of Xiakou is wide open, how can everyone sit without worry?

Yuan Kai had already set up his clothes, he sat down in the hall slowly, his eagle eyes swept away, looking at the sparse soldiers under the hall, he was quite angry and resentful in his heart, Pei Yun defeated him two tiger generals in one night, so how could he not be sad. He snorted and motioned for the generals to help.

Rong Jie's white eyebrows have been wrinkled into a line, and Yintang has formed the shape of 'Chuan', hesitating in his heart, there is a thorny question at the moment, that is, whether to give up Xiyang City?

Sure enough, a soldier got up and asked, "General, what about Xiyang City and General Gan?" ”

Yuan Kai closed his eyes, not wanting to look at him, many years of career in Rongma, he was already sick, every time he woke up in the middle of the night, he would have a splitting headache, at the moment he was having a headache, and he didn't want to answer at all.

After thinking for a while, Rong Jie said in a deep voice: "General, Xiyang City has to be abandoned. As soon as his voice fell, all the generals stared at him, and giving up Xiyang City was equivalent to ignoring Gan Ce's life and death.

Rong Jie explained: "First, Xiyang is now an abandoned city, the Pei army is surrounded on all sides, there are less than 10,000 soldiers in the city, General Gan is injured, Qi Shifan and Zheng Hao have been captured, and the city of Xiyang cannot be defended.

Second, Pei Yun should have been armed, just waiting for us to go to the rescue, if we send troops, it will be a sheep into the tiger's mouth. Third, Pei Yun is the prime minister of Dahuan, so he should not ignore the life and death of the people in the city. Since there is no way to save it, we can only abandon the city. ”

Rong Jie's analysis is methodical, but the generals can't refute it.

Even Bao Zhizhi, who has always been at odds with Rong Jie, also spoke up: "General Rong's words are reasonable, we can't make senseless sacrifices, the top priority is to set up a formation outside Xiakou City to block Pei Yun's army from moving west." ”

After Yuan Kai was silent for a long time, he had to agree with Rong Jie's statement.

"Good! Then the generals will arrange it! Yuan Kai's body trembled slightly, and in order not to affect the confidence of the soldiers, he had to let them retreat first.

Rong Jie's expression moved slightly, and he understood a little in his heart, and then took the generals back to discuss the matter and discuss the arrangement of troops to fight against Pei Yun.

In the early morning of September 22, the fourteenth year of Dahuan Jingxi, the gate of Xiyang City, which had been surrounded by Pei Yun's army for three days, finally creaked open.

Since arriving in Jiangzhou, Pei Yun has shown a long-lost smile for the first time, and personally dismounted to accept Gan Ce's submission. Although Gan Ce had some resentment in his heart, in the face of Prime Minister Dahuan's earnest care, Gan Ce finally let go of the mustard in his heart, and said that he would cooperate with Pei Yun's arrangement, and he only put forward a request that he would not go against Yuan Kai. Pei Yun understood his predicament, so he only regarded him as a guest, thinking that he would make arrangements after the rebellion was quelled.