After Zhu Yaoshi recruited himself, he gave gifts and bribed the important ministers of the imperial court in Jinling, and secretly trained soldiers and horses to find out information. Over the past year or so, the defense of Huaibei, Huainan and even Jinling has been thoroughly explored, except for the tens of thousands of horses led by Zhong Zhiming, the rest of the places are like empty cities.

After Zhong Zhiming took 20,000 people to Luoyang, Zhu Yaoshi led his army to cross the river and attack Xinli City.

The expansion of Xinli City has reached the point where it is surrounded by water on three sides, and it is extremely difficult to storm it.

Zhu Yaoshi loaded the goods vehicle into the soldiers, and followed the other caravans into the city with a swagger at the city gate. After entering the city, he lurked until late at night and joined forces with the army that was ambushed outside the city to take Xinli City.

The defenders in the city did not know how many men the other side had in the middle of the night, and in a panic they only cared about seizing the road to the south gate and fled, Zhu Yaoshi had already let the Goryeo soldiers and horses ambush outside the south gate, and when the Liang army went out of the south gate, the Goryeo soldiers and horses swarmed up, and the general was killed and wounded, and only a few escaped.

After taking Xinli, Zhu Yaoshi left thousands of people to defend the city, and took 30,000 horses all the way south. Along the way, the Goryeo general Wei Meng complained that Zhu Yaoshi failed to let the Goryeo soldiers and horses loot in various cities, and said that along the way, many Goryeo soldiers died, and their combat strength was not good, and they had to rest for half a year, etc.

Zhu Yaoshi pointed the whip in his hand to the south: "After Jinling City is broken, General Wei can lead his troops to plunder for three days!" Our army is stationed outside the city, and we will not delay the general and you to make a fortune."

As soon as Wei Meng heard this, he immediately came to his spirit again: "My Goryeo soldiers and horses are like dragons and horses, like tigers, like monkeys and like otters going up the mountain and down the water, and it is only a matter of time before I break Jinling." General Zhu is so generous, he is really a trustworthy person. ”

When Zhong Zhiming returned to Xinli, Xinli was already in the hands of Pharmacist Zhu. Although there were only 3,000 people in the city, Ling Yun, a female general under Zhu Yaoshi, stepped up patrols day and night, and even had a naval army on the Lishui River to help at any time.

Zhong Zhiming attacked the city for three days in a row, but he never managed to get up to the city wall. It was unwise for the staff to persuade Zhong Zhiming's army to stop under the fortified city, and asked Zhong Zhiming to return to Jinling.

Zhong Zhiming drew his sword and stuck it on the ground: "What I want is to break Xinli and cut off the retreat of the rebels, and block and eliminate the rebels." The rebels are mostly cavalry, and most of us are infantry, we have to pursue them, they can't catch up at all, but Jinling can't hold it at all, and only by abandoning the city and going up the river can there be a glimmer of life. ”

At this time, the envoy in Jinling City sent an urgent edict for Zhong Zhiming to return to Jinling. Zhong Zhiming looked up to the sky and sighed, so he had to let the deputy generals lead the troops to retreat to the south, and he took the chariot behind the palace to prevent the enemy in Xinli City from pursuing.

At this time, the big families in Jinling City were busy preparing to flee west, packing up their belongings. Not long ago, the new crown prince Liu Ke was also ready to move west with the family.

At this time, no one cared about the emperor's life and death, and even some of the eyeliner that had been planted went home to pack their luggage. It has become everyone's consensus that Jinling City can't hold it.

At this time, it was almost the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, but the city of Jinling was busy planning to escape. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, they all planned to flee to Gangneung and even Ba County in the west.

On August 15, the moon rises in the morning, and the bell and drum tower, which has not been sounded for decades, emits a continuous loud bang and boom. Everyone looked towards the Bell and Drum Tower.

Under the moonlight, Emperor Liu Xuan stood on the top of the building in military uniform and looked at the subjects in the city. In fact, Liu Xuan was no longer able to stand at this time, so he asked several internal supervisors to tie him to the pillar on the roof of the building. Before coming, Liu Xuan had already taken a few pills found in the cold palace, so the whole person no longer coughed and looked radiant.

The ministers, the soldiers and civilians had not seen the emperor for a long time, and many of them were still the first time. The reason why I know that it is the emperor who is standing on the roof of the building, or I rely on the Huang Luo umbrella behind Liu Xuan to cover the banner of the Son of Heaven.

Under the leadership of the yellow-clothed guards sent out in advance, the people of the whole city knelt down the mountain together and shouted long live, and Liu Xuan under the moonlight was extremely happy at the moment. On this day, he was the real emperor, and he saw the ordinary people of Li who were only a few numbers on the table.

Liu Xuan held back his excitement and stretched out his hand to signal everyone to get up: "Get up, you are all the people of Daliang, and you are all my people." Now that the rebels are about to come in, you should flee to the west, I will live and die with Jinling, and from today I will eat and live on this bell and drum tower, and fight with the rebels to the last soldier! ”

The people below didn't have time to think about it, and many people shouted: "Swear to defend Your Majesty to the death!" ”

"If Your Majesty doesn't leave, neither will we!"

"I am willing to live and die with Jinling!"

"Outsiders are here, sweep away the rebels!"

"Sweep away the rebels, sweep away the rebels!"

As soon as the people were incited, they couldn't stop, and the yellow-clothed guards who blended into the crowd shouted again: "The Xiao family swears to follow Your Majesty!" ”

"The Xie family swears to follow Your Majesty to the death!"

"The Wang family swears to follow Your Majesty to the death!"

"The Yuan family swears to defend Jinling to the death!"

"The Chen family swears to defend Jinling to the death!"

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is willing to protect His Majesty!"

The shouts of the crowd grew louder and louder, and the guards took the opportunity to take some loyal people to hold the four gates of the city, and took molten iron directly from the blacksmith shop to cast the gates. Then he led people to control all the squares and alleys, opened the arsenal and distributed weapons. This not only organized an army of 50,000 defenders overnight, but also made it impossible for everyone to leave the city.

Qin Gou'er and Qin Zhong did not leave Liu Xuan an inch, each holding a long sword and standing left and right.

Next, from the crown prince to all the ministers, they all handed over a secret letter to persuade the emperor to let the prince go to Jiangling to supervise the state and organize a large army to recover the lost territory. Liu Xuan flipped through a few copies and threw them all into the fire and burned them.

The changes in Jinling City soon spread to the army of Zhu Yaoshi, who was marching. As soon as Wei Meng heard that there were more than 50,000 defenders in Jinling, he wanted to retreat, and Zhu Yaoshi laughed: "The rabble that was temporarily put together can't escape by sealing the city gate by itself, our army only needs to wait for them to change by themselves when they come to the city, and now we have to worry about Zhong Zhiming's pursuit behind." ”

Wei Meng was still a little hesitant, and Zhu Yaoshi said again: "None of the big families in Jinling City have been able to run, and the biggest wealth in the world is in Jinling City, at this time, if you want to retreat, I will take it myself."

Wei Meng gritted his teeth: "It's very good, regardless of his iron gate and copper wall, we have to take it down!" ”

The words are divided into two ends, each accounting for a few points. That Li Xiaofei and Murong Lingyuan were in Shazhou, and the two worked together to pick out 1,800 elite riders from the Tugu Hun Division, and practiced various tactics day and night in the encirclement and charging formation.

There are people, tactics are proficient, and horses are strong, but there are not enough weapons. In fact, it's not enough, it's just that the steel that Tuyuhun bought back from other countries is defective, and the swords made are easy to break and be damaged. For this weapon, Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling racked their brains.

Just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, Li Xiaofei and Murong Ling took people to the Xihai area to practice tactics. On the west shore of the sea, he saw some people digging for salt in the ground with wooden sticks, and sighed: "If there were good iron tools, it would be much faster to dig salt."

Murong Ling sneered: "If this salt is soaked too much, the iron will break, but these wooden forks and wooden sticks are soaked in tung oil and are not afraid of salt and broken, and they are much better to use than iron."

Li Xiaofei suddenly shouted: "There is, there is"

Murong Ling slapped him: "You can't be evil, right?"

Li Xiaofei hurriedly hugged Murong Ling: "Murong, aren't those wooden forks and sticks you just said the best weapons?" ”

Murong Ling laughed: "You kid doesn't seem to be a fool anymore, maybe it's your luck."

Li Xiaofei couldn't wait to get those wooden forks and sticks, and when he took them, he felt very heavy: "These are really wood?" ”

Murong Ling smiled: "It's wood, but it's not ordinary wood, it's all soaked in tung oil for half a year and then dried and then soaked for half a year, the disadvantage is that it can't be chopped."

Li Xiaofei smiled: "You can't chop, let's practice stabbing and stick techniques, or use a wooden fork on horseback to poke the enemy over, it is true that you can't kill the light cavalry and infantry with one blow, but it may be more suitable to fight heavy cavalry."

Murong Ling was extremely talented, and in a few days, he made a weapon similar to an axe and a sledgehammer with stones tied to this kind of tung oil-soaked wood.

The two went back to report the good news to Murong Dragon Soul, and Murong Dragon Soul was overjoyed: "I don't have to buy other people's scrap iron at a high price anymore."

Li Xiaofei looked serious: "King, you still need iron tools, these are just good for the situation, if we defeat Gaochang Kingdom in the future, we will be able to make iron tools on a large scale." ”

Murong Yuanzhong interjected: "The general manager's words are wrong, we will march in the future, we must go east to take Guanzhong, enter the Central Plains, and retreat to divide one side." ”

Li Xiaofei knew that he was from the Liang Kingdom, so it was inconvenient to say more, so he smiled: "Anyway, I am training soldiers, where to fight is the business of the king and you, I just make an analogy, where to make iron and make weapons and equipment are the same."

King Bailan refused to follow Murong Yuanzhong's words: "Gao Changguo has killed our clansmen many times, and this revenge must be avenged first!" ”

Murong Yuanzhong refused to let go: "If you can't bear it, you will make a big plan, Gaochang Yuer is a small country, you can fight at any time, and only by winning Guanzhong can you have the opportunity to establish an immortal deed!" ”

Murong Ling saw that the two of them insisted on each other, and poured cold water on it again: "The child has not been born yet, and the two of you are fighting over whose surname to follow, so it is better for me and this Li fool to leave now."

After Murong Ling finished speaking, he pulled Li Xiaofei out of the house, and King Bailan and Murong Yuanzhong immediately came over together to grab the two: "Patriarch brother, we are all confused, we won't fight, without you two, we can't fight anywhere we want, we won't fight anymore."

Murong Ling asked the two to swear to the sky not to fight again, so they stayed again.

Mingli was in a harmonious mood, but this Bailan King Murong Dragon Soul privately sent someone to draw down the tactics they practiced every day. Murong Yuanzhong, the minister of state over there, was not idle, and also bought some soldiers who participated in the drill.

This is exactly the east wielding a sword to fight the sick dragon, and the west sharpening the sword to raise a tiger. Seeing that Zhu Yaoshi's army had already attacked the city of Shou County, Xiang Xiaoyu Meng Crow came back to pick up Hongrui's mother and son before they left the city.

Xiang Xiaoyu Meng Crow took the old department to the city tower and saw that the main general of the enemy army turned out to be Zhu Yaoshi. Pharmacist Zhu also recognized Xiang Xiaoyu: "Don't come to Lord Xiang?" Is General Li also in the city, and if you meet today, you can have a few drinks?"

Xiang Xiaoyu arched his hand and laughed: "The wine can be drunk with General Zhu, but please also ask General Zhu to withdraw first!" ”