After stabbing Yan Shoudao to death, Li Xiaofei swept around everyone: "I did it alone to kill the imperial court officials, and I will plead guilty when he returns to Jinling one day." Hurry and go from house to house and take the people out of the city and go south, for we can no longer defend the city. The enemy retreats today, and there is no guarantee that they will not come again tomorrow. The withdrawal of the army of the Black Flag Khanate does not mean that Hou Tianzhou will not come to attack", and everyone was ordered to persuade the people to leave the city.

In the distance, the army of the Black Flag Khanate escorted the body of the Tiger Capital Mengke to the north. Li Xiaofei also led people to carry back the bodies of Chen He and Zhang Sheng, and mourned the two of them.

During this time, Zhang Sheng taught Li Xiaofei archery skills and some essentials of defending the city, and the two of them exhausted their efforts to defend Suizhou City. Li Xiaofei remembered in front of Zhang Shengling that the two had a baked cake the night before, and Zhang Sheng gave the big half to Li Xiaofei.

In order to leave the city earlier, Li Xiaofei ordered people to dig two pits in the courtyard of the government and bury Zhang Shengchen and the two.

Hongrui escorted Xiao Qian to sit in the carriage, and Li Xiaofei led the horse and was walking towards the city gate. Smoke and dust blew outside the north gate, and Li Xiaofei pulled out his sword and led the soldiers and civilians to prepare for the final resistance. A soldier at the front shouted: "It's General Shen De, he's here with reinforcements", Li Xiaofei breathed a sigh of relief, and the rest of the people also put down their swords in their hands.

Li Xiaofei galloped to Shen De's horse and grabbed Shen De's war horse, Shen De laughed: "Boy, it's a good defense, we have recovered Xiangyang Xinye, and repelled the Black Flag Khanate Great Khan Pajaqili in Yingchuan, we won this battle!" ”

Li Xiaofei did not have the surprise and admiration that Shen De expected, but asked Shen De, "General Shen, why are you here?" General Zhang Sheng is dead! Lord Chen He is also dead! If it weren't for the princess, I would have died! ”

After speaking, Li Xiaofei cried, Shen De didn't expect this to be the case, when he heard Li Xiaofei say that Zhang Sheng was dead, the big knife that Shen De was carrying smashed heavily into the ground. Shen De got off the horse and grabbed Li Xiaofei's shoulders: "What are you talking about, how could Zhang Sheng die?" Impossible, he and I came out of the pile of countless dead people, how could we die here? Shen De said while hugging Li Xiaofei, Li Xiaofei's wound cracked and fainted.

When Li Xiaofei woke up, he found that he had returned to the left wing room behind the Suizhou Mansion. He struggled to get up, Hongrui took a pillow and put it behind his back, and Shen De sat next to Xiao Qian with a white scarf and looked at Li Xiaofei. Li Xiaofei wanted to speak, but Shen De stood up and stretched out his hand to stabilize him: "Xiaofei, you still have to recuperate first, this time we made a mistake and almost killed you." Then Shen De told everyone about what happened these days. Chen Hongyi originally wanted to cut off the back route of the Black Flag Khanate's army, but waited for Pajaqili to lead the army back to the division and set up an ambush in Yingchuan to take it in one fell swoop. As a result, Xiangyang City failed to block the day and night attack of Pajaqili and fell, after Pajaqili occupied Xiangyang, he killed and plundered the soldiers and civilians in the city, looted a large amount of money, grain, and grass, and then sent people to capture Xinye Suizhou. Pajaqili led the army to Yingchuan seven days later than Chen Hongyi expected, and it was these seven days that caused the soldiers and civilians in Suizhou City to suffer a great loss.

Intimidated by Chen Hongyi's prestige, everyone couldn't say anything, but sighed secretly. Xiao Qian asked Shen De: "Where are the prince and General Chen now?" ”

Shen De replied: "King Han and General Chen are still in Yingchuan to continue to reorganize their armies, preparing to take advantage of the victory to defeat Luoyang. ”

Xiao Qian thought about it in her heart: "Didn't General Shen encounter the remnants of the Black Flag Khanate on the way to Suizhou?" ”

Shen De waved his hand: "We have already killed all of them on the road, and we have taken back all the materials they looted." ”

Xiao Qian sighed: "I promised them that as long as they quit Suizhou City, they could return to the grassland safely." Now all of them are dying in a foreign land, and it is also very miserable."

Shen De disagreed: "Only the enemy who is dead is the best enemy." The princess is kind to the enemy, but the enemy will not treat the princess with kindness."

Xiao Qian didn't respond, just pinched the cloak on her body. Li Xiaofei spoke slowly: "Our army and the enemy army are all the children of their parents, the husbands of their wives, the brothers of their sisters, and they are all from poor families. What kid from a big family would go to war without his life? General Shen, I want to go back to Chuzhou, I am afraid that one day you will all die in front of me. I don't have any relatives anymore, and you are my relatives now. I'm scared to wake up and you're all gone."

Shen De wanted to say something grandiose, but his throat seemed to be blocked by something, and he couldn't help but think of the dead Zhang Sheng. The good brother who was born and died with him for many years, fought all the way from a soldier to a general. Zhang Sheng has been busy fighting with Chen Hongyi for so many years, and he has never started a family, and he has not even had a descendant. Shen De was the same, looking at Li Xiaofei next to Hongrui at this time, his nose was sour, and he quickly turned his face and coughed a few times.

Several people fell silent again, and a soldier ran over outside the door to report: "There is a court envoy in Jinling City."

Li Xiaofei looked at Shen De: "General Shen, you were originally my leader, and now you are also a famous general, the envoy is up to you to see what new will the imperial court has."

Shen De did not refuse, and went out to the lobby to meet the envoy. The envoy took out the edict and cleared his throat: "The edict, the king of Han, Liu Jian, the general of the hussars, Chen Hongyi, relieved the siege of Xiangyang, recovered Xinye Yingchuan, and made great contributions, and the emperor's special envoy rewarded him, and ordered Chen Hongyi to lead the army to rest in Yingchuan to rest and consolidate the results of the battle. Chin this"

Shen De took the edict, and the envoy instructed him: "If you want it, you can send the edict to General Chen, if the army goes out to fight without authorization, the victory will be fruitless, and the defeat will be guilty." You Chen Jiajun have too much credit, and you should leave some for others. It is important to remember that merit is not rewarded, and General Chen has always been resourceful, and he will not fail to understand this truth."

Shen De was stunned in place, watching the envoy leave the hall, Shen De muttered to himself: "High merit is not rewarded, high merit shocks the master, high merit is not rewarded, no reward."

Shen De left 3,000 men and horses in his headquarters to assist Li Xiaofei in repairing the houses, wells, city walls and other facilities in Suizhou City, and he took 50 people to Yingchuan to deliver the edict.

Chen Hongyi took the edict and paced back, Liu Jian was a little breathless: "We took two cities and killed tens of thousands of enemy troops, and we were jealous." How can we recover Luoyang and Chang'an if we continue like this? ”

Chen Hongyi waved his hand: "The prince doesn't have to be impatient, the emperor also has the emperor's difficulties." First, other families must have put pressure on the emperor, Wang Xian had long wanted to take over the military power and use the Northern Expedition to establish prestige, and the Xiao family and the Xie family were also afraid that I would lay down too many cities, and the Chen family's industry would surpass them in the future. Second, the emperor can't let the prestige of the prince and me increase any more. No emperor would allow too powerful a vassal king to exist. Everything now is just a stopgap measure. It is already very rare for the emperor to let you lead the troops back. The reason why I feel sorry for it is that I am close to my sixtieth year, and my time to fight on the horse is short. ”