"Kill!"

"Get out!"

"Block! Block them! ”

Around two o'clock, at the south gate of the Dune Palace, after setting fire to the palace according to Meng Zhong's instructions, Que Guanzi led about 500 Tan Guard soldiers and soldiers to desperately break through the siege, but the Wang Shi Zhao soldiers who heard the news tried their best to block them with their shields and bodies, causing a serious physical conflict between the two groups of people outside the south gate of the palace.

Don't look at the absolute upper hand in the number of Wang Shi Zhao soldiers, making the five hundred Tan Guard soldiers look like a light boat in the ocean, but because none of the commanders and generals of Wang Shi want to bear the notoriety of "conniving at the soldiers under his command to kill Lord Zhao's father", so that Wang Shi Zhao Jun has already issued an order to "not draw a sword", and can only use shields and bodies to block the people and horses on the side of Lord Zhao's father who are trying to break through - let's call it "Master Father Guard".

In a short period of time, the number of only more than 500 soldiers of the Tan Guard killed and wounded six or seven hundred people of Wang Shi Zhao and his own casualties, but his own casualties were very small, only a few of the most unlucky guys, when they were overthrown to the ground with a shield by Wang Shi Zhao Shu, they were accidentally trampled by the soldiers of both sides of the enemy and us, resulting in serious injuries or even death, which became a very rare example of casualties.

However, even though the casualties of the two armies were completely disproportionate, Li Ji, who arrived here first, did not panic at all, and methodically commanded the nearby Wang Shi Zhao Shu, one by one to cut off the hope of the opposing master and guard trying to break through, and deliberately blocked the other party back to the Dune Palace.

Not long after, Anpingjun Zhao Cheng, Fengyangjun Li Dui, and Yangwenjun Zhao Bao came to hear the news and asked Li Ji about the situation.

"An Pingjun, father, Yang Wenjun."

After saluting Zhao Cheng and the others, Li Ji pointed to the direction of the Dune Palace in the distance and said: "According to the soldiers' report, there are at least five or six hundred guards of the Lord Father who participated in the breakthrough, and this is probably the last bit of strength in the palace that is still resisting, but unfortunately it was intercepted by our soldiers......

As he introduced the current situation, Yang Wenjun and Zhao Bao stared into the distance with a complicated expression.

You must know that in the daylight today, he just managed to bring Meng Zhong, Meng Hu, and Wu Ying into the Dune Palace, but he tried to break through in the Dune Palace that night, Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao never believed that this matter had nothing to do with Meng Zhong.

But as he himself lamented, what right did he have to prevent a righteous man from fulfilling his loyalty?

What's more, Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao himself has extremely complicated feelings for Zhao's father, on the one hand, he doesn't want Zhao's father's foolish behavior to make Zhao's country more and more turbulent, and even acquiesces to An Pingjun's decision to Zhao Cheng and Zhao Wanghe to try to trap Zhao's father; But deep in his heart, he couldn't bear to see the father of Zhao who had been loyal to him, the male lord who once led Zhao out of the predicament, trapped and dying in the palace.

It was this extremely complicated mood that made Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao make a series of inconsistent words and deeds: it was obviously he who advised Meng Zhongmo to go to Handan to plead with Zhao Wanghe, but in the end he provided help to Meng Zhong and others; Obviously, he advised Meng Zhong to give up rescuing Master Zhao's father, but he still helped Meng Zhong return to Master Zhao's father.

Perhaps, although reason told him that it was unrealistic, deep down in his heart, he may still hope that Meng Zhong can create some "miracles", so that both parties can be safe.

At this time, An Pingjun Zhao Cheng stared at the distance for a moment, and suddenly frowned and asked, "Li Ji, where is the master father?" ”

"I don't know."

Li Ji shook his head and said, "So far, I haven't seen the master father, and I may be mixed in with the soldiers......

“……”

Anpingjun Zhao Cheng glanced at Li Ji, and immediately turned his gaze to the battlefield in front of him again, frowning and asking, "Can you see all the people around the master?" ”

"I've only vaguely seen the crest of the crane." Li Ji told the truth, and immediately raised his finger forward.

Looking in the direction where his finger was pointing, Zhao Cheng and Li Dui could vaguely see an old man in a soap robe wielding a sharp sword to inspire the master father guard beside him.

"What about the rest?" Zhao Cheng frowned and asked, "Can you see Pang Xuan and Meng Zhong?" ”

Li Ji shook his head: "I haven't seen it so far." ”

Hearing this, Anpingjun Zhao Cheng and Fengyangjun Li Dui glanced at each other, and they both felt that something was wrong.

Because of the night, even though there were countless Wang Shi Zhao soldiers standing with torches around, Zhao Cheng and Li Dui still couldn't carefully distinguish whether the main father guards who were breaking through in the distance were Tan Guards or Xin Wei Army, or these two master father guards broke through together, but they didn't see Pang Xuan and Meng Zhong - they didn't see Zhao Master Father, maybe as Li Ji said, Master Zhao just pretended to be an ordinary soldier and tried to get by, but he didn't see Pang Xuan and Meng Zhong, so there was definitely something wrong with the breakthrough at this time on the other side!

Rather than believing that Pang Xuan and Meng Zhong were also pretending to be ordinary soldiers, Zhao Cheng and Li Dui were more inclined to believe that these two were escorting Zhao's father to break through from another road.

Thinking of this, Anpingjun Zhao Cheng immediately said in a deep voice: "Li Ji, you quickly send someone to inform Zhao Yuan, Li Yan, and Zhao Ping, and ask them to order soldiers to check all directions, I suspect it...... This side of the south city gate is just a feint, Pang Xuan, Meng Zhong and others have already left the palace from another way with Master Zhao. ”

“…… Be! ”

Glancing at his father Li Dui, seeing that he also nodded solemnly, Li Ji suspiciously summoned a few guards and ordered them to contact Zhao Yuan, Li Yan, and Zhao Ping, who were besieging the other three directions of the palace.

At this time, Li Dui invited Zhao Cheng to the side and said in a low voice: "An Pingjun, if I have to wait for the reply from Zhao Yuan, Li Yan and others before taking action, don't wait for at least half an hour, if Pang Xuan, Meng Zhong and others have really protected the master father to break through skillfully, I am afraid that this half-hour delay will make them escape......

Zhao Chengshen nodded approvingly and asked, "What is Fengyang-jun's plan?" ”

I saw Li Dui say in a low voice: "The matter is urgent, it is not appropriate to delay the plan, so that one person can lead the army to attack the palace and search the whereabouts of the master father." If the master father is here, you and I will immediately withdraw from the palace, and if the master father has really sneaked out of the palace, we should immediately lead the army to pursue. During the period, if there are guards and guards to block them, they can be carefully distinguished, or killed or arrested! …… After all, there were only five or six hundred people. ”

"Hmm." Zhao Cheng nodded.

Seeing that Zhao Cheng agreed with his suggestion, Li Dui immediately summoned his subordinate general Lian Po and ordered the latter to lead the army into the palace and search the whereabouts of the master father.

In this operation, Li Dui authorized Lian Po to kill people, as long as he identified them clearly before killing.

To put it bluntly, except for a few characters such as Master Zhao and Meng Zhong, who can't be killed, they can only be arrested, and the rest can be killed by both the Tan Guards and the Xinwei Army.

"Whoa!"

Lian Po took the order and left.

A moment later, Lian Po led his soldiers to kill the guards who were still trying to break through, only to see him wielding a long song and knocking a guard who rushed in front of him to the ground.

As soon as he saw that the main father's guard fell to the ground, several people rushed out of the team behind Lian Po and tied him with ropes.

This was the case for the most part, but there were a few cases where the main guard tried to attack Lianpo after being knocked down, only to be killed on the spot by the face that saw his face.

Anyway, Fengyangjun Li Dui told him that as long as Master Zhao didn't kill him, Que Guanzi and Pang Xuan's master and apprentice didn't kill him, Meng Zhong and his friends didn't kill him, and the rest of the Tan Guards and Xinwei soldiers could be killed.

In view of the fact that Lian Po opened the killing ring, the momentum of the more than 500 Tan guards led by Que Guanzi could not help but be stopped.

After all, before this, although it was not clear what the reason was, Wang Shi's behavior of "not drawing his sword" still boosted the arrogance of the Tan Wei soldiers, so that the Tan Wei Army was extremely fierce when they broke through.

But now, Fengyang Jun Li Dui sent Lian Po, a fierce general, and authorized Lian Po to kill people, which greatly curbed the morale of the Tan Wei army, after all, the number gap between the two sides is there, once the Wang Shi is beaten out of the real fire, how can more than 500 Tan Wei soldiers and soldiers stop thousands or even nearly 10,000 Wang Shi Zhao soldiers here?

Fortunately, Lian Po was not a person who liked to kill, or disdained to slaughter these pawns, so he led his army to rush forward while shouting: "Those who descend will not be killed!" ”

In this case, some of the soldiers of the Tan Guard could not resist the fear of death, and threw down their weapons and surrendered, which made the soldiers who were willing to follow Que Guanzi to continue to break through with fewer and fewer, so that Crane Guanzi could only be gradually forced back to the palace by Lian Po.

After waiting for a short moment, Lian Po attacked the palace, and at this time, in front of him, only Que Guanzi and a few dozen Tan Wei soldiers were left, and the rest of the Tan Wei soldiers had either surrendered on their knees, or had been killed by Lian Po.

"Crane Guanzi, please put down your weapon."

Lian Po warned Qu Guanzi from afar: "You are a Taoist sage who has attained the Tao, Lian doesn't want to offend you, please put down the sword in your hand, don't make it difficult for Lian Mou." ”

Hearing this, Crane Guanzi glanced left and right, and saw that there were only more than twenty Tanwei soldiers left beside him, and after smiling bitterly, he finally dropped the sword in his hand.

Immediately, after glancing at each other, more than 20 Tan Guard soldiers behind him also dropped their weapons and knelt down in surrender.

In this way, Lian Po easily defeated the main father guards who wanted to break through, but he also felt in his heart that the situation was wrong.

Because as far as he knew, the purpose of these master father's guards to break through was to protect Lord Zhao's father to break through, but so far, he Lian Po has not met Master Zhao at all, and he has not even encountered Meng Zhong, Le Yi, Pang Xuan, Ju Xin, Zhao Hao, Meng Hu and others, if you want to say that there is nothing strange in it, he doesn't believe it.

"Search!"

Under an order, Zhao Shu, the king under the command of Lian Po, poured into the palace like a tide, and while fighting fires in the two palaces of the east hall and the west hall, he carefully searched for the traces of Lord Zhao and his party, but unfortunately, no matter how they searched, there was no trace of Lord Zhao and his party in the palace.

"What? No? ”

After receiving the return of the soldiers, Lian Po frowned deeply, and took the crane crown that had been tied up by the rope out of the palace, and returned to Zhao Cheng, the king of Anping, and Li Dui, the king of Fengyang.

At this time, Zhao Cheng and Li Dui, who were still standing outside the palace waiting for news, had just received the news sent by Zhao Yuan, Li Xuan, and Zhao Ping.

Just when Zhao Cheng and Li Dui were suspicious and waiting for Lian Po to send back the news, Lian Po returned to them with the Crane Guanzi and reported with his fists in his hands: "An Pingjun, Fengyang Jun, there is no Zhao Master Father in the city, and there is no Pang Xuan and Meng Zhong's party. ”

"What?!"

Hearing this, Zhao Cheng, Li Dui, and Yang Wenjun and Zhao Bao, who were watching from the sidelines, all changed their faces.

Compared with Zhao Cheng and Li Dui's color change because they were in a hurry, Zhao Bao's color change was a little surprised: Meng Zhong's kid really escaped from the palace with Lord Zhao's father unknowingly?

I saw that under the anger, Zhao Cheng, an Pingjun, grabbed the placket of the crane crown, and asked angrily: "Crane crown, where is the master father?!" ”

It may be that Zhao Cheng strangled his clothes, and the crane looked a little out of breath, and said with a smile: "Who knows?" Lord Zhao's father, the appearance of the cloud dragon, if it turns into a cloud and escapes the sky......"

"Don't take your Taoist words to fool me!"

Zhao Chengyi, who was furious, overthrew the Crane Guanzi to the ground, and immediately pulled out his companion sword from his waist, put the blade against the Crane Guanzi's neck, and asked in a cold tone: "Where is the master father?" Say! Otherwise, don't blame me for ignoring my old feelings! ”

Seeing this, Li Dui, who was beside him, hurriedly dissuaded Zhao Cheng and whispered: "An Pingjun calms his anger, Crane Guanzi is a Taoist sage, and if he kills him, he will ruin his reputation and be scolded by the world." ”

I have to say that although the influence of orthodox Laozi Taoism on the world is actually weakening day by day, the Tianxia school still has special respect for Laozi Taoism, even Confucianism, which once accused other schools of being heretical, did not dare to talk about orthodox Taoism, let alone other schools.

As an orthodox Taoist sage who inherited Laozi's Taoism, he is also quite famous in the Central Plains, and his reputation is no less than that of Meng Zhong's teacher Zhuangzi, if it weren't for the fact that Zhao Cheng, the king of Anping, was frightened because he got away from Zhao's father, otherwise, he would never point his sword at Que Guanzi, after all, it would ruin his reputation.

And in this era, the most important thing for most people in the world is their own reputation.

"Boom!"

Holding back the anger in his heart, Zhao Cheng finally put the sword back into the scabbard.

Seeing this, Li Dui hurriedly summoned his son Li Ji and asked the latter to send a few guards to take Guanzi down and detain him temporarily.

Glaring viciously at the back of the crane when he was taken away, Zhao Cheng gasped and discussed with Li Dui: "Got rid of Master Zhao's father, how can this be good?" ”

"Anpingjun is not in a hurry." Li Dui pressed his hand to comfort Zhao Cheng, and then frowned and analyzed carefully: "Although it is not clear how the master father escaped from the palace unconsciously, his whereabouts are not difficult to predict. It is impossible for him to flee north, only to the south, if my guess is correct, the master father may be planning to pass through Qi and Wei and defect to the Song State...... And to go to the Song Kingdom, the master father and his party must cross the Zhangshui River to the south, and An Pingjun may wish to ask the Niu Jian army general to lead the cavalry to block the banks of the Zhangshui River in this area. …… As for the next step, I believe that I will be able to find out the whereabouts of the master father and his party after dawn, and I will make plans later. ”

"Hmm."

An Pingjun Zhao Cheng nodded slightly.

He also believes that in today's Central Plains, the Song State is the only country that Zhao's father can defect to - although Zhao's father can actually defect to Yan, but Yan is too weak compared to Song.

More importantly, Song Wangyan has been a solid ally of Zhao's father for nearly thirty years, and the personalities and interests of the two are quite consistent, even if it is not an exaggeration to call them confidants.

If Master Zhao defected to the Song Kingdom, Song Wang Yan of the Song Kingdom would definitely accept Lord Zhao Father.

"Master Zhao must not be allowed to flee to the Song Kingdom!"

Zhao Cheng and Li Dui exchanged glances.

You must know that the Song State is not weak, after the Song Dynasty was ruled by the two generations of monarchs of Song Dynasty and Song Wangyan, even if the Qi State attacked the Song State alone, it was a little difficult, once the father of Zhao was called to flee to the Song State, even if Zhao and Qi jointly put pressure on the Song State, but the Song State still had the strength to block the armies of Zhao and Qi in a short time.

As long as the Song State can support it enough to wait for the Qin State to come forward to support the Zhao State and exert pressure on the Zhao State, it is very likely that the Zhao State will have a different situation at that time.

Thinking of this, Anpingjun Zhao Cheng immediately ordered someone to invite Niu Jian and told Niu Jian the news that Master Zhao's father had escaped from the Dune Palace.

Hearing this, Niu Qian's face changed drastically.

If Zhao Cheng, Li Dui and others were afraid of the harm to them after Zhao's father fled to the Song Kingdom, Niu Jian was simply afraid that Zhao's father would escape, after all, he once betrayed Zhao's father, who trusted him, even if he didn't have the intention of killing Zhao's father at the beginning, but it can't be denied that when Zhao Cheng and Li Dui decided to trap Zhao's father, he Niu Jian also remained silent.

This move means that he has completely betrayed Lord Zhao's father, and there is no room for justification, if Lord Zhao's father escapes this time and denounces his behavior in the future, then he Niu Jian will be ruined and spurned by the world.

It may be out of this fear that when Zhao Cheng and Li Dui asked him to "order the cavalry to pursue", Niu Jian only hesitated a little and gritted his teeth and responded: "I understand, I will immediately lead the cavalry to chase!" ”

With that, Niu Jian immediately returned to the camp to gather the cavalry.

And Zhao Cheng and Li Dui also began to give orders, ordering Zhao Yuan, Li Xuan, Zhao Ping, Li Ji and others not to besiege the Dune Palace anymore, and immediately wake up all the kings in the camp, Zhao Shu, and travel southward to the bank of the Zhangshui River.

If it can be summed up in one sentence, even if it is chased to the Song Kingdom, Zhao Cheng and Li Dui will also recover Zhao's master's father!

At the same time, Meng Zhong, Pang Xuan and others, as well as more than 200 Xinwei soldiers, were taking advantage of the night to escort Zhao's father to the south.

The Dune Palace was actually not far from the banks of the Zhangshui River, and the distance in a straight line was less than twenty miles, but because it was winter, the snow on the ground was knee-high, which caused their speed to be seriously slowed down.

Of course, compared to the snow along the way, what is more deadly is still the Wang Division patrol guards all over the area.

In order to prevent the patrol guards of the Wang Division from being alarmed and causing the whereabouts of his group to be exposed, Meng Zhong boldly divided a group of more than 200 people, divided into six or seven teams of nearly 30 people, and pretended to be the Wang Division's guards patrolling this area, separated by hundreds of zhang from each other, and slowly advanced towards the south.

Around three o'clock, when Lian Po had just led his troops into the palace, Meng Zhong and his party had just encountered a team of patrol soldiers of the Wang Division.

Seeing that he was about to collide with the opposite side, it was too late to dodge, and it was too late to extinguish the torch in his hand, Pang Xuan gritted his teeth and pulled out the saber at his waist.

But at this moment, Meng Zhong pressed the sword in his hand back into the scabbard, and immediately lowered his voice and ordered: "Everyone turn around, move forward slowly, and listen to my orders." ”

“……”

Master Zhao, Pang Xuan, Ju Xin, Zhao Hao and others in the team didn't know why, but in the end, they still followed Meng Zhong's instructions and turned around one after another, facing the direction of the Dune Palace.

At this time, Meng Zhong took a few steps forward to the team of Wang Shi Zhao pawns who were coming quickly, and after loudly ordering his subordinates to stop advancing, he preemptively asked, "Where are the soldiers on the other side?" ”

Hearing this, the Wang Shi guard on the opposite side slowly stopped, and immediately, a soldier stepped forward and said to himself: "I am Fu Chang, the commander of Li Yun (Xing) Sima, where are you a soldier?" ”

"Li Yun? Could it be that he is a soldier under Li Yun, Li Ji's eldest son?"

A thought flashed in Meng Zhong's heart, and he immediately shouted loudly: "It turned out to be the deployment of the young prince, and I was in charge of the two horses here, and I just saw a fire coming from the direction of the palace, and I was afraid that the palace would change, so I went in the direction of the palace." ”

Fu Chang on the opposite side walked a few steps closer, and shone Meng Zhong and his soldiers with torches, and sure enough, he saw that this team of soldiers turned their backs to him and faced the direction of the palace, and he was not suspicious in his heart, and said with a smile: "I also saw a fire coming from the direction of the palace, so I led the team to find out, brother, don't be surprised." ”

"I see, the chief of the Fu pawn will invite first, and the inferior people will follow closely."

"Good!"

The captain named Fu Chang had no suspicions, and immediately led the guards under his command to go straight to the direction of the palace, Meng Zhong took Master Zhao, Pang Xuan and others to follow for a short time, and then deliberately fell behind, seeing that the guards had disappeared into the night in the distance, Meng Zhong immediately ordered everyone to turn around again and continue to go south.

What's more worth mentioning is that because Meng Zhong blocked the team of guards, he bought time for the several teams of guards behind him, so that those teams of guards had time to wrap their bodies with the cloth they carried and hide in the snow, so that when the team of guards passed by, they didn't find that there were actually more than 100 people lying on the snow not far away.

"You really deserve to be good at night attacks, you should be really calm......"

After the crisis was resolved, Pang Xuan praised sincerely, after all, his first reaction was to force a breakthrough, although the team of guards was not necessarily able to stop them, but he also knew that this move would definitely expose his own whereabouts, and it was indeed the best way to deceive the other party as skillfully as Meng Zhong.

Meng Zhong smiled slightly: "The patrol guards here, for the time being, I don't know that Master Zhao has escaped from the palace, so it stands to reason that I won't be suspicious, but wait a while, and when the news spreads, this trick will not be good......"

"So we have to get to Zhangshui as soon as possible."

"Hmm!"

After a short chat, Meng Zhong and Pang Xuan continued to protect Master Zhao's father slowly south.

Suddenly, Meng Zhong felt as if there was a shaking vibration behind him, and he glanced back, and then saw that in the direction behind him, there was a cloud of fire rapidly coming towards the south.

When he took a closer look, where was the fire cloud, it was clearly the countless Wang Shi Zhao pawns holding torches, and judging from the movement speed of those torches and the faint sound, it was probably the cavalry under Niu Qian's command.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong immediately said to Master Zhao: "Master Zhao, it seems that our tricks have been seen through by Zhao Cheng and Li Dui, at this time Zhao Cheng and others may have attacked the palace, seeing that Master Zhao is not seen in the palace, so he hurriedly sent Niu Jian to lead the cavalry to chase after him, I can't delay any longer." ”

"Hmm!"

Master Zhao nodded with a stern expression.

Seeing this, Meng Zhong also changed his tactics, and he ordered the rest of the Xinwei soldiers who followed behind him to quickly catch up, reunite, and immediately take this team of more than 200 people and march quickly to the south.

With countless cavalry chasing behind him, he couldn't care about revealing his whereabouts, after all, no matter how bad the weather was, the speed of the cavalry was far faster than them, and once the cavalry reached the Zhangshui River beach first, they would completely lose the opportunity to cross the river and break through.

For this reason, even though he later encountered a group of patrol guards along the way, Meng Zhong still ordered the whole army to break through.

Seeing the cavalry behind him getting closer and closer, Meng Zhong and the others were anxious.

Suddenly, a soldier of the Xinwei in front shouted in surprise: "Zhangshui! The front is Zhangshui! ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong decisively ordered the whole army to jump into Zhangshui and swim to the opposite bank.

"Bang!"

"Bang bang bang!"

A team of more than 200 people, chased by countless cavalry and Wang Shi's guards, jumped into Zhangshui one after another.

The moment he entered the water, Meng Zhong felt the temperature of the river, and the icy chill hit his head for a while.

While struggling to swim to the other side, Meng Zhong glanced back and saw that the shore was full of cavalry.

The first general is Niu Qian.

"Sima, they jumped into the river and fled......"

Looking at the group of people who jumped into the river and fled in front of him, Niu Jian was reminded eagerly by the guards.

At this time, I saw Niu Jian gritting his teeth, waving his hand and issuing an order that shocked Meng Zhong, Pang Xuan and others: "Release the arrow!" ”

For a time, the cavalry on the shore fired crossbow bolts into the river, causing arrows to rain down on the river.