At that time, it was definitely not too much to describe Pang Meng with a generation of celebrities, and in the entire Eastern Expeditionary Army, Pang Meng's status was second only to Gai Yan.

Li Xiang's angry rebuke of Pang Meng made Pang Meng angry, and the latter took the case and said, "I'm greedy for life and afraid of death?

When Lao Tzu went with His Majesty to fight in the east and west, you didn't know where the fuck was! ”

Li Xiang turned a blind eye to Pang Meng's anger, and he asked loudly: "Don't mention your previous exploits again!" Now General Gai and 100,000 soldiers are trapped in Lanling, but you Pang Meng want to see death and not save it, not greedy for life and afraid of death, what is it? ”

After all, Pang Meng was born as a military general, and his fiery temper came up, and he couldn't suppress it, his eyes were scarlet, he raised his hand, held the hilt of the sword, gritted his teeth and said: "Bold Li Xiang, if you dare to talk nonsense, Lao Tzu will kill you now!" ”

Li Xiang was not afraid, but laughed out loud and said proudly: "You Pang Meng is so capable!" I have the courage to kill me, the powerless county magistrate, but I don't have the courage to go into battle to kill the enemy! There is no one more brazen person in the world than you, right? ”

When Pang Meng heard this, his lungs were about to explode, and his body trembled.

As a favored minister of the Son of Heaven and a general with outstanding military achievements, who saw Pang Meng not give three points?

Even Gai Yan would not speak like this in front of Pang Meng.

Now that he is being scolded and humiliated by a little-known county magistrate Shi Li Xiang, where can Pang Meng stand it?

He roared angrily, pulled out the saber under his ribs, took three steps into two steps, rushed to Li Xiang's approach, raised the sword in his hand, and heard a pop in the ear chakra, as the sword light flashed, Li Xiang fell to the ground, his neck was bleeding, lying on the ground, his limbs twitched a few times and then there was no movement.

At this moment, the tent of the Chinese army was completely silent.

Pang Meng carried the blood-dripping saber and looked at Li Xiang's corpse blankly, and he couldn't come back to his senses for a while.

Pang Meng's subordinates who were present were all dumbfounded.

The history of the county magistrate is not a big official, but he is also a court official of 600 stones, Pang Meng said that he would kill it, how to explain this to the county government, and how to explain it to the court?

Everyone looked at each other, got up one after another, and walked to Pang Meng, and a general was very clever and immediately said, "Yes...... It was Li Xiang who was not inferior to the general, and the general ...... The general couldn't hold back for a while, so he accidentally killed Li Xiang! Right! The general is Li Xiang who was killed by mistake! ”

Everyone reacted, nodded in agreement, and said in a gossipy voice: "It was Li Xiang who was disrespectful, and the general killed him by mistake!" ”

Pang Meng took a deep breath, slowly put his sword into the sheath, he turned around and returned to his seat silently, and sat down slowly, his face uncertain.

He was indeed impulsive just now, but now that the person is dead, it is useless for him to regret it.

Now he had to think about how to explain the matter to the imperial court.

After thinking about it, Pang Meng called a general and asked him to send Li Xiang's body back to Pengcheng, and in addition, he went to see Zhao Meng, the Taishou and explained the matter to him, and tried to win Zhao Meng's understanding.

The Son of Heaven has always been disgusted with the oppression of local officials by the Jingshi Army, he killed Li Xiang, but it can be big or small, if Zhao Meng is willing to help him speak, this matter can be turned into a big thing and a small matter, if Zhao Meng refuses to help him speak, but adds oil and vinegar to the court, then the matter will be troublesome.

According to Pang Meng's meaning, the general took several officers and soldiers to load Li Xiang's body into a carriage and pull it into Pengcheng.

After entering the city, the general immediately went to see Zhao Meng, the Taishou of Chu County.

Zhao Meng was also shocked when he learned the news that Li Xiang was killed, and he was stunned for a while before coming back to his senses.

He asked the general about the reason.

The general is the set of made up words, saying that Li Xiang committed the following offenses and spoke ill of Pang Meng, Pang Meng's impulsiveness failed to control his emotions, so he killed Li Xiang by mistake.

Zhao Meng is the county guard, Li Xiang is the county magistrate, can Zhao Meng not understand his subordinate?

Li Xiang is upright, virtuous, and selfless, he dares to fight against the powerful, but he will never bully others.

What's more, the other party is Pang Meng, that is General Pingdi, the favored minister of the Son of Heaven, Li Xiang has no reason, how could he be disrespectful to Pang Meng and commit the following crimes?

The other party's statement is not credible.

With a gloomy face, he looked at the general coldly and said nothing.

The general cleared his throat and said, "What my general means is that this incident is an accident, and we don't want to hurt each other's harmony because of this incident, let's make this matter a big thing and a small thing!" ”

When Zhao Meng heard this, he laughed angrily.

The person who died now is his own county magistrate's history, and the dignified magistrate's history was killed, and his own Taishou still has to help the murderer, pretending as if nothing happened, do you still want to do it?

In the future, who else will believe the officials of the county government?

He slapped the table heavily, and said to the general in a deep voice: "You go back and report to General Pang, this matter, this official will never give up, General Pang careless of people's lives, privately hurt the lives of my Chu County officials, this official will definitely report this matter to Your Majesty, please Your Majesty decide!" ”

The general's face changed, he squinted his eyes, and said: "Zhao Taishou, my general has already admitted that he was wrong, and he is willing to make compensation for Li Changshi's death. ”

Zhao Mengteng stood up and said, "Who is being aggressive now, and who is bullying people too much?"

I have a long history of Chu County, General Pang said that he would kill him, but there is still me, the Taishou of Chu County, in my eyes, but there is also the law of the Son of Heaven and the King? ”

"You ......" The general lowered his eyes, tried his best to suppress his anger, he changed his words, and said: "We will discuss this matter separately for the time being, now that our army is short of grain and grass, I hope that Zhao Taishou can send people in time to transport grain and grass to our army camp." ”

"Nope."

Zhao Meng refused simply.

"What?"

The general wondered if his ears had misheard, and raised his eyebrows.

"I said no!"

Zhao Meng accentuated his tone and said word by word: "Before the matter of Li Changshi's killing is not satisfactorily resolved, I, Chu County, will not send a grain of grain to your battalion!" You go back and report my words to General Pang truthfully! ”

This general's face was so angry that his face turned pale, he raised his hand and pointed at Zhao Meng fiercely, first Li Xiang, and now Zhao Meng, one by one, they dare not put their own generals in their eyes, and the officials of Chu County are inevitably too arrogant and domineering! "You can't go a day without food in the army! You Zhao Meng don't send food to our army, and you Zhao Meng will be fully responsible for all the consequences that occur! ”

With that, the general turned and left.

Of course, Zhao Meng knows how terrible the consequences of not having food in the army will be, but Li Xiang must not die in vain, Pang Meng must be responsible for this matter, and if this matter is not resolved, it is impossible for him to send grain and grass to Pang Meng's army.

On the same day, Zhao Meng wrote a note to Liu Xiu, saying that Pang Meng was afraid of war and did not dare to send troops to reinforce Lanling, as well as the matter of taking people's lives in Chu County and killing county officials indiscriminately, all of which were written in Song Shu and sent someone to send Song Shu to Luoyang.

On the other side, Lanling City.

After discussing with Ben Xiu, Gaiyan made another deployment to break through.

This time, the Han army was no longer a one-way breakthrough, but a two-way breakthrough with two troops.

Gaiyan 1st Road, Benxiu 1st Road, Gaiyan led his troops to break through to the north, and Benxiu led his troops to break through to the south, so as to disperse and intercept their own enemy forces.

In addition, Ben Xiu also decided that he would lead his troops to break through first, attract as many enemy troops as possible to the southern front, and create opportunities for Gaiyan's breakthrough on the northern front.

Such a decision is undoubtedly extremely risky, and it is likely to make the Benxiu Department deeply encircled, not to mention breaking through, it is possible to be trapped by the enemy army.

Gai Yan wanted to dissuade Ben Xiu, but the latter waved his hand and said meaningfully: "In order to save our department, General Gai ignored the danger and approached Lanling. ”

Ben Xiu was originally Dong Xian's subordinate, and it was after the defeat of Dong Xian's army in the first battle that he suddenly decided to defect to the Han army.

The next day, the Han army began to carry out a breakout operation according to the agreed plan.

Ben Xiu led 30,000 subordinates to take the lead from the southern city of Lanling and broke through to the south.

The breakout action of the Benxiu Department really attracted a large number of Dong Xianjun.

Dong Xianjun, who were arranged in the east and west of the city, gathered to the south of the city one after another, forming an encirclement of the Benxiu army that broke through to the south.

On the other side, Gaiyan led his troops to rush out from the northern city, and the whole army of soldiers rushed to the north with all their might.

The current situation on the battlefield is that Dong Xian's army in the north of the city is alone to resist the Gaiyan army, while the Dong Xianjun in the east, west, and south of the city are working together to surround the Benxiu army.

There are 70,000 Gaiyan troops, and they are all brave and good at fighting the Eastern Expeditionary Army, and the strength of Dong Xian's army in the north of the city is also about 70,000, and there is a perfect defense system to assist, one side is good at fighting, one side is complete with defense facilities, and the two sides are evenly matched.

Compared with the battlefield on the northern front, which was fiercely fought and evenly matched, the situation on the southern front was much clearer.

In the east, west, and south of the city, Dong Xianjun, with a total of 140,000 or 50,000 troops, surrounded the Benxiu army, which had only 30,000 people, on the inside and three layers on the outside.

The battle situation is almost one-sided, as Dong Xianjun keeps compressing the encirclement, the living space of the Ben Xiujun army is getting smaller and smaller, 30,000 people, and finally squeezed into a ball, as far as the eye can see, people are crowded together, people are next to people, people are crowded, and the people in it are even difficult to turn around.

Speaking of the battlefield on the northern front, Gaiyan personally went into battle, took the lead in the charge, and commanded his soldiers to advance forward.

Under the all-out onslaught of the Han army, even Dong Xianjun, which had perfect defense facilities, gradually began to be unable to support it, and was forced to retreat again and again by the Han army.

In this battle, the two sides fought from day to night, and it was not until it was dark that Gai Yan's army finally tore through the defense line of Dong Xianjun's army and broke through.

However, at the same time, the 30,000 soldiers led by Ben Xiu have been completely annihilated by Dong Xianjun.

Even Ben Xiu was not spared and was captured alive by Dong Xianjun.

Dong Xian hated Ben Xiu to the core, and after learning the news that Ben Xiu was captured by his own soldiers, Dong Xian laughed three times in the sky and ordered Ben Xiu to be sentenced to death.

This was the Battle of Lanling that broke out between the Han army and Dong Xianjun.

The battle of Lanling was caused by Ben Xiu's defection, Dong Xian was furious, gathered all the soldiers and horses, personally led the army, went to Lanling to encircle and suppress, and Gai Yan led his troops to rescue.

Ben Xiu abandoned the darkness and turned to the Ming, took refuge in the Han family, and was trapped in Lanling by Dong Xian's army, Gai Yan led his troops to the rescue, which was not wrong in itself, and Liu Xiu also supported Gai Yan's decision to rescue Ben Xiu.

It's just that Liu Xiu felt that Dong Xian's army had a large number of troops and strong morale, and it was not suitable for the Gaiyan Department to be an enemy, so he should adopt the tactics of encircling Wei to save Zhao, and lead the army to attack Dong Xian's old nest Tancheng, forcing Dong Xian to lead the army to rescue, so as to relieve Ben Xiu's trapped danger.

After deliberation among the high-level leaders of the Eastern Expeditionary Army led by Gai Yan, most of the generals, including Gai Yan, believed that the risk of encircling Wei to save Zhao was too great, and that they could not risk the lives of 100,000 soldiers and go deep alone, so the Eastern Expeditionary Army did not adopt Liu Xiu's tactics in the end, but chose to defeat Dong Xianjun.

The direct consequence of this was that it led to the split of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, and the contradiction between Gai Yan and Pang Meng broke out completely, and Pang Meng led his troops to leave the Eastern Expeditionary Army and retreat to Chu County to garrison, so that the strength of the Eastern Expeditionary Army was greatly weakened, and finally led to the complete defeat of the Battle of Lanling.

Ben Xiu led his troops to defect, such a good opportunity, the Eastern Expeditionary Army failed to grasp it completely, not only failed to occupy Lanling, but also led to the annihilation of the Ben Xiu Army, and even with it, the Gaiyan Department also suffered heavy losses.

At this point, the Gaiyan Department was no longer able to confront Dong Xianjun head-on.