Outside the city of Wuchang, the Chen army that was originally stationed in the eastern and southern suburbs has disappeared, since the defeat of the Chen army in the water battle on the river outside Wuchang the day before yesterday, in order to prevent the Zhou army from copying the back road, they have retreated, the Chen army in the eastern suburbs retreated to Yanji and stationed, and the Chen army in the southern suburbs retreated for several miles.

The battle was fought right under their noses, and the flames, the wailing cries of countless people, the horrific wreckage of warships on the river, the countless floating corpses, and the river water, which was unclear whether it was red by fire or blood, were all impressive.

Defeated, the naval army of Chen Guo, which has a huge number of warships, has been defeated, and if even the naval army that has always had an advantage is defeated, then how can this battle be fought.

For hundreds of years, no matter how many times the army of the Northern Dynasties drank the Yangtze River, the people in the south of the Yangtze River were frightened, but in the end they were blocked by the Southern Navy, and everyone firmly believed in the creed of "South Ship and North Horse", thinking that as long as there was a Navy in the south of the Yangtze River, it would be worry-free.

Even if the Zhou Guonandu attack on Yingzhou was violent, people believed that as long as the navy was dispatched, it would definitely be able to defeat the Zhou navy, and then the Zhou army that crossed the river was cornered and could only be captured.

In the battle of Parrot Island on the Xiakou River before, everyone thought that the defeat of Chen Guoshui's army to the Zhou army was an accident, but now that Chen's army has been defeated again, it can no longer be said that it is an accident, and everyone can see clearly that the battle process on the river is really a fiasco.

But the naval army lost the battle and still had to fight, if Yingzhou could not be recaptured, it would not be long before the upstream Ba, Xiang, Jing, and Xinzhou would be finished, and the upstream states and counties would be finished, leaving Jiangzhou in the southeast of Yingzhou to hold the Yangtze River waterway, but it was only a matter of time before the Zhou army occupied Yingzhou and attacked Jiangzhou.

"Have you heard, the king has sent an envoy to Jiankang to ask for help, and he wants to mobilize a large army to help again!"

"The army? Isn't there a naval army in Jiangzhou, just transfer it and fight it again? ”

"If the Jiangzhou Water Army plays, then the Zhou National Water Army will be able to rush to health!"

"Where to use Jiangzhou, isn't there still a lot of warships in the navy the day before yesterday, where are they afraid of the Zhou army!"

"Don't talk about it, those birdmen were so frightened that they turned around and ran away, they were burned enough by a fireboat, where can they be expected!"

"Be quiet!"

In a bush, several people were muttering. They were sentinels sent by Chen Jun to observe the movements of Wuchang City, and it was a fact that the naval army was defeated, but the battle had to be fought again, and a few of them were sent to death as unlucky ghosts.

The Zhou army captured Wuchang, naturally it was heavily guarded, and I didn't know if Shangguan heard that bastard say that there was something wrong in Wuchang City, so he had to send someone to investigate, this kind of thing is no different from sending him to death, so everyone can hide and hide, and when the lottery was drawn, they unfortunately won the lottery.

The last words have been left, and the comrades have already gathered some money to save up for the funeral for them. Now these soldiers have embarked on the road of no return 'without worry', but after coming to the vicinity of Wuchang City, they feel that something is really wrong.

I can't say what I feel, but I just feel that something is wrong, Wuchang City looks hideous and terrifying in the sunset, they are brave enough to touch such a close range, if according to the usual experience, there have already been rangers coming to pick up people, but at this time there is no action in the city.

Some people speculated that there was an ambush in the city, and another person scoffed and said that it was impossible to have an ambush in the whole city just to deal with a few of us, and some people asked what was going on, and later one person mentioned that the city was too quiet and a little strange.

One of them asked what was strange, and the man said that it was all time to eat, but there was no smoke rising in the city, and that there must be chickens and dogs in such a large city, and so many families must have chickens, dogs, and other things, but now they could not hear any sound.

It was silent, like an uninhabited courtyard, and the whole city was eerily quiet.

"I said, 'There must be something strange in this city, why don't we go and see.'"

"Don't mess around and go over and see, you don't want to live a long life!!"

"It's not nonsense! Look at the top of the castle! ”

When everyone heard this, they looked at the city tower, but they couldn't see the problem. The man reminded him that there were many birds falling on the fence of the castle tower, and these birds were very alert on weekdays, and if there were people in the castle tower or on the city wall, they would stop on the fence stupidly.

Hearing him say this, everyone came back to their senses, and looked at it, and found that the city was indeed becoming more and more suspicious, and those birds landed unscrupulously on the arrow stacks and flagpoles, and it seemed that there was really no one on the city.

Some people speculated that it was because the garrison at the head of the city was lax, and the sentinels who should have been on duty all went to the city tower to take shelter, but in various situations, it was more like there was no one in the city, and after struggling for a while, they decided to find out.

Anyway, this trip was originally supposed to be if there was no return, if you can make a great contribution, if you can go back and be rewarded, then the family will have a fall this year

They dodged and came to the bottom of the city, there was no danger on the way, several people pressed against the corner of the wall, gasped, waited for their heartbeats to calm down, exchanged glances, and then took out their flying claws and threw them at the head of the city.

The iron claws were tightly hooked between the arrow stacks, and after pulling the rope tied to it, one person climbed up quickly, and the comrades under the corner waited for a long time without seeing any movement on the top, and another person climbed up to the top of the city along the rope.

He trembled and climbed up to the top of the city, first looked at the city, and found that there was no one at the head of the city, and then he had the courage to climb over the battlements, but saw his comrades sitting on the ground with their backs to the battlements in a daze. He was about to ask what was going on, but when he saw the scene in front of him, he was stunned.

The city of Wuchang was empty and turned into a white land, where there were houses all over the place, not to mention that people couldn't even see a chicken. The main thing is that he can actually see the riverside: because the northern wall of Wuchang is gone!

"What's going on?" ……

On the southern outskirts of Xiakou City, Yingzhou Thorn Shi Lu Guangda galloped on the official road and followed closely by dozens of cavalry, and it was the first time since Xiakou City broke their embarrassing breakthrough that day that it was the first time to return to Xiakou.

Lu Guangda led the army of Bazhou in the west to guard in Xiajun County, and confronted the Zhou army for more than half a month, and then realized that the other party pulled out the camp and retreated overnight, and advanced step by step for several days, and found that the other party seemed to have withdrawn, so he chased all the way to Xiakou.

Along the way, there are no people in the villages, not even a single chicken is seen, it can be said that there is no chicken crowing for a hundred miles, Lu Guangda guessed that it was the Zhou army that took the people away, this kind of thing is commonplace when countries are at war, even Chen Jun often does.

The year before last, Chen Jun took advantage of the civil war of the Zhou Dynasty to cross the river and go north to attack Qizhou and Yizhou, one of the six states in Jiangbei. After breaking the city, it is also to bring the people of the whole city to the south of the Yangtze River, the most valuable thing in these years is the land, the other is the population, if the land can not be kept, there is no way to take it away, but it is okay to take people away.

The Zhou army must have seen that the army was approaching and the water battle could not be defeated, so they took the people captive and fled back to Jiangbei. Lu Guangda only regretted that he had not been able to avenge the loss of Xiakou, this time the Zhou army came south and was menacing, which made him embarrassed and lost Yingzhou, and now he led the army to fight back, but he failed to fight with the other party, which is really depressing.

Yesterday. The forward who went to Xiakou to spy came with the news that the Zhou army entrenched in Xiakou had retreated, and Lu Guangda didn't care about the large army and directly led the escort to arrive, because it was reported that there was something wrong with Xiakou.

What else can go wrong, isn't it just to take the people away and then burn down the city, Lu Guangda has prepared for the worst. He was first defeated in the water battle of Parrot Island and then lost Xiakou, according to what he later knew, not only Wuchang but also most of Yingzhou was captured by the Zhou army, and he, the governor of the military of the seven states, should also be dismissed and returned to Jiankang to be punished.

Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, and Lu Guangda only looks forward to a comeback in the future, but he can't understand why the Zhou army retreated so easily since they crossed the south of the Yangtze River to capture most of Yingzhou with such fanfare.

Lu Guangda judged that it must be that the imperial army must have won a complete victory in the water battle on the Wuchang side and defeated the Zhou army, and the Zhou army was afraid that it would be cut off from retreating, so it retreated in a hurry, and it was always a matter of good luck for the Zhou army to be driven back to Jiangbei in any case.

"Why hasn't Xiakou arrived yet?" He suddenly asked, according to the distance, you should be able to see the tall towers and walls of Xiakou City in front of you, but now you can see at a glance where there are these things on the horizon in front of you.

He was a little worried about whether he was just thinking about things and was distracted, so he took the wrong road, but the guard next to him said that the road was not wrong, and Xiakou City should also be in front, Lu Guangda took a closer look, and indeed the terrain in front of him was somewhat similar to Xiakou City, but those city walls and towers were gone.

"No, no, no," Lu Guangda had a bad premonition in his heart, but he didn't say it, he forcibly held back the uneasiness in his heart, rode his horse forward, and arrived in front of Xiakou City about half an hour later.

It is in front of the original Xiakou Castle. Now in front of Lu Guangda was a white field: not to mention the familiar street scene in the city, there was not even much left of the city wall, if it weren't for the wall foundation, he really suspected that he was in the wrong place.

Whether it is the official office, granary, warehouse, military camp, mansion or ordinary people's dwellings, they have all turned into flat land, leaving only the faintly visible homestead, and the crisscrossed stone roads make people vaguely remind people of the lively scene of people coming and going in Xiakou City.

The soldiers who arrived first came to report that the Zhou army entrenched in Xiakou was gone, and disappeared without a trace, and with Xiakou, no, the people, livestock, and even chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, cats and all other domestic animals of Jiangxia County disappeared without a trace.

Many wells have been blocked, and it is basically impossible to reuse, and if you want to get water, you can only dig the wells again, and Xiakou City, which has been turned into white land, has no living creatures except for the Chen soldiers who are now camping.

Lu Guangda looked at the white land in front of him and was a little speechless, he really couldn't understand what the Zhou army was thinking, and a general next to him said that it was the Sui State that sent troops, so the Zhou army could only retreat when the enemy was on its back.

"They should have thought it through when they sent out the troops. Even if the attack on Yingzhou is successful, it will definitely face a counterattack by the imperial army, and if it is a stalemate in Jiangnan for a long time, then the Sui State will definitely make a move. Lu Guangda said. He speaks to the people as well as to himself.

"It has only been more than a month since the Xiangyang Navy entered the Yangtze River, so the Sui State's reaction is not so fast, there will be small-scale harassment, but to mobilize a large army to attack, Yuwen Liang is afraid that there is not enough time, and Yecheng will not sit idly by."

"Governor, but why are they going to be because the imperial army has won, so they can only retreat," someone asked, they hadn't been in contact with the imperial army in the direction of Jiangzhou in the east recently, so they could only guess in the direction of the good direction.

"Presumably." Lu Guangda said lightly, but he was still thinking about Xiakou City being razed to the ground by the Zhou army. It is impossible for the other party to demolish Xiakou City like this, otherwise it will be possible to tear down the city walls in a hurry.

A thought came to his mind: Could it be that this was planned by Zhou Jun a long time ago?

This idea was so strange that Lu Guangda shook his head just thinking about it, and when he raised his head, he caught a glimpse of a watchtower standing by the river to the west, and couldn't help asking, "Why is that building still there?" ”

A subordinate general looked at it and said that they didn't know either, Xiakou City was basically flattened, but the Zhou army only did not move the watchtower located on the rocks on the riverside, thinking that they wanted to observe the situation on the Yangtze River waterway upstream, so they stayed.

"What's the name of that building?" Lu Guangda thought for a while and asked, the watchtower was used to watch the guards, and it seemed that there was a name, but he couldn't remember it very well. Zhou Jun actually left this building without demolishing it, which has a deep meaning.

"This watchtower is said to be hundreds of years old, and some people call this building the Yellow Crane Tower." ……

"The old man left the Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and the fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March, and it should be over when I want to come to Xiakou." Yu Wenwen said with a folding fan in his hand, and then added: "I don't know if Manager Du showed mercy to Huanghelou's subordinates, but the official specially reminded him at that time." ”

"Yellow Crane Tower, maybe there is no such name at this time." Yang Ji added on the side.

"Who knows? It's really not possible to rebuild it, are you interested in this honor? ”

"Ahem"

Yuwen Wen put away the folding fan with a "snap", then opened the curtain and walked out, and Yang Ji followed, outside the curtain was a temporary platform, and under the stage was a crowd of black presses.

The men, women, and children in the crowd were all dressed as civilians, all of them were carrying their families and carrying packages, looking around in horror, and the soldiers standing around them were all smiling at this time, trying to show the gentlest smiles, but their laughter was more ugly than crying.

"Attention, attention!!"

The shouting attracted everyone's attention to the stage, and they saw two people walking out of it, one of whom was a young man dressed in the government, and at this moment, the young man held a paper horn in his hand and shouted loudly:

"Ladies and gentlemen of Wuchang! This official is Bazhou Thorn Shi Yu Wenwen, welcome everyone to Xiyang! ”

"Since ancient times, Wuchang and Xiyang have been close to each other, and everyone is not an outsider across the river!! Now when I come to Xiyang, I can live with confidence!! ”

Yuwen talked for a while and found that there was no movement in the audience, many people looked at him with fear, and even some young ladies hid behind their families, as if they were afraid of being dragged away by him and 'wanted to do wrong'.

'It's cold, it's light, there's no reaction at all' Yu Wenwen thought helplessly in his heart, he coughed a few times and motioned to his partner next to him to 'cheer'.

The lord Bo Zhengtong coughed dryly a few times, and then he also held a paper horn and shouted loudly: "The envoy just said, we are not bad people"

"The residence has been prepared, and the food will be distributed according to the capitation, so everyone can live in Xiyang with peace of mind."

"When the time comes, you will naturally let everyone move back."

"Everyone must believe in the government and believe in the Yuwen envoy" (to be continued.) )