Inside the north gate of Guoda outside Guangzhou, the fireworks after the bloody battle have gradually been extinguished.

However, when the last group of enemy soldiers who were still able to stand finally laid down their weapons in despair and became prisoners, no trace of Meng Kai's existence was found in them. It was as if the rebels had disappeared before the outflanking and encirclement operations took place. And only the deputy general he left, the forward general Yan Shun, known as "Leopard Head Yan", was commanding the battle.

Therefore, when Yan Shun, who was carrying more than a dozen wounds and rushing back and forth to kill in front, was put down by Zhang Bao, the deputy of the former Annan Xing Battalion, who was born in the shooting team, with a strengthened iron tire bow; The morale and will of the remaining soldiers quickly began to crumble. Then, in a burst of deafening cheers and roars, the angry banner representing the Sanjiang Army was once again planted at the head of the city outside Guangzhou.

Next, like a domino that was quickly pushed, as long as the captured Meng Kai Zhongjun flag was displayed to the public, the remnants of the rebel army who were originally stationed on the city wall would be shaken and had no intention of fighting again, and they would scatter and flee the city wall or surrender without much hesitation;

As a result, starting from the nearest city gates on both sides of the Great North Gate city wall, the eight water and land gates owned by Guangzhou Waiguo changed hands almost one after another, and fell into the hands of the Sanjiang Army controlled by Zhou Huai'an.

This also means that the several rebel troops who are still fighting, fighting and looting in the city of Guangzhou have all become the turtles in the urn where they are trapped; During this period, although there were also some hostile rebel troops who heard the news, they tried to remediate and capture the next city gate as a way out;

But without exception, they were repelled on the spot by the strong bows and crossbows stationed in the castle tower, and then they were outflanked by the nearby supporting mobile forces, and were outflanked and routed on the spot. After more than a dozen battles before and after, thousands of people were killed, but they never got what they wanted, and in the end, only a small part of the remnants of the other side were able to retreat back to the city by chance.

Then, when the opponent was so injured that he was unable to attack again, and his own side had to rest after a long battle and had little strength to take the initiative, he fell into a kind of temporary stalemate and confrontation again; And the inner city direction has also re-made contact.

Although under the leadership of Ge Congzhou, he once encountered an existential crisis of being attacked and disturbed by people from the inside and outside; However, after the external attack gradually weakened and weakened, Ge Congzhou still brought the men who withdrew from the wall, as well as the support from the port area ship regiment and the inspection water battalion, to extinguish the momentum of the so-called chaos.

In this way, the inner city and the outer Guo, as well as the port city on the sea side, were reconnected under the control of the Sanjiang Army.

"And forgive my subordinates for their incompetence,"

At this time, Zhong Yi, who was responsible for leading people to act in secret, also came to Zhou Huai'an's side again and whispered.

"I still haven't been able to find the whereabouts and traces of the Meng thief, and I have only forced more than a dozen leaders to hide their identities."

In the further pursuit of various places afterwards, there was still no trace of Meng Kai, as if the world had evaporated in this Guangzhou city; Regarding the result of not being able to find the mastermind behind the scenes, Zhou Huaian is not only a little unfinished, regretful and worried, but also a little faintly happy;

He was worried that after Meng Kai escaped, he would regather the remnants of the local rebel army outside to fight against him, so he would have to spend a lot of effort to clean up and clean up, and even eat and saw for a while;

Or after fleeing into the city, reconvene the scattered rebel army and continue to resist stubbornly, it will surely cause greater damage and losses in the city of Guangzhou. However, judging from the current situation of the chaotic armies in the city, the probability of such a thing is not very large.

And he was secretly glad that it was for another reason. You must know that in the historical time and space that you know, Meng Kai is the most trusted general of Huangchao; After being crowned emperor, he was named under the four prime ministers, and the first Shangshu left and right servants shot and military envoys;

Later, after Huang Chao defeated Chang'an, Meng Kai, as the vanguard, was attacked and killed by Zhao Li, the assassin of Chenzhou and the envoy of the loyal army; For this reason, the Huangchao army specially stopped to besiege Chenzhou, which lasted more than 300 days, and although hundreds of battles were exhausted, they still could not go down. Then, under the fatigue of the old teacher, Zhu Quanzhong (Zhu Wen), the envoy of the Xuanwu Army who surrendered to the imperial court, was attacked, and embarked on the road to complete defeat.

Zhou Huai'an really didn't have much certainty, and he could ensure that once Huang Chao got the news, he would go all out to move south to find his own trouble, which was really a great thing that made the late Tang Dynasty court laugh off his big teeth.

If this changes or delays the fate of the late Tang Dynasty court to break through the two capitals, and disintegrate and dissociate and completely decline; That's really easy to make up your mind to join the anti-thief camp and carry out the cause of changing your life to the end.

Even if Huang Chao is flawless and only divides his troops from the front, it will be a big trouble in the Lingnan region where the strength is empty after the civil strife; In order to defend the Lingwai and create these achievements, he had to shed more blood and miss years of development and recuperation.

At the beginning, it was based on this stance and perspective that he decided to strive to maintain coexistence and mutual benefit with the other party under the existing framework, and only to carry out limited gradual changes and transformations within the system. But he didn't expect an expedition to Annan, which made the other party completely lose patience and directly flipped the table and did not hesitate to meet each other.

So as long as he is on the run, there is a certain probability and chance to catch him alive, and maybe it can also be used as a follow-up bargaining chip with Huang Chao.

Because from the most basic pros and cons of the analysis of gains and losses, the banner of being a righteous army cannot be lost. Even if in essence, the rebel army and the forces represented by Huang Chao began to part ways and dissociate themselves, but the fragile relationship and reputation on the surface still had to be maintained; This is clearly a thing that the pros outweigh the cons.

On the one hand, the interviews are for the subordinates and soldiers who were once part of the rebel army, a buffer period for more or less to accept the reality of psychological excess; At the same time, it is also a slow process of building internal relationships. After all, after this step is forced to go out, the confusion in thinking and daily affairs may last for a while before it can be re-run and stabilized. During this period, it is also necessary to take into account the probability that someone may take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble and create an incident.

on the other hand, under this only remaining name, it maintains the communication channels with the internal relations and origins of those rebels; In order to ensure that Guangfu will continue to be the only distribution center and port for the sale and purchase of trophies and other resources of the rebel army in the future. Guangzhou itself is an export-oriented economic metropolis, and the self-sufficiency of the Pearl River basin alone cannot meet the needs of long-term development and expansion.

In addition, for most of the rebel army that has already gone on the Northern Expedition, Zhou Huai'an also has a rather long-term planning and follow-up means to carry out a certain sense of the general trend and catalytic effect. So why in the future, for a period of time, the skin of the righteous army will have to continue to be put on without losing it.

However, for the current situation, Zhou Huaian actually has a prepared backhand. is to compile a suitable reason and truth for this matter, and then send back Lin Yan, who is the nephew of the Yellow King, as an opportunity; As long as he has enough handle and evidence to coerce him into continuing to cooperate.

Even if Meng Kai has the opportunity to escape the pursuit and return to Huang Chao's command in the future, he can let him preconceived in order to protect himself and shirk responsibility, and continue to tear and correct each other with Meng Wei; You can also share your own pressure and hatred in disguise.

"Brother Chai."

Thinking of this, Zhou Huai'an called Chai Ping, who was taken by his side to "assist in command", and said very solemnly.

"Now I need you to testify, and can you attach a statement and a ?。。?"

Only two days and one night have passed, and Chai Ping, who was originally less white-headed, looked bloodshot and haggard, and became more and more old and depressed; After all, for this series of changes, he is undoubtedly the person who has been hit and affected the most, and there is no one.

"I..."

Chai Ping was full of bitterness and obscurity at the moment, and he stopped talking;

In just two days, he was extremely conflicted in his heart, and his mind was filled with countless voices arguing with each other; So much of the time that most of the time there is no way to make any decisions and propositions. But now it was clear that the time had come for him to have to make a choice again.

It's like someone had spoken to him on the ship he had returned from Annan; The ambition of this false army is not small, and what he does is far from most of the rebels, but he is afraid that there will be repetitions and twists and turns in the future. In his early years, he was not without seeing the cruelty and ferocity of those local rebels, who invaded each other;

I thought that this kind of thing would happen at least far in the future, and there was a great chance to reconcile or make up for it; But when he returned from his successful class, it happened without warning; It also shocked and shattered the ideals and beliefs he worked hard to uphold and pursue.

Is it true that the ideas and mouths that everyone pursues and fights for on the surface, in the face of personal selfish desires and gains and losses, can be trampled on at will?

Thinking of this, Chai Ping finally took a deep breath, obviously he could only follow his own heart to stand on the right side of the festival, instead of distorting the very obvious rights and wrongs of the righteous army for the sake of that old attachment. Otherwise, what are the soldiers who died for no reason in this turmoil, what is the righteousness of seeking life for the people that they keep upholding, and what face do they have to face their families and brothers?

"Me. Self. While. Attached to the leader acted. ”

After trying to say this determination word by word, he shook as if he had been drained of all his strength; Because this also means that he has always respected and the Yellow King, and has faintly embarked on another path of parting ways.

"That's good, hurry down and rest and eat."

Hearing this answer, Zhou Huaian couldn't help but nod with relief.

"I still have a lot to do with the aftermath of the next many things."

But as a young rebel soldier, his qualifications can be traced back to the early days of Wang Xianzhi's army, and he is also the most important weather vane and role model in the Sanjiang Army today; At least for those old rebels from the north, since he took the lead in expressing his stance and obeying the character, it would at least reduce the ideological and psychological gap and hesitation of many old soldiers with half the effort.

Of course, if he was unwilling to cooperate or had other ideas, Zhou Huai'an had no choice but to ask him to leave his army before causing more chaos and time, and send him to leave Lingnan and go north to join Huangchao; As a comrade-in-arms and comrade who has fought side by side, Zhou Huaian can't do the kind of thing that kills him with the greatest malice and suspicion.

And Huo Cun, who was standing nearby on standby, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, let go of the handle of the sweaty knife and secretly rejoiced. If it is not a last resort; He was also reluctant to do anything to his comrades in the former rebels, even if it was humiliating and took down his uniform on the spot.

In the process of this kind of secret gradual change in people's hearts and tendencies, new changes and turnarounds appeared again in the evening of the next day; But it is a change in the direction that is favorable to the Sanjiang Army. Because, the news that was quickly transmitted by sea, reinforcements from Chaoyang also appeared on the sea near Panyu from the fleet that passed through the return journey.

At this time, the situation and the balance of forces inside and outside Guangfu can be said to be the basic overall situation.

(End of chapter)