Xiao Yin and Xiao Che came to Shuzhou, and after a while of greetings, Deng Yuanjue said the idea of letting them guard Shuzhou and Chaisang.

The two of them were a little surprised after hearing this, originally according to their original idea of following Deng Yuanjue to fight on the battlefield, and also accumulate some military merits to prepare for the future struggle for the throne.

In the past three years, among the princes of the five countries on the mainland, the most popular is undoubtedly Jiang Huanchu, the fourth prince of the Qi State. Jiang Huan Chu, with his military exploits, now leads an army alone, and there are 100,000 soldiers under his command, becoming a strong contender for the throne of Qi State, and the two of them want to follow suit.

But they clearly knew that the purpose of Xiao Daocheng sending them was not to make meritorious contributions to the battlefield, but to supervise and restrain Deng Yuanjue. Now Deng Yuanjue took the initiative to hand over the two important towns in the rear to them for management, which was equivalent to entrusting them with the life of the entire Song army, which made Xiao Yin and Xiao Che unable to refuse.

Deng Yuanjue saw that the two agreed, and said with a smile: "If the two princes have no opinion, I will take the army to attack Huicheng tomorrow." After I left, in addition to the supplies needed by the army, there was one more thing that the two princes needed to worry about, and that was Tian Wuji, who was attacking Xiangyang City."

Xiao Che asked tentatively, "Does the general think that Xiang Chu can't hold on for long?" ”

Deng Yuanjue nodded: "Yes, Xiang Chu can hold on to Tian Wuji for three years, which is already very remarkable." With the successive losses of Chaisang and Shuzhou, Tian Wuji will definitely be worried that I will capture Shouchun first, and he will definitely take Xiangyang at any cost, once Xiangyang is lost, Xiang Chu can only retreat to Suizhou. ”

Xiao Che understood the meaning of Deng Yuanjue's words: "Suizhou is not far from our Xiakou City, and the general means that once Xiangyang is lost, I will go to Xiakou to defend it?" ”

Deng Yuanjue was worried: "That's right, I'm also worried that if Xiang Chu can't even hold Suizhou, Tian Wuji will directly bring troops over to fight Xiakou, once Xiakou is lost, our entire strategy of attacking Chu will have to be readjusted." ”

Xiao Che suddenly realized at this time, and thought to himself: "It turns out that the general sent me to Chaisang is just a pretense, and his real intention is for me to guard Xiakou and block the Qi and Chu armies for him." However, as long as Shuzhou is still in the hands of the eldest brother, he can still be restricted. ”

Xiao Che immediately agreed: "Don't worry, general, if Tian Wuji really captures Xiangyang, I will rush to Xiakou to garrison it as soon as possible, and I will definitely not let the Qi army or the Chu army have an opportunity to take advantage of it." ”

Deng Yuanjue's face was overjoyed: "If His Royal Highness is willing to go to Xiakou, then I will rest assured." His Royal Highness is Brother Yan's closed disciple, in addition to his martial arts have been passed on by Brother Yan, presumably this ability to march and fight, Brother Yan usually teaches him. ”

Xiao Che was shocked again, the news of Yan Chixing's departure from the mountain was confidential, and he had not appeared in public since he came back, let alone go to the early court. Except for a few great families who are still building Ye City, others will not know. Now Deng Yuanjue suddenly said this, implying that he already knew that Yan Chixing was back.

Xiao Yin saw that the atmosphere was a little embarrassing, and hurriedly made a round: "Don't worry, general, with the third brother here, Xia Kou will definitely be foolproof." Tomorrow the general will also lead his troops to take Huicheng, and we wish the general a victory. ”

Early the next morning, Xiao Che and Deng Yuanjue rushed to Huicheng and Chaisang respectively, while Xiao Yin stayed in Shuzhou to garrison.

Huicheng is now in chaos, no one expected that Gao Kegong would escape, and Chen Shiduo of Shuzhou surrendered to the Song army so quickly, and Huicheng suddenly became the front-line battlefield.

The people of the city had not experienced war since they were born, and now that the war was burning in front of them, it was natural that there was a panic. In the past few days, countless people have quietly fled, and even some soldiers defending the city have abandoned the city and fled at the instigation of their families.

This made Liu Hansheng, the Taishou who had been preparing for the war for two years, a little at a loss, and he didn't want to prevent the people from fleeing, because he was worried that it would cause greater chaos. But now it can't be stopped at a glance, the people can run by themselves, and they also incite the officers and soldiers defending the city to run together, and if this continues, Huicheng will become an empty city.

Liu Hansheng asked several of his henchmen and his family to guard the four city gates day and night, and no one was allowed to enter or leave. Although this temporarily solved the problem of fleeing, the panic that spread in the city grew.

Deng Yuanjue arrived at the city with a large army, and immediately discovered this problem, so he asked Wu Teng, Deng Wenhao, and Xun Yuqing to each bring 20,000 people to attack day and night around the three city gates in the south, east and west, leaving only the north gate unattacked.

In this way, the defenders and the people in the city felt that they still had a way out, and they would not go all out when defending the city.

In the past few days, at night, there will be people who secretly put hanging baskets on the tower of the north gate to escape, and Liu Hansheng sent people to stop them after knowing about it.

At first, it was fine, but later as more and more people did this, the clashes between the people and the defenders also increased, and there were even cases of civilians beating officers and soldiers.

Liu Hansheng gathered all the subordinate officials in the city together, hoping that they could think of a good way, who knew that Master Chen beside him said tentatively as soon as he opened his mouth: "My lord, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold it for long if we go on like this, why don't we learn from Chen Shiduo to open the city and surrender?" ”

You must know that a month ago, after Liu Hansheng learned about Chen Shiduo's surrender of the city, he scolded him in front of everyone for being greedy for life and afraid of death, and for failing the grace of God. Now Master Chen also asked him to learn from Chen Shiduo, how can he put down this face.

A wave of anger rose in Liu Hansheng's heart, Tie Qing looked at several other subordinate officials with a blue face, pointed to one of them and asked, "Commander Zhou, you are the commander of the city defense army, can you tell me, can this Huicheng still be defended?" ”

That week, the commander looked helpless, gritted his teeth and said: "My lord, it doesn't matter if the enemy army is strong, now the people's hearts are not on our side, even the city defense army is demoralized, where can it still be defended, it is recommended to consider the opinion of Master Chen." ”

As soon as Commander Zhou's voice fell, other subordinate officials also echoed him, and everyone knew that the Chu State was finished, even if they could resist the Song army now, but there were still 250,000 Qi troops in the territory, and they had to think about their future and their families.

Liu Han was angry, and he could ignore the surrender of other subordinate officials, but even the commander of the city defense army wanted to surrender, so he felt a little betrayed and separated.

Except for Commander Zhou, everyone else in the city is not familiar with military affairs, and Commander Zhou is not confident, so the other soldiers can be imagined.

Liu Hansheng sighed: "Everyone has their own aspirations, since all the monarchs have decided to surrender, then I will not force the monarchs." But I am deeply favored by Your Majesty, and it is absolutely impossible for me to surrender to the Song army. Rest assured, I will not drag down your future because of my decision alone. After speaking, Liu Hansheng left everyone and returned to the back hall alone.

Master Chen, Commander Zhou and the others looked at each other, not knowing what Liu Hansheng's last sentence meant. After waiting for a stick of incense, there was no movement, and everyone stood up and planned to leave.

At this time, Liu Hansheng's housekeeper ran out of the back hall and shouted: "Ladies and gentlemen, it's not good, my lord, he committed suicide by hanging the beam." ”

Everyone was shocked, and hurried to the back hall to see that Liu Hansheng had died of anger.

Master Chen was the first to come back to his senses: "Lord Taishou is gone, in addition to burying the Lord well, we also have to find a way to deal with the Song army outside the city." Commander Zhou, you are the only one here who understands military affairs, why don't you take the lead, whether it is war or surrender, we all listen to you. ”

Master Chen's words are very chicken thieves, they already know whether the Zhou commander is fighting or surrendering, and now pushing out the Zhou commander is nothing more than to prevent the Chu army from coming back in the future, they can be said to be the Zhou commander who decided to surrender, and the people have the right to soldier, and they can't stop these powerless civilian officials.

As soon as they heard this, these subordinate officials present understood the meaning of Master Chen's words and expressed their approval. Only Zhou led a martial artist, and his mind didn't turn around, and he thought that everyone was really recommending himself to take the lead, so he said: "Since everyone has recommended me to take the lead, then I will not let it go." Master Chen, you should send someone to the Song army camp to send a letter to Deng Yuanjue, tell him about Liu Taishou, and ask him to give us three days to handle Liu Taishou's affairs, and after three days, we will surrender the city together. ”

Everyone didn't care about Liu Hansheng's bones and bones, and they all looked happy, praising Commander Zhou for conforming to public opinion.

Following the loss of Chaisang and Shuzhou, it was less than a month before Huicheng was lost again, and Xiong Huan of Shouchun City did not have the strength to get angry, and every morning he watched the courtiers quarrel with each other, and he couldn't come up with a countermeasure for half a day, and his heart was even more depressed.

"Your Majesty, let's move the capital." Since the loss of Chaisang and Gao Kegong hid in Lin'an City, the great Sima Gaoyi hid at home every day, not daring to appear in front of Xiong Huan, Xiong Huan also cared about the power of the Gao family, and did not move him for the time being. Now only Prime Minister Wu Shiqi's family is the only one of the major factions in the DPRK and China. Faced with the predicament, Wu Shiqi first gave his opinion.

Xiong Huan glanced at the ministers again, and the officials who originally belonged to the two factions of Gao Yi and Xiang Tong did not dare to speak, and naturally no one dared to raise objections.

Xiong Huan was a little angry: "Does the prime minister want me to give up Shouchun City to Deng Yuanjue?" ”

Wu Shiqi felt Xiong Huan's anger: "Of course the minister doesn't mean that, now there are still 50,000 defenders in Shouchun, and the grain and grass are also sufficient, so it's not a big problem to hold on for three or five years." It's just that Your Majesty can't stay and defend the city in person, once the city is surrounded by the Song army, then the rest of my Great Chu will lose contact with Your Majesty. ”

Xiong Huan was even more angry in his heart, if he hadn't listened to Wu Shiqi's advice two years ago, why would he have fallen to this point today. In the past six months, Xiong Huan has issued countless orders for other counties to rescue Chaisang, Xiangyang and Jincheng, but all localities have disobeyed the yang and found various excuses to excuse themselves. Even if there is a promise to send troops, it will be thunder and rain, and send 500 or 1,000 troops to go through the form.

Xiong Huan forcibly suppressed his anger: "Then according to the prime minister's opinion, who will be left to guard Shouchun, and where should I move the capital?" ”

Wu Shiqi saw that although Xiong Huan was angry, he was already moved: "Although the capital is going to be moved, Shouchun City is also very important and cannot be lost." The minister suggested that one of the royal family members should be selected to stay behind, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was the most suitable person, and His Majesty could appoint the Crown Prince as the supervisor of the country and guard Shouchun for His Majesty. As for where to move the capital, the minister felt that Jiangdu was a good choice, where the war was far away, and the people lived a rich life, so they went there to hibernate for a few years, and they could not make a comeback in the future. ”