Seeing that the guards would not open the gates, the vanguard officer suggested to Xiao Che to attack the city directly.

Xiao Che was very troubled in his heart, Deng Yuanjue did not openly rebel, Jingzhou is now also the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, if he rashly attacked the city, he would be falsely accused of rebellion.

When he was hesitating, the city head guard suddenly asked, "I don't know why His Royal Highness is in such a hurry to enter the city?" If it's urgent, the last general can accommodate you to go into the city alone. ”

Xiao Che's eyes lit up, he was very confident in his martial arts, as long as the guards dared to open the city gate and let him in, he was sure that he would be able to control the city gate in a short period of time and let the army rush in directly.

"That's fine, I do have an urgent matter to go back to Jingzhou to deal with, so let me go in alone." After speaking, Xiao Che whispered to the vanguard officer, and when he controlled the city gate, he directly led the army to kill him.

In this way, Xiao Che walked towards the city gate alone, and the guard did not ask him to let the army not far behind him pull away some distance.

The city gate creaked open, Xiao Che suddenly jumped up, stuck at the city gate, drew the sword in his waist, and waved his big hand to beckon the army to attack the city.

The vanguard officer took the lead and rushed forward with a large army. The defenders at the city gate were shocked when they saw this, and they ran forward to close the city gate, while Xiao Che carried a long sword in his hand, one sword at a time.

When the killing arose, a voice suddenly sounded in his ears: "Your Highness, you left Xiakou without a general order, and now you are leading the army to attack my Jingzhou City, is this a blatant rebellion?" ”

Xiao Che raised his eyes in shock, only to see Wu Teng with a team of men and horses blocking the city gate.

"Didn't you go to Danyang? How could it still be in Jingzhou? ”

"The last general didn't receive any order to let me go to Danyang, I don't know why His Royal Highness asked this? You haven't answered my question yet. Wu Teng had already drawn his long knife.

"Tricked?" Xiao Che's head was buzzing, and he had already reacted in his heart: "Is the Wu Teng you saw over there fake?" ”

Wu Teng saw that Xiao Che didn't talk, and shouted loudly: "The third prince Xiao Che openly led the troops to rebel, and the soldiers took him down for me." ”

As soon as the words fell, tens of thousands of defenders behind him swarmed up, and Wu Teng also rushed to the front.

Now Xiao Che understood, it turned out that Wu Teng saw that he was hesitant and did not dare to attack the city just now, so he asked the city head guard to deliberately let himself enter the city alone, just to lure him into sending troops. As a result, he was really fooled and was crowned with a major crime of rebellion.

The vanguard officer led the troops to the city and fought with the defenders blocking the city gate, and the rolling wood and stones on the city wall also fell down one after another, and the Xiakou soldiers fell instantly.

Wu Teng shouted loudly again: "Xiao Che is openly rebelling, if you help him, you will also be punished for rebellion." I know that most of you don't know that as long as you are willing to lay down your arms and surrender, General Ben will not be guilty of the past. ”

These Xia Kou soldiers have been fighting with Xiao Che for more than three years, and they don't know why they are charged with rebellion at this time. Although no one has laid down their arms for the time being, many people are beating drums in their hearts, and their morale has been weakened.

The corners of Wu Teng's mouth were smiling, he didn't expect the Xia Kou soldiers to surrender immediately, as long as they broke their morale. Xiao Che only had 40,000 horses, and in addition to sending 20,000 men to support the general, there were 80,000 defenders in the city, and it was impossible for Xiao Che to break through the city.

Seeing that there were more and more casualties around him, Xiao Che knew that there was no hope of taking Jingzhou, so he decided to withdraw to Xiakou first and then make plans.

With an order, the Xiakou soldiers withdrew from Jingzhou City. Wu Teng didn't chase after him, and sighed secretly in his heart: "Among Your Majesty's four sons, even if Xiao Che is the most talented, if he ascends the throne in the future, the Great Song Dynasty may not be able to compete with the Qi State, but unfortunately this time he has to die." ”

Although Xiao Che, who fled in a hurry, withdrew safely with the army, he could clearly feel their distrust of him, and they wondered if he had really rebelled.

Xiao Che was not worried, and thought to himself: "As long as I return to Xiakou, let my father and the emperor make an edict to clear my suspicions." ”

It was another rapid march, and finally returned to Xiakou, only to see that the city was empty, and the gate was also closed, Xiao Che frowned, and asked the vanguard officer to call the door.

The pioneer officer rode alone to the city and shouted: "Who is on duty today, open the city gate quickly, and the Third Highness is back." ”

After shouting a few times in a row, no one answered, and the pioneer officer looked back at Xiao Che with doubts, and at this time, a cold arrow shot out from the city, and the pioneer officer fell off his horse in response, and the cold arrow hit the throat.

Xiao Che was furious: "Who shot the arrow? What about Lei Zhengming? ”

Suddenly, the city was full of defenders, and Lei Zhengming was also standing in the center, shouting: "Xiao Che, you are openly rebelling, you have just led your troops to attack Jingzhou, and now you want to deceive my Xiakou City?" ”

Xiao Che only felt that the world was spinning, and he almost fell off the horse: "Lei Zhengming, you are so bold, do you want to rebel?" ”

Lei Zhengming sneered: "The person who wants to rebel is not me, but you, the third prince." Let me ask you, whose general did you order to lead your troops to attack Jingzhou this time? Do you have a certificate? ”

Xiao Che was speechless, he and Yan Chixing have always been secret letters, where did they get the evidence.

Lei Zhengming asked again: "Since there is no certificate, then let me ask you again, is Jingzhou the territory of my Great Song Dynasty?" Is General Wu my courtier of the Great Song Dynasty? Is it a rebellion that you led your troops to attack them without permission? ”

Shocher still had nothing to say, only felt as if he had fallen into a trap.

"You've been a general from the beginning, haven't you?" Shocher asked.

Lei Zhengming laughed: "The last general doesn't understand what His Highness means, shouldn't our soldiers of the Great Song Dynasty obey the general's orders?" ”

Lei Zhengming's words are a pun, the duty of the general is to be in charge of the military power of the whole country, and this is not wrong.

Xiao Che was furious and said, "Since you refuse to open the city gate, then I will take it myself." "After that, he will lead a large army to attack the city.

"You have to think clearly, Xiao Che is a rebellion, do you want to die with him?" Lei Zhengming shouted loudly to the army behind Xiao Che.

When all the soldiers heard this, they all stopped, and many of them directly threw away their weapons. Xiao Che saw that the army was disheartened and it was impossible to attack the city, so he had to say: "I didn't rebel, it was Lei Zhengming who wronged me, if you are willing to believe it, follow me back to Jizhou, and then you can naturally prove my innocence." If you don't believe it, I won't blame you. ”

Xiao Che stood alone between the two armies, waiting for the choice of the soldiers.

Lei Zhengming took the opportunity to ask people to open the city gate, and said to everyone: "As long as you don't want to rebel with Xiao Che, you can go back to the city on your own now." General Ben assures that you will remain the same as before, and that you will never settle accounts after the fall. ”

When everyone heard this, they ran towards the city gate, and even though a few soft-hearted people were still hesitating to follow Xiao Che, they were also pulled into the city by the people beside them.

With a cup of tea, there were less than 3,000 people left in the original 40,000 army around Xiao Che.

"Thank you for your trust in Shocher, I will never deceive you." Shocher bowed deeply to the rest.

"Your Highness, needless to say, you are the prince, how can you rebel, we believe you." The crowd shouted in unison.

Xiao Che's heart warmed, glanced at Lei Zhengming on the city wall, and then left Xiakou with the three thousand people.

Lei Zhengming, like Wu Teng, did not send troops to chase him, Xiao Che is the prince after all, although he fabricated a charge of rebellion, but let himself personally lead someone to kill him, there will still be a little bit of failure. Besides, this game of chess has already been arranged, where can Xiao Che escape? The next move would be his death.

There are two ways to return to Jizhou, the first is to take Jingzhou, but unfortunately Jingzhou is guarded by Wu Teng. Another way is to take a detour to Yicheng. Yicheng is only a small county town, and now it is in the hands of the Qi army, but most of the soldiers and horses in the city were transferred by Tian Wuji to attack Xiakou, and the remaining defenders were less than 2,000 people.

Xiao Che secretly brought troops to the vicinity of Yicheng, he didn't plan to attack the city, he just wanted to make a detour back from here. He thought that even if they were discovered by the Yicheng guards, they would not dare to go out of the city to pursue him.

Everything was just as Xiao Che expected, when the defenders of Yicheng found out about their troops, they were worried about whether they were coming to attack him. It wasn't until I saw them bypassing outside the city that I was relieved.

After Yicheng, walk along this road for another five days, and you can reach Changzhou smoothly. Changzhou is under Xiao Daocheng's control, as long as he returns there, he can wash away his suspicions, and then bring a force back to kill him the same way, and see if Lei Zhengming dares to stop himself from entering the city at that time.

Just when Xiao Che relaxed a little, he suddenly found that there was a force not far in front of him blocking his way.

The heart that had just been put down was raised again, Xiao Che stepped forward to take a look, and the first thing that caught his eye was a big banner with the word Tianzi.

"It's not good, how could Tian Wuji appear here? Isn't he supposed to be near Xiakou? Xiao Che was planning to quietly lead his troops to retreat along the same route.

"Hahaha, third prince, the old man has been waiting for you for a long time." It turned out that Tian Wuji had discovered him a long time ago.

Xiao Che had no choice but to step forward: "How could General Tian appear here?" ”

Tian Wuji smiled and asked, "Then you have to ask the third prince yourself, the old man is only here for you." ”

"There are traitors in the army." Tian Wuji's words made Xiao Che react suddenly: "No wonder Lei Zhengming didn't pursue him, it turned out that he had already betrayed my whereabouts to Qi Guo." ”

Xiao Che subconsciously took a few steps back, intending to kill back from behind. But when he turned around, he found that Tian Wuheng didn't know when he also led a large army to block his retreat.

"The third prince don't have other ideas, you can't escape today." There was actually a trace of sadness in Tian Wuji's words.

"Did Lei Zhengming betray me?" Xiao Che asked unwillingly.

Tian Wuji took out a letter from his sleeve and threw it to Xiao Che: "A few days ago, someone sent a letter to our army, saying that you would flee back to Jizhou from here. I don't know who it is, so I don't really believe it, but I just happened to be idle recently, so I came out to try my luck, but I didn't expect to really run into you. ”