Chapter 69: Bloodstained Phoenix City (3)

Liaodong, Phoenix.

The twilight is deep, and Phoenix, a lonely city in eastern Liaodong, is shrouded in boundless twilight. A bolt of lightning streaked across the night sky, tearing the sky apart, followed by a loud rumbling thunder that resounded across the earth, and the thunder echoed across the vast land for a long time.

When the thunder died down, everything was calm again, and only the sound of rain could be heard clearly between heaven and earth.

A few fires on the watchtower of Phoenix City were extinguished in the bitter wind and rain, dotting the bleak border city here. In addition to the private soldiers of the four great families, the garrison of the Great Zhao Empire in eastern Liaodong was mainly garrisoned in the Liaohe Plain and the western Liaoxi corridor in Liaozhong. These places are close to the Central Plains, the water and soil conditions are good, the development history is early, and more than eighty percent of the population of Liaodong is concentrated.

The Manshu people have been struggling for decades in the bitter cold land beyond the border walls of Liaodong, just to be able to enter the east.

Phoenix City, also known as Dingliao Right Guard, is the largest city west of Qianshan, although Phoenix City is the largest city west of Qianshan, but Phoenix City is located in a remote area, and the scale of the city is not as large as the second-class city in Liaodong, such as Gaizhou City. Due to the remoteness of Phoenix, it has never been valued by the feudal officials of Liaodong, so Phoenix, a military town called Anding Youliao, has only about 4,000 town troops stationed at present, of which the strength of the main city is only 3,000. In addition, Phoenix City has not been valued for a long time, the food is not enough, the city has not been repaired for a long time, the whole city seems to be very mottled, and the bricks of the city wall have not been repaired for many years and fall off, revealing ugly rammed earth.

Lin Xin, a general of Phoenix City, led a team of guards to patrol the north gate to inspect. After the news of the alliance between Meng Gu and the Liao State reached Phoenix City, Lin Xin's nerves suddenly tensed. Like He Tengxiao, Lin Xin had a faint hunch: The next target of the Liao army's march was not the first line of Jinzhou and Yingzhou, but the Phoenix City he guarded.

Phoenix City has been poor for a long time, and it was not until Peng Chaodong became the governor of Liaodong that he paid attention to Phoenix, a military town that was almost forgotten by the imperial court, and made up 4,000 taels of military salaries and 10,000 stone of military rations to Phoenix. But that's a drop in the bucket for Phoenix, which has been in arrears for a decade.

Lin Xin had already sent urgent letters of request for help to Jinzhou and Jinzhou, and the Qin army in Jinzhou had not received a reply due to the long distance, but the letter for help from Jinzhou was like a mud cow entering the sea, and there was no news after it was sent.

"General." The general flag on duty at the north gate of Phoenix City gave a military salute to Lin Xin in Tianyuan.

Lin Xin nodded and asked, "Is there someone from the northern military fort who is coming?" ”

According to the military law of Da Zhao, the military fort attached to the main city must report the situation to the chief officer of the main city every five days, so that the chief officer of the main city can understand the military situation in the jurisdiction, and the violator will be punished with fifty military sticks. However, for more than 200 years, the military discipline of the Great Zhao Empire was lax, and the army was corrupted, and this article was like a dead letter in the inland areas, and only the military towns in the border areas had the worry of external troubles to maintain for a long time. Although this precedent has been retained in the military towns in the border areas until now, the implementation has also been discounted, and the ordinary military towns have extended the reporting cycle to one report every ten days, or even once every half a month or even once a month. It is rare for a military attache like Lin Xin to insist on reporting to the town every five days.

The lights flickered, reflecting Lin Xin's thin face, Lin Xin is very young, only twenty-six years old this year, and the military attache who can be a battalion general at such a young age is naturally a hereditary military attaché. Lin Xin's father is a general of Sahan City, six years ago, the Liao army attacked Sahan City at night, and the private soldiers of the Wu family and the Yu family who were stationed only ten or twenty miles away sat back and watched the Manshu army capture Sahan City and ignored it, Lin Xin's father was martyred in battle, and Sahan City fell. Sahan City is the only remaining military town of the Great Zhao Empire outside the border wall of Liaodong at that time, after the fall of Sahan City, the area outside the border wall of Liaodong has completely become the pasture of the Manshu people.

After the first battle of Sahan City, it was a tug-of-war between the Manshu army and the Yu family in northern Liao, the Wu family in Liaozhong and the town army within the border wall of Liaodong for nearly six years, and finally entered the hinterland of Liaodong. In the end, the Wu family and the Yu family also failed to get a good death: the remaining 30,000 people of the Wu family joined the He family to beg for food like a lost dog, and the Yu family was pointed out by thousands of people.

According to the Great Zhao military system: if a general or a general is martyred in battle, his son can be demoted to inherit his father's military position as a sign of consolation. Therefore, Lin Xin was demoted to the Phoenix City battalion general after his father's martyrdom, becoming the youngest battalion general in the Liaodong Town Army, at the age of 20!

Although Lin Xin was only 20 years old when he became the commander of the Phoenix City, Lin Xin was not a wine bag and a rice bag, and he had to stick to Phoenix City for six years under the difficult conditions of no food and salary. It can also be regarded as a young and promising person in the army of Dazhao Town.

"General, there is no messenger from the northern military town to report for the time being." Yu Tianyuan reported respectfully, and after the report, he added uncertainly, "Could it be that it has been raining heavily for several days, the roads are muddy and difficult to travel, and the messenger has missed the deadline?" ”

"No way." Lin Xin shook his head decisively, disagreeing with Yu Tianyuan's opinion, "The heavy rain has delayed the deadline for reporting the news for two or three days at most!" The messengers from the southern fort have arrived today at the latest, but there has been no news from the northern fort for ten days! ”

Lin Xin faintly had an ominous premonition, the Liao army went south, that is, from north to south, could it be that the Liao army had already moved to the vicinity of Phoenix City and attacked the military forts in the north of Phoenix City, otherwise why did these military forts have no news yet?

Yu Tianyuan was silent and stood aside with his head down.

Lin Xin stared at the vast twilight, sighed, and said to Tianyuan: "Meng Liao alliance, the Liao army has no war on the Western Front, it is very likely to come to our Phoenix City, be on duty at night must be in the spirit of twelve points, don't relax, the comfort of the 30,000 soldiers and civilians in Phoenix City is tied to Yu Er." ”

"Subordinates obey!" Yu Tianyuan replied with a fist in a sonorous voice.

"General, the north gate has been inspected, is it time to go back to the house to rest?" Wang Xuan, the general of the right camp of Phoenix City, asked Lin Xin with a tired face.

"Let's go to Simon again." Lin Xin waved his hand and said, "These days, the base camp is always up and down, and the four doors are still more down-to-earth." ”

Lin Xin's father died in the night attack of the Manshu army, and with his father's experience, Lin Xin attached great importance to the night patrol and did not dare to slack off.

After that, Lin Xin patted Yu Tianyuan's shoulder, led the team to leave the north gate, and went to the west gate to inspect. At that moment, the sound of horses' hooves came.

Lin Xin stopped and looked at the city following the sound of horses' hooves, but saw more than ten horsemen and horses galloping in the rain and wind, and reined in the reins of the horses under the city......

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