The cavalry captain returned to the trolley and reported loudly, "Your Majesty, Qu Tutong is reluctant to talk to Your Majesty, he said that he has the emperor's grace, and he is the chief general of Taiyuan, and he should have the responsibility of defending the land, and if he can die on the battlefield, it is his glory." Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Zhang Xuan nodded, and immediately ordered: "Pass my order, the army is stationed in the camp!" ”

'Knock-knock-knock! ’

The war drums of the garrison sounded, the 200,000 army began to slowly retreat, quickly stretched to both sides, Wei Chigong had already deployed, each tiger Benwei had its own garrison place, the Zhou Dynasty army set up a siege camp three miles away from Taiyuan City, a total of four camps, respectively located in the east, west, north and south of the four city gates, the four camps were not completely connected into one, but between the camp and the camp built a back and forth road, in the fastest way to transmit the message.

With the camp tents like mushrooms in the wilderness, the magnificent Zhou army camp soon formed a siege of Taiyuan City, night just fell, Pei Xingyan led 30,000 cavalry finally arrived at the Zhou army camp, the Zhou army camp became particularly lively, the camp was full of torches, the camp was illuminated as day, looking down from the city, it was like a fire dragon encircling outside the Taiyuan city.

The soldiers of the Tang Army have just suffered a heavy blow from three news, and now the Great Zhou Emperor Zhang Xuan has been greatly impacted by the personal conquest, and the morale has been hit hard again, the soldiers' will to fight has obviously begun to decrease, and the soldiers on the city have become listless, and the main commander Qu Tutong is not there, so the soldiers will gather together in twos and threes to exchange strategies for saving their lives in the battle.

Although the army from Chang'an can barely maintain the stability of the military heart, but the local recruitment of soldiers began to disintegrate, originally when Pei Lin recruited the army, it was to use the Turks to invade the south again to deceive the people of Taiyuan, there will be tens of thousands of children enthusiastically sign up, when they found out the truth, after finding out that they were deceived, many soldiers were angry and asked to be discharged, but Qu Tutong appeased properly, increased the allocation of money and food, and finally stabilized the mood of the soldiers.

If there is no morale impact today, maybe the soldiers can barely stay in the army, but today the emperor of the Great Zhou Empire appeared outside the city, in the hearts of Taiyuan people, Zhang Xuan is a god-like figure, especially he led the army to annihilate hundreds of thousands of Turkic troops, but also made the vast majority of Taiyuan people grateful to him, so Zhang Xuan's appearance made the soldiers of Taiyuan and even the state have a preliminary disintegration, and the phenomenon of desertion finally appeared.

The time has reached the fifth watch, the Tang army camp is still brightly lit, Qu Tutong is pacing back and forth, the anger on his face is difficult to hide, under him, the soldier Cao joined the army Zhao Jingnian is reporting to him the desertion.

"As of the fourth watch, the soldiers who have not returned to the camp in each city have been summed up to 845 people, the most of which are Dongcheng, 377 people have not returned after handing over their posts, and more than ninety percent of these more than 800 people are Taiyuan locals, it is not clear whether they have become deserters, and they will be confirmed again after dawn."

Pan Weisheng, the commander of the southeast battalion standing on the side, kept wiping the sweat on his forehead, such a first place really made him embarrassed, he hurriedly stepped forward and said: "As soon as the morning dawns, I will send someone to arrest these deserters, and I will not let any of them go." ”

Qu Tutong didn't care that Dongcheng had the most deserters, he knew that Zhang Xuan appeared outside Dongcheng, of course, the impact on Dongcheng was the greatest, and it was not surprising that Dongcheng had the most deserters.

If the deserters are just more than 800 deserters are just the tip of the iceberg exposed on the water, then Qu Tutong is more concerned about the iceberg hidden under the water, more than 30,000 Taiyuan soldiers, what kind of mentality are they now, once the Zhou army begins a large-scale siege of the city, will these soldiers defect, this is the real crisis of the Tang army.

Qu Tutong pondered for a long time, and said to more than a dozen generals: "People can arrest them, but remember that this matter must not be made public." ”

Another general was puzzled: "Isn't it better to make an example of a hundred people?" ”

"Killing a hundred can only make the soldiers dare not flee, but it will not stop their inner war-weariness, and it will also increase their resentment, once the Zhou army begins to attack the city, it is likely that there will be a mutiny, so you can't try to be quick for a while."

"But if we don't stop it, there will be more and more deserters, and I am afraid that there will be serious consequences of the surrender of Kaesong."

Wang Junkuo's eyelids next to him jumped suddenly, his face was slightly unnatural, and at this moment, Qu Tutong's gaze turned to his face, "General Wang, what do you think?" ”

Wang Junkuo bowed his head for a long time and said: "When they were recruited into the army, they all took money and food, and if they want to withdraw from the barracks, they must hand over the money and food. ”

"No!"

Pan Weisheng resolutely objected: "They don't get much money and food, many families can afford it, fighting a war is to lose their lives, and a little money and food can't be compared, if we allow the money and food to leave, it will cause a large-scale wave of resignation, at least more than 10,000 people will leave, and more importantly, it will cause dissatisfaction among the soldiers of Chang'an, and they also ask for money and food to leave their jobs. ”

Everyone froze for a while, it was not appropriate to kill, and it was even worse not to kill, and after a while, Qu Tutong said to everyone: "Let's do it according to my method!" Arrest the people back first, and then see how to deal with them and see the situation, if it really doesn't work, they will be beaten with a hundred military sticks and imprisoned. ”

Everyone agreed, and Qu Tutong immediately ordered everyone to go back to check the situation of the deserters, and let them lead the army to arrest the deserters back.

At dawn, Wang Junkuo came to the vicinity of Wang Shou's mansion with a team of soldiers, he looked at the list in his hand, and said to the general behind him: "You continue to arrest other deserters, I will talk to their master about the two deserters of the Wang family, and you can't just go into the mansion to arrest people." ”

"Then leave a group of brethren for the general."

Wang Junkuo handed him the list, "No need, I'll bring a few personal soldiers, you can go!" ”

The general waved his hand, "Let's go!" ”

He walked towards another street with hundreds of soldiers, and Wang Junkuo turned his horse's head towards Wang Shou's mansion, when he looked up into the sky and saw a pigeon circling twice above the mansion and flying straight into the mansion.

Wang Junkuo suddenly perked up, there was news outside, he hurriedly urged the horse forward, turned over and dismounted in front of the steps, the butler ran out, hugged his fists and said with a smile: "The general is here so early, is there something wrong?" ”

Wang Junkuo smiled slightly, "I have something to find the head of the family." ”

"General, please come into the mansion and wait a while, and I'll go and report it."

Wang Junkuo threw the reins to his own soldiers, and walked into the house quickly, and after a while, the housekeeper ran back and said with a smile: "What a coincidence, the head of the family was about to send someone to inform the general, and the general came." ”

Wang Junkuo was secretly happy in his heart, he knew that the letter sent by the carrier pigeon must be related to him, so he followed the housekeeper and walked quickly to the study.

After sitting in the study for a while, Wang Shou sat on the platform and was carried into the study, and the two maids helped the master to sit down, and then retreated with the healthy woman, leaving only Wang Shou and Wang Junkuo in the room.

Wang Jun bowed and asked with a smile: "I saw a carrier pigeon entering the mansion outside the mansion just now, but what news is there?" ”

"Don't worry, sit down and take a sip of tea first!"

Wang Shou invited him to sit down, and let people serve hot tea, and the two drank tea, Wang Shou said in a low voice: "I received two letters just now, one of which is for Jun Kuo, which is unexpected!" ”

"What was unexpected?" Wang Junkuo asked puzzled.

Wang Shou took out a letter scroll and gave it to him, "You can see it yourself." ”

Wang Junkuo took the thin letter scroll and slowly unfolded it, it was a very short letter, only one sentence, 'Wang Junkuo has made meritorious contributions to the fight against the Turks, and he is specially named Wang Junkuo as the general of the Tiger Benlang, the general of Zhongwu, and the prince of Shiai County, Qin this! The following inscription turned out to be Zhang Xuan's private seal.

Wang Junkuo's hand began to tremble, this is the hand of the Son of Heaven! General Hu Benlang, General Zhongwu, this is the official position of the fourth grade, and the title of county duke, Wang Junkuo's tears welled up, the Son of Heaven did not forget his merits in fighting against the Turks, and he had already prepared an official position for him.

"Congratulations to Junkuo!"

Wang Shou was also also jubilant, he got the title of Duke of Taiyuan County, and was crowned with the title of Yinqing Guanglu Doctor, although Li Yuan also gave him this title, but the title of the Zhou Dynasty can be left to his descendants, he does not care too much about the official title, but the generosity of the Son of Heaven on behalf of the recognition of his contribution to Sheji.

Wang Junkuo wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart and said: "I really didn't expect that the Son of Heaven still remembered the events of the past, and he had a meritorious role in fighting against the Turks, but I was deposed in the Tang Dynasty because of this, and the world was hot and cold, which is embarrassing." ”

"I just said, the Great Zhou army has clear rewards and punishments, and military merits are exchanged for promotions and fortunes, this system is suitable for a relatively simple person in the officialdom like Jun Kuo, but we can't live up to the trust of the Son of Heaven, what does Jun Kuo think?"

Wang Junkuo nodded, "Please tell the Son of Heaven that Junkuo is on standby!" ”

Wang Shou was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "I'll send the letter out this evening." ”

"The family should be careful, the last rumor, Qu Tutong has suspected that there are pigeon letters in the city and outside exchanges, he began to check in the city, the palace is also one of the key objects, just now I saw the carrier pigeon, others will also see it, I will send my own soldiers to the city in the future."

Wang Shou nodded, "You have a point, but today is the last communication, and I won't be caught by him." ”

Wang Junkuo carefully put the Son of Heaven's handwritten edict close to his body, and then said with a smile: "There is another matter, which is also an excuse for me to come to the royal mansion, there are two royal mansion family members who have become deserters, I hope that the head of the family can persuade them to return to the barracks by themselves, so that they will be spared the pain of being caught, and they will be locked up for two days at most as a warning." ”

Wang Shou thought about it and agreed, "Okay! I'll let them go back to the barracks on their own. ”