Zhou Ping hurriedly bowed down and said: "Xianggong is so fond of love, the lower officials are only grateful, but the killing of prisoners is unknown-"

Wang Ziwu made a gesture to stop Zhou Ping's persuasion, and his face became serious: "This matter has been decided by the official, and Zhou Prison can only obey orders." ”

Seeing this, Zhou Ping had no choice but to bow down to receive the order, Wang Ziwu nodded, got up and lowered the rank to send it off. Zhou Ping had just come out, and saw six or seven people standing under the hall, it was Xue Liangyu, Xue Liangwu brothers, Li Bao, Yang Zaixing and others who went south with him. Xue Liangyu was the youngest and the most anxious, and asked, "Brother Zhou, what did you say about the army leaving you?" ”

"I didn't say anything, but I was told to guard the city." Zhou Ping's face was gloomy, still unhappy about Fang Cai's affairs.

"That's good, that's good!" Xue Liangyu breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said, "I also said that Brother Zhou disobeyed the unified army and made him angry!" ”

"Xue Laosi, those big turbans are deep-eyed!" Li Cheng on the side sneered when he heard this: "Tens of thousands of Mani thieves are going to be killed soon, no matter what, we have to let us help him pass this level!" Don't say a few words against him at this juncture, even if he is imprisoned and wants his daughter's family, I am afraid that he will be obediently handed over, otherwise when the Mani thief comes in, it will be a dead end to take care of his Wang Tongjun and Niu Zhizhou! ”

"Li Cheng, Hugh is talking nonsense!" Zhou Ping interrupted Li Cheng's words and said in a deep voice: "The unified army has great hopes for us, and we should make meritorious contributions to killing thieves." Yang Zaixing! ”

"The last general!" Yang Zaixing responded.

"Take more crossbows from the treasury and put them in the stockade, for the Manichaean army is coming. Be prepared! ”

"Whoa!" Yang Zaixing crossed his hands and saluted and left.

"Let's all go back, rest and prepare for battle!"

"Whoa!" Everyone responded in unison, and the deep sound startled a crow on the withered locust tree in the yard, Zhou Ping looked at the black bird that was croaking and flying away, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "After a few days, I don't know if those people will become the food of this bird!" ”

There was originally a vegetable field near the west gate of Xiuzhou City, after the Fang La incident, in order to defend the city, the defenders demolished all the houses within 50 steps of the city wall in the city, and the thatched huts of the vegetable growers next to the natural vegetable field were not spared. After Zhou Ping led the army to defeat the vanguard of the Fang La army. More than 1,000 people captured were driven to a clearing in the corner of the wall. After being confined, these poor people found some scattered materials such as bamboo poles and reeds, and built a thatched hut to block some cold winds. At this time, it was already a cold winter, although Xiuzhou was in the south of the Yangtze River. Not as bitterly cold as the Northland. But Jiangnan is humid. The north wind blows on the body. Don't be a bit tough.

Zhong Zhe'an lay on the ground, laboriously turning over the soil, trying to find some vegetable roots, radishes or something in the soil that was originally a vegetable field. From the day of capture, it was already the fourth day. But in the past four days, the things he imported added up to three bowls of gruel and a piece of cake bait, and that piece of cake bait was still the dry food that he didn't care about eating and stuffed into his arms before the siege, whenever he recalled that piece of cake bait, Zhong Zhe'an felt his stomach twitching violently, and that feeling was like an invisible hand grabbing it inside. He began to regret why he had eaten it so quickly, rather than one bite at a time, so that he could hold on longer.

"If only I could escape!" Zhong Zhe'an sighed, looked at the antlers not far away, the aroma of food and laughter came from the thatched hut behind, there was a guard guarding the captives, not that no one thought of escaping, but the result was a corpse hanging on the head of the city, the reason is very simple, these Manichaeans are almost all from eastern Zhejiang, and Xiuzhou is western Zhejiang, even in modern times, the Wuyue dialect is also known for being difficult to understand and varied, not to mention Xiuzhou at the turn of the two Song Dynasty. Moreover, the city gates were closed, and all the squares and cities in the city were guarded by strong men, and these captives could not escape at all.

Suddenly, Zhong Zhe'an's fingertips touched a slender wriggling object, and he instinctively grabbed it out of the dirt.

"It's an earthworm!" Zhong Zhe'an rubbed it twice in surprise and stuffed it into his mouth, he barely chewed to swallow it, and his stomach squirmed violently. He coughed twice, frantically searched in the dirt, and when he didn't find a single earthworm, he stuffed it into his mouth, a survival animal instinct that kept him in check.

"See, this Manichaean thief even eats mud!"

A burst of laughter made Zhong Zhe'an raise his head, and he was surprised to find that there were more than a dozen guards standing around him at some point, staring at him with a kind of monster-looking gaze. Zhong Zhe'an wiped his mouth with his sleeve with some trepidation, and wanted to stand up, but maybe he had been hungry for a long time and his legs were weak, so he used his strength not only to not stand up, but to sit on the ground.

"See, this Manichi thief can't stand up, just like this bird, he still wants to rebel!" A pimple-faced native soldier laughed and used his foot to pull the soil in the field in front of Zhong Zhe'an, and said loudly: "Thief, all this soil is for you, so that you can eat enough!" ”

Another native soldier next to him had a good look, and he had already seen the wriggling earthworms in the soil pit dug by Zhong Zhe'an, and said with a smile: "People eat soil there, and they obviously eat earthworms, you see that there are a lot of them in the soil!" ”

The man with a face full of acne could see it clearly, but his mouth was very hard, and he argued forcefully: "What did I say wrong? Earthworms also eat soil, doesn't he eat earthworms to eat soil? ”

"Good, good! Eat the soil, eat the soil! His companion was too lazy to argue with him, saying, "I think I'm hungry, hey, these Manichaean thieves are also pitiful, what is not easy to do, but if they want to rebel, what can the thieves do?" Seeing that as soon as the army arrives, the jade will be burned! "This native soldier seems to have read for two days, and when he talks about this, he shakes his head, like a storyteller in a teahouse.

The pox-covered soldier saw Zhong Zhe'an sitting on the ground, covered in mud, and felt quite bored. These guards have been here for four days, and during these four days some of the captives have fled, but none have resisted, and the initial vigilance has long been gone. Not to mention that the people who watched the battle at the head of the city even blew the 800 soldiers brought by Zhou Ping into the sky, as if a million Manichae thieves were coming, and they could be leveled with their backs. The embarrassed guy in front of him didn't pay attention to it.

"By the way, you Manichae thieves are going to keep the meat precepts, right?"

Zhong Zhe'an didn't know the other party's intentions, and nodded blankly.

"That's good!" The soldier turned and ran towards the hut, and when he came back there was an extra clay bowl in his hand, and he casually moved to the ground with a few bones of flesh and bones that had been gnawed.

"Hey! If you gnaw on these bones, you will no longer be a Manichaean thief, and I will let you go!" When the acne-faced soldier said this, he glanced at his companion and said with a smile: "If not, he is a stubborn man, and he will be killed immediately!" ”

Zhong Zhe'an looked at the bones in the pottery bowl, there were still a few uneaten meat tendons on it, and the aroma of meat irritated his nasal mucosa and stomach, and the teachings of his daily life had long been thrown out of the clouds. He lunged at it, shoved the bone into his mouth, nibbling and sucking frantically. The frightening appearance of eating made these soldiers startled.

"Phew! I thought this guy wouldn't eat it! The native soldier spat boringly, kicked Zhong Zhe'an to the heel, picked up the pottery bowl and said, "Go back, it's windy here, and it's very cold after standing for a long time!" ”

At this moment, a group of men and horses ran over to this side, led by Zhang Dujian of Xiuzhou City, and the local soldiers panicked and hurriedly saluted. Zhang Dujian snorted coldly and said, "Quickly gather these thief bones, this official has something to say!" ”

"Whoa!" The soldiers answered and shouted loudly, and soon the weak captives gathered. Zhang Dujian frowned and looked at it, and said loudly: "You have heard clearly, Wang Tongjun is merciful, and he will let you go home, and if you dare to participate in the rebels again, you will be executed!" ”

There was a commotion in the crowd, and some of the Manichaeans who were close to looked at the military attache with a fierce face in disbelief, while the people farther away could not hear the shouts of the eunuch Zhang at all, and they exchanged questions with each other, and the voices of more than a thousand people merged into a buzz. Seeing everyone's reaction, Zhang Dujian's face became gloomy, he forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, urged his mount to take a few steps forward, and shouted in a louder voice: "Wang Tongjun pardons you and others for their innocence, and let you go out of the city and return to your hometown!" ”

This time, most of the people heard it clearly, but the people's eyes were not so much joyful as they were puzzled, when did the government become so easy to speak. Seeing this, Zhang Dujian knew that a bad one would trigger a change, so he said in a hurry: "Fang Qifei's army is about to arrive, and the unified army is not at ease to leave you in the city, and it is a waste of food, so I simply let you get out early!" How? Don't want to go? ”

When the Manichaeans heard this, they believed the truth of what Zhang Dujian said, and hurriedly kowtowed to thank him. Zhang Dujian breathed a sigh of relief at this time, and deliberately pretended to be fierce: "Lao Tzu's ugly words can be said to the front, the unified army will not let you go back is not for you to be thieves, Ambassador Tong's 100,000 army is just around the corner, and confrontation with the imperial court is a dead end!" If the officers and soldiers are caught again! He smiled and made a clenched gesture: "Don't blame the official for being polite!" ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Dujian didn't care about the answers of the captives, he took care of his horse and went to the west gate, went up to the city tower, and asked the captain guarding the gate with a mysterious expression on the side, "How are you prepared?" ”

"It's all ready!" The captain of the gate guarded with a smile on his face: "The shafts of the two gates are oiled, and two layers of iron bars have been added, even if they are cut with a big axe, they will not be able to cut them for a while and a half, and there are three hundred archers, torches, bundles of firewood, and fire oil in ambush, and a thousand bounties have been prepared—" (To be continued......